Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv launches attack on Putin’s Black Sea naval base as 1 killed in Kharkiv strike

Russian dissidents living in the UK have hit back at the “deeply offensive” words of admiration for Vladimir Putin spoken by Nigel Farage and another Reform UK candidate.

It comes as a British former defence attache who was previously stationed in Moscow described Mr Farage and his party, now third in the polls, as “deeply malign actors … working against the security interests of our country”.

When asked about the accusations, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter before suggesting that Julian Malins, a Reform party candidate who last weekend bragged about meeting Mr Putin and said that he “seemed very good”, was merely a highly intelligent and “eccentric sort of character”.

Russian commanders are ordering their forces to kill surrendering Ukrainian soldiers in a plan to “terrify” droves of Russian troops into not giving themselves up.

Many newly conscripted and poorly trained Russian soldiers realise their lives are being squandered in human-wave attacks, according to Ukrainian officials.

Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, says orders to kill Ukrainians who could be taken prisoner come from the “highest level” – the Kremlin. The instructions are designed to “terrify” their own soldiers, he adds.

Russia is conducting a new recruitment drive for fighters in Africa for its war in Ukraine after suffering heavy casualties on the ground in lethal combat, according to Western intelligence officials.

The enrolment campaign has intensified following the rapid spread of Moscow’s influence on the continent, boosted by the overthrow of pro-Western governments in several countries by military regimes and the subsequent withdrawal of US and European forces.

Mercenaries formerly with the Wagner Group – which was disbanded after the failed coup attempt by its Russian leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was subsequently killed along with his senior hierarchy in an air crash – are training young men, some from tribal militias, for battle in Europe.

Nato has agreed to fund military aid for Ukraine with £34billion next year, two Western European diplomats told said a week before the alliance’s leaders are set to meet in Washington.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg had asked allies to make a multi-year commitment to keep military aid for Kyiv at the same level as that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While the member states did not back Mr Stoltenberg’s original request for such a multi-year pledge, the pact includes a provision to re-evaluate allied contributions at future Nato summits, according to a diplomat.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Kyiv planned to submit a resolution on nuclear safety, in particular at the Russia-occupied Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, for consideration at the United Nations General Assembly.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, was captured by Russian forces shortly after they launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. It is shut down but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.

“Ukraine will submit the draft resolution to the General Assembly for consideration shortly,” Zelensky said on X, following a meeting in Kyiv with the Assembly’s President Dennis Francis.

In the course of the 28-month war, Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant and putting down power lines. Ukraine has dismissed Russian accusations saying it was not attacking nuclear facilities.

The Netherlands’ new Prime Minister Dick Schoof assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a phone call on Wednesday that his country would maintain its support for Ukraine.

The Netherlands has been one of the driving forces behind an international coalition to supply Ukraine with F-16s to strengthen its air defences against Russia.

The outgoing Dutch government said on Monday that the first of 24 promised jets would be supplied soon.

“I assured (Zelenskiy) that the Netherlands’ support for his country is rock solid; we will continue to support Ukraine politically, militarily, and financially against Russian aggression, whatever it takes and for as long as it takes,” Schoof said on social media platform X.

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska is the latest victim of deepfake after an online video falsely claimed that she had purchased a rare Bugatti sports car worth €4.5m (£3.8m).

The video, suspected to be from Russian propaganda sources, claimed Ms Zelenska was given a closed presentation to buy a Bugatti Tourbillon for the use of the Ukrainian delegation during her visit to Paris for D-Day commemorations in June last week.

“This is a fake and another attempt by Russians to discredit the family of the President of Ukraine,” said Ukrainian fact-checking unit Centre for Countering Disinformation (CCD), under the national security and defence council.

A Ukrainian military intelligence official said on Wednesday that a fire on a Russian warship in the Baltic Sea in April was caused by a joint operation conducted by his GUR agency and a pro-Kyiv Russian military group.

On 7 April, the Serpukhov missile ship stationed in Russia’s Kaliningrad region was set on fire, the GUR intelligence agency said at the time. It did not claim responsibility earlier.

GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Reuters the operation was conducted in tandem with the Freedom of Russia Legion. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has made no public comment on the incident.

Ukraine regularly carries out multiple air and naval strikes on Russian warships in the Black Sea. If the reported damage to the Serpukhov is confirmed, the arson would be Ukraine’s first known operation against Russia in the Baltic Sea.