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President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Moscow said the move was needed to establish parity with the US.

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Putin said that rescinding the ratification of the treaty would “mirror” the stand taken by the US, which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban.

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The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that Russia’s move “represents a significant step in the wrong direction” but added that “Russian officials say Russia’s planned move to withdraw its ratification does not mean that it will resume testing, and we urge Moscow to hold to those statements,” Blinken said.

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Putin has noted that some experts argue for the necessity of conducting nuclear tests, but said he had not formed an opinion on the issue.

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According to the UN, the Soviet Union carried out its last nucelar test in 1990. The UK’s last test was in 1991, and the US in 1992. The Russian Federation has never carried out a test.

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Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said last month that Moscow would continue to respect the ban and will only resume nuclear tests if Washington does first.

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The CTBT was adopted in 1996 and bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world. But the treaty was never fully implemented. In addition to the US, it has yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt.

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Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a bill withdrawing Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban. US secretary of state Antony Blinken criticised the move and called on Moscow to commit not to test. “Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force” of the treaty, Blinken said in a statement.

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More on this shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

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• Russia rejected comments from Ukraine’s most senior military official that their nearly two-year conflict had reached a stalemate. “No, it has not reached a stalemate,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled,” he added, using the Kremlin’s term for its full-scale military intervention.

\n

• Peskov was responding to an interview in British media with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valery Zaluzhny, who said the war in Ukraine was “at a stalemate” and there was likely to be “no deep and beautiful breakthrough” soon in the counteroffensive against Russia.

\n

• Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said on Thursday she was confident that the European Union next month would advance Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc at a summit seen as a key milestone in Kyiv’s efforts to integrate with the west. Germany proposed a detailed and innovative roadmap to expand the EU that would give candidate countries such as Ukraine early benefits including observer status at leaders’ summits in Brussels before full membership.

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• Mike Johnson, the US Republican House of Representatives speaker, has said that a bill pairing Ukraine aid with US border security “will come next”, after the body’s vote on a standalone Israel aid measure.

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• Russia said on Thursday it had handed jail terms to two Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the city of Mariupol, as it continued to put dozens of captive soldiers on trial. Thousands of Ukrainian fighters were taken prisoner after Russia seized control of Mariupol last May, some of whom were sent to Russia or tried by Moscow-backed courts in occupied east Ukraine. Rights groups and western countries have criticised Moscow for putting captured Ukrainian soldiers on trial.

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• Russian drones hit civilian targets and triggered a fire early on Friday in and near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on Telegram, said some of the attacks targeted civilian infrastructure in the city, in Ukraine’s north-east.

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• Russian shelling on Thursday killed two people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and damaged a critical infrastructure facility there, causing power cuts, local officials reported.

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• Russia has claimed Ukraine was risking a nuclear disaster, saying nine Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian forces near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, Europe’s largest atomic power plant. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said: “Kyiv is continuing to ‘play with fire’ and is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations.”

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• Polish truckers will block several border crossings with Ukraine starting next week in protest at what they say is Ukrainian hauliers’ free rein in Poland that is hurting their business, a co-organiser of the protest said.

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• The Biden administration today added 12 Russian companies to a trade blacklist for supplying Russia’s military with drones that could be used to aid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the commerce department said in a statement.

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• Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure once the temperatures drop, according to Ukraine’s national security and defence council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov.

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Key events

Russia claims its air defence systems destroyed a Ukrainian drone in the sky over the Belgorod region, Tass reports.

The US is expected to deliver $425m in new military aid to Ukraine for its fight against Russia, including about $300m in long-term funding to buy laser-guided munitions designed to take out drones, according to the AP news agency, which attributes the line to unnamed US officials.

It’s understood the long-term money will be provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds contracts for larger weapons systems that need to be either built or modified by defence companies.

The new agency says the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been publicly announced. An announcement is expected on Friday.

This would be the 50th package of aid pulled from Pentagon shelves and it resembles an aid package about a week ago that was for $150m.

The smaller totals for the drawdowns come as Pentagon funding for the Ukraine war shrinks.

Putin withdraws from ratification of global treaty banning nuclear weapon tests.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Moscow said the move was needed to establish parity with the US.

Putin said that rescinding the ratification of the treaty would “mirror” the stand taken by the US, which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban.

The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that Russia’s move “represents a significant step in the wrong direction” but added that “Russian officials say Russia’s planned move to withdraw its ratification does not mean that it will resume testing, and we urge Moscow to hold to those statements,” Blinken said.

Putin has noted that some experts argue for the necessity of conducting nuclear tests, but said he had not formed an opinion on the issue.

According to the UN, the Soviet Union carried out its last nucelar test in 1990. The UK’s last test was in 1991, and the US in 1992. The Russian Federation has never carried out a test.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said last month that Moscow would continue to respect the ban and will only resume nuclear tests if Washington does first.

The CTBT was adopted in 1996 and bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world. But the treaty was never fully implemented. In addition to the US, it has yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt.

Welcome and summary

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a bill withdrawing Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban. US secretary of state Antony Blinken criticised the move and called on Moscow to commit not to test. “Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force” of the treaty, Blinken said in a statement.

More on this shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• Russia rejected comments from Ukraine’s most senior military official that their nearly two-year conflict had reached a stalemate. “No, it has not reached a stalemate,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled,” he added, using the Kremlin’s term for its full-scale military intervention.

• Peskov was responding to an interview in British media with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valery Zaluzhny, who said the war in Ukraine was “at a stalemate” and there was likely to be “no deep and beautiful breakthrough” soon in the counteroffensive against Russia.

• Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said on Thursday she was confident that the European Union next month would advance Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc at a summit seen as a key milestone in Kyiv’s efforts to integrate with the west. Germany proposed a detailed and innovative roadmap to expand the EU that would give candidate countries such as Ukraine early benefits including observer status at leaders’ summits in Brussels before full membership.

• Mike Johnson, the US Republican House of Representatives speaker, has said that a bill pairing Ukraine aid with US border security “will come next”, after the body’s vote on a standalone Israel aid measure.

• Russia said on Thursday it had handed jail terms to two Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the city of Mariupol, as it continued to put dozens of captive soldiers on trial. Thousands of Ukrainian fighters were taken prisoner after Russia seized control of Mariupol last May, some of whom were sent to Russia or tried by Moscow-backed courts in occupied east Ukraine. Rights groups and western countries have criticised Moscow for putting captured Ukrainian soldiers on trial.

• Russian drones hit civilian targets and triggered a fire early on Friday in and near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on Telegram, said some of the attacks targeted civilian infrastructure in the city, in Ukraine’s north-east.

• Russian shelling on Thursday killed two people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and damaged a critical infrastructure facility there, causing power cuts, local officials reported.

• Russia has claimed Ukraine was risking a nuclear disaster, saying nine Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian forces near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, Europe’s largest atomic power plant. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said: “Kyiv is continuing to ‘play with fire’ and is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations.”

• Polish truckers will block several border crossings with Ukraine starting next week in protest at what they say is Ukrainian hauliers’ free rein in Poland that is hurting their business, a co-organiser of the protest said.

• The Biden administration today added 12 Russian companies to a trade blacklist for supplying Russia’s military with drones that could be used to aid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the commerce department said in a statement.

• Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure once the temperatures drop, according to Ukraine’s national security and defence council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov.

The Guardian