Russia Ukraine war live: Putin threatens war with UK and Nato over long-range missiles amid Kursk counter attack

Romania’s foreign ministry has called the attack on a grain ship “unprecedented escalation” by Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Ukraine accused Russia of using strategic bombers to strike a civilian grain vessel in a missile attack in Black Sea waters near Nato member Romania, escalating tensions between Moscow and the military alliance.

Russia’s FSB security service said it has revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow, claiming their actions amounted to spying and sabotage work.

Britain embassy in Moscow has not issued a comment immediately.

The FSB showed documents claiming a British foreign office department in London was responsible for Eastern Europe and Central Asia was coordinating what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” and was tasked with ensuring Russia’s strategic defeat in its war against Ukraine.

“Thus, the facts revealed give grounds to consider the activities of British diplomats sent to Moscow by the directorate as threatening the security of the Russian Federation,” the FSB said in a statement.

“In this connection, on the basis of documents provided by the Federal Security Service of Russia and as a response to the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in co-operation with the agencies concerned, has terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow in whose actions signs of spying and sabotage were found,” it said.

The Russian interior ministry has placed six foreign journalists on its wanted list for illegally crossing the Russian frontier to report inside the Kursk region after a Ukrainian cross-border incursion, the Tass news agency has reported.

Russia’s FSB security service said last month it had opened criminal cases against several of the journalists, who include Nick PatonWalsh, a British correspondent for CNN, a reporter for Deutsche Welle, a journalist for Italian state broadcaster RAI, and three Ukrainians working for the 1+1 television channel.

The journalists’ employers have previously said their reporting trips to Kursk were legitimate.

Italy’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Rome to express “surprise at Moscow’s singular decision” against RAI reporter Stefania Battistini, foreign minister Antonio Tajani wrote on social media.

Sir Keir Starmer is joined by foreign secretary David Lammy as he flew out to Washington DC for talks with Joe Biden on the Ukraine war today.

The determined prime minister told journalists on the flight: “First, to reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully. And Ukraine obviously has the right to self-defence.

The chairman of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, has accused Nato of being a party to military action in Ukraine, suggesting it was already heavily involved in military decision-making.

Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, accused the US-led military alliance of helping Ukraine choose which Russian cities to target, of agreeing specific military action, and of giving Kyiv orders.

“They are waging war with our country,” Mr Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.

Nearly $6bn in US funding for aid to Ukraine will expire at the end of the month unless Congress acts to extend the Pentagon‘s authority to send weapons from its stockpile to Kyiv, according to US officials.

US officials said the Biden administration has asked Congress to include the funding authority in any continuing resolution lawmakers may manage to pass before the end of the fiscal year on 30 September in order to fund the federal government and prevent a shutdown. Officials said they hope to have the authority extended for another year.

They also said the Defence Department is looking into other options if that effort fails

Sir Keir Starmer defiantly stared down a threat of retaliation by Vladimir Putin as he flew out to Washington DC for talks with Joe Biden on the Ukraine war.

The prime minister and the US president are believed to be on the cusp of allowing Kyiv to open up a new front in the war with Russia by using Western Storm Shadow long-range missiles.

“So this is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It is a question of deciding whether or not Nato countries are directly involved in a military conflict,” Mr Putin told Russian state TV.

Ukrainian forces had anticipated Moscow’s counteroffensive in the Russian region of Kursk, Volodymyr Zelensky said, marking his first comments on the pushback this week more than a month after Ukraine’s cross-border incursion.

“The Russians have begun counter-offensive actions. It is going according to our Ukrainian plan,” Mr Zelensky told a news conference in Kyiv with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

He repeated earlier assertions that Ukraine had also noticed a buildup of forces across the border with Belarus, Russia’s main ally in its full-scale war on Ukraine.

“We have seen it for a long time, this process is under control,” he said.

Ukraine’s troops captured an enclave of western Russian territory in a surprise raid that began in early August, a move aimed at wresting the battlefield initiative from Russia including by diverting Moscow’s forces from the eastern front.

Its forces made rapid initial gains before stalling, while the situation around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, which has been the focus of Russia’s main offensive operations in recent weeks, remained perilous.

A Russian commander said on Wednesday that his soldiers had taken back control of about 10 settlements in Kursk region in a counterattack.

Ukraine accused Russia of using strategic bombers to strike a civilian grain vessel in a missile attack in Black Sea waters near Nato member Romania, escalating tensions between Moscow and the military alliance.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the vessel carrying Ukrainian grain to Egypt had been hit overnight by a Russian missile just after it left Ukrainian territorial waters. There were no casualties, he said.

The US ambassador to Ukraine “strongly condemned” the attack and said Russia was responsible. A UN spokesperson said the incident was a “stark reminder” of the threats still faced in the Black Sea by civilian vessels.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said the strike was “a brazen attack on freedom of navigation and global food security”. Ukraine’s navy said Russian Tupolev Tu-22 bombers had fired a number of cruise missiles at 11.02pm local time (2002 GMT) on Wednesday.

It was the first time a missile has struck a civilian vessel transporting grains at sea since the start of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022. Some vessels have been damaged during Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports where they were moored.