Ukraine Russia war – latest news: Nato calls Putin nuclear danger ‘dangerous and irresponsible’

Nato authorities have actually called Vladimir Putin’s nuclear rhetoric “dangerous” after the Russian president revealed strategies to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and irresponsible,” Nato representative Oana Lungescu said the other day.

She included: “Nato is vigilant and we are closely monitoring the situation. We have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own”.

The Russian president’s “non-proliferation pledge and his description of US weapons deployment overseas were way off the mark”, she included.

Ukraine’s leading security authorities knocked the Kremlin’s strategies to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus, stating that Russia was taking its ally as a “nuclear hostage.”

Moscow said it was making the relocation in reaction to the West’s increasing military assistance for Ukraine.

Russian president Vladimir Putin revealed the strategy in a tv interview that aired on Saturday, stating it was activated by a UK choice this previous week to supply Ukraine with armour-piercing rounds including diminished uranium.

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Ukrainian city in Donetsk is looking like “a place from post-apocalyptic movies” in the middle of heavy Russian barrage, a regional authorities has actually said.

“I am sad to say this, but Avdiivka is becoming more and more like a place from post-apocalyptic movies,” the city’s military administration head Vitaliy Barabash said on the Telegram messaging app.

Amid extreme shelling, the regional authorities have actually bought almost a complete shutdown of the frontline city situated some 90km (56 miles) southwest of Bakhmut.

Home to more than 30,000 civilians prior to Russia’s major intrusion in 2015, Avdiivka city now has some 2,000 individuals left.

The authorities included that the evacuation of the energy employees who are still caught in the city has actually started and mobile reception will be shut off quickly as there are “informers of the Russian occupiers in the city”.

Avdiivka might end up being a “second Bakhmut”, the Ukrainian military had actually alerted recently as Russia reorganised a few of its soldiers to the city and made steady gains.

The chief of the UN nuclear guard dog will be heading to Russia in the future however he will not be taking a trip to the nation today, an authorities in Moscow has actually said.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director basic Rafael Grossi had actually revealed a check out to the Russia-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor in Ukraine to keep an eye on the vital scenario.

An welcome to Mr Grossi for Russia was “quite realistic”, Moscow’s irreversible agent to global organisations Mikhail Ulyanov said, reported Russian news firm RIA.

“Not next week, but somewhat later, the visit of Rafael Grossi to Russia may well take place,” Mr Ulyanov included.

The Ukrainian army has actually launched drone video footage proving Bakhmut ravaged by shelling in the continuing nine-months long Russian offensive.

The salt mining city is noticeably in ruins after months of intense battling on the frontline in between Russian forces and the Ukrainian army.

Smoke can be seen rippling over domestic blocks as numerous homes were destroyed in the dispute.

A Ukrainian military leader said the fight for Bakhmut is “stabilising” as his forces are pressing back versus Russian soldiers.

It comes as Vladimir Putin revealed Russia will release tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

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Russian reporter Marina Ovsyannikova said the International Criminal Court’s choice to release an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin has actually offered her “some sort of hope” that resistance may be stimulated within the nation’s elite.

Ms Ovsyannikova worked for the Russian state broadcaster, Channel One Russia TELEVISION, for more than ten years prior to she chose to stage a demonstration versus the nation’s intrusion of Ukraine.

In March 2022 she disrupted a live night news broadcast by holding up an indication stating “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, here you are being lied to”.

Ms Ovsyannikova, who got away Russia and is now residing in Paris, informed BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I think that this is the first signal that the Russian elite should take notice of, and perhaps some kind of resistance will start within the Russian elite, they might plot against him.

“This is some sort of hope for me.”

She included: “Over a long time I realised that Russian TV had become a brainwash.

“I also have Ukrainian roots, my father is from Ukraine. At one point it was like a huge emotional outburst, I didn’t care what would happen to me.”

She declared that numerous operating in Russia’s state media share her viewpoints: “This propaganda is made on a very high level. People who are working in the main channels, we don’t really believe it. They have similar views to me.

“No more than 10%-20% of people are pro-Putin.”

Russia has actually introduced a brand-new campaign, looking for volunteers to renew the nation’s soldiers for the war in Ukraine.

Advertisements guarantee money perks and other advantages, employers make cold calls to qualified guys, and enlistment workplaces are dealing with universities and social service companies to draw trainees and the out of work.

As combating grinds on in Ukrainian battlefields like Bakhmut and both sides get ready for counter-offensives that might cost a lot more lives, the Kremlin’s war device severely requires brand-new employees.

A mobilisation in September of 300,000 reservists – billed as a “partial” call-up – sent panic throughout the nation, because many guys under 65 are officially part of the reserve. Tens of thousands got away Russia instead of report to hiring stations.

The Kremlin rejects that another call-up is prepared for what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, now more than a years of age.

But in the middle of prevalent unpredictability of whether such a relocation will ultimately take place, the federal government is attracting guys to volunteer, either at makeshift recruiting centres turning up in numerous areas, or with telephone call from enlistment authorities.

That method, it can “avoid declaring a formal second mobilisation wave” after the very first one showed so undesirable, according to a current report by the US-based think tank Institute of the Study of War.

Ukrainian teams have actually finished training on Challenger 2 tanks in the UK and returned home to continue their battle versus Russia’s intrusion.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Ukrainian soldiers “return to their homeland better equipped, but to no less danger”.

Members of Kyiv’s militaries took a trip to Britain soon after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed in January that the UK would send out 14 Challenger 2 tanks to help oust the Kremlin’s intruders from Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the training has actually been finished after UK military authorities invested numerous weeks advising Ukrainian workers how to run and battle with the tanks.

Instructions consisted of how to command, drive and collaborate as a Challenger 2 tank team and successfully recognize and engage targets, the MoD said.

Mr Wallace, who went to the Ukrainian soldiers throughout their training at Bovington Camp in Dorset last month, said: “It is truly inspiring to witness the determination of Ukrainian soldiers having completed their training on British Challenger 2 tanks on British soil.

“They return to their homeland better equipped, but to no less danger.

“We will continue to stand by them and do all we can to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Lieutenant Colonel John Stone, who managed the training objective, said: “It has been a privilege for the Combat Manoeuvre Centre team to deliver this training to our Ukrainian partners.

“We have all been hugely impressed with the level of competence displayed and have no doubt that our friends will use the Challenger 2 tanks most effectively in the battles to come as they fight to defend their homeland.”

The MoD explained the Challenger 2 lorries as a “step change in capability” for Ukraine‘s armed forces, saying the machines would offer them some of the most modern and sophisticated gunnery systems in the world.

The Ukrainian troops will return with the Western tanks in time for a reported spring counter-offensive by Kyiv that is said to be in the works.

Recently constructed defences offer us a roadmap of Russian stress and anxiety, compose Janice Kai Chen and Mary Ilyushina

New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has actually revealed issue to China over any arrangement of deadly help to assistance Russia in its war versus Ukraine throughout a conference with her Chinese equivalent.

Her press workplace on Saturday comprehensive Mahuta’s cautionary remarks in Beijing, days after Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his journey to Moscow, a warm affair in which Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin applauded each other and mentioned an extensive relationship.

Mahuta’s four-day journey, which started Wednesday, was the very first made by a New Zealand foreign minister to Beijing because 2018 however it came at an uncomfortable time as Xi gone to Moscow the very same week to offer Putin a diplomatic increase after the International Criminal Court said it wishes to put him on trial for supposed war criminal activities.

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