Ukraine-Russia war live: US president Biden says Putin ‘will not prevail’ in meeting with Zelensky

Russia is very unlikely to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or elsewhere, a US-based think tank has assessed shortly after Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for Moscow’s nuclear response.

The “thinly veiled threats of nuclear confrontation between Russia and the West” are routinely invoked by the Kremlin officials, The Institute for the Study of War said.

The warnings are made during key moments in Western political debates over assisting Ukraine to induce fear among decision makers, the ISW said, citing the ongoing debate about Ukraine’s right to use Western-provided systems to conduct long-range strikes against Russian military objects.

“US Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns cautioned Western policymakers on 7 September against fearing boilerplate Russian nuclear sabre-rattling, and ISW has long identified Russia’s nuclear sabre-rattling as part of the Kremlin’s effort to promote Western self-deterrence and not as indicative of Russia’s willingness to use nuclear weapons,” the think-tank monitoring Russia’s invasion said.

Russia is increasingly using highly destructive guided bombs, pummeling Ukrainian forces on the battlefield as well as towns and cities near the front line.

Last week alone, Moscow’s forces dropped more than 900 such weapons on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He has repeatedly called on Kyiv’s Western partners to help boost Ukraine‘s long-range strike capabilities to neutralise the threat.

What are guided bombs?

The air-launched weapons are conventional, often Soviet-era ordnance that have been fitted with wings and satellite-aided navigation to extend their range and precision.

Also known as “glide bombs”, they are both cheaper than the ballistic and cruise missiles Russia regularly fires at Ukraine and more abundant. Weighing between 500 kg and 3,000 kg (1,100-6,600 lb), they are often dropped from beyond the range of Ukrainian air defences.

Their destructive power means they can ravage even strongly fortified Ukrainian defensive positions, which have been steadily crumbling in parts of the east in recent months.

Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Washington today as US support for his country’s fight against Russia faces a partisan reckoning in this year’s presidential election.

Vice president Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has pledged to continue sending military assistance to Ukraine if she’s elected, and she’ll have her own meeting with Mr Zelensky after the Ukrainian leader sits down with president Joe Biden.

But the Ukrainian leader’s expected talks with Donald Trump appear increasingly unlikely to happen. Trump had said he would “probably” meet Zelensky during the visit, but has instead repeatedly criticised him from afar this week.

As for US support for Ukraine, Trump complained that “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal” to end the war.

Ukrainian air defence units shot down at least five drones outside Kyiv and explosions resounded in the city early today, Reuters reported.

Air raid alerts remained in effect in Kyiv and throughout most of central Ukraine.

“Russia has sent waves of suicide drones and attacked Kyiv for the last five hours. Explosions reverberating across the city with Ukrainian air defence clearly audible. The city hasn’t gotten much sleep tonight,” said Christopher Miller, FT’s correspondent in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has called a plan by Volodymyr Zelensky to force Russia to make peace a “fatal mistake” that would have consequences for Kyiv.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Such a position is a fatal mistake, a systemic mistake. This is a profound misconception that will inevitably have consequences for the Kyiv regime.”

Peskov said that Russia wants peace, but the issue cannot be forced, adding: “A position based on an attempt to force Russia into peace is an absolutely fatal mistake, because it is impossible to force Russia into peace.”

He said: “Russia is a supporter of peace, but on the condition that the foundations of its security are ensured.”

Zelensky told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that the war between Russia and Ukraine could not be calmed by talks alone and that Moscow must be forced into peace.

Russia says its forces have captured two more villages in Ukraine and were attacking in the town of Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold. The reports have been denied by Ukrainian officials in the region.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken the villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka. The Russia-installed head of Donetsk Denis Pushilin said fighting was taking place inside Vuhledar, which had a pre-war population of 14,000.

However, Ukraine army’s General Staff said there had been eight armed clashes in the Vuhledar area. “Seven enemy assaults were stopped near Vuhledar and Vodiane,” it said in late night report referring to another nearby village. “One battle is still going on. The situation is under the control of Ukraine’s defence forces.”

It made no mention of the two villages Russian officials said their forces had captured further north, but reported 23 clashes in that sector.

Vadym Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the region, said Russia’s troops had not reached the outskirts of Vuhledar but it’s reconnaissance groups were operating there. “Our defenders are trying to knock them out. The town has not been captured,” he said in televised comments.

Russia has a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine, two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents reviewed by Reuters confirm.

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists, according to one of the documents, a report that Kupol sent to the Russian defence ministry earlier this year outlining its work.

Kupol told the defence ministry in a subsequent update that it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a factory in China so the weapons could be deployed in the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term Moscow uses for the war.

The G3 drones can travel about 2,000km (1,200 miles) with a payload of 50kg (110 pounds), according to the reports to the Russian defence ministry from Kupol.

Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defence think-tank, said the delivery of UAVs from China to Russia, if confirmed, would be a significant development.

“If you look at what China is known to have delivered so far, it was mostly dual-use goods - it was components, sub-components, that could be used in weapon systems,” he told Reuters. “This is what has been reported so far. But what we haven’t really seen, at least in the open source, are documented transfers of whole weapon systems.”

Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian defence ministry have not issued a response to the reports.

Vladimir Putin has lowered the bar for Russia to respond with a nuclear attack, amid ongoing discussions in Washington over Ukraine’s use of Western-provided long-range weapons.

The Russian president has said any conventional attack on Moscow that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.

Putin claimed that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if Moscow received “reliable information” about the start of a massive launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.

Speaking at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, which considers changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, Mr Putin announced that a revised version of the document says that an attack against Russia by a non-nuclear power with the support of a nuclear power will be seen as their “joint attack on the Russian Federation”.

The threat aims to discourage the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Ukraine’s desire to use western missiles to strike targets in Russia will not be the “sole issue” in Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Sir Keir is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where Mr Zelensky will present his plan for the next stage of the war to his allies.

The PM said: “I do think it’s going to take quite a bit of time at the UN General Assembly. And I think that’s really important, because it’s at a critical stage.

“Obviously, President Zelensky has a plan that he wants to walk through with all of us – we knew that was going to happen.

“The support for Ukraine is resolute. We supply quite a lot of capability already under the last government; we’ve increased that under this government – that’s not a criticism of the last government – and we will always listen very carefully to what Ukraine says it needs by way of capability.

“I don’t think that will be a discussion, I don’t think the victory plan will be about a sole issue like long-range missiles, it will be about a strategic, overarching route for Ukraine to find a way through this and succeed against Russian aggression.”

When pressed on Storm Shadows, he said: “We will have discussions about a whole range of issues, and we will listen carefully to what President Zelensky’s got to say, and that’s what’s going to happen in the next few days.”