Zelensky ‘maintains pressure’ on Russian forces in Kursk; Kyiv can't win on the battlefield - Orbán

Ukraine cannot win the war with Russia on the battlefield, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday, adding dialogue and a ceasefire were needed to save lives.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken would represent the US at summits with Asian leaders in Laos this week and expected to discuss human rights in Myanmar, China’s “irresponsible” behaviour in the South China Sea, and Ukraine, said the top US diplomat for East Asia on Tuesday. 

Ukraine ‘maintaining pressure’ on Russian forces in Kursk 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces were maintaining sufficient pressure on Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a mass incursion in August.

“Fighting is now going on in Kursk region for a third month and we are maintaining the necessary pressure on Russia in this sector,” said Zelensky in his nightly video address after a meeting with senior commanders.

Ukrainian forces seized dozens of villages in the Kursk region, on Russia’s border with Ukraine, though Moscow says some of the territory has since been recaptured. Russian troops, in the meantime, are advancing in areas in the Donetsk region to the south, the main focal point of Moscow’s Ukraine campaign.

Hungary PM Orbán says Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield

Ukraine cannot win the war with Russia on the battlefield, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday, adding dialogue and a ceasefire were needed to save lives.

Earlier, Hungary’s finance minister said Budapest would hold up a final deal on a $50-billion G7 loan to Ukraine until after the US presidential election by delaying its decision on the timing of the renewal of EU sanctions against Russia.

Speaking at a briefing in Strasbourg, Orbán said that US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, if elected, would not wait until his inauguration but would start working for peace in Ukraine right after the 5 November election, adding that European leaders would have to react to that.

Orbán, who has long endorsed Trump, also said that both direct and indirect communications were needed between the warring parties and it was a part of international politics that a third party mediated between them.

“We don’t want to block anything, we just want to convince European leaders to change their strategy [on Ukraine] because the current strategy does not work,” said Orbán.

Days after Hungary took over the EU’s rotating presidency in July, Orbán set out on a self-styled peace mission which included a visit to Moscow and Kyiv and also Trump, and triggered a backlash from European leaders.

Orbán said his country wanted a normal economic relationship with Russia in areas not affected by sanctions. Hungary relies heavily on Russian crude and gas imports, and Russia’s Rosatom is building a nuclear power plant in Hungary.

Blinken to discuss Myanmar, South China Sea and Ukraine at Asia summits

Secretary of State Antony Blinken would represent the US at summits with Asian leaders in Laos this week and expected to discuss human rights in Myanmar, China’s “irresponsible” behaviour in the South China Sea, and Ukraine, said the top US diplomat for East Asia on Tuesday.

Daniel Kritenbrink told reporters that President Joe Biden, whose vice-president, Kamala Harris, is running against Trump in the 5 November US presidential election, remained fully committed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region, even though he was not attending the leader-level meetings.

A State Department statement said Blinken would leave on Tuesday for the Laotian capital of Vientiane and stay there until Friday, attending the East Asia Summit and a US-Asean summit.

Ramstein meeting on Ukraine up in air after Biden cancels trip

Biden cancelled his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola on Tuesday in a blow to plans for the highest level meeting ever of the Ramstein group of Ukraine arms donors that aimed to underscore unwavering support for Kyiv.

The Ramstein group was set to meet at the highest level on the sidelines of Biden’s 10-13 October state visit to Germany, which would have been the first US state visit in nearly 40 years.

But the White House said Biden was postponing his trip to both Germany and Angola to handle preparations for Hurricane Milton and relief efforts after Hurricane Helene which last month killed more than 200 people.

It added that it was still working on how the Ramstein event would work out, with Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talking later on Tuesday.

“I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time,” said Biden, adding that he hoped to reschedule the trip “and all the conferences I said I’d participate in”.

Zelensky had been underscoring for weeks the importance of the Ramstein meeting for Ukraine and the future course of the war. In his nightly video address on Tuesday, Zelensky made no mention of the meeting or Biden’s announcement that he would not attend.

Germany had expected some 20 leaders to travel to Ramstein where Zelensky was set to present his “victory plan” which he describes as clear, specific steps for a just end to the war.

A US official however has characterised the plan as a repackaged request for more weapons and a lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles.

Russia’s GRU ‘seeking to cause mayhem’ in Britain and Europe

Russia’s GRU military intelligence service was seeking to cause “mayhem” across Britain and Europe, said the UK’s domestic spy chief on Tuesday, while a growing threat from resurgent al Qaeda and Islamic State was his greatest terrorism concern.

In a wide-ranging speech outlining the current threat picture, Security Service (MI5) Director-General Ken McCallum also accused Iran of being behind “plot after plot” on British soil.

McCallum said state threat investigations were up by 48% in the last year as Russia and Iran turned to criminals, drug traffickers and proxies to carry out their “dirty work”.

“It will be clear to you that MI5 has one hell of a job on its hands,” he said.

Since March 2017, he said MI5 and the British police had disrupted 43 late-stage plots, some of which were in the final days of planning for mass murder.

The terrorist trend that the spy chief said concerned him most was a worsening threat from al-Qaeda seeking to capitalise on the conflict in the Middle East, and especially Islamic State, which had resumed efforts to export terrorism, such as the March attack on a Moscow concert hall.

Much of McCallum’s speech was taken up with the state threats posed by Russia and Iran.

With the expulsion of more than 750 Russian diplomats from Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine and the ejection of the last Russian military intelligence officer from Britain this year, he said it was “eye-catching” how Russian state actors were turning to proxies to do their work.

“The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more,” he said, declining to give further details.

The Russian Embassy in London said it emphatically rejected the “unsubstantiated allegations”, saying McCallum was using scare tactics to sustain public backing for Britain’s support of Ukraine.

Russia blocks instant messaging platform Discord

Russia’s communications regulator has blocked instant messaging platform Discord for violating Russian law, the Tass news agency reported on Tuesday, making the San Francisco-based company the latest foreign technology platform to be restricted in Russia.

Discord did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia has for several years ordered foreign technology platforms to remove content it regards as illegal, issuing relatively small but regular fines when it rules that companies have failed to comply.

The regulator, Roskomnadzor, last week ordered Discord to delete almost 1,000 items it deemed illegal and has previously fined the company for failing to remove banned content.

Moscow blocked Twitter, which has since rebranded as X, as well as Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

UK sanctions Russian troops for chemical weapons use in Ukraine

Britain imposed sanctions on Tuesday on Russian troops it said were involved in using chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of “cruel and inhumane tactics”.

Among those sanctioned were the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian Federation and its leader, Igor Kirillov, said the government.

“The UK will not sit idly by whilst Putin and his mafia state ride roughshod over international law, including the Chemical Weapons Convention,” said foreign minister David Lammy.

The fresh sanctions come a week after the government sanctioned 16 members of the Russian cyber-crime gang Evil Corp, a group it said had been tasked by Russia to conduct operations against Nato allies. DM