EU agrees new package of sanctions against Russia; Putin says Sarmat nuclear missiles ready soon – as it happened

The chief of mercenary group Wagner has reportedly accused Moscow’s top brass of deceiving Russians about the course of Ukraine’s offensive and pointed to Kyiv’s progress on the battlefield.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, accused opponents of waging a campaign to discredit him and force him out of office on Wednesday after a rift with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Reuters reported.

EU governments agreed to an 11th package of sanctions against Russia, aimed at stopping other countries and companies from circumventing existing measures.

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said all Nato allies are backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year.

Vladimir Putin announced that new Sarmat nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles would soon enter service. The missiles are designed to carry out nuclear strikes on targets thousands of missiles away but their deployment has proceeded slower than planned. He reportedly said Moscow had seen a “lull” in the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and that Kyiv had suffered heavy losses in attacks in the south.

Russia’s top investigator reportedly claimed that over 30 Ukrainians had been given long jail terms in Russian-held Ukraine for committing what he described as serious crimes such as killing civilians.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy accepted in a BBC interview that progress in the country’s current counteroffensive against Russian forces had been “slower than desired”. Zelenskiy told the Ukraine Recovery conference that Ukraine had made the west, including the EU, more united than ever before and could become an engine for green world growth and security for decades.

Rishi Sunak outlined how Ukraine must be supported to fast-track recovery and support this “help Ukraine unleash its potential”. “It’s clear Russia must pay for the destruction that they’ve inflicted. So we’re working with allies to explore lawful routes to use Russian assets,” the prime minister said at the conference, held in London.

Russian air defences downed three drones in the Moscow region on Wednesday, the defence ministry said, in what it called an attempted Ukrainian attack, Reuters reported.