Ukraine-Russia war latest: Huge blast at key airbase for Russian nuclear bombers after Ukrainian drone strike

Up to 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed during Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

The MoD believes the Russian leadership “likely prioritise their conflict objectives over the lives of Russian soldiers,” it said in an intelligence update on X.

“They are almost certainly prepared to tolerate continuously high casualty rates so long as this does not negatively affect public or elite support for the war, and those losses can be replaced.”

Russian president Putin and his leadership also place “significantly less value on the lives of ethnic minority citizens from impoverished regions”, it added.

Recruitment tends to be disproportionately focussed on people from these minorities, with “Slavic Russians” from “urban centres such as Moscow and St. Petersburg” less likely to be called up.

For the next stop in Volodymyr Zelensky’s endless European diplomacy, the Ukrainian president has just touched down in Norway.

He flew in from Finland, where he met with president Alexander Stubb and other senior political figures to discuss a common approach to sharing a border with Russia, and continued support for Ukraine.

The Norwegian government earlier this month said it would more than double its financial support to Kyiv this year, to 85 billion crowns (£6.17 billion) from a plan agreed in November of 35 billion crowns.

“Norway stands with Ukraine,” prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Thursday. “I look forward to good discussions on how Norway can best support Ukraine in both the short- and long-term.”

Jens Stoltenberg, until October NATO’s chief and now Norway’s finance minister, will have a meeting with Mr Zelensky’s delegation.

While the conversation was described as positive by both sides and focused on securing a truce between Ukraine and Russia on aerial attacks against one another’s energy infrastructure, subsequent readouts appeared to disagree with the extent to which the US could takeover Ukrainian nuclear power stations.

Ukrainian soldiers are not encircled in Kursk, intelligence officials have said, despite claims to the contrary by presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

It comes after intelligence assessments were shared with the White House, according to three US and European officials familiar with their government’s intelligence.

The assessments show that Ukrainian troops have faced intense pressure from Russian forces but are not “completely surrounded”, as Mr Trump said following a meeting between his special envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin.

Military chiefs will gather in the UK today as Sir Keir Starmer continues efforts to form the so-called coalition of the willing.

Sir Keir is expected to address the meeting of around 30 military officials, two days after Vladimir Putin demanded that all Western military aid to Ukraine be ended as a condition to end the fighting.

Mr Starmer and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have been scrambling to build a coalition of countries willing to put troops onn the ground and be directly involved in peacekeeping efforts in Ukraine in any postwar settlement.

Ukraine has struck a strategic nuclear bomber base 700km deep inside Russia, Kyiv confirmed on Thursday.

The attack was carried out on the Soviet-era Engels airbase, which hosts Russian strategic bombers, cruise missiles and glide bombs, an official at the Security Service of Ukraine said.

Unverified video on Russian Telegram channels showed a major blast spreading out from the airfield and wrecking nearby cottages. Russia’s defence ministry said air defences had shot down 132 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions.

A state of emergency was declared by local authorities, and Saratov governor Roman Busargin said nearby residents had been evacuated after a fire in the airfield.

Taking to X following a major Russian attack overnight, Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of showing his “true attitude” towards peace.

“Russian strikes on Ukraine do not stop, despite their propaganda claims,” the Ukrainian president said in a post accompanied by pictures of Ukrainian rescuers working on the sites of the attacks.

“Every day and every night, nearly a hundred or more drones are launched, along with ongoing missile attacks. With each such launch, the Russians expose to the world their true attitude towards peace.

“Last night, the Russians launched nearly 200 ‘Shahed’ drones and decoy UAVs. A massive attack on the Kirovohrad region left 10 people wounded, including four children, and caused damage to homes, a church, and infrastructure.

“I thank everyone who works on the ground and helps to eliminate the consequences of Russian terror.”

While speaking with journalists following another busy day of diplomacy on Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelensky was interrupted by a world leader.

The Ukrainian president had spent the day in Helsinki with his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb, before holding a one-hour long phone call with Donald Trump to discuss next steps in bringing about a ceasefire in Ukraine.

But as he debriefed journalists on Zoom, a call came in from one of his closest allies – French president Emmanuel Macron.

“Sorry, Emmanuel! I’m just having a conversation with a journalist. Can I be back in 15-20 minutes?” the Ukrainian president replied in English, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

“Yes, I just spoke to President Macron. We often talk a lot. Once a day, I would say, on average,” he confirmed, stressing that Mr Macron “helps a lot”.

Exactly 11 years ago, on March 18, 2014, Russia‘s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, was quick and bloodless.

It also marked a turning point in Moscow‘s relations with the West, triggering a downward spiral unseen since the Cold War and setting the stage for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, during which it annexed more land from the war-torn country.

The strategically important diamond-shaped peninsula in the Black Sea highlights the long-standing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

From valuable naval bases to the desirable coastline, here’s a look at why Crimea is so coveted.

Russia has imposed a state of emergency after a Ukrainian drone attack on a military airfield, local officials said.

The airfield near a strategic bomber base in Engels, around 850 kilometres southeast of Moscow, was set on fire on Thursday following the Ukrainian drone attack, officials added.