Ukraine struggle: Nato points stark winter warning after Kyiv faces hypersonic missile

Donald Trump had secretly sent Vladimir Putin several Covid-19 test machines for his personal use at the height of the pandemic, a new book from journalist Bob Woodward claims.

Russia and the US did exchange medical equipment at the time, but Mr Putin reportedly told Mr Trump to keep the deployment of testing machines quiet.

“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Mr Putin told Mr Trump, according to the journalist. “I don’t care,” Mr Trump replied, Mr Woodward writes. “Fine.”

“No, no,” Mr Putin reportedly said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”

War, a new book from Mr Woodward which includes extensive reporting about the presidential terms of Mr Trump and Joe Biden, is scheduled for publication on 15 October.

Vladimir Putin has demolished his holiday villa by the Black Sea after he stopped visiting the area out of fear for his life relating to strikes from Ukraine, a Russian opposition website has claimed.

The site of his villa near Sochi has become a regular spot for Ukrainian drone attacks – something which Putin “fears”, according to Proekt.

The independent news site published a pair of satellite images, one showing the villa standing in May 2023 and another from May 2024 after it was flattened. Proekt said the “site of the dacha is now a pit”.

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Russia’s air defence units destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones targeting its west, the defence ministry said this morning.

Around 24 drones were downed over the southwestern border region of Bryansk, with the rest destroyed over the regions of Belgorod, Kursk, Rostov and Krasnodar and the waters of the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Regional officials said the attacks caused no casualties.

A fire sparked by debris falling in an undeveloped area in the southern region of Rostov bordering Ukraine was promptly put out, regional governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram, adding there was no other damage.

Bryansk head Aleksander Bogomaz said emergency services were working at sites where debris fell, without saying if there was damage. Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.

A new book from journalist Bob Woodward includes extensive reporting about President Joe Biden’s “blunt, profanity-laced” behind-the-scenes responses to Putin’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Alex Woodward reports:

Britain imposed sanctions on Russian troops it said were involved in using chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of “cruel and inhumane tactics”.

Among those sanctioned were the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian Federation and its leader Igor Kirillov, the government said in a statement.

“The UK will not sit idly by whilst (Russian president Vladimir) Putin and his mafia state ride roughshod over international law, including the Chemical Weapons Convention,” foreign minister David Lammy said in a statement.

The accusations have been dubbed as “groundless” by Moscow’s embassy in London, reported Russian state news agency TASS.

The fresh sanctions come a week after the government sanctioned 16 members of the Russian cyber-crime gang Evil Corp, a group it said had been tasked by Russia to conduct operations against Nato allies.

Hungary will oppose the EU decision to provide a $35 billion loan to Ukraine at the expense of frozen Russian assets – calling instead to wait for the US presidential election.

Mihály Varga, Hungary’s Finance Minister, said on October 8 that the “prolongation of the Russian sanctions” should be decided “after the US elections”.

He added: “That was the Hungarian position… We have to see in which direction the future US administration is going [on] this issue.”

Varga said the candidates are adopting different positions one “in the direction [of] peace” and the other “continue to the war”.

Ukraine will not have to return the money which comes as part of the $50 billion loan plan from G7 leaders, because it comes from Russian assets.

The EU is committed to providing $35 billion in total as per the terms of the plan.

Liubov and Ivan Solod, 65-year-old pensioners, stand in the stairway as they visit their apartment that was recently damaged during shelling to collect their remaining belongings, in the town of Kurakhove. It is located near the frontline in the Pokrovsk district of the eastern Donetsk region yesterday amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s army announced last week that it had withdrawn from the eastern town of Vuhledar, handing Russia one of its most significant territorial advances in weeks.

The coal mining town’s fall raised new questions about Ukraine’s defensive positions along its southeastern frontline as Russian forces advance ahead of winter. Around 14,000 people lived in Vuhledar before Russia invaded, making it one of Moscow’s more important gains in months of grinding advances across the east.

Joe Biden has cancelled his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in a blow to plans for the highest level meeting ever of the Ramstein group of Ukraine arms donors. The gathering, critical to Kyiv’s victory plan, was supposed to underscore unwavering support for Kyiv and secure more pledges of assistance ahead of winter.

The Ramstein group was set to meet at the highest level on the sidelines of Mr Biden’s 10-13 October state visit to Germany, which would have been the first US state visit in nearly 40 years.

But the White House said Mr Biden was postponing his trip to both Germany and Angola to handle preparations for Hurricane Milton and relief efforts after Hurricane Helene which last month killed more than 200 people.

It added that it was still working out what to do with the Ramstein event, with Mr Biden and German chancellor Olaf Scholz talking later on Tuesday.

“I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time,” the US president said, adding that he hoped to reschedule the trip “and all the conferences I said I’d participate in”.

The administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, the deadliest named storm to hit the mainland US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has already become a point of contention in a tight race ahead of November’s presidential election.

Ukraine needs to secure and deploy advanced missiles and to achieve faster results with them on the battlefield, president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky said a meeting with top commanders had been devoted to the development of domestic weapons supplies in the more than two and a half year war against Russia.

This, he said, involved drones, electronic warfare and, above all, deploying missiles that would reap rapid benefits in battlefield confrontations with Russian forces.

“Special emphasis is on our national missile programme in all its elements. In all of Ukraine’s missiles achievements, there must be more combat accomplishments both at the front and on Russian territory,” he said. “Results are needed faster. And all relevant tasks are now being carried out,” the war-time president said.

Russia says its forces have taken control of two settlements in eastern Ukraine, marking the latest gains for Moscow in the Donbas region.

The villages of Zolota Nyva and Zoryane Pershe have been brought under Russian control, the Russian defence ministry said. The communities have an estimated population of a few hundred residents each.

The two villages lie to the north and to the south of the town of Kurakhove, one of the focal points of military activity on the eastern front.

Ukrainian officials made no reference to control of either village being lost in their statements. But the Ukrainian General Staff acknowledged that the Kurakhove sector was the scene of the heaviest battles on the eastern front.

The General Staff last referred to Zolota Nyva on Sunday as one of two villages coming under a series of Russian assaults.