Ukraine-Russia war latest: Nato issues stark winter warning after Kyiv faces hypersonic missile attack
Russia launched a barrage of hypersonic missiles on Monday
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Ukraine faces its toughest winter since Russia’s full scale invasion began in February 2022, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Tuesday.
Rutte, who became Nato chief earlier this month, was speaking at a joint press conference in Brussels with the President of Findland, Alexander Stubb.
It comes after Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces yesterday launched a hypersonic missile barrage at Kyiv, hours after a Ukrainian strike started a fire at Moscow’s largest oil depot in occupied Crimea.
Ukrainian troops were forced to down at least two eight-metre long Kinzhal missiles fired at Kyiv while another hit an airfield 170 miles further west in Starokostyantyniv. The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a nuclear-capable, Russian air-launched ballistic missile, described as a “next-generation” weapon by Putin in 2018.
In the Donbas, Russian forces have entered the outskirts of the eastern Ukraine frontline city of Toretsk, Ukraine’s military said last night.
US Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has said Ukraine will need to be in the room for any peace talks to negotiate a solution to end the Russian invasion.
“Ukraine must have a say in the future,” she told CBS News during an interview on 60 Minutes.
MI5 ‘alive’ to risk Middle East tensions pose to terror threat in UK, boss says
North Korea is ‘highly likely’ sending troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine, South Korea says
Putin said to have demolished holiday home out of fear for his life as Ukraine strikes region
Trump spoke with Putin at least seven times since leaving White House, Bob Woodward reports
Three killed and nearly 50 injured over past day, Ukraine says Tuesday morning
Regional authorities in Ukraine have reported their daily total of casualties over 24 hours up to Tuesday morning.
They say that at least three people were killed and 49 were injured over the past day - including children.
Russia struck a Palau-flagged vessel in Odesa on Monday, killing a 60-year-old Ukrainian national working on the boat and injuring five foreign citizens.
One person died and seven were injured in Sloviansk, in the region of Donetsk, when Russian forces struck a residential building. A 2-year-old girl was injured in the strike.
One person was killed and 24 injured in an attack on a library and administrative building in Kherson.
Russia steal nearly 200,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain through Mariupol
Russia has exported more than 180,000 tonnes of stolen Ukrainian grain through the temporarily occupied Mariupol port in the past year.
This is according to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who said the occupied territories in Ukraine are being robbed to finance Russia’s invasion with the stolen money.
“At the same time, Russia continues to use food as an element of aggression. This year, the enemy has smuggled more than 180,000 tonnes of stolen Ukrainian grain through the port of Mariupol alone,” Shmyhal said.
“Undoubtedly, Russian economic terror will be one of the areas of work of the special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine,” he added.
Russian military intelligence planning to cause ‘mayhem’ in Europe, MI5 chief says
The UK’s domestic spy chief said on Tuesday that Russian military intelligence is seeking to cause “mayhem” in Britain, adding that “MI5 has one hell of a job on its hands”.
Security Service (MI5) Director General Ken McCallum also said Iran is behind “plot after plot” on British soil.
He said the growing threat from al Qaeda and Islamic State is still his greatest terrorism concern.
State threat investigations were up 48 per cent in the last year as criminals, drug traffickers and proxies were tasked by Russia and Iran to do their “dirty work”.
“The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness,” he said, without adding detail.
Since January 2022, MI5 and the police have responded to 20 Iranian-backed plots. “We’ve seen plot after plot here in the UK, at an unprecedented pace and scale,” Mr McCallum said.
Full report by Tom Watling:
MI5: UK facing threat of ‘plot after plot’ from Iran, Russia and Isis
Ken McCallum says Russian intelligence agencies are also on a ‘sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets’ with ‘arson, sabotage and more’
One killed and five injured in Russian attack on Kherson
One killed and five injured in Russian attack on Kherson
Six casualties were reported after a Russian attack on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Tuesday.
One person was killed and five people injured - including four hospitalised - the regional governor said according to Reuters.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the region’s governor, said on Telegram the village of Antonivka had come under attack.
Russia wants Trump and Iran wants Harris, US intel says
In a potential sticking point for growing Russian-Iranian relations, they are believed to favour different US presidential candidates.
Russia wants Republican Donald Trump to win, while Iran prefers Democrat Kamala Harris, according to US intelligence officials
Officials add that China, Russia and Iran continue to be behind most attempts to influence US voters, according to the Voice of America who referenced a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Russia is carrying out influence campaigns with the aim of boosting Trump’s chances at regaining the presidency.
Meanwhile, Iran’s efforts are focussed on harming Trump, including a hacking and leaking operation carried out by operatives working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
China is yet to interfere in the presidential campaign, but is interfering locally.
It is attempting to negatively influence the campaigns of candidates who express support for Taiwan and are otherwise seen as harmful to Beijing’s interests.
Meeting of Ukraine allies will send clear message to Putin, German government source says
US President Joe Biden will meet with other leaders of the Ramstein group, which supplies arms to Ukraine.
A German government source told Reuters ahead of Saturday’s summit that the meeting will send a strong signal of commitment to military support for Ukraine.
It will become clear to Putin that he cannot play for time and wait for Western support to cease, the source told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron will join President Biden - who visits Germany from October 10-13 - for talks in Berlin before visiting a US air base in the western German town of Ramstein.
UK sanctions Russia for ‘inhumane’ use of chemical weapons
The UK has sanctioned Russian troops involved in using chemical weapons against Ukraine.
Foreign secretary David Lammy has described the use of chemical weapons as “cruel and inhumane”, adding that the UK will do everything it can to “combat the Kremlin’s malign activity”.
The Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian Federation and its leader Igor Kirillov are amogn those sanctioned on Tuesday, a government statement read.
Mr Lammy added in a statement: “The UK will not sit idly by whilst Putin and his mafia state ride roughshod over international law, including the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
The Russian embassy has not immediately responded to a request for comment by The Independent.
Last week, the government sanctioned 16 members of Russian cyber-crime gang Evil Corp, which it claimed was attempting to conduct operations against NATO members.
Biden pulls out of Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ summit
Plans Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan” summit are in doubt after Joe Biden pulls out to “oversee preparations for and the response” to Hurricane Milton.
Biden postponed his four-day trip to Germany ahead of the hurricane making landfall in Florida on Wednesday.
It is unclear how his absence will impact the summit, in which 20 world leaders were expected to attend to hear Zelensky reveal his latest “victory plan”.
Kharkiv attack casualty toll increases to 16, including one child
A Russian attack on Kharkiv on Tuesday morning has injured 16 people, including a child.
The updated total comes after we earlier reported that 11 had been injured.
Ihor Terekhov, Kharkivʼs mayor, said earlier today: “There was not just one strike but several; the type of weapon used to strike the civilian business is being established. There is a large-scale fire at the scene.”
Three of the wounded are in a critical condition, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv region’s military administration.
One of those injured was a 16-year-old child, Syniehubov added according to Ukrainska Pravda.
‘Getting shot saved my life’: How I escaped hell of Vladimir Putin’s war
Exclusive: After being forced to join the Russian army in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, Azad Yousuf Kumar did not believe he would make it back alive to his home in Kashmir.
He recounts his ordeal to Shweta Sharma:
‘Getting shot saved my life’: How I escaped hell of Vladimir Putin’s war
Exclusive: After being forced to join the Russian army in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, Azad Yousuf Kumar did not believe he would make it back alive to his home in Kashmir. He recounts his ordeal to Shweta Sharma
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