Ukraine news – live: Putin ally claims US and Brussels ‘leading world to a terrible war’

A close ally of Vladimir Putin has threatened that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine “will lead to a global catastrophe”, claiming that arguments against using weapons of mass destruction “in local conflicts” are untenable.

Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, formerly a deputy prime minister and head of Mr Putin’s presidential administration, warned that US and Nato support of Ukraine was leading the world to a “terrible war”.

“If Washington and Nato countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten, this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons,” Mr Volodin said on Telegram.

“Arguments that the nuclear powers have not previously used weapons of mass destruction in local conflicts are untenable. Because these states did not face a situation where there was a threat to the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of the country.”

“Deliveries of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime will lead to a global catastrophe,” he added, claiming that politicians in the US, France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe “must realise their responsibility to humanity”.

Western allies pledged billions of pounds’ worth of weapons for Ukraine last week, although they failed to persuade Germany to lift a veto on providing Leopard 2 battle tanks, which are held by an array of Nato nations but whose transfer to Ukraine requires Berlin’s approval.

French president, Emmanual Macron, said on Sunday that he won’t rule out sending Leclerc tanks over to Ukraine.

He said it’s a possibility as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues.

The French president was speaking at a summit with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Conquering Kyiv “remains the main dream” in Vladimir Putin’s “fantasies,” the secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council has said.

Oleksii Danilov warned that Russia may try to intensify its attacks in the south and in the east and to cut supply channels of Western weapons. He described the Kremlin’s goal in the conflict as a “total and absolute genocide, a total war of destruction.”

“Moscow wants to completely destroy Ukraine as a historical phenomenon — its language, history, culture, carriers of Ukrainian identity,” Danilov wrote in a column published by Ukrainska Pravda.

Hawkish ex-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this week that Western discussions about arming Ukraine “left no doubt that our enemies will try to exhaust or better destroy us”, adding that “they have enough weapons” to achieve that purpose.

Mr Medvedev warned that Russia could seek to form a military alliance with foes of the United States. Russia has defence cooperation with Iran and Venezuela, an existing military alliance with Belarus and strong ties with North Korea. Since invading Ukraine, Russia also has increased both the scope and the number of its joint military drills with China.

“In case of a protracted conflict, a new military alliance will emerge that will include the nations that are fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs,” said Mr Medvedev, who was president between 2008 and 2012.

A day earlier, he had written: “The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war … Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends.”

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed for a second straight day that its troops are improving their positions in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

“During offensive operations in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, units of the Eastern Military District took up more advantageous ground and positions,” the defence ministry said.

It claimed to have inflicted casualties and destroyed equipment including Ukrainian fighting vehicles, howitzers and two US-made HIMARS rockets.

Ukraine said yesterday that Russia’s claims of progress in Zaporizhzhia are exaggerated. Neither side has claimed major movements on the southern front since November, when Russia pulled out of the city of Kherson.

Boris Johnson, who is on a visit to Ukraine, has said he was invited by president Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a statement, the former prime minister said: “It is a privilege to visit Ukraine at the invitation of President Zelensky. The suffering of the people of Ukraine has gone on for too long.

“The only way to end this war is for Ukraine to win – and to win as fast as possible. This is the moment to double down and to give the Ukrainians all the tools they need to finish the job.

“The sooner Putin fails, the better for Ukraine and for the whole world.”

Rishi Sunak is “supportive” of his predecessor’s visit to Ukraine, Downing Street has indicated – despite Boris Johnson’s trip undoubtedly being viewed by some as a move to undermine the PM’s authority and bolster his own legacy.

Mr Sunak’s press secretary said he is “always supportive of all colleagues showing that the UK is behind Ukraine and will continue to support them”.

Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:

Boris Johnson has once again visited Ukraine despite warnings from senior military figures that he should stay away and stop “looking for publicity”.

The former PM was seen on the outskirts of Kyiv on Sunday, as he comes under pressure over claims that the BBC chairman helped arrange talks which led to his £800,000 line of credit while at No 10.

Former Army chief Lord Dannett had previously told The Independent that Mr Johnson was a “loose cannon” whose plan could upstage Rishi Sunak, while ex-First Sea Lord warned the former PM against “looking for publicity”.

But Mr Johnson said he was invited by president Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the country once again – as he urged western leaders to give Ukraine “all the tools they need”.

The Ukrainian defence of Bakhmut is “likely a strategically sound effort” even in spite of its costs, analysts have suggested.

In its latest daily update on Russia’s offensive, the US-based Institute for the Study of War said: “While the costs associated with Ukraine’s continued defense of Bakhmut are significant and likely include opportunity costs related to potential Ukrainian counter-offensive operations elsewhere, Ukraine would also have paid a significant price for allowing Russian troops to take Bakhmut easily.

“Bakhmut itself is not operationally or strategically significant but had Russian troops taken it relatively rapidly and cheaply they could have hoped to expand operations in ways that could have forced Ukraine to construct hasty defensive positions in less favorable terrain.

“One must also not dismiss the seemingly ‘political’ calculus of committing to the defence of Bakhmut lightly – Russian forces occupy more than 100,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory including multiple Ukrainian cities and are inflicting atrocities on Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas.

“It is not unreasonable for political and military leaders to weigh these factors in determining whether to hold or cede particular population concentrations.”

An aide to Volodymyr Zelensky has hit out at threats by a key ally of Vladimir Putin, Vyacheslav Volodin, that by providing Kyiv with more powerful weaponry Western powers are risking “global catastrophe” (see post at 9:52am).

Mykhailo Podolyak hit out at the suggestion that, while Russia has been bombing Ukraine for 11 months, killing civilians en masse, “the world must not resist and silently put up with it”.