Russia-Ukraine war live: Ryazan airbase explosion raises possibility Kyiv can now target long-range bombers in Russia

Russia’s recent mobilisation has increased its military threat in Ukraine, with better trained soldiers now arriving at the frontline, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said.

But he said Russia was now using a lot of old equipment because it had no other way of replenishing supplies, and that Russian forces had made only slow progress around Bakhmut, one of the main battle zones in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported.

“On the eastern front, the situation is very tense, the enemy attacks our units every day,” General Oleksander Syrskyi told national television.

Asked about the mobilisation ordered by Moscow in September, he said: “Such a number of personnel increased the threat for us and these are not just words – these are new brigades, new battalions that have been trained, this is the replenishment that the army was waiting for because it was exhausted.”

“Those who come now have a better level of training than those who were previously sent to the front,” he said.

• Mysterious explosions took place at two Russian airbases far from the frontlines on Monday, raising the possibility that Kyiv has found a way to target Russian long-range bombers used in attacks against Ukraine’s infrastructure.

• The Kremlin has warned the new western price cap on Russian oil will destabilise global energy markets, but claimed it would not impact its invasion of Ukraine. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was preparing its response to the move by the G7 and allies.

• Olaf Scholz has warned the west to avoid creating a new cold war by dividing the world into blocs. Writing in an opinion piece for Foreign Affairs magazine, published today, the German chancellor called for every effort to be made to build new partnerships. He singled out China and Russia as two countries that pose a threat to a multipolar world.

• Nine people have been killed in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk, Russian-backed military officials have said. It came after Ukraine shelled the city of Alchevsk, Reuters reports, citing state-run TASS news agency.

• The Chinese foreign ministry has said it will continue energy cooperation with Russia after the G7, EU and Australia imposed a price cap on Russian oil exports. China, which said it would continue on the basis if respect and mutual benefit, has increased its purchases of Russia’s Urals oil blends this year.

• Three people have reportedly been killed and six injured after a fuel tanker exploded at a Russian airfield. The explosion was near the city of Ryazan, south-east of Moscow.

• In recent months, the number of sudden troop deployments conducted by Russian tactical combat aircraft over Ukraine has “reduced significantly”, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian aircraft now probably conducts tens of missions per day, compared with a high of up to 300 a day in March 2022, the latest British intelligent report suggests.

That’s it from me for now. Handing over to Tom Ambrose. Thanks for reading.

Russian airbase explosions suggest Kyiv may have found way to target long-range bombers

Andrew Roth

Mysterious explosions took place at two Russian airbases far from the frontlines on Monday, raising the possibility that Kyiv has found a way to target Russian long-range bombers used in attacks against Ukraine’s infrastructure.

Russian media reports and video posted to social media indicated that an explosion took place early on Monday morning at the Engels-2 airbase in Russia’s Saratov region that hosts Tu-95 bombers that have taken part in cruise missile strikes against Ukraine.

Another explosion took place at a military airbase near the city of Ryazan, less than 150 miles from Moscow. Three were killed and five wounded after a fuel truck exploded, Russian state media reported. That base also hosts Tu-95 and Tu-22M long-range bombers.

Video of the explosion showed a fiery blast illuminating the night sky. Locals reported that the sound of the explosion could be heard from miles away.

The cause of the two explosions has not been confirmed.

But Baza, a Russian media outlet with sources in the security services, reported that the Russian airfield at Engels was attacked by a loitering munition that targeted the airbase’s runway. Astra, another independent Russian media outlet, claimed that two nuclear-capable Tu-95 bombers were damaged in the explosion. Neither indicated a source for their information.

The Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin had been informed of the incidents. Local authorities in the Saratov region said that security services were investigating reports of the explosion at the Engels airbase.

Ukrainian monitoring reports in the last week suggested that Russia was delivering cruise missiles to the Engels airbase and transferring aircraft to the Ryazan airbase in preparation for another attack against Ukraine.

Ukraine is not known to have any loitering munitions that would allow it to attack hundreds of miles beyond the frontlines of the conflict, although there have been reports of such UAVs under development.

The Kremlin has warned the new western price cap on Russian oil will destabilise global energy markets but claimed it would not impact its invasion of Ukraine (see also 7.51am)

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was preparing how it would respond to the move by the G7 and allies to ban countries and companies from dealing with Russian sea-borne exports of oil where the price is above $60 a barrel, reports Reuters.

“Russia and the Russian economy have the required capacity to fully meet the needs and requirements of the special military operation,” Peskov said today when asked whether the price cap would affect Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

He added that the price cap would “completely destabilise” the global energy markets, and told Europeans that should brace themselves for higher prices.

Global benchmark Brent crude was up 1.7% at $87.01 a barrel on Monday, following the European Union’s move to adopt the price cap on Russian oil.

The Finnish government has asked its parliament to formally adopt Nato’s founding treaty in preparation for joining the alliance.

Hungary and Turkey have yet to approve the membership of Finland and Sweden, which also applied in May in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Our Nato membership moving forward is important for us Finns but also for Nato members,” Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, said.

Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, has visited Ukraine to hear accounts of deportation of children, tortured civilians and executed prisoners of war.

The Ukrainian government has praised the move:

Kyiv is to provide backup drinking water in case of shortages, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has announced.

Olaf Scholz has warned the west to avoid creating a new cold war by dividing the world into blocs.

Writing in an opinion piece for Foreign Affairs magazine, published today, the German chancellor called for every effort to be made to build new partnerships.

Singling out China and Russia as two countries that pose a threat to a multipolar world, he said there must be stronger European and transatlantic unity.

While he said the west must stand up for democratic values and protect open societies, “we must also avoid the temptation to once again divide the world into blocs,” reports Reuters.

“This means making every effort to build new partnerships, pragmatically and without ideological blinders,” he added.

“Germans are intent on becoming the guarantor of European security that our allies expect us to be, a bridge builder within the European Union and an advocate for multilateral solutions to global problems,” he wrote.

Nine people have been killed in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk, Russian-backed military officials have said.

It came after Ukraine shelled the city of Alchevsk, Reuters reports, citing state-run TASS news agency.

Staff at a children’s hospital in Kherson have described how they secretly planned how to save babies from Russia capture after the city was invaded in February.

Russian forces were suspected of taking orphan children and sending them to Russia, prompting the children’s regional hospital in Kherson to start fabricating medical records so that it looked like they were too ill to move.

“We deliberately wrote false information that the children were sick and could not be transported,” Dr Olga Pilyarska, head of intensive care, told the Associated Press. “We were scared that [the Russians]would find out [but] we decided that we would save the children at any cost.”