Ukraine war latest: Russia expels British diplomat for 'spying' - and summons ambassador (2024)

The Russian defence ministry is preparing a response after claiming that Ukraine had fired several US-made ATACMS at Russian territory in two separate attacks over the past few days.

"According to confirmed data, over the past three days, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have carried out two strikes with long-range Western weapons on targets in the Kursk region," it said.

The ministry said that on Saturday, Ukraine fired five ATACMS in the area of ​​Lotaryovka, which lies 37km northwest of Kursk, aiming for a S-400 anti-aircraft system.

"Two reached their target," it said, adding that a radar was damaged and people were hurt.

Additionally, yesterday, Ukraine "launched another strike with eight ATACMS... on the Kursk-Vostochny airfield", it claimed.

Only one of those reached its target, but two people were injured and infrastructure was damaged.

"The Russian ministry of defence is monitoring the situation, and response actions are being prepared."

We've had no confirmation from Washington or Kyiv that ATACMS were used.

Throughout the war, our economics and data editor Ed Conway has been looking at how Western sanctions against Russia have - or have not - hindered the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin's war effort.

Recent investigations show Russian firms have found multiple way to skirt around the sanctions.

The UK government has just imposed its largest-ever sanctions package against Russia's shadow fleet with 30 ships targeted - but are they doing their job?

Watch Conway's analysis below...

Read through the below stories for more of Conway's investigative work around Russian sanctions:

Russian state news agency TASS has recorded a video of British ambassador Nigel Casey arriving at the foreign ministry after he was summoned.

He's there to discuss the expulsion of another British diplomat from Moscow - the seventh since August (read previous posts for more on that).

A bit more detail on the expulsion of a British diplomat by Moscow.

The diplomat replaced oneof six others who were expelled in August, also on espionage accusations, Interfax cites the Russian FSB service as saying.

The FSB said then that the six worked in the "political department" of the British embassy in Moscow, while a Foreign Office spokesperson called the claims "completely baseless".

We've had no reaction from the UK yet on this latest expulsion.

Britain's ambassador to Russia has been summoned over the expulsion of one of London's diplomats - see our previous post for more details on that.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman MariaZakharova said Nigel Casey, who has served as the UK's ambassador in Moscow since last year, had been summoned by the Kremlin, according to the TASS state news agency.

Russia has expelled a British diplomat amid accusations of spying, according to reports coming out of the country.

"An employee of the British Embassy in Moscow has been stripped of his accreditation for providing false information when entering the Russian Federation," the TASS state news agency said, citing the FSB security service.

"His work revealed signs of intelligence activities."

Interfax also reports that the diplomat, who Sky News is not naming, has been expelled on grounds of "espionage".

These images show Russian tanks rolling further into the Donetsk oblast of Ukraine.

These are Soviet-era T-80 tanks, which first entered service in 1976.

Russia has increasingly relied on older equipment as the war has dragged on, but despite this has made considerable advances across the frontline, including in Donetsk.

Russian troops have been advancing towards the key logistics town of Pokrovsk in the region, capturing villages along the way.

The governments of Turkey and the US are in talks over a sanctions waiver regarding energy, according to officials.

Turkey wants a Russia sanctions waiver so it can continue paying for natural gas imports.

Turkey's energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said late last night that newly-imposed American sanctions on Russian energy giant Gazprombank would have a "direct impact" on the economy.

"These sanctions will affect Turkey. We cannot pay, if we cannot pay we cannot buy the goods. The foreign ministry is in talks," Bayraktar told reporters.

Turkey imports almost all its gas - and Russia is the top supplier, providing more than 50% of its pipeline imports.

A Russian court has ordered the arrest of a French reporter for crossing illegally into the Kursk region, according to TASS.

Catherine Norris Trent, a reporter for theFrance24 news channel, was embedded with a Ukrainian unit and entered the Russian territory to file a report.

Russia has launched criminal cases against a number of Western journalists who have reported from Kursk following Ukraine's invasion in August.

The proceedings have been launched in absentia, and the orders mean the reporters would only be arrested if they set foot inside Russia.

Russia has installed a new commander for its southern group of forces in Ukraine after his predecessor was sacked, according to Russian media outlets.

Lieutenant General Alexander Sanchik will take charge as acting commander of the battle group, according to RBC.

He replaces Colonel General Gennady Anashkin, who was removed amid reports the Kremlin had grown tired of his "lies" about the progress of the war.

Some Russian military bloggers suggested the former commander had consistently told defence ministry figures he had captured settlements that were still under Ukrainian control.

Kremlin-linked outlets said he had been removed as part of a planned rotation.