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In addition to four new Patriot systems Ukraine is receiving, Israel is willing to give their Patriots to Ukraine because they say their own systems are better.

A day after officially accepting the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump spoke by phone Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump called the conversation "very good," adding that Zelenskyy congratulated him on becoming the GOP nominee for president and condemned the assassination attempt.

"I appreciate President Zelenskyy for reaching out because I, as your next President of the United States, will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families," Trump said in a post to Truth Social. "Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity."

Zelenskyy said in a post to X that the two agreed to hold a personal meeting in the future to discuss "what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting."

"Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its help in strengthening our ability to resist Russian terror," the Ukrainian president said.

The call came almost five years to the day after another call between the two led to Trump's first impeachment, and while questions swirl about whether Trump would continue to support military aid for Ukraine in its battle against Russian invaders.

Trump has vowed that if he wins the election, he'd have the war "settled" while he's still president-elect. He has not said how he'd do so. At his debate against President Joe Biden in June, Trump criticized the large amount of military aid going to Ukraine, but also said Russian President Vladimir Putin's terms to end the war are "not acceptable."

As for Ukraine's president, Trump said, "Every time Zelenskyy comes to this country, he walks away with $60 billion. The greatest salesman ever.”

The selection of JD Vance as Trump's running mate has also raised concerns in Kyiv, given his longtime criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine. In the leadup to the Russian invasion in 2022, Vance said on a podcast: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov praised Trump's choice of Vance earlier this week, saying, "He’s in favor of peace, in favor of ending the assistance that’s been provided and we can only welcome that. That’s what we need — to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons. Then the war will end

“If Mr. Donald Trump becomes president, then we will work with him. I am not afraid of it,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv, according to Politico.

Zelenskyy said earlier this month that he didn't know Trump very well, but he'd "had meetings with him, and we had we had good meetings when he was the president."

All wars end with negotiations. It’s not the soldiers in the trenches who decide when.”
Arni joined the Ukrainian army in 2022 to fight for his country’s survival. When we bump into him 30 months later, he describes a new motivation. “Peace.”

“No-one likes war, we want to finish it,” he says while leaning against his camouflaged pick-up truck.

For the troops we encounter close to Russia’s border, there’s a desire to end Russia’s invasion on acceptable terms.

That is not to say survival isn’t a core driver - it is - but they seem to be striving for a finish line.
“For Ukraine, our people, we’ll stand until the end,” adds Arni.

Until 6 August, Ukraine’s sole objective was one of liberation. The complete repelling of Russian forces to its borders from before Russia first invaded in 2014.

Albeit at a grinding pace, the reverse has been happening for the past year-and-a-half with Moscow eroding Ukrainian territory.

Then came the “all in” poker play which surprised everyone apart from the battle-hardened Ukrainian soldiers who carried it out: a counter-offensive into Russia’s Kursk region.

It was undeniably successful and daring,” observes Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Co-operation Centre, a think tank.

Now, Kyiv can’t reference its offensive often enough, with countless pictures of troops giving out aid as they tear down Russian flags.

“It also changes the narrative,” says Alina Frolova, security expert and former deputy defence minister of Ukraine. “A situation where we’re losing territory step by step is not a good one.
“Ukraine’s strategic position has changed.”

Despite parallels with Russia’s initial invasion, Kyiv claims its goal is not to occupy.
So what is the aim? Well, there’s more than one.

Buffer zone
“This attack was partly carried out so the city of Sumy was better protected,” explains Serhii Kuzan, who thinks it is often forgotten that the border is still a front line.

Since the start of this summer, President Volodymyr Zelensky says there were more than 2,000 strikes on the Sumy region from the Kursk region alone, including 250 glide bombs.

For months it was feared Russian troops were preparing for a cross-border attack of their own, and by pushing them back, Serhii believes defending Ukraine in general will be easier.

“The [now captured] Russian city of Sudzha is on a commanding height. The Russians are already in a less advantageous position because we control the approach routes

The redeployment of Russian forces
“The main purpose of this offensive into Kursk is to divert Russia’s attention from its occupied territories in Ukraine,” says Ivan Stupak, who worked for Ukraine’s security service (SBU) between 2004-2015.

The good news for Ukraine is that is what appears to be happening. The bad news is that Russian advances, notably towards the town of Pokrovsk, are not slowing.

The 'exchange fund'
It is how President Zelensky describes Ukraine’s collection of captured Russian soldiers.
Historically, when Ukraine has momentum, it captures more and consequentially negotiates the release of their own more easily.

The Kursk offensive has been no exception. Kyiv says hundreds of Russian troops were taken prisoner. Several could be seen surrendering in drone footage and being taken back to Ukraine with tape blindfolds.

“Moscow is actually offering to start negotiations to exchange prisoners of war,” says Serhii Kuzan.

“It is no longer us, enlisting the support of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to ask Russia to hand over our prisoners of war.”

Pressure
This is a huge part of it for Kyiv.

On a civilian level, you had the horror and anger felt in the Kursk region in response to the blistering Ukrainian assault on their homes.

There were mass evacuations, pleas for help and criticisms of some authorities for not preventing the attack.

On a political level, you had Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly processing events in Moscow while being briefed by his security chiefs.

And of course there is the military level.

“The influence of this Ukrainian incursion could be quite substantial,” concludes Alina Frolova. “That’s why using highly professional troops was specifically the right decision.”

Future bargaining chips
If Ukraine does not plan to keep hold of its captured Russian territory in the long term, but can hang on long enough, it hopes to leverage it for the release of its own land.

But it’s a big “if”.

When fighting slows, that has always suited Russia with its superior size. Misdirection and surprise has often worked for Ukraine.

“In a symmetric war, we have no chances with Russia,” points out Alina Frovola. “We need to make asymmetrical actions”.

Slowing advances in the Kursk region may leave Kyiv with difficult decisions.

And what about Vladimir Putin?
Russia’s president initially labelled the offensive as a “terrorist attack” and “provocation”, but in the days since he has barely referenced it publicly.

That’s despite it fitting into his narrative that Russia’s invasion is a defensive war to protect his people.

Perhaps he doesn’t want the alarm felt by many in the Kursk region to spread, or for it to appear like his military doesn’t have control of the situation.

Also, as with the Kursk submarine disaster and failed coup of last year, Vladimir Putin doesn’t always act quickly to regain the initiative.

Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in Russia’s Kursk region and struck a second one nearby, disrupting supply lines as it pressed a stunning cross-border incursion that began Aug. 6, officials said Sunday.

The bridge attacks, apparently aimed at thwarting a Russian counter-push in Kursk, could mean that Kyiv intends to seek a foothold in the region.

Pro-Kremlin military bloggers acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge on the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of an airstrike that cut the bridge in two.

Less than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Oleshchuk and Russian regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov.

As of Sunday morning, there were no officials giving the exact location of the second bridge attack. But Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seim, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck.

According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left only one intact bridge in the area. The Associated Press could not immediately verify these claims. If confirmed, the Ukrainian strikes would further complicate Moscow’s attempts to replenish its forces in Kursk and evacuate civilians.

Glushkovo is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, and approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the main battle zone in Kursk. Zvannoe is located another 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the northwest.

Ukraine could try to hold the ground it has seized
Kyiv has said little about the scope and goals of its push into Russia with tanks and other armored vehicles, the largest attack on the country since World War II, which took the Kremlin by surprise and saw scores of villages and hundreds of prisoners fall into Ukrainian hands.

The Ukrainians drove deep into the Kursk region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic as tens of thousands of civilians fled the area. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles) of the region, although it was not possible to independently verify what exactly Ukrainian forces effectively control.

Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its gains inside Russia, it would be risky, given Kyiv’s limited resources, because its own supply lines extending deep into Kursk would be vulnerable.

The incursion has proven Ukraine’s ability to seize the initiative and has boosted its morale, which was sapped by a failed counteroffensive last summer and months of grinding Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region.

The move into Kursk resembled Ukraine’s lightning operation from September 2022, led by Syrskyi, in which its forces reclaimed control of the northeastern Kharkiv region after taking advantage of Russian manpower shortages and a lack of field fortifications.

Zelenskyy seeks permission to strike deeper into Russia
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Kyiv’s allies to lift the remaining restrictions on using Western weapons to attack targets deeper in Russia, including in Kursk, saying his troops could deprive Moscow “of any ability to advance and cause destruction” if granted sufficient long-range capabilities.

“It is crucial that our partners remove barriers that hinder us from weakening Russian positions in the way this war demands. … The bravery of our soldiers and the resilience of our combat brigades compensate for the lack of essential decisions from our partners,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the social platform X.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry and pro-Kremlin bloggers have alleged that U.S.-made HIMARS launchers have been used to destroy bridges on the Seim. These claims could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s leaders have repeatedly sought authorization for long-range strikes on Russian air bases and other infrastructure used to pummel Ukraine’s energy facilities and other civilian targets, including with retrofitted Soviet-era “glide bombs” that have laid waste to Ukraine’s industrial east in recent months.

Moscow also appears to have increased attacks on Kyiv, targeting it Sunday with ballistic missiles for a third time this month, according to the head of the municipal military administration. Serhii Popko said in a Telegram post that the “almost identical” August strikes on the capital “most likely used” KN-23 missiles supplied by North Korea.

Another attempt to target Kyiv followed at about 7 a.m. Popko said, this time with Iskander cruise missiles. Ukrainian air defenses struck down all the missiles fired in both attacks on the city, he said.

Fears mount for Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
In a separate development, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday that the safety situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is deteriorating following reports of a nearby drone strike.

Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged “maximum restraint from all sides” after an IAEA team stationed in the plant reported that an explosive carried by a drone detonated just outside its protected area.

According to Grossi’s statement, the impact was “close to the essential water sprinkle ponds” and about 100 meters (100 yards) from the only power line supplying the plant. The IAEA team at the plant has reported intense military activity in the surrounding area in the past week, it said.

Why the Russian military seems to have been caught so unprepared:

A long border, with defenders elsewhere
Russia’s regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod share a 1,160-kilometer (720-mile) border with Ukraine. That includes a 245-kilometer (152-mile) section in the Kursk region. This frontier had only symbolic protection before Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. It’s been reinforced since then with checkpoints on key roads and field fortifications in places, but building solid defenses has remained a daunting task.

The most capable Russian units are fighting in eastern Ukraine, where they have been pressing offensives in several sectors, with incremental but steady gains. Moscow has used the regions to launch airstrikes and missile attacks on Ukrainian territory but doesn’t have enough land forces there.

Because of the porous border and manpower shortages, there have been earlier forays into the Belgorod and Bryansk by shadowy groups of pro-Kyiv commandos fighting alongside Ukrainian forces before they pulled back.

Russia’s drones, surveillance equipment and intelligence assets are focused in eastern Ukraine, helping Kyiv to covertly pull its troops to the border under the cover of deep forests.

The element of surprise
Ukrainian troops participating in the incursion reportedly were told their mission only a day before it began. That secrecy contrasted sharply with last year’s counteroffensive, when Kyiv openly declared its main goal of cutting the land corridor to Crimea, which President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014. That military action failed as Ukrainian troops trudged through Russian minefields and were pummeled by artillery and drones.

Ukrainian troops faced no such obstacles entering the Kursk region.

Battle-hardened mechanized units easily overwhelmed lightly armed Russian border guards and small infantry units consisting of inexperienced conscripts. Hundreds were taken prisoner, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainians drove deep into the region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic.

The operation resembled Ukraine’s September 2022 counteroffensive in which its forces reclaimed control of the northeastern Kharkiv region after taking advantage of of Russian manpower shortages and a lack of field fortifications.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who led the Kharkiv operation two years ago, is now Ukraine’s top military officer. Russian forces in Kursk answer to Gen. Alexander Lapin, who commanded Moscow’s forces in Kharkiv in 2022 and was criticized for that debacle. But his ties to the chief of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reportedly helped him survive and even get a promotion.

Thus far, the Russians have demonstrated tactical and operational shock, which has led to a slow tactical response and has allowed the Ukrainians to continue exploiting their breakthrough of the Russian defensive lines,” said retired Australian Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan in an analysis.

Russia responds, but slowly
The Russian military command initially relied on warplanes and helicopters to try to stop the onslaught. At least one Russian helicopter gunship was shot down and another was damaged.

At the same time, Moscow began pulling in reinforcements, which managed to slow Ukraine’s advances but failed to completely block Ukrainian maneuvering through vast forests.

“Russia seems to do quite poorly when it has to respond dynamically in a situation like this,” said military analyst Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment in a podcast. “Russian forces do far better when they’re operating with prepared defense, fixed lines, more on positional warfare.”

Kofman noted the Russian reserves arriving in the Kursk area seemed to lack combat experience and had trouble coordinating with each other.

In one instance, a military convoy carelessly parked on the roadside near the fighting area shortly after the incursion began, and it was quickly hit by Ukrainian rockets.

“That’s the kind of mistake the Russian forces along the line of control typically don’t make,” Kofman noted.

The risks of Ukraine seeking a foothold
Kyiv remains tight-lipped about whether it intends to seek a foothold in the Kursk region or pull back into Ukrainian territory. The first option is risky because supply lines extending deep into the region would be vulnerable to Russian strikes, analysts say.

“The main risk is that the Ukrainians choose to try and consolidate and hold ground that lengthens the front line,” said Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services institute in London.

Ryan, the retired Australian general, warned that “losing a large number of forces in this scenario also makes it a strategic and political liability.”

That would “squander the very positive strategic messaging that has been generated by the Ukrainian surprise attack into Russia,” he said. Ukrainian forces could try to retreat to a more defensible area near the border or fully pull back to Ukraine, he said.

The incursion already has boosted Ukraine’s morale and proven its ability to seize initiative and take the war to Russian soil.

“This Ukrainian operation represents a very significant effort on the part of the Ukrainians to reset the status quo in the war, and change narratives about Ukraine prospects in this war,” Ryan said.

Washington is absorbing the impact of Ukraine’s lightning assault into Russia’s Kursk region as the scale of President Zelensky’s bold gamble emerges.

US officials are assessing how the incursion might reshape the political and military dynamics of the war, as well as the implications for Washington’s long-shifting stance on how Ukraine can use American-supplied arms.

The stunning raid, catching both Russian and apparently Western leaders by surprise, highlights one of the riskiest dilemmas for the Western-backed defence of Ukraine: President Biden has consistently tried to empower Kyiv to push back Russia’s invasion without risking an American escalation with Moscow.

As President Putin has always tried to portray the conflict as a war between Russia and the West, Mr Biden has sought to put clear limits on US policy to deflate that narrative and prevent a conflagration.

But Ukraine’s Kursk assault - the largest incursion into Russia by a foreign military since World War Two, according to military analysts - has raised a series of urgent questions for the White House.

Does it rapidly expand the boundaries of Washington’s set limits for how Ukraine can use American and Nato weapons systems?

Does it risk crossing Russia’s red lines over Western involvement in the war? If not, has President Zelensky showed Washington he can call Mr Putin’s bluff?

Despite the risks and the uncertainty, there is a sense of surprised admiration among some in Washington at Mr Zelensky's move. Piecing together comments from US officials over the last week reveals something of the emerging position.

The administration insists Ukraine gave it no advance warning of the assault. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre has said Washington had "nothing to do" with it.

As for the use of US weapons, the White House, Pentagon and State Department won't officially confirm whether they are being used, but it seems overwhelmingly clear that they are, given Ukraine’s reliance on US and Nato weapons systems.

Russia launched waves of drone and missile strikes across Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, while accusing the United States of involvement in Kyiv's incursion into Russia and repeating warnings it could review its nuclear doctrine in response.

In the last 24 hours, more than 90 missile and drone attacks rained down across the country, killing at least four people and injuring 16 others, the Ukrainian air force said.

It came a day after one of Russia’s biggest aerial assaults during the 30-month war, firing some 200 missiles and drones at its neighbor. President Joe Biden called that attack “outrageous.”

Following the barrage, Ukraine reiterated its call for more freedom to use long-range Western weapons to strike deeper inside Russia.

One of the reasons the U.S. and others have imposed restrictions on the use of its weapons is to avoid an escalation with the nuclear-armed Kremlin. And on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued Moscow's latest round of nuclear saber-rattling.

Lavrov accused the West of complicity in Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region, saying that Russia's nuclear doctrine was being "clarified" accordingly.

He did not elaborate on what this meant, exactly, but Russia has often made these sorts of threats since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2024. As recently as June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the same thing, that he could modify his country's nuclear doctrine, which currently permits the use of such weapons only in specific circumstances.

These threats have remained just that, despite the U.S. and other Western powers giving tens of billions of dollars in weaponry to Ukraine, some of which has been used to strike Russian soil.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov alluded to Russia's anger at American participation in Ukraine's cross-border military activity, saying the U.S.'s involvement in Kursk incursion was a "fact."

"The consequences [for the United States] could be much harsher than those they are already experiencing. They know where and in what areas we are reacting in practical terms," Ryabkov said on Tuesday, according to TASS.

Also on Tuesday, Zelenksyy promised payback for the most recent night of destruction.

“We will undoubtedly respond to Russia for this and all other attacks,” the Ukraine leader posted on X. “Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished.”

Two people were killed overnight when their hotel in the central city of Kryvyi Rih was “wiped out,” Serhii Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on the messaging service Telegram. Just three days ago, on Saturday, a security adviser with the Reuters news agency was killed when his hotel in Kramatorsk was struck.

Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure, from schools and hospitals to apartment blocks and grocery stores. The Kremlin nevertheless claims it only strikes military targets.

When asked about the death of the Reuters employee, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov told reporters: “I repeat once again: The strikes are carried out against military infrastructure facilities, or those somehow connected to military infrastructure.”

Russia likely isn’t able to sustain this intensity of attack for long, according to a note late Monday from the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War. They nevertheless have painful and lasting consequences, not just the loss of life but disruption to energy and water supply in Kyiv and elsewhere after critical infrastructure was damaged.

Though these were bigger than most, such bombardments have become a grim constant in a Ukraine beset by full-scale war.

Several Russian military bloggers, such as the pro-war collective under the name Rybar, called the recent uptick in attacks an “act of retaliation” for Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

The chief of Ukraine's army, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that his troops now control some 500 square miles of Russian territory — approximately the size of Los Angeles — since launching the surprise offensive earlier this month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC News on Tuesday that Kyiv is planning to indefinitely hold Russian territories it seized in a surprise incursion last month as it tries to force President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

“We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there,” he said during his first one-on-one interview since Ukraine’s high-stakes incursion into Russia.

Ukraine will “hold” the territory as it is integral to his “victory plan” to end the the war, Zelenskyy said, adding he will present the proposal to international partners like the United States.

“For now, we need it,” he said of the territory Ukraine is now holding in Russia.

Nearly a month ago, Ukrainian troops swept into Russia’s Kursk region in a secret operation that has challenged the status quo of the two-and-a-half-year-old war. Kyiv now claims it controls nearly 500 square miles of Russian territory and has taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.

The Aug. 6 incursion was “a pre-emptive strike” to stop the Russians from creating a buffer zone along Ukraine’s border, Zelenskyy said. With Kyiv intensifying its attacks on Russian border regions, Putin has vowed to take Ukrainian border territory to stop the assaults.

Zelenskyy said he couldn't discuss whether Ukraine planned to try to seize more Russian territory.

Zelenskyy also told NBC News that the Biden administration was not aware of plans to cross over into Russia ahead of time as it was a closely guarded secret even inside Ukraine.

Washington has repeatedly said it was not in on Kyiv’s plans for Kursk.

“Yes, we did not inform anyone. And it’s not the question of lack of trust,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv’s counteroffensive last summer failed in many ways because of how much it was advertised and talked about, which gave Russians a chance to prepare.

This time, even Ukrainian intelligence services did not know, he said.

Despite what is widely seen as Ukraine's success in Russia, it continues to lose ground in its east, where the Kremlin's forces are inching closer to taking the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and neighboring Toretsk in the Donetsk region.

One of the goals of the incursion, Zelenskyy said, was to force Moscow to pull troops from across the 600-mile front line in Ukraine, in particular in the east. And while he said Russia has diverted 60,000 troops to Kursk from Ukraine, Pokrovsk has not seen a big drop.

NBC News could not verify this number.

On Monday, Putin said his forces in the east have been advancing faster than they have done for a long time.

So now, more than 30 months since his invasion, Moscow still controls about a fifth of Ukraine's territory, having illegally annexed large portions of it. Ukrainian cities and villages get bombarded nearly daily, with the latest strike on the central city of Poltava on Tuesday claiming at least 51 lives.

Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for its war against Ukraine in a “dramatic escalation” that will let Moscow strike deeper inside Ukrainian territory, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.

As a result of the move, the U.S., Britain and other European powers plan to impose new sanctions on the Iranian state airline, Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lamy, said at a joint news conference in London.

“Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians,” Blinken told reporters.

Although Russia has its own substantial arsenal, Blinken said, “the supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line, while dedicating the new missiles it’s receiving from Iran for closer-range targets.”

“We’ve warned Iran publicly, we’ve warned Iran privately, that taking this step would constitute a dramatic escalation,” Blinken said. “Dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles,” he said.

Iran has already provided armed drones to Russia, helped build a drone factory in Russia to produce the aircraft and trained Russians how to operate them, Blinken said.

Confirmation from Washington that Iran is now arming Russia with sophisticated short-range ballistic missiles will likely increase pressure on the Biden administration to ease restrictions on how Ukraine can use weapons to strike at targets inside Russia. Kyiv has appealed for more flexibility to attack Russian missile launchers deeper inside Russia.

The U.S. has shared intelligence about the missile shipments with partners in recent days and the allies are planning to inflict “significant economic consequences for Tehran’s actions,” Blinken said, including additional sanctions on Iran Air, the state airline.

Iran has denied it is providing missiles to Russia and has called for countries to halt any weapons shipments to either side in the conflict. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, “Not every time information of this kind corresponds to reality. … We are developing dialogue with Iran in the most sensitive areas and will continue to do so.”

British Foreign Secretary Lamy said, “We’re seeing a disturbing pattern of greater Iranian support for the Kremlin’s illegal war, and we discussed today our shared commitment to holding Tehran to account for their undermining of global stability.”

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, said Tehran has calculated that it has more to gain than to lose by transferring the weapons to Russia.

“The big question is now: What did Tehran get in return? Nuclear cooperation, cash, space program assistance?” he said.

I don't think short range missiles would be of any use against Israel, but they're probably just what Russia wants. They could be left over from when they were fighting Iraq in the 80s. I don't think their love for Russia is so intense that they'd make a major sacrifice for them.

here is an idea ..lolzz,,if Iran which was our ally at one time , has old US wespons to send to Russia, and they did some reverse engineering on them..Maybe they would help Russia contend with Ukraine..? Heaven forbid ?

here is an idea ..lolzz,,if Iran which was our ally at one time , has old US wespons to send to Russia, and they did some reverse engineering on them..Maybe they would help Russia contend with Ukraine..? Heaven forbid ?

President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and its allies if they lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range Western weapons.

Putin's vow to follow such a move with “appropriate decisions” was his latest, perhaps most drastic attempt to draw red lines over NATO members' backing for Kyiv, and it came on the eve of a meeting in Washington where the issue is expected to be high on the agenda.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday afternoon, as London clashed with Moscow over the expulsion of six diplomats accused of spying — accusations the U.K. dismissed as "baseless."

Before beginning the talks, Biden said the U.S. is "committed" to standing with the U.K. to help support Ukraine against Russia.

"I’ve often said there’s no issue of global consequence where the United States and U.K. can’t work together," Biden said. "It’s clear that Putin will not prevail in this war. The people of Ukraine will prevail."

Asked about Putin’s comments on a potential direct war with Russia, Biden told reporters, "I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin."

A White House readout of the meeting said that the two leaders "reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine as it continues to defend against Russia’s aggression," and that they shared "deep concern about Iran and North Korea’s provision of lethal weapons to Russia."

The U.S. and its allies have appeared increasingly open to letting Ukraine use long-range Western missiles to strike deep inside Russia, the culmination of a monthslong push by Kyiv that has sparked the Kremlin's fury.

“We are not talking about allowing or not allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons,” Putin said Thursday in comments to propagandist Pavel Zarubin. “We are talking about deciding whether NATO countries are directly involved in the military conflict or not.”

This will mean that NATO countries, the U.S. and European countries are at war with Russia," Putin said. "And if this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us."

Putin added that the Ukrainian army does not have the ability to program long-range missiles or the satellite data necessary for their targeting, relying on NATO military personnel for those tasks.

Putin’s comments were echoed by the speaker of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, in a Telegram post Friday. “NATO became a participant in military operations in Ukraine,” Volodin wrote. “They are waging war on our country.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters Friday that Putin's message was “extremely clear, unambiguous and does not allow for any double readings.”

“We have no doubt that it has reached its intended recipients,” Peskov noted.

The Kremlin and Russian propaganda have been portraying the war in Ukraine as a clash with the West and NATO since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and the latest threatening rhetoric from Putin appears to be an escalation of that strategy at a crucial moment.

It was unclear what Moscow's implied response might be, though in June Putin suggested he could provide arms to other countries to hit Western targets.

Putin has repeatedly warned the West not to cross Moscow’s so-called red lines, which he warned could trigger nuclear conflict, but they have been repeatedly crossed without such a response from the Kremlin.

things stand, Kyiv only has permission to use Western-supplied long-range weapons such as American ATACMS and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory along its border, and only in response to attacks from these areas.

It’s been pleading for that policy to change so it can strike military assets deeper inside Russia that are used to launch attacks on Ukrainian cities.

But Washington and its allies have been reluctant to allow that, fearing a major escalation.

That appears to have shifted in recent weeks.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Kyiv on Wednesday with his British counterpart, and Biden indicated earlier this week that the U.S. was “working out” the issue.

Members of the bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus signed a letter earlier this week urging Biden to lift restrictions on Kyiv's use of long-range weapons, saying they are “inconsistent” with what America would ever accept for its own operations or restrictions that the U.S. places on its other allies, such as Israel.

Russia has launched a major counterattack in its Kursk border region, more than a month after a surprise invasion by Kyiv’s forces that turned the tables in the two-and-a-half-year war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that 10 settlements had been recaptured as a result of “offensive operations” in Kursk since Tuesday, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the “Russians have started counteroffensive actions,” adding that “everything is going in accordance with our Ukrainian plan.”

It remains to be seen whether the news, which confirmed days of speculation by influential military bloggers in both countries, represents a full-blown counteroffensive or a probing of the ground for a bigger operation in the future.

But either way, it's the first significant effort to retake Russian territory that has been under Ukrainian control for weeks as President Vladimir Putin appeared to prioritize his own offensive on the eastern front lines of the war.

Ukraine has claimed to hold some 500 square miles of Russian territory in Kursk after sweeping across the border on Aug. 6 and taking Moscow by surprise.

While Putin has vowed to push the Ukrainians out, Russia has struggled to respond and until Tuesday there seemed to be limited resources devoted to driving back the first invasion of Russian land since World War II.

The Kremlin’s focus instead appears to have remained set firmly on the east of Ukraine, where its troops have been inching closer to seizing the strategically important hub of Pokrovsk.

NBC News was able to geolocate a video purporting to show a column of what appears to be Russian military vehicles moving toward the settlement of Snagost in the Kursk region. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that Snagost was among the 10 settlements liberated in the past two days.

The ministry also noted that the Ukrainians were still mounting counterattacks and attacks in the region in the last 24 hours. Ukrainian forces were also trying to break through the border in other areas of the Kursk region, the ministry said.

What might the counterattack mean?
For now, it appears the Russian attacks in Kursk are being launched on multiple axes, said Christopher Tuck, an expert in conflict and security at King’s College London, and seem to be conducted by better quality troops, including naval infantry and airborne forces.

“It’s really too early to make any informed comment on the nature, scale or purpose of the attacks,” said Tuck. “Obviously, Russia wants to regain the territory that it has lost. But whether this offensive is the first step in a more concerted attempt to achieve this now simply isn’t clear at the moment.”

Whatever the Russian intentions, attacks in the Kursk area obviously increase the overall pressure on Ukrainian defenses given that heavy Russian assaults are also continuing in the area of Pokrovsk, Tuck said.

It could be that the Russians are trying to get through to their troops trapped in the Glushkovsky district of Kursk after they were cut off by Ukraine blowing up permanent and pontoon bridges across the Seim River in the early days of the incursion, said Oleksandr Musiienko, a Kyiv-based military analyst and head of the Center for Military Legal Studies.