Ukraine war live: Putin launches counterattack in Kursk

The Kremlin said on Thursday that letting Ukraine use Western weaponry to strike Russian territory would deepen Western involvement in the conflict and trigger a reaction from Moscow, the TASS state news agency reported.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken is wrapping up a three-nation, Ukraine-focused European tour in Poland after hearing repeated appeals from Ukrainian officials to use Western-supplied weaponry for long-range strikes inside Russia.

Mr Blinken travelled to Warsaw on Thursday after spending a day in Kyiv with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, during which they pledged to bring the Ukrainian requests to their leaders.

President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are to meet in the United States on Friday amid signs both Washington and London are growing more receptive to allowing the Ukrainians to use their arms to hit targets deeper inside Russia than previously approved.

Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in six regions in the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said via the Telegram messaging app that the attacks had temporarily disrupted the work of power substations in at least three of these regions.

Russian drones inflicted significant damage to the northern Ukrainian town of Konotop’s energy infrastructure in an overnight attack that injured at least 14 people and cut electricity to the settlement, local officials said on Thursday.

Rescuers were working to restore power in the town, which had a pre-war population of about 83,000. Regional officials said there had been 10 explosions during the attack and Mayor Artem Semenikhin said the power system was in critical condition.

“At the moment, energy workers are doing everything they can to provide electricity to the hospital and the water supply system,” he said in the early hours of Thursday.

Hospitals continued to operate, he added.

As winter draws near, the need to help Ukraine protect the home front grows ever more urgent. The increasingly close relationship between Moscow and Tehran also has highly disturbing implications for the situation in the Middle East.

Ukraine‘s air force said shot down 44 out of 64 drones launched by Russia overnight, officials said.

Russia also fired five missiles, the air force added in a statement posted on Telegram. It was unclear whether these reached their targets or were shot down.

Russian forces have begun a significant counter-offensive against Ukrainian troops, a senior Russian commander has said, claiming to have recaptured some territory.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces fighting in Kursk, said that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements in Kursk, TASS reported.

“The situation is good for us,” said Alaudinov, who is also deputy head of the Russian defence ministry’s military-political department.

“A total of about 10 settlements in the Kursk region have been liberated,” he said.

Last week, Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces controlled 100 settlements in Kursk over an area of more than 1,300 sq km (500 sq miles), a figure disputed by Russian sources.

British foreign secretary David Lammy has announced that Britain would provide a further £600 million of support for Ukraine as he visited Kyiv with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The British government said it would provide £242 million of funding, including for humanitarian needs, and £484 million in loan guarantees for World Bank lending to Ukraine before the end of the year.

The possible lifting of restrictions on the use of the US and UK’s longer-range missiles is widely being billed as a “game-changing” move, one that would enable strategic targets deeper within Russia to be hit by Ukrainian forces for the first time. Lammy has said that the West is “listening carefully” to Ukraine’s needs.

Certainly for President Zelensky, it comes at a critical moment, as the solidity of the EU’s backing of the war appears to be wavering. With Germany going “wobbly” as its domestically-embattled chancellor Scholz calls for a peace conference, and with winter now approaching, the Anglo-American show of support for Ukraine is vitally important.

But potentially of even greater consequence, to an even greater number of people around the world, is whether giving permission to use long-range weapons to strike Russian territory proves to be a tipping point for Putin – one that prompts him to go nuclear.

Russian forces attacked energy facilities and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern town of Konotop overnight, officials in Sumy region said via Telegram.

The attack injured at least 13 people, based on preliminary information, according to the statement.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken will meet with senior Polish government officials today to discuss support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, as well as deepening US defence cooperation with Warsaw.

Mr Blinken’s trip to Nato ally Poland follows a visit to Kyiv yesterday where he heard Ukraine’s appeals to be allowed to fire Western-supplied missiles deep into Russian territory.

The top diplomat is scheduled to meet with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, president Andrzej Duda and foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, according to their offices.

More than two and a half years since Russia’s invasion began, Ukrainian forces are being pressured on the battlefield by a better armed and bigger foe, as they try to fend off Russian gains in the east where Moscow is focusing its attacks.