Ukraine Russia live: Putin faced ‘bloodiest month’ of war as Zelensky meets EU allies

Four people were killed by a Russian missile strike in Ukraine‘s southern Odesa region, Governor Oleh Kiper said

Mr Kiper said a ballistic missile struck a two-storey building where civilians lived and worked. Ten more people were wounded.

Prime minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the support Ukraine would need in its war against Russia in the coming months during talks in London, Starmer’s spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also reiterated Britain’s view that Ukraine has the right, in certain circumstances, to strike targets inside Russian territory, but said that Britain’s stance on the use of its long-range Storm Shadow missiles was unchanged.

“We obviously want to put Ukraine in the strongest position. But no war has ever been won by a single weapon. And on Storm Shadow specifically, there has been no change to the UK government’s position on the use of long-range missiles,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Zelensky also met Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in London. When asked about long-range weapons, Mr Rutte told reporters: “We discussed it today, but in the end it is up to the individual allies.”

Nato will hold a long-planned major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance’s chief said, a few weeks after Vladimir Putin announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine’s Western allies from supporting attacks on his country.

The “Steadfast Noon” exercise starts on Monday and will run for about two weeks. It will be led by Belgium and the Netherlands, use eight military bases and involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. The exercise has been held at roughly the same time each year for over a decade.

Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part. No live munitions are used. The bulk of the exercise is being held around 900km (560 miles) from Russia in the North Sea. Moscow has been informed about the drills, Nato officials say.

Russian militaty command has redeployed around 50,000 troops to its counteroffensive in Kursk oblast against Ukrainian forces, Ukraine’s military chief said.

“We know that about 50,000 troops from other areas have been redeployed to the Kursk front,” Ukraine commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi told public broadcaster Suspilne last night.

This redeployment by Russia has weakened its position as they are pulling in troops from other parts of the war frontline, he noted. “This, of course, made it easier for us to conduct defensive operations,” General Syrskyi said.

Russia is using North Korean military engineers in the Ukraine war to target Kyiv’s forces with ballistic missiles, senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul said.

They added that the Korean fighters operating in occupied areas of the country have already been killed, reported the Guardian.

Around dozens of North Koreans are behind Russian lines as part of teams firing “support launcher systems for KN 23 missiles”, the report added, citing a source.

Russia attacked Ukraine’s port infrastructure almost 60 times in the last three months and is intensifying such strikes, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.

“The purpose of these attacks is to reduce our export potential. We are talking about deliberately provoking a food crisis in those parts of the world that directly depend on Ukrainian grain supplies,” he said.

Mr Kuleba added that strikes damaged or destroyed almost 300 port infrastructure facilities and 22 civilian vessels.

Ukrainian troops can hold their captured territory in Russia’s Kursk for several months, senior US officials said, citing their latest intelligence assessment.

Kyiv’s hold on the territory hinges on the reliable flow of supplies into the region and Russia’s focus on advances in eastern Ukraine, the officials told Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.

Ukrainian troops are now receiving a steady supply of shells after facing months of dire ammunition shortages, the officials said.

In the past three days, Ukrainian and Russian forces continued assaults in Glushkovsky Raion west of the main Ukrainian salient in Kursk but did not make any confirmed advances, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The World Bank’s executive board has approved the creation of a financial intermediary fund (FIF) to support Ukraine, with contributions expected from the United States, Canada and Japan, three sources familiar with the decision said.

The only objection to the vote came from Russia, two of the sources familiar with the vote said.

The fund, to be administered by the World Bank, will help fulfill a pledge by Group of Seven rich democracies to provide Ukraine with up to $50bn in additional funding by the end of the year as it continues to battle Russia’s invasion over two years ago, the sources said.

Exact amounts to be contributed by the US, Japan and Canada are still being worked out, but will be backed by interest from frozen Russian sovereign assets, one of the sources said.