Russia-Ukraine war latest: Putin fires nuclear-capable missile that could reach US days after CIA chief’s visit

Ukraine has been littered with mines since Putin invaded the country in 2022, posing a devastating risk to civilians. Antonina Kulhava, a humanitarian deminer, tells Maira Butt how she is trying to make her country safer:

Russia has lost an estimated 1,485,200 troops since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv’s defence has claimed.

This includes 1,420 people who have died in the past day.

It has also lost 12,310 tanks, 141, 059 fuel tanks, and 25,241 armoured fighting vehicles, according to its daily update.

Separately, the defence force claimed to have downed 233 Russian drones overnight.

Three people have been killed and nine injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian Belgorod region, local authorities said on their Telegram channel.

Three of the injured are in ‌a ​serious ‌condition, ⁠the authorities said.

More than 113,000 Russians crossed into Georgia last week amid fears that the Kremlin is poised to announce a new mobilisation effort, Politico reported.

Fears have grown as Russia intensifies its recruitment measures, increases its data collection, and expands the National Guard’s remits.

Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that Russia planned to mobilise 600,000 recruits in 2026-27.

Russia’s defence ministry said it successfully tested a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile, fired from the Arkhangelsk region in the country’s northwest, days after CIA director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow.

The missile, launched from a mobile platform, reached its designated target at the Kura test site in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka region, with a range of more than 6,700km, the ministry said.

“The Strategic Missile Forces practised the procedure for redeploying a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launch battery to a remote area, preparing for and conducting the launch,” the statement on Friday said.

Mr Ratcliffe travelled to Moscow on 25 August for talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Naryshkin, with several US media outlets reporting the visit was intended in part to warn Russia against an attack on a Nato member.

The Kremlin has said he did not meet president Vladimir Putin during the visit.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that Ratcliffe’s visit involved “contacts between security services.”

Russia’s petrol production fell to about 70 per cent of domestic demand by late August after a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes forced major refineries offline, two industry sources told Reuters.

Current output stands at around 80,000 tons a day against demand of about 115,000 tons, the sources said, after drones struck and halted refineries in Perm, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl over the past week.

Regional authorities have reimposed restrictions on fuel sales, including limits per customer and schedules based on vehicle registration plates.

The shortage has forced Russia to increase imports, with about 270,000 tons of seaborne petroleum expected from Asia in August alongside supplies from Belarus.

Ukrainian forces struck an Ozon warehouse and other sites across the southern Russian region of Rostov Oblast overnight, the Kyiv Independent reported.

A drone hit an Ozon logistics facility in the city of Rostov-on-Don, causing a small fire that was quickly put out, the Russian e-commerce giant said in a statement.

“We have temporarily suspended operations at the facility to allow emergency services to inspect the area and ensure that it is completely safe,” Ozon said.

Vladimir Putin believes Donald Trump has been “weakened” by the war in Iran and this could allow the Russian president to ramp up aggression in Europe, US intelligence has indicated.

While the details of CIA director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow this week remain elusive, The Washington Post has reported that the meeting cautioned Moscow against banking on the US president being distracted by conflict with Tehran to escalate action against Ukraine.