Ukraine updates: Kyiv fires UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia

The governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico have made a joint call to “avoid actions that would escalate the arms race” in the war in Ukraine.

In a statement released a day after the conclusion of the G20 summit in Brazil and after the US allowed Ukraine to fire its missiles inside Russian territory, the four nations warned that the move could “aggravate the conflict.”

They urged “all parties involved to fulfil their international commitments and to prioritize dialogue and the search for peace in that region.”

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has confirmed that the US Embassy in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, will reopen on Thursday.

Miller did not disclose what kind of threat had forced the embassy to shut down on Wednesday.

“We take the safety and security of our personnel … extremely seriously,” he said.

The US mission closure comes a day after Moscow vowed to respond to Ukraine’s firing of longer-range US-supplied missiles at Russia. For the first time in the nearly three-year war, the US gave permission for Kyiv to fire its missiles into Russian territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the US decision to send landmines to Kyiv, saying they were “very important” in the fight against Russian attacks.

A US official has confirmed that Washington will be providing Kyiv with antipersonnel mines to shore up Ukrainian defenses, adding that the mines are of the “non-persistent” variety, meaning they become inert after a period of time when their batteries run out.

Zelenskyy thanked the US for the landmines, saying it would “really strengthen our troops on the front.”

Ukraine has reportedly fired British-made Storm Shadow longer-range missiles into Russian territory, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Bloomberg report cited an unnamed Western official. British news outlets including The Guardian and the Financial Times later published similar reports based off of footage circulating on social media.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his office would not comment on reports or operational matters.

The UK supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow cruise missiles last year and said it could use them within Ukrainian territory, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been pressing for months for permission to strike targets inside Russia.

The Storm Shadow missiles have a range in excess of 250 kilometers (155 miles) and would give Ukraine the ability to hit targets deeper inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned that the use of US and British-made missiles on Russian territory would be tantamount to NATO entering a direct conflict with Russia.

The United Kingdom and Moldova have announced a new defense and security partnership amid heightened threats from Russia.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the deal after meeting with Moldova’s recently reelected, pro-EU President Maia Sandu in Chisinau.

“Moldova is a vital security partner for the UK, which is why to reinforce their resilience against Russian aggression and to keep British streets safe, I am deepening cooperation on irregular migration and launching a new defense and security partnership,” Lammy said.

The UK Foreign Ministry said the defense pact was about “building on extensive cooperation between the two countries and strengthening Moldovan resilience against external threats.”

The two countries also signed an agreement to more swiftly deport Moldovans who are illegally staying in the UK. 

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has played down threats of a Russian attack after a number of foreign embassies in Kyiv closed on Wednesday.

“We remind you that the threat of strikes by the aggressor state has unfortunately been a daily reality for Ukrainians for over 1,000 days,” the Foreign Ministry said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military intelligence accused Russia of carrying out a “psychological” operation against citizens by sending out fake bomb warnings on social media.

“A message is being spread via messengers and social networks … about the threat of a ‘particularly massive’ missile and bomb strike on Ukrainian cities today,” the Main Directorate of Intelligence said on Telegram.

“This message is a fake, it contains grammatical errors typical of Russian information and psychological operations.”

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has condemned the US decision to send antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine.

The group said it was “inconceivable the US would facilitate laying new mines.”

Ukraine “must clearly state they cannot and will not accept these weapons,” the landmine monitor said Wednesday.

The ICBL said it “condemns this terrible decision by the US” and “will be working to get the US to reverse it.”

The announcement coincided with a report from the ICBL that said 5,757 people worldwide had been killed or injured by landmines last year. At least 580 of them were in Ukraine.

Russia has rejected claims that the destruction of two telecommunications in the Baltic Sea was linked to its offensive in Ukraine.

“It’s quite absurd to keep blaming Russia for everything without any grounds,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

“It is laughable in the context of the lack of any reaction to Ukraine’s sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea,” he added.

European officials had suggested the cables were sabotaged after an investigation ruled out the possibility that they had accidentally been damaged.

Russian forces captured the frontline village of Illinka in Donetsk, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian village lies on the shore of the embattled Kurakhove reservoir. It had a population of around 400 people before Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Russia has made incremental gains in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in recent months.

Following an earlier announcement from the US Embassy in Ukraine, three European countries have announced they were also keeping their doors closed on Wednesday.

The embassies ofItaly, Spain, and Greece in Kyiv also warned their citizens to remain vigilant throughout the day and stay at home if they could.

None of the four countries gave specifics about why they issued alerts, other than the risk of an airstrike.

Ukrainian Environment Minister Svitlana Hryntchuk described the toll of Russia’s invasion to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku on Wednesday.

She said her ministry estimates the invasion has caused $71 billion (€67 billion) in environmental damage.

“More than 6 million Ukrainians were forced to temporarily seek refuge in various European countries, resulting in an additional 3.3 million tons of CO2 emissions,” which came in addition to the 180 million tons released by Russian shelling.

According to Hryntchuk, 3 million hectares of forest have been destroyed by airstrikes and the resulting forest fires, and an additional 139,000 square kilometers (53,670 square miles) have been contaminated due to explosive residues. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian urged “calm” and “restraint” following a decision by the Kremlin to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

“Under the current circumstances, all parties should remain calm and exercise restraint, working together through dialogue and consultation to ease tensions and reduce strategic risks,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said when asked about the situation.

“China’s stance of encouraging all parties to de-escalate the situation and commit to a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis remains unchanged,” Lin added.

The US, UK, and EU have all called Putin’s decree “irresponsible.”

Although Beijing has not publicly voiced support for the invasion of Ukraine, President Xi Jinping has remained a staunch Putin ally. Western intelligence services have said China is supplying Russia with military equipment.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has dismissed the recent move by Russia’s President Putin to lower the threshold for a nuclear strike as simply “rhetoric.”

“We are not intimidated,” he told broadcaster France 2.

Putin approved the change in the country’s nuclear doctrine after Kyiv launched two American ATACMS missiles at targets inside Russia.

Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, has said that the role NATO countries have played in missile strikes inside Russian territory will not go unpunished.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Washington had dropped restrictions on the use of American-made longer-range missiles inside Russia. On Tuesday, two US ATACMS missiles were used in air attacks on Russian territory.

Russia’s FSB security service has confirmed that a German citizen was arrested in Kaliningrad on charges of planning to destroy energy installations, Russian state news agencies reported.

The man “is implicated in the March 2024 explosion at a gas distribution station” in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

He had recently returned to Russia “to organize acts of sabotage” against more energy infrastructure, Russian media cited the FSB as saying.