Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin says threat of nuclear war rising

The US has denounced “loose talk” on nuclear weapons after Putin mused on rising risks of nuclear war but said Moscow would not strike first.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price said: “We think any loose talk of nuclear weapons is absolutely irresponsible.”

Price said nuclear powers around the world since the Cold War, including China, India, the United States and Russia itself, have been clear that “a nuclear war is something that must never be fought and can never be won”.

“We think any other rhetoric – whether it is nuclear sabre-rattling or even raising the spectre of the use of tactical nuclear weapons – is something that is irresponsible,” Price said.

“It is dangerous and it goes against the spirit of that statement that has been at the core of the nuclear non-proliferation regime since the Cold War,” he said.

Italy’s most famous opera house, Teatro alla Scala, has opened its new season with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov”, against the backdrop of Ukrainian protests that the cultural event is a propaganda win for the Kremlin during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Italian Prime Minister Meloni, in her first cultural outing since taking office, attended La Scala’s gala premiere in Milan, joining Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Ursula von der Leyen in the royal box.

A group of about 30 Ukrainians gathered outside the theatre to protest highlighting Russian culture while Putin wages a war rooted in the denial of a unique Ukrainian culture.

US Deputy Secretary of Treasury Wally Adeyemo has told Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal in a call that the price cap on Russian oil does not necessitate additional checks on ships passing through Turkish territorial waters, the US Treasury Department said.

A Turkish measure in force since the start of the month has caused a logjam by requiring vessels to provide proof they have insurance covering the duration of their transit through the Bosphorus strait or when calling at Turkish ports.

“The UK, US and EU are working closely with the Turkish government and the shipping and insurance industries to clarify the implementation of the Oil Price Cap and reach a resolution,” a United Kingdom Treasury official said.

At least 20 oil tankers continue to face delays to cross from Russia’s Black Sea ports to the Mediterranean as operators race to adhere to the Turkish rules.

The Ukraine conflict has cast a shadow over a high-stakes UN summit on biodiversity in Montreal, as Western nations slammed the environmental destruction that has been brought about by Russia’s invasion.

The broadsides by the European Union and New Zealand – which spoke on behalf of other countries, including the United States – came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “ecocide” and of devastating his country’s dolphin population.

Russia fired back that the meeting was an inappropriate forum and accused its critics of attempting to sabotage a new global deal for nature.

“The war brings about pollution and long-term environmental degradation, destroying protected areas and natural habitats,” Ladislav Miko, an EU representative at the meeting, known as COP15, said.

“While the war rages on, it blocks much-needed action on nature conservation and restoration,” he added.

Russian forces have fired more than 1,000 rockets and missiles at Ukraine’s power grid, which is still working despite taking major damage, Interfax Ukraine news agency cited a senior official as saying.

Volodymyr Kudrytsky, chief executive of the Ukrenergo grid operator, also told a meeting arranged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) that his officials were scouring the world for the complex equipment needed for repairs.

“These attacks represent the biggest blow to a power grid that humanity has ever seen. More than 1,000 shells and rockets were fired at electrical facilities and lines, including substations,” Interfax Ukraine cited Kudrytsky as saying.

Ukraine now has a serious shortage of generating capacity, even though consumption is down between 25 percent and 30 percent compared with the pre-war period.

“The system is still working, it is integrated, not broken or disconnected,” Kudrytsky said.

British tennis chiefs say they are “disappointed” at being fined $1m by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for banning Russian and Belarusian players from its events.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) came under pressure from the British government to impose a ban. Russian and Belarusian players were barred from all five tournaments that the LTA stages in the calendar of the ATP.

While responding to the latest sanction, the LTA accused the ATP of a “lack of empathy” for the situation in Ukraine, saying in a statement: “The LTA is deeply disappointed with this outcome.

“The ATP, in its finding, has shown no recognition of the exceptional circumstances created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or the international sporting community and UK Government’s response to that invasion.”

The statement said the fines would have a financial effect on the LTA’s ability to “develop and host” tennis in the UK.

An alleged Russian agent who was involved in US election interference efforts in 2020 has been charged with fraud and money laundering over purchases of high-end condominiums in California.

The US Department of Justice said Andrii Derkach, whose whereabouts remain unknown, hid his identity from banks as he spent $3.9m to buy two Beverly Hills residences in 2013.

Derkach, a wealthy member of the Ukraine parliament who the US says is a trained Russian intelligence operative, used the units for his family, according to the indictment.

Derkach’s father was director of the Ukraine Security Service, and he attended the Russian security ministry’s intelligence academy before joining the Ukraine security service as well.

In June, Derkach was accused by the Ukrainian government of supporting Russia’s invasion and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The European Commission has proposed a ninth package of sanctions on Russia, including adding almost 200 additional individuals and entities on the sanctions list.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement the EU also proposes to introduce sanctions against three additional Russian banks and also wants to impose new export controls and restrictions, particularly for dual-use goods including key chemicals, nerve agents, electronics and IT components.

“Russia continues to bring deaths and devastation to Ukraine. It is deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure,” von der Leyen said.

“But we stand by Ukraine, and we will make Russia pay for its cruelty.”

Von der Leyen also said the bloc would look to curb supplies of drones to Moscow and take four more Russian “propaganda” channels off air.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has dismissed criticism by Ukraine’s president about his office’s preparations for a winter of Russian air raids, saying he believed it was driven by politics and that it looked “strange”.

During one of his nightly video addresses to Ukrainians last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused city authorities of failing to provide enough shelters despite the energy system being pounded by Russian attacks.

Klitschko has responded to the accusations by saying Kyiv had considerably more heating hubs than any other city in Ukraine.

“It looks strange when we are united against a single enemy, but we start to fight within the country,” he said.

Klitschko was seen as one of Zelenskyy’s highest-profile opponents before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

“I am convinced that politics is behind this, because representatives of one political group began to run around trying to find faults [in Kyiv],” he said.

Russian and Belarusian athletes’ qualification and participation at the 2024 Paris summer Olympics is still unclear and no date has been set for a final decision on the matter, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has said.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, many sports bodies have moved events and suspended Russian teams or athletes while sponsors ended contracts in protest against the war.

The IOC had also recommended that events in Russia be cancelled or relocated and that Russian and Belarusian athletes not take part or compete under a neutral flag. However, it has repeatedly said the ban of those athletes was not part of the sanctions but was a protective measure.

“We had to act against our own values and mission to unify the world under peaceful competition,” Bach said. “What we never did and did not want to do was prohibit athletes from competing in competitions only due to their passports.”

Uzbekistan’s energy minister says they will not agree to political conditions that would jeopardise its national interests after a Russian proposal for a “gas union” including the Central Asian country.

Russia said it discussed a gas union with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan last month to support shipments between the three countries and other buyers, including China.

It is part of a shift in Moscow’s strategy since its invasion of Ukraine.

But the Uzbek minister, Jorabek Mirzamahmudov, said Uzbekistan had yet to receive the proposal.

“Even if a gas agreement is concluded with Russia, this does not mean a union,” he said.

Negotiations were being conducted to deliver Russian gas by pipeline via Kazakhstan, but this would be a “technical contract”, not a union.

“If we import gas from another country, we cooperate only based on a commercial, sales contract. We will never agree to political conditions in exchange for gas. In short, we will get the gas contract offered to us only if we agree to it, otherwise not,” he said.

President Biden’s administration has added 24 companies and other entities which have supported Russia militarily, Pakistan’s nuclear activities or supplied an Iranian electronics company to an export-control list.

The entities, based in Latvia, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland, were added over US national security and foreign policy concerns, the Commerce Department said.

The companies include Fiber Optic Solutions in Latvia, which produces fibre optic gyroscopes and other equipment and Russia’s AO Kraftway Corporation PSC, which calls itself one of the biggest Russian IT companies.

The Commerce Department also added four trading and supply companies in Singapore for supplying or attempting to supply an Iranian electronics company, Pardazan System Namad Arman.

A Ukrainian priest from a church affiliated with Russia is sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of assisting Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

The state prosecutors said the priest, from the Luhansk region, had been collecting information on equipment and weapons held by the Ukrainian military since mid-April.

“The enemy used the information to establish the location and fire on targets,” they wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s government has been tasked with creating a law banning churches affiliated with Russia under what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was necessary to prevent Moscow from being able to “weaken Ukraine from within”.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has carried out a series of raids on parishes that Kyiv says could be taking orders from Moscow.

Russian shelling has killed at least six people and set buildings on fire in the town of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, put the death toll higher.

He said eight people had been killed and five wounded in the attack, in which a market, bus station, petrol stations and residential buildings came under fire.

“Terrorists attacked the peaceful town of Kurakhove, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “Terrorists are inhuman. And they will be held to account for it.”

Kurakhove is in the Donetsk region, which has seen some of the heaviest fighting since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24.

President Vladimir Putin says the risk of a nuclear war is rising but insists Russia has not “gone mad” and saw its own nuclear arsenal as a purely defensive deterrent.

Nevertheless, Putin said Russia would defend its territory and its allies “with all available means”, adding that it was the United States, not Russia, that had deployed “tactical” nuclear weapons in other countries.

The United States is very clear with Ukraine about accountability over weapons systems and its concerns over the escalation of the war with Russia, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

“We have been consistent on our concerns over escalation. We have not encouraged them to do that,” Kirby told reporters after alleged Ukrainian drone raids on two airbases inside Russia

Meanwhile, Kirby said the US had not seen evidence that Iran has transferred ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine.

“We know that their defence industrial base is being taxed,” Kirby said of Russia.

“We know they’re having trouble keeping up with that pace. We know that he’s (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) having trouble replenishing specifically precision-guided munitions.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the fighting in Ukraine could last for a long time but there is no need to mobilise additional soldiers.

“As for the duration of the special military operation, well, of course, this can be a long process,” Putin said.

But he said there was “no sense” in another round of mobilisation at this point, after a call-up of 300,000 reservists in September and October.

Putin said that out of that total,150,000 were now deployed in Ukraine, of those, 77,000 were in combat units, with the remainder performing defensive functions.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia will fight to defend its interests using all available means.

Putin spoke at a televised annual session of his Human Rights Council, where he said Western rights organisations viewed Russia as “a second-class country that has no right to exist at all”.

“This is what we are dealing with,” Putin said.

“There can be only one answer from our side – a consistent struggle for our national interests. We will do just that. And let no one count on anything else.”

He continued: “Yes, we will do this by various ways and means. First of all, of course, we will focus on peaceful means, but if nothing else remains, we will defend ourselves with all the means at our disposal.”

Putin was speaking in the 10th month of the Ukraine war, responding to comments by a member of the rights council who said Ukrainian forces were shelling residential areas of the Russian-controlled Donetsk region.

For the past week, suspicious packages have been sent to Ukrainian embassies across Europe, all bearing the address of a Tesla car dealership in the town of Sindelfingen in Germany, and usually sent from post offices without video surveillance, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Facebook that 31 Ukrainian missions in 15 countries had received such packages in what he called a “campaign of terror against Ukrainian diplomats”.

Ukraine said last week “bloody packages” containing animal eyes had been sent to some of its embassies in Europe, after a letter bomb detonated at its embassy in Spain, injuring a security guard.

“All the envelopes have the same sender address: the Tesla car dealership in the German town of Sindelfingen. Usually, the shipment was made from post offices that were not equipped with video surveillance systems,” Kuleba wrote.

“Criminals also took measures not to leave traces of their DNA on the packages. This, in particular, indicates the professional level of implementation.”

“I don’t remember any instance in history that so many embassies and consulates of one country have been subjected to such mass attacks in such a short period of time.”

Here are four maps, which we update daily, charting the latest war developments.