Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin orders nuclear weapons test preparations after Trump threat in new escalation

American actor Angelina Jolie has visited Ukraine’s southern regions to meet children impacted by the Russian invasion, local media reported.

Jolie was seen playing with Ukrainian children in Kherson, a region that is hit by Russian drones and missiles on a daily basis.

The Tomb Raider star was visiting the war-hit country in her role as a UNICEF ambassador.

The actor was seen wearing a bulletproof vest with a patch from the Legacy of War Foundation, a British non-profit organisation helping civilians during the war.

The visit by Jolie faced an incident with local military recruiters, reported Politico, citing a top Ukrainian official. The official said Jolie had not informed the Ukrainian government about her intention to visit the country, and that she entered on foot.

Russia said its forces were advancing north inside Pokrovsk in a drive to take full control of the Ukrainian city, but the Ukrainian army said its units were battling hard to try to stop the Russians from gaining new ground.

Ukraine has acknowledged that its troops face a difficult position in the strategic eastern city, once an important transport and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army, which Russia has been trying to capture for more than a year.

The Russian defence ministry said two assault groups were destroying Ukrainian troops that were surrounded in several districts of the city and continuing an offensive pushing north through it. Russian forces were clearing Ukrainian troops from settlements on Pokrovsk’s southeastern flank and had repelled Ukrainian attempts to break out of encirclement.

The Ukrainian military denied that its troops were surrounded in Pokrovsk. It said they were trying to stop Russian soldiers from digging in while seeking to secure and protect logistics routes in the wider area.

“Measures are being taken to block the enemy, which is attempting to infiltrate and accumulate in the city of Pokrovsk,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement.

“Active countermeasures are being taken against attempts by enemy infantry groups to gain a foothold.”

Russia sees the city as the gateway to its capture of the remaining 10 per cent, or 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of Ukraine’s eastern industrial Donbas region, one of its key aims in the almost four-year-old war.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the frontline shows that the battle between Ukraine and Russia is continuing to intensify rather than slow down.

“Zelensky’s visit to the troops near an embattled town is a clear sign that a ceasefire deal is firmly off the table – at least in the short run,” Dr Bariş Çelik, an academic specialising in security and defence policies in Europe at the University of Sheffield, told The Independent.

“The visit shows that Zelensky’s government is understandably invested in a defensive struggle to maintain Ukraine’s territorial integrity, even if this means a continued and protracted fight against a sustained flood of Russian troops.

“This in turn adds to the doubts over a potential ceasefire between Russian and Ukrainian forces, let alone an end to the ongoing war.”

Ukraine seeks to introduce fixed-term military contracts to allow recruits more flexibility over their futures as the war with Russia shows no sign of ending.

Its current system of conscription enlists soldiers under open-ended contracts, which has led to an army worn down by the relentless intensity of fighting since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

The new system will allow current service members and recruits to sign deals lasting between one and five years, according to the country’s defence minister Denys Shmyhal who announced the news on Tuesday. The plan will seek to ease the strain on existing military members, and replenish Ukraine’s forces.

A Latvian citizen has been arrested for allegedly collecting information on behalf of Russia’s intelligence service, according to Latvia’s State Security Service.

They added the suspect obtained and passed along details about NATO forces there, as well as information about private infrastructure used for aviation and how to buy prepaid cellphone cards.

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Ukraine has received more American-made Patriot air defence systems in an effort to repel Russian attacks, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

“More Patriots are now in Ukraine and being put into operation,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Sunday. “Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure sites and our cities across the entire territory of our state.”

The sophisticated Patriot systems are the most effective weapon against Russian missiles.

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Poland is working on a deal to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US to supply Ukraine and Slovakia, an agreement that would further tighten the European Union’s ties to American energy, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations.

Officials expect to announce a joint declaration to boost imports after a meeting of the parties at a transatlantic energy conference in Athens later this week, one of the sources said.

“After that, discussions would follow on terms for supplies to Slovakia,” one of the sources told Reuters news agency.

This is expected to be the latest in a series of energy deals struck between European and U.S. government officials and companies on the back of a push from Washington to boost exports of American gas and nuclear technology.