Ukraine war briefing: Nato condemns Moscow’s ‘irresponsible nuclear rhetoric’ as strikes on Kyiv intensify

Nato on Tuesday condemned “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” by Russia, after Moscow warned it would “deploy its entire arsenal” if the alliance threatens its exclave Kaliningrad. “I can confirm that Russia sent a non-paper to Nato and that we have sent a response, noting that Nato is a defensive Alliance and none of our activities or exercises pose a risk to any part of Russia,” Allison Hart, a Nato spokesperson, said. “We strongly denounce the threat of force, including any irresponsible nuclear rhetoric. We call on Russia to end its unprovoked war in Ukraine.”

Russia has intensified daytime strikes on Kyiv using jet-powered drones that Ukrainian forces are struggling to intercept. Russia fired ballistic missiles and dozens of jet-powered drones at Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday, as Moscow seeks to make Ukraine buckle under the pressure of day-and-night bombardment of its capital and other cities. Russia has used new jet-powered drones that fly too fast and too high for Ukrainian ground-based air defenses to shoot down.

Russia struck ⁠two datacentres ⁠in ​Kyiv overnight, a military-linked ⁠cargo vessel in the Black Sea, and ⁠another vessel with ​military ‌cargo ‌in the Ukrainian port ‌of Odesa, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday. In a later evening statement, ‌the ministry said its forces had ​launched a drone strike on a ship in ⁠the Black Sea ​which it said ​was ​carrying cargo intended ​for ‌the ​Ukrainian ​armed forces.

Ukraine’s top university on Tuesday said it was ordering students to stay home as it switched to remote classes due to the surge in Russian daytime drone attacks on the capital. Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko National University said it would “switch to a remote format of work” until at least 16 October, “due to the deteriorating security situation in Kyiv”. The university’s main campus is close to the National Academy of Sciences, which was hit by a drone strike, killing one person, on Monday.

Russian glide bombs ⁠struck a school in the northern ⁠Ukrainian ⁠city of ​Sumy on Tuesday, killing ⁠two people and injuring six, the regional ⁠governor said. The city’s governor, Oleh ​Hryhorov, said three children ‌were among the injured. He said teachers and school officials had managed to ‌evacuate 100 people.

Russia’s foreign investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, met US officials in Washington for talks about future US-Russia energy projects planned after Moscow’s war against Ukraine, a US government official told AFP. Dmitriev and US officials held “constructive discussions on a peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and possible US-Russia energy initiatives after the war ends” on Monday, the official said on Tuesday. “The visit follows special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s recent meeting with president Putin in Moscow and their discussions last week with Ukrainian officials in NYC,” said the official, speaking anonymously.

The US president, Donald Trump, favours a proposal under which the US would lift some sanctions if Russia released a number of political prisoners, according to a report in the Atlantic. The White House did not comment directly on the report. When asked about the article, a US official told AFP that Trump was “committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done”.

Russia will cut funding for welfare, education and healthcare in next year’s state budget to help cover soaring military spending, fiscal documents obtained by Reuters showed. Russia plans to spend 17.1tn ⁠roubles (US$202.58bn) on defence in ⁠2027, about 27% more than the 13.5tn roubles originally budgeted and the highest figure since the start of the war in Ukraine in ⁠2022. Funding for social policy, which covers items such as state pensions, payments to war veterans and maternity benefits, will shrink by 7%, while education funding will fall by 6% and healthcare by 6.8%.

Belgium will transfer three F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end ⁠of the ⁠year ​to help in its war with Russia, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Tuesday. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had already received “urgent deliveries” of F-16 ‌ammunition from Belgium and Spain, among other countries. Zelenskyy later said later Ukraine had received a “very good” assistance package the day before of a NASAMS air defence system, ‌developed jointly in the US and Norway.

A Russian nuclear-capable strategic bomber crashed Tuesday on a training mission in the country’s far east, killing six members of its crew, its defence ministry said. The ministry said in a statement that the Tu-95 bomber went down in an unpopulated area in the Amur region, adding that one crew member survived the crash and was hospitalised with injuries.