Ukraine-Russia war latest news: Kyiv’s ‘audacious’ Kursk incursion has unnerved Moscow elites, CIA chief says

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has continued to reset his team after ordering the largest government reshuffle since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

After declaring that Kyiv’s government needs “new energy”, Mr Zelensky published several decrees on new appointments in his office on Sunday, including that of former arms production minister Oleksandr Kamyshin as an external adviser for strategic issues.

“I will continue to work for our defence industry,” Mr Kamyshin said shortly after his appointment.

Mr Kamyshin oversaw a significant increase in Ukraine’s domestic arms production in recent years and was a driving force in efforts to bring more Western financing, experience, and technologies into the Ukrainian weapon production industry.

Mr Zelensky also appointed Viktor Mykyta, the governor of the western Zakarpattia region, as a new deputy head of his office to oversee the regions.

Mr Mykyta said that one of his key tasks would be to ensure the efficient work of military administrations in the regions and develop communication and trust between authorities, local communities and businesses.

US prosecutors have brought new charges against members of Russia’s military intelligence service and an alleged conspirator, accusing them of engaging in a hacking campaign to “sow concern among Ukrainian citizens” regarding their government’s cybersecurity.

Myriam Page has more in this report:

Since 6 August, when Ukraine began its cross-border attack, Russian forces have advanced several miles towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region.

If Russia eventually seizes it, it will be the largest population centre it has taken since Bakhmut last May, after months of heavy urban warfare.

Nevertheless, the loss of Pokrovsk could have an even costlier effect.

The city, a logistical hub for the country’s military, sits at the junction of two major roads through the region. Its capture is seen as key to the Russian military prosecuting Vladimir Putin’s objective of taking the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, known as Donbas.

Russia’s military appears to have thrown resources at the effort, possibly at the expense of defending its own civilians in Kursk. As one analyst put it, Putin’s “eye of Sauron”, a reference to Lord of the Rings, has been trained on Donetsk, and particularly Pokrovsk, even as his own country is being invaded.

Our foreign affairs reporter Tom Watling has more in this report:

Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the coming weeks and months “are critically important” for Ukraine.

Asked about the US presidential election, he told the BBC: “As the prime minister of the United Kingdom, I will deal with whoever the American people elect as their president. But I think it’s very important to remember particularly for Ukraine and the Middle East, the next few weeks and months are critically important.

“And therefore it’s important for me to speak to President Biden about our shared response, the response of our allies, to the pressing immediate issues, but also the more strategic long-term issues.”

Pressed that it sounds as though he is gearing up to announce either more funding or support for Kyiv to use Western weapons inside Russia, Sir Keir continued: “We’ve put more support in in terms of capabilities.

“In relation to specific capabilities, then you’ll understand I’m not going to get into a discussion about that on live television. But of course I want to make sure that we give Ukraine the support it needs – for as long as it needs it.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed former arms production minister Oleksandr Kamyshin as an external adviser for strategic issues, a decree published on the presidential website said.

M Kamyshin, who was the minister for strategic industries, resigned last week as a part of a Ukrainian government shake-up at a critical juncture in the war with Russia.

Sir Keir Starmer has said that he is visiting the United States next week “because the situation in Ukraine is becoming ever more pressing, as is the situation in the Middle East”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister said he had been talking to Nato allies “about the tactical decision we have to make in relation to Ukraine and the Middle East, and we’ve coordinated a lot of our messaging and action, as you’d expect”.

“But I also want to have the opporunity for is a more strategic discussion about the next few months in relation to Ukraine and the Middle East. So it’s that more strategic discussion that will be the central focus of the visit next week,” Sir Keir said.

Russian forces have taken control of the Donetsk town of Novohrodivka, the RIA news agency reported, citing Russia’s defence ministry.

Novohrodivka lies some 8 miles from Pokrovsk, the key supply hub upon which Vladimir Putin’s forces have been intent on seizing in recent months.

Portugal is advocating for the European Union to begin preparations for Ukraine’s entry into the bloc, Bloomberg reports.

During an interview at a conference at Lake Como, the country’s foreign minister Paulo Rangel told the outlet that Portugal is very engaged in the EU enlargement process, adding: “We need to prepare to receive Ukraine in the EU when that’s possible,” he added.

That process “will require a financial and institutional reform that we should take care of immediately”, Mr Rangel said.

He added that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region “has clearly changed the perception of the balance of the war”, while calling for negotiations toward a peace process, Bloomberg reported.

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk has caused Russian elites to question Vladimir Putin’s war, CIA director William Burns has said.

Speaking in London alongside MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore, who praised the “audacious” incursion, Mr Burns said he did not see any evidence that Mr Putin’s grip on power was weakening as a result, but that “it did raise questions on the part of people we could see across the Russian elite about where is this all headed”.

You can read more on the spymasters’ remarks here:

The international world order is under threat in a way not seen since the Cold War, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned.

In the first joint op-ed penned by the leaders of the British and American intelligence services in their shared 77-year history, the MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore and CIA director William Burns warned that both countries now “face an unprecedented array of threats”.

Writing in the Financial Times, the intelligence leaders warned that staying the course in resisting Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine “is more vital than ever”, saying that Russia “will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence”.

The spymasters criticised the “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe being waged by Russian intelligence, and its cynical use of technology to spread lies and disinformation designed to drive wedges between us”.