Russia warns ‘don’t cross red lines’ as US-Ukraine missile deal close

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Moscow has warned the US not to cross a “red line” by giving Kyiv missiles that would be among its longest-range yet.
Washington and Kyiv are close to an agreement which would see Ukraine given Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (Jassm), capable of reaching targets deep inside Russia, US officials said.
Jassms have a range of about 230 miles compared with the US-made Atacms missiles that Ukraine currently possesses, which have a range of about 190 miles.
Russia has repeatedly warned that supplies of long range missiles to Ukraine would breach its red lines. Fearing an escalation of the conflict, Ukraine’s allies have been reluctant to supply and when they have, it’s with the caveat that they not be fired at Russian targets.
On Wednesday, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the US yielded to Ukraine’s demand for the weapons, adding that Volodymyr Zelensky was “egging on” the West.
“But they should understand – they are joking about our red lines here. They shouldn’t joke about our red lines,” Mr Lavrov warned.
Mr Zelensky stepped up calls for the West to give Ukraine long-range missile capabilities after Russia’s attack on Lviv.
“Everyone who persuades partners to give Ukraine more long-range capability to respond to terror fairly is working to prevent exactly these kinds of Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities,” the president said after seven people were killed on Wednesday.
Thank you for following today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. 
We’ll be back soon with more updates and analysis from the conflict.
Footage showed the aftermath of Russia’s attack on Lviv, which killed seven people, including three children.
Cars and buildings were on fire as emergency services scrambled to rescue Ukrainians from the rubble.
Dozens more were injured in the attack.
A Ukrainian father lost his wife and three young daughters in Russia’s hypersonic missile attack on Lviv, the city’s mayor said on Wednesday.
Andriy Sadovyi shared a picture of Mr Bazylevych and his family, including his 21-year-old daughter Yaryna, who worked on youth projects in the mayor’s office. “The only person in this photo who survived is the man,” Mr Sadovyi said.
Yaroslav Bazylevych’s wife and three daughters were among seven people who were killed in the attack, which was so close to the Polish border that the country activated its aircraft for the third time in eight days.
Several buildings were destroyed in the devastating strike, which also forced local schools to cancel their lessons for the day, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, the regional governor.
The attack came after at least 51 people were killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine on Tuesday.
Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine in what Kremlin-linked military bloggers have described as Moscow’s response to Kyiv’s Kursk invasion.
Germany will not restrict its military support for Ukraine, Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday. 
The German chancellor has been trying to dispel fears Berlin might disappoint Kyiv amid a domestic budget squeeze and media reports of a freeze on new military aid.
“Germany’s support for Ukraine will not cease. We have made provisions, struck (defence) deals and secured the funding in good time so that Ukraine can continue to fully rely on us in future,” Mr Scholz said.
Ukraine’s top foreign diplomat has resigned in the largest shake-up of Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime government.
Dmytro Kuleba was one of the most recognisable members of the cabinet, but his pleas for air-defence systems and looser restrictions on Western missiles have fallen on deaf ears in recent months.
He was among two deputy prime ministers, three ministers and the head of the country’s state property fund who also offered to vacate their roles, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, announced.
Mr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said the ministerial overhaul would “give new strength” to Ukraine’s institutions.
“Autumn will be extremely important for Ukraine. And our state institutions must be set up in such a way that Ukraine will achieve all the results we need – for all of us,” he said late on Tuesday.
Read the full story here.
We have been speaking to people on the ground in Lviv after last night’s hypersonic missile attack by Russia.
That includes Sasha, 44, a volunteer who is part of a project funded by the World Jewish Relief humanitarian agency to help vulnerable Ukrainians resettle after Russian attacks, the latest of which were described by Paul Anticoni, the agency’s chief, as “yet another devastating blow to the people of Ukraine”.
Having spent years helping others, on Wednesday, Sasha’s home in Lviv was damaged, an area which had largely been spared from Russian bombardment.
Sasha said she was sitting with her husband in their living room when she heard the dreaded air raid siren sounding off outside of her apartment, causing them to drop to the floor for protection. 
“Then we heard the sound of weapons that want to kill Ukrainians,” she told The Telegraph. “It was getting closer…and then we heard the sound of glass breaking.”
Sasha and her husband heard explosions going off around their district, the impact of which was so strong that their apartment windows and front door were blasted through.
“We are okay and we survived, very stressed but we survived. It’s horrible to see that so many people died,” she said.
Ukraine may be invited to join Nato before the next summit in the Netherlands in June 2025, Kyiv’s outgoing foreign minister has said.
Dmytro Kuleba told CNN: “I clearly see an opportunity for that to happen before the next Nato Summit in the Netherlands in 2025.”
This does not necessarily mean Ukraine would immediately become a Nato member, but simply start the official process, Mr Kuleba added.
Earlier we reported that a Ukrainian man lost his entire family in Russia’s strike on Lviv, as revealed by the city’s mayor. 
Yaroslav Bazylevych was pictured being comforted by local residents in the aftermath of the strike, which killed his wife and three daughters.
Poland wants to ramp up its production of 155 mm artillery rounds in the hope of ensuring sufficient supplies if Russia attacked Nato, a senior official has said.
Some Nato officials say the Kremlin might be ready militarily to attack a member in five to eight years’ time, once it has rebuilt its forces after the war in Ukraine, though Moscow has regularly dismissed these suggestions.
“Our ambition … is to have the ability to fill up Polish warehouses in parallel to achieving a full, independent capacity to produce ammunition in Poland, within five to eight years,” Maciej Idzik, board member of the state-owned Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), said.
Ukraine’s major reshuffle continued on Wednesday, with the deputy prime minister among those who handed in their resignations.
“These steps are related to strengthening our state in various areas,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine needs “new energy”, Volodymyr Zelensky said while overseeing a major government reshuffle.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, handed his resignation in on Wednesday after a slew of resignations yesterday.
More resignations and appointments are expected over the coming days in what a senior ally of Mr Zelensky described as the start of a government “reset” ahead of winter.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, has given a further statement on the death of Mr Bazylevych’s wife and three daughters, accusing Russia of “exterminating entire families”.
“I don’t know what words to support Yaroslav’s father. Today we are all with you. Sincere condolences and bright memory,” Mr Sadovyi said.
Vladimir Putin is back in Russia after his controversial trip to Mongolia.
The Russian president visited the east Asian country on Monday and Tuesday, defying an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last year. 
Kyiv slammed the trip, arguing that Mongolia had an “obligation” to arrest Putin.
Putin was pictured on Wednesday on sidelines of an economic forum in Russia’s Vladivostok.
On Monday, en route to Mongolia in open contempt of its International Criminal Court obligation to arrest him as a war criminal, Vladimir Putin told a class of Siberian children that some youngsters in his family have learnt to speak Chinese fluently, writes Matthew Henderson.
He said that growing economic, political, and social contacts between Moscow and Beijing make Chinese a popular foreign language for Russians to learn.
This unusual personal revelation by the Russian dictator tells us about how his regime views its interactions with Chinese authoritarian power. 
He sees them as involved in an ever-closer partnership, tied to a political and intelligence nexus, with shared ambitions to collectively overthrow the global geopolitical status quo.
He is right in one sense and wrong in another. Yes, they are in partnership – but only for now. Before long the Chinese dragon seems destined to turn on its current ally. In fact, there is already some evidence it is doing so.
Read the full story here.
Moscow has confirmed it struck a military institute in a missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Tuesday. 
“On September 3, the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a precision strike on the 179th joint training centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Poltava,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Ukrainian officials said at least 50 people had been killed and 271 wounded in the attack.
Russia said on Tuesday its forces had captured the village of Karlivka near the key east Ukraine hub of Pokrovsk. 
Moscow has targeted the military logistics hub for several months as it seeks to take control of the wider Donbas region.
Vladimir Putin’s eventual successor is unlikely to be any more receptive to the idea of peace with Ukraine, according to military analysts.
The ISW pointed out that the Kremlin has spent years denying Ukraine’s existence, which will have had “long-term impacts on Russian society and elite opinion”.
“Putin’s successor is far more likely to hold such views than to reject them in the absence of significant Russian setbacks,” the US-based think tank said.
Ukraine has vowed to “hold” the territory its forces have captured in Russia’s Kursk region “indefinitely” as Volodymyr Zelensky refused to rule out taking more land.
“We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there,” Mr Zelenskyy told NBC News.
But Kyiv will keep control of the land as part of Mr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan”, which he says will end the war.
“For now, we need [Kursk],” he said.
Kyiv’s invasion in Kursk has slowed in recent weeks after the daring assault was launched on Aug 6.
Clashes were reported in Kursk on Tuesday but Kyiv’s forces did not take any more territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank.
Moscow will exact an “extremely painful” response if the West gives Ukraine long-range missile capabilities.
Ukraine and the US are reportedly close to an agreement on long-range missiles, which Kyiv has repeatedly asked for in order to be able to strike targets inside Russia.
New footage showed a building being ravaged by a fire after Russia’s brutal attack on Lviv.
Maksym Kozytskyi, the regional governor, said on Wednesday that several residential buildings were left burning after the missile and drone attack.
We have more from Donald Trump’s interview with Lex Fridman, a Russian-American computer scientist and podcaster who interviewed the former US president on Tuesday.
 “As president-elect, I’ll have a deal made,” Trump said about the Ukraine war.
“You’ve gotta get that done, that could end up in a third world war.” 
He added: “But I can’t give you those plans, because if I give you those plans, I’m not going to be able to use them, they’ll be very unsuccessful. You know, part of it’s surprise, right? They won’t be able to help us much.”
Here’s my conversation with @realDonaldTrumpIt’s here on X in full, and is up everywhere else too. Links in comment.Timestamps:0:00 – Introduction1:09 – Psychology of winning and losing3:51 – Politics is a dirty game5:28 – Business vs politics8:04 – War in Ukraine9:53 -… pic.twitter.com/64pCfH8JPs
Volodymyr Zelensky has posted more pictures which show the extent of the damage caused by Moscow’s attack on Lviv.
The Ukrainian president denounced the strikes as a “terrorist” attack by Russia.
Several residential buildings were damaged in Wednesday’s attack, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, the regional governor.
We have been getting more pictures in from the scene of the attack, which reveal the extent of the damage caused by Russia’s missile strikes.
Lviv has largely been spared the worst of Russia’s attacks since war broke out in February 2022 but Moscow’s attacks have stepped up in recent weeks following Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk on Aug 6. 
Donald Trump has accused Kyiv of lying about the number of people who have died in the war so far, insisting the actual figure is “a lot higher than people think”. 
“When you take a look at the destruction and the buildings coming down all over the place in Ukraine, I think those numbers are going to be a lot higher,” Trump told Lex Fridman’s podcast on Tuesday.
“They lie about the numbers, they try to keep them low. They knock down a building that’s two blocks long – these are big buildings – and they say that one person was mildly injured,” he continued.
“No, no, a lot of people were killed. And there are people in those buildings, and they have no chance. Once they start coming down, there’s no chance.”
Moving away from Russia’s attack on Lviv, Ukraine’s foreign minister has just resigned, according to the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament. 
Dmytro Kuleba, who recently attended a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, handed his resignation in on Wednesday.
More resignations and appointments are expected over the coming days after five ministers stepped down on Tuesday, in what a senior ally of Volodymyr Zelensky described as the start of a government “reset” ahead of winter.
Volodymyr Zelensky stepped up calls for the West to give Ukraine long-range missile capabilities after Russia’s attack on Lviv.
“Everyone who persuades partners to give Ukraine more long-range capability to respond to terror fairly is working to prevent exactly these kinds of Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities,” Zelensky said after seven people were killed on Wednesday.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage.
We’re bringing you the latest updates from Ukraine after Russia pounded the western Ukrainian city of Lviv overnight.