This means were Russia to attack a neighbouring Nato state such as Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, for example, it would then be at war with all 31 Nato members. In a Guardian Long Read, Olesya Khromeychuk writes about the battle to keep Ukraine in the hearts and minds of the international community. The difficulties experienced by Russia in Synkivka point to a wider problem facing both armies. At the moment projectiles are winning,” Gleb Molchanov, a Ukrainian drone operator, said.
A Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Diamond, has set sail to be on standby in the eastern Mediterranean. The Type 45 destroyer is joining offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent, with four additional RAF Typhoon jets being deployed to Cyprus to take part in patrols. Fighting has also been raging at an airfield on Kyiv's outskirts and there have been reports of gunfire inside the city. British troops will not be sent to Ukraine to fight Russia, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed. The UK’s nuclear advice for citizens is called the Protect and Survive booklet. It was first produced at the height of the Cold War in 1974 and last updated in 1980.
Germany lays out ‘exercise scenario’ for a potential conflict between NATO and Russia
North Korea has been accused of supplying ballistic missiles and hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the Russian government for its war in Ukraine – dealings that are in violation of international law. The general also called for a near-doubling in size of the British army. The UK military in general plans to reverse a long-term recruitment crisis that has shrunk its numbers even as British forces participate in various missions overseas. Mr Wallace also said work was under way to try to get the Swift international payment system "turned off for Russia". While that is the UK aim, the defence secretary said "like so many things these are international organisations, and if not every country wants them to be thrown out of the Swift system, it becomes difficult". Mr Wallace explained that sending UK troops to fight in Ukraine - an ally of the UK but not a member of the Nato military alliance it is part of - would trigger a European war.
- But the official said Russia could also initiate actions against Nato members such as cyber and hybrid warfare, and even physical attacks.
- “Since early 2023, Russian Ground Forces (RGF) have been on the offensive in eastern Ukraine,” it said.
- Moscow's economy would "gradually recover as sanctions inevitably erode" and its military would rebuild its coherence "drawing on a wealth of hard-won experience fighting mechanized warfare".
- But it is a formal, public and written commitment by the UK to support Ukraine.
Russia accused Kyiv of downing a large military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war to an exchange on Wednesday, after a crash in the Belgorod region that killed all 74 people onboard. With the front line relatively static and forces hunkering down in icy conditions, long-range missile and drone strikes have come to the fore, with an increasing number of strikes seen in Russian territory. The UK Parliament is on standby to be recalled over the weekend as "further measures" and "further sanctions" are needed, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said. The prime minister is to use an extraordinary summit of leaders of Nato on Friday afternoon to press for Russia to be excluded from Swift, which allows financial transactions to be made around the world. Members agree to come to one another's aid in the event of an armed attack against any one member state, under its Article 5. Ukraine is not a member but wants to be - it is currently a Nato partner country, meaning there is an understanding it could be allowed to join in future.
Ukrainian drones attack Russian villages
The Russians had some tactical success, flushing out Ukrainian soldiers from the forest and a few villages. But, he said, a significant breakthrough was almost impossible in an era of cheap and lethally accurate drones. Luke Harding reports from Kupiansk, where almost two years after Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion, Moscow has mobilised tens of thousands of troops. Every week we wrap up essential coverage of the war in Ukraine, from news and features to analysis, opinion and more. According to this scenario's predictions, the NATO alliance would itself deploy 300,000 troops to Eastern Europe, but not until early 2025. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, said the government “has no intention” of introducing conscription.
That figure cannot be confirmed, but it followed a US estimate of some 100,000 Ukrainians killed or wounded by November. Before Western artillery arrived in the east last summer, Kyiv officials said 100 to 200 troops were dying every day. https://euronewstop.co.uk/why-doesnt-anyone-help-ukraine.html helped turn the course of the war and German Leopard 2 tanks are promised, even if Western fighter jets are not.
Ukraine invasion: UK troops will not fight against Russia says Wallace
Laszlo Toroczkai, leader of the Our Homeland party, also claimed the Zakarpattia region, where 150,000 ethnic Hungarians live, and said it should become part of Hungary if Russia annexes Ukraine after the war. “If this war ends up with Ukraine losing its statehood, because this is also on the cards, then as the only Hungarian party taking this position, let me signal that we lay claim to Transcarpathia,” he said. Nato must expect Russian missile strikes on European cities, a senior general has said. “And that’s why I’ve always said that it would be much better for us if Germany supported Ukrainians by adding money to the Ukrainian budget.
He called Russia's assault a "naked, aggressive, military invasion" and said he believed diplomacy was currently "absolutely off the table". HMS Diamond has also left Portsmouth Naval Base as part of the UK's response to support Nato countries in eastern Europe. Mr Zelensky said Ukraine "needs the support of partners more than ever" and called for stronger sanctions. He said these would more likely be smaller nuclear weapons known as tactical nuclear weapons, used within Ukraine. These are different from strategic nuclear weapons, like the ones used by the US in Japan during the Second World War, but would still represent a significant escalation. Many analysts say Beijing in particular is looking on as it formulates its own plans to reunify Taiwan with mainland China.
- Russian troops made two attempts to storm the presidential compound, according to his adviser.
- But that imagined a blitzkrieg-style ground campaign that could take big cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv.
- If fighting is prolonged and civilian casualties mount, pressure on the west to intervene will grow rapidly.
Before the war, President Putin demanded Nato turn the clock back to 1997 and remove its forces and military infrastructure from Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics. Even now, Russia's leader describes the biggest European invasion since the end of World War Two as a "special military operation". Not the full-scale war that has bombed civilians across Ukraine and left more than 13 million either as refugees abroad or displaced inside their own country. Last November, the near 150-metre long ship sailed around the coast of Denmark with its transmitter turned off, while continuously sending radio messages to a naval base in Russia disclosing its positions.
