Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin threatens war with Nato over long-range missiles

Sir Keir Starmer is joined by foreign secretary David Lammy as he flew out to Washington DC for talks with Joe Biden on the Ukraine war today.

The determined prime minister told journalists on the flight: “First, to reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully. And Ukraine obviously has the right to self-defence.

The chairman of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, has accused Nato of being a party to military action in Ukraine, suggesting it was already heavily involved in military decision-making.

Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, accused the US-led military alliance of helping Ukraine choose which Russian cities to target, of agreeing specific military action, and of giving Kyiv orders.

“They are waging war with our country,” Mr Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.

Nearly $6bn in US funding for aid to Ukraine will expire at the end of the month unless Congress acts to extend the Pentagon‘s authority to send weapons from its stockpile to Kyiv, according to US officials.

US officials said the Biden administration has asked Congress to include the funding authority in any continuing resolution lawmakers may manage to pass before the end of the fiscal year on 30 September in order to fund the federal government and prevent a shutdown. Officials said they hope to have the authority extended for another year.

They also said the Defence Department is looking into other options if that effort fails

Sir Keir Starmer defiantly stared down a threat of retaliation by Vladimir Putin as he flew out to Washington DC for talks with Joe Biden on the Ukraine war.

The prime minister and the US president are believed to be on the cusp of allowing Kyiv to open up a new front in the war with Russia by using Western Storm Shadow long-range missiles.

“So this is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It is a question of deciding whether or not Nato countries are directly involved in a military conflict,” Mr Putin told Russian state TV.

Ukrainian forces had anticipated Moscow’s counteroffensive in the Russian region of Kursk, Volodymyr Zelensky said, marking his first comments on the pushback this week more than a month after Ukraine’s cross-border incursion.

“The Russians have begun counter-offensive actions. It is going according to our Ukrainian plan,” Mr Zelensky told a news conference in Kyiv with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

He repeated earlier assertions that Ukraine had also noticed a buildup of forces across the border with Belarus, Russia’s main ally in its full-scale war on Ukraine.

“We have seen it for a long time, this process is under control,” he said.

Ukraine’s troops captured an enclave of western Russian territory in a surprise raid that began in early August, a move aimed at wresting the battlefield initiative from Russia including by diverting Moscow’s forces from the eastern front.

Its forces made rapid initial gains before stalling, while the situation around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, which has been the focus of Russia’s main offensive operations in recent weeks, remained perilous.

A Russian commander said on Wednesday that his soldiers had taken back control of about 10 settlements in Kursk region in a counterattack.

Ukraine accused Russia of using strategic bombers to strike a civilian grain vessel in a missile attack in Black Sea waters near Nato member Romania, escalating tensions between Moscow and the military alliance.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the vessel carrying Ukrainian grain to Egypt had been hit overnight by a Russian missile just after it left Ukrainian territorial waters. There were no casualties, he said.

The US ambassador to Ukraine “strongly condemned” the attack and said Russia was responsible. A UN spokesperson said the incident was a “stark reminder” of the threats still faced in the Black Sea by civilian vessels.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said the strike was “a brazen attack on freedom of navigation and global food security”. Ukraine’s navy said Russian Tupolev Tu-22 bombers had fired a number of cruise missiles at 11.02pm local time (2002 GMT) on Wednesday.

It was the first time a missile has struck a civilian vessel transporting grains at sea since the start of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022. Some vessels have been damaged during Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports where they were moored.

Russian shelling killed three people and injured nine in a village in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, regional prosecutors said yesterday.

A statement said one person died of his injuries in hospital after the attack on the village of Borova, southeast of Kharkiv. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city and a frequent target of Russian strikes.

The Interior Ministry had earlier reported emergency services were working at the site of the initial attack when Moscow’s troops shelled it again. Three rescuers were among the injured.

Prosecutors also reported that five people were injured in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kharkiv’s Kyivskyi district.

At least three Red Cross staff members were killed by artillery strikes in eastern Ukraine yesterday. The deadly strikes, which left two others wounded, hit a Red Cross truck that was delivering firewood in the war-divided Donetsk region, the organisation said. Photos released by local police showed the truck engulfed in flames.

Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia for the attack, which he said warranted a “firm and fundamental” response from the international community.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, confirmed the deaths. “I condemn attacks on Red Cross personnel in the strongest terms. It’s unconscionable that shelling would hit an aid distribution site,” Ms Spoljaric said in a statement.

“Our hearts are broken today as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the injured,” she added.

Servicemen, veterans and others gathered in Kyiv yesterday to remember the adopted son of Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, who was killed in battle.

Anton Samborskyi, 32, was reported missing in late July, and his death was confirmed after weeks of uncertainty. The funeral service underlining unity among Ukraine‘s diverse communities in the fight against Russia’s invasion took place at the Central Synagogue of Kyiv, followed by a burial at the city’s Jewish cemetery.

Rabbi Azman, who adopted Samborskyi when he was a 10-year-old orphan, shared his grief publicly, referring to his son by his chosen Jewish name, Matityahu or “Moty”.

Mr Azman wrote in a post on social media that Samborskyi had a daughter in May, but he was drafted into the army a week after the baby was born. He said the last time he spoke to his son was on 17 July.

About 100 mourners, including servicemen and veterans in uniform, many holding flowers and wearing yarmulkes – some with a camouflage design – gathered for the service. Mourners filed past the closed casket, which was draped with a tallit, or Jewish prayer shawl, and hugged Mr Azman and his relatives.

“He went to the front voluntarily – as someone who wanted to defend his country. That’s why he joined an assault brigade,” David Milman, a Jewish army chaplain who attended the service, told The Associated Press.

Ukraine has a centuries-old Jewish heritage, with Jewish communities playing a significant role in the country’s cultural and religious history, despite periods of persecution. Its Jewish population was decimated during the Holocaust in the Second World War.