Ukraine-Russia live: Kyiv downs 40 drones in overnight attack as Brics ‘backfires on Putin’
US defence chief says North Korea’s involvement alongside Russia would be ‘very, very serious’
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Ukraine has said it shot down 80 per cent of the 50 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, while another seven disappeared from radars.
The Ukrainian Air Force said one drone was still in Ukrainian airspace while two others had turned back towards Russia and Belarus.
Ukraine uses electronic warfare systems to confuse drones’ navigation systems, which often leads them to disappear from radars or change course.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian foreign ministry has said the Brics summit has backfired on Moscow as Russian officials have failed to win support for its invasion of Ukraine as Putin faced direct calls to end the war.
“The Brics summit, which Russia planned to use to split the world, has once again demonstrated that the world majority remains on the side of Ukraine in its quest to guarantee a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace,” the ministry said.
There’s evidence North Korea has dispatched troops to Russia in a potential escalation of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, American and South Korean officials have said.
This marks the first time a third country has put boots on the ground in the war if the soldiers fight alongside Russia in Ukraine.
North Korean troops in Russia would be sign of Putin’s ‘desperation’, says UK
North Korea sent 3,000 troops to Russia for Ukraine war, says Seoul
Officials say North Korea has sent troops to Russia. What would that mean for the war with Ukraine?
Who is going to Putin-hosted Brics summit in Russia – and why has Brazil’s Lula dropped out?
Putin scores a BRICS win with rare Xi and Modi show of harmony
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian premier Narendra Modi used a BRICS summit in Russia on Wednesday to showcase ambitions for a more harmonious relationship between the world’s two most populous countries after years of animosity.
The meeting between Xi and Modi, who have not held formal talks for five years, was one highlight of a summit which Vladimir Putin sought to use to show that the West had failed to isolate Russia over the Ukraine war.
A final communique listed a number of projects aimed at facilitating trade between BRICS nations – including an alternative payment system to the dollar – but did not include details or timelines.
Just two days after New Delhi announced that it had reached a deal with Beijing to resolve a four-year military stand-off on their disputed Himalayan frontier, Xi told Modi that they should enhance communication and cooperation and effectively manage differences.
“It is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples for China and India to correctly grasp the trend of history and the direction of development of their relations,” Xi said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Video report: Russia and Ukraine exchange 190 Prisoners of War
Sweden to grant ex-Nato chief with knighthood for roles in its accession to alliance
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and former Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg will be knighted in Sweden for their role in enabling the country to join the Western military alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – in what marked a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security.
In addition to Mr Blinken and Mr Stoltenberg, former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin and former Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto will receive the Royal Order of the Polar Star, which given to foreign citizens and stateless persons “for extraordinary efforts for Swedish interests.”
Sweden will honor Blinken and others with knighthoods for their roles in its NATO accession
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg will be knighted in Sweden for their role in enabling the Scandinavian country to join the world’s largest military alliance
G7 allies are moving ahead with a $50bn loan for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian funds
G7 allies are moving ahead with a $50 billion loan for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian funds
The White House says Group of Seven allies are moving forward with providing Ukraine with $50 billion in loans for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets
Orban accuses EU of ‘leading West into hopeless war’ in Ukraine
Viktor Orban accused the EU of having “led the West into a hopeless war” in Ukraine as the Hungarian premier claimed the bloc was seeking to topple his government in a speech on a national holiday celebrating the 1956 armed uprising against Soviet repression.
Mr Orban has clashed with the bloc repeatedly over the war in Ukraine, having routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to extend assistance to Ukraine and sanction Russia.
Mr Orban has also broken with other EU leaders by arguing for an immediate cease-fire and peace talks in Ukraine, leading critics to suggest that he is advocating for Russian interests and turning his back on his EU and Nato partners.
“The Brussels bureaucrats have led the West into a hopeless war,” Mr Orban, who is widely seen as having the closest relationship with Vladimir Putin of any EU leader, told his supporters. “In their minds, dizzy with the hope of victory, this war is the war of the West against Russia ... Now they want to openly push the entire European Union into the war in Ukraine.”
He claimed, without providing evidence, that the EU plans to allow Ukrainian soldiers to station in Hungary after a future victory “to guarantee the security of the whole of Europe.”
He added: “We Hungarians would wake up one morning to find that Slavic soldiers from the east were again stationed on the territory of Hungary. We do not want that, but the pressure from Brussels is getting stronger every day.”
Viktor Orban claims the EU seeks to topple Hungary's government
Viktor Orban has claimed in a speech that the European Union seeks to topple his government and install a puppet regime in the Central European country, marking an escalation of open hostility toward the bloc by the member considered to have the warmest ties with Russia.
Speaking before thousands of supporters in Budapest, Orban was marking Hungary’s national holiday commemorating a 1956 armed uprising against Soviet repression that began in the capital and spread across the country before being crushed by the Red Army.
Mr Orban has often used the holiday, which looms large in Hungarians’ memory as a freedom fight against foreign domination, to draw parallels between past occupying forces like the Soviet Union and Ottoman Empire and the EU of today.
“Independent Hungarian politics are unacceptable to Brussels,” Mr Orban told the crowd. “That is why they announced in Brussels that they will get rid of Hungary’s national government. They also announced that they wanted to hang a Brussels puppet government around the country’s neck.”
He added: “Do we bow to foreign will, this time to the will of Brussels, or do we resist it? I propose that our answer be as clear and unambiguous as it was in 1956.”
The EU has withheld billions in financial support from Hungary over its alleged breaches of rule of law, while some of the bloc’s politicians have repeatedly proposed stripping Hungary of its voting rights over democratic backsliding. The EU parliament declared in 2022 that Hungary can no longer be considered a democracy.
Czech-British journalist detained at Georgia airport
A Czech-British journalist has been detained on his arrival in Georgia to cover Saturday’s parliamentary election and was being held at Tbilisi’s airport awaiting a flight to Prague, Czech authorities said.
Ray Baseley, who describes himself as a Czech-British freelance journalist on X, said in a post on the platform on Tuesday that he was refused entry to Georgia “without reasoning or any further explanation”.
Mr Baseley, who reports regularly from Georgia and Ukraine, had arrived to cover the 26 October election which has been widely viewed as a test of whether Georgia returns to Russia’s orbit or maintains its pro-Western orientation.
“The consul personally went to the airport where the man is being held in a detention centre,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding: “She spoke with him, he is fine and waiting for a flight to Prague. We are still interested in concrete reasons for his detention and refusal of entry.”
Finland believes Russia carrying out acts of disruption and sabotage, minister says
Finland is experiencing suspicious acts of sabotage and disruption and believes Russia is engaged in broad-ranging influence operations against it and other European countries, Finland’s interior minister Lulu Ranne has warned.
Nato and Western intelligence services – including Finland’s – have warned that Russia is behind a growing number of hostile activities across the Euro-Atlantic area, ranging from repeated cyber attacks to Moscow-linked arson, all of which Russia denies.
“We are experiencing disruptions, acts of sabotage, various types of damage, and instrumentalised migration, among other things. This creates a general sense of uncertainty and vagueness about what is true and what is not,” Ms Ranne told reporters, adding that investigations into many of the cases are ongoing.
“However, based on the information from both civilian and military intelligence, we have clear indications pointing to Russia,” she said, adding the link was most evident in GPS interference Finland has witnessed in its maritime and air traffic.
“Currently, Russia is the main entity engaging in broad-ranging influence operations against us,” she said.
Putin hosts Global South leaders at BRICS summit meant to counterbalance Western clout
Putin hosts Global South leaders at BRICS summit meant to counterbalance Western clout
China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other global leaders have arrived in the Russian city of Kazan for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies
German prosecutors file murder charges in killing of Ukrainian soldiers
German prosecutors have filed murder charges against a Russian citizen on suspicion of stabbing to death two convalescing Ukrainian soldiers in southern Germany, they said on Wednesday.
The soldiers were found with serious stab wounds outside a shopping centre in the Bavarian town of Murnau am See in April, according to police. One of them, aged 36, died at the scene, while the other, 23, succumbed to his wounds in hospital.
A 57-year-old Russian citizen was arrested shortly after at home and he remains in custody in Munich, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that the Russian man fully supported the war in Ukraine due to his excessive nationalism and was aware of the wartime service of the soldiers, whom he had met before.
According to prosecutors, the three were drinking together when an argument broke out about the situation in Ukraine that confirmed the Russian man’s hostile stance toward the soldiers.
A regional jury court in Munich must now decide on the opening of the main proceedings, according to prosecutors.
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