Ukraine war latest: Putin threatens NATO with 'war' over long-range missiles - as Moscow expels six British diplomats (2024)

In what represents a rare glimmer of light against the backdrop of a gruelling two-and-a-half-year war, Volodymyr Zelenskiy today announced Ukrainehas secured the release of 49 people from Russian captivity in the latest exchange of prisoners with Moscow.

The agreement was mediated by the United Arab Emirates, a spokesperson forUkraine's military intelligence agency said.

"Another return of our people - something we always wait for and work tirelessly to achieve... We must bring home every single one of our people, both military and civilian," Mr Zelenskyy said on X, announcing the 56th such swap with Russia.

His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the Ukrainians released included seven civilians along with personnel from the armed forces, national guard, police and the border guard service.

Ukrainedid not say how many Russians had been released. Moscow is yet to comment on the swap.

Video footage released byUkrainefrom an undisclosed location showed service personnel being greeted with flowers, hugs and leaflets saying: "Thank you for enduring it all".

One released prisoner held the leaflet to his heart and wept.

We now turn our attention to the battlefield situation in Ukraine, where Kyiv says Russian forces have been focusing their assaults on the eastern region near the embattled town of Kurakhove - as Ukrainian troops attempted to hold the line at a critical juncture of the war.

The Russians have also pressed towardsUkraine's rail hub of Pokrovsk, about 33 km (20 miles) north of Kurakhove, in an effort to open new lines of attack, disrupt Ukrainian logistics, and take control of the rest of the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his troops for holding their positions in Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, the two most difficult sectors in the east.

Ukraine's forces are stretched thin, but the military said they had repelled 64 assaults near Kurakhove in the past day, the most intense fighting there this month.

The Ukrainian military also reported repelling 36 attacks near Pokrovsk on the same day.

Together, the action on these fronts accounted for more than two-thirds of about 140 clashes reported along over 1,000 km (600 miles) of front lines in the northeast, east and south of the country in the last day.

Kyiv launched a cross-border assault into Russia's Kursk region in early August in the hope of diverting forces from the eastern front.

The Ukrainians made rapid initial gains before stalling, while the situation around Pokrovsk has remained perilous.

Meanwhile, a Russian guided bomb attack today killed two people and injured six others, including a four-year-old child, local authorities inUkraine's northern Sumy region aid.

Ukraineused Sumy, which borders Kursk, as a staging ground for its incursion into Russia in August.

The settlement of Yampil, about 20 km (12 miles) from the border, was hit with four guided bombs, Sumy regional prosecutors said - in an attack that damaged residential houses and a clinic, and cut power supplies.

While doubts have been cast as to the sincerity of Vladimir Putin's statements about the consequences of potential Western weapons strikes deep into Russia (see 11.20 and 7.51 posts), prominent figures in Moscow appear determined to perpetuate the narrative that they should be taken at face value.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his daily briefing today that Russia's leaders had no doubt that the president's words had reached their intended recipients.

"The statement that Putin made yesterday is very important," he said.

"It is extremely clear, unambiguous and does not allow for any double readings."

A selection of today's images from the conflict show Russian forces as they attempt to retake parts of the border region of Kursk - and damages to the Aya bulk carrier, a grain vessel hit in a missile attack in Black Sea waters near NATO member Romania .

Russia reportedly started producing a new long-range attack drone called the Garpiya-A1 last year using Chinese engines and parts, which it has deployed in the war inUkraine.

The report is based on two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents cited by Reuters.

The intelligence - which included a production contract for the new drone, company correspondence on the manufacturing process and financial documents - indicated that IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned weapons maker Almaz-Antey, produced more than 2,500 Garpiyas from July 2023 to July 2024.

The existence of the new Russian drone incorporating Chinese technology has not been previously reported. IEMZ Kupol and Almaz-Antey have not responded to Reuters' requests for comment.

The two intelligence sources said the Garpiya, which means Harpy in Russian, has been deployed against military and civilian targets inUkraine, causing damage to critical infrastructure as well as both civilian and military casualties.

They shared with Reuters what they said were images fromUkraineof the wreckage of a Garpiya, without providing further details. The news agency said it unearthed information that reinforces this conclusion, but was unable to confirm the images independently.

Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington DC-based think tank, said that Garpiya, if confirmed, would mark a departure from Russia's reliance on Iranian designs for long-range drones.

"If this is happening, it could indicate that Russia can now rely more on domestic development as well as, obviously, on China, since both sides in this war defend on many Chinese components for drone production," he said.

Russia's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement to Reuters that Beijing strictly controls the export of items with potential military applications, including drones.

"With regard to the Ukrainian crisis, China has always been committed to promoting peace talks and political settlement," the statement said. It added that there were no international restrictions on China's trade with Russia.

As we have covered in some detail today, Vladimir Putin has spearheaded a series of statements from senior figures in Moscow who have been warning Western countries over the prospect of allowing Ukraine to use the long-range missiles they have supplied to strike targets inside Russia.

It follows reports that the UK will allow Ukraine to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles it has provided to strike military objects in Russia in the coming days.

However, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War suggest the threats being issued from the Kremlin do not represent a marked step change in its rhetoric - and indicate they believe it is designed to undermine decision-making among the countries supporting Ukraine.

The think tank's daily update on the conflict points out Russia"has previously threatened military escalation should the West cross its so-called 'red lines', but has never significantly responded to any US or Western provision of military assistance to Ukraine".

"The Kremlin has also demonstrated that it is unwilling to escalate in response to Ukraine's ongoing incursion into Kursk Oblast, which has lasted for over a month and has included Western-provided equipment and conducting strikes with Western-provided HIMARS within Russia," it says.

Mr Putin's latest comments, the experts say, are"therefore not an inflection in typical Russian rhetoric about the risk of escalation of the war in Ukraine and is likely intended to influence the ongoing Western policy debates about Ukraine's ability to strike military targets in Russia with Western-provided precision weapons".

The analysis concludes with what amounts to a warning, saying "delays in Western policy decisions in support of Ukraine's defence have resulted in critical delays of military assistance to Ukraine, forcing Ukrainian counteroffensives to culminate and allowing Russia to seize the theatre-wide initiative".

The Foreign Office has just released a statement after Russia expelled six British diplomats on accusations of spying.

"The accusations made today by the FSB against our staff are completely baseless," a spokesman said.

"The Russian authorities revoked the diplomatic accreditation of six UK diplomats in Russia last month, following action taken by the UK government in response to Russian state directed activity across Europe and in the UK.

"We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests."

Reports of cooperation between Russia and North Korea have steadily increased since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russian news agencies are today reporting the latest example of the strengthening alliance.

They say top Moscow security official Sergei Shoigu held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to Pyongyang today.

The reported visit took place at a critical juncture in the war inUkraine, for which the US says North Korea has supplied ammunition and ballistic missiles to Russia.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied arms transfers but have promised to boost military ties.

Mr Shoigu was Russian defence minister until May, and is now secretary of the Security Council which brings together Vladimir Putin, his military and intelligence chiefs and other senior figures.

"As part of the ongoing strategic dialogue between our countries, a substantive exchange of views took place with Korean colleagues on a wide range of issues on the bilateral and international agenda," state news agency RIA quoted the Security Council as saying.

It said the meetings took place in an "exceptionally trusting, friendly atmosphere" and would make an important contribution to the implementation of agreements reached between Mr Putin and Mr Kim at their summit three months ago.

By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor

The very public expulsion by Russia of six British diplomats in Moscow, accused of involvement in spying and sabotage, is a way for the Kremlin to punish London.

Revoking the accreditation of diplomats is a tool that all countries can use to attack each other or send signals of anger.

The UK expelled almost two dozen Russia officials in London, accused of spying, in the wake of the Novichok nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia in 2018. This triggered a tit-for tat rejection of some British officials at the embassy in Moscow.

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there have been further expulsions by the UK and – in much greater numbers – other European allies.

In May of this year, Britain announced it was expelling Russia’s defence attache, accusing him of being an “undeclared military intelligence officer” amid concerns about what the UK described as a campaign of “malign activity” by Moscow across the UK and Europe.

The Kremlin retaliated by expelling the British defence attache from Moscow.

The most recent expulsions of UK diplomats are thought to be linked to these escalating tensions, as opposed to having anything to do with the UK support for Ukraine.

However, the timing of the publication of the decision by Russian state media on Friday is interesting.

It comesas the UK and the US are weighing up whether to allow Ukraine to use their long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia – a move that President Vladimir Putin has said would be regarded as western allies directly joining the war against Russia.

Sir Keir Starmer and Joe Biden are due to meeting in Washington on Friday with a decision of green-lighting the use of UK-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles thought to be imminent.

ByDeborah Haynes, security and defence editor

The ejection by Russia of six British diplomats from Moscow took place in August as part of a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions, a Whitehall source has said.

"They are already out," the source said about the UK officials.

The source strongly rejected the characterisation by the Russian security services that the individuals had been involved in spying and sabotage.

The expulsions are thought to be part of a series of ejections and counter-ejections of British and Russian diplomats by London and Moscow as tensions between the two countries mount.

It began when the UK expelled almost two dozen Russian officials from the embassy in London in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018 - blamed on Moscow.

Relations between the two countries chilled further following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine followed by a rise in suspected Russian cyber and sabotage attacks in the UK and across Europe.

In May of this year, Britain announced it was expelling Russia’s defence attache, accusing him of being an “undeclared military intelligence officer”.

Moscow retaliated by expelling the British defence attache from Moscow.

The Whitehall source said the most recent expulsions of six UK diplomats are thought to be linked to these tit-for-tat expulsions as opposed to having anything to do with the UK support for Ukraine. The source noted that Britain had recently tightened up rules around the length of time Russian diplomats can be accredited to stay in the UK, meaning anyone who had been here for longer than five years would have to leave - something which did not please Moscow.