Ukraine-Russia war: Threats to UK 'alive and well' in Ukraine; US intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers (2024)

We're not bringing you live updates on the war in Ukraine today, but in the meantime here is an overview of what has been happening.

Russia is continuing with its biggest offensive operation since the invasion began, during which it had hoped to achieve a grand breakthrough or even a general collapse of the Ukrainian frontline.

It has not managed to achieve either so far, despite Ukraine being short of men, ammunition and defences.

However, Russian forces are staging heavy assaults near the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's east.

The Ukrainian military said fighting on the Pokrovsk front was the fiercest of anywhere across the country.

Five years for Russia to achieve goals

Meanwhile, the new head of the British army has said it will likely take Russian troops five years to "grind their way" to Moscow's minimum goal of fully capturing four Ukrainian regions.

General Sir Roly Walker said there would likely be 1.8 million soldiers left dead or wounded.

"If they carry on as they are, it would probably take the Russians five years to grind their way to their minimum objectives of the four oblasts [regions]," he told a conference in London.

He was referring to the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. They are all partially under Russian control already following more than two and a half years of fighting and more than half a million casualties.

Supersonic bomber hit

Despite fierce assaults on its eastern front, Ukraine saw some military success last week when one of its drones reportedly struck a Russian strategic supersonic bomber.

The Tu-22M3 bomber was parked at an airfield in Russia's Arctic region, some 1,100 miles from Ukraine.

The strike represented a rare success against one of the Kremlin's most hated and effective weapons.

Ukrainian sources told media outlets that two other airfields in the Saratov and Ryazan regions in south-central Russia, where bombers are also parked, were targeted on Saturday morning.

Russia claims it killed 100 soldiers in single strike

Elsewhere, Russia's defence ministry claimed its forces had killed more than 100 Ukrainian troops in a single strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

"An Iskander crew launched a missile strike on a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries in the building of the Scorpion construction company in the industrial zone of Kharkiv," a statement read.

"Up to 100 militants were killed, including 40 foreign instructors, as well as about 60 servicemen of the 151st Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

The report was not independently verified and Ukraine did not confirm any casualties.

Car bomb attack

A suspected car bomb attack in Moscow left two people injured on Wednesday.

Initial reports in state media outlets named the two victims as Andrei Torgashov, a GRU military intelligence officer, and his wife.

Citing anonymous law enforcement sources, the Kommersant newspaper reported Mr Torgashov had both feet blown off and was in a critical condition in hospital.

Hours later, reports emerged purporting Mr Torgashov was perfectly well.

Footage of the blast, posted on Telegram, appears to show a man and a woman getting into a vehicle before it suddenly explodes.

Assad visits Moscow

Controversial Syrian President Bashar al Assadtravelled to Moscow for a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

The Kremlin said the pair discussed the Ukraine war and the situation in the Middle East during the surprise visit.

Russia has been a key ally for Mr Assad during the Syrian civil war, helping him regain control over the country following an uprising that began in 2011.

The Syrian leader is the latest in a string of global strongmen to meet the Russian president, which will likely be a cause for concern among Western diplomats.

That brings an end to our live coverage of the Ukraine war for this evening.

Before we go, here's a brief round up of the day's events:

• Controversial Syrian president Bashar al Assad travelled to Moscow for a meeting with Vladimir Putin, in which the pair discussed the Ukraine war and the situation in the Middle East, the Kremlin said;
• The US and Canada intercepted Russian and Chinese military aircraft flying in international airspace near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defence Command reported. Russia's defence ministry said the bombers were carrying out joint air patrols.

• Meanwhile, after two more nights of Russian attacks on Ukraine, Romania's defence ministry said it found fragments of a Russian attack drone in a rural village near the Danube river and the country's border with Ukraine this morning. A NATO spokesperson said there was no evidence that its territory was intentionally targeted;
• Russia said senior US and Russian officials have been holding unofficial diplomatic talks on Ukraine, with the Kremlin later claiming it was open to negotiations with Kyiv about ending the conflict on the condition it was given more details about Ukraine's preparedness for such discussions.

You can scroll through the blog below to catch up on the full day's updates.

Ukrainian professional boxer Oleksandr Usyk says he has cried about the war in his country behind closed doors.

Usyk, the first undisputed heavyweight champion in almost 25 years, said it was "hard" to see the recent Russian attack on Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv.

"Yes [I cry], because it's children, it's not soldiers, it's not a big person. They are 10 years, six, 15 - it's only the start of life. But for these people it's the last. It's hard for me," he said, in an interview with Sky News.

Usyk was speaking at the departure of 50 vehicles from London to Kyiv as part of the ULEZ scrappage scheme. The vehicles will be used to support humanitarian and medical needs in Ukraine.

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of one of its senior defence ministry staff on suspicion of abuse of power, according to Russian state news agencies.

Andrei Belkov, who heads the ministry's military construction company, is the latest in a string of high-ranking ministry officials to be detained this year.

The company builds bases, hospitals, schools and other facilities for the military, according to its website.

Mr Belkov's boss, former Russian deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov, was also arrested in April on suspicion of taking bribes.

Russia won't be able to keep up its offensive attacks in the long term because its "capabilities are not limitless", a Ukrainian commander has said.

Oleksandr Pivnenko, commander of Ukraine's National Guard, said he believes Russian forces "will not be able to conduct active assaults in many directions" after the next several weeks and will move to being "on the defensive".

"The enemy's offensive capabilities are not limitless, considering the losses they suffer," he said in an interview with Ukrainian outlet Ukrinform.

Mr Pivnenko said Ukraine's military needed to use the time until Russia scales down its attacks to form divisions "and prepare them".

But he warned there would be no "radical" change or any major imminent breakthrough by Kyiv's troops, with forces continuing to look for Russia's "weak points" and "bypass the strong ones".

Russia is planning to slow YouTube speeds on desktop computers in the country by up to 70% in a bid to penalise the video-sharing site, a senior politician has said.

YouTube is one of just a few social media sites still available in Russia, after Moscow blocked other popular apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Since the 2022 Russian invasion, the Google-owned company has blocked a host of Russian channels and removed thousands of videos related to the war - including some pro-Kremlin content.

Alexander Khinshtein, a Russian politician in the State Duma lower house of parliament, said the "degradation" of YouTube was a "forced step" against a company he claims "continues to believe it can violate and ignore our legislation with impunity".

He said speeds could drop by 40% by the end of this week and 70% by the end of next week.

Russia has repeatedly fined YouTube forfailing to take down content Russia considers illegal orundesirable.

The threat of US sanctions on Russian financial institutions is hampering its ability to secure what it needs for the war against Ukraine, the US treasury secretary has said.

Janet Yellen said Russian revenues had also been hindered by other sanctions and a price cap on Russian oil exports.

The US, UK and other Western nations responded to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine with widespread sanctions targeting high-value areas of Russia's economy, including finance, energy and trade.

Some have targeted members of Vladimir Putin's inner circle, as well as Russian firms linked to the conflict.

A cyber attack by Ukraine's military intelligence agency is causing disruption across Russia, according to Ukrainian media reports.

Sources have told the Kyiv Independent, Suspilne and the New Voice of Ukraine that the seemingly large-scale attack, which has disrupted banking and telecommunications in the country, is now in its third day.

The attack was also affecting Russia's VK social media network and some payment systems, reports suggested.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) has not posted anything official about the attack on its Telegram channel.

By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent

Vladimir Putin has met Bashar al Assad in Moscow, after a surprise visit from the Syrian president that was announced by the Kremlin this morning.

Footage shared on Telegram by the Russian president's press service showed the two leaders smiling and shaking hands, before sitting down and chatting through their respective interpreters.

"I am very glad to see you," President Putin could be heard gushing to his guest.

Russia has been a key ally for President Assad during the Syrian civil war, helping him regain control over the country following an uprising that began in 2011.

But why is he in Moscow now?

Read the full story here...

Threats to Britain from Russia's invasion of Ukraine are "alive and well" and "no longer a distant possibility", the head of the UK's defence review has said.

Former NATO chief Lord Robertson is leading a "root and branch" review of the UK's armed forces, launched by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, to assess the defence challenges the country faces.

Speaking in the House of Lords today, he pointed to the "depraved conduct" of Russian forces as an example of what was at stake and said it was vital that the UK's military was strong enough to deter any threat.

"We need to recognise... that the threats to our country and our citizens are no longer theoretical. They are no longer a distant possibility," Lord Robertson said.

"They are alive and well in Ukraine today, where Vladimir Putin's Russia has brutally invaded and sought to occupy a peaceful, neighbouring independent nation-state.

"Anybody who needs reminding of what the stakes are in the world today need only look at the depraved conduct of Putin's occupiers in those parts of the Donbas and Crimea that they presently and temporarily occupy."

During a debate on the subject, Lord Stirrup said the UK should not put off increasing defence spending, saying that Mr Putin would "not wait upon our pleasure".

"I suppose we could send him a note saying: 'Dear Vladimir, we know that you're a dire threat to the peace and security of Europe, but would you mind holding off until we get the books straight?' I doubt that he would pay attention," he said.