Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow vows to fire more ballistic missiles as Putin hints at striking West
Putin vowed to launch more intermediate-range ballistic missiles targeting Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.Moscow has vowed to continue testing experimental hypersonic missiles as Vladimir Putin threatened to strike the West in a coded message.
Putin warned that Russia would continue to carry out tests of the “Oreshnik” intermediate-range ballistic missiles in “combat conditions” following a devastating strike on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
“We will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation,” the Russian leader said.
He added that Thursday’s attack was a direct response to Ukrainian forces striking Russia with US and British long-range missiles - something Moscow sees as an escalation of the conflict.
“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” he said on Friday.
He claimed the new missile could be fitted with several conventional warheads and could be as devastating as strategic nuclear weapons.
Ukrainian air defence forces said the missile – which has a range of more than 3,400 miles and can be used to carry nuclear warheads – was fired from Russia’s Astrakhan region, on the Caspian Sea.
Despite the Kremlin’s rhetoric, Russian officials notified the United States about Thursday’s attack 30 minutes before launching the missile.
Listen: Starmer denies UK at war after Ukraine fires British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
Senior North Korean general wounded in Ukrainian strike on Kursk, Western officials say
A senior North Korean general has been wounded in a Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Kursk region, Western officials have told the Wall Street Journal.
Washington has previously warned that the 10,000 North Korean troops reportedly deployed in Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces staged an incursion in August, could be targeted by Russian forces. But the fresh claims mark the first time Western officials have said that a North Korean military officer has become a casualty.
The officials did not disclose the identity of the senior North Korean officer or how he was wounded, the outlet reports.
Trump’s ‘favoured Ukraine envoy’ says Medvedev’s World War 3 warning ‘not getting enough coverage'
Former US-Germany ambassador Richard Grenell, who Reuters reports is Donald Trump’s favoured pick for a new Ukraine war envoy post, has warned that the US media is not giving enough coverage to former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s claims over the prospect of World War 3.
In an insight into Mr Grenell’s thinking on the war, as reports suggest he could be tasked with playing a major role in Mr Trump’s efforts to bring the conflict to a rapid pause, he has appeared critical of outgoing US president Joe Biden’s authorisation of allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with US missiles.
In one post on X, he said: “Joe Biden authorizes Ukraine to launch missiles inside Russia - and then orders an evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev. Infuriating. Biden can’t even pick up the phone to speak to Putin.”
In another post, Mr Grenell shared a claim by Mr Medvedev, in which the Russian hawk said: “Russia’s new nuclear doctrine means Nato missiles fired against our country could be deemed an attack by the bloc on Russia. Russia could retaliate with WMD against Kiev and key Nato facilities, wherever they’re located. That means World War III.”
Mr Grenell wrote: “This isn’t getting enough media coverage in America.”
Trump considering ex-intelligence chief Richard Grenell for Ukraine envoy, sources say
Donald Trump is considering tapping his former intelligence chief Richard Grenell to hold a new role of US special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, four sources familiar with the White House transition plans have told Reuters.
Mr Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany and was acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s 2017-2021 term, campaigned for Mr Trump in the lead up to the US election, was a top contender to be secretary of state – but was ultimately passed over for senator Marco Rubio.
While there is currently no special envoy dedicated solely to resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Mr Trump is considering creating the role, according to the four sources.
Mr Grenell’s supporters note he has had a long diplomatic career and has a deep knowledge of European affairs. In addition to serving as ambassador to Germany, Grenell was also a special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.
In remarks that will worry Kyiv, Mr Grenfell advocated in July for the creation of “autonomous zones” as a means of settling the conflict, and has also suggested he would not be in favour of Ukraine joining Nato in the immediate future, a position he shares with many Trump allies.
Russia’s claim of emissions in annexed Ukraine regions draws protests at COP29
Russia has included occupied Ukrainian territories in its recent greenhouse gas inventory report to the United Nations, sparking fury among Ukrainian officials and activists at the Cop29 climate summit.
“We see that Russia is using international platforms to legalise their actions, to legalise their occupation of our territory,” Ukraine’s deputy environment minister Olga Yukhymchuk told Reuters, adding that Kyiv is in touch with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to resolve the dispute.
In its 2022 annual report of greenhouse gas emissions, Russia claimed it could only provide data for 85 out of 89 of its territories “due to the absence of baseline data on land use for the territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, annexed in September 2022”.
Russia had previously included emissions from Ukraine’s Crimea region, annexed in 2014, in its recent reporting submissions to the UNFCCC.
Ukrainian environment minister Svitlana Grynchuk raised the issue in a speech to delegates at the Cop29 summit earlier this week, saying Russia’s reporting on Ukraine territories undermines the integrity of global climate efforts.
Warning of the risk of double-counting emissions in territories that together exceed the size of Portugal and Azerbaijan, Ms Grynchuk said: “It will bring us to a point that we do not achieve any of our goals if we don’t have proper reporting under the Paris Agreement.”
Breakthrough UN treaty on crimes against humanity moves forward – despite Russian stalling
A key UN General Assembly committee has adopted a resolution paving the way for negotiations on the first-ever treaty on preventing and punishing crimes against humanity – after Russia dropped amendments that would have derailed the effort.
The resolution – which marks the first ever global treaty on punishing crimes against humanity – was approved by consensus by the assembly’s legal committee, which includes all 193-member UN nations, after tense last-minute negotiations between its supporters and Russia that dragged through the day.
There was loud applause when the chairman of the committee gaveled the resolution’s approval. It is nearly certain to be adopted when the General Assembly puts it to a final vote on 4 December.
“Today’s agreement to start up negotiations on a much-needed international treaty is an historic achievement that was a long time coming,” Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch’s senior legal adviser for advocacy, told The Associated Press.
“It sends a crucial message that impunity for the kinds of crimes inflicted on civilians in Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, southern Israel, Gaza and Myanmar will not go unheeded,” he said.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Maria Zabolotskaya said Russia withdrew the amendments “in a spirit of compromise.” But she said Russia “dissociates itself from consensus.”
Russia is secretly developing a petrifying new weapon
Russia is secretly developing a petrifying new weapon
The thermobaric warheads have a fearsome reputation due to the injuries inflicted, including collapsed lungs and crushed eyeballs
North Korea sent more conventional weapons to Russia
North Korea sent more conventional weapons to Russia, South Korea says
South Korea's spy agency says that North Korea has recently supplied additional artillery systems to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine
Putin orders mass production of new ballistic missile
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russia will begin mass producing its new “Oreshnik” hypersonic ballistic missile that it fired at Ukraine on Thursday.
“There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system,” Mr Putin said in a televised meeting on Friday.
Experts say Oreshnik may be capable of flying at nearly 10 times the speed of sound and could strike targets up to 5,500km (3,400 miles) away.
Kremlin said it used the new missile in Ukraine in response to “Western escalation”.
“It is necessary to establish serial production,” the Russian president said.
Comment: It’s not yet World War Three – but ‘World War Z’ has begun
It’s not yet World War Three – but ‘World War Z’ has begun
Joe Biden granting Ukraine permission to use Nato-supplied rockets to attack military targets within Russia is an escalation of a European conflict now past its 1,000th day – and, though it is far from being a global conflict, the West is effectively now at war with Putin’s forces, says Mark Almond
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