War in Ukraine: tension over the use of Western long-range missiles, expulsion of diplomats… an update on the situation

Ukraine says Russia focusing assault on Kurakhove

The Russian military on Friday focused its assault on Kurakhove, a city in eastern Ukraine that Ukrainian forces have been defending for weeks, authorities said. kyiv.

The Russians also tried to continue their advance towards Pokrovsk, a logistics and railway hub about thirty kilometres north of Kurakhove which, if they were to finally seize it, would clear the way for them to the rest of the Donetsk region which they still do not control two and a half years after the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated his troops who are managing to hold their positions on these two most fiercely contested sectors of the eastern Ukrainian front. Despite their difficulties, Ukrainian forces say they have repelled 64 Russian assaults near Kurakhove in 24 hours, the most intense fighting in the area since the beginning of the month. They also say they have resisted 36 assaults near Pokrovsk.

These fights on these two battlefields thus represent more than two thirds of all the clashes recorded during the day along the more than 1,000 km of front in the northeast, east and south of Ukraine. The Ukrainian army for its part launched a surprise incursion into the Russian region of Kursk at the beginning of August in the hope of forcing Russia to move forces mobilized in the Ukrainian Donbass.

It is however now at a standstill after rapid gains at first. The Ukrainian army used the border region of Sumy as a rear base for this incursion into Russian territory. Local authorities said Russian guided missiles killed two people in the region on Friday, including a four-year-old child.

Homes and a clinic were damaged in Yampil, about 20 kilometres from the border, while electricity was cut off, authorities in the Sumy region said.

Tensions rise over kyiv's use of Western long-range missiles

Tensions rose again Friday between Moscow and Ukraine's Western allies, as the leaders of the United States and Britain are set to discuss whether Kiev should be allowed to use long-range missiles against Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused his allies of being “afraid” to raise the possibility of shooting down Russian drones and missiles in Ukrainian skies themselves, as his country faces a growing threat airstrikes. And he announced that he would meet with US President Joe Biden this month to present him with “a plan for victory” for Ukraine.

A green light for the use of Western long-range missiles against Russia will inevitably be on the agenda of discussions on Friday at the White House (20:30 GMT) between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Joe Biden, a visit made at the request of the Labor leader. Washington has already warned that no big announcements are expected.

"Our position on the delivery to Ukraine of long-range strike capabilities, which could be used inside Russian territory, has not changed and I would not expect any big announcements on this subject coming out of the discussions, certainly not from us," said John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council.

Volodymyr Zelensky is demanding that his allies allow him to strike deep into Russian soil military targets deemed "legitimate", such as air bases from which planes bombing Ukraine take off.

Until now, the West, led by the Americans, has held its ground, fearing that such a decision could be seen by Russia as an escalation. Vladimir Putin reiterated on Thursday that the green light would mean that “NATO countries are at war with Russia”.

“Russia started this conflict. It can end this conflict immediately”, Keir Starmer retorted, in comments made on a flight to Washington and reported by British media.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden assured that the United States "was working" to authorize Ukraine to use longer-range missiles against Russia. The top US and UK diplomats, Antony Blinken and David Lammy, made a rare joint visit to Kiev on Wednesday.

“We will adapt as necessary, including in terms of Ukraine's means of defending itself effectively against Russian aggression,”, the US secretary of state in Poland said the following day.

Washington currently authorises kyiv to strike only Russian targets in occupied Ukraine and some in Russian border regions directly linked to Moscow's combat operations. According to British media, Joe Biden, who fears a nuclear conflict, is ready to allow Ukraine to deploy British and French missiles using American technology, but not the American missiles themselves.

Against this backdrop of tensions, the Russian security service (FSB) announced on Friday that it had withdrawn the accreditation of six diplomats from the British embassy in Moscow, suspected of espionage. Accusations “totally unfounded”, replied the British Foreign Office.