Vladimir Putin’s forces have claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, on Wednesday, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops.
The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
Control of the area, which lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, is significant because it will ease Russia’s advance as it tries to pierce deeper behind the Ukrainian defensive lines.
Putin has said his primary goal is to take the whole of the Donbas region – the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk – in southeastern Ukraine.
His forces control about 80 per cent of this area, a heavy industry hub where the conflict began in 2014 after Moscow supported pro-Russian separatist forces after pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was toppled.
Key Points
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Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town
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Putin’s plans to boost defence budget draw ire from some Russians
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Frontline ‘very, very difficult,’ Zelensky warns
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Putin seeks military draft of 133,000 servicemen in autumn
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Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town
13:35 , Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin’s forces have claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, on Wednesday, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops.
The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
13:30 , Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Ukraine orders pull back from Vuhledar
12:30 , Alexander Butler
Ukrainian troops received an order to pull back troops from the embattled eastern hilltop town of Vuhledar to avoid encirclement by Russian troops, the eastern military command said on Wednesday.
“Senior command granted permission to carry out a maneuver to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to preserve personnel and military equipment, and take positions for further actions,” the statement said.
Russian drones attack port infrastructure, power substations in Ukraine
11:39 , Alexander Butler
Russian drones overnight attacked port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, damaging a grain facility and buildings at a border crossing to Romania, as well as cutting power to thousands in the northern Sumy region, officials said.
The attack hit Ukraine’s Izmail district near the Danube river, the regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram messenger.
“Russia continues to wage war against grain and global food security,” Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy prime minister for restoration, said on Telegram, reporting damage to the grain facility and administrative buildings at the Orlivka crossing.
The crossing temporarily suspended operations due to the attack, Kiper added. Two lorry drivers, including a Turkish citizen, were injured, according to officials.
Ukraine can produce 4m drones a year, Zelensky says
10:25 , Alexander Butler
Ukraine can produce four million drones annually and is quickly ramping up its production of other weapons, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in comments authorised for publication on Wednesday.
Speaking on Tuesday to executives from dozens of foreign arms manufacturers in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had already contracted to produce 1.5 million drones this year.
Drone production was virtually non-existent in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
“In extremely difficult conditions of the full-scale war under constant Russian strikes, Ukrainians were able to build a virtually new defence industry,” said Zelenskiy.
Ukraine tripled its overall domestic weapons production in 2023 and then doubled that volume again in just the first eight months of this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the same gathering. Ukrainian officials gave no absolute figures.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
09:42 , Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Russian forces fully control bastion of Vuhledar in east Ukraine, war bloggers say
09:32 , Alexander Butler
Russian troops have taken complete control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense Russian attacks since the beginning of the 2022 war, Russian war bloggers and media said on Wednesday.
Russian Telegram channels published video of troops waving the Russian tricolour flag over shattered buildings. The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said that Vuhledar had finally fallen after the last Ukrainian forces from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, a unit famous for its resistance, abandoned the town late on Tuesday.
The Shot Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers confirmed that Vuhledar was under total Russian control, though there was no official response from either the Russian or Ukrainian militaries.
Nato’s new chief Mark Rutte makes Ukraine support a top priority
08:45 , Shweta Sharma
The new Nato chief Mark Rutte has vowed to strengthen Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine as he takes charge of the alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister officially replaced Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday as Nato secretary general after his predecessor spent a decade in the job.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes at an important time for Nato, with the US election just weeks away, he will soon be working with a new president.
The secretary general said during a press conference on Tuesday that he could work with either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris and appreciates that Ukraine will be his top priority.
Former Dutch PM takes over as Nato chief
Russia’s FSB detains nearly 40 people for support to ‘Ukrainian terrorist’ groups
08:30 , Shweta Sharma
Russia’s security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), said it detained 39 individuals, including teenagers, accused of supporting “Ukrainian terrorist” groups.
The FSB accused the arrested individuals of “inciting children and adolescents to commit violent acts against representatives of state bodies, classmates and teachers”.
“Thirty-nine radicals aged 14 to 35, supporters of Ukrainian terrorist organizations banned in Russia, were detained,” the FSB said in a statement.
It claimed that nine teenagers were involved in planning “armed attacks on educational and religious institutions” in Russia.
It alleged that they were communicating with “Ukrainian handlers” online.
Ukraine says it downed 11 drones during Russia’s overnight attack
08:15 , Shweta Sharma
Ukraine’s forces took down 11 out of 32 Russian attack drones launched overnight, Ukraine‘s air force said today.
Another four drones left Ukrainian airspace in the direction of Russia and 10 drones were lost in northern and central Ukrainian regions as a result of electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.
Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian Izmail district near the Danube river in the southern Odesa region, local governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
“The Russians targeted the port and border infrastructure,” Kiper said, adding that two lorry drivers, including a Turkish citizen, were injured.
He said the Ukrainian-Romanian crossing of Orlivka had temporarily suspended operations due to the shelling.
Putin’s forces are in ‘complete control’ of Vuhledar, Russian bloggers claim
07:46 , Shweta Sharma
Vladimir Putin’s forces are in complete control of the strategic Ukrainian frontline town of Vuhledar, the SHOT Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers said.
The Russian defence ministry has not yet claimed the town’s capture.
On Tuesday, a regional Ukrainian official said Russian troops had reached the town centre, a bastion on strategic high ground that has resisted Russian assaults for more than two years.
Images of Russian forces waving their flag on the roof of an administrative building on Tuesday in the town centre showed a structure which had been reduced to rubble in parts and whose blackened windows had all been blown out.
Vuhledar is a coal mining town that lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, giving it added importance to supplying both sides’ troops.
Moscow has long sought to capture Vuhledar, which had a pre-war population of around 14,000, as a key stepping stone to incorporating the entire Donetsk region into Russia.
Vuhledar also sits close to a railway line connecting Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and the eastern region of Luhansk, most of which Moscow controls.
Watch: Russian fighter jet narrowly misses American aircraft off coast of Alaska
07:00 , Alexander Butler
Putin’s plans to boost defence budget draw ire from some Russians
06:30 , Shweta Sharma
Vladimir Putin’s plans to boost its defence budget next year and prolong the war have drawn backlash from some quarters of the Russian public.
Russia is set to increase its spending on defence by 25 per cent next year, taking it to the highest level on record.
The newly proposed increase in spending will push Russia’s defence budget to a record 13.5 trillion rubles (£109bn) by 2025, according to draft budget documents released on Monday on the parliament’s website.
The spending on defence and security combined will account for 40 per cent of Russia’s total budget.Irina, a pensioner, called it an “outrage” and said “we need to end this war”, reported AFP. She said increasing spending on war is a “crime”.
Another pensioner called it a “shame and a disgrace” in a country that has no money to treat its own children.
Russia to conduct nationwide emergency public warning tests
05:55 , Shweta Sharma
Russia will run a nationwide test of its emergency public warning systems on Wednesday, letting sirens wail and interrupting television and radio broadcasts in a twice-yearly initiative amid the war in Ukraine.
At around 10.30am in most of Russia’s 11 time zones, sirens will sound for a minute, with loudspeakers broadcasting an “Attention everyone!” call, the emergency ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
The exercise aims to check the warning systems, the readiness of those responsible for launching them and to raise public awareness, the ministry said, adding, “Don’t panic – everything is according to a plan.”
The frequency of rehearsals was doubled from last year, following the first event held in 2020.
It comes amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow started in 2022, triggering the deepest crisis in its relations with the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
05:00 , Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Death toll rises to six in Ukrainian supermarket strike
04:59 , Shweta Sharma
At least six people were killed and three were injured in an alleged Russian artillery strike in a busy market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson yesterday.
The attack came on the same morning Ukrainians across the country were observing a minute’s silence for their military and war dead.
The strike happened as shoppers made their way between stalls at the city centre market, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a stall with tomatoes and other vegetables.
Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery and hit close to a public transport stop.
It initially reported that seven people were killed but later corrected that toll to six, saying a severely wounded person thought to be dead was in intensive care at a local hospital.
Zelensky confirms successful test of ballistic missile
04:43 , Shweta Sharma
Ukraine successfully tested its own ballistic missile and has exponentially ramped up domestic ammunition production, president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Addressing Ukraine’s second international defence industry forum, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine produced 25 times more artillery and mortar ammunition so far this year than in the entire year of 2022.
“The total number of drones we are now capable of producing annually in Ukraine is 4 million, with more than 1.5 million already contracted,” he said.
Mr Zelensky also touched on the advancement of long-range weaponry, highlighting Ukraine’s Palianytsia missile-drone and domestically developed ballistic missile.
“Our new ballistic missile has successfully completed flight tests,” he announced.
He had initially revealed that Ukraine tested its own ballistic missile in late August, though specific details of the project remain undisclosed.
UK sanctions Russian cyber-crime gang tasked with attacking Nato
04:22 , Shweta Sharma
Britain said it sanctioned 16 members of the Russian cyber-crime gang Evil Corp, a group it said had been tasked by Russia to conduct operations against Nato allies.
Evil Corp was once believed to be the most significant cyber-crime threat in the world, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said after taking coordinated action with officials in the United States and Australia.
“Today’s sanctions send a clear message to the Kremlin that we will not tolerate Russian cyber-attacks – whether from the state itself or from its cyber-criminal ecosystem,” foreign minister David Lammy said in a statement.
In 2019, the US indicted and sanctioned Evil Corp’s alleged leader, the Lamborghini-driving Maksim Yakubets, and put a $5m bounty out for information leading to his arrest.
In its latest disclosure, the NCA said the group had been tasked by Russian intelligence services to conduct cyber-attacks and espionage operations against Nato allies, although it gave no further details.
Yakubets, it said, had worked with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and military intelligence unit GRU.
Ukraine investigating alleged killing of 16 POWs by Russian army
04:04 , Shweta Sharma
Ukraine said it had launched an investigation into what it said was an apparent shooting of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers.
The soldiers who were allegedly killed had surrendered on the eastern Ukrainian frontline.
“This is the largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line and yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents,” Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said on X.
“This is a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership.”
Moscow did not immediately comment on the accusations. The Kremlin denies that Russia commits war crimes in Ukraine.
The Ukraine prosecutor general office said on the Telegram messaging app that it was looking into a video shared on social media showing the alleged killing.
A video with grainy drone footage purported to show a group of more than ten people leaving a trench. They are lined up and then fall down after being fired upon by other, indistinct figures.
Mr Kostin said the incident took place on the Pokrovsk front, an area of intensified Russian assaults.
Russian troops reach centre of Ukraine’s Vuhledar in the east, Ukrainian governor says
03:00 , Alexander Butler
Russian troops have reached the centre of Vuhledar, a bastion on strategic high ground in eastern Ukraine that has resisted Russian assaults since Moscow’s full-scale invasion, the regional governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Tuesday.
Vadym Filashkin, the governor, said the situation in Vuhledar was extremely difficult.
“The enemy is already nearly in the centre of the city,” Filashkin told Ukrainian TV.
Russian forces reached the outskirts of the small mining town last week and intensified their offensive push in recent days.
Moscow’s troops in eastern Ukraine advanced at their fastest rate in two years in August, according to multiple open-source maps. Their relentless advance in the Ukrainian east comes despite Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region
New Nato chief not worried by potential second Trump presidency
02:00 , Alexander Butler
New Nato chief Mark Rutte has doubled down on his commitment to Ukraine as he takes charge at a critical time for the Western alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister replaced Jens Stoltenberg as Nato secretary general on Tuesday, where he pledged continued support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes just before a pivotal US presidential election in November, with Nato-sceptic Donald Trump, who declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, on the Republican ticket.
“We have to make sure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation,” Mr Rutte said at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking about the prospect of former US president Donald Trump’s re-election, Mr Rutte added: “I’m not worried.
“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one pushing us to spend more on defence and he achieved this.
“Because indeed, at the moment, we are now at a much higher spending level than we were when he took office.”
Russia is ready for long confrontation with US, senior diplomat says
01:00 , Alexander Butler
Russia must prepare for a long confrontation with the United States and has sent repeated warnings to Washington over the crisis in relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned.
The Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The conflict is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire longer-range Western missiles deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Mr Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with Washington, said Moscow had no illusions about relations, given the “bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States.
“We must prepare for a long-term confrontation with this country. We are ready for this in every sense,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
The new underground hospital saving lives near the frontline in eastern Ukraine
Tuesday 1 October 2024 23:00 , Alexander Butler
Ukraine builds first undergound steel hospital near frontline
Shocking video shows Russian fighter jet just feet away from US plane in near miss
Tuesday 1 October 2024 22:00 , Alexander Butler
Shocking video shows Russian fighter jet just feet away from US plane in near miss
Navalny ally calls on West to invest in Russia’s next generation to beat Putin
Tuesday 1 October 2024 21:00 , Alexander Butler
Navalny ally calls on West to invest in Russia’s next generation to beat Putin
The downfall of Putin is inevitable, says freed dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza
Tuesday 1 October 2024 20:00 , Tom Watling
The fall of Putin is inevitable, says freed dissident Vladimir Kara Murza
Kremlin prisoner-swap exclusive: How I survived 11 months in Putin’s gulag
Tuesday 1 October 2024 19:00 , Tom Watling
Vladimir Kara-Murza: How I survived 11 months of torture in Putin’s gulag
Putin’s forces are desperate for a prize eastern city and Ukraine will fight street to street to keep them out
Tuesday 1 October 2024 18:00 , Alexander Butler
Ukraine will fight street to street to keep Russia out of key eastern city
Russia has secret war drone project in China, report alleges
Tuesday 1 October 2024 17:00 , Alexander Butler
Russia and China are engaged in a secret weapons programme to produce long-range drones against Ukraine, a report claims.
A subsidiary of Russian state-owned weapons company Almaz-Antey, IEMZ Kupol, have allegedly developed a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China, according to documents seen by news agencyReuters and sources they have spoken to.
The documents are said to show Kupol told the Russian Defence Ministry that it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a factory in China – with the help of local specialists.
Russia has secret war drone project in China, report alleges
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Tuesday 1 October 2024 16:00 , Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
How significant would Russia’s capture of Ukrainian town of Vuhledar be?
Tuesday 1 October 2024 15:13 , Alexander Butler
What is Vuhledar?
Vuhledar – which means “gift of coal” – is a coal mining town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region with a pre-war population of around 14,000 people, nearly all of whom have fled.
It was built by the Soviet Union in the mid 1960s around a mine. There are two mines there now with significant coal reserves.
Russians call the town, which sits on a flat plain and is comprised of high-rise apartment buildings and other structures, Ugledar.
Why does Russia want to take it?
Moscow says the Donetsk region is one of four Ukrainian regions it has annexed since 2022, a claim Kyiv rejects as illegal.
Moscow sees taking control of Vuhledar as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia.
Control of the town – which Russians long regarded as one of Ukraine’s toughest fortified positions to crack – is considered important by both sides because of its position on elevated ground and because it sits at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefield fronts giving it added significance when it comes to supplying both sides’ forces.
While Ukrainian forces were in full control of Vuhledar, they were able to use the town as a platform to shell Russian military supply lines in the area.
The town sits close to a railway line from Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region which comprises Donetsk and the eastern region of Luhansk, most of which Moscow controls.
Taking Vuhledar, which Russia portrays as one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in southern Donetsk, would open the way for Russian forces to advance on other places.
Russian troops reach centre of Ukraine’s Vuhledar in the east, Ukrainian governor says
Tuesday 1 October 2024 13:58 , Alexander Butler
Russian troops have reached the centre of Vuhledar, a bastion on strategic high ground in eastern Ukraine that has resisted Russian assaults since Moscow’s full-scale invasion, the regional governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Tuesday.
Vadym Filashkin, the governor, said the situation in Vuhledar was extremely difficult.
“The enemy is already nearly in the centre of the city,” Filashkin told Ukrainian TV.
Russian forces reached the outskirts of the small mining town last week and intensified their offensive push in recent days.
Moscow’s troops in eastern Ukraine advanced at their fastest rate in two years in August, according to multiple open-source maps. Their relentless advance in the Ukrainian east comes despite Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region
Shocking video shows Russian fighter jet just feet away from US plane in near miss
Tuesday 1 October 2024 13:30 , Alexander Butler
Shocking video shows Russian fighter jet just feet away from US plane in near miss
Russia is ready for long confrontation with US, senior diplomat says
Tuesday 1 October 2024 13:00 , Alexander Butler
Russia must prepare for a long confrontation with the United States and has sent repeated warnings to Washington over the crisis in relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned.
The Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The conflict is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire longer-range Western missiles deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Mr Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with Washington, said Moscow had no illusions about relations, given the “bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States.
“We must prepare for a long-term confrontation with this country. We are ready for this in every sense,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Tuesday 1 October 2024 12:00 , Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
New Nato chief not worried by potential second Trump presidency
Tuesday 1 October 2024 11:15 , Alexander Butler
New Nato chief Mark Rutte has doubled down on his commitment to Ukraine as he takes charge at a critical time for the Western alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister replaced Jens Stoltenberg as Nato secretary general on Tuesday, where he pledged continued support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes just before a pivotal US presidential election in November, with Nato-sceptic Donald Trump, who declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, on the Republican ticket.
“We have to make sure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation,” Mr Rutte said at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking about the prospect of former US president Donald Trump’s re-election, Mr Rutte added: “I’m not worried.
“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one pushing us to spend more on defence and he achieved this.
“Because indeed, at the moment, we are now at a much higher spending level than we were when he took office.”
Watch: Russian fighter jet narrowly misses American aircraft off coast of Alaska
Tuesday 1 October 2024 10:20 , Alexander Butler
Nato head Rutte says alliance must deliver on promises made to Ukraine
Tuesday 1 October 2024 09:44 , Alexander Butler
New Nato chief Mark Rutte said he was determined to prepare the transatlantic alliance for the challenges of the future.
He added that the group must deliver on the promises it made to Ukraine to help the country in its war against Russia. The conflict in Ukraine is not contained to the front lines, Mr Rutte said.
Russia will not sign a replacement for nuclear treaty with US
Tuesday 1 October 2024 09:24 , Alexander Butler
Russia will not sign a new treaty with the United States to replace the agreement limiting each side’s strategic nuclear weapons that expires in 2026, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified senior Russian source.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New Start, is the last remnant of efforts to slow the nuclear arms race between the former Cold War superpowers and increase transparency by imposing verifiable limits on the number of weapons.
President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in the treaty due to U.S. support for Ukraine, though Moscow has kept to the warhead, missile and bomber limits imposed by the agreement – as has the United States.
Five killed in Russian strike on Ukraine’s Kherson, governor says
Tuesday 1 October 2024 08:30 , Alexander Butler
At least five people were killed when Russian forces struck a market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday morning, the regional governor said.
Another three people were wounded in the attack, Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Tuesday 1 October 2024 07:50 , Alexander Butler
Russian president Vladimir Putin is waging war to try and wipe Ukraine off the map, the country’s top tennis player has warned.
Elina Svitolina, 30, accused Russia of genocide and urged the West to help bring back roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children deported to Russian camps since Putin’s invasion in February 2022.
More than 70 camps used to forcibly “re-educate” children have been found across Russia, Belarus and occupied Crimea, according to the Ukrainian government.
Svitolina stunned the sporting world in 2023 after she beat world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the Wimbledon quarter-finals just eight months after giving birth to her daughter.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Ukraine’s defence minister fires three deputies
Tuesday 1 October 2024 07:33 , Arpan Rai
Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said he has submitted to the government a request to dismiss three of his deputies in a new military shake-up.
Mr Umerov also added that he has requested the dismissal of Liudmyla Darahan, the state secretary of the defence ministry.
Ukraine downs 29 Russian drones in overnight attack
Tuesday 1 October 2024 07:22 , Arpan Rai
Ukraine’s military shot down 29 out of 32 drones launched by Russia during an overnight attack, Kyiv’s air force said today.
It added that the Iranian-made “Shahed-type” drones were downed over parts of central, southern and northeastern Ukraine.
Trump now says he likes Zelensky
Tuesday 1 October 2024 07:12 , Arpan Rai
Donald Trump has said he “likes” president Volodymyr Zelensky, a week after he called the war-time leader a “great salesman”.
The two met in New York on Friday as Mr Zelensky wrapped up his bilateral visit to the US, seeking a boost in support for fast military action from Kyiv’s most important ally.
Mr Trump did not meet with the Ukrainian leader till the last day of his trip and at one stage it looked like the meeting might not happen.
“I had a good relationship with Zelensky…I like him. Because during the impeachment hoax … he could have said he didn’t know the [conversation] was taped. … But instead of grandstanding and saying, ‘Yes, I felt threatened,’ he said, ‘He [Trump] did absolutely nothing wrong’,” the Republican presidential candidate told the Washington Post in an interview.
Mr Trump has been consistently critical of US spending on Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Two days before meeting Zelensky, he described Ukraine in bleak and mournful terms, referring to its people as “dead” and the country itself as “demolished”.
Putin: Russia will accomplish “all goals set” in Ukraine invasion
Tuesday 1 October 2024 07:00 , Alex Croft
Vladimir Putin has told the Russian people that its military will accomplish “all goals set” in Ukraine.
Putin was speaking in a video message to mark the second anniversary of “Reunification Day” – when Moscow officially claimed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as its own.
“The truth is on our side. All goals set will be achieved,” Putin said on Monday as he addressed the nation.
He said Ukraine’s western allies had “turned Ukraine into their colony, a military base aimed at Russia” and promoted “hate, radical nationalism” against Russia.
“Today we are fighting for a secure, prosperous future for our children and grandchildren,” Putin added.
Russia held sham referendums in the four regions on September 30, 2022, seven months after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.
Putin signed a document to unilaterally incorporate the occupied regions of Ukraine into the Russian Federation – a move which has not been recognised by any western countries.
Russia does not fully control the territories which it has laid claim to.
Mark Rutte becomes new Nato chief
Tuesday 1 October 2024 06:55 , Arpan Rai
Former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte takes over as Nato boss today, his immediate task being to support Ukraine at a critical time in its war with Russia.
Mr Rutte will take over as secretary-general from Jens Stoltenberg of Norway today at a ceremony at Nato headquarters in Brussels. Mr Stoltenberg has overseen the organisation during a turbulent decade marked above all by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Rutte, who stepped down as Dutch premier this year after a record 14 years in the job, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine. He has also urged Europeans to “stop whining” about former US president Donald Trump and get on with boosting the continent’s defences.
His key tasks are laid out – primary being pushing Nato nations to spend more on defence and keep the US engaged in European security.
However, uncertainty hangs over both – the conflict in Ukraine, which has turned into a grinding war of attrition, and future US support for Nato and Kyiv, with Nato-sceptic Trump in a close electoral contest with vice president Kamala Harris.
US explains delay in allowing Kyiv to strike Russia with long-range weapons
Tuesday 1 October 2024 06:29 , Arpan Rai
The US State Department has finally explained the delay in reaching a decision on whether to permit Ukraine to hit Russia with US-supplied long-range weapons.
Washington will assess how the move will impact the entire battlefield, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters yesterday.
“…we look at all of the capabilities and all the tactics and all the support that we provide Ukraine in totality, and look at how – when we approve any new weapon system or any new tactic, we look at how it’s going to affect the entire battlefield and Ukraine’s entire strategy. And that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Mr Miller said on being asked about why is the US not letting Ukraine hit Russia with American weapons.
He also said that the US does not view other weapons systems or tactics as “the one magic capability that would change the face of the conflict”.
ICYMI: Kyiv defends several waves of overnight drone attacks on Sunday
Tuesday 1 October 2024 06:02 , Alex Croft
Kyiv went through multiple waves of drone attacks over Sunday night, the city’s authorities said.
An air raid alert was in place in the capital from 1am until just after 6am this morning, as Ukrainian air defense systems battled the drones.
Vitalii Klitschlo, the mayor of Kyiv, warned residents shortly before 5am to “stay in shelters” due to a wave of drones “over and near the capital”, The Kyiv Independent reported.
There have been no casualties or damage to the city reported.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russian forces launched 73 Shahed-type drones across Ukraine overnight, with 67 intercepted.
Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said: “All Russian attack drones that threatened Kyiv were neutralized.” It is not clear how many drones attacked Kyiv.
US says Kyiv can strike Russia with own weapons to defend itself
Tuesday 1 October 2024 05:57 , Arpan Rai
Ukraine does not need the US’s permission to strike back on targets deep within Russia with its own weapons, the US State Department has said.
“Ukraine does not need our permission to strike back against Russian targets. They are a sovereign country and can use the weapons that they build on their own, of which [there] are many, if you look at the programs that they have put in place over the last year,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during a press briefing yesterday.
“And then when you look at the weapons that we have provided to them, we’ve made clear that they can use them to strike back against Russian targets across the border that are launching attacks,” he said.
The US official said Ukraine has an “enormous amount of material to defend itself” and the US always looks to provide the war-hit nation with additional tools.
“We always look at whether there are additional tools that we can provide them. If you notice the announcement that the president made on Thursday, we are providing them with an additional $8bn in security assistance, and we will continue to support them,” he said.
Dramatic photos capture Kyiv dawn sky as Russian drones shot down
Tuesday 1 October 2024 05:46 , Arpan Rai
As Russia sent a barrage of 76 drones and missiles in an overnight attack yesterday, Ukraine’s air force swiftly moved to intercept the aerial munitions.
New photos show drones exploding as they are being destroyed by Ukrainian air defence during a strike on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Russia pitches record defence spending as Ukraine war intensifies
Tuesday 1 October 2024 05:24 , Arpan Rai
The Russian government is rapidly pushing its defence spending for next year to a record high as it pursues victory in Ukraine.
Moscow wants to earmark 32.5 per cent of its spending next year for defence, a record amount and up from a reported 28.3 per cent this year, according to the draft budget released yesterday.
The government’s draft proposes spending just under 13.5 trillion roubles (over $145bn) on national defence. This is about 3 trillion roubles ($32bn) more than was set aside for defence this year – itself a record.
According to the draft budget, spending on defence should decline in 2026.
Vladimir Putin is also looking at how to sustain his war effort as military spending has placed a huge strain on the Russian economy.
Zelensky commends ‘superhuman’ combat medics and doctors
Tuesday 1 October 2024 05:01 , Alex Croft
President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised the “professional, brave and resilient” Ukrainian medics, who are central in helping the country “stand against Russian territory”.
He posted a handful of powerful pictures alongside the message on Monday.
Our combat medics and medical workers, like our warriors, help our state every day to stand against Russian terror and defend lives. They are professional, brave, and resilient.
No matter how difficult the conditions, they give their all, using every bit of strength and humanity… pic.twitter.com/onPcHt1n6l
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 30, 2024
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Tuesday 1 October 2024 04:13 , Arpan Rai
Russian president Vladimir Putin is waging war to try and wipe Ukraine off the map, the country’s top tennis player has warned.
Elina Svitolina, 30, accused Russia of genocide and urged the West to help bring back roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children deported to Russian camps since Putin’s invasion in February 2022.
More than 70 camps used to forcibly “re-educate” children have been found across Russia, Belarus and occupied Crimea, according to the Ukrainian government.
Svitolina stunned the sporting world in 2023 after she beat world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the Wimbledon quarter-finals just eight months after giving birth to her daughter.
Svitolina tells Alexander Butler the West must act to get Ukraine’s stolen children back from Russia:
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Three killed and at least 45 injured in past day, Ukraine says
Tuesday 1 October 2024 04:05 , Alex Croft
Russian attacks on Ukraine killed three people and injured at least 45 more over the past day, regional authorities said on Sept 30.
Two people were killed in the villages of Lysivka and Shevchenko in the Donetsk region, with three injured across the region.
One person was killed and 12 injured in the Kherson region, where Russian forces targeted 17 towns and cities including Kherson city itself.
An air strike on Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine injured at least 16 people, including two boys aged 17 and eight, while damaging residential buildings and a railway.
Ten people were injured in the northeastern Sumy region as a result of guided aerial boom and FPV drone attacks, The Kyiv Independent reported.
