Russia-Ukraine war live: Nato and Ukraine to meet over Russian missile strike, say diplomats

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Russian drone attack on Sumy kills two and injures 12, local authorities say

A Russian drone attack on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and injured 12 on Friday morning, regional authorities said, according to Reuters.

Twelve apartment buildings, five private residences, a store and three cars were damaged after three drones attacked the city at about 5am local time (3am GMT), the national police said.

Volodymyr Artiukh, Sumy regional governor, said Russian forces had equipped drones with shrapnel for the attack on a densely populated area of the city, reports Reuters.

“This weapon is used … exclusively (to kill) people,” Artiukh said, pointing to scars on a damaged building. “Not for a facility, but in order to destroy more people.”

Firefighters work at a site of a residential building hit by a Russian drone strike in Sumy, Ukraine, on Friday. Photograph: State Emergency Service Of Ukraine/Reuters

The video posted by Sumy regional military administration after the attack showed damaged cars and buildings with blown-out windows, according to Reuters.

Russia has pummelled the region and its critical infrastructure in deadly attacks over the past weeks. An overnight drone attack on Tuesday on the small town of Hlukhiv in the region killed 12 people, including a child.

On Sunday evening, a missile attack on Sumy killed 11 and injured 89 more people, in addition to leaving the region’s administrative centre without power.

China urges 'restraint' in Ukraine war after Russian hypersonic missile strike

China on Friday reiterated calls for “calm” and “restraint” by all parties in the Ukraine war after Russia confirmed it fired an experimental hypersonic ballistic missile, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“All parties should remain calm and exercise restraint, work to de-escalate the situation through dialogue and consultation, and create conditions for an early ceasefire,” foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, told a regular briefing.

Ukraine called Russia’s strike a major ramping up of the “scale and brutality” of the war by a “crazy neighbour”, while Kyiv’s main backer, the US, said that Moscow was to blame for escalating the conflict “at every turn”.

After the launch, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the conflict in Ukraine had characteristics of a “global” war and did not rule out strikes on western countries.

In response, Beijing on Friday issued a call for calm. “China’s position on the Ukraine issue has been consistent and clear, advocating for resolving the crisis through political means and avoiding an escalation of the situation,” Lin said, according to AFP.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the US and other western nations. But it remains a close political and economic ally of Russia and Nato members have called Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.

Nato and Ukraine to meet on Tuesday over Russian missile strike, say diplomats

Nato and Ukraine will hold talks next week in Brussels over Russia’s firing of an experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missile, diplomats said on Friday.

The meeting on Tuesday of the Nato-Ukraine council will happen on ambassadorial level. It was called by Kyiv after the strike on the city of Dnipro, officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Explainer: What is the Oreshnik ballistic missile?

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russia had struck Ukraine with a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile in response to Kyiv’s use of US and UK missiles against Russia.

It appears to have multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles: separate warheads able to hit different targets.

Anatoly Matviychuk, a Russian military expert, said it could carry six to eight conventional or nuclear warheads, and was probably already in service, according to Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger.

The Pentagon said the missile that Russia fired was based on the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It said the US had been notified of the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired an ICBM at Dnipro, though the US said that was incorrect. ICBMs are defined as having a range greater than 5,500 km (3,400 miles).
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a Russian attack with a new type of ballistic missile was a “clear and severe escalation” and called for worldwide condemnation.

North Korea has likely received more than 1m barrels of oil from Russia over an eight-month period this year in breach of UN sanctions, according to an analysis of satellite imagery published on Friday by UK-based Open Source Centre and the BBC.

North Korean oil tankers have made more than 40 visits to Russia’s far eastern port of Vostochny since March, the report on the research group Open Source Centre’s website said, according to Reuters.

“Dozens of high-resolution satellite images, AIS (Automatic Identification System) data and imagery released by maritime patrol missions tasked with monitoring North Korea’s UN-sanctions busting activities show North Korean tankers repeatedly loading at an oil terminal at the Russian port of Vostochny,” the report said, adding that Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

North Korea has continued to illicitly import refined petroleum products in violation of UN security council resolutions, according to the UNSC.

Earlier this year, the US and South Korea launched a new taskforce aimed at preventing North Korea from procuring illicit oil as a deadlock at the UNSC cast doubts over the future of international sanctions. Under UNSC restrictions imposed over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development, Pyongyang is limited to importing 500,000 barrels of refined products a year.

Pyongyang and Moscow have ramped up diplomatic and economic ties in recent years, culminating in Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea in June when the countries’ leaders agreed a mutual defence pact.

The military cooperation between the two countries has been met by international alarm, with Washington, Kyiv and Seoul condemning North Korea for sending military equipment and more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said last month that Russia’s military interaction with North Korea did not violate international law. North Korea has not acknowledged the deployment of troops to Russia, but said any such move would be in compliance with international law.

Russian ballistic missile attack a ‘severe escalation’, says Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the use of an experimental ballistic missile by Russia amounted to “a clear and severe escalation” in the war and called for strong worldwide condemnation, as Nato accused Vladimir Putin of seeking to “terrorise” civilians and intimidate Ukraine’s allies.

Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said:

Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato allies from supporting Ukraine.”

In a statement after Vladimir Putin’s address about Thursday’s strike on a military site in the city of Dnipro, Zelenskyy said the attack was “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace”, adding that “pressure is needed. Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength”.

The Russian president threatened further attacks, saying Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provided Kyiv with weapons used against Russian targets.

“A regional conflict in Ukraine previously provoked by the west has acquired elements of a global character,” Putin said in an address to the nation carried by state television after 8pm in Moscow.

Ukraine’s parliament reportedly postponed a Friday sitting because of “potential security issues” after the attack, public broadcaster Suspilne said, quoting sources. It reported that legislators were told to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and quoted parliamentarians as saying that, for the moment, the next sitting was not scheduled until December.

The new ballistic missile was called Oreshnik (the hazel), Putin said, and its deployment “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”. He said Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.

Russian defence minister, Andrei Belousov, said in a video released on Friday that Russian forces in Ukraine had accelerated their advance, reports Reuters.

According to the news agency, Belousov was shown in the defence ministry footage visiting a Russian command post in Ukraine and handing out medals for bravery.

Russia provided economic support and anti-air missiles to North Korea in exchange for troops to support Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Seoul’s top security chief told a TV news channel on Friday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air defence system have been delivered to North Korea,” Shin Won-sik, Seoul’s top security adviser, told TV broadcaster SBS.

Opening summary

Russia fired an “experimental” ballistic missile at the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called “a clear and severe escalation” of the 33-month-old war.

Vladimir Putin said the strike was “a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”. The Russian president also threatened further attacks, saying Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provided Kyiv with weapons used against Russian targets.

A Nato spokesperson said Russia was seeking to “terrorise” civilians and intimidate Ukraine’s allies. “Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato allies from supporting Ukraine,” Farah Dakhlallah said.

The attack came after the US and the UK lifted a ban on Kyiv striking Russian territory with advanced western weapons. Russia notified Washington shortly before Thursday’s strike, a US official said.

Putin said in a televised address to the nation that Moscow hit a Ukrainian military facility with a new medium-range ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik” (the hazel). And the Russian leader hinted the missile was capable of unleashing a nuclear payload and said Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.

Rescue workers put out a fire at a house damaged by the Russian strike on Dnipro, Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP

In other developments:

• The new ballistic missile was part of a wider salvo of nine missiles fired from the Astrakhan region of Russia in the early hours of Thursday. Six of the missiles were intercepted by Ukraine’s air force but the new ballistic missile was not stopped. The missile was said to have hit “without consequences”, Ukraine’s air force said, though it added that complete information about victims had yet to be received.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for strong worldwide condemnation on the strike, describing it as a major step-up in the “scale and brutality” of the war. The Ukrainian president said the attack was “yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace”, adding that a “response is needed. Pressure is needed. Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength”.

• US and UK sources indicated they believed the missile was an experimental, nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US.

• UN secretary general António Guterres’s spokesperson said Russia’s use of the new ballistic missile was “yet another concerning and worrying development. “All of this [is] going in the wrong direction,” Stéphane Dujarric said as he called on all parties to de-escalate the conflict and “to protect civilians, not hit civilian targets or critical civilian infrastructure”.

• Russian strikes killed at least two people in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, the acting mayor said on Friday. “Several massive explosions occurred in Sumy,” Artem Kobzar said on Telegram. He said air defences were still working as of just before 6am local time and warned residents to stay away from windows. The Sumy regional military administration said a residential neighbourhood had been struck by a Russian drone, adding that rescue operations were under way. It confirmed the two deaths and said 12 people had been injured.

• Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Dalne in the Donetsk region, a focal point of their advance. Ukraine’s general staff made no acknowledgment of Dalne being in Russian hands. The Ukrainian military’s late report mentioned the village as one of seven in an area where Russian forces had tried to pierce Ukrainian defences 26 times over the previous 24 hours. It said 10 of 16 armed clashes in the area continued.

• Ukraine’s parliament postponed a sitting due to have taken place on Friday out of security concerns, public broadcaster Suspilne reported, quoting sources. It said the order told members to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and quoted parliamentarians as saying that, for the moment, the next sitting was not scheduled until December.