Russia-Ukraine war: US announces extra funding for Ukraine; Russia criticises Kyiv-backed peace talks – as it happened
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Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, announces additional security assistance ; Moscow says talks in Malta without its presence will be ‘counterproductive’
Ukrainian service members unpack US Javelin missile systems in February 2022. The US has announced more Javelin systems will be sent to Ukraine. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Ukrainian service members unpack US Javelin missile systems in February 2022. The US has announced more Javelin systems will be sent to Ukraine. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
US announces additional security assistance and funding for Ukraine
The US has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion valued at $150m (£124m), the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Pentagon said.
The latest US assistance includes additional munitions for national advanced surface-to-air missile systems, stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The assistance also included Javelin anti-armour systems, more than 2 million rounds of small arms ammunition and cold-weather gear, Reuters reports.
The U.S. is announcing a new tranche of arms and equipment for Ukraine today that will help them sustain progress on the battlefield and build further momentum.
The US has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion valued at $150m (£124m), the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Pentagon said.
Russia has criticised Ukrainian-backed peace talks set to be held in Malta this weekend, warning any discussions without its participation would be counterproductive, AFP reported.
Ukraine said it planned to evacuate hundreds of children from communities near the north-eastern city of Kupiansk.
Sabotage of the Baltic connector gas pipeline and undersea internet cables between Finland and Estonia cannot be ruled out, Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said.
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister, Robert Fico, said his three-party coalition government was ending military aid to its eastern neighbour Ukraine, fulfilling one of his central campaign pledges. He said he had spoken to the head of the European Commission about his government’s move at a meeting before the bloc’s summit in Brussels.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) reiterated some of the points western nations have been trying to claim about North Korea delivering arms to Russia for use in Ukraine. The MoD wrote: “Despite Russia’s official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia. These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine.”
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has said that he has “informed” the EU’s executive of his decision to stop military aid to Ukraine, the first such western reversal of backing for Kyiv.
AFP reports:
On Thursday, Fico said he had spoken to the head of the European Commission about his government’s move at a meeting before the bloc’s summit in Brussels.
In a Facebook post, Fico said Ursula von der Leyen respected “the sovereign right of member countries to support Ukraine militarily or not, and she appreciated our position on humanitarian aid”.
Earlier on Thursday, Fico told MPs that the country would “no longer supply weapons to Ukraine”, but would still supply humanitarian aid to its neighbour.
“I will support zero military aid to Ukraine … An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” he added.
Robert Fico arrives prior to the start of an EU leaders summit at the European Council Building in Brussels on 26 October 2023. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty
In a statement, the Israeli foreign ministry said:
Hamas is a terrorist organisation worse than Isis. The hands of senior Hamas figures are covered with the blood of more than 1,400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned, and they are responsible for the abduction of more than 220 Israelis, including babies, children, women and the elderly.
The official account for Ukraine’s ministry of Defence has said Denmark’s 13th package of military aid for Ukraine includes tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery ammunition and drones (see earlier post at 16.05).
US announces additional security assistance and funding for Ukraine
The US has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion valued at $150m (£124m), the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Pentagon said.
The latest US assistance includes additional munitions for national advanced surface-to-air missile systems, stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The assistance also included Javelin anti-armour systems, more than 2 million rounds of small arms ammunition and cold-weather gear, Reuters reports.
The U.S. is announcing a new tranche of arms and equipment for Ukraine today that will help them sustain progress on the battlefield and build further momentum.
Russia formally charges detained Russian-American journalist
Russia has formally charged a detained US-Russian journalist with failing to register as a “foreign agent”, AFP reports.
Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s (RFE-RL) Tatar-Bashkir service, is the second US reporter to be detained in Russia this year after the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges in March.
Rights groups say Kurmasheva’s arrest is the first time Russian authorities have pressed criminal charges of this kind against a journalist.
RFE/RL said in a statement that Russia’s investigative committee had formally charged Kurmasheva on Thursday, after her arrest in the central city of Kazan last week.
The charges carry up to five years in prison. Kurmasheva is now being held in pre-trial detention until at least 5 December.
Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague with her husband and two children, had both her Russian and US passports confiscated during a trip to Russia in June.
Alsu Kurmasheva stands in a glass cage in a courtroom in Kazan, Russia, on 23 October 2023. Photograph: Vladislav Mikhnevskii/AP
Authorities initially said she had failed to notify them of her US citizenship and fined her. She was arrested on the new charges last week while waiting for her passports to be returned.
Under Russia’s criminal code, any Russian citizens that engage in what authorities call the “targeted collection” of information that could harm Russia’s national security have to register as a “foreign agent”.
Critics say the law is so sweepingly broad that it effectively gives Russian law enforcement the power to arrest journalists at will. RFE/RL has called for her immediate release.
Gulnoza Said, the Committee to Protect Journalist’s Europe and Central Asia programme coordinator, has previously said:
CPJ is deeply concerned by the detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on spurious criminal charges and calls on Russian authorities to release her immediately and drop all charges against her.
Journalism is not a crime and Kurmasheva’s detention is yet more proof that Russia is determined to stifle independent reporting.
Russia criticises Kyiv-backed peace talks in Malta
Russia has criticised Ukrainian-backed peace talks set to be held in Malta this weekend, warning any discussions without its participation would be counterproductive, AFP reports.
The talks, which Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy hopes will drum up support for his own peace plan, come after similar gatherings in Jeddah and Copenhagen earlier this year.
“Obviously such gatherings have absolutely no perspective, they are simply counterproductive,” foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.
She added the upcoming meeting had “nothing to do with the search for a peaceful resolution” and criticised Malta for hosting what she called a “blatantly anti-Russian event”.
Zelenskiy has been promoting his own ten-point peace plan, which calls for Russia to withdraw all its troops from Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders, including Russian-controlled territories.
Russia – which claimed to annex the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia last September – has rejected any settlement that would involve giving up land.
Dossiers of evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine have been presented to German federal prosecutors at the start of a campaign to use the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring war criminals to justice.
The cases were filed on Thursday morning by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), representing 16 survivors and the families of victims in three separate war crimes cases: an indiscriminate missile attack on a coastal resort near Odesa that killed 22 people; the execution of four men in occupied territory in the Kharkiv region in spring and summer last year; and a series of executions and acts of torture and sexual violence committed outside Kyiv in March 2022.
The first cases have been brought to Berlin because the German judicial system has been at the forefront of prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity under the principle of universal jurisdiction, by which some abuses are deemed to be so serious that the duty to investigate and prosecute goes far beyond the territory on which the crimes were committed.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said he held “productive” talks with France’s armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, earlier, with artillery and air defence systems being among the topics discussed.
Held productive talks with a Minister of the Armed Forces of France @SebLecornu.
Discussed the priority needs: artillery and air defense systems. We must be fully prepared for this winter to protect our people, cities, and infrastructure. Grateful to Minister Lecornu for his…
Ukraine to evacuate children from towns near Kupiansk, ministry says
Ukraine said it planned to evacuate hundreds of children from communities near the north-eastern city of Kupiansk, it has been reported.
Kyiv’s forces recaptured Kupiansk and the surrounding areas of Kharkiv region in September 2022, but Moscow has since pushed back in an attempt to move the frontline west ahead of the winter.
“The Kharkiv regional military administration is planning to announce the forced evacuation of children from 10 settlements in Kharkiv region,” Kyiv’s reintegration ministry said.
It said 275 children would be evacuated from 10 localities in and around Kupiansk, which lies less than five miles from the frontline, AFP reports.
Ukrainian authorities had already announced evacuation orders for some settlements near Kupiansk in August, but fighting there has since intensified.
In a move which is likely to provoke a lot of reaction in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry has announced that a delegation from Hamas is currently visiting Moscow.
The state emergency service of Ukraine has posted to social media about the repeated damage to buildings in Kherson region, but also states that its service personnel volunteer to help repair damage when not working on emergencies. It states that in the last 24 hours they have boarded up 52 windows damaged by the conflict.
❗️Херсонщина щодня потерпає від ворожих атак
Рятувальники допомагають населенню ремонтувати вікна та лагодити дахи будівель, що постраждали в результаті ворожих обстрілів.
Лише протягом минулої доби надзвичайникам вдалось зашити фанерними щитами 52 вікна в житлових будинках. pic.twitter.com/fLXDgIN58y
Russian lawmakers backed a record increase in military spending to fund Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in a first reading of the bill Thursday.
AFP reports defence spending will account for almost a third of all state outlays in 2024, up 68% to 10.8tn rubles ($115bn/£95bn/€109bn).
At more than 6% of the country’s GDP, military spending will hit its highest share of the economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Before the vote, the finance minister, Anton Siluanov, told lawmakers the proposed budget was “aimed at today’s main task - ensuring our victory.”
Some lawmakers echoed Soviet-era second world war slogans in their endorsements of the increase, with lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, who heads the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, quoting a 1940s wartime message “Everything for the front, everything for victory.”
The Kremlin has previously said such a significant spending increase was essential in the face of western support for Kyiv. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has spoken before of the “hybrid warfare” the Kremlin claims is being waged on Russia.
Lawmakers voted 320-80 in favour of passing the budget, which will pass through two more readings in Russia’s lower chamber, before going to the upper house for approval and then to Putin for signing.
The budget also includes funds for the “integration of new regions” - a reference to financial support for four Ukrainian regions that the Russian Federation claimed to annex last year.
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
A security guard stands near a construction fence in central Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
A Ukrainian serviceman sits in front of Ukrainian flags symbolising fallen Ukrainian soldiers, at a makeshift memorial site at the Independence Square in Kyiv. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian people take part in a demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine and demanding 'change the strategy of supplying arms to Ukraine and impose sanctions against Russia' at Schuman Square in Brussels. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images
Finnish border guards patrol the border fence, in Imatra, Finland. Photograph: Kimmo Brandt/EPA
Russia is “massively” recruiting Cuban mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent has cited the National Resistance Center as having said.
They are allegedly involved in fighting around Bakhmut and Kupiansk.
In September, the Cuban government said young Cuban men had enlisted in the Kremlin’s military in recent months as mercenaries and victims in alleged human trafficking schemes.
In initial reports, Cuban authorities said they were working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network, which they said operated both on Cuban soil and in Russia.
Cuba has denied any involvement in the war in Ukraine and its authorities say those fighting for hire as mercenaries or involved in trafficking could face long prison sentences or even the death penalty.
Russia sent up a MIG-31 fighter jet on Thursday to escort a Norwegian Poseidon patrol plane over the Barents Sea, state news agency RIA quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.
There was no violation of the air border by the Norwegian patrol plane, the ministry said, according to Reuters.
It was the latest of a series of recent incidents in which Russia sent fighter planes to intercept US, Norwegian or British military aircraft that it says came close to entering Russian airspace.
The incidents come at a time of high tension between Russia and Nato, which is arming Ukraine to defend against Russia’s invasion.
The Russian defence ministry has been recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, apparently taking over from the Wagner mercenary group which was the first to adopt the practice last year, BBC News reports.
Such army units are commonly known as Storm-Z, the letter Z being one of the symbols of Vladimir Putin’s so-called “special military operation” against Ukraine. It is also the first letter of the Russian word “zek”, or “inmate”.
The name Storm-Z is unofficial and can be applied to a range of Russian army units active in different parts of Ukraine.
Similarly to Wagner’s prisoner units, Storm-Z detachments are reportedly often treated as an expendable force thrown into battle – with little consideration for the lives of their servicemen.
