Russia: Momentum for peace after Putin-Trump summit 'gone'

A move to withdraw from the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) has been approved by Russia's parliament. 

A note on the legislation stated, "The United States has taken a number of new anti-Russian steps that fundamentally change the strategic balance that prevailed at the time of the Agreement and create additional threats to strategic stability."

This landmark agreement with the United States was aimed at reducing vast stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium left over from thousands of Cold War nuclear warheads.

Signed in 2000, PMDA obligated both the United States and Russia to dispose of at least 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium each. According to US officials, this amount would have been sufficient for up to 17,000 nuclear warheads.

The agreement took effect in 2011. However, in 2016, Russia suspended its participation in the agreement, citing several reasons, included US sanctions, NATO enlargement, and changes to the United States' plutonium disposal process.

Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers. Together, they control approximately 8,000 nuclear warheads — far fewer than the 73,000 warheads at the peak in 1986.

The Ukrainian parliament voted to extend the terms of local representatives for the duration of martial law.

A statement from Ukraine's parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada, said the resolution was supported by a clear two-thirds majority of parliamentarians.

Mayors, city and municipal councilors and regional parliaments will therefore remain in office until elections are held after the war with Russia ends.

According to the constitution, Ukraine is scheduled to hold local elections on October 26, marking five years since the 2020 local elections.

However, following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, martial law was imposed in Ukraine, making elections impossible.

At least three people were killed and nine others injured in a Ukrainian missile attack Russia's western Belgorod region, according to a statement on Telegram from governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. 

Gladkov said the small settlement of Maslova Pristan, near the Ukrainian border, was hit by rockets, adding that a social center was partially destroyed in the attack.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said it had intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, 28 of which were over Belgorod.

As part of its defensive campaign against the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine is increasingly striking targets inside Russian territory.

DTEK, Ukraine's biggest electricity operator, said that Russian airstrikes caused severe damage to a thermal power plant in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, leaving parts of the area without power.

Two employees were injured in the attack, DTEK reported.

According to authorities, an attack on a freight train has also caused disruptions to train service around the city of Nizhyn in Chernihiv region.

Meanwhile, in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said that two people were killed and another was injured in Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 183 combat drones at Ukraine overnight, 154 of which were intercepted. According to the report, there were 22 strikes at 11 locations.

A top Russian diplomat said momentum toward reaching a peace deal in Ukraine following the presidential summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska had largely disappeared.

"Unfortunately, we must admit that the powerful momentum generated by Anchorage in favor of agreements ... has largely gone," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

In August, Putin and Trump met at an airbase in Anchorage, Alaska, but failed to reach an agreement to end the three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.

Since then, diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have floundered. Both Moscow and Kyiv have launched deadly strikes into each other's territory, and Russia has advanced on the battlefield.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers that the bloc must strengthen its defenses to deter "hybrid warfare" following a series of air incursions, cyberattacks and undersea cable damage.

She said the time had come to call this campaign by its name, stating that it is "hybrid warfare."

Although she did not say Russia was responsible for all the incidents, she did say that it was clear Russia's aim was to "sow division" in Europe.

Read more about how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is urging a response to threats of hybrid warfare.

Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament's Defense Committee, said Russia would respond harshly if the United States were to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, the state RIA news agency reported.

"We know these missiles very well, how they fly, how to shoot them down," RIA cited him as saying. "We worked on them in Syria, so there is nothing new."

"Only those who supply them and those who use them will have problems," Kartapolov said.

In a separate statement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov urged Washington to assess the situation surrounding the potential supply of Tomahawk missiles "soberly."

Ryabkov said any such decision would be a serious escalatory step that would result in a "qualitative" change in the situation.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said he wanted to know what Ukraine planned to do with the Tomahawk missiles before agreeing to provide them, because he did not want to escalate the war between Russia and Ukraine. However, he said that he had "sort of made a decision" on the matter.

DW brings you the latest headlines related to Russia's war in Ukraine.

As Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues, a top Russian diplomat said the impetus to find a peace deal to end the fighting, which emerged after a presidential summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in August, has largely disappeared.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe must strengthen its defenses against "hybrid warfare" after a series of air incursions, cyberattacks, and undersea cable damage.

Stay tuned for the latest news and analysis.