Vladimir Putin says world facing 'most dangerous decade since WW2'

• Putin gave one of his longest speeches since the start of the Ukraine war, warning the world faced the most dangerous decade since World War Two.
• America is bringing forward the delivery of dozens of upgraded tactical nuclear weapons to Europe.
• Volodomyr Zelensky said Russia was throwing poorly trained troops at Ukrainian defences in the Donbas.
• Ukraine has boosted its forces in the northern region near Belarus to counter any renewed Russian attack over the border.

The White House played down Mr Putin's tirade against Washington and its allies in his lengthy remarks on Thursday. 

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre reacted to the Russian leader's comments while travelling with Joe Biden on board Air Force One. 

Ms Jean-Pierre suggested Mr Putin's remarks were not very new and did not indicate a change in his strategic goals, including in Ukraine.

Earlier, the Pentagon said that while Russia's invasion of Ukraine underscored the "acute threat" posed by Moscow, it is China that represents the most consequential challenge for the United States.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin highlighted the different challenges posed by the two nations as he unveiled the unclassified versions of several military strategy documents.

"Unlike China, Russia can't systemically challenge the United States over the long term. But Russian aggression does pose an immediate and sharp threat," Mr Austin said.

The National Defense Strategy, which was released Thursday, likewise places the primary emphasis on China.

The strategic review stresses the importance of modernising US strategic assets, while scrapping a submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile programme and saying a type of obsolete nuclear bomb will be retired.

The document also contains a stark warning for Kim Jong Un against employing North Korea's growing nuclear arsenal.

Mr Putin said that Moscow was ready for talks to end the conflict in Ukraine, but said Kyiv was not prepared to sit down at the negotiating table.

"It's not a question about us, we are ready for negotiations. But the leaders in Kyiv decided not to continue negotiations with Russia," he told the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow.

"It is very easy to solve this problem if Washington gives a signal to Kyiv to change its position and solve the problem peacefully," he added.

There have been no peace talks between the two since attempts at a negotiated settlement fell apart in the first weeks of the conflict, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has explicitly ruled out a negotiated deal with Mr Putin. 

Mr Putin said on Thursday that hard-line Ukrainian nationalists were willing to "fight until the last Ukrainian" in the conflict with Russia.

He said Ukraine had suffered heavy losses in the eight-month conflict and criticised Ukrainian "hard-line patriots" and "banderites," a tag Russian officials and commentators often use to describe Ukrainian fighters who they say are neo-Nazis and fascists, for being willing to sacrifice their fellow fighters.

Mr Putin has attacked Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, of provoking China with her visit to Taiwan over the summer. 

The Russian leader did refer to Ms Pelosi by name, but asked why the "grandma" from America had visited the self-governed island. 

Ms Pelosi, who as Speaker is third in line to the US presidency, rattled Beijing in August with her visit to the island, which China claims as its own.

Mr Putin reiterated Moscow's support for that position, stating on Thursday that Taiwan is part of China and labelling visits by US officials a "provocation".

In his lengthy appearance, Mr Putin criticised France for publishing contents of a phone call he had with President Emmanuel Macron days before Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February.

Mr Putin said the release showed that his conversations with the French leader were being listened in on. 

Mr Putin has said Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman should be "respected", in an apparent swipe at the US. 

Joe Biden has fiercely criticised the move by Russia, Saudi Arabia and the OPEC+ alliance to cut oil production, a move seen as a boost to Russia's attempts to protect its economy in the face of Western sanctions.

The decision which will raise prices for consumers and could hamper the Democrats' ability to hold control of Congress next month. The US warned the move could cause to alter its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Mr Putin said predictability and stability is important for oil markets and said Russia would further develop relations with Saudi Arabia. 

Asked whether the Russian leader plans to attend the G20 summit in Indonesia next month, Mr Putin says: 

Indonesia had come under international pressure to rescind the Russian leader's invitation to the summit following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine but Jakarta has refused, insisting Mr Putin is still welcome at the global gathering.

The reporter who asked Mr Putin about his attendance went on to ask if they could get a selfie with the Russian president. 

Mr Putin, according to translations online, smiled and responded he cannot refuse "such a beautiful woman".

Mr Putin was effusive in his praise for Chinese president Xi Jinping, who has just secured an unprecedented third term as the country's leader. 

Mr Putin said he considered President Xi's to be a "close friend" and said Russia's trade with China has been rising. 

A Western coalition has attempted to isolate Russia on the world stage, but Mr Putin suggested Russia was not friendless, describing relations with Beijing are open and effective.

Mr Putin denied having any intentions of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine but described the conflict there as part of alleged efforts by the West to secure its global domination.

He said it's pointless for Russia to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

"We see no need for that," he said. "There is no point in that, neither political, nor military."

In a long speech full of diatribes against the US and its allies, Mr Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to dictate their terms to other nations in a "dangerous, bloody and dirty" domination game.

He said: "the West is no longer able to dictate its will to the humankind but still tries to do it, and the majority of nations no longer want to tolerate it."

Mr Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that Russians and Ukrainians are part of a single people and again denigrated Ukraine as an "artificial state," which received historic Russian lands from Communist rulers during the Soviet times.

 

Mr Putin gave a defiant response to the Western sanctions intended to cripple Russia, saying attempts to collapse its economy "have not succeeded". 

Playing down the impact, the Russian leader said the "peak" of the country's hardships related to sanctions "has passed". 

Mr Putin further said that Russia has no need to nationalise assets to deal with the economic fallout of sanctions and the conflict in Ukraine.

He also said it was a "gift" to local investors and businesses that swathes of Western companies have left Russia since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February.

As Mr Putin continues to take questions the White House has confirmed that Joe Biden has 'no intention to sit down' with Putin at G20.

Mr Putin has said that Moscow has no intention of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Mr Putin gave high praise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling him a "strong" leader and saying that Turkey is a "reliable" partner.

"We've never said anything proactively about possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia. We have only hinted in response to those statements those western leaders have made," Mr Putin insists.

Mr Putin is now taking questions straight from the audience.

 

Mr Putin hit out at former UK prime minister Liz Truss's nuclear rhetoric, saying she was ‘crazy’ when she talked about Russia using nuclear weapons.

Mr Putin has said Ukraine has 'technologies to create a dirty-bomb,' alluding to unfounded claims that Ukraine intends to use dirty-bomb against Russia.

He added that he asks Russia's defence minister to make phone calls to inform about the risk of the use of such a bomb.

Mr Putin said that the West was using the rhetoric surrounding nuclear weapons as a weapon against Russia.

He said that "building tensions about the very notion of Russia using nuclear weapons" has an "impact on [Russia's] allies".

Mr Putin has said Russia "only had one goal, which is helping people in the Donbas".

Ukrainian forces attacked Russia's hold on the southern city of Kherson on Thursday while fighting also intensified in the country's east.

The battles came amid reports that Moscow-appointed authorities in Kherson have abandoned the city, joining tens of thousands of residents who fled to other Russia-held areas.

Ukrainian forces were surrounding Kherson from the west and attacking Russia's foothold on the west bank of the Dnieper River, which divides the region and the country.

The battles unfolded as Mr Putin tried to cast the conflict in Ukraine as part of efforts by the West to secure global domination.

 

Putin brushed off the question of whether he agreed Ukraine had been widely underestimated in the conflict.

"For eight years they had been building fortifications in the Donbas," Mr Putin said.

"We understood this process would continue," and if we let it continue "the greater our losses would have been," he said.

Mr Putin has downplayed Russia's losses insisting that he has "nothing to be disappointed with in the past year".

He said he 'always thinks' about his country's losses in his war in Ukraine.

Mr Putin hinted that the war in Ukraine is the result of years of tensions that have been bubbling over many years.

"The tensions build up and an earthquake happens," he said. "This was an accumulation of tensions and a flare up." 

He said that the latest developments are "tectonic shifts of the world order".

Mr Putin has finished his prepared address and will now take questions.

We are facing one of the most "dangerous" and "unpredictable" decades since the Second World War, Mr Putin said.

He says the world order of the West that it imposed since the collapse of the soviet union is "coming to an end".

Mr Putin quoted novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky in another attack on the West.

"Starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism," he said.

 

"If the west is selling medicine" for example, says Putin, "to other countries then they give the order to kill off the local pharmaceutical industry."

He adds: "Bringing down the economy to the primitive level."

Mr Putin said that the 'new world order should be based on law and order'.

Mr Putin accused the West of using economic sanctions and "colour revolutions" against rivals as it could not compete fairly with the rising economic and political might of Asia.

Mr Putin insists that Russia has  "never considered itself an enemy of the West".

However, he said that Russia "will never  put up with what it tells the West tells it to do."

 

Vladimir Putin is continuing to attack the West in his annual speech, insisting it is "losing its upper hand" and "quickly becoming the minority".

He adds: "Then neo-liberal model of the US is experiencing crisis".

'No one can dictate to our people how we should build our society,' Mr Putin says. 

Vladimir Putin has said that the West is 'blinded by colonialism' and 'tries to contain the development of other civilisations,' during his speech.

"It's no coincidence that the West says that its culture...should be recognised as universal.

"That's how they behave. And they insist through their policy thay everyone accept these values unconditionally."

Sooner or later, the West will have to start taking about our common future, Mr Putin says.

Putin has started his speech

Dozens of people have taken their seats at the conference hall and camera crews are at the ready but Putin has yet to appear.

The Russian leader was due to start speaking at 2pm GMT.  

The Valdai Discussion club isa Moscow-based think tank with close links to Putin. 

It was founded in 2004 and named after Lake Valdai.

President Putin has met with the participants of the Valdai Discussion Club’s annual meetings every year since its founding.

The club states: "In 2014 the Club moved away from the format of 'telling the world about Russia' to practical work aimed at forming the global agenda and delivering a qualified and objective assessment of global political and economic issues.

"One of its main objectives is to promote dialogue among the global intellectual elite in order to find solutions to overcome the crises of the international system."

No hard questions are likely to be posed to the Russian leader as all questions have already been prepared, according to leaked documents obtained by Ukraine's national news agency.

Alexander Prokhanov with the Zavtra newspaper is expected to ask: “The main content of Russian history is a Victory over Dark, the military, spiritual, and political victory. Do you think that Russia’s ideology is that of a Russian Victory?” 

Igor Gilov with Brazilian daily Folha De S.Paolo is expected to follow with: “You assess the Ukrainian crisis as a major confrontation between the collective West and Russia. Your government earlier spoke of the ‘red lines’ that the U.S. and NATO mustn’t cross.

"As the Russian nuclear doctrine lays down ‘existential risks to the state or its sovereignty’ as grounds for deploying nuclear weapons, how can it be applied to the new territories that acceded to Russia? Which ‘red lines’ can’t be crossed in this case as it remains unclear which borders are presented?” .

President Putin is due to speak at the Valdai Discussion Club any minute now.

The club is a thinktank with close links to the Kremlin.

He is expected to outline his views on world politics. 

President Putin claimed that Ukraine pulled out of peace talks with Moscow in March on an "order" from the United States, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

"The text was ready... And then suddenly the Ukrainian side went off the radar, the Ukrainian side declared its unwillingness to continue negotiations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

On Wednesday, Guinea-Bissau's Umaro Sissoco Embalo, the current chief of the ECOWAS west African bloc, said in Kyiv that Putin, whom he had visited earlier, had "expressed the idea that he is ready for negotiations" with Mr Zelensky.

Asked about these remarks, Mr Peskov said "we are ready to ensure our interests at the negotiating table".

Poland has torn down four monuments to Red Army soldiers who died during World War Two, as historically strained relations between Warsaw and Moscow hit new lows due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The legacy of World War Two is a divisive issue in Polish-Russian relations, and the conflict in Ukraine has prompted Poland to step up the demolition of memorials to fallen Soviet troops across the country.

Russia argues that it liberated Poland when its forces drove out German Nazis at the end of the war. Most Poles believe that the Soviet Union replaced Nazi occupation with another form of repression.

"This monument is a monument of lies," said Karol Nawrocki, head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, as he stood before a statue in Glubczyce in southern Poland shortly before its demolition.

Our journalists are currently discussing the latest on Ukraine. Follow the conversation live on Twitter: 

The Slovak parliament suspended its session on Thursday after a suspected cyberattack brought down its IT systems, parliament speaker Boris Kollar said.

"We have identified a cyber security incident... There is a signal coming from some point which jams our systems, computers, we cannot even serve the lawmakers in our cafeteria," Mr Kollar told reporters in a televised briefing.

"We won't be voting today... [We have to] find out where is it hit, or if it is some malfunction," he said.

The European Commission last week proposed stepping up measures to protect its critical infrastructure, including digital and energy networks, as European Union countries help Ukraine defend itself against Russia's invasion. 

A Russian-flagged vessel chartered by Nord Stream AG, the operator of the leaking Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, is conducting surveys in the area for the first time, the Swedish Navy said on Thursday.

Both Sweden and Denmark have concluded that four Nord Stream leaks were caused by explosions last month but have not said who might be responsible. World leaders have called it an act of sabotage.

Swedish prosecutors and police earlier this month wrapped up a crime scene investigation, but the Nordic country's navy on Wednesday said it would conduct its own survey.

"We are sharing the same space at the moment and communicating with each other," a spokesperson for the Swedish Navy told Reuters on Thursday.

Local residents will have their phones checked by Russian authorities in Ukraine's occupied region of Zaporizhzhia.

It follows the implementation of military censorship under Vladimir Putin's martial law decree which was introduced last week in four Ukrainian regions that he claims to have annexed: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk.

"From today in the Zaporizhzhia region, law enforcement officers have begun a selective preventing check of the mobile phones of citizens," Moscow-appointed official Vladimir Rogov said.

Mr Rogov added that there will be "criminal liability" for "malicious violations of a law on the activities of foreign agent".

 Earlier this month Ukrainian armed forces recaptured the village of Archangelske in the north of Kherson Oblast. Here are photos taken on Wednesdayof the devastation left by Russian forces :

Boris Johnson has set up an office in Westminster from which he hopes to start a foundation to assist the war-torn country, writes Christopher Hope.

Boris Johnson is considering setting up a new organisation to help support Ukraine and rebuild the war-torn country as he seeks to build a new career on the international stage, The Telegraph can disclose.

The former prime minister has set up an office in Westminster from which he hopes to start a new foundation which his friends say could raise millions to reconstruct the war-torn country.

One friend of Mr Johnson who is familiar with the plans described it as a “Marshall plan for Ukraine” adding “Boris will raise loads of money” from private donors.

Mr Johnson’s role on the international stage was hinted at by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he welcomed Mr Johnson’s decision not to run for the Tory leadership last Sunday.

Read the full story

Uzbek workers of a waste processing plant in the western Russian city of Oryol, who were handed mobilisation notices this week, have asked their president for help, a local news outlet reported.

According to the Istoki video report, Oryol authorities sent out a fresh batch of mobilisation notices this week, including 50 to workers of the EcoCity waste processing facility.

Half of the workers, however, are Uzbek nationals, it said, showing a group of men displaying their Uzbek passports and asking Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to intervene on their behalf.

Uzbekistan has warned its citizens against joining foreign armies, which qualifies as a felony under Uzbek law.  

Commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets if they were involved in the war in Ukraine,  a senior Russian foreign ministry official said.

Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the Russian foreign ministry's department for non-proliferation and arms control, told the UN that the US and its allies were trying to use space to enforce Western dominance.

Mr Vorontsov said the use of Western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was "an extremely dangerous trend".

Russia launched the first manmade satellite into space in 1957 - the Sputnik 1 - and in 1961 put the first man in outer space. 

 In 2021, Russia launched an anti-satellite missile to destroy one of its own satellites.

Ukraine has boosted its forces in the northern region near Belarus to counter any renewed Russian attack across the border, Ukraine's General Staff said on Thursday.

"At the current time the creation of a strike force [in Belarus] is not observable. [But] there are and will be threats. We are reacting, we have already increased our troops in the northern direction," Oleksii Hromov, deputy head of the General Staff's Main Operations Directorate, told a regular briefing.

Belarus is Russia's main ally in the conflict and has allowed Russian forces to use its territory as a springboard to attack Ukraine. 

Sanctions on Russia were the reason for the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said.

"The pressure of sanctions reached its climax resulting in the sabotage of the European gas transportation system - Nord Stream," the Tass news agency quoted him as saying, without providing evidence to support his claims.

Three leaks were found in September in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines running under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany, near to Sweden and Denmark.

Russia has dismissed claims it was behind an attack on the pipelines as “stupid” after Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, said the leaks were caused by sabotage.

Solidarity is the only way to deal with the energy crisis, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview with a Greek newspaper

"Europe as a whole is suffering from the high prices of natural gas and I am convinced: We can overcome the crisis only with solidarity," Mr Scholz was quoted by Ta Nea before a visit to Athens.

Relations between Greece and Germany have improved since the Greek debt crisis that broke out in late 2009 and forced Athens to sign up to three international bailouts on tough and unpopular austerity terms, many of them suggested by Germany.

Greece emerged from its last bailout in 2018. It was looking forward to a strong economic recovery before the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis that has rattled Europe.

Australia will send 70 defence personnel to the United Kingdom to help train Ukrainian troops.

They will arrive in January next year and join troops from Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands as part of Operation Interflex.

Here's a statement from British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace:

Estonia has called on new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to commit to raising British defence spending.

Mr Sunak has not matched a pledge by his predecessor Liz Truss to boost defence spending from 2 per cent to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030, having previously described such targets as "arbitary".

When asked in a BBC interview if Nato countries should aim to spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said: "Absolutely."

He also said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a "game-changer".

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who survived Mr Sunak's reshuffle in the same role, would be on resignation watch if the Government backtracks on the defence spending commitment.Mr Reinsalu also asked the UK not to cut troop numbers in Estonia, saying "we love UK soldiers" and "we want more".

Proposals by the European Commission to introduce cap prices for Russian gas were "unthinkable", said Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft.

Speaking at an international forum in Baku, Mr Sechin said on Thursday that Western sanctions were destroying corporate law while the refusal to buy Russian hydrocarbons is leading to an "acute energy deficit", boosting global inflation. 

A thermal power plant on the peninsula was targeted by an overnight drone attack, but it was not badly damaged, said authorities in Moscow-annexed Crimea.

"Today at night there was a UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack on the Balaklava thermal power station," the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.

"The transformer is minimally damaged. There were no casualties," he added.

The official said there was "no threat to power supply" and that "the incident does not affect the power supply of Sevastopol and the peninsula."

Russia will have to answer for its "barbaric violations of the laws of war" in Ukraine, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Wednesday.

Whenever Ukraine troops take back territory from the invading Russian forces, they discover "massacres or mass graves, as in Bucha in the spring and more recently in Izyum," Ms Borne said during a debate on the conflict in the upper house Senate.

"These are shocking, revolting, monstrous acts. They are barbaric violations of the laws of war, and Russia will have to answer for them," she added.

Ms Borne also referred to "implausible statements by the Russian defence minister about Ukraine using a dirty bomb. It is nothing but another lie by Moscow to legitimise the escalation".

The United Nations it was relatively optimistic about prospects for renewing an agreement that allows grain exports from war-torn Ukraine.

The 120-day Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-led deal agreed with Moscow and Kyiv, runs until November 19.

It spells out terms for exporting grain from Ukrainian ports blocked by the war Russia started in February.

A second agreement signed in parallel allows the export of Russian food and fertilizers despite Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the invasion.

The drop in Russian fossil fuel exports would transform the global energy landscape for decades and could help to hasten a green energy transition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

The IEA's annual World Energy Outlook acknowledges the economic hit from reduced supplies of Russian oil, natural gas and coal but is keeping an environmental bes- case scenario in which no investment in new fossil fuel projects is needed.

The IEA's report said the global energy crisis was causing profound and long-lasting changes that could hasten the transition to a more sustainable and secure energy system.

"Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being, but for decades to come," said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are among those meeting in Australia this week to decide the future of Antarctica's pristine waters.

Conservationists say new marine protected areas and rules to prevent overfishing are desperately needed, but that Russia could use its veto-like powers to once again block progress.

Achieving the required consensus for action among this diverse group of 27, which also includes China, the United States and the European Union, has always been an immense challenge.

And when two of the members are at war – and relations between China and many Western nations have deteriorated – consensus looms as an even bigger obstacle. Just this month, Russian bombing in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, partially destroyed Ukraine's Antarctic research centre.

Despite the enormous political hurdles, some remain hopeful that scientific arguments will win through. The US is paying more attention to the region under President Joe Biden

Volodymyr Zelensky has described the Russian tactics used in repeated attacks near two key cities in the eastern Donbas region as "crazy". 

Intense fighting is taking place near Avdiivka, outside Donetsk, and Bakhmut, further to the northeast.

"This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident. Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes," Mr Zelensky said.

Speaking in his nightly video address on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said there would be good news from the front, but did not give any details.

Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

The United Nations aid chief said he remains "relatively optimistic" that a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine Black Sea grain exports to resume would be extended beyond mid-November.

Martin Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan earlier this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal.

Ukraine was able to restart its Black Sea grain and fertiliser exports under the July 22 agreement, which had stalled when Russia invaded.

"We are keen to see that renewed promptly, now. It's important for the market. It's important for just continuity. And I'm still relatively optimistic that we're going to get that. We're working hard," Mr Griffiths said.

Australia will deploy 70 soldiers to help train Ukrainian troops in Britain as Russia's relentless invasion continues.

The Australian Government also agreed to send 30 more armoured vehicles to aid Ukraine.

"We expect this now to be a protracted conflict," Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles told ABC television on Thursday.

"We're mindful that Ukraine needs to now be supported over the longer term if we're going to put Ukraine in a position where it can resolve this conflict on its own terms."

The latest package takes Australia's support for Ukraine to about $655 million AUD (£365 million) since the war began in February.

Vladimir Putin on Wednesday oversaw Russia’s first nuclear exercises since the beginning of the war as he endorsed the baseless claim that Ukraine was preparing a “dirty bomb”.

Sitting alone, the Russian president watched via video link as nuclear submarines and strategic bombers displayed Moscow’s readiness for nuclear conflict.

The annual exercise, named “Grom” or “Thunder”, showed Russia “delivering a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy nuclear strike,” defence secretary General Sergei Shoigu told Putin.

Nuclear-capable missiles were fired from land, sea and TU-95MS strategic bombers. Some were fired from the Arctic to Russia’s Far East, nine time zones away.

Read the full story by Nataliya Vasilyeva here.

Boris Johnson is considering setting up a new organisation to help support Ukraine and rebuild the war-torn country as he seeks to build a new career on the international stage, The Telegraph can disclose.

The former prime minister has set up an office in Westminster from which he hopes to start a new foundation which his friends say could raise millions to reconstruct the war-torn country.

One friend of Mr Johnson who is familiar with the plans described it as a “Marshal plan for Ukraine” adding “Boris will raise loads of money” from private donors.

Read the full story by Christopher Hope here.

• Vladimir Putin personally oversaw military drills designed to simulate a "massive nuclear strike" on Wednesday
• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said fighting remained intense in the eastern Donbas region near Bakhmut
• The US and its Western allies on the Security Council have insisted the UN chief has the right to investigate if Russia has used Iranian drones to attack civilians and power plants in Ukraine
• Australia announced on Thursday it would deploy 70 soldiers to Britain to help train Ukrainian troops 
• United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday that he was "relatively optimistic" that a UN-brokered deal that allowed a resumption of Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November
• Boris Johnson is considering setting up a new organisation to help support Ukraine and rebuild the war-torn country