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

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.

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

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.

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Donald Trump a de facto Russian asset, FBI official he fired suggests

Andrew McCabe says Trump-Putin interactions ‘raise questions’, as Harris says Putin would eat Trump ‘for lunch’

Donald Trump can be seen as a Russian asset, though not in the traditional sense of an active agent or a recruited resource, an ex-FBI deputy director who worked under the former US president said.

Asked on a podcast if he thought it possible Trump was a Russian asset, Andrew McCabe, who Trump fired as FBI deputy director in 2018, said: “I do, I do.”

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

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.

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Ukrainian government needs ‘new energy’, says Zelenskiy after reshuffle – as it happened

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says reshuffle linked to ‘strengthening our state’ after foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and others step down. This live blog is closed

The mayor of Lviv shared a photo of a mother and her three daughters who were killed in Russia’s attack today.

Norway has contributed funding for buying drones and strengthening Ukrainian air defence.

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Modi tells Zelenskiy he is ready to work ‘as a friend’ to bring about peace deal

Indian PM says he respects and supports ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of Ukraine during historic visit

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday and told Volodymyr Zelenskiy he was ready to work “as a friend” to bring about a peace deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Modi said he respected and supported Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. “It is our highest priority,” he said, adding that he had told Vladimir Putin during their meeting in July that “problems cannot be resolved on the battlefield”. The war could only end through “dialogue and diplomacy”, he stressed.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy says India supports Ukraine’s sovereignty with ‘history made’ in meeting with Modi – as it happened

Indian PM calls on Ukraine and Russia to open dialogue as soon as possible to find way out of conflict

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, has told Reuters that Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv is significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.

“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is - and that it is also in their interests,” he said.

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Russia-Ukraine war: large drone attack on Moscow as Kursk incursion continues – as it happened

Mayor says no damage or casualties reported as 11 drones are downed

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify the Rome Statute, a senior lawmaker said, paving the way for Kyiv to join the International Criminal Court.

In a Telegram post, Yaroslav Zhelezniak said 281 deputies had voted for the measure, a key requirement for Ukraine to eventually join the European Union.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: civilians flee Pokrovsk as Russia’s army bears down on key eastern Ukraine city

Russian forces advancing so fast families are under orders to leave nearby towns and villages

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill that paves the way for a ban of the Russia-linked minority Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), lawmakers said.

The legislation prohibits the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory and envisages a ban, to be approved by a court decision, on religious organisations “affiliated” with it.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy says Ukraine ‘achieving our goals’ in Kursk as third bridge is hit – as it happened

Ukrainian president says troops meeting their objectives and have taken more prisoners

An update to that earlier map, showing the three bridges hit by the Ukrainian air force:

Ukrainian forces have struck and damaged a third bridge over the River Seym, near the village of Karyzh in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a member of Russia’s Investigative Committee. The hit could seriously complicate Russian military logistics as Moscow attempts to fend off Ukraine’s incursion into the region.

Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine’s attack on Kursk means Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks for now. Proposed discussions aimed at negotiating a halt to strikes on energy and power infrastructure between the two sides had been planned to be held in Qatar.

RIA News, a state-owned news agency, says Russian forces have captured 19 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. The report has not been independently verified.

Ukraine’s air force said on Monday morning that the country’s air defence units had repelled an overnight Russian drone attack on multiple cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine repels missile attack on Kyiv and targets another Kursk bridge – as it happened

North Korean weaponry believed to have been used in Kyiv attack as Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk continues

Russia has denied a report that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with Kyiv on halting strikes on energy and power targets, saying there had been no talks with Kyiv about civilian infrastructure facilities.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides

The Post said the agreement would have amounted to a partial ceasefire but that the talks were derailed due to Ukraine’s attack on Russian sovereign territory

“No one broke anything off because there was nothing to break off,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said of the Post report.

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Russia-Ukraine war: key bridges destroyed in Kursk as Ukraine ‘leaves trail of destruction’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Russia has lost 598,180 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

This number includes 1,230 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.

8,501 tanks

16,473 armoured fighting vehicles

22,913 vehicles and fuel tanks

16,985 artillery systems

1,160 multiple-launch rocket systems

923 air defence systems

367 aircraft

328 helicopters

13,714 drones

28 warships and boats

1 submarine

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian army ‘deployed in greater force’ in Kursk after Ukrainian offensive – as it happened

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were initially disorganised following Ukraine’s lightning offensive

Russian forces took control of Serhiivka, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Reuters reported citing the TASS state news agency.

Joe Biden has met with Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family in the White House.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy says Ukraine’s troops have full control of Sudzha in Kursk – as it happened

President says military commandant’s office being established in city. This live blog is closed

Russia’s defence ministry said today that its forces had regained control of the settlement of Krupets in the Kursk region, Reuters reported.

Here are some of the latest images from eastern Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine planning evacuation corridors for civilians in Kursk, says deputy PM – as it happened

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Ukraine’s military has said its forces in the Kursk region shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber.

Kristen Michal, the Estonian prime minister, has said “we must continue to show our steadfast support to Ukraine and further raise the cost of war for Russia.”

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine controls 74 settlements in Kursk region, says Zelenskiy – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, read our full report:

Romania’s navy has carried out a controlled explosion of a mine that had drifted to its Black Sea shore, its defence ministry said. Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have a joint taskforce to defuse stray mines, which began floating in the Black Sea after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The ministry said the navy was alerted by local officials early on Tuesday about an unidentified object that had washed up on shore near Grindul Chituc in southeastern Romania. The area is part of the Danube Delta, which Romania shares with Ukraine.

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‘I felt euphoria’: Ukraine’s borderland refugees praise incursion into Russia

While thousands have had to flee their homes, there is widespread feeling that the attack is a justified defence

Last Tuesday, Oksana and her family could not escape fast enough. Though they did not know it, Ukrainian regular forces had entered Russia for the first time, and Moscow’s military wasted little time in hitting back, bombing their village around seven miles from the border.

“It was 9am and the first glide bomb hit the village,” she said, and its ferocity – “very scary, much bigger” than ordinary shelling – was such that they immediately knew they had to escape. “Our neighbour drove his children first and then came back and picked me and my sister and family,” the mother of two explained.

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Ukraine justifies Kursk attack in first acknowledgment of incursion into Russia

Zelenskiy aide says ‘root cause of any escalation’, including into Kursk, is Moscow’s ‘unequivocal aggression’

Ukraine has publicly justified its attack into Russian territory for the first time, amid reports that its forces are advancing towards a village 13 miles (20km) inside the Kursk region on the third day of its incursion.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the president’s office, said “the root cause of any escalation”, including into Kursk, was “unequivocal aggression” on the part of Russia in believing it could invade Ukraine with impunity.

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Putin reportedly calls for Iran to limit damage in any retaliation against Israel

Leaders expect a military response over Hamas assassination but fears grow of escalation into regional war

Vladimir Putin has reportedly told Iran to avoid civilian casualties in any retaliatory attack on Israel for the assassination of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, an underlining of the constraints it faces as it frames its response.

It is a call for restraint that is likely to be echoed by many foreign ministers from the 57 countries inside the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at a meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday as tensions in the Middle East grow.

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Russian dissidents freed in prisoner swap speak of deal ‘dilemma’

Activists say they never agreed to leave their homeland and vow to continue fighting for democracy in Russia

Russian dissidents freed as part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and the west have shared their mixed feelings about the deal and vowed to continue their political activity from abroad.

The exchange represented a “difficult dilemma”, said the Russian liberal opposition politician Ilya Yashin at an emotional press conference in Bonn.

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