Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin issues new missile threat after energy grid attack

A Russian court sentenced a defence lawyer who has represented critics of Moscow’s war in Ukraine to seven years in prison on Thursday under two statutes, spreading false information about the Russian army and “inciting hatred”, the court said.

Prosecutors had sought a 12-year sentence for Dmitry Talantov, 63, who plead not guilty, after he wrote Facebook posts which condemned the actions of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia had called on Wednesday for Talantov’s acquittal.

“Talantov must be released immediately and exonerated of all criminal responsibility, as acts such as expressing a non-violent opinion or peaceful dissent against the war are protected by international human rights law,” Mariana Katzarova said.

The war that broke out when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 is now at a critical juncture, with Russian ground forces advancing at their fastest pace so far this year in eastern Donetsk region.

Russia fired a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile on Ukraine this month in response to the US and Britain allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not want peace. We must force him into peace through strength,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, reiterating Kyiv’s call for more air defence and long-range capabilities from its Western allies.

Ukraine’s state oil and gas firm Naftogaz has said that Russian forces attacked its facilities in the morning missile strike, but it will not affect the company’s work.

“Our employees and contracted services are dealing with the consequences of the damage,” Naftogaz said on the Telegram messenger on Wednesday.

France, which is under pressure over its stance on an international arrest warrant issued for Israel’s prime minister, declined to say whether it would be prepared to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin under a similar warrant.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last week for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence chief and a Hamas military leader for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.

All European Union member states, including France, are signatories to the ICC’s founding treaty but France said on Wednesday it believed Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the ICC as Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.

The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, although Russia is not a signatory to the ICC’s founding treaty.

French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said on Thursday that France’s legal position was essentially the same on the arrest warrants issued for Putin and Netanyahu.

Ukraine has urged the international community to react to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to strike government targets in Kyiv, accusing him of “blackmail” intended to test the incoming Trump administration.

Putin had said Russia could use its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile to attack “decision-making centres” in Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s firing of Western missiles at Russian territory.

“We expect those countries that have urged everyone to avert the expansion of the war to react to the statements voiced by Putin today,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.

Tykhyi described Putin’s rhetoric as “blackmail” aimed at discouraging Kyiv’s partners and testing US President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to seek a swift end to the conflict without specifying how.

A “sophisticated” UK-based spy ring passed secrets to Russia for nearly three years, a court has heard.

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, allegedly carried out surveillance on individuals and places of interest to Russia.

The spying activities allegedly included locations in London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart, jurors have heard.

Read the full report from our crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin below:

President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv were to acquire nuclear arms.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

“If the country which we are essentially at war with now becomes a nuclear power, what do we do? In this case, we will use all, I want to emphasize this, precisely all means of destruction available to Russia. Everything: we will not allow it. We’ll be watching their every move”, Putin said during a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

“If officially someone were to transfer something, then that would mean a violation of all the non-proliferation commitments they have made,” Putin said.

Putin also said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of “dirty bomb”, a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material in order to spread contamination. In that case, Russia would respond appropriately, he said.

Russia has repeatedly said, without providing evidence, that Ukraine might use such a device.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia suffered only minimal damage from Ukrainian strikes on its territory using longer-range US-made ATACMS.

Putin was speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan, following a summit with leaders of a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries.

Ukraine is ready to host a second global summit aimed at ending Russia’s invasion in the “nearest future”, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Thursday, local media outlets reported.

Ukraine held its first “peace summit” in Switzerland in June, bringing together over 90 countries to draft a resolution based on Ukraine’s proposed conditions to end the war.

However Russia was not invited to that summit and dismissed its deliberations as meaningless without Moscow’s participation. It has also said it would not take part in any follow-up summit organised by Ukraine.

“Thanks to active work with our partners, a joint peace framework has already been developed, which will become the basis for the Second Peace Summit, and Ukraine is ready to hold it in the near future,” Yermak told a conference, according to Ukrainian media.

China also stayed away from the June summit, while other major non-Western powers including India, Saudi Arabia and Mexico withheld their signatures from the summit communique, underlining the diplomatic challenge Kyiv faces in marshalling broader global support for its cause beyond its Western allies.