Nato nuclear weapons sent to Poland will be a priority target, Kremlin threatens

Nato nuclear weapons would become a primary target for Russia if they were deployed to Poland, Kremlin officials have warned.

“Moves in this direction will not provide greater security (for Poland or other nations that host such weapons),” said Sergei Ryabkov, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister.

Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that any nuclear weapons deployed to Poland would be legitimate targets in the event of war with the alliance.

It came as Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, said Russia had deployed “several dozen” tactical nuclear weapons in his country.

Belarus said last June it had begun taking delivery of the weapons, the first time that Russia has deployed nuclear missiles in a foreign country since the Soviet era.

02:12 PM BST

Thank you for following today’s live blog

Thank you for following today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

We will be back soon with the latest updates from the conflict.

02:08 PM BST

‘Europe could die’, warns Macron as he hits out at relying on self-interested US

Emmanuel Macron warned Europe “can die”, as he declared the US was more concerned about “themselves” and China than the Continent.

In a flagship speech, the French president said the days of outsourcing its security to Washington were over since Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine had brought war to Europe’s backyard.

Mr Macron called on the EU to deepen European defence cooperation in a “paradigm shift” and suggested France’s nuclear arsenal could provide security guarantees to the EU.

Mr Macron said the EU had to punch its geopolitical weight in the world and prove “that it’s never going to be the, say, the lapdog of the United States and know how to speak with all of the other regions of the world.”

“We’re reacting too slowly [...] whichever way you look at it, the United States have two priorities; themselves. That’s fair enough. And the Chinese matter. Europe is far behind. It’s not a priority for their geopolitical view,” he said at Sorbonne University.

“We used to buy from Russia from China and delegate our security to the States - this is over [...] The facts have changed.”

Mr Macron said, “A war is on European territory, and it’s carried out by someone who has the nuclear power. Iran is about to have nuclear power, and that’s also a big game changer.

“Europe can die, “ he added, “we need to take massive strategic decisions”.

Mr Macron called for stronger security links with the UK.

He said, “With the British, who are natural allies, we have the Lancaster house agreement and these give us a solid foundation for partnership. We have to strengthen this because Brexit hasn’t affected this partnership.”

01:43 PM BST

Russia may downgrade ties with US if assets confiscated

Russia is considering downgrading the level of its diplomatic relations with the United States if Western governments go ahead with proposals to confiscate its frozen assets, state news agency RIA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.

Ryabkov said Moscow would retaliate economically and politically if the assets were seized.

01:19 PM BST

Dowden accuses Labour of ‘non-answer’ on defence funding

Oliver Dowden has accused Labour of giving a “non-answer” on whether the party supports the Government’s pledge to increase defence spending.

The Deputy Prime Minister pointed towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East as he called for a “response” on defence funds.

“It may have escaped his attention - Russia has invaded Ukraine, Iran’s proxies are attacking our allies in the Middle East, that demands a response from this Government, it’s been provided by the Prime Minister and it is very notable that the party opposite is failing to match that commitment,” he said to Labour MP Gerald Jones.

Rishi Sunak this week committed to spending 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence by 2030.

Labour meanwhile has said it would conduct a strategic defence and security review in its first year in office to understand the resources required to meet the threats facing the UK, but has also committed to a 2.5 per cent target when finances allow.

Shadow cabinet minister Pat McFadden, who is Labour’s national campaign coordinator, had told the Commons his party only seeks to announce “properly costed and funded” policies.

01:03 PM BST

Ukraine jails couple for helping Russia strike hospital

Ukraine said on Thursday it had sentenced a husband and wife to 15 years in prison for providing information to Russia that allowed its forces to launch a rocket strike at a hospital.

The husband and wife - sentenced on treason charges - were accused of providing information on Ukrainian army positions, including “places of inpatient treatment for wounded Ukrainian soldiers,” the SBU said in a statement.

“It was at their direction that the occupiers shelled a local hospital,” in the southern city of Kherson, it said.

They were allegedly recruited by Russia’s FSB security service after responding to an advert in a Russian Telegram channel offering payments in exchange for intelligence on Ukrainian positions.

12:37 PM BST

Ukraine grieves fallen soldier

Ukrainian army paramedic Nazarii Lavrovskyi, 31, was killed while helping to evacuate wounded troops from the frontline in the Kharkiv area of the country’s east.

Family, friends and army comrades gathered to mourn at Independence Square in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Mr Lavrovskyi served in the 244th battalion of the 112th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade.

12:18 PM BST

Ukraine forces kill four in occupied regions

Ukrainian forces killed four people in frontline regions of the war-battered country that are occupied by Russia, Kremlin proxy officials said Thursday.

A Ukrainian attack drone left two dead in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and two more were killed by Ukrainian artillery fire in the southern Kherson region, officials said.

The Kremlin claimed to have annexed both regions in late 2022 even though Russian forces are still battling to gain full control over them.

“A man and a woman were killed as a result of a strike on a civilian car. Their four young children were orphaned,” the Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia, Evgeny Balitsky, wrote on social media.

He said the children would be taken into care and provided with psychological assistance.

The Russian head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said separately that two more people were killed by Ukrainian fire in the village of Dnipryany.

11:59 AM BST

Analysis: Macron aims for EU shift with keynote speech

French Presiden Emmanuel Macron is hoping that his speech will have the same impact as one made several years ago.

Back then his address resulted in some significant shifts in EU policy.

But now much has changed across the continent, including major geopolitical challenges like the war in Gaza, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing tensions between the United States and China.

Mr Macron’s advisors billed the address as France’s contribution to the EU’s strategic agenda for the next five years.

This is expected to be decided after the European elections this June, where EU leaders will fight it out for the top jobs.

Recently Mr Macron has suffered from a fall in popularity. His centrist Renaissance party is trailing the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in polls ahead of the elections.

Another challenge for Mr Macron is that in the European Parliament, his group, Renew, is now the third-biggest but could fall to fourth place, polls show, which would further limit his influence.

11:37 AM BST

Macron calls Russian behaviour ‘uninhibited’

French President Emmanuel Macron went on to address the issue of the war in Ukraine during his keynote speech.

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

11:26 AM BST

Europe must ‘rise up’ to challenges of changing world

Speaking from Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe to rise up to the challenges of a changed world, warning that “our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die”.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Mr Macron said, going on to warn that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade... the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he said during the speech at the Sorbonne University.

11:23 AM BST

Macron urges strategy for ‘credible’ European defence

French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a widely anticipated speech on Europe on Thursday.

Mr Macron called on Europe to create a “credible” defence strategy that would leave the continent less dependent on the United States and better able to face the threat posed by Russia.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said in a keynote speech, saying he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and adding that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

11:22 AM BST

Germany tells Spain and Greece to move air defence systems to Ukraine

Germany has publicly called out its Nato Allies Spain and Greece for not donating their Patriot air-defence systems to Ukraine.

Kyiv has said it needs at least seven of the American-made surface-to-air missile batteries to protect its cities from Russia’s mounting campaign of long-range bombardments.

“Many countries have Patriot systems or comparable,” German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in a television appearance late on Tuesday.

He added: “Let’s say if a country that has, for instance, six Patriot systems or four and is not in the front line to the east, it can easily hand over a Patriot system.”

Asked by the host to confirm whether he was referring to Spain and Greece, Mr Pistorius said: ‘We’re talking to them right now. I honestly can’t understand it.”

Madrid has a Patriot battery deployed in Turkey, where it has been stationed since 2013 to protect against missile attacks from Syria.

The focus has fallen on the two southern capitals because Nato officials are keen to maintain Patriot systems in Romania and Poland because of their proximity to the Russian border.

11:03 AM BST

Analysis: What could ATACMS missiles do for Ukraine?

Officials revealed on Wednesday that the US secretly sent long-range ballistic missiles to Ukraine for the first time and they have already been used against Russian forces.

ATACMS missiles were deployed for the first time on October 17 of last year, targeting Russian airfields in occupied Berdyansk and Luhansk City.

But what does this mean for the Ukrainian war effort?

Experts say that their arrival will allow Ukrainian forces to threaten Russian infrastructure deeper inside the country than previously possible.

Cluster-munition-armed versions of the ATACMS missiles will also mean that Ukraine can now destroy Russian aircraft and other assets more than an individual missile strike on individual aircraft might do.

This could force Russia to move its armaments further away from the border with Ukraine and pose a serious threat to their ammunition depots in rear areas.

Russian command may now be forced to choose between fortifying existing depots and further dispersing depots throughout occupied Ukraine, giving Ukraine the opportunity to degrade Russian capabilities resulting from the strikes.

Experts say the missiles echo the arrival of HIMARS in June 2022, which allowed Ukraine to support counteroffensive operations in Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts and setback the Russian mission considerably.

10:55 AM BST

Pictured: Zelensky meets Hunt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met finance minister Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv on Thursday.

10:38 AM BST

Russian man sentenced to 10 years for planning to fight for Kyiv

Russia on Thursday handed a long jail term to a Siberian man accused of state treason and terrorism over plans to join Russian units fighting for Ukraine.

This is the latest arrest of Russian citizens accused of wanting to fight as part of pro-Ukrainian armed groups, which have led several deadly incursions into Russia.

The suspect “planned to take part in combat on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces,” Russian state-run agency TASS quoted the FSB as saying.

Law enforcement detained the 26-year-old in the central Kemerovo region as he was making his way to Ukraine, the report said.

“He was motivated by the fact that, since the start of the operation in Ukraine, he did not support the politics of Russia’s leadership,” the FSB statement said.

10:18 AM BST

Risk of military incidents along Belarus - Ukraine border ‘quite high’

The risk of military incidents along Belarus’s border with Ukraine was quite high, the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported that Mr Lukashenko said neighbouring Poland - to his country’s west - should not expect aggressive actions from Belarus.

Mr Lukashenko added that Belarus had nonetheless moved several combat-ready battalions from Vitebsk region, situated on its border with Russia, to the western limits of the country.

10:00 AM BST

Fire spotted in Russian city

A fire has been recorded in the Siberian city of Omsk, some 2500km from the Ukrainian border.

According to local media reports the area of the fire is about 1000 square metres and two fire engines were involved in extinguishing it.

It is thought that three tanks with oil products, each with a volume of 200 litres, caught fire.

The cause remains unclear, but experts have commented that Ukraine now has the ability to strike this deeply into Russia using long-range drones.

09:36 AM BST

Ukraine’s Zelensky meets Britain’s Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday he met finance minister Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv and called for sanctions against Russia to be tightened to stop Moscow from bypassing them.

Mr Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram app that he was grateful to close ally Britain for unveiling this week a new 500 million pound ($625 million) uplift in a defence support package.

“Particular attention was paid to sanctions policy. It is important to expand restrictive measures against Russia and exclude the possibility of circumventing sanctions,” Mr Zelensky said.

He said Mr Hunt would meet Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and other ministers later on Thursday.

09:26 AM BST

Russia vetoes plans to stop nuclear weapons in space

Russia vetoed a UN resolution to stop the development and deployment of nuclear weapons in space.

The draft proposals called on all states with “major space capabilities” to “contribute to the objective” of keeping space peaceful and preventing an arms race in outer space.

It also urged countries to uphold the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, under which all parties agreed “not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction”.

A total of 13 of the council’s 15 members voted in favour, with Russia - one of five permanent members with a veto - voting against and China abstaining.

It follows warnings by White House spokesperson John Kirby in February that Russia was developing a “troubling” new anti-satellite weapon.

US Space Force warned on Wednesday that China is developing anti-satellite weapons as part of a “breathtaking” military expansion.

09:19 AM BST

Pictured: Long-range ballistic missiles bound for Ukraine

Photographs have been released of Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) bound for Ukraine from Australia.

The country first used long-range ballistic missiles, called ATACMS, last summer, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area.

In the second photograph, ATACMS can be seen being prepared for loading onto the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in Queensland.

08:53 AM BST

Russian attack damages critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s Cherkasy

Six people have been injured and critical infrastructure damaged by a Russian strike in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region on Thursday, according to the regional governor.

The attack hit civilian and railway infrastructure in the city of Smila, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Illya Yevlash said in a television broadcast.

An Iskander-K missile, a mobile short-range ballistic missile system produced and deployed by the Russian military, was suspected to have been used in the attack, Mr Yevlash added.

The blast wave and debris also damaged 47 homes and shattered windows in a high-rise building, Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said via the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine’s air defences had shot down the aerial target, he said.

Emergency services are working at the site of the attack.

08:35 AM BST

Russia will ‘target Nato nuclear weapons in Poland’ if they appear

Russia will make Nato nuclear weapons in Poland one of its primary targets if they are deployed there, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday, according to the TASS news agency.

”...Moves in this direction will not provide greater security (for Poland or other nations that host such weapons),” TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying.

08:20 AM BST

Long-awaited US military aid no ‘silver bullet’

The United States is the first to acknowledge that its long-awaited $61 billion aid package for Ukraine is not a “silver bullet.”

As weapons and ammunition are rushed to the country, other issues such as manpower shortages in Kyiv’s struggling military have come to the fore.

Meanwhile, the monthslong delay in passing the aid package has further weakened Ukraine’s position on the battleground.

President Joe Biden, who quickly signed the law Wednesday after it passed Congress, said the bill “should have gotten there sooner”.

Jake Sullivan, his National Security Advisor, said the aid package “will make a difference,” but warned “there is no silver bullet in this conflict.”

“One capability is not going to be the ultimate solution,” Mr Sullivan told a White House briefing, but adding “Ukraine’s position in this conflict will improve and we believe that Ukraine can and will win.”

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