Ukraine Russia war – latest news: Putin says he will deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus

The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog will be heading to Russia in the near future but he will not be travelling to the country this week, an official in Moscow has said.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi had announced a visit to the Russia-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine to monitor the critical situation.

An invite to Mr Grossi for Russia was “quite realistic”, Moscow’s permanent representative to international organisations Mikhail Ulyanov said, reported Russian news agency RIA.

“Not next week, but somewhat later, the visit of Rafael Grossi to Russia may well take place,” Mr Ulyanov added.

The Ukrainian army has released drone footage showing Bakhmut devastated by shelling in the continuing nine-months long Russian offensive.

The salt mining city is visibly in ruins after months of fierce fighting on the frontline between Russian forces and the Ukrainian army.

Smoke can be seen billowing over residential blocks as many houses were destroyed in the conflict.

A Ukrainian military commander said the battle for Bakhmut is “stabilising” as his forces are pushing back against Russian soldiers.

It comes as Vladimir Putin announced Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Watch the video of Bakhmut here:

Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova said the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin has given her “some sort of hope” that resistance might be sparked within the country’s elite.

Ms Ovsyannikova worked for the Russian state broadcaster, Channel One Russia TV, for more than 10 years before she decided to stage a protest against the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In March 2022 she interrupted a live evening news broadcast by holding up a sign saying “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, here you are being lied to”.

Ms Ovsyannikova, who fled Russia and is now living in Paris, told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I think that this is the first signal that the Russian elite should take notice of, and perhaps some kind of resistance will start within the Russian elite, they might plot against him.

“This is some sort of hope for me.”

She added: “Over a long time I realised that Russian TV had become a brainwash.

“I also have Ukrainian roots, my father is from Ukraine. At one point it was like a huge emotional outburst, I didn’t care what would happen to me.”

She claimed that many working in Russia’s state media share her opinions: “This propaganda is made on a very high level. People who are working in the main channels, we don’t really believe it. They have similar views to me.

“No more than 10%-20% of people are pro-Putin.”

Russia has launched a new campaign, seeking volunteers to replenish the country’s troops for the war in Ukraine.

Advertisements promise cash bonuses and other benefits, recruiters make cold calls to eligible men, and enlistment offices are working with universities and social service agencies to lure students and the unemployed.

As fighting grinds on in Ukrainian battlegrounds like Bakhmut and both sides prepare for counter-offensives that could cost even more lives, the Kremlin’s war machine badly needs new recruits.

A mobilisation in September of 300,000 reservists – billed as a “partial” call-up – sent panic throughout the country, since most men under 65 are formally part of the reserve. Tens of thousands fled Russia rather than report to recruiting stations.

The Kremlin denies that another call-up is planned for what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, now more than a year old.

But amid widespread uncertainty of whether such a move will eventually happen, the government is enticing men to volunteer, either at makeshift recruiting centres popping up in various regions, or with phone calls from enlistment officials.

That way, it can “avoid declaring a formal second mobilisation wave” after the first one proved so unpopular, according to a recent report by the US-based think tank Institute of the Study of War.

Ukrainian crews have completed training on Challenger 2 tanks in the UK and returned home to continue their fight against Russia’s invasion.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Ukrainian soldiers “return to their homeland better equipped, but to no less danger”.

Members of Kyiv’s armed forces travelled to Britain shortly after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced in January that the UK would send 14 Challenger 2 tanks to help oust the Kremlin’s invaders from Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the training has been completed after UK military officials spent several weeks instructing Ukrainian personnel how to operate and fight with the tanks.

Instructions included how to command, drive and work together as a Challenger 2 tank crew and effectively identify and engage targets, the MoD said.

Mr Wallace, who visited the Ukrainian troops during their training at Bovington Camp in Dorset last month, said: “It is truly inspiring to witness the determination of Ukrainian soldiers having completed their training on British Challenger 2 tanks on British soil.

“They return to their homeland better equipped, but to no less danger.

“We will continue to stand by them and do all we can to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Lieutenant Colonel John Stone, who oversaw the training mission, said: “It has been a privilege for the Combat Manoeuvre Centre team to deliver this training to our Ukrainian partners.

“We have all been hugely impressed with the level of competence displayed and have no doubt that our friends will use the Challenger 2 tanks most effectively in the battles to come as they fight to defend their homeland.”

The MoD described the Challenger 2 vehicles as a “step change in capability” for Ukraine‘s armed forces, saying the machines would offer them some of the most modern and sophisticated gunnery systems in the world.

The Ukrainian troops will return with the Western tanks in time for a reported spring counter-offensive by Kyiv that is said to be in the works.

Recently built defences give us a roadmap of Russian anxiety, write Janice Kai Chen and Mary Ilyushina

New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has expressed concern to China over any provision of lethal aid to support Russia in its war against Ukraine during a meeting with her Chinese counterpart.

Her press office on Saturday detailed Mahuta’s cautionary remarks in Beijing, days after Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his trip to Moscow, a warm affair in which Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin praised each other and spoke of a profound friendship.

Mahuta’s four-day trip, which began Wednesday, was the first made by a New Zealand foreign minister to Beijing since 2018 but it came at an awkward time as Xi visited Moscow the same week to give Putin a diplomatic boost after the International Criminal Court said it wants to put him on trial for alleged war crimes.

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The eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar has been “completely razed to the ground” amid ongoing heavy shelling by Russian forces in the area, Nazarii Kishak, commander of the machine gun unit with the 72nd separate mechanized brigade, said on national television.

He said: “The enemy continues to use multiple rocket launchers, and shelling not only the immediate front line and Vuhledar but also the surrounding areas.

“The enemy is constantly shelling all settlements with large caliber weapons. The civilian population is exhausted.”

“Vuhledar has been completely razed to the ground. Everything is burnt out, the city is almost empty. There are a few civilians who help the military. The police have taken away the rest of the people, especially the children who have been staying in basements for almost a month,” Mr Kishak said.

The commander said civillians are living “wherever they can, even in the corridors, hiding from the shelling.”

“People are in a very exhausted emotional state of despair. They don’t know what to expect. We are trying to support them, we communicate with them. People have been left without a thing but they still help us, the military.” he said.

The UK should stay out of negotiations to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a former foreign secretary.

Lord Owen said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should not talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin and any peace talks should be conducted by the two warring countries.

But he added there could be a role for US President Joe Biden as he is the negotiator that “really matters”.

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Ukraine has demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Vladimir Putin’s plans to put atomic weapons in Belarus, saying Minsk was being used “as a nuclear hostage”.

In one of his most pronounced nuclear threats since the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president said construction of facilities for the weapons would be completed by 1 July.

He said Russia was following the lead of the United States, which has nuclear weapons based in Europe and Turkey, and Britain, which is providing Ukraine with armour-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.

But Nato on Sunday criticised his “dangerous and irresponsible” rhetoric.

“Russia’s reference to Nato’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading,” a spokesperson said. “Nato allies act with full respect of their international commitments. Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments, most recently suspending its participation in the New START Treaty.”

Oleksiy Danilov, a top security adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, said Putin’s plan would also destabilise Belarus. “The Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage,” he said.

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