Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Starmer says peace talks can finish Russian invasion as North Korea troops be a part of warfare

The Biden administration is sending Ukraine $725m worth of missiles, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, secretary of state Antony Blinken said.

The outgoing US president Joe Biden is seeking to bolster Kyiv in its war with Russian invaders before leaving office in January.

The assistance will include Stinger missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), drones and land mines, among other items, Mr Blinken said in a statement.

“The United States and more than 50 nations stand united to ensure Ukraine has the capabilities it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Mr Blinken’s statement said.

The announcement marks a steep uptick in size from MR Biden’s recent use of so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the US to draw from current weapons stocks to help allies in an emergency.

Moscow’s troops have been capturing village after village in Ukraine’s east, part of a drive to seize the industrial Donbas region, while Russian airstrikes target a hobbled Ukrainian energy grid as winter sets in.

The test run comes just three years after British stockpiles failed to see them through a 10-day exercise.

The Ministry of Defence began the war game on Monday morning. It is taking place at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.

The simulation is intended to “stress-test” how supply chains of artillery munitions and drones would hold up during a major war with an unspecified adversary. It is the first war game to involve representatives of the defence industry alongside military commanders and officials.

Defence companies taking part in the exercise include submarine builder BAE Systems, missiles firm MBDA, American jet fighter business Lockheed Martin and ship builder Babcock.

Tom Watling reports:

An overnight Russia drone attack has left Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil without electricity, a regional military official said this morning, a week after Moscow’s strikes cut power to much of the city and its surrounding region.

“Energy workers and rescuers are eliminating the consequences of the attack. Stock up on water, charge your phones,” Serhiy Nadal, the head of the regional defence headquarters in Ternopil, said on his Telegram messaging channel.

The full scale of the attack on Ternopil, a major city in Ukraine’s west, was not immediately clear.

Air raid alerts over the Ternopil region, of which the city of Ternopil is the administrative centre, lasted for about two and a half hours, starting at around 11.30pm GMT yesterday.

At least one person was killed and several were wounded in Russia’s drone attack on Ternopil earlier yesterday.

A week ago, much of the Ternopil region lost power in Russia’s largest ever drone attack on Ukraine.

Prime minister Keir Starmer vouched for stepping up support for Ukraine as an essential move to put the country in the strongest position for peace talks.

Sir Starmer stressed the importance of continued Western support to Ukraine and warned a Russian victory in Ukraine would threaten Europe’s security, stability and prosperity, particularly because it could embolden Russia’s allies.

“We must continue to back Ukraine and do what it takes to support their self-defence for as long as it takes,” the British PM said in a speech in London’s historic financial district.

He added: “To put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence – and right to choose their own future.”

Sir Starmer’s comments come at crucial moment in the war with Russia advancing at its fastest rate since 2022 and US president-elect Donald Trump – who is deeply sceptical of US support for Ukraine – promising to end the war quickly after he is inaugurated next month.

Britain has been one of Ukraine‘s most vocal supporters since the start of the invasion by Russia in 2022 and was the first country to supply more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, including battle tanks and long-range cruise missiles.

German military aid to be delivered to Ukraine in December includes IRIS-T air defence systems, Leopard 1 tanks and armed drones, a defence ministry spokesperson has said.

“Winter is just around the corner, so there will also be winter equipment, as well as hand-held weapons and warming devices,” the spokesperson said just hours after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the deliveries during a surprise trip to Kyiv.

A government spokesperson said the deliveries were part of a military aid package already announced by Berlin in October.

More than 100,000 soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army, Ukraine’s prosecutor general has said, starving Kyiv of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia.

Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials have told the Associated Press.

Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, military commanders and soldiers said. Some take medical leave and find themselves unable to bring themselves to return. Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights.

Nearly half of the 100,000 peope charged have deserted in the last year alone, after Kyiv launched an aggressive mobilisation drive that government officials and military commanders concede has largely failed.

There were an estimated 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers engaged in combat before the mobilisation drive began. One politician with knowledge of military matters estimated the actual number of deserters could be as high as 200,000.

Nato is highly unlikely to heed Ukraine’s call for a membership invitation at a meeting today, according to diplomats.

Ukraine sees Nato membership as the best guarantee of its future security. Under Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence pact, members agree to treat an attack on one as an attack on all and come to each other’s aid.

In a letter to his Nato counterparts ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said an invitation would remove one of Russia’s main arguments for waging its war – namely, preventing Ukraine from joining the alliance.

But there is no sign of the required consensus among Nato’s 32 members for such a decision at the foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, said diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It will take weeks and months to get consensus,” a senior Nato diplomat said yesterday. “I don’t see that happening tomorrow, I would be very surprised.”

A senior US official said the meeting would focus on surging support for Ukraine so it was in the strongest possible position next year, “going into possible negotiations”.

“The best way to do that is to surge money, munitions and mobilisation,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US and Ukrainian defense chiefs discussed Russia’s use of new ballistic missiles, preparations for the next meeting of arms donors and plans for Washington’s military aid next year, both sides said.

“Secretary (of Defence Lloyd) Austin condemned Russia’s recent barrage of missiles and Unmanned Aerial Systems targeting Ukraine‘s civilian infrastructure and its use of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile in Ukraine, which marks another escalation in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the Pentagon’s press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder, said in a statement.

The meeting came as the US said it will send Kyiv $725m of missiles, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, as president Joe Biden’s outgoing administration seeks to bolster Kyiv before leaving office.

Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov said the call also focused on “strategic planning for 2025, particularly regarding the supply of weapons, equipment, and equipping of our units.”

He also said he discussed with Mr Austin preparations for the upcoming meeting of the Ramstein Group, an alliance of Nato, the European Union and countries that have supported Kyiv.