Category Archives: Ukraine

Russia revokes accreditation of six British diplomats it accuses of spying

Posted on by

FSB says documents show diplomats in Moscow were helping to coordinate ‘escalation of military situation’ in Ukraine

Russia announced it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow on accusations of espionage as Keir Starmer prepared to meet Joe Biden in Washington to discuss how Ukraine could use long-range missiles deep inside Russian territory.

Moscow’s FSB domestic spy agency said on Friday that it had acted on documents showing that part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer meets with Joe Biden at White House as Putin warns Nato against letting Ukraine send long-range missiles – as it happened

Posted on by

Antony Blinken says new US sanctions against Russia are in response to Kremlin’s attempt to ‘subvert and polarize free and open societies’. This blog is now closed.

The head of Russia’s security council, Sergei Shoigu, visited North Korea on Friday and met with the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, Reuters reports, citing Interfax.

Reuters has a quick snap that France is to summon Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Paris over the country’s decision to supply further arms to Russia.

Continue reading...

IMF plan to visit Russia to assess economy prompts dismay across Europe

Posted on by

Protest letter sent to fund’s head over move to send staff to Moscow for first review since invasion of Ukraine

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will send staff to Moscow next week to review the Russian economy for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, in a move that has prompted anger and dismay across European capitals.

Officials of the Washington-based organisation will travel to the Russian capital and meet “stakeholders” before publishing an assessment of the economy and providing recommendations about how the Kremlin might improve its economic handling and tackle issues such as the climate crisis.

Continue reading...

‘The game continues’: evacuating casualties and bombing bridges in Kursk

Posted on by

Drone operators and a volunteer medic on the ever-changing dynamics on the frontline of the Ukraine incursion

Deep into one recent night, at a Ukrainian mobile drone command point hidden amid the fields and forests close to the border with Russia, the largest of six screens flashed with images of the wiggling course of the River Seym, deep inside Russia on the other side of the border. Straddling the river, a thin band was visible, rendered in white by the night vision imaging: a pontoon bridge.

Inside the command point, Anna, Pavlo and Ivan watched the display intently. “Move in closer,” murmured Ivan, the team’s 48-year-old commander. Pavlo pushed a button and the camera zoomed in. “Yesterday, we destroyed this crossing, but they’ve repaired it again, probably in the last few hours,” he said, picking up his phone to send the information to an encrypted group chat of Ukrainian commanders in the area.

Continue reading...

‘Usually just rhetoric’: European policy leaders downplay Putin’s war threats

Posted on by

International reaction muted over Russia’s warning about allowing Kyiv to strike it with western-made missiles

European leaders have dismissed Vladimir Putin’s warning that the west would be directly fighting Russia if it allowed Kyiv to strike Russian territory with western-made long-range missiles.

The US and UK are discussing, in conjunction with other allies, allowing Kyiv to strike military targets inside Russia with Storm Shadow missiles, which can hit targets up to 155 miles (250km) from their launch site.

Continue reading...

Starmer tells Putin he started Ukraine war and can end it any time

Posted on by

UK PM responds to Putin’s threat that use of long-range British missiles inside Russia would put it at war with Nato

Keir Starmer has told Vladimir Putin that he started the war in Ukraine and could end it at any time after the Russian leader warned that any use of long-range British missiles into Russian territory would put Nato at war with his country.

The prime minister spoke en route to Washington to see US president Joe Biden as he sought to justify a western decision made behind closed doors that would allow Ukraine to attack inside Russia with partly British-made Storm Shadow missiles.

Continue reading...

Putin: lifting Ukraine missile restrictions would put Nato ‘at war’ with Russia

Posted on by

Comments come after Antony Blinken hints US will lift restrictions on Kyiv’s use of weapons inside Russia

Vladimir Putin has said that a western move to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow.

Putin spoke as US and UK top diplomats discussed easing rules on firing western weapons into Russia, which Kyiv has been pressing for, more than two and a half years into Moscow’s offensive.

Continue reading...

Russia says 10 settlements recaptured in Kursk counteroffensive

Posted on by

Ukrainian president says his country’s incursion still going to ‘plan’, as Russian forces make rapid advances

Russia says its forces have recaptured 10 settlements after it launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region to push out Ukrainian troops who stormed across the border five weeks ago.

With fierce fighting continuing, Russia’s defence ministry listed the names of 10 settlements it said it had retaken, in a significant blow to Kyiv. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, acknowledged a Russian counteroffensive had begun.

Continue reading...

Moscow importing western aircraft tyres despite ban, says Ukraine agency

Posted on by

Exclusive: Michelin, Dunlop, Goodyear and Bridgestone products have found way to Russia via intermediaries

More than $30m (£23m) worth of aircraft tyres made by western manufacturers including the French firm Michelin and Britain’s Dunlop were imported into Russia last year via intermediaries despite attempts to ban the trade, according to a Ukrainian government agency.

Russian aviation is critically dependent on foreign-made tyres and, according to the available customs records, the vast majority imported into the country in 2023 were produced by companies headquartered in France, Britain, the US and Japan.

Continue reading...

Blinken hints US will lift restrictions on Ukraine using long-range arms in Russia

Posted on by

Decision understood to have already been made in private as secretary of state says in Kyiv that US will continue to adapt policy

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia, with a decision understood to have already been made in private.

Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, Blinken said the US had “from day one” been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed. “We will continue to do this,” he emphasised.

Continue reading...

Putin has escalated Ukrainian war with Iranian missiles, suggest Blinken and Lammy – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For more on this story, you can read our full report:

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said Moscow will destroy any new deliveries of long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine by the United States, Reuters reported citing the state TASS news agency.

The State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said “the U.S. and UK stand united with Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and freedom.”

Continue reading...

Europe watches Harris-Trump debate for clues on direction US may take

Posted on by

Diplomats most struck by Republican’s refusal to say whether he wanted Ukraine to defeat Vladimir Putin

The TV debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was as keenly watched by European diplomats and politicians as by US voters, eager to see who may be next in the White House and – crucially – the direction that a vital ally may next take.

One diplomat said they empathised when Harris adopted a series of poses that ranged from pity, bemusement and genuine curiosity about what craziness would emerge from Trump’s mouth next as she listened to his conspiracy-laden theories. However, the diplomat said they still did not underestimate Trump and the hold he had over one part of a divided America, adding: “Never write him off.”

Continue reading...

UK imposes sanctions on 10 ships in crackdown on Russia’s shadow oil fleet

Posted on by

Tankers believed to be at heart of illicit operation transporting gas and oil to fund Moscow’s war effort

The UK has taken new steps to clamp down on Russia’s shadow fleet exporting oil and funding Moscow’s war machine, with the Foreign Office announcing sanctions on 10 ships that it believes to be at heart of the operation.

Russia has a large fleet of often unseaworthy and ageing tankers that transport Russian gas and oil products around the globe. Oil exports are Vladimir Putin’s most critical revenue source for funding the war in Ukraine, accounting for about a quarter of the Russian budget in 2023.

Continue reading...

UK arms donated to Ukraine would cost £2.71bn to replace, says watchdog

Posted on by

Figure is largely in addition to £7.8bn committed since Russia’s invasion, says National Audit Office report

Britain has donated arms and equipment to Ukraine that would cost £2.71bn to replace, largely in addition to the £7.8bn committed by prime ministers since Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to a National Audit Office report.

The cost of replacing missiles, artillery and other munitions also significantly exceeds their £171.5m value on the government’s books, because the Ministry of Defence wants to replace the old weapons supplied at current prices.

Continue reading...

Blinken says Russia has received new ballistic missiles from Iran

Posted on by

US and Europe impose new sanctions on Iran in response to supply of weapons that US says Russia could use in Ukraine

Russia has received new deadly ballistic missiles from Iran for use in Ukraine and is likely to use them, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced on Tuesday in London as he prepared to travel with the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to Kyiv.

The news, confirmed by the US for the first time and seen as of huge significance to the battlefield balance ahead of Ukraine’s difficult winter, led the US and Europe to impose new sanctions on Iran, so apparently slamming the door on the prospect of a rapprochement between the new reformist Iranian government and the west.

Continue reading...

Russia’s shadow oil fleet and Gaza ceasefire plan to top US-UK talks in London

Posted on by

Antony Blinken to meet David Lammy in precursor to Joe Biden’s talks with Keir Starmer in Washington

Moscow’s use of a shadow fleet transporting western-sanctioned oil, Ukraine’s call to fire to fire UK-supplied missiles into Russia, and the value of publishing a new version of the US ceasefire plan for Gaza will top US-UK talks in London being attended by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state.

His meeting this week with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, will make him the most senior US official to visit the UK since Labour’s general election victory in July. It is also a precursor to talks in Washington between Joe Biden and Keir Starmer at the end of the week.

Continue reading...

Antony Blinken to visit UK for talks on Ukraine and Middle East

Posted on by

US secretary of state will be most senior US official to have travelled to London since Labour’s election victory

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will head to London next week to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine, the state department announced on Saturday, in advance of a US visit by prime minister Keir Starmer.

Blinken’s visit to London on Monday and Tuesday will be the most senior by a US official since the Labour party won the general election in July, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.

Continue reading...

CIA boss says west should not be intimidated by Russia’s nuclear threats

Posted on by

Bill Burns calls Vladimir Putin a ‘bully’ whose ‘sabre-rattling’ should not always be taken literally

Western leaders should not be intimidated by Kremlin threats of nuclear escalation, the head of the CIA said on Saturday, amid a debate over whether Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles should be used inside Russia.

Bill Burns, on a visit to London alongside the head of MI6, said the US had brushed off a previous Russian nuclear scare in autumn 2022, demonstrating that threats from Moscow should not always be taken literally.

Continue reading...

Russian documentary accused of falsely showing invading soldiers as victims

Posted on by

Anastasia Trofimova’s film Russians at War criticised for ‘distorted picture of reality’ in Ukraine after Venice premiere

A new documentary portraying the lives of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian frontlines has faced fierce criticism for attempting to whitewash Moscow’s war crimes.

Russians at War, directed by the Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, chronicles seven months spent embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukraine, presenting itself as a unique window into the daily lives of Russian soldiers.

Continue reading...

Zelenskiy claims support waning for strikes against Russian occupiers

Posted on by

Ukrainian president complains of reduced cooperation from US and UK over use of their missiles in Crimea

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has complained that it has become increasingly difficult to use Storm Shadow missiles against Russian targets in occupied Ukraine because of a lack of supplies and reduced cooperation from the US, UK and France.

The Ukrainian president flew to Germany to lobby western defence leaders amid growing concern in Kyiv that vital support from key allies for long-range missile strikes in Crimea had diminished as the war approaches a third winter.

Continue reading...