Ukraine live: Putin sending ‘poorly trained troops’ to frontline amid drone strikes

Ukrainian drones struck at least six regions deep inside Russia on Tuesday night, in one of the largest such strikes since the start of Moscow’s invasion.

Russian officials reported attacks on targets in the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions, with the assault on the military airfield in Pskov that damaged aircraft as the most significant.

Situated more than 600km (400 miles) from Ukraine, it was where a number of elite paratroopers are stationed. The state-run Tass news agency reported at least four giant Il-76 transport planes were damaged, two of which had “burst into flames”.

Russia has already been stuck by more than 70 drones this month in attacks it blames Ukraine for carrying out hostile attacks. While Kyiv has never taken any public responsibility for these attacks, it has never not denied striking targets inside Russia.

The White House on Wednesday said that it has new intelligence that shows Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have swapped letters as Russia looks to North Korea for munitions for the Ukraine war.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby detailed the latest finding just weeks after the White House said that it had determined that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a recent visit to Pyongyang called on North Korean officials to increase the sale of munitions to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

Kirby said that Russia is looking for additional artillery shells and other basic materiel to shore up Russia’s defense industrial base.

Aamer Madhani has the full story:

Long-range strikes by drone and missile and a raid on territory in occupied Crimea that took Russian forces by surprise – all part of Kyiv’s recent push towards the peninsula that is a symbol of Vladimir Putin‘s territorial ambitions.

Perhaps most significant of all is the capture of the key village of Robotyne, about three hours drive east of Crimea. Gaining that foothold will help Ukraine build a foundation to punch through to the coastline of the Sea of Azov.

Kyiv has been stepping up drone attacks on Crimea as it looks to break key supply lines from the Russian-occupied peninsula, writes Askold Krushelnycky in Ukraine:

The Russian ruble’s wobble in value has exposed a crack in President Vladimir Putin‘s fortress economy, a vulnerability quickly plastered over by the Kremlin‘s economic team in a move that allowed the currency to regain its footing, at least for now.

Yet the patch — an emergency interest rate increase — cannot hide the dilemma at the heart of the Russian economy: how to fund the military while not undermining the national currency and overheating the economy with corrosive and politically embarrassing inflation.

Life in Moscow presents a facade of normality despite sweeping sanctions tied to the war in Ukraine and the departure of hundreds of name-brand Western companies.

Two Russian soldiers have been jailed for refusing to return to the frontline in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

In an intelligence update posted on Twitter, the ministry said two Russian soldiers were sentenced to serve at least two years in a penal colony by a military court for refusing to obey orders to return to the front in Ukraine.

It comes after Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported that Russia was convicting close to 100 soldiers a week for refusing to fight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un have exchanged letters and are pledging to deepen the relationship between their two countries, the White House has said.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Wednesday said arms negotiations between Moscow and Pyongyang have been “actively advancing” as Russia has sought to evade the US and western sanctions that have made it harder to prosecute the country’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

Mr Kirby added that Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu recently travelled to Pyongyang in an effort to convince North Korean officials to sell Russia domestically-manufactured artillery shells, since North Korea’s military equipment is largely Russian or Soviet-made.

Andrew Feinberg has more:

Russia says at least four of its military transport planes were damaged after Ukraine launched its biggest drone attack on Russian soil since the beginning of the invasion.

The Il-76 transport aircraft were damaged after drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region, located 660km north of the Ukrainian frontier and near the borders of Estonia and Latvia.

Two of the military aircraft “burst into flames” after the attack, Tass news agency reported, and images from the city showed fire rising high into the night sky.

This is the moment Ukraine drone strikes targeted a fleet of Russian warplanes after the country launched its biggest attack on Russian soil since the beginning of the invasion.

This footage shows the moment the drones destroy two heavy military Il-76 transport planes, sparking a huge fireball.

Another two aircraft were damaged during the aerial assault at the airfield.

The chief official in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, said anti-aircraft units had downed a cruise missile fired at the peninsula on Wednesday.

“Anti-aircraft forces in eastern Crimea have downed a cruise missile,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, and asked residents to remain calm.

Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have been supported on the battlefield by tens of thousands of mercenaries from a shadowy group led by a businessman and longtime ally of president Vladimir Putin.

The unit cut its teeth in deployments to Crimea – illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 – and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in the aftermath of that act and has since dispatched troops to several conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, including the Syrian Civil War.