War Archive 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Russia says took another east Ukrainian village

Russia said on Monday it took another village in eastern Ukraine, south of the city of Pokrovsk where its forces have been advancing for months...

www.newagebd.net

Russia says took another east Ukrainian village
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 29 October, 2024, 00:33

Russia said on Monday it took another village in eastern Ukraine, south of the city of Pokrovsk where its forces have been advancing for months.

Moscow’s forces, outnumbering and outgunning the Ukrainian army, have advanced fast towards Pokrovsk since the summer.

Moscow’s defence ministry said troops had taken the village of Tsukuryne, some 25 kilometres south of Pokrovsk. It is one of the larger villages Moscow has claimed in recent weeks in its advance in the Donetsk region.

Moscow has spent months advancing westwards in the embattled Donetsk region.

Ukraine has evacuated much of Pokrovsk, a former mining city that was home to some 60,000 people before Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.

Thousands have fled the city as Russia advances. Tsukuryne lies south of the town of Selydove.

Kyiv said it had detained a Ukrainian man volunteering with the UN’s World Food Programme for allegedly aiding Russian forces in the east of the country.

Ukraine has opened thousands of investigations into collaboration and treason since Russian forces invaded in 2022, allegations that carry long prison terms.​

 

[Saif]

Russian air attacks kill four in Kharkiv, injure six in Kyiv, Ukraine says

At least four people were killed and another six injured in Russia’s waves of overnight attacks on Ukraine’s two largest cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday. Another two were killed and seven injured in Russian shelling on Kherson city in southern Ukraine in

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russian air attacks kill four in Kharkiv, injure six in Kyiv, Ukraine says
REUTERS
Published :
Oct 29, 2024 19:49
Updated :
Oct 29, 2024 19:49

A woman removes debris from an apartment building that was damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine Oct 29, 2024 Photo : REUTERS/Thomas Peter

At least four people were killed and another six injured in Russia’s waves of overnight attacks on Ukraine’s two largest cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

Another two were killed and seven injured in Russian shelling on Kherson city in southern Ukraine in the morning, a local governor said.

Russian forces have been attacking Ukrainian regions almost every night with drones, and the Ukrainian military reported that overnight they had shot down 26 out of 48 drones launched.

Four people were killed in Kharkiv in the early hours of Tuesday in Russia’s bombardment of the city’s Osnovianskyi district, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on his Telegram messaging channel.

A local emergency service published a video showing rescuers removing the rubble of the completely destroyed building under floodlights and carrying a black bag in which the bodies of the dead are usually placed.

That attack followed a Russian guided bomb attack on Kharkiv late on Monday that shattered much of the Derzhprom building, one of the most celebrated landmarks in the city, dating from the 1920s.

In Kyiv, falling debris from a destroyed Russian drone injured six people and set a residential building on fire, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said.

One of the people injured by debris in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district was taken to hospital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel. He said several cars were also on fire.

A Reuters witness saw smoke rising over the district’s residential area, which is located in Kyiv’s west. Photos posted by Kyiv’s military administration on its Telegram channel showed a residential building and nearby cars burning in the dark.

The administration said Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian drone attack on the city and that drone debris also fell onto the Sviatoshynskyi district in Kyiv’s west, but there was no immediate reports of damage.

In the morning attacks on Kherson, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messenger that the victims of the Russian shelling were a 62-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman.

Kherson region is split by the front line and regularly hit by Russian artillery, drones and missiles.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attacks.

Moscow denies targeting civilians in the war sparked by its invasion of its neighbour Ukraine in February 2022.

The 2-1/2-year war has killed thousands of people, the vast majority of them Ukrainians, and it has turned cities and villages into piles of rubble.​

 

[Saif]

US cracks down on Russia sanctions evasion

The United States yesterday imposed curbs on hundreds of targets in fresh action against Russia, taking aim at sanctions circumvention in a signal that the US is committed to countering evasion.

www.thedailystar.net

US cracks down on Russia sanctions evasion

The United States yesterday imposed curbs on hundreds of targets in fresh action against Russia, taking aim at sanctions circumvention in a signal that the US is committed to countering evasion.

The action, taken by the US Treasury and State departments, imposed sanctions on nearly 400 entities and individuals from over a dozen different countries, according to statements from the Treasury and State departments.

The action was the most concerted push so far against third country evasion, a State Department official told Reuters. It included sanctions on dozens of Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian companies, the most from those countries to be hit in one package so far, according to the official.

Also hit with sanctions were targets in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland and elsewhere.

The action comes as Washington has sought to curb Russia's evasion of the sanctions imposed after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has killed or wounded thousands and reduced cities to rubble.​

 

[Saif]

Putin supervises Russian army’s fresh nuclear drills

The TASS news industry published footage of a missile being launched in the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Russian Far-North.

en.prothomalo.com

Putin supervises Russian army’s fresh nuclear drills
AFP
Moscow
Published: 29 Oct 2024, 22: 48

This grab from a handout footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry press service on 29 October 2024, shows the launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile during drills of the strategic deterrence forces. AFP

Russia said Tuesday its army held fresh nuclear drills under the supervision of President Vladimir Putin, who recently called for changes to rules on the use of Moscow's nuclear deterrent.

Putin has raised the prospect of using nuclear weapons during Moscow's offensive in Ukraine several times and last month suggested Russia broaden its rules on using nuclear weaponry.

Russia's defence ministry said a "training exercise was conducted with the forces and means of the land, maritime and aviation components of the strategic deterrent force" and that an "intercontinental ballistic missile was launched."

The ministry said the missile was launched at a test site in the far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula.

Other missiles were launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and from the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East.

The ministry said the drills were conducted successful and that the missiles had "reached their targets."

The TASS news industry published footage of a missile being launched in the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Russian Far-North.

In September, Putin suggested that Moscow change its nuclear doctrine to allow it to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a "massive" air attack.

Under the proposed rules, Russia would also consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both, in a seeming reference to Ukraine.

The plans came as Ukraine is seeking authorisation to use long-range missiles against Russia, which has so far been met by US reluctance.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says captured Ukraine village near logistics hub

Russia on Sunday claimed to have captured another Ukrainian village, just a dozen kilometres from the key eastern logistics hub Pokrovsk, as its troops advance rapidly.

www.newagebd.net

Russia says captured Ukraine village near logistics hub
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 04 November, 2024, 01:22

Russia on Sunday claimed to have captured another Ukrainian village, just a dozen kilometres from the key eastern logistics hub Pokrovsk, as its troops advance rapidly.

The Russian defence ministry said it had ‘liberated the settlement of Vichneve following offensive operations’.

Russia has been making swift advances in the eastern Donetsk region for weeks, taking dozens of towns and villages.

On Saturday, Moscow said its forces had captured the large village of Kurakhivka close to the industrial town of Kurakhove, which Russia is also aiming to capture, and the small village of Pershotravneve in the Kharkiv region close to the eastern Lugansk region.

Capturing Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub for Ukraine that connects several fortresses in the Donbas, is one of Russia’s main objectives in the region.

It is also home to a major coke coal mine that is crucial to Ukraine’s steel production for its military.

Russian troops have advanced to just a few kilometres outside the town.

The Russian army took 478 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in October, according to an AFP analysis of data from the American Institute for the Study of War.

That marks a record since the first weeks of the conflict in March 2022.

 

[Saif]

US election outcome’s likely impact on the Russia-Ukraine war

The endgame of the Ukraine war remains uncertain with US policy likely to be influenced by the outcome of the US election.

www.thedailystar.net

US election outcome’s likely impact on the Russia-Ukraine war
The US support for Ukraine is part of a strategy to counter Russian influence and maintain a balance of power in the region

VISUAL: ALIZA RAHMAN

"Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire. Russia without Ukraine can still strive for imperial status, but it would then become a predominantly Asian imperial state, more likely to be drawn into debilitating conflicts with aroused Central Asians, who would then be resentful of the loss of their recent independence and would be supported by their fellow Islamic states to the south."― Zbigniew Brzeziński

Zbigniew Brzeziński, a Polish-born American diplomat and political scientist, counsellor to Lyndon B Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and Jimmy Carter's national security adviser from 1977 to 1981 studied the complex geopolitical landscape of Eurasia and its significance in shaping global power dynamics. Brzezinski argued that control over this region is crucial for maintaining American dominance in his book, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives. Following this argument, the US support for Ukraine is part of a strategy to counter Russian influence and maintain a balance of power in the region.

The Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2014, following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, which ousted the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. This revolution was triggered by Yanukovych's sudden decision to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union (EU), favouring closer ties with Russia instead. This decision sparked widespread protests in Kyiv's Independence Square, known as Euromaidan, driven by a desire for closer integration with Europe, rejection of corruption, and a demand for democratic reforms. The situation escalated, leading to violence and the eventual ousting of Yanukovych in February 2014.

Russia responded by annexing Crimea and supporting pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region. The conflict escalated dramatically in February 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, marking the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

The US has played a pivotal role in supporting the protests in Ukraine, with reports indicating that it has invested billions of dollars to promote democracy (read undermine Russia) in the country.

Crimea holds immense strategic value for Russia. It gives Moscow control over the Black Sea Fleet's base in Sevastopol, a warm-water port crucial for its naval operations. The port allows power projection in the Black Sea and beyond, enhancing Russian geopolitical influence. Crimea also has historical and cultural significance for Russia, with a majority ethnic Russian population.

From the start, Washington has supported Ukraine with billions in military, financial, and humanitarian aid. The Biden administration has maintained a firm stance against Russian aggression, emphasising the importance of defending democracy and the international order.

Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine have been controversial. He was impeached during his presidency for allegedly pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid. Trump has also claimed that he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against invading Ukraine, though these assertions are disputed. His relationship with Ukraine has been marked by scepticism and transactional diplomacy.

Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine have been a focal point of political controversy. While serving on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, Hunter Biden's role raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Critics argue that his position may have influenced US policy, though investigations have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden. Nonetheless, the issue remains a point of contention in US politics.

Kamala Harris has also consistently supported Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. She has emphasised the importance of standing by Ukraine and maintaining strong alliances with NATO. Harris has condemned Russia's actions as "barbaric and inhumane" and has pledged to continue providing military and humanitarian aid. However, she has been cautious about committing to Ukraine's NATO membership, focusing instead on immediate support.

If Donald Trump secures the election, his approach to the Ukraine war could significantly shift. Trump has been critical of the scale of US support for Ukraine and has hinted at the possibility of negotiating a swift end to the conflict. His suggestions of reducing military aid and advocating for a settlement that might involve territorial concessions to Russia have raised concerns among Ukraine's allies about the potential weakening of Western support, adding a layer of uncertainty to the situation.

The endgame of the Ukraine war remains uncertain. Some analysts argue that a negotiated settlement is the most realistic outcome, given the current stalemate on the battlefield. However, any agreement would likely require significant compromises from both sides, including potential territorial concessions by Ukraine. A Trump victory could potentially lead to a more isolationist approach, significantly altering US foreign policy in the region.

The other issue is the possibility of a Russian nuclear attack, that significantly impacts White House policy. The Biden administration has made it clear that any use of nuclear weapons by Russia would have devastating consequences. This stance is rooted in the principle of nuclear deterrence, aiming to prevent escalation by making the costs of nuclear use prohibitively high. If elected, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump must navigate this delicate balance.

I will end this piece with another Brzeziński quote, "However, if Moscow regains control over Ukraine, with its 52 million people and major resources as well as its access to the Black Sea, Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia."

Dr Sayeed Ahmed is a consulting engineer and the CEO of Bayside Analytix, a technology-focused strategy and management consulting organisation.​

 

[Saif]

Russia captures two east Ukrainian villages

Russia said yesterday it had captured two Ukrainian villages near the town of Kurakhove, in southeast Ukraine, where Moscow has quickly advanced since seizing the city of Vugledar last month.

www.thedailystar.net

Russia captures two east Ukrainian villages

Russia said yesterday it had captured two Ukrainian villages near the town of Kurakhove, in southeast Ukraine, where Moscow has quickly advanced since seizing the city of Vugledar last month.

Kurakhove lies west of Donetsk city, already under Russian control, and had a pre-war population of around 20,000 people.

Moscow's forces took the villages of Maksymivka and Antonivka, both south of Kurakhove, where Russia has been concentrating its offensive, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on social media.

The city of Vugledar, in southeastern Ukraine, fell to Moscow in early October.

Fears have since been raised over a renewed Russian offensive in the south of the country, with attacks increasing on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.​

 

[Saif]

Enter talks to halt ‘destruction’ of Ukraine

Russia yesterday demanded that Kyiv’s allies enter into negotiations with Moscow in order to halt its brutish attacks on Ukrainians, as the capital fended off a large-scale drone barrage overnight.

www.thedailystar.net

Enter talks to halt ‘destruction’ of Ukraine
Russia urges West after Trump becomes US president-elect

Firefighters work at the compound of a vegetable warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv yesterday. Photo: AFP

Russia yesterday demanded that Kyiv's allies enter into negotiations with Moscow in order to halt its brutish attacks on Ukrainians, as the capital fended off a large-scale drone barrage overnight.

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard Ukrainian air defence units shooting down the Russian drones throughout the night while air raid sirens echoed out over the city.

The head of Russia's Security Council Sergei Shoigu made the call for negotiations, saying the West faced a choice between entering into talks with Moscow on the war or the continuing "destruction" of Ukraine's population.

"Now, when the situation in the theatre of combat is not in Kyiv's favour, the West is faced with a choice," Shoigu said at a meeting with defence officials of other former Soviet states.

"To continue financing (Kyiv) and the destruction of the Ukrainian population or recognise the current realities and start negotiating," the former defence minister said.

They were among the first comments from a Russian official since Donald Trump, who has boasted he could end the war in a single day, was confirmed to have been elected president of the United States.

And his comments came as Ukrainian officials were taking stock after another night of aerial bombardments across the country and while Moscow claimed the capture of yet another village in east Ukraine.

Moscow said its forces had wrested control of Kreminna Balka, a village that had a pre-war population of fewer than 50 people in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian media meanwhile reported that Donetsk region authorities were preparing to announce mandatory evacuations from seven more villages in the region that the Kremlin claimed in 2022 was part of Russia.

Its overnight drone attack on Ukraine damaged buildings in the southern Black Sea city of Odesa where AFP journalists saw residents inspecting destroyed cars and residential buildings as dawn broke.​

 

[Saif]

Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

Kyiv was targeted by another ‘massive’ Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

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Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 08 November, 2024, 01:42

Rescuers are working at the site of a missile attack in Zaporizhzhia on Thursday. A Russian strike on the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia damaged a hospital, killed one person, and wounded 10 more, including a medic and a child, the regional governor said on social media. | AFP photo

Kyiv was targeted by another ‘massive’ Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

Officials meanwhile in the south and east of the country said Russian attacks had killed two Ukrainian civilians in Kherson and Sumy.

Russia has systematically targeted the capital with drone and missile barrages since the first day of its invasion launched nearly three years ago on February 24, 2022.

The capital was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October, officials said.

‘The attack took place in waves, from different directions, with drones entering the city at different altitudes — both very low and high,’ the city administration said.

It added that more than 36 drones had been downed over the capital and the surrounding area and that falling debris had fallen on six districts of Kyiv and wounded two people.

AFP journalists heard air raid sirens ring out over the capital beginning shortly after midnight Kyiv time and the alert lasted some eight hours.

The reporters also heard drones buzzing over the city and air defence systems working to shoot down the drones.

The attack caused a fire in a 30-storey residential building in the city centre, and residents had to be evacuated, the mayor’s office said.

The head of the Kherson region meanwhile said the body of a deceased man was recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed by the attack in a Russian attack overnight.

In the eastern Sumy region, the body of another killed person was recovered following a Russian airstrike hours earlier, the interior ministry said.​

 

[Dogun18]

 

[Dogun18]

 

[Saif]

Russian drones, missiles pummel cities across Ukraine

Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities overnight killed at least one person and wounded more than three dozen more authorities said on Friday, as Moscow escalated...

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Russian drones, missiles pummel cities across Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Kharkiv, Ukraine 09 November, 2024, 00:57

Rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine work in a multi-story building, damaged after an airstrike in Kharkiv on Friday, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. | AFP photo

Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities overnight killed at least one person and wounded more than three dozen more authorities said on Friday, as Moscow escalated its bombing campaign of civilian hubs.

Rescue workers were taking stock of the damage as officials in Kyiv announced that a Russian strike one day earlier in the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia had killed a toddler, his mother and grandmother.

AFP journalists in Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — saw first responders hauling panicked civilians from Soviet-era residential buildings damaged in the strike that were littered with broken glass and rubble.

‘Throughout the evening and night, terrorists attacked our cities and communities. Missiles, drones and glide bombs were used against the Odesa, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions,’ president Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

‘It is important to act together and decisively at the international level every time Russia tries to destroy our lives,’ he said, appealing to allies for more military aid.

The air force said Moscow had launched five missiles, 92 drones as well as the glide bombs across Ukraine overnight. Its units downed four missiles and 62 drones, the statement added.

Authorities in Zaporizhzhia, which was struck on Thursday afternoon, said the toll from that attack had risen again to 10, while an advisor to Zelensky’s chief of staff said among those killed were three members of one family.

‘A woman with a one-and-a-half-year-old son and a grandmother died in Zaporizhzhia as a result of a Russian strike,’ advisor Daria Zarivna wrote on social media.

In Kharkiv, which Russia is increasingly targeting in night-time bombardments, 25 people were wounded in attacks on residential and commercial districts of the city.

Four people were wounded near Kyiv, which had been targeted almost daily over the last month and where AFP journalists heard air raid sirens and at least one explosion echo out over the capital.

In the historic Black Sea city of Odesa, one person was killed and nine others were wounded in an attack that damaged residential buildings, authorities said.

Later, authorities in the southern region of Kherson, which is also partly occupied, said a 74-year-old man had been killed by Russian shelling.

The latest night of deadly strikes comes at a critical moment of the war — launched by the Kremlin nearly three years ago.

Ukrainian forces are losing ground in the east of the country and concerns are mounting in Kyiv over the future of foreign military aid after the victory of Donald Trump in the United States presidential election.

Zaporizhzhia city, where authorities said more than 40 people had been wounded in Thursday’s strike, has also come under increasing Russian aerial bombardments in recent weeks.

Six people were killed in a strike on an industrial sector of the city earlier this week.

In late 2022, the Kremlin claimed to have annexed the wider Zaporizhzhia region, alongside the Donetsk region where Russian forces are advancing rapidly, despite not having full military control over them.

Russian officials in occupied Ukrainian territory in Donetsk meanwhile said that Ukrainian drones had killed two employees of a utilities company.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine launches biggest drone attack on Moscow

Ukraine yesterday attacked Moscow with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city’s major airports and injuring at least one person.

www.thedailystar.net

Ukraine launches biggest drone attack on Moscow
Russia downs 34 drones; Kyiv destroys 62 of 145 drones launched by Moscow

Ukraine yesterday attacked Moscow with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city's major airports and injuring at least one person.

Russian air defences destroyed another 36 drones over other regions of Western Russia in three hours yesterday, the defence ministry said.

"An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an airplane-type drones on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted," the ministry said.

Russia's federal air transport agency said the airports of Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky diverted at least 36 flights, but then resumed operations. One person was reported injured in Moscow region.

Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million people, is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe, alongside Istanbul.

For its part, Russia launched a record 145 drones overnight, Ukraine said. Kyiv said its air defences downed 62 of those. Ukraine also said it attacked an arsenal in the Bryansk region of Russia, which reported 14 drones had been downed in the region.

Unverified video posted on Russian Telegram channels showed drones buzzing across the skyline.

The 2-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow's forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war and Donald Trump was elected 47th president of the US.

Trump, who takes office in January, said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours, but has given few details on how he would seek to do this.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Trump to congratulate him on his presidential election victory, Tesla CEO and Trump supporter Elon Musk joined the call, according to media reports. Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort.​

 

[Saif]

US vows ‘firm’ response to North Korea deployment in Ukraine conflict

US top diplomat Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces fighting on the Ukrainian border demanded a ‘firm response’...

www.newagebd.net

US vows ‘firm’ response to North Korea deployment in Ukraine conflict
Agence France-Presse . Brussels 13 November, 2024, 22:46

US top diplomat Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces fighting on the Ukrainian border demanded a ‘firm response’.

The secretary of state was speaking at the start of a day of Brussels talks with NATO and EU officials to urgently address ramping up support for Kyiv before Donald Trump reclaims the White House — potentially jeopardising future aid.

Addressing reporters alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte, Blinken said they had discussed the fact North Korean forces have been ‘injected into the battle, and now, quite literally, in combat which demands and will get a firm response.’

The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that Pyongyang’s troops — whose entry into the conflict marks a potentially major escalation — have begun ‘engaging in combat operations’ alongside Russian forces near the border with Ukraine.

A spokesman said that of the more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers sent to eastern Russia, ‘most of them have moved to the far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces’.

Rutte meanwhile stressed the crucial role played by China in helping Russia’s ‘war effort’, as well as Iranian weapons deliveries — paid for with Russian funds that were in turn helping Tehran to ‘destabilise the Middle East’.

Blinken was taking part in a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s decision-making body, before talks with European Union top diplomat Josep Borrell, his successor Kaja Kallas and Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga.

His emergency trip comes as Trump’s election victory, coupled with a political crisis in Germany, heightens fears about the future of assistance for Ukraine at a key point in the fight against Russia’s invasion.

Trump has in the past voiced admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion the United States committed for Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022.

The 78-year-old tycoon, who will be inaugurated on January 20, spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky after winning re-election following a first stint as president between 2017 and 2021.

He has boasted he can end the war in a day, likely by forcing concessions from Ukraine, although his newly named national security advisor, Mike Waltz, said Trump may also pressure Putin.

The Washington Post reported the Republican leader also held a phone call with Putin and discouraged an escalation by Russia. The Kremlin denied the report.

US media reported Trump might pick Republican Senator Marco Rubio to replace Blinken as secretary of state.

Rubio is seen as supportive of Kyiv but has also said Washington should show ‘pragmatism’ rather than sending billions of dollars more in weapons as the war hit a ‘stalemate’.

The Biden administration has made clear it plans in its remaining weeks to push through the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine.

Mark Cancian, senior advisor at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, expected the United States to focus in particular on sending vehicles, medical supplies and small-arms ammunition, which Ukraine needs and the United States can provide.

‘Between now and the end of the administration, they’re going to try to ship everything they can that’s available,’ Cancian said.

Despite Kyiv’s pleas it seems unlikely, however, that Washington will lift its veto on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.

Trump in his first term aggressively pushed Europe to step up defence spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance — robustly defended by Biden.

‘Whatever approach the US leadership takes towards Ukraine, Europe will have to step up, and we will have to take the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defence efforts and macro financial stability,’ said Olena Prokopenko of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

‘Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s win comes at arguably the worst possible time in terms of Europe’s political and economic shape and its ability to promptly coordinate’.​

 

[Saif]

Russia launches drone, missile barrage on Kyiv

Russia escalated its attacks on Kyiv early Wednesday, launching waves of drones and missiles in its first combined aerial assault on the capital in more than 70 days, authorities said...

www.newagebd.net

Russia launches drone, missile barrage on Kyiv
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 14 November, 2024, 04:09

Russia escalated its attacks on Kyiv early Wednesday, launching waves of drones and missiles in its first combined aerial assault on the capital in more than 70 days, authorities said.

The attack came as the US State Department echoed warnings from Ukraine that North Korean troops have begun ‘engaging in combat operations’ alongside Russian forces on the border between the warring countries.

Ukraine’s air force said its units had downed four missiles and 37 drones launched by Russia over eight regions of Ukraine overnight and into Wednesday morning.

‘It is important that our forces have the means to defend the country from Russian terror,’ president Volodymyr Zelensky said in response to the attack.

Ukraine has for months been appealing to its Western allies to provide more air-defence systems to fend off Russian attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.

The large-scale bombardment comes at critical moment on the battlefield. Russian forces are advancing in the east and concerns are growing over future aid after US Donald Trump’s victory in presidential elections.

AFP journalists heard explosions ring out over the city and saw dozens of Kyiv residents seeking shelter in an underground metro station in the centre of the capital.

Kyiv officials said one man was wounded by falling debris from a downed drone in the suburb of Brovary, while emergency services distributed images of firefighters battling flames at one impact site.

A separate drone attack in the Ukrainian-controlled southern region of Kherson, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, killed a 52-year-old woman, the regional head said.

Multiple air raid sirens rang out early Wednesday as authorities announced missiles were closing in on Kyiv, which was home to nearly three million people before Russia invaded in February 2022.

‘As missiles were approaching Kyiv, the enemy simultaneously launched a ballistic missile attack on the capital. The enemy attack ended with another drone strike,’ city authorities said.

The attack is the latest in an uptick in escalating strikes on Ukrainian cities mainly in the south of the war-battered country.

A Russian strike this week on Kryvyi Rig, Zelensky’s hometown, killed a 32-year-old mother and her three children.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied its forces target civilians in Ukraine, a claim its spokesman repeated Wednesday in response to a question over whether Russian forces were working to minimise civilian casualties.

‘Russian forces treat the civilian population with great care. Strikes are conducted only on military targets,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia would continue its attacks.

Last week, Moscow and Kyiv launched record overnight drone attacks on each other.

Russian ground forces have been making rapid advances in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

On Wednesday, the defence ministry in Moscow said its troops had wrested control of the village of Rivnopil, where an estimated 98 people lived prior to the invasion.

As the Kremlin’s forces advance westwards, Kyiv has warned that Russia has amassed a force of 50,000 troops — including North Korean soldiers — to push out Ukrainian forces from the Russian border region of Kursk.

In Brussels, US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Wednesday warned about the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces fighting on the Ukrainian border.

Blinken said he discussed with NATO chief Mark Rutte the fact that North Korean forces have been ‘injected into the battle, and now, quite literally, in combat which demands and will get a firm response.’​

 

[Saif]

Biden clears Ukraine for long-range missile strikes inside Russia

US President Joe Biden has cleared Kyiv to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia, a US official told AFP on Sunday, hours after Russia targeted Ukraine's power grid in a deadly barrage...Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for auth

www.thedailystar.net

Biden clears Ukraine for long-range missile strikes inside Russia

Photo: AFP

US President Joe Biden has cleared Kyiv to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia, a US official told AFP on Sunday, hours after Russia targeted Ukraine's power grid in a deadly barrage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for authorisation from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was confirming reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post that the major policy shift -- long demanded by Ukraine -- was in response to North Korea deploying troops to help Moscow's war effort.

Poland was among the first to welcome the development.

"With the entry into the war of North Korea troops and (Sunday's) massive attack of Russian missiles, President Biden responded in a language that (Russian President) V.Putin understands," Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X.

"The victim of aggression has the right to defend himself," he added.

News of Biden's decision came hours after Ukraine announced nationwide emergency power restrictions from Monday after Russia's massive attack, which killed 19 civilians and further damaged the country's already fragile energy grid.

The latest deaths, including one child, came in a strike Sunday evening in the northeast town of Sumy.

State power company Ukrenergo announced the power cuts on Sunday, with Ukraine's much-feared winter approaching.

Russia's latest barrage brought swift international condemnation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the attack, which his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement had targeted "energy and critical civilian infrastructure".

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen described the attack on the power grid as "horrible" in comments to Brazil's Globo News.

"We will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes," she added. "Ukraine can count on us."

Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting Kyiv as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.

The attack, which officials said was one of Russia's largest, came as Moscow's assault neared its 1,000th day, which will be marked at the United Nations on Monday, attended by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.

Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.

Biden's announcement -- and the latest devastation -- came at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine's east. The imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House has raised fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.

Many fear a third winter of war will be the toughest yet. Previous Russian attacks have already destroyed half of Ukraine's energy production capacity, Zelensky has warned.

Sunday's barrage came two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, urging the Kremlin chief to end Moscow's devastating offensive.

Ukraine was quick to criticise Berlin's initiative as "attempt at appeasement". On Sunday, it said the latest attack was the Kremlin's real answer.

"This is war criminal Putin's true response to all those who called and visited him recently," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.

"We need peace through strength, not appeasement."

Scholz on Sunday defended the call, insisting that Berlin's backing for Kyiv was unwavering.

"Ukraine can count on us," he said before flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, adding that "No decision will be taken behind Ukraine's back."

But Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined the backlash on Sunday.

"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," Tusk wrote on X.

And French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking from the Mercosur summit in Argentina, said Putin "does not want peace" in Ukraine and "is not ready to negotiate" an end to the war.

"It's a matter for Chancellor Scholz who he speaks to," said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "I have no plans to speak to Putin."

He added that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces showed Moscow's "desperation", but also had "serious implications for European security".

Moscow said it had hit all its targets, saying it had aimed for an "essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex".

But civilian deaths were reported across the country from the strikes overnight Saturday to Sunday.

In one strike, a 66-year-old woman was killed in her car in the village of Sheptytsky, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Polish border, said the head of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytsky.

That prompted NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets and mobilise all available forces on Sunday in response, which it does whenever attacks against its neighbouring country are deemed likely to create a danger for its own territory.

Russia said Ukrainian drones attacks had killed a man in its border Belgorod region and a woman -- named as local journalist Yulia Kuznetsova -- in the border Kursk region.

Kursk leader Alexei Smirnov said she had been reporting on the "situation in the region", where a Ukrainian incursion has displaced thousands of people.

The West and Ukraine says thousands of North Korea soldiers are in Russia, with some in the Kursk region, to reinforce Moscow's forces.​

 

[Saif]

Russia pounds Ukraine with ‘massive’ attack

Russia on Sunday pummelled Ukraine with a ‘massive’ aerial barrage of missiles and drones, killing at least nine people across the country in the largest attack in months that Kyiv called ‘hellish.’...

www.newagebd.net

Russia pounds Ukraine with ‘massive’ attack
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 18 November, 2024, 00:02

Russia on Sunday pummelled Ukraine with a ‘massive’ aerial barrage of missiles and drones, killing at least nine people across the country in the largest attack in months that Kyiv called ‘hellish.’

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting Kyiv as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.

Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.

‘A hellish night,’ the spokesman for Ukraine’s airforce Yuriy Ignat said on social media, saying Kyiv downed ‘144 targets.’

The strikes caused massive power cuts across the country, with fears of a precarious winter to come.

Officials in Kyiv called it one of the biggest attacks in the almost three-year long Russian invasion.

‘A massive attack on our country,’ Zelensky said.

‘Over the past week, the aggressor used nearly 140 missiles of various types, more than 900 guided aerial bombs, and over 600 strike drones,’ he said, accusing Moscow of trying to ‘intimidate us with cold and blackouts.’

The attack came just two days after German chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years.

‘This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently,’ Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said after the attack.

‘We need peace through strength, not appeasement.’

Kyiv had slammed Scholz for calling Putin,as have many in Germany itself.

But on Sunday, Scholz reaffirmed his country’s support for Ukraine, saying that no decision on ending the war would be taken without Kyiv.

‘Ukraine can count on us’ and ‘no decision will be taken behind Ukraine’s back’, the chancellor said at Berlin airport before flying off to a G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

Ukraine has been on the backfoot militarily in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces have made steady advances.

The election of Donald Trump in the US has raised questions about the future of the conflict, with the Republic blazingly critical of US aid to Ukraine.

AFP journalists heard explosions in the early morning in Kyiv and lose to Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.

Moscow, meanwhile, said it had hit all its targets, claiming it had targeted an ‘essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex’.

But civilian deaths were reported across Ukraine.

Officials in Kherson said a 51-year-old woman was killed by a drone.

In the southern Mykolaiv region, local leader Vitaliy Kim said ‘two women’ were killed in a night attack and that seven people — including two children — were wounded.

The death toll included two employees of the state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia in the city of Nikopol, who were killed when a depot was hit, the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor Sergiy Lysak and the operator said. Three more people were wounded in the bombing.

Two people were also killed in the Odesa region, where a teenager was wounded.

Russian drones also made their way to Zakarpattia — a mountainous region rarely hit — with officials saying fragments fell in the village of Pavshyno, near the border with Hungary and Slovakia.

The head of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytsky, said a 66-year-old woman was killed in her car in the village of Sheptytsky — some 20 kilometres from the Polish border.

That prompted NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets and mobilise all available forces on Sunday in response.

Warsaw puts its armed forces on alert whenever attacks against its neighbouring country are deemed likely to create a danger for its own territory.

Russia, meanwhile, said a man was killed by a Ukrainian drone in its border Belgorod region.

Ukraine’s energy operator DTEK on Sunday announced emergency power cuts in the Kyiv region and two regions in the east.

Russia’s relentless aerial bombardment has destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy production capacity, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Earlier, Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said on Telegram that Russian forces were ‘attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine’.

With the harsh Ukrainian winter fast approaching, the country is already suffering from major energy shortfalls, while its outmanned and outgunned forces have been steadily ceding ground to the Kremlin’s troops for weeks.

Kyiv has implored its Western allies for help to rebuild its energy grid — a hugely expensive undertaking — and to supply its outgunned forces with more aerial defence weapons.

But many in Ukraine fear that Western help will not be as freely given following the imminent return of Trump to the White House in January.​

 

[Saif]

Support Ukraine ‘sovereignty’

US President Joe Biden yesterday called on G20 leaders at a summit in Rio de Janeiro to support Ukraine’s sovereignty, a day after US officials said he had allowed Kyiv to use long-range missiles against Russia.

www.thedailystar.net

Support Ukraine ‘sovereignty’
Biden urges G20 leaders; UK’s Starmer calls for ‘consistent’ ties with China in Xi meeting

US President Joe Biden yesterday called on G20 leaders at a summit in Rio de Janeiro to support Ukraine's sovereignty, a day after US officials said he had allowed Kyiv to use long-range missiles against Russia.

"The United States strongly supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should as well," Biden said in his opening remarks to the meeting, which Russia's foreign minister is attending.

"I ask everyone here to increase their pressure on Hamas, which is currently refusing this deal," he said.

At the summit, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed the importance of a "strong UK-China relationship" while confronting Chinese President Xi Jinping over several contentious issues as the pair met yesterday.

In the first bilateral meeting between a British prime minister and the Chinese leader since February 2018, Starmer told Xi the UK wanted "consistent, durable, respectful" bilateral relations.

But he also warned that London was "committed to the rule of law", in a nod to various disputes which have soured ties between London and Beijing in recent years.

They include the case of British national Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon and pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Hong Kong, whose case Starmer raised directly with Xi.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says Ukraine fires first US long-range missiles

Russia said Tuesday that Ukraine had fired US-supplied long-range missiles into its territory for the first time since Washington authorised such strikes as president Vladimir Putin issued...

www.newagebd.net

Russia says Ukraine fires first US long-range missiles
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 19 November, 2024, 23:52

Russia said Tuesday that Ukraine had fired US-supplied long-range missiles into its territory for the first time since Washington authorised such strikes as president Vladimir Putin issued a nuclear threat on the 1,000th day of the war.

With neither side showing any sign of relenting, Putin signed a decree broadening the justification for Moscow’s use of nuclear weapons.

The grim anniversary opened with a Russian strike in the eastern Ukrainian region of Sumy that gutted a Soviet-era residential building and killed at least 12 people, including a child.

President Volodymyr Zelensky published images of rescue workers hauling bodies from the debris and called on Kyiv’s allies to ‘force’ the Kremlin into peace.

The foreign ministry released an anniversary statement calling on allies to ramp up military support to bring about a ‘sustainable’ end to the war.

‘Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law,’ the ministry said.

‘We need peace through strength, not appeasement,’ it added, referring to growing calls for Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the war.

The Kremlin also vowed to defeat Ukraine.

‘The military operation against Kyiv continues and will be completed,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Russia’s preferred language for its invasion.

Washington this week said it had cleared Ukraine to use long-range Army Tactical Missile System weapons against military targets inside Russia — a long-standing Ukrainian request.

Russia’s military said Ukraine used ATACMS missiles against a facility in the Bryansk region close to the border overnight.

‘At 03:25am (0025 GMT), the enemy struck a site in the Bryansk region with six ballistic missiles. According to confirmed data, US-made ATACMS tactical missiles were used,’ said a defence ministry statement.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons against its internationally recognised territory would make the US a direct participant in the conflict and pledged an ‘appropriate and palpable response’.

The strike confirmation came shortly after Putin signed a decree which enables Russia to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states such as Ukraine if they are supported by nuclear powers.

The new nuclear doctrine allows Moscow to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a ‘massive’ air attack, even if it is only with conventional weapons.

Peskov said this was ‘necessary to bring our principles in line with the current situation.’

Russia has stepped up strikes on Ukraine in recent days as its troops advance in the east of the country.

One overnight Russian attack hit a dormitory in the town of Glukhiv, which had a pre-war population around 30,000 people and lies just 10 kilometres from the Kursk region in Russia, where Ukrainian troops captured territory in a major ground offensive in August.

The drone attack killed 12 people including a child, the emergency services said.

In total, Kyiv said Russia had launched 87 drones over Ukraine during the night, and that 51 were shot down.

The strike on Sumy comes just days after another Russian aerial bombardment in the border region killed 12 people and wounded 84. A separate missile strike on Monday on Odesa in southern Ukraine left 10 dead and 55 wounded.

US president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut US assistance to Ukraine and bring about a swift end to the war, without detailing how he would do so.

A group of European foreign ministers meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday discussed stepping up aid to Ukraine if Washington’s support wanes.

‘I note with appreciation the readiness of the largest European Union countries to assume the burden of military and financial support for Ukraine in the context of a possible reduction in US involvement,’ Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said after the talks.

Ukrainian forces have steadily lost ground in the Kursk region and have warned that Russia has mass some 50,000 troops, including North Korean forces, to wrest back the region.

The anniversary of Russia’s invasion — launched on February 24, 2022 — comes at a perilous time for Ukrainian forces across the front, particularly near the war-battered cities of Kupiansk and Pokrovsk.

NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Tuesday that Putin must not be allowed to prevail.

‘Why is this so crucial that Putin will not get his way? Because you will have an emboldened Russia on our border and I’m absolutely convinced it will not stop there,’ Rutte told reporters in Brussels.

‘It is then posing a direct threat to all of us in the West,’ he said.

The EU’s outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell also pressed member states to align with Washington in allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia using donated long-range missiles.

‘It is fully in accordance with international law,’ he said.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says US ‘doing everything’ to prolong ‘war’ in Ukraine

Kremlin on Wednesday accused the US of prolonging the ‘war in Ukraine’ by stepping up weapons deliveries to Kyiv ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

www.newagebd.net

Russia says US ‘doing everything’ to prolong ‘war’ in Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 20 November, 2024, 16:30

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, at the Kremlin in Moscow on November 18, 2024. | AFP photo

Kremlin on Wednesday accused the US of prolonging the ‘war in Ukraine’ by stepping up weapons deliveries to Kyiv ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Both Moscow and Kyiv are jockeying to secure an upper hand on the battlefield ahead of Trump assuming office in January 2025.

The Republican has repeatedly criticised US support for Ukraine and claimed he could secure a ceasefire within hours -- comments that have triggered fears in Kyiv and Europe about Ukraine’s ability to withstand the Russian attacks without American support.

Moscow has significantly escalated its aerial campaign this week, launching multiple deadly missile strikes and targeting Ukraine’s energy grid.

Ukraine meanwhile has fired long-range US-supplied ATACMS missiles at Russian territory for the first time since the White House authorised such strikes, drawing scorn and promises of retribution in Moscow.

‘If you look at the trends of the outgoing US administration, they are fully committed to continuing the war in Ukraine and are doing everything they can to do so,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov was responding to the US saying it would soon provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News late on Tuesday that Ukraine would lose if Washington, its main military backer, pulled funding.

Washington has sought commitments from Ukraine to use the freshly pledged mines on its own territory and only in areas that are not populated in order to decrease the risk they pose to civilians.

The mines are known as being ‘non-persistent’ because they go inert after a set period of time, when their battery power runs out.

The United Nations has called Ukraine ‘the most mined country in the world,’ almost three years into Russia’s full-scale military offensive and more than a decade after Russian-backed militias in the Donbas region launched a bloody campaign to secede from Kyiv.

The US decision to give Ukraine more mines has drawn some criticism from campaign groups.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) told AFP it ‘condemns this terrible decision by the US’ and said it would be ‘working to get the US to reverse it.’

The Kremlin on Wednesday also rejected as ‘absurd’ and ‘laughable’ suggestions it was involved in the cutting of telecommunications cables running under the Baltic Sea.

Two telecommunications cables cut in the Baltic Sea in 48 hours prompted European officials to say Tuesday that they suspect ‘sabotage’ and ‘hybrid warfare’ linked to Russia’s offensive on Ukraine.

‘It’s quite absurd to keep blaming Russia for everything without any grounds. It is laughable in the context of the lack of any reaction to Ukraine’s sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea,’ Peskov said, accusing Kyiv of blowing up the underwater Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Amid a wave of aerial attacks this week, the US embassy in Kyiv said it would close on Wednesday, warning it had ‘received specific information of a potential significant air attack’ on the Ukrainian capital.

Russia’s forces have also been advancing on the ground.

On Wednesday they claimed to have captured the Ukrainian town of Illinka, close to the strategic hub of Kurakhove in the eastern Donetsk region.

In another sign of escalation, President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree lowering the threshold for when Russia would use nuclear weapons.

Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, said the new nuclear policy ‘effectively rules out the possibility of beating Russia’s armed forces on the battlefield,’ state media reported Wednesday.

Despite increased rumblings of possible talks to end the conflict, there is no sign of Putin and Zelensky being anywhere close to converging on a possible deal.

Zelensky has ruled out ceding territory in exchange for peace, while Putin has demanded Ukraine’s troops abandon four regions in its south and east as a precondition to peace talks.

Both have said they do not want a temporary ceasefire or freezing of the conflict.​