The Kremlin said on Thursday that changes outlined by president Vladimir Putin to Russia’s nuclear weapons documents should be considered a signal to the west that there will be consequences if western powers participate in attacks on Russia, reports Reuters.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would make a decision on whether not to publish the updated nuclear documents, adding that adjustments to the document on state nuclear deterrence were being formulated.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will present his “victory plan” to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Thursday, but a row with Donald Trump underscored how the US election could soon upend support for Kyiv, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Zelenskyy’s trip to the White House is set to feature the announcement of a surge in US support, although it is unclear whether he will get the green light he wants for Ukraine to fire US-made long-range missiles into Russia.

Republican presidential contender Trump, who faces Democratic vice-president Harris in November’s close election, had also been due to meet Zelenskyy but their talks now appear to be on ice, reports AFP.

Trump accused Zelenskyy on the eve of the visit of refusing to strike a deal with Moscow and once again questioned why the US was giving billions of dollars to Kyiv.

Biden will host Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at 1.45pm local time (5.45pm GMT/6.45pm BST), the White House said. The Ukrainian leader and Harris will deliver remarks at 3.05pm local time before their meeting in the vice-president’s office.

Zelenskyy was also due to visit the US Congress.

During a meeting at the UN on Wednesday, Biden “informed president Zelenskyy that he has directed a surge in US security assistance to Ukraine, which will be announced publicly” on Thursday, the White House said.

Zelenskyy gave a defiant address at the UN general assembly on Wednesday in a bid to rally international support amid an increasingly difficult situation on the battlefield.

The Ukrainian has for several weeks touted the so-called “victory plan” he will present to Biden, but has given no details of his proposals to end the war, which is now in its third year, reports AFP.

Trump-Zelenskyy feud escalates as Republicans demand envoy’s removal

Andrew Roth

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington as the feud between Donald Trump and Volodymr Zelenskyy escalated and Republicans accused the Ukrainian leader of election interference.

In a public letter, Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week where the Ukrainian president thanked workers for providing desperately needed shells to his outgunned forces.

Johnson complained that Markarova had organised the visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”. The event was attended by the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who has campaigned in support of Kamala Harris.

“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited,” Johnson wrote in a letter on congressional letterhead addressed to the Ukrainian embassy.

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” the letter continued. “This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country. She should be removed from her post immediately.”

On the same day, Trump in a campaign event in North Carolina attacked Zelenskyy directly and accused him of “refusing” to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the United Nations that Russia is planning to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants as he repeated his calls for unity from world leaders in order to force Russia to the negotiating table to conclude a “just peace”.

His comments came as Vladimir Putin on Wednesday escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling a group of senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons.

In a speech to the UN general assembly on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader said he had received information that Russia was gathering intelligence on Ukrainian nuclear power plants in preparation for a potential strike.

“Any missile or drone strike, any critical incident in the energy system could lead to a nuclear disaster … a day like that must never come,” Zelenskyy said in an address in the general assembly hall. “And Moscow needs to understand this, and this depends in part on your determination to put pressure on the aggressor.”

He added: “These are nuclear power plants, they must be safe.”

Zelenskyy also said that the war in Ukraine could threaten the region with instability and the potential for a nuclear catastrophe if Russia went forward with the attacks.

“If, God forbid, Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, the radiation will not respect state borders,” he said, comparing the consequences to the Chornobyl nuclear accident of 1986. “And unfortunately, various nations could feel that devastating effects.”

You can read the full article by Andrew Roth in New York and Pjotr Sauer, here:

Vladimir Putin warns west he will consider using nuclear weapons

Pjotr Sauer

Vladimir Putin has escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling a group of senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons.

His remarks on Wednesday came during a meeting with Russia’s powerful security council where he also announced changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine.

The comments marked Russia’s strongest warning yet to the west against allowing Ukraine to launch deep strikes into Russian territory using long-range western missiles.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been asking for months for permission to use British Storm Shadow missiles and US-made Atacms missiles to hit targets deeper inside Russia.

Putin said that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if Moscow received “reliable information” about the start of a massive launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.

Putin also warned that a nuclear power supporting another country’s attack on Russia would be considered a participant in aggression, issuing a thinly veiled threat to the west as foreign leaders continue to mull whether to allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons.

Putin said the clarifications were carefully calibrated and commensurate with the modern military threats facing Russia. “We see the modern military and political situation is dynamically changing and we must take this into consideration. Including the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, dismissed the new nuclear doctrine, saying: “Russia no longer has any instruments to intimidate the world apart from nuclear blackmail. These instruments will not work.”

You can read the full piece here:

A Nato spokesperson said a Reuters report that Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in its war against Ukraine was “deeply concerning” and that Nato “allies are consulting on this matter”.

The White House national security council said it appeared to be an instance of a Chinese company providing lethal assistance to a US-sanctioned Russian firm. The White House had not seen anything to suggest the Chinese government was aware of the transactions involved, but China had a responsibility to ensure companies were not providing lethal aid to Russia for use by its military, a spokesperson added.

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents it had reviewed.

More on that in a moment. In other developments:

• Former president Donald Trump said Ukraine should have made concessions to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, instead of going to war with its invading neighbour, describing the Ukrainian people as “dead” and the country “demolished”. Speaking at an event in North Carolina on Wednesday, the Republican presidential nominee – who is not expected to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on his trip to the US – said: “The worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now.” Trump added: “What deal can we make? It’s demolished … The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”

• The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, meanwhile, demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington as the feud between Trump and Zelenskyy escalated and Republicans accused the Ukrainian leader of election interference. In a public letter, Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, calling it a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”.

• The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced $375m in military aid for Ukraine on Wednesday, in a package that includes Himars precision rocket launchers, cluster munitions and light tactical vehicles. “The United States is committed to Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s brutal aggression,” Blinken said in a statement, adding Washington would “deploy this new assistance as quickly as possible”.

• Zelenskyy told the United Nations that Russia was planning to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants as he repeated his calls for unity from world leaders in order to force Russia to the negotiating table to conclude a “just peace”. In a speech to the UN general assembly on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader said he had received information that Russia was gathering intelligence on Ukrainian nuclear power plants in preparation for a potential strike.

• In further comments, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s peace plan must be supported by world leaders, and that alternative initiatives to hold talks with Putin would simply aid the Russian president. Zelenskyy in particular targeted a joint proposal by China and Brazil, which have proposed a six-point peace plan for the Ukraine war without Kyiv’s backing. “If someone in the world seeks alternatives … it likely means they themselves want to do a part of what Putin is doing … the question arises: what is the true interest?” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone must understand: you will not boost your power at Ukraine’s expense.”

• Zelenskyy also criticised the UN security council, saying it was “impossible to truly and fairly resolve matters of war and peace because too much depends in the security council on the veto power”. Russia is one of five permanent members of the security council and it exercises a veto power over any decisions taken by the body.

• Zelenskyy’s comments came as Vladimir Putin escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling a group of senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons. The Russian president told the country’s powerful security council that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if Moscow received “reliable information” about the start of a massive launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.

• The UN chief also criticised the powerful but deeply divided security council at a high-level meeting on Wednesday for a failure of leadership to end the war in Ukraine as well as wars in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. “Peace demands action. And peace demands leadership,” the secretary general, António Guterres, told the 15-member council charged with ensuring international peace and security. “Instead, we’re seeing deepening geopolitical divisions and mistrust.”

• Russia said on Wednesday it had captured two more villages in Ukraine and was attacking in the town of Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken the villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka, though the claim could not be independently confirmed. State news agency Ria cited the Russian-installed head of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, as saying that fighting was taking place inside Vuhledar, which had a prewar population of 14,000. The Ukrainian governor of the region, Vadym Filashkin, said Russia’s troops had not reached the outskirts of Vuhledar but its reconnaissance groups were operating there.

• Disinformation attributable to Russian and Belarusian services spiked on the internet by about 300% during the first days of severe flooding in Poland, the country’s deputy premier and digitalisation minister was quoted on Wednesday as saying. The worst floods in at least two decades left many towns in central Europe, including south-western Poland, submerged earlier this month, and the government warned of a spread of disinformation at the same time.

• Russia on Wednesday struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk with guided bombs, killing at least two people and wounding 19, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. The Donetsk region governor said in a video post from the scene there were fears that the toll could grow.