Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin accused of escalating war after Kyiv apartment block strike kills nine

The Pentagon has canceled plans to temporarily deploy 4,000 US-based troops to Poland, two US officials said as the surprise decision renews questions about president Donald Trump’s expected troop cuts in Europe.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined comment, a lawmaker said the decision had not yet been notified to Congress, and no formal announcement has been made.

The decision, first reported by Army Times, came just two weeks after the Pentagon announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany, in part due to a widening rift over the Iran war between president Donald Trump and Europe.

One US official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, suggested the Poland decision was part of a near-term solution to ultimately allow for the previously announced drawdown in Germany, which hosts 35,000 US forces.

That would suggest the troops that were meant to temporarily deploy to Poland might come from elsewhere.

Still, the US has been reviewing its troop presence in Europe and ​has long ⁠been expected to scale it back, following demands ‌from Trump that Nato take a larger role in the defence of Europe.

The Pentagon has not yet detailed how it envisions future troop laydowns across the continent.

Trump has also been angered that European ‌allies did not join the US war against Iran, and sparred with ‌German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last month said Iranians were humiliating the US in negotiations.

A Ukrainian drone attack killed three people in the central Russian city of Ryazan, damaged high-rise apartment buildings and hit an industrial enterprise, regional governor Pavel Malkov said in the early hours today.

“To ⁠our great regret, three people have been killed and 12 injured, ‌including ​children,” Malkov ‌wrote ⁠on the ⁠Telegram messaging app.

North Korea condemned sanctions imposed by Britain over a summer camp that London says was part of Kremlin-run youth programmes and entities involved in the deportation and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

Britain imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian officials and organisations on Monday. The Songdowon International Children’s Camp was also listed as part of the sanctions for its alleged involvement in Russia’s forced deportation and reeducation of Ukrainian children.

Pyongyang’s ⁠foreign ministry said in a statement ⁠carried by state media KCNA this morning ​that ⁠the sanctions on ‌the Songdowon camp were a malicious act that London ‌would pay a price ‌for.

It called them groundless and said they damaged ⁠the rights and interests of its children, who it said received the “most precious” treatment.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces aimed at Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, including air bases and fuel and transport facilities, claiming it hit all its targets in the attacks yesterday.

Among the weapons deployed, it said, were Kinzhal missiles, which Moscow says can fly 10 times the speed of sound.

The attacks reported from Ukraine were mostly from neighbourhoods and civilian areas, in which a school, a veterinary clinic and several apartment buildings housing civilians were hit.

At least 21 people were killed and more than two dozen were reported injured in the attacks.

Russian drones also struck a vehicle carrying UN staff who were delivering aid to residents of Kherson in southern Ukraine, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said.

The vehicle was marked and was attacked twice, in two different locations, but nobody was hurt, he said.

Defence secretary John Healey has called the attack on Ukraine yesterday “shocking” and said he had accelerated UK deliveries of air defences.

“Shocking Russian drone attacks on Ukraine over the last 24 hours. I’ve directed for UK deliveries of air defence and counter-drone systems to be accelerated as fast as possible,” he said in a post on X.

He added: “We stand with Ukraine in the face of Putin’s aggression. Our thoughts are with Ukrainian families.”

The Ukrainian capital will be observing a day of mourning for the victims of the latest Russian attack that killed at least 21 people yesterday, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Russia carried out its largest aerial attack over a two-day period since the start of its war in Ukraine, pounding the capital Kyiv and other cities with hundreds of drones, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia launched a total of 1,567 drones since the start of Wednesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Kyiv was ⁠the main target of the overnight strikes, he added.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Services said at least 21 people, including ​three children, ⁠were killed in the capital.

Emergency workers were seen moving carefully across piles of rubble and cutting through concrete at the site of a strike on a nine-storey residential building where an entire section had been destroyed.

“There were people there, children. What happened to them? You have to understand, an entire building collapsed,” Alla Komisarova, 74, a pensioner, said on the site of the strike, holding back tears.

“I heard something flying, it’s flying nearby… And then there was such a terrible sound, and our house, which is opposite (to the one hit) jumped and staggered,” she said.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has condemned Russia’s aerial bombardment of Ukraine, saying it contradicts Vladimir Putin’s claims to want an end to the war.

“The largest Russian attacks on Ukraine in recent times show that Moscow is betting on escalation of the conflict, not negotiations,” he said on X yesterday.

“We continue to stand with Ukraine. Kyiv and its partners are ready for talks on a just peace. Russia, however, continues to wage war,” Merz said.

Ukraine and Russia have swapped 205 prisoners of war each today, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.

Earlier this month, Moscow ​said it had ‌agreed to ‌carry out a prisoner ⁠exchange with Kyiv as part of a three-day ceasefire brokered ‌by US​president ‌Donald ⁠Trump.

Latvia’s centre-right prime minister Evika Silina said she ⁠would resign, triggering the collapse of her coalition government just months before an election ⁠is due ​in ⁠October.

“I am resigning, but I am not ⁠giving up,” she said in ​a televised ⁠statement.

Latvian president ‌Edgars Rinkevics, who is tasked by the constitution to select ‌a leader of ‌the government, will meet all parliamentary parties on Friday.

Silina, of the ⁠centre-right New Unity party, was left without a ruling majority in the parliament on Wednesday after the left-wing Progressives party said it was withdrawing ‌its support.

The decision followed the ​firing over the ‌weekend of Progressives’ defence minister Andris Spruds over ⁠the handling of incidents involving stray ‌Ukrainian ​drones flying into ‌Latvia from Russia.

Russia is witnessing a decrease in its population inside prison, with a drop of more than 180,000 people, in the past five years, the country’s prison chief said.

“If at the end of 2021 there were 465,000 (prisoners), then now there are 282,000,” said Arkady Gostev, the head of Russia’s penitentiary service.

Around 85,000 of the current prison population is held in pre-trial detention, he told TASS state news agency.

Gostev said the major decline in the prison population was partly driven by the army’s recruitment drive, but also due to more suspended sentences and other forms of punishment handed out.

Moscow has regularly relied on recruiting its prisoners in exchange for buying out their sentences and sent them on the Ukraine frontline, but experts flagged that their lack of military and battlefield knowledge made them vulnerable to killings.