Ukraine-Russia war: UMeta bans Russian state media outlets
Key points
- Meta bans Russian state media outletsUkraine and Russia both report shooting down drones overnightBig picture: What you need to know as war enters new weekDeborah Haynes analysis:Western allies face risks green-lighting long-range missiles – but bowing to Russian threats would be more dangerous
James Matthews analysis:Can US call Putin’s bluff without triggering catastrophe?
09:26:13 Latvia to send drones and armoured vehicles to Ukraine
Latvia will send armoured vehicles and drones to Ukraine as part of a new aid package worth €40m (£33m), Ukraine’s defence ministry has announced.
There will also be “individual equipment for soldiers and sappers”, Kyiv said.
It has thanked Latvia for its “staunch support”.
08:50:42 Meta bans Russian state media networks
Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has said it is banning Russian state media networks from its platforms.
It claims they have used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influencing operations online.
“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets,” Meta said in a written statement.
“Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.”
Enforcement is due to begin in the next few days.
Earlier this month, the United States filed money-laundering charges against two RT employees.
Officials said there was a scheme to hire an American company to produce online content to influence the 2024 election.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has said countries should treat the activities of RT as they do covert intelligence operations.
RT has mocked US actions and accused it of trying to prevent the broadcaster from operating journalistically.
08:09:18 ‘Unambiguous’ need for Ukraine to win – Johnson
Boris Johnson has tweeted some photographs of a visit he has made to Ukraine.
The former UK prime minister met some injured veterans at a rehab centre in Kyiv which he said shows the “real cost of this war”.
The determination to establish a “free Ukraine” continues to burn brightly, he added.
07:36:47 Germany pledges more aid to Ukraine
Germany is to provide an additional €100m (£84m) in aid to Ukraine this winter.
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, announced the extra help during a visit to Moldova.
Russia is planning a “winter war with the aim of making the lives of people in Ukraine as terrible as possible”, Ms Baerbock said.
Extra air defences are needed to allow repairs to infrastructure, Kyiv has said.
That, in turn, will help to secure demand for power during the winter, when temperatures can drop far below zero.
In July, meanwhile, it was reported that Germany plans to halve its military aid to Ukraine next year.
According to a draft of the 2025 budget seen by Reuters, German assistance will be cut to €4bn (£3.4bn).
That’s roughly half what it has been this year.
07:08:50 Power cuts after Russia ‘attacks energy infrastructure’ in Ukraine
Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region overnight, local authorities have said.
Air defences are said to have shot down 16 drones.
Power was cut in some districts and back-up systems had to be used, authorities said.
Damage was caused in the areas of Konotop, Okhtyrka and Sumy city, officials said on Telegram.
Water facilities had to switch to emergency power.
Acting mayor Artem Kobzar said there were no casualties in the city and energy workers were conducting repairs.
The targeting of critical infrastructure has been a signature Russian strategy in recent months.
The UK government has noted that power plants, electricity substations and gas storage facilities have all been attacked.
06:56:09 In pictures: Aftermath of ‘Ukrainian attack’ in Russia
These photographs show the aftermath of a Ukrainian strike in Belgorod in Russia, local authorities have said.
Several cars were burnt out.
Belgorod is not far from northeastern Ukraine, about 40km north of the border, and close to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
06:40:19 Both Ukraine and Russia report shooting down drones
The Ukrainian air force has said it shot down 34 of 51 Russian drones launched overnight.
Air defences were employed in five regions, Kyiv said.
Russia’s defence ministry, meanwhile, said its systems destroyed 16 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk and Kursk border regions overnight.
Fifteen were downed over Bryansk and one over Kursk, the ministry said on Telegram.
06:32:14 Morning
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Ukraine War.
We will be posting updates throughout the day.
14:59:46 The big picture: What you need to know as the war enters another week
Here’s everything you need to know as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters a new week.
Pressure grows on West over long-range missiles
Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued to pressure the West over the past few days to allow Ukraine to use the long-range missiles they have been provided with to strike targets deep inside Russia.
No decision has been made after talks between Sir Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden in Washington last week.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that he could not discuss the details of why a decision was not made, but added: “There’s a debate about further missiles.
“And we are discussing that as allies, as you would expect us to.”
Prisoner exchange
On Saturday Russia and Ukraine each handed over 103 prisoners of war.
Moscow’s defence ministry said the Russian soldiers had been taken captive in Russia’s Kursk region – where Ukrainian forces captured territory last month in a major incursion into Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian troops were defending the Kyiv and Donetsk regions, Mariupol and Azovstal, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.
Putin escalates rhetoric
Vladimir Putin issued an ominous warning on Friday in response to suggestions Ukraine may be given permission to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles.
The Russian president said such a development would put NATO “at war” with Russia.
He insisted it would “significantly change” the nature of the Ukraine conflict and amount to “nothing less than direct involvement of NATO countries”.
Russia expels six British diplomats
Russia expelled six British diplomats in Moscow on Friday, with its FSB security service claiming their activity indicated they were involved in spying and sabotage.
The diplomats were named on Russian state TV, which also showed photos of them.
However, a Whitehall source speaking to Sky News strongly rejected the characterisation that the individuals had been involved in spying and sabotage.
They said the expulsions were part of a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions that began when the UK expelled almost two dozen Russian officials from the embassy in London in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia with novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018.
US says Russia has received Iranian missiles
On Wednesday the US said it believes the Russian military has received shipments of hundreds of Iranian Fath-360 missiles.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he feared the short-range missiles would be used by Moscow “within weeks”.
Mr Lammy said the supply of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia was “definitely a significant escalation” and said the UK was “coordinating”.
Both Iran and Russia have denied the claims.
UK cracks down on Russian ‘shadow fleet’
On Wednesday the UK announced new sanctions against 10 ships in Russia’s “shadow fleet” of vessels it says illegally avoid Western embargoes on Russian oil.
The sanctions aim to further impact Moscow’s oil revenues, which the Foreign Office called “Putin’s most critical source of funding for his illegal war in Ukraine”.
It is the third time the UK has sanctioned individual vessels.
Russia begins ‘significant counteroffensive’
Moscow’s forces have begun a significant counteroffensive against Ukrainian troops who pushed their way into western Russia last month, pro-Moscow war bloggers said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian troops claim to control almost 500 square miles (around 1,300 square km) of the Kursk region after they launched a surprise incursion on 6 August.
But three milbloggers said Russian forces had begun a significant counteroffensive and have reclaimed territory in the region.
Mr Zelenskyy had told Sky News’ US partner network NBC last week that Ukraine will “hold” the territory as a key part of his “victory plan” to end the war.
18:41:57 We’re pausing our live coverage
That’s it for our live updates today. We’ll be back soon with more updates on the Ukraine war.
The main story was a Russian aerial bomb hitting a residential high-rise in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s push to launch Western-supplied long-range missiles into Russia continued, as pressure mounts on the UK and US to make a decision.
And a married couple were killed by Russian missiles launched into Ukraine’s Odesa overnight, with one other person injured.
Read our latest recap of the situation in Ukraine below:
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