Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky vents anger at long-range missile delay as Putin ‘burns down our cities’

Vladimir Putin’s options to retaliate if the West lets Ukraine use its long-range missiles to strike Russia could include striking British military assets near Russia or, in extremis, conducting a nuclear test to show intent, experts have said.

As East-West tensions over Ukraine enter a new and dangerous phase, British prime minister Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden met in Washington to discuss whether to allow Kyiv to use long-range US ATACMS or British Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia.

Ulrich Kuehn, an arms expert at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, told Reuters he did not rule out Vladimir Putin choosing to send some kind of nuclear message – for example testing a nuclear weapon in an effort to cow the West.

“This would be a dramatic escalation of the conflict,” he said in an interview. “Because the point is, what kind of arrows has Mr Putin then left to shoot if the West then still continues, apart from actual nuclear use?”

Russia has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the fall of the Soviet Union, and a nuclear explosion would signal the start of a more dangerous era, Mr Kuehn said, cautioning that Putin may feel he is seen as weak in his responses to increasing NATO support for Ukraine.

“Nuclear testing would be new. I would not exclude that, and it would be in line with Russia shattering a number of international security arrangements that it has signed up to over the decades during the last couple of years,” he said.

Gerhard Mangott, a security specialist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said in an interview he also thought it was possible, though in his view not likely, that Russia’s response could include some form of nuclear signal.

“The Russians could conduct a nuclear test. They have made all the preparations needed. They could explode a tactical nuclear weapon somewhere in the east of the country just to demonstrate that (they) mean it when they say we will eventually resort to nuclear weapons.”

The West cannot back down from supportng Ukraine with long-range missiles to use on targets deep inside Russia despite Vladimir Putin’s fresh threats of possible war with Nato, Kremlin critics, military leaders and Ukrainian officials have toldThe Independent.

The Russian president would regret a direct confrontation with the alliance, Kremlin critics said, but senior military figures have warned that due to the unpredictable nature of the Russian president and the “immense risks” involved, his threats “can’t be dismissed out of hand”.

With prime minister Keir Starmer in Washington to meet Presiddent Biden, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said it is “difficult to repeatedly hear” Western allies say they are “working on” a decision permit the use of long-range missiles into Russia while “Putin continues to burn down our cities and villages”.

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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Donald Trump’s comments about how he could end the war in 24 hours as “election messages” for his own campaign.

In an interview to CNN which is yet to be released, Mr Zelensky said his comments may not reflect what his actual policies will be if he is elected president.

“I can’t understand it for today because I don’t know the details; what he means and what does it mean,” Mr Zelensky said.

“My position is that the election period and election messages are election messages. Sometimes they are not very real,” he added said during a clip of the interview, which is set to be fully published on 15 September.

Mr Trump has said he can end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours if he is made president, and blamed the Biden administration for fuelling the war with the supply of weapons to support Kyiv’s defences.

Two people have died after Russian forces shelled 15 border areas of Ukraine’s Sumy region a total of 84 times, the regional authority said.

Dozens of people have been injured in the region which has long been under an onslaught of shelling. It lies opposite Russia’s southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have launched an incursion since early in August.

The attack damaged residential houses and a clinic, and cut power supplies, the regional military administration said on Telegram messenger.

Explosions rocked parts of the Ukrainian capital this morning as drone fragments fell on a municipal building in Kyiv’s Obolon district north of the city centre.

The drone fragments did not cause a fire after they dropped on the multi-storey building early on Saturday, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Mr Klitschko, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said emergency services were on their way to the site. The mayor earlier said air defence units had been in action in the capital.

Several explosions were subsequently heard in the city, according to Reuters.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram that drones still posed a threat and urged people to remain in shelters.

The air raid alert was later lifted for the city, but remained in effect for several regions of central Ukraine.

Until now the Storm Shadow missiles have been limited to Russian targets operating inside Ukraine, as well as in occupied Crimea. The missiles were likely used in the largest Ukrainian attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet last year at Sevastopol.

British Storm Shadow missiles have a range of more than 150 miles and can be fired by Ukrainian aircraft. Kyiv has long lobbied for permission to hit deep inside Russian soil via the western long-range missiles.

Manufacturer MBDA has said that the missile, which is fired from an aircraft, carries a range of around 155 miles and is designed to evade detection despite flying low after being launched.

Powered by a turbo-jet engine, the 1,300kg Storm Shadow travels at speeds of more than 600mph, is just over five metres long and has a wingspan of three metres.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hit back at his two key Western allies over their failure to reach a decision on the use of long-range missiles inside Russia, saying “Ukraine requires strong decisions from the world”.

His comments came as Joe Biden and Keir Starmer’s summit in Washington ended with no decision for Ukraine after Vladimir Putin warned Western nations not to let Ukraine fire the missiles at internationally-recognised Russian territory.

Mr Zelensky lashed out at partners for the habit of moving from one meeting to another without any clear progress, “as if it is not clear” what steps are needed.

“It’s difficult to repeatedly hear, ‘We are working on this,’ while Putin continues to burn down our cities and villages,” Mr Zelensky said.

“Russian logistics and military sites are safe from our strikes because we cannot reach them. We have effective drones, but they cannot achieve what missiles are capable of. Meanwhile, Putin can easily acquire artillery from North Korea at low cost. When for Ukraine, every defence package is an achievement,” he said, expressing his frustration.

He said that “there should be no unanswered questions about why Ukraine needs sufficient long-range capabilities”.

Ukraine sees the ability to use long-range missiles behind enemy lines as a game-changer, allowing it to target air bases, supply depots, and communication centers hundreds of miles over the border.

It argues that this would help reduce Russia’s air superiority and weaken supply lines needed to launch daily airstrikes against Ukraine – with drones, missiles, and powerful glide bombs – and to sustain its military ground offensive into Ukraine.

With winter likely to slow that advance, long-range air strike capabilities will become a higher priority. Kyiv wants to go back on the offensive to offset military manpower shortages 2 years into the war and to protect its badly-damaged power infrastructure.

UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and Joe Biden did not announce any decision on allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons inside Russia following their talks in Washington.

Sir Kier said the two leaders had “a long and productive discussion on a number of fronts, including Ukraine, as you would expect, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific” after he was asked about the outcome.

“This wasn’t a meeting about a particular capability. That wasn’t why we got our heads down today.

“It was to allow ourselves the space, which we took, the time, which we took, to have a strategic discussion so that tactical decisions could be seen within the wider strategy.”

He said the UK and the US have come to a “strong position” in their quest for a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine and described his discussions with Mr Biden as “long and productive”.

At the beginning of their meeting in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington DC on Friday, Mr Biden said “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin” when asked about the Russian president’s threat of war with Nato.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said it is “difficult to repeatedly hear” Western allies say they are “working on” a decision to free up long-range missiles to be used deep inside Ukraine while “Putin continues to burn down our cities and villages”

Mr Zelensky has been calling for the US and UK to agree to allow them to strike infrastructure such as airfields that contribute to the barrages of missiles and drones that strike across Ukraine on a near-daily basis.

The president wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that: “Putin interprets delays in helping us and in making strong decisions for Ukraine as permission to do whatever he wants.”