As Russia’s war with Ukraine enters a new week, here’s everything you need to know.
Pressure mounts on Western countries over long-range missiles
President Volodymyr Zelensky has in recent days continued to apply pressure on Western countries to allow long-range missiles provided to Ukraine to be used to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
No decisions have been made following talks between Sir Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden in Washington last week.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips he could not go into details about why no decision had been made, but added that “there are discussions about deploying further missiles”.
“And as you would expect, we are talking about that as allies.”
Prisoner exchange
On Saturday, Russia and Ukraine each handed over 103 prisoners.
Moscow’s defence ministry said the Russian soldiers were captured in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces seised territory last month in a major incursion into Russia.
President Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were defending the Kyiv and Donetsk regions, as well as Mariupol, Azovstal, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions.
Putin escalates his rhetoric
President Vladimir Putin issued an ominous warning on Friday in response to suggestions that Ukraine might get permission to attack Russian territory with long-range missiles made by Western countries.
The Russian president said such a development would put NATO and Russia “on a state of war.”
He argued that the move would “dramatically change” the nature of the conflict in Ukraine and “amount to nothing less than direct intervention by NATO countries.”
Russia expels six British diplomats
Russia expelled six British diplomats in Moscow on Friday, with Russia’s FSB security service claiming their actions indicated they were involved in espionage and sabotage activities.
Russian state television published the diplomats’ names and aired their photographs.
But Whitehall sources spoke to Sky News and strongly denied any allegations that the men were involved in espionage or sabotage.
They say the expulsions are part of a wave of retaliatory expulsions that began when Britain expelled nearly 20 Russian officials from the Russian embassy in London following the 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury.
US announces Russia receives Iranian missiles
The United States said Wednesday it believes the Russian military has received hundreds of Iranian Fas-360 missiles.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was concerned Moscow would use shorter-range missiles “within weeks.”
Lamy said Iran’s supply of ballistic missiles to Russia was a “clearly significant escalation” and that the UK was “adjusting”.
Both Iran and Russia deny the allegations.
Britain cracks down on Russian ‘shadow fleet’
Britain announced new sanctions on Wednesday against 10 vessels from Russia’s “Shadow Flotilla” for illegally circumventing a Western embargo on Russian oil.
The sanctions are aimed at further hitting Moscow’s oil revenues, which the Foreign Ministry has called “the most important source of funding for Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine.”
This is the third time the UK has imposed sanctions on an individual ship.
Russia launches ‘major counterattack’
Moscow’s military has launched a major counterattack against Ukrainian forces who invaded western Russia last month, pro-Moscow war bloggers reported on Wednesday.
Ukrainian forces claim to have controlled about 500 square miles (about 1,300 square kilometers) in the Kursk region after launching a surprise invasion on August 6.
However, three military bloggers say Russian forces have launched a major counteroffensive and recaptured territory in the area.
Zelenskiy told Sky News’ US partner network NBC last week that Ukraine would “retain” the territory as a key part of a “victory plan” to end the war.
