Summary of the day so far
The US president, Joe Biden, has permitted Ukraine to use US-made Atacms ballistic missiles against Russian and North Korean forces inside Russian territory. Officials in Washington told reporters the weapons could be used in the region of Kursk, where Kyiv has launched an incursion, but that Biden may agree to their deployment elsewhere before Donald Trump comes to power in January.
The Kremlin said the US’s decision represented an escalation of the conflict. “It is clear that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to continue to add fuel to the fire and to further inflame tensions around this conflict,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters. “This decision is reckless, dangerous, aimed at a qualitative change, a qualitative increase in the level of involvement of the United States.” The Russian foreign ministry said that Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to attack Russian territory, with US and allied support, would fundamentally alter the nature of the war and trigger “an adequate and tangible” response from Russia.
The German tabloid Bild is reported on what it calls a “top secret” delivery to Ukraine of 4,000 strike drones, developed by the German artificial intelligence firm Helsing. The company reportedly received the contract from the Ukraine defence ministry in September and the order has been paid for out of a German government fund.
Ukraine’s state emergency services said that at least 10 people were killed and 43 people were injured in a Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port city.
The Kremlin rejected a reported peace proposal from the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to be put forward at the G20 summit in Brazil, to freeze hostilities at the current positions of both parties. Erdoğan’s plan reportedly consists of: freezing the frontline as it is, Ukraine agreeing not to join Nato for at least ten years, supplying Ukraine with weapons to provide for its defence and placing international peacekeepers in a demilitarised buffer zone in the Donbas. Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports that Erdoğan was suggesting a freeze of the current tactical situation as a condition that would be “unacceptable” to the Russian Federation.
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Russia vows 'palpable response' if Ukraine uses long-range missiles on its territory
Moscow has warned of an “appropriate response” if Ukraine fires western-supplied long-range missiles against Russian territory, hours after Joe Biden gave Kyiv permission for such strikes.
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday:
Kyiv’s use of long-range missiles to attack our territory would represent the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in hostilities against Russia, as well as a radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict …
Russia’s response in such a case will be appropriate and palpable.
The US decision is being justified by the presence of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine. Briefings to US media outlets said permission to use the missiles would be limited to the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia in the summer, my colleagues Pjotr Sauer and Dan Sabbagh, write in this story.
Updated
In this video report, Guardian video producer Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how Russia is using hybrid warfare alongside boosting its arms industry to outpace Nato, and what this means for the war in Ukraine:
Updated
Scholz’s call with Putin was a 'strategic mistake', Estonian foreign minister says
German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin was a “strategic mistake” that weakened European unity in the face of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels earlier.
As my colleagues Pjotr Sauer and Kate Connolly write in this report, Scholz urged the Russian president to withdraw troops from Ukraine and negotiate with Kyiv to achieve a just and lasting peace, in the first call between a major western leader and Putin since December 2022.
The one-hour phone call came after Putin reportedly spoke with the US president-elect, Donald Trump, whose incoming administration has vowed to push for a swift end to the war in Ukraine.
Tsahkna said the call had damaged Western efforts to isolate Putin. “It was a strategic mistake,” he told Reuters. “We have had a principle agreed that we keep Putin in isolation.”
Tsahkna said that position should be maintained until Putin showed a willingness to take part in meaningful negotiations and withdraw his troops from Ukraine.
But currently Putin was doing the opposite, Tsahkna said, pointing out that Russia mounted one of its most severe attacks on Ukraine in months in the days after Scholz’s call. “It just weakened our unity and our positions,” Tsahkna said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also criticised Scholz’s call, saying it was “exactly what Putin has long sought” and could open a “Pandora’s Box” of calls that would further undermine efforts to isolate him.
We mentioned in an earlier post that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been visiting the eastern frontline town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Here is a little more on the strategic significance of the town:
Pokrovsk lies at an intersection of roads and a railway that make it an important logistics point for the military and for civilians. Its coal mine is the only one in Ukraine that produces coking coal vital for the national steel industry.
The Ukrainian military said its forces had repelled more than 30 Russian attacks near Pokrovsk in just the past day.
In a battlefield update on Russia’s attempt to seize Pokrovsk, the Institute for the Study of War wrote yesterday:
Russian forces have not taken Pokrovsk after eight months of grinding but consistent advances in western Donetsk oblast.
Ukrainian defensive operations, based on the integration of successful Ukrainian drone innovators and operators with ground forces combined with constraints on Russia’s strategic and operational-level manpower and materiel reserves, have forced the Russian military command to abandon its original campaign design of a frontal assault on Pokrovsk.
The Russian military command is currently attempting to envelop Pokrovsk from the southwest via Selydove and to even out the frontline west of Kurakhove and north of Vuhledar.
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As fears of escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continue to mount, the UK and EU have taken action against Iran for aiding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
The UK said Iran’s national airliner Iran Air will be subject to an asset freeze in response to the country’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, while shipping carrier the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines has been sanctioned for its role in transporting Iranian military supplies. The Russian cargo ship Port Olya-3 has been also sanctioned for carrying missiles from Iran to Russia.
Likewise, the EU has widened its sanctions, adding the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its director Mohammad Reza Khiabani to its sanctions list.
The fresh sanctions by the EU are against vessels and ports used for transporting Iranian-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), missiles and related technologies and components. They include prohibiting any transaction with ports and locks owned, operated or controlled by the sanctioned individuals and entities.
Reuters reports that Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico has come out strongly against any decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range weapons on targets inside Russia.
He has described it as an “unprecedented escalation of tensions”, and said the clear aim of the reported move by Joe Biden’s administration was to thwart or delay peace talks. He said he was in strong disagreement with it.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chair of the State Duma in Russia, has said that the US allowing use of longer-range weapons by Ukraine would not change the situation on the battlefield, but it would serve to finally destroy Russia-US relations, Tass reports.
There is currently a ballistic missiles warning in effect in Ukraine’s Sumy region in the north-east of the country. The city of Sumy was struck overnight in an attack which killed at least eleven people. One of the victims of that attack has been named by local Ukrainian media as 9-year-old Ilya Doroshenko.
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Hungary has sounded a dissenting note from broad European support of the US decision to allow Ukraine to utilise longer range weapons to strike inside Russia.
Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto has, Reuters reports, described it as “astonishingly dangerous” to allow Nato-supplied weapons to be used for long-range strikes.
Earlier this year Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán attracted criticism from EU and Nato allies after he travelled to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin in person in July.
The European Parliament described the visit as a “blatant violation of the EU’s Treaties and common foreign policy.”
We have been reporting today that Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles has been met with ominous warnings from Moscow – but has been cautiously welcomed by some western allies.
Margus Tsahkna, the foreign minister of Estonia which is another Baltic country that fears a military threat from Russia, said easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing.”
“We have been saying that from the beginning — that no restrictions must be put on the military support,” he said at a meeting of senior EU diplomats in Brussels. “And we need to understand that situation is more serious (than) it was even maybe like a couple of months ago.”
Estonia and the other Baltic States have increased their military spending to over 2% of the value of their economies after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and Nato allies have raised their presence in those countries.
Death toll from Russian strike on Odesa rises to 10, with 43 people reported injured
In an earlier post, we reported that officials had said 8 people had been killed and 18 injured in a Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port city.
Ukraine’s state emergency services now says that 10 people were killed in the attack and that 43 people were injured.
“According to preliminary information, 10 people were killed and 43 others were wounded, including four children,” the agency said on Telegram. The fatalities included at least seven police officers and a medic, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile, which was downed by air defences.
“Unfortunately, the downed missile fell into the residential sector of the city’s Prymorskyi district,” the air force wrote in a post on Telegram.
Updated
US officials say Joe Biden, the US president, has authorised the first use of American-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia.
The first strikes using Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms) rockets could come within days. My colleague Oliver Holmes has written this explainer on the capabilities of Atacms missiles and why they are so important to Ukraine:
Here is an extract from the piece:
Ukraine will now be able to strike targets inside Kursk with the missiles, where Kyiv holds more than 1,000 sq km of territory. The Atacms could target Russian weapons and ammunition depots, supply lines, and military bases, which would give relief to Ukrainian troops on the frontlines.
With Trump’s inauguration in January, the move might be a way to strengthen Ukraine’s hand militarily before it is forced into peace talks. It may also have a psychological impact, raising morale in Ukraine during a tough period.
Erdoğan to present Ukraine peace plan at G20 meeting – reports
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is to present a peace plan for Ukraine at the G20 summit, according to reports by Bloomberg.
The Turkish president’s plan reportedly consists of:
freezing the frontline as it is
Ukraine agreeing not to join Nato for at least ten years
supplying Ukraine with weapons to provide for its defence
placing international peacekeepers in a demilitarised buffer zone in the Donbas
Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports that Erdoğan was suggesting a freeze of the current tactical situation as a condition that would be “unacceptable” to the Russian Federation.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that he visited the eastern frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region.
A video posted by Zelenskyy showed him visiting troops defending the town from Russian forces, who are situated about 8km (5 miles) away.
In a message accompanying the video, Zelenskyy described the front there as “intense”, adding “Only thanks to the strength of the soldiers, the east is not completely occupied by Russia. The enemy receives a daily response. Thanks to the soldiers for their courage.”
The Kremlin has issued a photograph showing a meeting in Moscow today between president Vladimr Putin and Yevgeny Balitsky, who is the Moscow-installed governor in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
Zaporizhzhia is one of the region of Ukraine which Russia has claimed to annex but which it does not fully occupy.
Zelenskyy tells G20 leaders to take note of Russian strike on Odesa that has killed eight
President Zelenskyy has said that the leaders of the G20 group, currently meeting in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, should take note of a strike today by Russia on Odesa which has killed eight people.
In a message on his social media channels Zelenskyy appeared to also criticise German chancellor Olaf Scholz for his recent call with Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy posted:
A ballistic missile strike by Russian terrorists in Odessa in a residential area. An apartment building, a university, and an administration building were damaged. As of now, it is known about eight dead people.
These are not random shots - they are indicative shots. After the calls and meetings with Putin, after all the false gossip in the media about the alleged [Russian] “refrain” from strikes, Russia shows what it is really interested in: only war.
And this signal should be heard in all parts of the world, from the halls where the members of the G20 meet, to all the capitals of the world.
The governor of Odesa region Oleh Kiper has also posted an update on the attack, saying the dead included “medics, policemen, and ordinary civilians.”
He said that 39 people were injured, including four children. 30 adults have been hospitalised, he said.
Germany reportedly supplying Ukraine with 4,000 strike drones
Kate Connolly is the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent
The German tabloid Bild is reporting on what it calls a “top secret” delivery to Ukraine of 4,000 strike drones, developed by the German artificial intelligence firm Helsing.
The company reportedly received the contract from the Ukraine defence ministry in September and the order has been paid for out of a German government fund.
The defence minister Boris Pistorius has confirmed the deliveries, saying he is happy that they’re taking place now, when they could not be more needed. He saw them being tested in May with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov, during a trip to Kyiv.
Referred to as “mini Taureses” - after the long-range missiles which Germany is being urged to deliver but which chancellor Olaf Scholz is refusing to release citing fears for an escalation - the drones are AI-controlled and can apparently out-wit Russian GPS jamming capabilities.
Their hit quota is said to be higher than the manually-steered fighter drones and their range four times farther than the conventional kamikaze drones used by the Ukrainian army.
Kremlin says Biden is ‘fuelling fire’ of Ukraine conflict with missiles decision
Pjotr Sauer and Dan Sabbagh report on the Kremlin reaction earlier today
The Kremlin has said Joe Biden’s outgoing administration wants to escalate the conflict in Ukraine by allowing Kyiv to use long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia.
Several US outlets reported on Sunday that the Biden administration has decided to allow Ukraine to conduct strikes with US-made weapons deep into sovereign Russian territory.
“It is clear that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to continue to add fuel to the fire and to further inflame tensions around this conflict,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had long pushed for authorisation from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials Atacms, to hit targets inside Russia.
Peskov said Putin had expressed Russia’s position clearly in September when the Russian leader warned that the move to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be directly “at war” with Moscow.
Without going into specifics, Putin said at the time Moscow would “take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face”.
On Monday, Russian officials similarly pledged that Moscow would react to President Biden’s decision, though they did not elaborate on what that response might entail.
Read more from Pjotr Sauer and Dan Sabbagh here: Kremlin says Biden is ‘fuelling fire’ of Ukraine conflict with missiles decision
Germany is sticking with its decision not to provide long-range missiles to Ukraine, Reuters reports a German government spokesperson said on Monday.
Eight reported killed by Russian strike on Odesa
Posting to the Telegram app, the governer of Odesa region Oleh Kiper has reported eight people killed and 18 injured by a Russian attack. He said one child is among the victims, and four people are in serious condition. He stated there was “damaged civil infrastructure, in particular residential buildings.”
More details soon …
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said the US decision to allow Ukraine to use US-made missiles to strike targets inside Russia is a “potentially decisive moment”.
Reuters quotes him saying “This decision was very necessary. Russia sees that Ukraine enjoys strong support and that the west’s position is unyielding and determined. It’s a very important, potentially decisive moment in this war.”
Russian forces have taken control of the village of Novooleksiivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Reuters reports, citing Russian media.
Russia’s ministry of defence has claimed this morning that two Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region. Earlier the governor of the region reported there were no known casualties from the incident.
Tass reports that a Russian court has sentenced two Ukrainian men in the Kherson region, which Russia partially occupies, to 12 years in prison for espionage. The pair were accused of contacting Ukrainian secret services and passing along details of Russian military positions.
Local media reports explosions have been heard in Odesa. About ten minutes before the report there was a warning of missile fire from Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014.
Lithuania adds to criticism of Scholz-Putin call
Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent
Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has bluntly criticised Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin.
Lithuania is one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in the EU, so the comments are not a surprise, but underscore the differences over how to approach Russia’s invasion, as Kremlin forces make deeper advances.
Landsbergis, who is also one of the EU’s most outspoken foreign ministers, said it was difficult for him to understand why the call had happened, telling reporters:
I’m not in principle against any calling or reach-out, but it has to come from a position of strength, not from the position of weakness, because if it does, then Russians will abuse it. And they clearly are doing exactly that, with massive new rocket barrages against Ukraine’s civil infrastructure, against energy. So what does it help? Why are we doing this?
The German chancellor spoke to Putin for one hour on Friday, urging him to withdraw his troops from Ukraine. At the weekend Russia then launched its largest attack on Ukraine in months, killing at least seven people and forcing the introduction of nationwide electricity rationing.
Kremlin says any decision to use long-range missiles against Russia would lead to a 'rise in tension'
The Kremlin said on Monday that if the US allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike far into Russia then it would lead to a rise in tension and deepen the involvement of the US in the conflict.
Speaking at his regular daily press briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that there was no change in position from what Vladimir Putin had said in September. The Russian president had said he would consider strikes by US-made weapons on Russian soil as the direct involvement of Nato in the conflict.
In response to a question from Tass, Peskov said Russia was only aware of the apparent decision by the Joe Biden administration from reporting in western media.
Asked about recent overtures towards peace by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Peskov said that any so-called “freezing” of the conflict along the existing frontline was unacceptable for the Russian Federation.
EU foreign ministers signal support for US decision on missile use inside Russia
Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent
The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell has expressed hope that European nations will allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike Russia, following the US decision to loosen restrictions on US-made rockets.
Borrell, who is standing down as the EU’s foreign policy high representative next month, said he had long-believed Ukraine should be able to use western weapons to hit military targets inside Russia, telling reporters.
I’ve been saying once and again that Ukraine should be able to use the arms provided to them in order to not only to stop the arrow but also to be able to hit the archers.
He said he hoped member states would agree on that, suggesting if there was no common decision “anyone will do whatever they believe is according to the need to support Ukraine”.
France, the EU’s most consequential military power, has not immediately endorsed the US position.
However, France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot referred to Emmanuel Macron’s words from May, saying his government would consider this option if it was to allow hitting targets where Russia is “currently aggressing Ukrainian territory”.
Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp described the US decision as very important, saying:
What I see is that President Putin in general only listens to facts on the ground. And I think therefore that it is very important the US also does not [impose] limitations any more for weapons delivered to Ukraine.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said this was not a shift in western policy, telling the media:
The decision from the American side, and I would like to emphasise that this is not a rethink but an intensification of what has already been delivered by other partners, is so important at this moment.
The ministers are attending the monthly EU foreign affairs meeting in Brussels, the last one to be chaired by Borrell, who is ending his five-year term.
Reflecting on his tenure Borrell chided member states for being disunited and slow on foreign policy:
My last call to my colleagues will be, be more united. Take decisions quicker. Every time we took decisions in order to support Ukraine, it took too long.
Our video team have this report on yesterday’s Russian strike on Sumy which killed 11 people, including two children.
France: Ukraine use of French long-range missiles 'an option that we would consider'
France, which has already provided long-range missiles to Ukraine, on Monday signalled that allowing Kyiv to strike military targets inside Russia remained an option on the table.
“We openly said this was an option that we would consider if it was to allow to strike a target from where Russia is currently aggressing Ukrainian territory. So nothing new on the other side,” Reuters reports Jean-Noël Barrot told journalists ahead of a EU ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
Local media reports explosions have been heard in Kherson.
An air alert has sounded in Zaporizhzhia.
Borrell: EU should allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday expressed his hope that EU members could agree to allow Ukraine to use arms to strike inside Russia, Reuters reports.
“I’ve been saying once and again that Ukraine should be able to use the arms we provided to them, in order to not only stop the arrows but also to be able to hit the archers,” Borrell said before a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“I continue believing this is what has to be done. I’m sure we will discuss once again. I hope member states will agree on that.”
In the UK an opposition politician has called on Keir Starmer’s government to allow Ukraine use of UK-made Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russia.
Recently appointed shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge of the opposition Conservative party told the GB News channel that permission from the Biden administration to use US-made weapons inside Russia’s Kursk region was “a very important development” and “very welcome given the military situation in Ukraine.”
He continued:
I do hope it now paves the way for the UK granting full autonomy to Ukraine in relation to the use of Storm Shadow missiles. Russia invaded Ukraine, a wholly unprovoked, illegal invasion, a dictatorship invading a democracy.
It’s been the right thing to do, to not be directly involved in Ukraine, but to support them in whatever way we can, in terms of providing munitions that’s helped Ukraine to check their advance.
He cited the deployment of troops from North Korea as an “escalation” by Russia, saying “imagine how the Russians would feel if 10,000 Nato troops were now in Ukraine, supporting them. The fact is 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed into this battle. A totalitarian regime, hundreds of thousands of troops, testing nuclear weapons, is sending those troops out to fight in Europe, alongside Russia. We have to understand which country is in the right here. It’s Ukraine. We are doing the right thing to support them.”
The foreign minister of the Netherlands, Caspar Veldkamp, has described the decision by the Joe Biden administration that US supplied weapons can be used to strike inside Russia as an “adequate response” to the deployment of North Korean troops by Russia.
The US president will allow Ukraine to use US-made Atacms rockets, which have a range of 190 miles (300km) inside Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have staged an incursion.
Most Ukrainian regions to experience rolling power cuts on Monday
Reuters reports that Odesa, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, remains without power. Rolling power outages are also expected today.
Authorities said most regions would face blackouts on Monday of up to eight hours, including the capital Kyiv, with only the west of the country spared.
Ukrainian MP: use of longer range missiles to strike inside Russia not a 'silver bullet' to guarantee victory
A Ukrainian MP has said that the use of longer range missiles against Russia is not a “silver bullet” that will guarantee victory for Ukraine, and called for a change of strategy from western leaders.
Mariia Ionova, who sits on the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament, told listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
Missiles are not the silver bullet against our common enemies, and that is why we are asking all our friends that we need a change in strategy, because our enemies are united and we should stand together as well.
When we are talking about this permission [for longer range missile fire], yes, we appreciate it, but that [alone] will not bring a victory.
[We need] an air shield over Ukraine, more training, more western military instructors in Ukraine, more sanctions, and also more secondary sanctions.
And I think also we should be, and our friends’ leaders should be, more creative, more brave.
Do not exclude anything. Do not postpone. We understand the procedures in democratic societies, but for us, time is human lives.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, has posted to his Telegram channel to report that air defence in the region shot down “several enemy drones” from Ukraine. “There are no casualties,” he reported.
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of Kherson region, has posted to Facebook to state that four people were killed and ten others wounded by Russian strikes on the region in the past 24 hours.
Death toll from Sunday's strike in Sumy rises to 11, including two children
Ukraine’s authorities have revised up the death toll and number of people injured by a missiles strike on Sumy at the weekend. It is now believed that 11 people have died, and 89 people were wounded.
Reuters reports that two children are among the dead, with 11 children among those hurt.
Volodymyr Artyukh, the head of the Sumy military administration, said it was “a tragedy that Russia brought to our land.”
Local media reports that Ukraine is not expecting any power outages in the Lviv region in the west of the country today.
Russian media reports the country’s security forces have arrested a man on suspicion of preparing explosives and working for the Ukrainian secret service.
Tass reports the FSB in a statement said the man was planning attacks in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions. The 48-year-old was, the FSB claimed, arrested with bomb-making equipment in Russia’s Kaluga region, which is to the south-west of Moscow.
Ukraine claims to have shot down 8 out of 11 Russian overnight drone launches
Overnight Ukraine’s air force has claimed it shot down eight of 11 drones launched at the country by Russia, Reuters reports.
Citing a message on the Telegram app, the news agency reports that Ukraine’s air force said it lost three of the drones on its radar, and that Russia also launched three missiles into Ukraine. Two fo the missiles were aimed at Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Biden trying to escalate situation ‘to the maximum’ with missile decision, Russian lawmaker says
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russian lawmaker Maria Butina has said that the administration of President Joe Biden was risking a third world war if it allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike deep into Russia.
“These guys, Biden’s administration, is trying to escalate the situation to the maximum while they still have power and are still in office,” said Butina, who was jailed in the US for 18 months in 2019 after she tried to infiltrate US conservative groups and the National Rifle Association to promote Russian political interests around the 2016 election. She is now a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party.
“I have a great hope that [Donald] Trump will overcome this decision if this has been made because they are seriously risking the start of World War Three which is not in anybody’s interest,” she told Reuters.
Biden on Sunday reversed a ban on the firing of long-range US missiles into Russian territory by permitting them to be used against Russian and North Korean forces in the Kursk region. The US president will allow Ukraine to use US-made Atacms rockets, which have a range of 190 miles (300km) .
President Vladimir Putin said on 12 September that western approval for such a step would mean “the direct involvement of Nato countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because Nato military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.
In late October, Putin said that Russia’s defence ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its Nato allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.
“I guess there are some people in the United States who have nothing to lose for whatever reason or who are completely off the grid so much that they simply do not care,” said Butina.
In other developments:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appeared to confirm the news of the US policy reversal, though he said any proof about the change in policy would emerge on the battlefield, if and when the missiles are used. “Today, there’s a lot of talk in the media about us receiving permission for respective actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will,” Zelenskyy said.
Ten people, including two children, were killed and 52 have been injured after when a Russian missile hit a residential nine-storey building in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, Ukraine’s emergency services and military have said. “Sunday evening for the city of Sumy became hell, a tragedy that Russia brought to our land,” Volodymyr Artyukh, the head of the Sumy military administration said in a post on the administration’s Telegram messaging channel.
Russia pounded Ukraine’s power grid into the early hours of Sunday in what Kyiv said was a “massive” attack with 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed at least seven people. The attack was the largest missile and drone assault on Ukraine since August and the first big Russian assault since the US election, showing the Kremlin in little mood to compromise after Donald Trump’s victory.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s principal energy supplier, said blackouts and consumption restrictions would be introduced “in all regions” from Monday as engineers tried to repair as much of the damage to power facilities as possible. With the harsh Ukrainian winter fast approaching, the country is already suffering from major energy shortfalls.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said the attack showed that talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone would not stop the war in Ukraine, two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rang him. “No one will stop Putin with phone calls. The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole west for Ukraine,” Donald Tusk wrote on X.
Scholz defended his decision to phone the Kremlin, telling reporters on Sunday it was important to tell him [Putin] that he cannot count on support from Germany, Europe and many others in the world waning”. He added: “The conversation was very detailed but contributed to a recognition that little has changed in the Russian president’s views of the war – and that’s not good news.”
Ukraine will be “top of the agenda” this week at a meeting of leaders from the world’s most powerful economies, Keir Starmer pledged, though he said he had “no plans” to follow Scholz and speak directly to Putin. Starmer will meet world leaders on Monday at the G20 summit in Brazil, which the Russian president has declined to attend, sending his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in his place.
Finland is hosting its first large-scale Nato artillery exercise since the Nordic nation joined the military alliance last year, with live fire drills starting on Sunday. The exercise conducted in the northern Lapland region in November is part of Dynamic Front 25, the largest Nato artillery exercise ever held in Europe, with fire drills in Finland as well as Estonia, Germany, Romania and Poland. The Nordic nation, which shares a border with Russia, joined Nato last year, dropping decades of military non-alignment after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
About 1,500 supporters of Russia’s exiled opposition marched through central Berlin on Sunday – led by Yulia Navalnaya and chanting “No to war!” and “No to Putin” – in a demonstration against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The march saw a smaller turnout than expected and was seen as a credibility test for the movement – weakened by years of repression and thrown into disarray since the death of its main leader Alexei Navalny in prison earlier this year.
Russia’s air defence units destroyed a drone heading towards Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Monday. “According to preliminary information, there is no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris,” Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.
