Ukraine war briefing: Putin warns of ‘new level of escalatio...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that supplying US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would lead to a “whole new level of escalation”, including in relations between Moscow and Washington. Responding to questions at a forum in Sochi, Putin said it would not change the situation on the battlefield, where the Russian army is making slow but steady advances.
The Trump administration’s desire to send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine may not be viable because current inventories are committed to the US navy and other uses, Reuters reported a US official and three sources as saying. The US may look into allowing European allies to buy other long-range weapons and supply them to Ukraine but Tomahawks were unlikely, the official said, questioning the feasibility of providing the cruise missiles with a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles) and suggesting other shorter-distance options could be supplied to Kyiv.
The US will provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets deep inside Russia, according to several media reports, a move that would signal a significant shift in White House support for Kyiv. Dan Sabbagh and Andrew Roth report that the decision would be the first example of a change in policy by Donald Trump since his comments on social media towards the end of September that Ukraine could win back all of the territory occupied by Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Europe that recent drone incursions show Russia is looking to “escalate” its aggression, saying Moscow aims to “break the west and Europe”. The Ukrainian president’s warning came at a summit of 45 European leaders in Copenhagen after mystery drone sightings in Denmark and high-profile aerial incursions by Moscow in Estonia and Poland heightened fears that Russia’s war on Ukraine could spill over Europe’s borders. He said Kyiv was ready to share Ukraine’s war-honed expertise to help counter the threat. “If the Russians dare to launch drones against Poland, or violate the airspace of northern European countries, it means this can happen anywhere.”
Vladimir Putin vowed to quickly retaliate against Europe’s “escalating militarisation” while dismissing western fears that Moscow plans to attack Nato as “nonsense”, reports Pjotr Sauer. The Russian president said in Sochi: “We are closely monitoring the escalating militarisation of Europe … We simply cannot ignore what is happening. We have no right to do so for reasons of our own security.” He added: “I think no one doubts that Russia’s countermeasures will not be long in coming.”
The deputy leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, which opposes the war in Ukraine, has been charged with spreading lies about the Russian army and could face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. Maxim Kruglov, 38, a former lawmaker in Moscow’s city legislature, told a Moscow court hearing on Thursday from a glass courtroom cage that the accusation against him was “absurd” and that he posed no danger to society. A lawyer for Kruglov said her client had been charged over two posts on Telegram in 2022 and that he had been harshly interrogated in the middle of the night and had his home searched.
Emergency crews were gradually restoring power to areas of northern Ukraine disconnected from the grid by Russian attacks, the Ukrainian prime minister said late on Thursday. Power had been fully restored in two areas of the border Sumy region hit by overnight Russian attacks, Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram. Repairs were also proceeding in the neighbouring Chernihiv region, where more than 300,000 consumers had been left without power.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Thursday. Zelenskyy said 185 military personal – most of whom had been in Russian captivity since 2022 – and 20 civilians were returned home. Russia’s defence ministry said 185 of its soldiers and 20 civilians returned. Since the war began, more than 7,000 Ukrainians had returned, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.