Russia Ukraine’s latest war: Putin threatens the West with new nuclear attack rules as Zelensky addresses the UN

Russia is 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 faint threat of nuclear confrontation between Russia and the West” is regularly raised by Kremlin officials, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The warning comes at a crucial time in the Western political debate about helping Ukraine to instill fear among decision-makers, the ISW said, citing the ongoing debate over Ukraine’s right to use Western-provided systems to carry out long-range attacks against targets. Russian military.

“US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns warned Western policymakers on September 7 not to fear Russia’s sabre-rattling nuclear boilerplate, and the ISW has long identified Russia’s nuclear strikes as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to promote Western self-reliance and not as an indication of readiness Russia used nuclear weapons,” said a think-tank monitoring the Russian invasion.

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

Last week alone, Moscow forces placed more than 900 such weapons in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He has repeatedly asked his Western Kyiv counterpart to help improve Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities to neutralize the threat.

These air-launched weapons are conventional, often Soviet-era weapons equipped with wings and satellite-assisted navigation to extend range and precision.

Also known as “gliding bombs”, they are both cheaper than the ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that Russia fires frequently in Ukraine and are much more numerous. Weighing between 500 kg and 3,000 kg (1,100–6,600 lb), they are often dropped from outside Ukrainian air defenses.

Its destructive power means it could undermine Ukraine’s strongly held defensive positions, which have been steadily crumbling in the east in recent months.

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

Vice-president Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has pledged to continue sending military aid to Ukraine if she is elected, and she will have her own meeting with Mr Zelensky after the Ukrainian leader sits down with President Joe Biden.

But the Ukrainian leader’s talks with Donald Trump seem unlikely to happen. Trump has said he will “probably” meet Zelensky during his visit, but has repeatedly criticized him from afar this week.

As for US support for Ukraine, Trump complained that “we keep giving billions of dollars to people who refuse to make a deal” to end the war.

Ukrainian air defense units shot down at least five drones outside Kyiv and explosions echoed through the city earlier today, Reuters reported.

An airstrike alert remains in effect in Kyiv and across central Ukraine.

“Russia sent a wave of suicide drones and attacked Kyiv in the last five hours. Terrible explosions throughout the city with Ukrainian air defenses can be heard. This city does not sleep very well,” said Christopher Miller, FT correspondent in Ukraine.

The Kremlin called Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan to force Russia to make peace a “fatal mistake” that will have consequences for Kyiv.

In a phone call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This position is a fatal mistake, a systemic mistake. This is an untenable misunderstanding that will certainly have consequences for the Kyiv regime.

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

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

Zelensky told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that the war between Russia and Ukraine cannot be resolved through negotiations alone and that Moscow must be forced into peace.

Russia said its forces had captured two more villages in Ukraine and were attacking the town of Vuhledar, a long-standing Ukrainian stronghold. The report was denied by Ukrainian officials in the region.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had captured the villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka. Donetsk chief Denis Pushilin, who is stationed in Russia, said there was fighting inside Vuhledar, which had a pre-war population of 14,000.

However, the General Staff of the Ukrainian army said that there were eight armed clashes in the Vuhledar region. “Seven enemy attacks stopped near Vuhledar and Vodiane,” he said in a report late last night that indicated other nearby villages. “A war is still going on. The situation is under the control of the Ukrainian defense forces.

Without naming the two villages, Russian officials said their forces had recaptured the northern side, but reported 23 clashes in the sector.

Vadym Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the region, said Russian forces had not yet reached the outskirts of Vuhledar, but reconnaissance groups were operating there. “Our defenders are trying to defeat them. The city has not been captured,” he said in televised comments.

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

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of the Russian state arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and 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 defense ministry before the year outlining a work.

Kupol told the defense ministry in a subsequent update that it could produce drones including the G3 on a scale at a factory in China so that the weapons could be deployed in “special military operations” in Ukraine, a term used by Moscow for the war.

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

Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a defense think-tank in London, said that 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 shipped so far, it’s mostly dual-use items – components, sub-components, that can be used in weapons systems,” he told Reuters. “That’s what’s been reported so far. But what we haven’t seen, at least in open source, is the transfer of all of the documented weapons systems.

Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian defense ministry have not yet responded to the report.

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

Russia’s president said a conventional attack on Moscow backed by nuclear power would be considered a joint attack on his country.

Putin stated that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if Moscow received “reliable information” about the start of a large number of missile launches, aircraft or drones.

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

The threat is aimed at deterring the West from allowing Ukraine to attack Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to lower the usable threshold for 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 plans for the next phase of the war to his allies.

The PM said: “I think we need a long time in the UN General Assembly. And I think that is very important, because it is at a critical stage.

“Obviously, President Zelensky has a plan that he wants to do with all of us – we know that it will happen.

“The support for Ukraine is absolutely firm. We provide quite a lot of capabilities that have been in the last government; we have increased that in this government – which is not a criticism of the last government – and we will always listen very carefully, whether Ukraine says it is necessary with way of ability.

“I don’t think that will be a discussion, I don’t think that the victory plan will be a single issue like long-range missiles, it’s about a strategic and 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 on various issues, and we will listen carefully to what President Zelensky said, and what will happen in the next few days.”