Ukraine war latest: Putin’s forces in hypersonic cruise missile drills

The Russian Defence Ministry has said its forces had gained control of two new settlements, Romanivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, and Novodarivka, in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The Independent could not verify this claim.

A Foreign Office minister has denied the UK changed its approach to Ukraine when the Prime Minister mentioned “negotiations” to secure peace in eastern Europe.

Catherine West pledged the UK would support Kyiv in pursuit of “a just peace on its own terms”.

Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel had asked her whether Sir Keir Starmer’s comments represented “a departure from the current approach” towards the conflict.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in the City of London on Monday, the Prime Minister vowed to “continue to back Ukraine and do what it takes to support their self-defence for as long as it takes, to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence, and right to choose their own future”.

An alleged Russian spy ring targeted Ukrainian soldiers at a US military base in Germany who were believed to be training to use a crucial air defence system to defend against Russia’s invasion, British prosecutors have said.

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, are accused of being part of a sophisticated spying network run by a Russian agent named as Jan Marsalek, which planned six operations from Britain.

Prosecutors say the trio – along with Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, who have admitted being part of the conspiracy – carried out surveillance of journalists and planned to stage a fake protest outside the Kazakh embassy in London.

The trio are accused of acting under the direction of Roussev who was receiving instructions from Marsalek, an Austrian national who used the false name Rupert Ticz and was chief operating officer of collapsed payments company Wirecard.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan told the jury on Tuesday that in late 2022, Marsalek tasked Roussev with surveilling a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, though the operation was cut short after the defendants were arrested.

Morgan said Marsalek believed the base was being used to train Ukrainian forces to use the Patriot air defence system.

The surveillance was carried out in October and November 2022, “at an absolutely crucial time in terms of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” she said.

Ivanova, Gaberova and Ivanchev deny the accusations.

A number of Nato members are waiting for the new US administration to take office before making up their minds on Ukraine’s request for an invitation to join the alliance, Latvia’s foreign minister has said.

Kyiv has urged Nato foreign ministers to issue an invitation at a meeting in Brussels this week, but movement appears unlikely amid opposition from some capitals and the transition in Washington.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he will end Russia’s war with Ukraine in a day, but his team’s plans for Ukraine policy remain unclear.

“In principle, we as political leaders have agreed that Ukraine will be a member,” Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže told Reuters.

“The issue is what conditions when, and obviously that is where the alliance has to come together. All allies, currently, everybody is waiting for the new US administration to start working, so I think that is one aspect that is said or unsaid, but it’s a reality.”

Braže, a former senior Nato official, said Ukraine’s battle-hardened military would be an asset for Nato, and that her country would be in favour of inviting Ukraine to join if a decision was on the table.

“A number of countries don’t necessarily feel comfortable inviting a country at war to join Nato,” the minister said, adding: “We are more flexible.”

Italy is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine, two sources close to the matter have said, in a renewed show of support for Kyiv from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Italy has approved nine packages of aid for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration, including two Franco-Italian air defence systems known as SAMP/T.

The sources, who asked not to be named, told news agency Reuters the government was likely to approve a 10th package by the end of this month, but declined to provide details. All shipments have so far been covered by state secrecy.

Meloni has been a supporter of Kyiv since taking office in late 2022 and has vowed to back Ukraine until the war ends, amid uncertainty over the future attitude of the U.S. once president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Ukraine needs robust security guarantees and a just peace, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said, adding Kyiv alone would decide when to start negotiations with Russia.

“If we talk about peace, it must be a just peace, it must not be a frozen conflict, that only leads to further armaments and further attacks on Ukraine or even on other European countries,” said Baerbock on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.

“Security guarantees are needed that are effective,” she said.

Ukraine has conducted a test on new domestically made missiles and is ramping up missile production, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Zelensky said on the Telegram  messaging app that he had received reports from his military on the test.

“We can thank our Ukrainian missile developers. We are speeding up the production,” he said, without providing further details.

Zelensky said in August that Ukraine had conducted its first test of a domestically-produced ballistic missile.

Ukraine, locked in a 33-months-long war against a much bigger and militarily better-equipped Russia, is ramping up domestic production in an attempt to speed up weapons supplies and decrease its dependency on Western aid deliveries.