Ukraine war latest: Europe could face Second World War-scale security crisis this year, experts warn; UK to send hundreds of missiles to Ukraine (2024)

We are closing down our Ukraine live blog for the evening now - but we'll be back with more updates soon.

Before we go, here is a quick round-up of what's been happening...

• Allies met in Germany today to discuss military aid for Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed for the US to allow its weapons to be used in long-range strikes into Russia
• However, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said lifting arms restrictions would not be a game changer in the war
• The UK said it would send 650 missiles to Ukraine, while the US pledged to provide another $250m in aid
• The Ukrainian president provided updates on his military's invasion of the Russian region of Kursk, saying 6,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and Kyiv was in control of 1,300sq km
• Experts warned a Donald Trump victory in the US election could trigger a Second World War-scale security crisis in Europe.

Defence secretary Lloyd Austin has announced a further $250m worth of American weapons will be sent to Ukraine.

The weapons include air defence munitions and artillery.

"We're also working with allies and partners to help Ukraine forge its long term security," he said during a news conference.

Defence leaders from the 50-plus partner nations who regularly gather to coordinate weapons aid for the war held a meeting in Germany today.

Mr Austin said the group was aiming to help Ukraine "build a combat credible future", which includes ramping up Kyiv's own weapon production and providing it with F-16 fighter jets.

However, as we reported earlier, Mr Austin has suggested he will not heed to Ukraine's request to allow American weapons to be used inside Russian territory.

Ukraine's invasion of Russia's Kursk region has resulted in about 6,000 casualties among Russian forces, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

The Ukrainian president had been speaking from the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he is in meetings with Western allies.

Mr Zelenskyy earlier said Ukraine controlled a "significant" part of the Russian region stretching over 1,300 square kilometres.

Ukrainian launched a surprise invasion of Kursk exactly one month ago.

At the time, it provided little information on why it had launched the offensive.

But the commander in chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in an interview with CNN yesterday that Russia was planning an offensive from Kursk before Ukrainian troops launched their operation there.

The US defence secretary appears to have denied Ukraine's request to allow American weapons to be fired onto Russian territory.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier pushed for the US to lift such restrictions.

But Lloyd Austin told reporters after a meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany that no specific weapon would be a game changer or turn the tide of war.

He noted that Russia has moved its glide bombs back beyond the range of ATACMS missiles, while Ukraine itself has significant capabilities to attack targets well beyond the range of the British Storm Shadow cruise missile.

The US has been hesitant to lift restrictions despite repeated requests from Ukraine, as it fears allowing American weapons to reach Russian soil could escalate the conflict.

Thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral services for victims of a Russian missile attack that killed seven people, including a mother and her three daughters, in Lviv today.

Yaroslav Bazylevych, whose wife, Yevgenia, 43, and daughters Emilia, 7, Daryna, 18, and Yaryna, 21, were killed, attended the funeral at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

The pre-dawn blasts earlier this week in the historic centre of the city also injured dozens of civilians.

The UK will extend its training programme for Ukrainian men and women to become soldiers on British soil, it has been announced.

More than 45,000 Ukrainian personnel have already received training under Operation Interflex since Russia's invasion in 2022.

But now defence secretary John Healey has announced an extension alongside President Zelenskyy and other allies at Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Germany.

The training operation was due to come to an end this year but the scheme will now continue until at least the end of 2025.

"The extension of this training, which is vital for Ukraine's defence, is another example of the UK's ironclad commitment to Ukraine," Mr Healey said.

Delivered in locations throughout the UK, the programme takes volunteer recruits who have joined the armed forces of Ukraine with little to no previous military experience and teaches them the skills required for frontline combat.

We have been reporting today on Volodymyr Zelenskyy's comments at theRamstein Air Base in Germany where he saidUkraine now controlled more than 1,300sq km in the Kursk region.

The Ukrainian leader also urged the US to let Ukraine carry out long-range strikes in Russia.

It was Mr Zelenskyy's first visit to the air base to address the group, and he used the public appearance to stress that, in his view, what is needed most now is for the US and the West to allow him to use the weapons they provided to strike deeper inside Russia, something the US has not supported out of concern it would further escalate the war.

Here is what he said...

"We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace," Mr Zelensky told the members.

"We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin."

Mr Zelensky said he would continue to press for the long-range strike capability.

"Strong long-range decisions by partners are needed to bring the just peace we seek closer," he also said on Telegram.

Russia's defence ministry has said its forces have taken control of the village of Zhuravka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

In an update on Telegram, it also said it had recently captured the settlements of Kirovo, Ptichye, Skuchnoye, Karlovka and Zavetnoye.

Sky News is unable to independently verify this battlefield report.

Much of the fighting in Ukraine is centred around the country's east, where Russia is aiming to break through to the key city of Pokrovsk.

The Kremlin has accused the US of applying unacceptable pressure on Russian media after the US justice department charged Russian TV contributor Dimitri Simes and his wife with schemes to violate US sanctions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who has said Russia is not seeking to interfere in the US presidential election, told reporters that Washington was trying to ensure that Moscow's own perspective on world affairs was not available to people.

"Washington continues to try to put pressure on Russia, on Russian citizens, and even on the Russian media, which is engaged in informing both citizens inside our country and world public opinion about what is happening, from our perspective," he said.

"Washington does not even accept that there should be options out there for anyone to get news from our perspective. This is nothing other than blatant pressure. We strongly condemn this stance as unacceptable."

For context: Yesterday, the US charged Virginia-based Russian television contributor Dimitri Simes and his wife Anastasia Simes with two separate schemes to violate US sanctions.

In one of two indictments, Mr Simes and his wife are accused of laundering funds and violating US sanctions for the benefit of Channel One Russia, a Russian broadcasting station that was sanctioned in May 2022.

In exchange for providing services as a presenter and producer, prosecutors alleged that Mr Simes and his wife received over $1m, a personal car and driver, a stipend for an apartment in Moscow and a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia.

In a second indictment, Anastasia Simes is charged with violating sanctions to benefit Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Udodov, a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned in February 2023.

Polls indicate the race for the White House has become much closer since the decision by current incumbent Joe Biden to drop out, but there remains a very real prospect that Donald Trump could win a second term as US president.

Such an eventuality would have repercussions way beyond American soil, with analysts suggesting it could be pivotal for the war in Ukraine.

And Phillips P O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, and Edward Stringer, a retired RAF Air Marshal and senior fellow of UK thinktank Policy Exchange, says a Trump victory may leave Europe "in a tight spot" - and urged leaders in the continent to begin planning for that result.

"By the end of January 2025, the continent's most important partner, the United States, could be led by former President Donald Trump, who has said that he would encourage Russia to do 'whatever the hell it wanted' to European countries that did not do what he wanted: spend more on defence," they wrote in a piece for Foreign Policy magazine.

"The previous Trump administration strained the transatlantic relationship, and the next iteration would almost certainly be worse. Freed from the influence of the traditional Atlanticist Republicans who staffed his cabinet in his first term, a second-term Trump would face fewer obstacles to making good on his threats."

The pair point out that Trump has warned that he would immediately cut all US aid to Kyiv and demand a quick end to the war, which would likely require Ukraine to cede a significant part of its territory to Russia.

"And that could just be the start," they continued.

"Trump has long questioned the value of NATO, so it is not inconceivable that he would strip back the US commitment to defend Europe.

"He could enact the analyst Sumantra Maitra's widely circulated 'dormant NATO' proposal, in which the US military would provide logistics support as a last resort but leave all other NATO defence responsibilities to Europe, or follow in the footsteps of French President Charles de Gaulle, who removed France from NATO's military command (but not the alliance itself) in 1966."

They said Trump could act quickly, by vowing never to order US troops to fight for Europe.

"Europe, as a result, would be forced to confront a security crisis on a scale it has not faced since World War II," they write.

After discussing the possible strategy for Europe if this situation were to come to pass - including speculation as to which countries might step in to replace the US's military leadership, the authors argued that countries must act with urgency to prepare.

"Time is a precious commodity in war. And today, with a war on its doorstep and the United States threatening to push European security to its most precarious point in decades, the continent is wasting it," they say.

"European countries should have started planning for the possibility of a Trump return at least a year ago, when the high chance of such an outcome became apparent, giving themselves more time to make preparations.

"Instead, European governments stuck their heads in the sand. If Trump is elected, such denial will have to end. European NATO states will be forced into action to secure the continent and protect the freedom of its people.

"It is far better they approach that weighty task as rationally and with as much foresight as possible than in a haphazard rush."