Putin threatens to target Kyiv decision-making centres with new missile after US and UK-made weapons used in Russia as it happened

Putin threatens to target ‘decision-making centres in Kyiv’ with new Oreshnik IRBM missile

President Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russia produces ten times more missiles than all of the Nato countries combined, and threatened an attack on decision-making centres in Kyiv with its new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) missile.

Appearing at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Putin spoke about the capabilities of the Oreshnik missile.

He said that Russia had been forced to deploy the new missile “in response to the enemy’s actions” – a reference to the use of US and UK manufactured missiles inside Russian territory – and that there were “no analogues to the Russian Oreshnik in the world”. He said western equivalents would not appear any time soon.

In the event of a massive use of the Oreshnik, the force of the strike will be comparable to a nuclear weapon, he said.

He said decision-making centres in Kyiv could become a target for the Oreshnik missile, and pointed out that Ukraine has launched multiple attacks against Moscow and St Petersburg. Ukraine carried out its biggest drone strike on Moscow earlier this month.

US and UK sources indicated to the Guardian last week that they believed the Oreshnik missile fired on Dnipro was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US.

Tass reports that in Kazakhstan, Putin also said that other new missile systems could appear and that Russia will continue combat tests of the Oreshnik.

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It is 2pm in Kyiv and 3pm in Moscow. Here are the headlines …

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  Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike at “decision-making centres in Kyiv” with his country’s new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) missile. Putin said officials were drawing up a list of targets, and Russia would continue combat tests of the missile

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  Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Putin also boasted that Russia was producing ten times as many advanced missile system as Nato countries collectively were able to manage. He said that overnight Russia had used 90 missiles of and 100 drones to strike 17 targets in Ukraine, which he described as “military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems”

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  Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had used cluster munitions, overnight, which he described as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics”

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  Ukrainian authorities said the attacks had been aimed at energy infrastructure, and earlier today at least one million people had been left without power. Ukraine’s energy company Ukrenergo said the emergency blackouts had ended, but warned of “three rounds of blackouts” occurring before the end of the day

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  Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over four regions, the defence ministry said on Thursday. It also claimed to have intercepted a Neptune guided missile

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  Russian authorities in Kursk have opened a criminal case against Ukrainian service personnel after two civilians were injured in a drone attack on vehicles on Wednesday

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During his appearance at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said that overnight 17 targets within Ukraine were struck.

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Tass quotes Putin saying:

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Tonight we carried out a comprehensive strike using 90 missiles of similar classes and 100 drones. We hit 17 targets: military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems.

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Ukrainian authorities said the attacks had been aimed at energy infrastructure, and that earlier on Thursday at least one million people had been left without power after the attack caused emergency blackouts.

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Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had used cluster munitions, which he described as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics.”

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Russia and Ukraine have agreed to return to each other a total of nine children to be reunited with family members, according to a senior Russian official.

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Reuters reports that Russia’s commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, said on Thursday that six boys and one girl, aged six to 16, were being returned to relatives in Ukraine. She added that Qatari mediation had also enabled the repatriation of two young Russian boys, aged seven and nine, from Ukraine.

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In March 2023 the international criminal court issued a warrant for the arrest of Lvova-Belova, alongside president Vladimir Putin, after a panel of judges agreed that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe they bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.

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file photo of Russian presidential commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by the international criminal court.”,”caption”:”A file photo of Russian presidential commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by the international criminal court.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/AP”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1732790502000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”10.41 GMT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1732790786000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”10.46 GMT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1732790786000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”10.46 GMT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”10.46″,”title”:”Russia and Ukraine return small number of children to families after mediation by Qatar”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 28 Nov 2024 15.03 GMT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 28 Nov 2024 06.39 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President Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russia produces ten times more missiles than all of the Nato countries combined, and threatened an attack on decision-making centres in Kyiv with its new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) missile.

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Appearing at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Putin spoke about the capabilities of the Oreshnik missile.

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He said that Russia had been forced to deploy the new missile “in response to the enemy’s actions” – a reference to the use of US and UK manufactured missiles inside Russian territory – and that there were “no analogues to the Russian Oreshnik in the world”. He said western equivalents would not appear any time soon.

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In the event of a massive use of the Oreshnik, the force of the strike will be comparable to a nuclear weapon, he said.

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He said decision-making centres in Kyiv could become a target for the Oreshnik missile, and pointed out that Ukraine has launched multiple attacks against Moscow and St Petersburg. Ukraine carried out its biggest drone strike on Moscow earlier this month.

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US and UK sources indicated to the Guardian last week that they believed the Oreshnik missile fired on Dnipro was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US.

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Tass reports that in Kazakhstan, Putin also said that other new missile systems could appear and that Russia will continue combat tests of the Oreshnik.

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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that emergency power blackouts in the country have ended.

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This does not mean that everybody will remain with power for the rest of the day. Ukrenergo announced that “all customers return to hourly outage schedules”.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that Russia used cluster munitions in a massive strike at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, describing it as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics.”

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Ukraine’s president, in a message posted to Telegram, said that about 100 drones and 90 missiles were involved in the attack, adding:

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n

In several regions, Kalibr strikes with cluster munitions were recorded, specifically on civilian infrastructure. These cluster parts make it much more difficult for our rescuers and energy workers to eliminate the consequences of the impact, and this is a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics.

n

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Earlier authorities in Ukraine reported that at least one million people were without power. Missile debris was reported at two locations in Kyiv, but local authorities claimed that air defences intercepted all of the missiles fired at the capital. Many other regions reported strikes.

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Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s appeal for better air defences in his message, saying:

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n

Each such attack proves that air defence systems are needed now in Ukraine, where they save lives, and not in storage bases. This is especially important in the winter, when we have to protect our infrastructure from targeted Russian strikes. We are constantly working with partners to have more power to defend and timely delivery now and full implementation of agreements particularly on air defense is what is most needed.

n

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At least one million people are without power across Ukraine after a large Russian overnight missile attack on energy infrastructure in the country.

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Reuters reports that three regions in the west are affected by the power outages. Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Ukraine’s western region, reported energy infrastructure attacks there, and said more than half a million people in the region were without power. Missiles were detected overnight headed for Kharkiv, Odesa and eight other regions

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Missile debris was reported at two locations in Kyiv, but local authorities claimed that air defences intercepted all of the missiles fired at the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported damage to property but no casualties.

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The national power grid operator Ukrenergo had “urgently introduced emergency power cuts”, said the energy minister, German Galushchenko. The temperature in Kyiv was not expected to rise above 2C (35.6F) today.

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Russia’s ministry of defence claimed to have destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight in four regions, including the Moscow-annexed Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014.

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Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over four regions, the defence ministry said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

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Fourteen of the drones were destroyed over the Krasnodar region, six over the Bryansk region, three over Moscow-annexed Crimea and two over the Rostov region, it said.

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Krasnodar’s regional governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, wrote on Telegram that two districts in the southern Russian region were subjected to a “massive drone attack” overnight. One civilian was injured, he said.

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Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian cities of Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Kharkiv, Rivne and Lutsk on Thursday morning amid reports of a Russian cruise missile attack, Ukrainian news outlets Zerkalo Tyzhnya and Suspilne said.

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“Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy’s massive strike,” said the Ukrainian energy minister, German Galushchenko.

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The Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said: “The enemy continues to attack Kharkiv with missiles.

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The Odesa regional governor, Oleh Kiper, urged residents to stay in shelter.

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The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said air defence was at work.

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The national power grid operator Ukrenergo had “urgently introduced emergency power cuts”, said the energy minister, German Galushchenko, as temperatures across the country dropped to around freezing.

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One energy supplier, DTEK, said Ukrenergo was introducing emergency power outages in the regions of Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Donetsk.

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Hello, this is the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine. This Thursday morning, Ukraine has come under widespread air raids, with a national alert issued and officials saying the country’s energy infrastructure is once again the Kremlin’s target.

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More of that to come, but for now, here’s a summary from our Ukraine war briefing of other major developments:

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  A senior official in Joe Biden’s administration has told the Associated Press that the US is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and lowering the conscription age to as young as 18 to help expand the pool of fighting age men available.

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  The Biden administration is preparing another urgent weapons package for Ukraine, this time worth $725m, two US officials said on Wednesday. It is predicted to include landmines, drones, Stinger anti-air missiles, and Himars ammunition, including GMLRS rockets with cluster warheads. The formal notification to Congress of the weapons package could come as soon as Monday, one official said.

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  Ukrainian forces made a “complex drone and missile strike” against Sevastopol in occupied Crimea on Wednesday, targeting the Belbek military airfield and a naval school, according to Russian and Crimean sources cited by the Institute for the Study of War. The attack reportedly used Ukraine’s homegrown Neptune cruise missiles, Soviet-style S200 missiles, western-provided Storm Shadow missiles, 40 strike drones and unspecified ballistic missiles. The US-based thinktank suggested it bolstered the case for the “provision of long-range strike weapons to Ukrainian forces”.

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  Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due on Thursday to sign Ukraine’s 2025 budget, which calls for the country’s first wartime tax increases. The finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, said Ukraine hoped tax increases would generate additional budget revenues of 141bn hryvnia (US$3.39bn). The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said record sums would be directed to weapons production and purchases including modernising Ukraine’s defence industry and buying drones.

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  There was no word on whether South Korea will supply arms to Ukraine after Kyiv’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, met with the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul on Wednesday. Yoon’s office said the two sides agreed to continue to share information on North Korean troops in Russia and North Korean-Russian weapons and technology transfers, while closely coordinating with the US. Umerov briefed other South Korean officials on the status of the Russia-Ukraine war and expressed hope that Kyiv and Seoul would strengthen cooperation, the statement said. Umerov predicted a “tangible strengthening of security for our peoples and regions”.

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  Russia’s rouble has plunged to its lowest rate against the dollar since the early weeks of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the wake of new western sanctions and growing geopolitical tensions, Pjotr Sauer writes.

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  Donald Trump has picked Keith Kellogg to serve as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia – a newly conceived role given the ongoing war, Gloria Oladipo writes. Kellogg served as a national security adviser to the former vice-president Mike Pence, then acting security adviser to Trump himself after Michael Flynn had to resign. Kellogg has said he would emphasise getting the two countries to the negotiating table.

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  Russia’s sabotage of western targets may prompt Nato to consider invoking its article 5 mutual defence clause, Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, has warned. The BND chief, speaking in Berlin on Wednesday, said he expected Moscow to further step up its hybrid warfare.

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  Nordic and Baltic states and Poland said on Wednesday that they would in the coming months step up support for Ukraine, including to its defence industry, and invest in making more ammunition available. “We are committed to strengthening our deterrence, and defence, including resilience, against conventional as well as hybrid attacks, and to expanding sanctions against Russia as well as against those who enable Russia’s aggression,” the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Sweden said in a statement.

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  The head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, called for more defence spending in Europe over the next five years, as her top team was voted in by a wafer-thin majority in the European parliament. The EU faces acute challenges, including the war in Ukraine, the return of Donald Trump and the climate crisis, all against a backdrop of deepening fears of economic decline as von der Leyen starts her second term.

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  Poland said on Wednesday that it had detained a German citizen and charged the suspect with brokering and exporting dual-use goods to Russia. The German citizen traded in specialist machines used in the technological industry, which – through his company – were illegally sent to Russian military plants involved in the production of weapons, said the Internal Security Agency (Isa). “The suspect pleaded guilty and filed a motion for voluntary submission to punishment.”

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  Vladimir Putin arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Kazakhstan is a member of the Moscow-led CSTO security alliance but has expressed concern about the Ukraine war, which the Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has refused to condone. Kazakhstan is also working to detour away from Russia as a route for its oil export, using Turkey instead.

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Summary of the day

• Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike at “decision-making centres in Kyiv” with his country’s new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) missile. Putin said officials were drawing up a list of targets, and Russia would continue combat tests of the missile

• Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Putin also boasted that Russia was producing ten times as many advanced missile system as Nato countries collectively were able to manage. He said that overnight Russia had used 90 missiles of and 100 drones to strike 17 targets in Ukraine, which he described as “military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems”

• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had used cluster munitions, overnight, which he described as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics”

• Ukrainian authorities said the attacks had been aimed at energy infrastructure, and earlier today at least one million people had been left without power. Ukraine’s energy company Ukrenergo said the emergency blackouts had ended, but warned of “four rounds of blackouts” occurring before the end of the day

• Kyiv said on Thursday that Russian forces had shot dead five Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered in the eastern Zaporizhzhia region, marking the latest war crimes allegations levied against Moscow. Both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other’s armies of committing atrocities

• Putin told reporters in Kazakhstan was outraged by the assassination attempts on incoming US president Donald Trump, and he believes that the Biden administration is trying to create difficulties for Trump in US-Russian relations

Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s energy company, has now warned of four rounds of power blackouts during the day.

Here are some of the latest images from the conflict in Ukraine and Russia.

Ukrinform, citing Khmelnytskyi regional governor Serhiy Tyurin, reports that an energy supply facility was damaged by fragments from a downed missile this morning in the region. No casualties were reported, and all power supplies were expected to be restored to normal by the evening.

Vladimir Putin has been giving a press conference in Astana, which Tass has been covering on a live video stream.

The Russian president has said, among other things, that:

• The new Oreshnik missile reaches a temperature of 4,000 degrees, and “the kinetic impact is powerful, like a meteorite falling. We know from history what meteorites fell where, and what the consequences were. Sometimes it was enough for entire lakes to form”

• It is unrealistic to expect Russia’s CSTO allies (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) to assist Russia “in any way in connection with the American weapons strikes on the Russian Federation” but Russia was prepared to protect them and the mutual defence clauses in the treaty were clear

• The Russian Federation is considering making drone operations a separate branch of the military

• He has not set conditions for peace talks with Ukraine, but has set out Russia’s position clearly. In June he said any peace deal would have to involve Ukraine giving up its aim to join Nato, and giving up full control of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia has claimed to annex on top of the 2014 annexation of Crimea

• He was outraged by the assassination attempts on incoming US president Donald Trump, and he believes that the Biden administration is trying to create difficulties for Trump in US-Russian relations

• He rejected accusations in Angela Merkel’s memoir that he had tried to scare her with his dog, and said if she came to visit Russia again he would keep dogs away from her

• Russia, he claimed, unlike the west, does not interfere in internal political processes in Georgia

Vladimir Putin has accused Germany of using “unlawful measures” and “unacceptable” methods in its treatment of assets belonging to Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, the Interfax news agency reported.

The future of Rosneft’s German assets, which include a 54.17% stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery, is unclear after Berlin effectively took control of them.

Ukrainian prosecutors have alleged that a former lawmaker embezzled more than $10million (£7.9m) in an army uniform corruption scheme, the AFP news agency reports.

AFP says:

The government in Kyiv, which has been plagued by corruption since the fall of the Soviet Union, is facing a new raft of graft scandals amid a surge of spending on its military as it fights Russia’s invasion.

The Prosecutor General’s office said it had uncovered “a scheme to embezzle more than $10 million for the purchase of military uniforms for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.

It accused a former MP and advisor to the country’s deputy defence ministry of orchestrating the scheme in 2022, along with his son and a foreign citizen.

It said the group brokered a contract to produce $25.6 million worth of army uniforms at an inflated price of more than $35 million, agreeing to divide the extra $10 million between them.

The ex-MP and his son were served a notice of suspicion of “misappropriation of property by deception on a large scale”.

Prosecutors did not identify the accused by name, nor say if any had been taken into custody.

Kyiv said on Thursday that Russian forces had shot dead five Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered in the eastern Zaporizhzhia region, marking the latest war crimes allegations levied against Moscow.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other’s armies of committing atrocities since Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Prosecutors said the incident had taken place on 24 November near the village of Novodarivka in the Pologiv district of the Zaporizhzhia region, reports AFP.

“Servicemen of the Russian armed forces shot dead five Ukrainian defenders out of six who had been taken prisoner,” a statement read.

There was no immediate response to the accusations from Moscow, which claimed to have annexed Zaporizhzhia along with three other partially occupied Ukrainian territories in late 2022.

Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said he had contacted the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) over the allegations.

The German defence ministry has said Patriot missile units could be deployed in Poland from early 2025 for up to six months, says Reuters.

“With this we will protect a logistical hub in Poland which is of central importance for the delivery of materials to Ukraine,” German defence minister Boris Pistorius said.

Tass, citing the local regional governor, reports that two civilians were injured in Belgorod region after a Ukrainian drone attack. It also reports that Russia’s air defences have destroyed a Ukrainian drone over Bryansk region.

Ukraine’s air force said on Thursday that Russia made 12 strikes on Ukrainian targets in an overnight aerial attack which mostly targeted fuel and energy infrastructure, Reuters reports.

Earlier Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, speaking in Astana, said Russia had struck 17 targets which were “military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems.”

Summary of the day so far …

It is 2pm in Kyiv and 3pm in Moscow. Here are the headlines …

• Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike at “decision-making centres in Kyiv” with his country’s new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) missile. Putin said officials were drawing up a list of targets, and Russia would continue combat tests of the missile

• Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Putin also boasted that Russia was producing ten times as many advanced missile system as Nato countries collectively were able to manage. He said that overnight Russia had used 90 missiles of and 100 drones to strike 17 targets in Ukraine, which he described as “military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems”

• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had used cluster munitions, overnight, which he described as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics”

• Ukrainian authorities said the attacks had been aimed at energy infrastructure, and earlier today at least one million people had been left without power. Ukraine’s energy company Ukrenergo said the emergency blackouts had ended, but warned of “three rounds of blackouts” occurring before the end of the day

• Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over four regions, the defence ministry said on Thursday. It also claimed to have intercepted a Neptune guided missile

• Russian authorities in Kursk have opened a criminal case against Ukrainian service personnel after two civilians were injured in a drone attack on vehicles on Wednesday

Here are some images from Ukraine of the aftermath of the overnight Russian attack.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that, while the earlier emergency blackouts have ended, Ukraine’s energy company Ukrenergo has said it still expects there to be “three rounds of blackouts” until the end of the day, warning that “the time of application and the amount of restrictions may change during the day”.

Reuters is carrying fuller quotes now from Vladimir Putin’s speech in Kazakhstan, where he threatened the use of the new Oreshnik missile on Kyiv.

It quotes the Russian president saying:

Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions, as was done on 21 November.

At present, the ministry of defence and the general staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory. These could be military facilities, defence and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centres in Kyiv.

Putin is attending the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Astana, a grouping which includes Armenia, Belarus, hosts Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan alongside Russia.

Putin claims 17 targets hit in Ukraine during overnight strikes

During his appearance at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said that overnight 17 targets within Ukraine were struck.

Tass quotes Putin saying:

Tonight we carried out a comprehensive strike using 90 missiles of similar classes and 100 drones. We hit 17 targets: military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems.

Ukrainian authorities said the attacks had been aimed at energy infrastructure, and that earlier on Thursday at least one million people had been left without power after the attack caused emergency blackouts.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had used cluster munitions, which he described as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics.”

Russia and Ukraine return small number of children to families after mediation by Qatar

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to return to each other a total of nine children to be reunited with family members, according to a senior Russian official.

Reuters reports that Russia’s commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, said on Thursday that six boys and one girl, aged six to 16, were being returned to relatives in Ukraine. She added that Qatari mediation had also enabled the repatriation of two young Russian boys, aged seven and nine, from Ukraine.

In March 2023 the international criminal court issued a warrant for the arrest of Lvova-Belova, alongside president Vladimir Putin, after a panel of judges agreed that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe they bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.

The UK’s ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has accused Russia of creating “a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine” and called recent attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure “deeply concerning.”

In a speech delivered in Vienna on Thursday, Neil Holland said:

Over the past month, Russia has intensified its airstrikes, primarily targeting energy infrastructure causing rolling blackouts in several regions. Last night’s attacks were the latest in a series. As winter approaches and temperatures plummet, this additional strain on the energy grid is deeply concerning and will disproportionately affect the vulnerable, including the elderly and frail.

Repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure and restrictions on aid delivery have exacerbated the suffering of vulnerable populations. The suffering in Ukraine cannot be ignored. It is our collective responsibility to act decisively to alleviate this humanitarian crisis.