Closing summary
We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
The coming winter will prove the “sternest test yet” for Ukraine’s energy grid since Russia’s invasion, with numerous power plants destroyed or damaged, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. Putting forward a 10-point plan for Ukraine to safeguard its war-battered energy security, the IEA also warned of problems for neighbouring Moldova’s electricity supply after Ukraine stops allowing the transit of Russian gas at the end of 2024.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would “probably” meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who will be in the US next week to address a meeting of the UN security council on Russia’s war in his country. “Probably, yes,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter about whether he will meet the Ukrainian leader. Trump did not provide further details.
Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Russian military received about 140,000 drones in 2023 and that Moscow plans to increase this number tenfold in 2024. “Whoever reacts faster to these demands on the battlefield wins,” Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting in St Petersburg about developing drone production.
A senior Russian lawmaker on Thursday said that Ukrainian strikes on Russia with western weapons would lead to nuclear war and that Moscow’s response would be tough with more powerful weapons. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, said that what the European Parliament was proposing would lead to a “global war with the use of nuclear weapons.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv on Friday and meet president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as the bloc seeks to help Ukraine weather Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure. “I will be travelling to Kyiv to discuss these matters in person with president Zelenskiy tomorrow in our efforts to help Ukraine,” von der Leyen told a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.
The sum of €160m from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter, von der Leyen said on Thursday. She added that a fuel power plant is being dismantled in Lithuania and will be rebuilt in Ukraine, where 80% of the country’s thermal plants have been destroyed.
Russia’s campaign of airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy grid probably violates international humanitarian law, a UN monitoring body said on Thursday. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) focused its report on nine waves of strikes between March and August 2024. HRMMU cited experts as saying that Ukrainians should expect power outages of between four and 18 hours a day this winter.
Germany has planned almost €400m ($445m) in extra military aid for Ukraine this year despite a row over budgetary constraints, according to a finance ministry document seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday. The additional funds are needed to “fulfil the German government’s support commitments to the Ukrainian armed forces”, the letter to the parliamentary budget committee said.
One elderly woman was killed and two other women were injured by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, governor Ivan Fedorov said on Thursday. Russian forces shelled the region 161 times over the past 24 hours, damaging infrastructure facilities and residential buildings, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s air force said on Thursday it had shot down all 42 drones and one of four missiles used by Russia during overnight attacks. Air defences went into operation in nine Ukrainian regions, the air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said the air force had shot down one missile over his region, and that no one was hurt there. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said six people were injured in a Russian attack on the eastern town of Kupiansk, eight km (five miles) from the frontline. Civilian infrastructure, a school, a kindergarten and 10 apartment buildings were damaged in the city of Kharkiv, he said. An educational institution was also damaged in the Cherkasy region, regional governor Ihor Taburets said.
Russian forces have taken control of the village of Heorhiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA state news agency cited the defence ministry as saying on Thursday. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report, the latest in a series of reports by Russia of gains in eastern Ukraine.
Russia attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy overnight, Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Thursday. The attack caused a temporary power cut in the region, Ukrenergo said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
A Russian court jailed a student for almost two months on Thursday for making positive statements about a Ukrainian paramilitary unit that Moscow classifies as a “terrorist” group. The RIA Novosti news agency reported that the 19-year-old male student was accused of “publicly justifying terrorism” and has been placed in detention for “one month and 28 days”.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indefinitely postponed a staff mission to Moscow this week to review the Russian economy for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, after the move came under heavy criticism from several of Kyiv’s European allies. After revelations in the Guardian of widespread condemnation, the IMF said it would spend more time gathering information for a “rigorous analysis”.
Romania’s supreme defence council said on Thursday it has discussed additional measures to discourage and combat recent escalations in the Black Sea region which should be enforced nationally with support from Nato but did not offer details. Defence ministers from Nato’s eastern flank including Romania said on Wednesday Nato needed to enact a robust response to incidents in which Russian missiles or drones fired at Ukraine enter the alliance’s airspace.
North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui discussed expanding bilateral relations with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday, North Korea’s state media KCNA reported on Thursday. Earlier this week, Russia’s embassy in North Korea said Choe had flown to Russia.
The controversial documentary “Russians at War” will be shown at the Zurich film festival (ZFF) next month despite harsh criticism from Kyiv, the event’s director said on Thursday. Ukraine added Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, who directed the documentary, to a national security blacklist on Monday, saying it spread “Russian propaganda” about Moscow’s invasion.
Russian lawmaker warns Ukrainian strikes on Russia would lead to nuclear war
A senior Russian lawmaker on Thursday said that Ukrainian strikes on Russia with western weapons would lead to nuclear war and that Moscow’s response would be tough with more powerful weapons.
The European Parliament voted in favour of letting Kyiv hit Russian targets with western weapons, reports Reuters.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, said that what the European Parliament was proposing would lead to a “global war with the use of nuclear weapons.”
US imposes new sanctions related to Russia and North Korea
Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Thursday related to Russia and North Korea, according to the treasury department website, reports Reuters.
It comes amid US concerns about deepening military cooperation between the two countries to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Jens Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway who has led Nato since 2014, is shortly expected to give a farewell speech. It will be followed by a question and answer session with reporters.
You can follow it live on the embedded video below.
“Whoever reacts faster to these demands on the battlefield wins,” Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting in St Petersburg about developing drone production, reports Reuters.
Putin said earlier that Russia was ramping up drone production by around ten times to nearly 1.4 million this year (see 2.29pm BST)
Both Russia and Ukraine have bought drones abroad and ramped up their own production for a range of targets – from destroying artillery and arsenals to striking at energy infrastructure and battleships.
North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui discussed expanding bilateral relations with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday, North Korea’s state media KCNA reported on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Earlier this week, Russia’s embassy in North Korea said Choe had flown to Russia.
Reuters reports that Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Russian military received about 140,000 drones in 2023 and that Moscow plans to increase this number tenfold in 2024.
Romania’s supreme defence council said on Thursday it has discussed additional measures to discourage and combat recent escalations in the Black Sea region which should be enforced nationally with support from Nato but did not offer details, according to Reuters.
Defence ministers from Nato’s eastern flank including Romania said on Wednesday Nato needed to enact a robust response to incidents in which Russian missiles or drones fired at Ukraine enter the alliance’s airspace.
A Russian court jailed a student for almost two months on Thursday for making positive statements about a Ukrainian paramilitary unit that Moscow classifies as a “terrorist” group.
Russia has led a huge crackdown at home as its troops fight in Ukraine, regularly arresting its citizens for criticism of the Kremlin’s offensive.
Russian media reported that a 19-year-old male student from a university in the Primorye region, in the east of the country, was arrested. The RIA Novosti news agency reported he was accused of “publicly justifying terrorism” and has been placed in detention for “one month and 28 days”.
According to investigators, he was accused of posting statements on social media justifying the activities of an unnamed Ukrainian paramilitary unit banned in Russia. He risks up to seven years in prison.
Thousands of Russians have been punished – either by prison terms or fines – for criticising the Ukraine offensive since it was launched in February 2022. Moscow has banned criticism of the military operation.
Following Germany’s announcement it is set to approve close to €400m ($450 million) in additional military aid to Ukraine, Reuters have more detail based on a finance ministry letter its reporters have seen.
The funds are in addition to around €8bn budgeted for Ukraine in 2024. Germany is Ukraine’s biggest supporter in Europe in terms of military aid. Ukraine has been backed by arms from its allies but is worried that support may drop as the war grinds on.
“In view of the continuously deteriorating military situation in Ukraine, there is a serious risk that Ukraine, without significantly increased material support, could be defeated in its defence campaign,” the letter said.
Following a request by the defence ministry, the finance ministry in the letter is asking for the approval of the extra expenditure from the budget committee of the lower house of parliament.
Carsten Klein, member of the budget committee for the Free Democrats (FDP), welcomed the request for funds, saying that it showed Ukraine could rely on Germany’s support.
“Ukraine urgently needs additional military material and equipment to defend its freedom and our values,” Klein said.
The need for funds must be satisfied immediately to implement the measures in 2024 so they can have an impact during the remainder of the year, the finance ministry said.
The funds will be used to buy ammunition, fighting vehicles, drones and protective equipment, among other items.
The unplanned need for around €397m has only become clear in the last few weeks, so it meets the constitutional and budgetary requirements of an unplanned need, the letter said.
If the budget committee approves the additional funds next week, the total amount of German military aid for Ukraine in 2024 will go up to €8.4bn.
German aid to Ukraine will be cut to €4bn in 2025, according to the draft of the 2025 budget, as the country hopes Ukraine will be able to meet the bulk of its military needs with the $50bn in loans from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets approved by the Group of Seven.
Nato’s current military spending target will not be enough to protect the alliance as it braces for an increasingly assertive Russia, secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is expected to say in his farewell speech later on Thursday.
“We have to be willing to pay the price for peace. The more money, the stronger our defences, the more effective our deterrence, the greater our security,” Stoltenberg will say according to prepared remarks reported by Reuters.
“The good news is that we have delivered on the pledge we made ten years ago (to spend 2% of GDP on defence). But the bad news is that this is no longer enough to keep us safe,” Stoltenberg is expected to say.
Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway who has led Nato since 2014, will hand over to Dutch former prime minister Mark Rutte on 1 October.
The controversial documentary “Russians at War” will be shown at the Zurich film festival (ZFF) next month despite harsh criticism from Kyiv, the event’s director said on Thursday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The documentary has sparked outrage since it was first shown at the major Venice film festival earlier this month, with some calling it a pro-Kremlin film that seeks to whitewash and justify Moscow’s assault on its neighbour.
Ukraine added Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, who directed the documentary, to a national security blacklist on Monday, saying it spread “Russian propaganda” about Moscow’s invasion.
The AFP reports that the documentary was listed on the programme for the Swiss festival, which was sent out to media on Thursday, as a film portraying “Russian frontline soldiers in Ukraine (dealing) with the fragility of democracy”.
“We understand that Ukrainians are unhappy,” but the film will be screened as scheduled, ZFF director Christian Jungen told a press conference in Zurich, according to the Keystone-ATS news agency.
He stressed that “films should incite discussion”, adding that he considered the documentary an “anti-war film”.
AFP reports that a spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry warned the ZFF organisers on Thursday that they risked ruining the festival’s reputation by going ahead with the screening. “This is a propaganda film that whitewashes war crimes, not a documentary,” Georgil Tykhyi said on X.
Before those comments, the Ukrainian foreign ministry had already said on X on Wednesday that it was “outraged” by the ZFF decision.
Jungen acknowledged that the director was “not unproblematic”, stressing that the “Russians at War” documentary would be discussed at a roundtable event during the festival.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wants his western allies to allow the use of their Storm Shadow missiles to bomb targets inside Russia.
In this episode of the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast, Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, tells Michael Safi why US president Joe Biden’s decision over the missiles is a delicate one.
“They allow you to strike deep into another country in a way that changes the political calculus as much as it changes the military calculus,” Sabbagh says.
“So you’re thinking about airfields, missile launch sites, military sites, logistics sites, but you get something wrong, and you kill a lot of civilians, you’re starting to be in a very different discussion … And I think the US has been worried that Russia might escalate dramatically if certain types of western weapons are given to Ukraine.”
On Russian state television last week, the president, Vladimir Putin, said: “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict. It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia.”
Listen at the link below:
My colleague, Luke Harding, has reported from Pokrovsk on how Russian forces are gathering on the area – which is a logistics base and transport hub – after months of slow, brutal advance. You can read his news feature on Ukraine’s pivotal battle for Donetsk here:
Germany plans extra €400m military aid to Ukraine
Germany plans almost €400m ($445m) in extra military aid for Ukraine this year despite a row over budgetary constraints, according to a finance ministry document seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday.
The additional funds are needed to “fulfil the German government’s support commitments to the Ukrainian armed forces”, the letter to the parliamentary budget committee said.
Updated
EU to send €160m from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine
The sum of €160m from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
She added that a fuel power plant is being dismantled in Lithuania and will be rebuilt in Ukraine, where 80% of the country’s thermal plants have been destroyed.
“We aim to restore 2.5 gw of capacity, which is 15% of Ukraine’s needs,” von der Leyen said, according to Reuters.
Russian forces take control of Heorhiivka in Ukraine's east, RIA reports
Russian forces have taken control of the village of Heorhiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA state news agency cited the defence ministry as saying on Thursday.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report, the latest in a series of reports by Russia of gains in eastern Ukraine.
Updated
Ursula von der Leyen announces Friday Ukraine visit
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv on Friday and meet president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as the bloc seeks to help Ukraine weather Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
“I will be travelling to Kyiv to discuss these matters in person with president Zelenskiy tomorrow in our efforts to help Ukraine,” von der Leyen told a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Outside Ukraine, the International Energy Agency (IEA) report warned that neighbouring Moldova’s energy security could also be hit, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Most of Moldova’s electricity comes from one gas power plant in the breakaway Transnistria region, which is backed by Russia. Producing around two-thirds of the country’s electricity, the Moldavskaya GRES power plant is largely fuelled by Russian gas imported via Ukraine.
But last month, Ukraine announced its intention to discontinue at the end of this year an agreement signed in 2019 allowing Russia to pump gas via its territory. Both the plant’s gas supplies and Moldova’s electricity security would be subject to “significant uncertainty” as a result, the IEA said.
The agency has urged the country to secure its supplies by strengthening energy ties with its European neighbours, “with benefits for the wider region”.
Set up under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, the IEA styles itself as “the world’s leading energy authority”. Though not a full member, Ukraine joined the agency as an association country in July 2022.
Coming winter ‘sternest test yet’ for Ukraine energy grid, warns IEA
The coming winter will prove the “sternest test yet” for Ukraine’s energy grid since Russia’s invasion, with numerous power plants destroyed or damaged, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
Putting forward a 10-point plan for Ukraine to safeguard its war-battered energy security, the IEA also warned of problems for neighbouring Moldova’s electricity supply after Ukraine stops allowing the transit of Russian gas at the end of 2024, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Ukraine’s energy system has made it through the past two winters … But this winter will be, by far, its sternest test yet,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a news release accompanying the report.
The report said that in 2022 and 2023 “about half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity was either occupied by Russian forces, destroyed or damaged, and approximately half of the large network substations were damaged by missiles and drones”.
With Ukraine having lost more than two-thirds of its electricity production capacity since the Russian invasion, the report warned of a “yawning gap between available electricity supply and peak demand”.
It urged European countries to expedite deliveries of equipment and parts to rebuild the damaged facilities and called for measures to protect them from drones.
AFP reports that in the summer, when energy needs tend to be lower, Ukraine’s capacity for power generation already fell more than two gigawatts below the peak demand of 12 gigawatts.
As demand for energy to heat homes increases in winter, the IEA predicts that the country’s peak demand could increase to nearly 19 gigawatts.
“Strains that are bearable in the summer months may become unbearable when temperatures start to fall and supplies of heat and water falter,” the report said.
The IEA said that power plants damaged by Russian attacks or occupied by Russian troops, such as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, urgently needed replacing or repairing, while the physical and IT security of critical infrastructure needed strengthening.
It also recommended increasing electricity and gas import capacity from the EU, accelerating the decentralisation of electricity production and greater investment in energy efficiency.
It estimated the cost of necessary repairs and upgrades at $30bn.
Blast from attack on Russian arms depot picked up on earthquake monitors
A Ukrainian drone attack on a large Russian weapons depot caused a blast that was picked up by earthquake monitoring stations, in one of the biggest strikes on Moscow’s military arsenal since the war began.
Pro-Russian military bloggers said Ukraine struck an arsenal for the storage of missiles, ammunition and explosives in Toropets, a historic town more than 300 miles north of Ukraine and about 230 miles west of Moscow.
Videos and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame rising high into the night sky and detonations thundering across a lake, in a region not far from the border with Belarus.
The strike was part of a broader Ukrainian drone campaign targeting Russian oil refineries, power plants, airfields and military factories, and highlights Kyiv’s enhanced long-range drone capabilities.
Earthquake monitoring stations registered what sensors thought was a minor earthquake in the area.
Ukrainian Pravda reported that the operation was conducted by the Ukrainian security service together with the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine and the Special Operations Force. An unnamed official at the Ukrainian security service said the weapons warehouse contained long-range Russian missiles and guided bombs known as KABs.
Russia’s defence ministry said 54 Ukrainian drones targeted five western Russian regions overnight and that all of them were destroyed.
But in a tacit admission of the strike, Igor Rudenya, the governor of Russia’s Tver region, said firefighters there were trying to contain a fire and that some residents were being evacuated from their homes.
One elderly woman was killed and two other women were injured by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, governor Ivan Fedorov said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Russian forces shelled the region 161 times over the past 24 hours, damaging infrastructure facilities and residential buildings, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Updated
Ukraine’s air force said on Thursday it had shot down all 42 drones and one of four missiles used by Russia during overnight attacks, reports Reuters.
Air defences went into operation in nine Ukrainian regions, the air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app nearly 31 months after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said the air force had shot down one missile over his region, and that no one was hurt there.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said six people were injured in a Russian attack on the eastern town of Kupiansk, eight km (five miles) from the frontline.
Civilian infrastructure, a school, a kindergarten and 10 apartment buildings were damaged in the city of Kharkiv, he said.
An educational institution was also damaged in the Cherkasy region, regional governor Ihor Taburets said.
Updated
Russia attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy overnight, Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Thursday, reports Reuters.
The attack caused a temporary power cut in the region, Ukrenergo said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian attacks on Ukraine power grid probably violate humanitarian law, says UN
Russia’s campaign of airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy grid probably violates international humanitarian law, a UN monitoring body said on Thursday, reports Reuters.
Over the course of its invasion, Russia has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Ukrainian electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities.
The first big wave of strikes hit in the autumn and winter of 2022, a few months after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The strikes have continued throughout the war, though Moscow has markedly stepped up its campaign since March.Each wave of strikes has left Ukrainian cities without power for hours at a time for weeks on end.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) focused its report on nine waves of strikes between March and August 2024.
According to Reuters, the report said:
There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law.”
HRMMU said it had visited seven power plants that were damaged or destroyed by attacks, as well as 28 communities affected by the strikes.
The HRMMU said the attacks posed risks to Ukraine’s water supply, to sewage and sanitation, to the provision of heating and hot water, to public health, to education and to the wider economy.
Reuters reports that the report highlighted a particular problem in urban areas, where most homes are linked up to centralised heating and hot water systems.
The report said that nearly 95% of Kyiv’s residents relied on centralised basement heating systems whose output requires electric pumps to reach the upper floors of the building.
“Without emergency electricity supply, millions of urban residents could be left without heat,” it said.
HRMMU cited experts as saying that Ukrainians should expect power outages of between four and 18 hours a day this winter.
The report also said that during the summer period of 2024, energy-related issues were the second most common reason that Ukrainians gave for fleeing the country.
Kyiv says the targeting of its energy system is a war crime, and the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for four Russian officials and military officers for the bombing of civilian power infrastructure.
Moscow says power infrastructure is a legitimate military targets and has dismissed the charges against its officials as irrelevant.
Updated
IMF postpones Russia visit after heavy criticism across Europe
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indefinitely postponed a staff mission to Moscow this week to review the Russian economy for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, after the move came under heavy criticism from several of Kyiv’s European allies.
After revelations in the Guardian of widespread condemnation, the IMF said it would spend more time gathering information for a “rigorous analysis”.
Officials of the Washington-based organisation were due to travel to the Russian capital and meet “stakeholders” before publishing an assessment of the economy.
The IMF said last week it was a “mutual obligation” to carry out an article IV annual review of a member country and the situation in Russia had become “more settled”.
On Friday, nine European countries protested against the IMF’s plans, saying it would damage the reputation of the fund to resume dialogue with a country that had invaded another.
Aleksei Mozhin, the IMF’s executive director for Russia, told the Tass news agency on Wednesday that the decision was taken on Monday, the day preliminary talks were supposed to start.
Critics said a first official visit since 2021 would be based on flawed data and provide Russia with a cloak of respectability.
In a letter seen by the Financial Times and signed by Poland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and non-EU members Iceland and Norway, ministers said there was a “reputational risk” to the IMF, and indicated a visit would “diminish donors’ efforts and actions in supporting Ukraine through IMF initiatives”.
You can read the full piece here:
Donald Trump says he will ‘probably’ meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy next week
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would “probably” meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who will be in the US next week to address a meeting of the UN security council on Russia’s war in his country.
“Probably, yes,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter about whether he will meet the Ukrainian leader. Trump did not provide further details.
Zelenskiy said in August he wanted to present a peace plan to US president Joe Biden, vice-president Kamala Harris and Trump. While Trump and Zelenskiy talked over the phone in July, they have not talked in person since Trump’s 2017-2021 term.
More on that in a moment. In other developments:
Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that his “Victory Plan”, intended to bring peace to Ukraine while keeping the country strong and avoiding all “frozen conflicts”, was now complete after much consultation. Zelenskiy pledged last month to present his plan to Biden, presumably next week when he is in the US. While providing daily updates on the plan’s preparation, Zelenskiy has given few clues of the contents, indicating only that it aims to create terms acceptable to Ukraine, now locked in conflict with Russia for more than two and a half years.
The Biden administration still is not convinced that it should give Ukraine the authority to launch long-range missiles deeper into Russia, and US officials say they are seeking more detailed information about how Kyiv would use the weapons and how they fit into the broader strategy for the war, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. US officials said they have asked Ukraine to spell out more clearly its combat objectives. The report comes a week after Biden discussed easing restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles supplied by the west with British prime minister Keir Starmer.
A Ukrainian drone attack on a large Russian weapons depot caused a blast that was picked up by earthquake monitoring stations, in one of the biggest strikes on Moscow’s military arsenal since the war began. Pro-Russian military bloggers said Ukraine struck an arsenal for the storage of missiles, ammunition and explosives in Toropets, a historic town more than 300 miles north of Ukraine and about 230 miles west of Moscow. Videos and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame rising high into the night sky and detonations thundering across a lake, in a region not far from the border with Belarus.
The EU must be quick to increase its defences as Russia may be ready for a confrontation in six to eight years, the nominee to be the EU’s first defence commissioner told Reuters in an interview. Andrius Kubilius, a former prime minister of Lithuania, has been tapped to boost the continent’s arms industry, by getting EU countries to spend more on European weapons and procure jointly – as well as by getting companies themselves to cooperate more across borders. The new post reflects how security has risen to the top of the EU’s political agenda since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “Defence ministers and Nato generals agree that Vladimir Putin could be ready for confrontation with Nato and the EU in six to eight years,” Kubilius, a fierce critic of Russia and a supporter of Ukraine, said on Wednesday.
Putin on Wednesday said he had ordered a boost of Russia’s army to 1.5 million active soldiers earlier this week to ensure a well-trained military. The president on Monday signed a decree boosting the number of active troops by 180,000 soldiers – making the Russian army the second largest in the world by active troop size.
Russia’s counteroffensive to retake Ukrainian-held territory in the Kursk region has been “stopped”, a spokesperson from Ukraine’s military administration there told AFP on Wednesday, after Moscow said it was beginning to repel the surprise incursion. Russia earlier this month said it had taken back several villages from Ukraine in the region, where Kyiv has held on to swathes of land since its shock offensive began more than a month ago. “They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,” spokesperson Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky from Ukraine’s military administration in Kursk told AFP.
The British government on Wednesday said it summoned Russia’s ambassador to condemn what it called Moscow’s “unprecedented and unfounded public campaign of aggression against the UK”. Andrei Kelin was told that Russia’s behaviour, including its “malicious and completely baseless” claims of spying against six British diplomats, contravened the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, the foreign ministry said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indefinitely postponed a staff mission to Moscow this week to review the Russian economy for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, after the move came under heavy criticism from several of Kyiv’s European allies. After revelations in the Guardian of widespread condemnation, the IMF said it would spend more time gathering information for a “rigorous analysis”.
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