Photograph: State Emergency Service Of Ukraine/Reuters
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that 15 people, including two children, have been wounded in Kryvyi Rih. The sound of explosions was reported there about two hours ago.
More details soon …
Western official denies Ukrainian claim that Russia fired an ICBM – reports
A western official, speaking to ABC News in the US, has denied the Ukrainian claim that an ICBM was used by Russia overnight.
The network reports “It was instead a ballistic missile, which was aimed at Dnipro, in Ukraine’s southeast, the western official said.”
More details soon …
Kremlin: Russia seeks to avid nuclear war but west has responsibility to avoid 'provocative actions'
Kremlin spokesperson Dimtry Peskov has said Russia is committed to avoiding nuclear war, but the west has a responsibility not to engage in “provocative actions.”
Tass quotes him, in his daily media briefing, saying:
We have emphasised in the context of our nuclear doctrine that Russia takes a responsible position in terms of making maximum efforts to prevent such a [nuclear] conflict. We expect that other countries will also take the same responsible position and not engage in provocative actions.
Ukraine this week used US and British manufactured longer-range missiles inside Russia for the first time. Earlier this week Vladimir Putin approved a revised Russian nuclear doctrine, which included the provision that if a non-nuclear power attacked Russia with the assistance of a nuclear power, that would meet the threshold for a nuclear response.
The defence ministers of South Korea and Japan have both condemned North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia during talks on Thursday, Reuters reports Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.
British MP and leader of the Reform UK party Nigel Farage has questioned whether it is the right decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range British and US-manufactured weapons, saying “the idea Ukraine is going to win, frankly, is for the birds.”
Farage, who has repeatedly allied himself with US president-elect Donald Trump, told viewers of the GB News channel:
In the last few days, British long range Storm Shadow missiles have been fired very deep into Russia. The same has happened with American missiles.
Farage said “I do wonder, right at this time whether it’s the wise thing to do,” contining:
In Westminster … everybody still seems to think that we give Ukraine enough weaponry that somehow they’re going to win this war.
I worry, because I think the idea Ukraine is going to win, frankly, is for the birds. I think the war has gone on for long enough and that the casualties are massive. I think all we’re doing is helping to prolong a stalemate.
Farage questioned whether the change of strategy fitted with the plans of the incoming US administration, telling viewers of the GB News channel:
Donald Trump, in 59 days’ time, will be in the White House. He is committed to negotiating a peace settlement. No one quite knows what that might look like, but that is what he’s committed to do. Is the use of American and British long-range missiles going to help him in that process or make it more difficult?
Earlier this year Farage said Nato and the EU had provoked the conflict in Ukraine.
EU commissioner 'concerned' about security implications of Russian visas
Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent
The EU’s top official on migration has said she is concerned about the nearly half a million visas that were issued to Russian citizens to visit Europe in 2023.
Ylva Johansson, who is standing down as the EU’s migration and home affairs commissioner at the end of the month, told journalists the guidelines might need to be “a bit sharper”
In 2023 the states in Europe’s border-free Schengen zone issued 448,890 visas to Russian nationals.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU froze a visa-facilitation deal with Moscow that has resulted in a 90% fall in visas issued to Russian nationals, when compared with 2019, before Covid disrupted international travel.
Johansson said the number of visas issued in 2023 was “a significant number [and] that concerns me”. She is worried about potential security threats, in the context of growing reports of sabotage and espionage, such as arson attacks, the posting of incendiary devices and an assassination plot targeting the head of a German defence company.
In 2023, Italy, France, Spain and Greece, countries with large tourism industries, processed more than 80% of visa applications from Russia.
Johansson said she had initiated a review of the Russian visa guidelines, although it would fall to her successor, Magnus Brunner, to make a decision.
Her review, she said, would need to find out whether member states implemented the guidelines in the same way. She suggested changes could be likely: “Does this call for, you know, some revision? That’s my guess. But it’s for my successor to decide, of course, after we have finalised this assessment.”
The Swedish commissioner has also been investigating complaints from EU member states that Hungary is undermining European security, following Budapest’s decision to make it easier for Russians and Belarussians to obtain work permits, which grants them access to the entire Schengen zone.
Hungary, she said, had “clarified” most of the commission’s questions and it seemed “very, very few people” were using this new scheme. But she added: “I still think, for political reasons, it is the wrong signal to send.”
Russian air defences shot down two British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday, according to news agency Interfax.
It comes after Ukraine fired British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time on Wednesday, as confirmed by The Guardian yesterday.
The Kremlin declined to comment on those strikes, saying that it was a question for the Russian military.
Hungary announced overnight it is to install an air defence system in the north-eastern part of the country as the threat of an escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is “greater than ever”, its defence minister said.
Reuters quotes Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky from a video he posted on Facebook saying:
We still trust that there will be peace as soon as possible, through diplomacy instead of a military solution. However, to prepare for all possibilities, I ordered the recently purchased air control and air defence systems and the capabilities built on them to be installed in the north-east. The threat of the escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is greater than ever.
Hungary, a member of both Nato and the EU, has been criticised by allies for a perception that it is closer to supporting Russia than other members of the trading bloc and alliance, most notably when prime minister Viktor Orbán visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July.
At the time Orbán said “Many steps are needed to end the war, but we took the first step to restore dialogue.”
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has described a US decision to open an air defence base in Redzikowo in Poland as “provocative” and “deeply destabilising”.
Reuters quotes her saying:
This is another frankly provocative step in a series of deeply destabilising actions by the Americans and their allies in the North Atlantic alliance in the strategic sphere.
This leads to undermining strategic stability, increasing strategic risks and, as a result, to an increase in the overall level of nuclear danger.
Given the nature and level of threats posed by such western military facilities, the missile defence base in Poland has long been added to the list of priority targets for potential destruction, which, if necessary, can be executed with a wide range of advanced weapons
The base became operational on 13 November. Russia had criticised it when it was at the planning stage in 2007. It forms part of the Nato Aegis Ashore missile defence system.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has been given details of Ukrainian attacks on Russia in the last week.
She claimed that between 13 November and today “more than 530 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over nine Russian regions.”
She added that Belgorod region had been attacked by over 400 munitions, and that two people had been killed. She stated that an additional person had been killed by shelling in Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia. 76 people had been injured during the time period, she said.
Zakharova claimed “the number of explosive devices dropped from drones on civilian targets, including passenger vehicles, has increased.”
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Ukraine claims Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile for first time during war
Ukraine’s military has claimed that overnight Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time during the war.
Ukraine’s air force said the launch took place from the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation, an area to the south-east of Vologograd, which borders on the Caspian Sea.
Ukraine said overnight attacks by Russia targeted “enterprises and critical infrastructure in the central-eastern city of Dnipro.”
The air force gave no details of any casualties or damage, or whether air defence had tackled the ICBM. Ukraine’s military said six Kh-101 cruise missiles were shot down. The claims have not been independently verified.
ICBMs have a range of thousands of kilometres, and can carry either conventional or nuclear payloads.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that there are power outages in Kherson, citing the local authority.
Zakharova: Zelenskyy's ten point plan for continuation of war 'sick fantasies'
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has described the “resilience plan” announced earlier this week by Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a set of “sick fantasies.”
Tass reports that Zakharova said:
This is another set of sick fantasies aimed at ensuring the self-preservation of Zelenskyy, who has lost his legitimacy in power. In fact, it seems to me that he himself does not hide this. He declared in his parliament that there will be no elections in Ukraine until the end of the war.
On Tuesday Zelenskyy presented a ten point plan for the continuation of Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Ukraine claims to have shot down six cruise missiles overnight
Ukraine’s military claims overnight to have shot down six cruise missiles fired at the country by Russia.
Ukraine claims in addition that intercontinental ballistic missile was fired from Russia’s Astrakhan region, which is to the south-east of Volgograd, and borders the Caspian Sea.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia’s ministry of defence has published a video which it claims shows the destruction of a temporary Ukrainian pontoon crossing the Siverskyi Donets River in the east of the country.
News agency Ukrinform, citing Ukraine’s ministry of energy, reports that once again the power supply to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been disrupted. The plant has long been occupied by Russian forces.
Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here are the latest headlines.
Ukraine has fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia – the latest new western weapon it has been permitted to use on targets inside Russia. The move comes a day after it fired US Atacms missiles.
The strikes on Wednesday were widely reported on Telegram by Russian war correspondents – who posted video they said included the sound of the missiles hitting the Kursk region bordering north-eastern Ukraine – and were confirmed to the Guardian.
The UK’s decision to approve the strikes was made in response to the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine in what British and American officials have called a major escalation of the war.
Meanwhile, the US said it would reopen its embassy in Kyiv on Thursday, a day after shutting it as a precaution because of what it called the threat of a “significant air attack”.
And the US defence secretary said Washington’s decision to send anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine – a major policy shift condemned by rights groups – was triggered by a change in Russian battlefield tactics favouring infantry over mechanised units. Lloyd Austin said Ukrainian forces “have a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians”.
In other news:
The director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Sergey Naryshkin, was quoted in Russian media on Wednesday as saying that attempts by Nato countries to strike inside Russia would not go “unpunished”. Elsewhere, the chief of staff in Belarus, Pavel Muraveiko, described US moves to allow Ukraine to deploy longer-range missiles and anti-personnel mines as “irresponsible”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the US and President Joe Biden for the provision of landmines to Ukrainian troops, calling it “essential … to stop Russian assaults”, in a video address on Wednesday. In addition to the landmines, the latest $275m US aid package includes drones, Himars ammunitions and artillery. The Biden administration also moved to forgive about $4.7bn in US loans to Ukraine, the state department said, as outgoing officials seek to do what they can before leaving office to bolster Ukraine in the war
Staff at Ireland’s embassy in Ukraine were told to work from home after the US shut its embassy, while Italy, Spain and Greece also closed their embassies
About 10,900 North Korean troops have been deployed to Kursk as part of Russia’s airborne unit and marines, with some already participating in battles in the Ukraine war, a South Korean legislator said on Wednesday, citing the country’s spy agency. North Korea had also shipped additional arms for the war, including self-propelled howitzers and multiple rocket launchers, parliament intelligence committee member Lee Seong-kweun told reporters
Four Latin American countries have made a joint call to “avoid actions that would escalate the arms race” in the Russia-Ukraine war. The four – Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico – said such actions would “aggravate the conflict”
