Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin ally warns of nuclear war if Kyiv uses long-range missiles
Speaker of Russia’s Duma says Moscow ‘will give a tough response using more powerful weapons’
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A senior Russian lawmaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, warned that if Ukraine were to strike deep into Russian territory using Western missiles, it could trigger a global conflict involving nuclear weapons.
He stated that Russia would respond forcefully with more powerful weapons.
This comes a day after Russian forces hit a centre for the elderly in the Ukrainian city of Sumy and targeted the country’s energy sector in a new wave of air strikes, killing at least one civilian, Kyiv officials said.
During a strike on the northern city of Sumy, a Russian guided bomb hit a five-storey building, officials said.
One person was killed and 12 wounded, the interior ministry said on the Telegram app.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said rescue teams were checking whether people were trapped under rubble.
A UN monitoring body said attacks on the power grid probably breached humanitarian law, while the International Energy Agency said in a report that Ukraine’s electricity supply shortfall in the critical winter months could reach about a third of expected peak demand.
Earlier, a drone attack by Ukraine “wiped off the face of the Earth” a major Russian weapons depot in the Tver region, Ukrainian intelligence sources said.
Zelensky says ‘victory plan’ is ready
Volodymyr Zelensky says his “victory plan”, intended to bring peace to Ukraine while keeping the country strong and avoiding all “frozen conflicts”, was now complete after much consultation.
“Today, it can be said that our victory plan is fully prepared. All the points, all key focus areas and all necessary detailed additions of the plan have been defined,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
“The most important thing is the determination to implement it.
There was, he said, no alternative to peace, “no freezing of the war or any other manipulations that would simply postpone Russian aggression to another stage”.
Mr Zelensky pledged last month to present his plan to Joe Biden, presumably next week when he attends sessions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
While providing daily updates on the plan’s preparation, he has given few clues of the contents, indicating only that it aims to create terms acceptable to Ukraine, now locked in conflict with Russia for more than two and a half years.
Released Russian dissident Kara-Murza visits US Congress
Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza shook his head in disbelief as he addressed politicians and diplomats in a US Senate hearing room on Tuesday, just weeks after he was released from prison in Siberia in a major prisoner swap.
“The word surreal doesn’t even come close to describing what I feel now,” the dissident said at an event intended to highlight what participants described as the plight of hundreds of prisoners still detained in Russia for their political beliefs.
Coinciding with Kara-Murza’s visit, Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will introduce this week the Bridge Act, legislation intended to protect Russians and Belarusians working to support democracy in their home countries.
Ukraine ‘used 100 domestically produced drones’ in Tver arms depot attack
More than 100 domestically produced exploding drones were deployed in the attack on the Russian arms depot in Tver, a Ukrainian intelligence official told the Associated Press.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti earlier quoted regional authorities as saying air defence systems were working to repel a “massive drone attack” on Toropets.
North Korean ammo ‘destroyed’ in Tver arms depot strike
Among the ammunition destroyed in the attack on the Tver arms depot were North Korean KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles, a Ukrainian intelligence source has told the Associated Press.
Russia and North Korea signed a landmark pact in June that envisioned mutual military assistance between Moscow and Pyongyang.
UK Foreign Office summons Russian ambassador over expulsion of diplomats
The UK has summoned Russia’s ambassador following what it described as an “unprecedented and unfounded public campaign of aggression” by Moscow, including accusations against Foreign Office staff.
Russia’s FSB security service said last week it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow after accusing them of spying and sabotage work, accusations Britain described as “malicious and completely baseless”.
“This pattern of behaviour is completely unacceptable, deeply unprofessional, and beneath the standards of conduct between states,” a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said, calling on Russia to “stop this activity immediately”.
“This is the latest development in a deliberate campaign by Russia to undermine and threaten UK security and democracy and deter our support for Ukraine, through disinformation, acts of sabotage in Europe and direct harassment and restrictions against our diplomatic missions in Russia,” they added.
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