Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow earlier this week to warn Russia against attacking NATO, dismissing them as "scare stories," which had nothing to do with reality.
Italy is preparing its 13th military aid package for Ukraine, which is expected to be presented to parliament’s intelligence committee in early September, according to Italian media.
The classified package reportedly focuses on strengthening Ukraine’s air defences and includes anti-aircraft systems and radar equipment.
La Repubblica also reported that Italy and France have agreed to grant Ukraine a licence to produce Aster 30 B1NT interceptor missiles, designed to counter ballistic and aerial threats.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday there were grounds for Armenia to no longer consider Russia a strategic partner, citing Moscow and the CSTO’s response to the September 2022 clashes with Azerbaijan.
“After the events of September 2022, how can we say that there is a strategic partnership?” Pashinyan told a news conference in Yerevan.
Armenia’s 2026-2031 government programme instead calls for continued “mutually beneficial” cooperation with Russia as Yerevan transforms its relationship with Moscow and pursues what it describes as a more balanced foreign policy.
Russia warned on Thursday that British military facilities and equipment inside and outside Ukraine could be targeted in response to Kyiv’s use of UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles against Russian territory.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused London of being “one step away” from complicity in what Moscow calls “terrorism” and warned of “catastrophic consequences” if Britain did not change course.
The UK rejected Moscow’s warning, saying it stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine and would continue providing Kyiv with equipment to defend itself against Russia’s invasion.
The warning follows Britain’s decision to allow Ukraine access to classified technology to produce Storm Shadow cruise missiles domestically.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is not concerned that Russia will attack a NATO member, amid continuing concerns among European allies over Moscow’s intentions.
His comments to Axios come after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow this week, with U.S. media reporting that he warned Russia against attacking any NATO member. Neither Washington nor Moscow has confirmed that warning.
The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden have called on the EU to reopen discussions on using frozen Russian assets to provide additional financial support to Ukraine.
The countries said Ukraine needed more support beyond the $104.9 billion (€90 billion) loan already agreed for 2026 and 2027, and called for the issue to be discussed at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on 1-2 September.
The EU has immobilised around $244.7 billion (€210 billion) in Russian central bank assets since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Previous efforts to use the assets stalled after Belgium raised concerns over potential legal and financial liabilities.
Czech intelligence has warned that the country continues to face a threat from “one-time agents” allegedly recruited by Russia to carry out sabotage operations.
According to the BIS intelligence agency’s 2025 annual report, potential targets include organisations involved in producing or distributing aid to Ukraine.
The agency also reported cyberattacks against Czech institutions by actors linked to China last year, alongside continued activity by Russia-affiliated hackers.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces struck a tanker supplying fuel to the Ukrainian military at the Black Sea port of Izmail on Thursday.
Moscow also said it targeted the port of Odesa, a drone production facility and a transport and logistics complex in the Kyiv region allegedly used to store and distribute drone components.
The claims could not be independently verified by Reuters. The strikes came as Russia carried out a wider missile and drone assault on Ukrainian ports, industrial facilities and logistics sites.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Moscow believed that the intelligence services of France and Ukraine had helped militants in Mali mount attacks against the Russian-backed authorities there, the state RIA news agency reported.
The ministry did not elaborate on what evidence it had to support such a belief, according to RIA.
Italy is preparing its 13th military aid package for Ukraine, which is expected to be presented to a parliamentary intelligence committee in early September.
The package, reportedly ready since July, focuses on strengthening Ukraine’s air defences and includes anti-aircraft systems and radar equipment. Italy and France have also reportedly agreed to allow Ukraine to produce the Aster 30 B1NT interceptor missile.
The move comes as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government faces domestic opposition to further arms deliveries. Despite preparing new military support, Rome has recently highlighted humanitarian assistance, including generators for Ukraine’s hospitals, schools and energy infrastructure.
Russia has warned that British military facilities in Ukraine and beyond could be targeted in response to Kyiv’s use of UK-supplied weapons against Russian territory.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the transfer and use of Storm Shadow missiles represents London’s direct involvement in the Ukraine war. She claimed the missiles were being used beyond the limits previously stated by the UK and criticised plans to provide Ukraine with classified blueprints for British-made missile components.
Zakharova accused the British government of seeking Russia’s “strategic defeat” and warned of consequences. Moscow called on London to abandon what it described as a hostile stance toward Russia.
The Amur Gas Chemical Complex, a facility in Russia's far east, said in a statement on Thursday that the death toll from a fire that broke out there earlier this week had risen to 15 people.
The plant said on Wednesday that seven people had been killed in the blaze, including six Chinese nationals.
The complex, which bills itself as one of the world's largest polyethylene and polypropylene producers, is a joint project of Russian company Sibur and Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec. It had yet to begin operations and was preparing for the start of production.
A Russian attack on a thermal power plant in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson has resulted in the loss of all of its generating capacity, state oil and gas company Naftogaz said.
"The Russians struck a purely civilian facility that provides heat to a significant portion of Kherson's residential buildings," the company's CEO Sergiy Fedorenko said in a statement.
The plant has been the target of repeated Russian attacks and was also struck on Wednesday.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, said on Thursday that he had held a "working-level meeting" with CIA director John Ratcliffe in Moscow earlier this week and that they had discussed unspecified and sensitive matters falling within the remit of their respective intelligence services.
Naryshkin said the fact that they had met was nothing unusual.
U.S. President Donald Trump has described Ratcliffe's visit which came as the war in Ukraine drags on and as efforts to reach a lasting peace between the United States and Iran have stalled, as "semi-routine" and the Kremlin has been tight-lipped about what was discussed.
At least two U.S. media outlets have cited their own sources as saying Ratcliffe warned Russia not to attack any NATO member state. Neither Washington nor Moscow has confirmed that.
The Russian-installed administration of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said on Thursday that Ukraine had attacked a spent nuclear fuel storage facility with a drone.
It said the strike caused no significant damage, but warned that such attacks could threaten nuclear and radiation safety.
Talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials could be held in September and include U.S. representatives, the Ukrainian President's Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov has said.
Budanov said Ukraine was aiming to revive the talks, with further developments likely next month. The U.S.-led peace talks stalled this year as Ukraine refused Russian demands to cede more territory and as Washington became increasingly preoccupied with the conflict with Iran.
"I'm hoping for that, yes, and American ones too, of course. We can't do without them," Budanov told Ukrainian news website Novyny Live.
The Kremlin has warned that Russia would go to court to try to stop any new and "illegal" European Union (EU) plan to use its frozen sovereign assets to aid Ukraine.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a report in the Financial Times which said that some EU states, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, were urging Brussels to revive efforts to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine.
The Kremlin has dismissed the Wall Street Journal's report that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow this week to warn Russia against attacking NATO.
A spokesperson branded such reports "scare stories," adding that they had nothing to do with reality.
A high-ranking Russian military official has died in a car blast in the city of Saint Petersburg, Russian online newspaper Fontanka has reported.
The car, which was carrying the Lieutenant Colonel and his wife, exploded on Thursday morning on the Kolpinskoye Highway in the southern outskirts of the city, the Saint Petersburg-based newspaper said.
His wife is fighting for her life in hospital, according to Fontanka.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case after a car caught fire, killing one person and injuring another, although it did not identify the deceased person as military personnel.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow earlier this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing people briefed on the matter.
The warning followed new U.S. intelligence assessments, previously reported by the Wall Street, that Russia may carry out a limited attack on a NATO country in the next few years to test the alliance's resolve.
Sergei Naryshkin, the Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, has confirmed he held a "working-level meeting" with CIA director John Ratcliffe in Moscow earlier this week.
He didn't provide details of what they had spoken about, noting they covered sensitive matters falling within the remit of their respective intelligence services.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has issued a warning to the UK and France, describing a decision by the two countries to pass on military technology to Ukraine as "playing with fire."
Moscow added that the consequences of such a technology transfer could be unpredictable for London and Paris.
The leaders of Britain and France on Monday pledged to provide Ukraine with stronger military support, including access to classified technology and faster deliveries of air defence missiles, at a meeting of allies to mark Kyiv's independence day celebrations.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said it has expelled a diplomat from Romania's embassy in Moscow. The Ministry said the move was a response to Bucharest's earlier decision to declare a Russian diplomat persona non grata.
Russian online retailer Ozon said on Thursday that two logistics facilities in Ufa and Orenburg had been attacked by drones.
No fires broke out at either site as a result of the attacks, and the facility in Orenburg has already resumed operations.
Russian intelligence services have arrested a 36-year-old man in the Russian-controlled city of Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, on suspicion of spying for Kyiv, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency has reported.
The man is suspected of collecting information on the deployment of Russian soldiers for Ukrainian intelligence agencies.
The Kremlin has said that Russia will respond harshly to Ukrainian strikes on its trade and economic infrastructure, the state TASS news agency reported.
TASS also cited Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Russia had no need to escalate its military campaign in Ukraine because its forces were "already advancing there."
Russian forces are four kilometres from the eastern edge of the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk in the north of the Donbas region, Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov has said. Gerasimov, Russia's top commander, made the comments in a video released by Moscow's Defence Ministry.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on European allies to provide additional ballistic missile defences to Ukraine in a statement on X detailing Russia's drone and missile attacks against the country overnight.
"This week, our European allies made important decisions to strengthen Ukrainian air defense. It is important that these are also supplemented by additional ballistic missile defense packages, first and foremost through PURL," he said.
PURL, which stands for the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, is a joint NATO-U.S. procurement mechanism intended to fund and supply U.S. manufactured military equipment and air defence systems to Ukraine.
The Russian army launched 88 strikes against Ukraine in the past day, dropping 294 guided air bombs, Ukraine's General Staff has said
Attempts by Russian troops to break through Ukraine's defences were thwarted around the southern Ukrainian city of Lyman, the General Staff added.
Near the city of Orikhiv, Ukrainian soldiers stopped four attempts by the Russian army to advance towards the settlements of Mala Tokmachka, Novoandriivka, and Lukhanyivske.
A Ukrainian drone strike has forced Russian energy firm Lukoil to halt crude processing at its NORSI refinery in the town of Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The oil refinery is the fourth largest in Russia.
On Wednesday, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence posted a video of what it said was the refinery in Kstovo, showing it on fire and large amounts of smoke coming from it.
European Union countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, are urging Brussels to revive efforts to use immobilised Russian sovereign assets to fund Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
A letter from a coalition of states to the European Commission will call on the EU's executive to restart work on plans to fund Ukraine using Russian central bank assets, the FT reported.
A U.S. senator sponsoring a bill for wide-ranging sanctions on Russia said on Wednesday he was hopeful it would pass the House of Representatives next month and be a "sledgehammer" to President Vladimir Putin's efforts to fund his war in Ukraine.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who met with Ukrainian President and senior officials during a visit to Kyiv, said the bill had strong Republican support in the House, after comfortably passing an initial Senate vote last month.
"Putin understands only force," Blumenthal told a news conference. "And the Russia sanctions bill is a sledgehammer that can have the kind of force Putin understands."
A civilian vessel was damaged overnight at the Danube River port of Reni near Ukraine's Izmail, local Ukrainian authorities said on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday.
Reni sits close to Ukraine's borders with Romania and Moldova.
Kyiv authorities, who earlier issued a drone attack alert, said on Telegram that debris had fallen in the courtyard of a residential building and that damage was being assessed.
Ukraine's Armed Forces separately issued a ballistic missile alert for Kyiv.
In Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in central Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, two were injured as missiles hit an industrial facility, and three more were wounded in Zaporizhzhia, officials said.
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Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the weekend BRICS summit, amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, joining a host of foreign dignitaries.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
A Russian strike on a gas station in Kyiv has killed two people, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement on Telegram. In Russia, online marketplace Ozon has suspended operations in Saratov, southwestern Russia, following a drone strike on a warehouse in the region.
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks drew the U.S. into Afghanistan, the Taliban is seeking a new relationship with Washington built on diplomacy, investment and trade, despite deep divisions between the former enemies.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces struck two cargo vessels overnight in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia has temporarily shut down its 1,200-kilometre East-West oil pipeline after it was hit by a drone attack, with Riyadh and Baghdad saying the strike originated from Iraq.
U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Dublin on Saturday to meet Ireland’s leaders. He will also attend a golf tournament at one of his resorts, taking a brief detour from his focus on the Iran war and his party’s efforts to retain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
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