Kyiv strikes Russia with US Atacms missiles; Scholz berates G20 for lack of clarity on Russian, Middle East conflicts

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday he regretted the fact the Group of 20’s communiqué did not underscore Russia’s responsibility for the Ukraine war, particularly on the 1,000th day of its full-scale invasion.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday he would not be deterred from supporting Ukraine by “irresponsible” Russian rhetoric, after Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike.

Ukraine hits Russia with US Atacms missiles for first time 

Ukraine used US Atacms missiles to strike Russian territory on Tuesday, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the outgoing Biden administration on the war’s 1,000th day.

Russia said its forces shot down five of six of the missiles, which were fired at a military facility in the Bryansk region. Debris of one hit the facility, starting a fire that was swiftly put out and caused no casualties or damage, it said.

Ukraine said it had struck a Russian arms depot around 110km inside Russia in an attack that caused secondary explosions. The Ukrainian military did not publicly specify what weapons it had used, but a Ukrainian official source and a US official later confirmed it had used Atacms.

President Joe Biden gave approval just this week for Ukraine to use the Atacms, the longest-range missiles Washington has supplied, for such attacks inside Russia. Moscow has described their potential use as an escalation that would make Washington a direct combatant in the war and prompt its retaliation.

The attack took place as Ukraine marked 1,000 days of war, with weary troops at the front, Kyiv besieged by airstrikes, a fifth of Ukrainian territory in Moscow’s hands and doubts about the future of Western support as Donald Trump heads back to the White House.

Military experts say using the US missiles to attack positions at such a depth in Russia can help Ukraine defend a pocket of Russian territory it has captured as a bargaining chip, but is not likely to have a decisive impact on the course of the 33-month-old war.

Moscow has said such weapons cannot be used without direct operational support from the US, and therefore their use would make Washington a direct participant in the war.

On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin signed a new nuclear doctrine apparently intended as a warning to Washington. It lowers the threshold under which Russia might use atomic weapons to include responding to attacks that threaten its territorial integrity.

Washington said the update to the nuclear doctrine was no surprise and cited “more of the same irresponsible rhetoric from Russia”.

Reports of the Ukrainian attack caused jitters in markets, with share indexes sliding in Europe and safe haven assets rallying.

Trump has criticised the scale of US aid to Kyiv and said he will end the war quickly, without saying how. Both sides appear to anticipate his return in two months will be accompanied by a push for peace talks, which are not known to have taken place since the war’s early months.

The warring sides have both been escalating in recent weeks in an attempt to secure a stronger position at any negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv must do everything for the war to end diplomatically next year.

“At this stage of the war, it is being decided who will prevail. Whether us over the enemy, or the enemy over us Ukrainians. .. and Europeans. And everyone in the world who wants to live freely and not be subject to a dictator,” he said in an address to parliament on Tuesday marking 1,000 days of war.

He also said it was time for Germany to support Ukraine’s longer-range strike capabilities against Russia.

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have died, more than six million live as refugees abroad and the population has fallen by a quarter since Putin ordered the invasion by land, sea and air that began Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two.

Military losses have been huge, although casualty figures remain closely guarded secrets. Public Western estimates based on intelligence reports say hundreds of thousands have been wounded or killed on each side.

“In the frozen trenches of the Donetsk region and in the burning steppes of the Kherson region, under shells, hail, and anti-aircraft guns, we are fighting for the right to live,” Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrkyi wrote on Telegram.

Tragedy has touched families in every corner of Ukraine, where military funerals are commonplace in cities and far-flung villages, and people are exhausted by sleepless nights of air raid sirens and anguish.

In the first year after the invasion, Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory with surprise military successes against a larger and better-armed foe.

But since then, the enemies have settled into relentless trench warfare that has ground eastern Ukrainian cities to dust. Russian forces still occupy a fifth of Ukraine and for the past year they have steadily gained ground.

Kyiv now hopes to gain leverage from a sliver of territory in Russia’s Kursk region it captured after launching its first major cross-border assault in August. It says Russia has deployed 50,000 troops there to try to take it back.

In a move decried in the West as an escalation, Russia has now deployed 11,000 North Korean troops, some of whom Kyiv says have clashed with Ukrainian forces in Kursk. Zelenskiy said Pyongyang could send 100,000 soldiers.

Russia for its part continues to advance village by village in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have captured another settlement on Tuesday.

With winter setting in, Moscow on Sunday renewed its aerial assault on Ukraine’s struggling power system, firing 120 missiles and 90 drones in the biggest barrage since August.

Publicly there has been no narrowing of the gulf in the enemies’ negotiating positions. Kyiv has long demanded full Russian withdrawal from all occupied territory, and security guarantees from the West comparable to membership in Nato’s mutual defence treaty to prevent future Russian attacks.

The Kremlin says Ukraine must drop all ambitions to join Nato and withdraw all troops from provinces Russia claims to have annexed since its invasion.

Scholz: G20 not clear enough on Russian, Middle East conflicts

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday he regretted the fact the Group of 20’s communiqué did not underscore Russia’s responsibility for the Ukraine war, particularly on the 1,000th day of its full-scale invasion.

“It is too little when the G20 cannot find the words to make it clear Russia is responsible,” he said at the end of a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Brazil.

Likewise, he regretted the fact the communique did not clearly state Israel’s right to self-defence and Hamas’ responsibility for the current escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

“At the same time, it is becoming clear how much geopolitical tensions are also having an impact on the G20,” he said. “The wind blowing in international relations is getting rougher.”

UK undeterred by Russia’s ‘irresponsible’ nuclear rhetoric, says PM

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday he would not be deterred from supporting Ukraine by “irresponsible” Russian rhetoric, after Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike.

“There’s irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia, and that is not going to deter our support for Ukraine,” he told reporters at the G20 summit in Brazil.

Putin’s new nuclear doctrine lowers the threshold under which Russia might use atomic weapons to include responding to attacks that threaten its territorial integrity.

Starmer said that Putin was the “author of his own exile” as he did not attend the G20 leaders’ summit for the third year in a row.

“I say again [to Putin]: end the war, get out of Ukraine,” said Starmer

Ukraine passes 2025 budget with record defence spending

Ukraine’s parliament approved the 2025 state budget in the final reading on Tuesday, channelling more funds for Kyiv’s defence efforts as Russia’s full-scale invasion reached its 1,000th day.

Ukraine plans to spend 2.2 trillion hryvnias ($53.7 billion), or about 26% of its gross domestic product, on defence and security next year, said officials.

“All taxes of citizens and businesses next year will be directed to the defence and security of our country,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

“Record amount of funds will be directed to weapons’ production and purchases. There will be more funding to modernise our weapon industry and also to buy drones,” he said in a statement.

As Kyiv troops battle a larger and better-equipped enemy along a more than 1,000-kilometre frontline, demand for weapons, ammunition and funds to pay soldiers’ wages keeps growing.

Next year’s budget spending was planned at 3.6 trillion hryvnias, while revenues, excluding grants and international aid, were targeted at 2.05 trillion hryvnias, said the finance ministry.

The government will implement Ukraine’s first wartime tax increases for population and businesses to be able to boost its domestic revenues in 2025.

The budget deficit of about $38-billion will be covered with financial aid from Kyiv’s Western partners as well as the government’s domestic borrowing.

The International Monetary Fund, a key lender, said that IMF staff and Ukrainian authorities had reached an agreement that would give Ukraine access to about $1.1-billion.

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said the budget’s other priorities next year would be to support residents as they battle wartime economic and security challenges.

The government also plans measures to support economic recovery but it expects growth to slow to 2.7% in 2025 from a target of 4% this year due to war, expected energy deficit and staff shortages.

Zelensky sets out ‘resilience’ plan

Zelensky told Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday that the war had reached a decisive moment, as he urged citizens to stay “resilient” and touted plans for a huge ramp-up in production of strike weapons.

In an hour-long speech to mark 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion, he said Ukraine would not trade its sovereignty or relinquish its right to its territories, and he ruled out the holding of new elections until peace is achieved.

“At this stage of the war, it is being decided who will prevail — whether us over the enemy, or the enemy over us Ukrainians … and Europeans, and everyone in the world who wants to live freely and not be subject to a dictator.”

Zelensky set out what he called a “resilience plan” for the country as a domestic foil to the “victory plan” he pitched to Western allies earlier in the autumn, and said it was needed to force Russia to negotiate an end to the war in good faith.

Though he said the full details of the plan would be disclosed later in the year, it comprises steps to stabilise the frontline, support military innovation and arms production as well as measures to shore up national unity and cultural identity.

“Unity is the first point of our internal Resilience Plan,” he said.

Zelensky said Ukraine would produce at least 30,000 long-range drones next year, a weapons system that Kyiv has used to narrow the gap in strike capabilities with Russia and to strike targets deep inside its much larger, eastern neighbour.

Ukraine has sought to beef up military industrial production since Russia launched its February 2022 invasion, and Zelensky said 40 foreign arms manufacturers were already working in the Ukrainian weapons production sector.

Ukraine also aimed to produce at least 3,000 cruise missiles and missile drones, he said, without providing a timeframe. DM