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More than 100 Ukrainians released in prisoner-of-war swap with Russia
Exchange of military personnel took place as Ukraine called again on west to allow use of long-range weapons
More than 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war will be able to return to their families after an exchange of captured members of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces.
The prisoner swap on Saturday, mediated by the United Arab Emirates, involved 206 military personnel from both countries.
Continue reading...Joe Biden dismisses Russian threats during meeting with Keir Starmer
US and UK leaders’ talks dominated by row with Russia over use of Storm Shadow missiles
Joe Biden dismissed sabre-rattling threats made by Vladimir Putin as the US president met with the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the White House on Friday.
Biden said he did not accept that Ukraine using western-made Storm Shadow missiles to bomb targets in Russia would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow.
Continue reading...Blinken accuses RT of being worldwide Kremlin intelligence network
US secretary of state announces new sanctions against the Russian state-backed media company
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced new sanctions against the Russian state-backed media company RT, formerly known as Russia Today, after new information gleaned from the outfit’s employees showed it was “functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus”.
The Russian government in 2023 established a new unit in RT with “cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence”, Blinken claimed, with the goal of spreading Russian influence in countries around the world through information operations, covert influence and military procurement.
Continue reading...‘Ukraine must defend itself’: Washington leaders dismiss Putin’s war talk
Russian leader’s warning of potential direct war with Nato regarded as sabre-rattling to weaken support for Ukraine
US officials and lawmakers shot back after Vladimir Putin said that Nato’s potential lifting of restrictions on Ukraine to launch long-range strikes over the border into Russian territory would mean Nato countries were “at war” with Russia.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, met with the US president, Joe Biden, on Friday at the White House, where the two were expected to discuss – though not necessarily announce – a loosening of restrictions on Storm Shadow missiles that would allow Ukraine to strike targets as far as 155 miles inside Russia.
Continue reading...Russia revokes accreditation of six British diplomats it accuses of spying
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
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
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
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
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
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...Russia says 10 settlements recaptured in Kursk counteroffensive
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
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...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.”
Continue reading...Blinken hints US will lift restrictions on Ukraine using long-range arms in Russia
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
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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
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
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...Iran’s missile supply to Moscow may reveal true scale of Pezeshkian’s powers
Despite desire to improve relations with Europe, the president has put Iran back on the sanctions treadmill
Iran’s decision to sell Russia short-range missiles supplementing Moscow’s existing supplies appears, on the surface, to be a political reversal for Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s new reformist president.
He was elected on a promise to lift sanctions and develop more balanced relations with the east and west, especially Europe. The bulk of his diplomatic appointments, including the retention of the former foreign minister Javad Zarif as an adviser, underscored that intention, and already a lively debate had started in Tehran about the extent to which Iran and Russia’s interests truly aligned.
Continue reading...Blinken says Russia has received new ballistic missiles from Iran
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.
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