Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv to receive first Patriot and HIMARS missiles under Europe-funded weapons scheme – UK Times

King Charles has not shied away from supporting Ukraine publicly and is now reported to be keeping close tabs on ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

The King is “very close” to the detail of negotiations and to the Ukrainian war-time president Volodymyr Zelensky himself, a senior defence official told Politico on the condition of anonymity.

Last month, the King sent a message of support to Ukraine to mark the country’s independence day as he called for a “just and lasting peace” to end the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

The King’s sensitivity towards the Ukrainian cause could help soften US president Donald Trump’s stance on backing Ukraine, the Politico report added.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if he took the opportunity privately to encourage the president to support Ukraine more effectively,” a former senior UK diplomat said, referring to conversations during Trump’s overnight stay at Windsor Castle.

A Ukrainian drone struck a car in Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing one person and injuring another, the region’s governor said this morning.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said the drone killed a man in his car in the town of Shebekino, just inside the Russian border. The strike seriously injured the man’s brother, who was taken to a local hospital.

Ukrainian drone attacks frequently hit targets in Belgorod and other border regions.

As Russia’s military action in Ukraine encroaches on European airspace, Poland’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of Nato support in patrolling the skies.

On 10 September, Russian drones over Polish airspace prompted Radoslaw Sikorski to invoke Article 4 of Nato’s North Atlantic Treaty, calling for an urgent meeting of member states to discuss what he called Vladimir Putin’s “large-scale provocation”.

Tensions were heightened a few days later when Romania reported similar drone incursions into its airspace, forcing the military to scramble its own fighter jets in response.

The Trump administration is sending Ukraine its first missiles for Patriot air defence systems and HIMARS rocket launchers under a new Europe-funded scheme.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the first two batches, worth $500m (£366m) each, will “definitely include missiles for Patriot and HIMARS.

The first batches of equipment funding through PURL were already on their way, Nato’s senior representative in Ukraine told Reuters.

“Four packages under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List have already been funded and equipment is already flowing,” Patrick Turner said.

Donald Trump has been strongly critical of the billions of dollars the United States has spent on military aid for Ukraine. The PURL initiative offers a way for Europe to pay for the weapons and the US to send them.

Additional packages, each worth about $500m, are working their way through the approval system, sources told Reuters.

The new supplies of critical weapons comes as Ukraine is bracing for a heavy autumn offensive from Russia, with Vladimir Putin’s forces accelerating strikes on its shattered energy system, including gas infrastructure.

A senior Russian officer toured positions held by his troops in Ukraine and said Moscow’s forces were advancing on all fronts, the Russian defence ministry said.

He said the heaviest fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops was taking place around the logistics centre of Pokrovsk.

General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of staff of the armed forces in what Moscow calls its “special military operation”, said Moscow’s troops were making progress in the eastern Donetsk region, the conflict’s focal point, and further west in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

“Our troops in the zone of the special military operation are advancing in practically all directions,” the defence ministry quoted Gerasimov as saying.

“And the heaviest fighting is occurring in the Krasnoarmeisk direction,” he added, using the Soviet-era name for the city of Pokrovsk, “where the enemy, by any means and taking no account of losses, is trying unsuccessfully to stop our advances and seize back the initiative.

“The Ukrainian military, he was quoted as saying, “has deployed the best-trained and most capable fighting units, taking them from other areas. And that facilitates the advance of our troops in other sectors.”

Gerasimov’s statements appeared to be at odds with accounts by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian military officials, however.

Zelensky, interviewed by Sky News this week, said he expected new Russian offensives but added that Moscow’s forces had enjoyed little frontline success in their recent activity.

A spokesperson for a Ukrainian unit near Kupiansk yesterday said that an attempted Russian advance on the town had resulted in many of its men being taken prisoner.

The Kremlin issued a sharp warning to Nato when it said the alliance was “fighting against Russia” and was “de facto involved” in the war in Ukraine.

“Nato is providing direct and indirect support to the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It can be said with absolute certainty that Nato is fighting against Russia.”

Yet as Russia sends drones into Poland and Romania and organises drills with Belarus, experts say that Putin is testing Nato’s response through its more aggressive movements past Ukrainian borders.

Yulia Navalnya, the widow of journalist Alexei Navalny has said that independent lab tests have concluded her husband was poisoned shortly before his death in a Russian prison.

“These labs in two different countries reached the same conclusion: Alexei was killed. More specifically, he was poisoned,” Navalnaya said in a video posted to social media.

“I demand that the laboratories that conducted the research publish their results. Stop appeasing Putin for some higher ‘considerations.’ You cannot placate him. While you stay silent, he does not stop.”

Poland has kickstarted its military exercise Iron Defender-25, just days after Russia violated its airspace with a drone incursion.

Deputy polish defence minister Cezary Tomczyk said Poland had been preparing for many months and was holding its own exercises.

More than 30,000 troops from Poland and allied nations will take part in drills across Orzysz, Ustka, Nowa Dęba, the Baltic Sea, airspace, and cyberspace.

Donald Trump has adopted Vladimir Putin’s arguments on Ukraine; and has (like Putin) threatened the sovereignty of his neighbours and allies.

On top of that, his administration has openly supported anti-democratic movements on Europe’s far right – notably in Germany, France, and Romania.

Trump has jeopardised the cornerstone alliances of Nato and the Five Eyes intelligence relationship that bind the West together as militaries and that links the Anglosphere into a web of trust.

His apparent devotion to Putin has further entrenched the belief among the intelligence communities of America’s allies that the US president is a liability.

He is a liability. He has been successfully manipulated by Russia and Putin for years.

So now it’s Britain’s turn, and as head of state, the star turn in Trump-charming is the King himself. He, no doubt, will play his part, writes Sam Kiley: