Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin announces plan to deploy new nuclear missile after suspending arms treaty | Russia

North Korean state media has marked the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by blaming Nato and calling the US’s involvement a “trail to self-destruction.”

In comments to state-run news agency KCNA, and reported by Reuters, international affairs critic Kim Yoo-chul said the conflict in Ukraine was the “inevitable product of coercion and hegemony” by the US and its allies. He wrote:

If Ukraine had not blindly taken part in the US policy of anti-Russian confrontation, if it had abandoned the dirty demons of the United States and promoted reconciliation and unity with its neighbours, the situation would not have reached the point where it is as bad as it is now.

The current situation in Ukraine once again proves that there can be no peace in the world at any time unless the United States’ policy of force, tyranny, and greedy aggression… is ended.

North Korea has forged close ties with Russia since Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has publicly supported Moscow in statements as well as at the UN, and has expressed support for Russia’s proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine.

Here are some images we have received of Ukrainian army volunteers receiving Challenger tank training at a military base in southern England.

Based on the UK’s basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the law of armed conflict.

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said a series of cyber-attacks on Wednesday targeting Italian companies and public institutions, including the websites of the defence ministry and police, were “a threat, a warning” from Russia after the prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Ukraine this week.

The attacks, which caused limited damage due to strong cyber-defence systems being in place, were claimed by the Russian group NoName057, which wrote on Telegram that Italy was “Russiaphobic”, while referring to the government’s approval of a sixth military aid package for Ukraine.

Tajani made the comments to reporters on the sidelines of the UN’s emergency special session in New York marking one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meloni met Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Tuesday on her first visit to Ukraine since she came to power in October.

Meloni pledged that Italy would continue to give “military, financial and civil support”.

“Those who support Ukraine, even militarily, are those who work for peace,” she said.

Vladimir Putin has said Russia will deploy its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”, as well as roll out hypersonic missiles and new nuclear submarines.

In an address to mark the “Defender of the Fatherland” holiday on Thursday, Putin said Russia would “pay increased attention” to boost its nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air, Reuters reports.

The Russian leader, who has in recent days has signalled he is ready to rip up the architecture of nuclear arms control, invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to argue that Russia needed modernised armed forces to guarantee its sovereignty.

It comes after he said Russia would halt its participation in New Start, the last major remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the US.

In his address today, Putin said the Sarmat silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be deployed this year. The RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled missile has been in development for years. Russia said it had test-launched the missile in April 2022.

The US believes Russia carried out a test of the Sarmat just before President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv earlier this week and that the fest failed, CNN has reported. The Russian defence ministry has not commented on that report.

In addition, Putin said Russia would continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and would start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles.

In remarks issued by the Kremlin earlier today, Putin said:

With the adoption of the Borei-A nuclear-powered submarine project ‘Emperor Alexander III’ into the navy, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the naval strategic nuclear forces will reach 100%.

Emperor Alexander III, first launched in December, is the seventh Borei-A class submarine and can each carry 16 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Putin said Russia would develop all parts of Russia’s conventional armed forces, improve training, add advanced equipment, bolster the arms industry and promote soldiers who had proven themselves in battle. He said:

A modern, efficient army and navy are a guarantee of the country’s security and sovereignty, a guarantee of its stable development and its future. Therefore, we will continue to pay priority attention to strengthening our defence capability.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the live blog from Geneva Abdul. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

The Ukrainian comedian Vasyl Baidak sparks an unlikely and enduring friendship with retiree Iryna Terekhova when he joins a group of young people from Kyiv to rebuild her home, in a new Guardian documentary.

Terekhova, a devout Orthodox Christian, lives in a farming village in the Chernihiv region. Her house was destroyed during the Russian occupation of March 2022. She reflects on a traumatic time when she was forced to share her cellar with Russian soldiers who said they had come to liberate her, but who devastated her village.

Refusing to leave the area where she has lived most of her life, Terekhova is galvanised by the entrepreneurial spirit of the young Kyiv builders, while Baidak proves that humour is the vital ingredient to bolster their collective spirit.

“I wait for the war to end, that’s when our new year will begin. For now, 2022 still continues,” concludes Iryna.

 

Hello and welcome to those now following today’s live coverage on the war in Ukraine. It’s 1pm in Kyiv.

On the eve of the anniversary of the start of the war, Vladimir Putin has threatened to strengthen Russia’s nuclear forces. His comments were released before an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday.

And Nato’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, says the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.

The UN general assembly is expected to endorse a broad resolution demanding Russia unconditionally and immediately withdraw from Ukraine’s territory by a massive majority. But China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain, underlining their alienation from what they regarded as the west’s war.

We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:

• Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday. The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Brig Gen Oleksiy Gromov said, according to Reuters.
• Finland will send three Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry said, according to Reuters.
• The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has said much-needed ammunition for his troops has been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason. In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the defence ministry had paid off, and he had been told that ammunition was now on its way.
• A Russian fighter plane crashed and the pilot was killed in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, on Thursday . The cause of the crash was a “technical malfunction”, according to preliminary information. The plane crashed in an uninhabited area and there were no reports of other damage.
• Sweden is open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine as it prepares to present another package of aid to help Kyiv fight off the Russian invasion, the country’s defence minister said.
• Moldova dismissed an accusation by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday that Ukraine planned to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria after staging a false-flag operation, and called for calm.
• The US Treasury secretary stepped up calls for increased financing support to Ukraine, as the US readies an additional $10bn in economic assistance in the coming weeks. Janet Yellen said it was critical for the IMF to “move swiftly” towards a fully financed loan programme for Ukraine.
• ‘I think he is not going to stop’, the UK defence secretary has said of Vladimir Putin’s war. Ben Wallace said the conflict in Ukraine could last another year. PA news also reported that Wallace stressed that the war was “not a Nato conflict”.
• Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. Sánchez said: “I’m back in Ukraine a year after the start of the war. We will stay by Ukraine’s side until peace returns to Europe.”
• The town of Vuhledar, in southern Donetsk oblast, has experienced heavy shelling again, according to the UK MoD’s latest defence intelligence update. “There is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort in this area despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022,” the update on Thursday morning said.
• The Chinese government did not consult with Kyiv when preparing its peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official said on condition of anonymity.
• Vladimir Putin will use an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday to threaten to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces. Putin said that for the first time, Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles – a weapon able to carry multiple nuclear warheads – would be deployed this year.

Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.

Brig Gen Oleksiy Gromov said Russia had set the goal of capturing all the territory it does not control in the two regions that make up the industrial Donbas area of eastern Ukraine by the summer, Reuters reports.

The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, he told a military briefing on the eve of Friday’s anniversary of the invasion.

Gromov said:

The enemy, having an advantage in the resource of human mobilisation, is deliberately intensifying hostilities in an effort to deplete the units of the armed forces of Ukraine … In the short term, it is important for the Kremlin to capture the key settlements in the Donetsk region, and in the future to capture [all of] the Donetsk and Luhansk regions before the summer.

Finland will send three Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, Reuters cites the country’s defence ministry as saying on Thursday.

The announcement comes after Sweden’s defence minister said it was open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks.

As reported earlier, the Czech government has announced a further military aid shipment to Ukraine.

Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine:

The Czech government has approved a further military aid shipment to Ukraine and will continue to send equipment from stocks, the defence minister, Jana Černochová, said on Thursday.

Černochová did not disclose details of specific equipment being shipped, reports Reuters, but said the country had so far sent 38 tanks, 55 armoured vehicles, four aircraft and 13 self-propelled howitzers from its military reserves, alongside larger shipments from the private sector.

The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has said much-needed ammunition for his troops has been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason.

On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin published a grisly image of dozens of men who he said had been killed because commanders including the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, had withheld ammunition to spite him, Reuters reports. Neither man commented but the defence ministry rejected the charge.

In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the ministry had paid off, and he had been told that ammunition was now on its way.

“So far it’s all on paper but, so we have been told, the principal documents have already been signed,” Prigozhin said.