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Moscow claims its forces have captured a rural settlement in Zaporizhzhia
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Norway’s top military official has warned it cannot ignore the possibility of a future Russian invasion over nuclear assets stationed in the far north.
General Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s chief of defence, said the Nordic nation does not “exclude a land grab from Russia as part of their plan to protect their own nuclear capabilities, which is the only thing they have left that actually threatens the United States”.
Gen Kristoffersen warned that while Russia does not have conquest goals in Norway in the same way as it has for Ukraine or other former Soviet nations, its nuclear arsenal located on the Kola peninsula could motivate Moscow to invade regardless.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry claims its forces have captured the rural settlement of Zaliznychne in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, though it did not provide any evidence to back its claim.
And Kyiv has condemned the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban the country’s skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych from using a helmet with images of Ukrainian sportspeople killed during the war as “profoundly wrong”.
Britain is set to double its troop presence in Norway from 1,000 to 2,000 over the next three years to bolster High North defences against Russia.
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Russia will keep observing the missile and warhead limits in the expired New START nuclear treaty with the United States as long as Washington continues to do the same, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
The 2010 treaty ran out on February 5, leaving the world’s two biggest nuclear-armed powers with no binding constraints on their strategic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century.
U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to voluntarily abide by the New START limits for another year, saying he wanted a “new, improved and modernized” treaty rather than an extension of the old one.
“Our position is that this moratorium on our side that was declared by the president is still in place, but only as long as the United States doesn’t exceed the said limits,” Lavrov told the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.
“We have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to deviate from these indicators, and for the foreseeable future these indicators will be observed,” he said, without explaining the basis for that assumption.
Lavrov reiterated that Russia wanted to start “strategic dialogue” with the U.S., saying it was “long overdue”.
A Russian drone strike has tragically claimed the lives of a father and his three young children in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, seriously wounding their 35-week pregnant mother, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The drone strike completely destroyed the brick house, setting it ablaze and trapping the family under the rubble, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
The 34-year-old father and his three children – twin boys aged two and their one-year-old sister – were killed. Rescue workers pulled the mother alive from the debris, though she sustained blast injuries, a traumatic brain injury, burns, and hearing loss.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said: “Close to 1440 (local time) two enemy Kinzhal (missiles) were flying in the direction of Lviv. Air defence forces neutralised them. This is a titanic work,” Sadovyi wrote on yhe Telegram messaging app.
He added that as of now there were no reports of any damage or people hurt, and that city services were surveying the territory.
Air defences were used against a Russian missile attack on Lviv region, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Wednesday, as the air force warned of Russian missiles in the air.
Lviv is in western Ukraine, less than 60 kilometres from the Polish border.
The city is about 600km (370 miles) away from the nearest border with Russia, making attacks there, especially daytime ones, less common than other major Ukrainian cities.
Russia will keep observing the missile and warhead limits in the New START nuclear treaty with the United States, which expired last week, as long as Washington continues to do the same, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
The 2010 treaty ran out on February 5, leaving the world’s two biggest nuclear-armed powers with binding constraints on their strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than half a century.
US president Donald Trump declined a formal proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to voluntarily abide by the New START limits for another year. Lavrov said Moscow would stick to the limits itself for now anyway.
“Our position is that this moratorium on our side that was declared by the president is still in place, but only as long as the United States doesn’t exceed the said limits,” Lavrov told parliament’s lower house, the State Duma.
The treaty’s expiry has spurred fears of a three-way arms race involving Russia, the U.S. and China, which has far fewer warheads than the other two countries but is arming rapidly.
Some analysts say, however, that Russia is keen to avoid the cost of such a contest at a time when its state budget is feeling the strain from its four-year-old war in Ukraine.
A Czech initiative sourcing ammunition for Ukraine aims to secure shells worth five billion euros ($5.95 billion) globally but has only managed to raise 1.4 billion euros so far, a senior NATO military official said on Wednesday.
The programme, involving foreign donors including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands alongside Czech defence officials and arms companies, seeks to acquire large-calibre ammunition for Ukraine to reduce its disadvantage on the battlefield against Russia.
In December, NATO’s Ukraine mission, NSATU, projected the initiative would deliver 1.8 million artillery rounds in 2025, constituting 43% of all ammunition supplied to Kyiv, and roughly 70% of the legacy Soviet calibre ammunition.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted 16 billion euros worth of ammunition were available on the global market currently.
NATO is targeting a five-billion-euro expenditure focused predominantly on acquiring hundreds of thousands of artillery shells under the Czech scheme, the official said, adding that 1.4 billion euros had been committed by donors so far.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine showed security issues are a key priority at present, and that all other issues must be addressed in conjunction with them.
He wrote in a lengthy post on X: “As long as Russia continues to kill people and destroy our infrastructure, there will not be sufficient public trust even in active diplomacy.
“And this is important for all of Ukraine’s partners – in the United States and Europe – to understand. I expect Ukrainian diplomats to effectively convey this position on security to our partners and to fully inform all of our partners about the real situation in Ukraine’s regions.”
Britain is set to double the number of its troops in Norway to bolster defences in the High North against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
The commitment will see the number of UK forces in the country rise from 1,000 to 2,000 over the next three years.
Defence Secretary John Healey, speaking during a visit to Royal Marines at Camp Viking in the Norwegian Arctic, also pledged UK participation in Nato’s Arctic Sentry mission.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed that it will not allow Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych to wear a helmet honouring those killed in the war with Russia during the skeleton competition at the Winter Olympics, while announcing he may wear a black armband as a “compromise”.
Heraskevych said in a video on social media on Monday night that he was preparing an official request to compete in the helmet, after being informed of the ban, but that has now been denied.
The 27-year-old has been training in Italy while wearing headgear depicting Ukrainian athletes who have been killed since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022.
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