Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow launches wave of attacks after deadliest strike on Kyiv this year

Taiwan needs a “hornet’s nest” of drones to help deter conflict and provide security, the top US diplomat to the democratically ⁠governed island said on Thursday.

Taiwan says it needs to bolster its defences in the face of a stepped-up threat from China, which claims the island as its own territory.

The US and Taiwan can anchor “democratic” drone production and strengthen the collective deterrence posture of the ​free world, said Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan and the de facto US ambassador.

“Fortunately for Taiwan, drones have significantly ‌boosted defenders, even when facing overwhelming odds,” he added, referring to the war in Ukraine.

“Nothing will deter conflict more effectively than turning Taiwan into a hornet’s nest of air, surface, and subsurface drones.”

The Council of the EU said it had issued sanctions against six people – most of whom were scientists and researchers – who were involved in the development of the toxin that caused the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

The EU said the people were involved with the development of chemical weapons, particularly epibatidine, that were found in samples taken from the activist’s body after his death. The toxin is found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia.

Russia has demanded that European countries who accuse Moscow of poisoning Navalny to provide concrete data to support their allegations.

People listed under the sanctions programme are subject to an asset freeze and travel ban to the EU.

Ukraine is looking for ways to lower tension with Poland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday, after the two countries’ foreign ministers met to discuss a dispute over World War Two-era massacres.

“I don’t know the results of the meeting, but I have signals that the Ukrainian side is looking for ways to ease the tension,” Tusk told a news conference.

The Kremlin said on Friday that the European Union should consider Ukraine’s alleged involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022 when deciding whether to grant EU membership to Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting after German federal prosecutors charged a former Ukrainian army officer in connection with the blasts. The man, named only as Serhii K., was accused of being the co-perpetrator of a war crime and acting on behalf of Ukrainian state entities.

Authorities in Kyiv said on Thursday that they did not have enough information about the case to respond in detail to German prosecutors’ allegations.

The Russian defence ministry said on Friday that Russian troops had captured the village of Oleksandrivka in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

The Independent could not independent verify the battlefield report.

Ukraine hit two Russian airfields in Moscow-occupied Crimea, targeting at least seven jets and drone warehouses, Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Friday.

Hvardiyske and Saky airbases came under attack, with the latter being hit for the second time this week, the SBU added on the Telegram app.

The jets in Saky were “damaged or destroyed”, it said.

The suspect being hunted after a bomb attack in Monaco this week, which seriously injured Ukrainian-born businessman Vadym Yermolaiev, is a Ukrainian woman who disguised herself as a man, said the Monaco deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond.

She was identified as a Ukrainian citizen living in Germany and given the complexity of the explosive device, police are looking into identifying possible accomplices and others who may have ordered the attack, he said.

Two men who were arrested and held in police custody on Wednesday and Thursday were released as no evidence of their participation in the attack was found.

The US has warned Warsaw that Russia is planning an armed “provocation” against Poland to test Nato’s resolve, according to reports.

The assault could see Poland’s vital infrastructure targeted by missiles or drones, or even Russian soldiers crossing the border into Nato territory, Washington has said.

Sources close to Polish president Karol Nawrocki told Polish outlet Onet that the aim of Moscow’s possible assault, which could be launched in a matter of months, would be to provoke tensions and pressure Ukraine’s Western allies to suspend their military and financial aid.

The US “systematically informs Poland about ever-new Russian plans for a conventional attack on Nato’s eastern flank, from which Poland is by no means excluded”, a source close to the Polish president said.

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