"Russia's irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and its threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus are unacceptable", the G7 Foreign Ministers said at a meeting held in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa, Reuters reported.  “Any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be met with severe consequences", the G7 communique reads. ”We remain committed to intensifying sanctions against Russia, coordinating and fully enforcing them”, the G7 ministers further said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk regions, which are partly held by Russia. He visited the headquarters of the Dnieper army group in Kherson and the headquarters of the Vostok group in Lugansk to hear reports from commanders on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.