Keir Starmer and Joe Biden have discussed allowing Ukraine to fire Western-supplied long-range missiles at Russia.But no formal announcement has been made. President Vladimir Putin has warned that NATO would be involved. The British prime minister told reporters at the White House that he had had “broad discussions about strategy” with the US president but that the talks were not just about “specific capabilities”.
An official said before the meeting: Starmer will pressure Biden to back his plan Britain's Storm Shadow missiles would be made available for attacks inside Russia, and the prime minister indicated he would discuss the plans with Biden and “a wider range of actors” at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.
Biden denies Vladimir Putin's menacing threatsAccording to Dan Sabbagh in Washington, Biden said he would not accept that Ukraine's use of Storm Shadow missiles against the Russian mainland meant NATO would go to war with Moscow. “I don't think much of Vladimir Putin,” Biden said.
Moscow's UN ambassador told the Security Council on Friday that relaxing restrictions on missile attacks would mean an escalation to “direct war” between Moscow and NATO.Officials in Washington have accused Putin of trying to intimidate NATO countries into stopping their support for Ukraine, reports Andrew Ross. In Europe, leaders have downplayed Putin's threats. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he “does not attach undue importance to President Putin's recent comments. Rather, they demonstrate the difficult situation Russia faces on the front line.”
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops' advance into the Kursk region on the Russian border had the desired result of slowing Moscow's advance on another front. Russian forces have launched a counter-offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian president said in Kiev on Friday that Russian forces' counter-offensive in the Kursk region had not achieved any significant results, contradicting President Vladimir Putin's account of Russian military advances on both fronts. Zelensky said the Russian military had deployed around 40,000 troops to the Kursk front. “So far we have not seen any serious damage.” [Russian] “Success.” The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had recaptured 10 of the 100 villages that Kiev had held. Battlefield reports from both sides could not be independently verified.
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Friday that Russian forces had focused their attacks near the city of Krahove.It is located about 33 kilometers south of Pokrovsk, a major logistics hub in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. The Russian Defense Ministry said Russian forces had taken control of Drinivka, located between Pokrovsk and Krahove, the latest in a series of areas that Moscow has claimed control of.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said 49 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been repatriated from Russia.Agence France-Presse witnessed the group being received at the Belarusian border. The Ukrainian president did not say whether this was part of exchanges with Russia, as is standard practice, but AFP journalists had earlier seen Russian prisoners of war being loaded onto buses near the border.
Romania began training its first group of Ukrainian F-16 pilots this week.The first four pilots have begun “theoretical training”, with practical training due to continue “towards the end of the year”, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
Pieces of the drone fell on the city hall in the Obolon district, north of Kyiv's city center, early on Saturday.“There was no fire and emergency services had been dispatched,” the mayor said. In a Telegram post, Vitali Klitschko said there was no fire and that emergency services had been dispatched. He had earlier said air defenses were in action. Witnesses at Reuters said they heard explosions. Kiev's military administrator, Serhiy Popko, urged residents to remain in shelters as drones remained a threat. Air raid warnings for the city were later lifted but remained in effect for some regions of central Ukraine.
Russia has announced that it has revoked the qualifications of six British diplomats in Moscow on suspicion of espionage.Moscow's domestic intelligence agency, the FSB, said Friday it acted on documents showing that parts of the British Foreign Office were helping to coordinate an “escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. But the Foreign Office said the move was made last month amid ongoing diplomatic tit-for-tat. Sources said British diplomats had left Russia several weeks ago and had already been replaced.
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia, citing its role in “undermining democracy.” “The actions that we're exposing today and those exposed last week do not encompass the full extent of Russian efforts to undermine democracies,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “Far from it.”
Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet with Joe Biden “this month” to present a “winning plan” to end the war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader gave no details on how to end more than 30 months of fighting, saying only that his proposal included “a system of interrelated solutions that will give Ukraine enough strength, enough strength to put this war on the path of peace.”
German chancellor says she won't send Ukraine requested long-range missilesGermany possesses the powerful Taurus cruise missiles. Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz said on Friday that “Germany has clearly decided what it will and will not do. This decision will not change.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with President Zelensky in Kiev and reiterated his request for permission to launch Storm Shadow attacks against Russia. “We will thwart a terrible Russian attack with glide bombs and Iranian missiles,” he said. President Zelenskyy also met with American actor Michael Douglas and his son Dylan in Kiev. The Ukrainian president said the pair, along with Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska, discussed “the situation in our country, cooperation with our partners, support for Ukraine and the Fourth Ladies and Gentlemen Summit.”
The Ukrainian government has approved a proposed 2025 budget that places a premium on defense spending.the prime minister said. Denis Shmychal said on Friday that the draft to be presented to parliament earmarked 2 trillion hryvnias ($48.2 billion) for revenues and 3.6 trillion hryvnias for expenditures. The draft also included a budget of 2.22 trillion hryvnias ($53.5 billion) for defense. “The priority of this budget is very clear – the defense and security of the country,” he said. “We will again direct all our domestic resources towards these ends.”
