Joe Biden gave the green light for the US-made weapon to be used inside Russia. How will it affect the war?
Senior US and Ukrainian officials have confirmed that US-made Atacms missiles have been fired into Russian territory for the first time during the Ukraine war.
The attack in Russia’s south-western Bryansk region came two days after Joe Biden’s administration permitted their use, and on the 1,000th day of the war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Continue reading...First such use of missiles came hours after Vladimir Putin lowered Moscow’s threshold for using nuclear weapons
Ukraine has fired US-made long-range missiles into Russia for the first time since the Biden administration lifted restrictions on their use, drawing a warning from Moscow that it would respond “accordingly”.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine launched six US-made Atacms missiles targeting the south-western Bryansk region overnight. Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy did not directly confirm the Bryansk attack but said: “We now have Atacms, Ukrainian long-range capabilities, and we will use them.”
Continue reading...President-elect’s surrogates accuse president of seeking to spark ‘world war three’ over decision to allow limited strikes
Allies of the president-elect, Donald Trump, have lashed out angrily at Joe Biden for his decision to permit Ukraine to use long-range US missiles to launch attacks inside Russia for the first time, in what the Kremlin has termed an “escalation” in the war.
Key Trump surrogates, including his son Donald Trump Jr, hardline congressional Republicans, and other backers have accused Biden of seeking to spark “world war three” before Trump’s presidential inauguration in January.
Continue reading...Move follows US president Joe Biden’s agreement to supply similar American long-range Atacms weapon
Britain is expected to supply Storm Shadow missiles for use by Ukraine on targets inside Russia, now that the US president, Joe Biden, has agreed to do the same for the similar American long-range Atacms weapon.
Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said at the G20 summit that the UK recognised it needed to “double down” on its support for Ukraine, while diplomatic sources briefed they expected other European countries to follow the US lead.
Continue reading...Military and political consequences of allowing Kyiv to use Atacms missiles remain uncertain
It has taken an election defeat in the US and the arrival of 10,000 North Koreans in Ukraine for Joe Biden to finally relent. After two years of asking, Ukraine’s army has been given permission to use US long-range Atacms missiles to strike against targets inside Russia. The military and political consequences remain uncertain.
Russia has been able to bomb targets across all of Ukraine throughout the war. On Sunday it attacked key sites across the country’s power network, forcing Kyiv to implement national electricity rationing as a result of the damage caused. Some missiles were aimed as far west as Lviv and at sites near the border with Moldova, and an energy crisis is closer as a result.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he wants to ‘be clear about issues we do not agree on’ after meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping at G20
Keir Starmer has held his bilateral with Xi Jinping in Rio at the G20, offering to meet his counterpart, the Chinese premier Li Qiang, in Beijing or London at the earliest opportunity.
But the PM also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on parliamentarians and the persecution of Hong Kong and British citizen Jimmy Lai.
A strong UK China relationship is important for both of our countries and for the broader international community.
The UK will be a predictable, consistent, sovereign actor committed to the rule of law.
Continue reading...St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre says dancer was taking painkillers for an injury and fell from fifth floor
The acclaimed Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov has died aged 39.
Shklyarov died after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theatre told the news outlet Fontanka at the weekend.
Continue reading...As President-Elect Trump talks up negotiations, Putin has made clear his position hasn’t changed since launching invasion in 2022
Millions of Ukrainians woke up early on Sunday morning to a massive Russian missile and drone attack on their country’s infrastructure, the biggest assault from Moscow since the end of August and the first large-scale attack since the US election.
Donald Trump once promised to settle the Ukraine war in “24 hours” but the 120 missiles and 90 drones aimed at the nation’s utilities is a reminder that Moscow’s maximalist aspirations to cow and subjugate its neighbour remains unchanged.
Continue reading...UK prime minister to meet world leaders at summit in Brazil that Vladimir Putin has declined to attend
Ukraine will be “top of the agenda” this week at a meeting of leaders from the world’s most powerful economies, Keir Starmer has pledged, though he said he had “no plans” to follow the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and speak directly to Vladimir 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.
Continue reading...Biggest air strike in months also hits residential areas and raises fears for Ukraine energy infrastructure ahead of winter
The exiled Russian opposition will hold its first major demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine, in Berlin on Sunday afternoon.
The Russian opposition lost its main figurehead in February, when Putin’s rival Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison in mysterious circumstances.
Continue reading...Ukraine orders nationwide energy rationing after more than 200 missiles and drones used in attack that killed seven people
Russia launched more than 200 missile and drones at Ukraine’s energy grid overnight and in the early morning, killing seven people in its largest-scale attack in months, and forcing the country to announce nationwide electricity rationing from Monday.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s principal energy supplier, said blackouts and consumption restrictions would be introduced “in all regions” as engineers tried to repair as much of the damage to power facilities as possible.
Continue reading...Tokyo to also discuss growing military links between North Korea and Russia, Japan’s foreign ministry said
Japan’s foreign minister arrived in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss North Korea’s deepening military alliance with Russia, including the deployment of thousands of troops to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Takeshi Iwaya will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, to reaffirm Japan’s “strong support” for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and to discuss further sanctions against Moscow, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
Continue reading...US and EU have called for investigation into alleged irregularities in pro-Russia ruling party’s election victory
The head of Georgia’s election commission was splashed with paint as the body confirmed the ruling party’s victory in the parliamentary elections.
David Kirtadze, a member of the former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), splashed black paint on the central election commission chair, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, on Saturday, resulting in an eye injury, a video broadcast on local TV channels showed. Hundreds of opposition supporters staged a rally outside the commission’s headquarters during the session.
Continue reading...Yantar intelligence ship was seen operating drones in an area containing subsea energy and internet infrastructure
A Russian spy ship has been escorted out of the Irish Sea after it entered Irish-controlled waters and patrolled an area containing critical energy and internet submarine pipelines and cables.
It was spotted on Thursday east of Dublin and south-west of the Isle of Man but Norwegian, US, French and British navy and air defence services initially observed it accompanying a Russian warship, the Admiral Golovko, through the English channel last weekend.
Continue reading...Black Sea separatist region is backed by Moscow but recognised as part of Georgia by most of the world
Protesters have stormed the regional parliament in Abkhazia, forcing the government to halt an investment deal with Russia that some fear will spoil the breakaway Georgian region’s natural beauty.
The Black Sea separatist region is backed by Moscow but recognised as part of Georgia by most of the world. It has been thrust into turmoil over concerns that a proposed investment deal with Russia could lead to apartment complexes mushrooming in a region known for its natural beauty and beaches.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says talk between German and Russian leaders on war will reduce Putin’s isolation
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that a telephone conversation between Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin will open a “Pandora’s box”, after the German chancellor and the Russian leader discussed the war in Ukraine in a rare call on Friday.
Scholz urged his Russian counterpart 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.
Continue reading...Kremlin critics fear move is part of Russia’s efforts to whitewash Soviet past and shut independent cultural institutions
Moscow’s award-winning Gulag History Museum announced its surprise closure on Thursday, a move critics attribute to the Kremlin’s efforts to whitewash Russia’s Soviet past.
The closure was officially put down to alleged violations of fire safety regulations but comes amid an intense campaign by Russian officials against independent civil society and those who question the state’s interpretation of history.
Continue reading...Tech-savvy organised crime groups profiting from billion-dollar enterprise that is spreading beyond Russian borders
At any one moment in towns and cities across Russia, thousands of drug packages lie buried in the ground, attached by magnets to lamp-posts or taped underneath window sills, waiting to be picked up by their intended customers.
From the streets of Moscow to remote towns in Siberia, hand-to-hand buying of illegal drugs – as is the norm in most of the world – is on the wane. Instead, retail-size bags of drugs are secreted using spycraft by an army of young kladmen (stash men) who upload dead-drop locations, which are unlocked when customers make an online purchase.
Continue reading...Witness from Porton Down laboratory says ‘many lethal doses’ of nerve agent were applied to Sergei Skripal’s door
A “minuscule” amount of the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal – as small as a sixth of a grain of salt – could have been enough to prove fatal, a government scientist has told an inquiry.
The scientist, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, said “many lethal doses” of novichok were daubed on the handle of the former Russian spy’s front door in Salisbury and it was so pure that it must have been manufactured by a sophisticated laboratory.
Continue reading...Ukraine-born Nadezhda Buyanova was accused of referring to young patient’s late soldier father as ‘legitimate target’
A Russian court has sentenced an elderly Moscow paediatrician to five and a half years in prison after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her for comments she allegedly made about Russian soldiers in Ukraine during a private consultation.
Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was accused in January by the ex-wife of a soldier killed in Ukraine of referring to her child’s father as a “legitimate target of Ukraine” and saying Russia was “guilty” in the ongoing war.
Continue reading...