Ukraine-Russia war latest: At least 23 injured in Kharkiv missile strike as Putin launches mass drone attack

Britain and its allies will not be intimidated by Russian cyberthreats into stopping supporting Ukraine, cabinet office minister Pat McFadden has told Nato, urging the military alliance to work together more closely to stay ahead in “the new AI arms race”.

Addressing a Nato Cyber Defence Conference in London, Mr McFadden warned that Nato, businesses and institutions must do “everything they can to lock their own digital doors” to protect themselves from what he called an increasingly aggressive Russia.

And he called for Ukraine’s allies to double down on their support for Kyiv against Vladimir Putin, who he said was trying “to deter our support for Ukraine with his threats”.

“We will not join those voices of weakness who want to give Putin a veto over our help for Ukraine,” Mr McFadden said.

“While no one should underestimate the Russian aggressive and reckless cyber threat to Nato, we will not be intimidated by it and we will never allow it to dictate our decisions or policies. And we will do everything we can to defend our countries against it.”

Former Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that Mocow’s war with Kyiv will not end quickly even after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office next year.

“I do not expect any quick ending of the war,” Mr Kuleba told CNN.

“What I know for certain is that first: [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy will not leave under pressure,” he said. “Second, Ukraine will not agree to any quick solution. And third, most importantly, I would like to remind everyone that the key to peace lies in Moscow not in Kyiv.”

The Ukrainian president earlier this month said the war will end “faster” when Mr Trump takes over as US president.

Mr Trump had claimed repeatedly that the Ukraine-Russia war would not have started if he had been president and would settle the war in one day.

Donald Trump’s top security advisor has called for an end to the escalation of the war between Ukraine and Russia, urging both nations to come to the negotiating table.

“We need to bring this to a responsible end. We need to restore deterrence, restore peace, and get ahead of this escalation ladder, rather than responding to it,” said Mike Waltz, the president-elect’s pick for national security adviser.

“President Trump has been very clear about the need to end this conflict,” he told Fox News yesterday.

“We need to be discussing who’s at that table, whether it’s an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides to the table and then what’s the framework of a deal?”

The US Air Force has said that a number of small drones were detected last week around three bases in eastern England used by American forces.

The drones were spotted between Wednesday and Friday near RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell. They were actively monitored after they were seen in the vicinity of and over the three bases, U.S. Air Forces Europe said in a statement.

The Air Force didn’t identify who was behind the incursions, but said base officials determined there was no impact on residents or critical infrastructure.

James Scott Rhys Anderson, who says he is a former British soldier, has been captured in Russia’s Kursk region while fighting for Ukraine, according to Russian state media.

The 22-year-old man’s father told the Daily Mail he feared his son would be tortured, while the UK Foreign Office confirmed it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention”.

His capture would mark one of the first known cases of a Western national being captured on Russian soil while fighting for Ukraine.

So, who is Mr Anderson, and how did this man come to be captured by Russian forces?

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and Nato chief Mark Rutte discussed possible ways to end Russia’s war in Ukraine during talks in Ankara on Monday, the Turkish presidency has said.

“During the meeting, what can be done to end the Ukraine-Russia war and the massacre in Palestine were discussed,” the presidency said on X.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are straining to hold back Russian offensives in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russian forces recently have gained ground at “a significantly quicker rate” than they did in the whole of last year, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank.

The Russians have detected and are exploiting weaknesses in the Ukrainian defenses, the think-tank said.

A Russian man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of high treason for a video he allegedly sent to Ukraine’s security services showing russian military equipment.

The Volgograd District Court said Nikita Zhuravel had been “in disagreement with the political course of the Russian Federation” and entered into correspondence with a representative from Ukraine’s security services online and carried out tasks for him. It did not give details on the tasks.

Mr Zhuravel is already serving a 42-month sentence for burning a Quran in front of a mosque, which was handed down in February.

Prosecutors said he filmed a trainload of military equipment and warplanes in 2023 and sent the video to a representative of Ukraine’s security agency.

But rights activists say Zhuravel is a political prisoner who was beaten while in custody, by the 15-year-old son of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed strongman leader of the Muslim-majority region of Chechnya. The warlord posted the video on social media and praised his son, causing public outrage.

Treason and espionage cases have skyrocketed after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with cases targeting a wide range of suspects, from Kremlin critics and independent journalists to scientists.