Ukraine-Russia war latest: We hope nuclear drills 'knock sense' into West, Moscow says after jets pledge

Russia should consider a "demonstrative" nuclear blast to stop the West allowing Ukraine to use weapons inside its territory, a Putin-backed thinktank has suggested.

The suggestion came from Dmitry Suslov,a senior member of the Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, yesterday.

Writing in business magazine Profil, he said: "To confirm the seriousness of Russia's intentions and to convince our opponents of Moscow's readiness to escalate, it is worth considering a demonstrative nuclear explosion.

"The political and psychological effect of a nuclear mushroom cloud, which will be shown live on all TV channels around the world, will hopefully remind Western politicians of the one thing that has prevented wars between the great powers since 1945 and that they have now largely lost - fear of nuclear war."

Vladimir Putin has previously praised the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy and has taken part in policy discussions run by the thinktank. 

Germany has finished its biggest military drill in eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.

Exercise Grand Quadriga 2024 - a large-scale joint training event with German, Lithuanian and Dutch armies, as well as the Franco-German Brigade - ended yesterday.

It was held in Lithuania, which shares a border with Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. 

General Valdemaras Rupsys said: "This is the first time since the end of the Cold War that Germany has run such a large-scale, division-level, deployment into NATO's eastern flank, including Lithuania, operation."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said yesterday Ukraine should be allowed to use Western weapons to strike inside Russian territory.

Italy's foreign minister has said weapons it sends to Ukraine should not be used in Russian territory.

In a break from France and Germany - which said yesterday that Kyiv should be allowed to strike inside Russia with weapons supplied by the West in certain circumstances - Antonio Tajani also said Italy will never send troops to Ukraine.

"All the weapons leaving from Italy should be used within Ukraine," he told the Italian broadcaster RAI today.

For context: Italy supports Ukraine but has so far refused to support Kyiv using Western-supplied weapons to strike into Russia.

On Monday, Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini fiercely rejected calls from Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, to lift restrictions on weapons.

Matteo Salvini said at the time: "NATO cannot force us to kill in Russia, nor can anyone compel us to send Italian soldiers to fight or die in Ukraine.

"If they want to go and fight in Ukraine, let Stoltenberg, Emmanuel Macron and all the bombers who want war go there."

By Siobhan Robbins, Europe correspondent

In a dusty clearing in Lithuania, NATO is rolling out the big guns.

Leopard 2 tanks fire their rounds with a deafening thud, while Puma fighting vehicles add to the eerie chorus, accompanied by the buzz of helicopter blades.

The firepower on display is the crescendo of the alliance's biggest military training exercise since the Cold War, led by the Germans and taking place a few miles from the Lithuanian border with Belarus.

The aim is to show how NATO can defend Europe's eastern flank from invasion, offer reassurance to allies and a warning to President Putin.

"Today's exercise sends a clear message - a message of deterrence to Russia," said General Carsten Breuer, Germany's chief of defence.

Read the rest of Siobhan's eyewitness account here...

Russia says it hopes nuclear deterrence will "knock some sense" into the West over plans to send fighter jets to Ukraine.

Speaking to the RIA state news agency today, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says Russia regards Belgium's pledge to send US-made F-16 warplanes to Kyiv as a "signal action".

He adds: "They are trying to tell us that the United States and NATO would stop at nothing in Ukraine.

"Nevertheless, we hope that the Russian-Belarusian drills on the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons that are under way now will knock some sense into our opponents by reminding them about the catastrophic consequences of further nuclear escalation."

Russia has been carrying out nuclear exercises throughout May, and are currently conducting joint air force and air defence ministry drills with Belarus.

For context: Earlier this week, Belgium agreed to send Ukraine 30 F-16 fighter jets by 2028. 

It marked part of a security pact Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Alexander De Croo, the Belgian prime minister, signed in Brussels on Tuesday.

As part of the agreement, Belgium will also provide Ukraine with at least €977m (£832m) in military aid.

After securing more NATO support, Mr Zelenskyy again demanded the West lift restrictions on the use of supplied weaponry to hit targets in Russia, saying it was "unfair" that Ukraine could not strike back.

Ukraine says it shot down seven Russian missiles and 32 drones over Kharkiv overnight.

Kyiv's air force commander said on Telegram that Russian forces attacked "military facilities and critical infrastructure in Ukraine" with 51 missiles and drones - but did not provide additional details.

Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov added in a separate statement that four people were injured in the attack.

It comes four days after a Russian strike on a hardware store in the city killed at least 16 people and injured more than 40.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine, as tensions mount over the use of Western weapons to attack military targets on Russian soil.

The Kremlin has been sabre-rattling over the issue, making thinly veiled threats to the West, while Ukraine's allies remain divided.

Before we resume our live updates and analysis, here is a recap of the key moments that occurred over the last 24 hours.

• Vladimir Putin appointed Alexei Dyumin, his former bodyguard, as secretary of the advisory State Council, fuelling speculation about his presidential potential;
  
• France and Germany's leaders said Ukraine should be allowed to hit military sites inside Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory, but not other targets;
• Police searched the office of a European Parliament employee in Brussels over suspected Russian interference;
  
• Prisoner of war exchanges between Russia and Ukraine have been suspended for several months, Russia's human rights commissioner said.

We're pausing our live coverage of the conflict for the day, but if you're just joining us, here is a recap of the key moments.

• Vladimir Putin appointed Alexei Dyumin, his former bodyguard, as secretary of the advisory State Council, fuelling speculation about his presidential potential;
  
• France and Germany's leaders said Ukraine should be allowed to hit military sites inside Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory, but not other targets;
• Police searched the office of a European Parliament employee in Brussels over suspected Russian interference;
  
• Prisoner of war exchanges between Russia and Ukraine have been suspended for several months, Russia's human rights commissioner said.

A Russian airstrike has hit more than 100 houses in an eastern Ukrainian village, local authorities say.

The high-explosive aerial bomb wounded seven people in the Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian National Police.

The attack took place seven miles from Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian-held city. 

A four-year-old child was among those injured.

Vladimir Putin has appointed Alexei Dyumin, his former bodyguard, as secretary of the advisory State Council, fuelling speculation about his presidential potential.

The president has brought Mr Dyumin, 51, closer to the centre of power since his re-election in March, having made him an aide overseeing the defence industry this month.

The details of his new role are unknown.

"Russia's elite is abuzz with the appointment of Dyumin," Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser and Putin supporter, said on Telegram.

"This is seen as confirmation that Dyumin is the future president of Russia, Putin's choice," Mr Markov said, adding that this was something that had long been rumoured.

There is no public debate or reliable information about who
might eventually succeed Putin, who is 71 and is expected to
rule for years, but his appointments are scrutinised for signs of whether he is lining up a potential candidate to one day take over from him.

Being publicly identified as a potential successor carries certain risks attached to being seen as a challenger.

Asked about Dyumin's appointment, the Kremlin said it was part of a rotation - he is taking over the role from Igor Levitin, 72 - and said he would look at how the State Council would function.