Ukraine war latest: Russian forces 'intercept British-supplied missiles'; Moscow issues message to US over nuclear weapons (2023)

A 73-year-old woman has died and two others have been injured after Russian troops shelled 16 areas in Zaporizhzhia, a local Ukrainian governor has said.

Yurii Malashko reported that Russia had launched 108 attacks against the southeastern city in one day using artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, and drones.

Zaporizhzhia has come under several attacks since the war started, with Russian forces currently occupying part of the region, including Enerhodar which is home to Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.

"The enemy will be held accountable for every war crime, for every broken fate and life that has been cut short. Ukrainians are strong and unbreakable, Victory is ours," Mr Malashko said in a Telegram post.

Around 400 Ukrainian soldiers have started training on American M1 Abrams tanks in Germany, according to reports.

The first group of Ukrainian soldiers began training focused on "how to operate and maintain" the vehicles, which are known to be the most advanced battle tank in the world, the New York Times reported.

Half of the group started training in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels in southern Germany, being taught medical skills and how to shoot firearms.

The other half were taught how to fuel and maintain the tanks.

Around 31 tanks were due to be sent to Germany to be used in the training programme, which is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks, the news outlet said.

The deployment of Abrams tanks to the battlefield is expected to give Ukraine a major equipment advantage over Russia.

There has been a lot of speculation around when Ukraine could launch its much-expected counteroffensive.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been working to gain as much support as he can from Western countries in the build up to the assault, and Kyiv has been taking time to train up troops.

Earlier today, one of the country's most senior security officials told BBC News that Ukraine is ready to begin the operation.

While he did not reveal a date for when it will start, Oleksiy Danilov did hint that it could be imminent, saying it could begin "tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week".

In another sign that the nation's forces were ready to launch their counteroffensive, Ukraine's top military commander shared a video of Ukrainian troops preparing for battle.

"It's time to get back what's ours," General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote alongside the clip.

The blunt statement and video was shared on several social media platforms and appearedintended to rally the nation's support.

General Zaluzhnyi offered no indication ofwhere and when Ukrainian forces might try to break through Russian lines.

Here's the clip....

Russia is invading Belarus "by stealth" as it deploys nuclear weapons there, our military analyst Sean Bell has said.

Earlier this week, Russia said it was pushing ahead with the first deployment of such weapons outside its borders since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the weapons were already en route to his country.

"At face value this is more about shaking the rhetoric around nuclear and putting fear into the West, because the reality is you don't have to forward deploy nuclear weapons, they can travel halfway around the world," Bell explained.

"The real story is that President Putin has made no secret of his desire to try to increase Russian influence and restore the Soviet Union.

"He's increasingly been putting more soldiers on the ground in Belarus by conducting operations from that soil, now putting nuclear weapons there as well, all designed to increase Russian influence there."

You can watch Bell's full take on Putin's move below...

One person has been killed in a Russian shelling attack on Ukrainian-held parts of Kherson, the head of the region's military administration said.

Oleksandr Prokudin claimed Russia had launched "45 attacks, firing 193 shells from mortars, artillery, Grad, tanks, UAVs and aircraft" on the region over the past day.

"The enemy shelled the city of Kherson two times (five shells)," he wrote in aTelegram post.

Residential areas, including a grain elevator in the Beryslav district, had been targeted, he added.

Russian air defence forces have intercepted two British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, the country's ministry of defence has claimed.

The ministry also said it had intercepted shorter-rangeUS-built HIMARS-launched and HARM missiles, and shot down 19drones in the last 24 hours.

The UK gave Ukraine Storm Shadows earlier this month after Volodymyr Zelenksyy called for the West to supply long-range missiles.

Other countries have been unwilling to hand them over in case strikes inside Russia lead to escalation.

Here's some more information on the missiles from our military analyst Sean Bell...

A construction worker has been killed near the Russian village of Plekhovo after a Ukrainian shelling attack, a local governor has said.

Works were being carried out not far from Plekhovo, which is a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine, on fortifying defensive lines, Roman Starovoit added in a Telegram post.

It comes after Russia claimed Ukraine struck oil pipeline installations deep inside the country with a series of drone attacks earlier today.

Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia have been growing in intensity in recent weeks, but Ukraine has not publicly acknowledged launching them

In the Tver region, which lies just northwest of Moscow, two drones attacked a station that serves the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline - one of the world's largest oil pipelines - the Russian Kommersant newspaper said.

The Tver local council said that a drone had crashed near the village of Erokhino, around 500 km (310 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

In the Pskov region of Western Russia, two drones caused an
explosion that damaged an oil pipeline's administrative building, local governor Mikhail Vedernikov said.

Russia is planning to expel German diplomats, teachers and employees of cultural institutions next month in a move that is likely to cause more tension between the two already strained countries.

The German foreign ministry criticised Russia's decision, calling the upcoming expulsions "unilateral, unjustified and incomprehensible".

Several hundred German state employees, including teachers and staff of the Goethe Institute, which promotes German culture and language abroad, could be expelled, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung news outlet reported.

The move comes in response to the reduction of Russian intelligence services in Germany earlier this year.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry had made public in April its decision to introduce a cap on the number of staff at our missions abroad and at German intermediary organisations in Russia," a German Foreign Office spokesperson said.

The expulsions will lead to "a major cut in all areas of our presence in Russia", the spokesperson added.

Germany did not announce any concrete response to Russia's expulsions, which are expected to begin next week.

While war rages on in Ukraine, emergency services are still working hard to tackle problems away from the frontline...

A two-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Kharkiv has been found alive in a nearby forest.

Violetta disappeared from her garden four days ago, with more than a thousand people searching for her.

Ukrainian officials said there was no "wrongdoing committed against the child" and she had just got lost after wandering too far away from home.

"More than a thousand people, including policemen, rescuers, volunteers, and local residents, searched for the child in the village, among the bushes, swamps, and examined all the surrounding reservoirs," Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

"Finally today the girl was found in the forest. She is alive, but very tired, thirsty and hungry."

The young girl, who's last name has not been reported by officials, has been provided with medical care, it added.

While it wasn't thought to be the case with Violetta, there have been many cases of Ukrainian children being illegally taken to Russia over the course of the war.

Russia claims it is giving them sanctuary from the horrors of war.

As we told you earlier, Russia has said its southern Belgorod region has come under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire.

Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed the Belgorod town of Graivoron, some 4.5 miles (7.24 km) from the Ukrainian border, was under fire for several hours, with houses, a gas pipeline and a power line damaged.

Retired Air Marshal Ed Stringer explained that there are two groups - the Liberty of Russian Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps - in the region, and they don't like Vladimir Putin.

They came across the border from Ukraine and tried to take over the town, causing 10,000 Russian residents to leave, but then quickly withdrew.

"Both sides are blaming each other. Russia is saying they are sponsored by Ukraine, but Ukraine is saying they are just Russian patriots who are fed up with Putin," he said.

"We have to say that they couldn't have organised themselves in Ukraine without some sort of quiet support from the Ukrainian authorities.

"Of course it is useful for Ukraine as it shows that Putin's state is fragile and there are people who would like to see him go."