Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv responds to report it could be ‘months away’ from developing nuclear weapons

Russia’s losses in Ukraine have soared above 716,000, according to the latest data from Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces.

The latest tally shared this morning said 716,070 Russian troops have been killed or injured in combat in Ukraine. Of these, 1,690 Russian casualties were suffered just over the past day, it added.

Russian daily losses on the front line in Ukraine are the highest they have been since Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion nearly three years ago, the UK army chief claimed.

Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that Russian forces were suffering 1,500 casualties a day and were nearing the 700,000 mark for the total killed and wounded since February 2022. He described the cost of the war on the Russian people as “extraordinary”.

“[This is] the enormous pain and suffering that the Russian nation is having to bear because of Putin’s ambition,” said Sir Tony.

At least two civilians were killed and 28 others were injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine yesterday, regional authorities said.

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones for the first time in 73 days yesterday.

Air raid warnings blared for hours as Russia targeted eight regions of Ukraine, firing six ballistic and cruise missiles and 90 drones, the Ukrainian air force said.

Air defences downed four missiles and 37 drones, and another 47 drones were stopped by electronic jamming, the statement said. The damage was being assessed.

The Ukrainian military shot down 21 out of 59 Russian drones launched during an overnight attack, its air force said on Telegram.

The air force said 38 of the drones were lost from its radar. In total almost “Shahed” type drones were fired by Russia, all from the Kursk region, it said.

Another air raid warning was issued for Kyiv at around 8.45am local time, with the air force saying it was countering the threat.

Russia has deployed up to 200 military instructors to Equatorial Guinea in recent weeks to protect the presidency, sources told Reuters, showing Moscow is expanding its footprint in West Africa despite a recent defeat in Mali.

The sources said the Russians were training elite guards in the two main cities of the tiny oil-exporting country of 1.7 million people, where US energy firms invested billions of dollars in the first decade of the century before scaling down.

The deployment fits into a wider pattern of waning Western influence and increasing Russian interventions in West and Central Africa, where Moscow has sent thousands of mercenaries to protect military regimes and help them fight insurgents.

For Russia, the assignments are a way to make money from government fees and economic opportunities in mining or energy, while defying the West as part of a global geopolitical confrontation playing out most dramatically in Ukraine.

The unit commander who goes by the callsign Kit, or “cat,” pilots the tiny uncrewed aircraft from a basement room he jokingly calls their Airbnb.

Guided by the drone’s night-vision camera, he drops the 10kg (22-pound) packages one by one as close as he can to the position where as many as five infantrymen battle Russian forces in the late autumn chill. The delivery will hold them for two or three days.

That’s about as far as Kit dares look into the future. He knows that the reelection of Donald Trump will change something in his life, but as far as he and other Ukrainian soldiers on the front are concerned, trying to figure out how is a game for politicians.

For him, all that matters is the distance he measures in the meters (yards) that Russian forces advance or retreat in the front-line sector that is his responsibility.

Donald Trump may look to rekindle a conversation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “sooner rather than later”, an analyst has suggested.

With reports of 10,000 North Korean troops being deployed to Russia, as both nations ratified a new military pact, Bulent Gokay, professor of international relations at Keele University, suggested the US president-elect could also soon look to reopen a dialogue with the pariah state.

Professor Gokay said: “Since Trump last met with Kim, the North has greatly expanded its military arsenal, in particular massive intercontinental ballistic missiles and hypersonic and short-range weapons that could deliver nuclear warheads against the US mainland or military bases in the region.

“Despite this, Trump may feel that his engagement worked well during his first presidency in that he feels that he can ‘solve’ the North Korean nuclear issue without any violent encounter. So, he may look to rekindle a conversation with Kim sooner or later.”

Donald Trump is expected to appoint a Ukrainian peace envoy tasked with negotiating an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, reported Fox News.

One of the sources aware of the matter said the diplomatic appointment will happen “in short order”.

“You’re going to see a very senior special envoy, someone with a lot of credibility, who will be given a task to find a resolution, to get to a peace settlement,” the sources said.

During his campaign, the US president-elect repeatedly said he could quickly end the fighting in Ukraine but did not offer details of how he would accomplish that. The Kremlin earlier welcomed Mr Trump’s claim that he could negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine “in 24 hours” but emphasised that it will wait for concrete policy steps.