Ukraine updates: Russia testing nuclear strike capability

Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen ballistic missile drills, according to a Kremlin statement.

"Under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armed forces, Vladimir Putin, a training exercise was conducted with the forces and equipment of ground, sea and air components of nuclear deterrent forces," the Kremlin said.

"During the training, practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place."

It said one of the missiles was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region and another missile was fired from a nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea.

The Kremlin said "long range Tu-96MS planes" took part in the drills.

Russian news agencies cited Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying that Russia will practice "delivering a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy strike." It was not clear whether this was part of the same drills.

The announcement came hours after Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, approved revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty.

Moscow has said it will study US proposals to resume dialogue on nuclear arms control, but that it won't accept them unless Washington drops its "hostile" stance.

Russia's armed forces have recruited 385,000 people so far this year, said Russia's former leader Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

Moscow has launched an aggressive recruitment campaign, offering huge salaries and welfare programs in a bid to recruit soldiers for its assault.

"The rate of recruitment for contracted military service has increased significantly. More than 1,600 people are signing a contract with the armed forces every day," Medvedev said in a video published on social media.

Russia does not say how many troops it has lost during the 20-month offensive, but independent estimates put the numbers well into the tens of thousands.

Amid a shortage of manpower, Russia drafted more than 300,000 reservists in a controversial "partial mobilisation" drive last year.

Ukraine aims to produce tens of thousands of drones monthly by the end of the year as it ramps up defense industry output despite the challenge posed by Russian attacks, said Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister for strategic industries.

Speaking at a NATO Industry Forum in Stockholm, the Ukrainian minister did not disclose detailed current drone production figures, but put the number in the thousands per month.

"By the end of this year, it would be dozens of thousands a month. And that's something we grow even faster than conventional warfare ammunition and warfare weapons," he said.

Drones have played a central role in the 20-month-old Russia-Ukraine war, used in huge numbers by both sides for surveillance and attack. Kyiv has focused on increasing its output, but has relied heavily on foreign-made drone engines.

Ukrainian officials hope cooperation with Western arms producers can also help revive the domestic arms industry and create an additional boost for the economy.

Germany has pledged an additional €195 million ($206 million) to Ukraine to secure heat and power supplies in the coming winter. 

Heat and electricity are "central to the resilience of the people in Ukraine, especially in view of the coming winter," German Development Minister Svenja Schulze said after meeting Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov in Berlin. 

About half of the newly pledged funds will be used to repair war damage to Ukraine's power grid and expand renewable energy. The remainder will be used to expand a microfinance fund that provides loans to local businesses, particularly in the agricultural sector.

In total, the German Development Ministry's assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion now amounts to some €1.2 billion.

Ukraine's gross domestic product grew by around 9.1% year-on-year in September 2023, the country's economy ministry said, citing preliminary data.

The ministry also said GDP over the first nine months of 2023 rose by 5.3% compared with last year when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. It described the figures as positive.

"In addition to the low statistical basis of comparison, this is also explained by the high capability of business to adapt to new challenges, as well as assistance from the state and international partners," the ministry said.

Ukraine's economy is slowly gathering pace after being devastated by Russia's full-scale invasion, but continuing fighting, disrupted logistics and attacks on the energy system still present large barriers to growth.

Europe must not weaken its common support to Ukraine as it offers solidarity to Israel following the devastating attack by Islamist group Hamas earlier this month, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said.

"We must not make the mistake of weakening our common support to Ukraine," Meloni told the Senate ahead of a summit of European Union leaders.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to maintain Germany's aid to Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion even as Berlin supports Israel in its conflict with Hamas.

The support for Ukraine "will in no way be impacted by the fact that we of course since the horrible morning hours of October 7 have focused on Israel and the Middle East with the greatest sympathy and concern," Scholz said.

Ukraine is ready to provide foreign energy traders with up to half of its underground gas storage capacity of 30 billion cubic metres (bcm), Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

Ukraine's biggest oil and gas firm Naftogaz earlier this year said that foreign customers could use more than 10 bcm of storage, mostly in the country's west, which is far from the front lines of the war with Russia. Shmyhal told the national television that 12 to 15 bcm of storage volume could be used by non-residents.

Shmyhal told a business forum in Berlin on Tuesday that foreign traders had already accumulated 3 bcm of gas in underground storage facilities so far.

Traders told Reuters earlier this year that European gas traders had begun storing natural gas in Ukraine to take advantage of lower prices and available capacity there, regardless of the risks from the war.

The upper chamber of the Russian parliament approved a law withdrawing Moscow's ratification of the global nuclear test ban treaty, the final stage before it goes to President Vladimir Putin for signing.

The Federation Council approved the law by 156 votes to zero.

Russia's lower house of parliament, Duma, approved the law earlier in October.

Meanwhile, Moscow has received proposals from Washington on arms control and is currently studying them, state news agency RIA quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

Ryabkov said Russia was not ready to resume dialogue on strategic stability with the US, but was prepared to consider new proposals from Washington on prisoner exchanges.

A Russian drone attack damaged buildings near the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said.

"At night, the enemy struck territory near the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. As a result of the explosion, windows in administrative and laboratory buildings have been damaged," the Energy Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Power lines were also damaged, it added, with more than 1,800 consumers in the towns of Netishyn and Slavuta facing power cuts. It was unclear exactly how close the damage was to the nuclear plant.

According to Ukrainian officials, in Slavuta 20 buildings were damaged by falling debris, 20 people were injured.

Russia launched 11 kamikaze drones at Ukraine during the night, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday morning. All of them were shot down, the military said. 

Meanwhile, a local resident was killed in an early morning air attack on Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Earlier this week, local authorities ruled on the mandatory evacuation of families with children from the three districts of the Kherson region due to the ongoing bomb attacks.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the front zone in eastern Ukraine, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

He visited the "Vostok" command post to meet with senior officers and to hear a report on the situation on the front line, on the training of drone-operators and on preparations for fighting in winter conditions, it said.

The defense ministry's statement included a video showing Shoigu in a helicopter and later in a staff bunker. It was not clear whether the facility was actually on Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia. The statement did not say when Shoigu had made his visit. 

It comes as Russian troops have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks on the industrial city of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine.

In the war against Ukraine, which has now lasted more than 20 months and was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, representatives of the Russian leadership have only very rarely ventured to the front, unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who regularly visits.

dh/lo (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)