Achi news desk-
France has conducted its first test-fire of an updated nuclear-capable missile, the ASMPA-R, designed to be launched by a Rafale fighter jet, according to French defense minister Sebastien Lecornu. He came a day after Russia said it had started nuclear drills in its southern military district, which stretches from Russia to the occupied territory of Ukraine. The announcement of Russian drills are partly directed at France after its president, Emmanuel Macron, said he would not rule out sending troops in on the Ukrainian side.
Lecornu said that the missile fired without a warhead by an aircraft in exercise “over national territory … at the end of a flight representing a nuclear air raid”. He congratulated “all the forces, [defence] ministry teams and industrial partners taking part” in a “long planned” operation. France plans to spend around 13% of its military budget over the next few years on its independent nuclear capability, including an upgrade to next-generation air-launched missiles by 2035.
“Deadly aid is now flowing from China to Russia and to Ukraine,” Grant Shapps, Britain’s defense secretary, told a conference in London on Wednesday. “Today, I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment to be used in Ukraine,” he said, attributing the information to “US and British defense intelligence”.
In the United States, however, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that while there were concerns that China “could directly provide weapons – lethal aid – to Russia… we haven’t seen that so far”. The United States was “concerned about what China is doing to fuel Russia’s war machinenot giving arms directly, but providing input to Russia’s defense industrial base”.
Shapps said Nato needed to “wake up” and boost defense spending across the alliance. He argued that democratic states should making a “full-throated case” for freedom dependent on the international orderwhich means “we need more allies and partners” around the world.
Ukraine has armed some of its naval drones with Grad multiple rocket launch systems and used them to detonate combat positions in Russia, a Ukrainian intelligence source has told Reuters. The “Sea Babies” had been used this week to attack Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit in the southern region of Ukraine in Mykolaiv.
A Russian air strike on Kharkiv city on Wednesday destroyed a cafe, damaged a nearby residential building and set fire to a petrol station. Local officials said 10 people were injured, including, regional prosecutors said, a a bus trolley driver who had both legs amputated. Russia used a UMPB D-30 guided bomb launched from the bordering Belgorod region, prosecutors said.
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiydo a a plea for defenses against the guided bombs, which had become the “main tool” used in Russian attacks. “In combating Russian bombs there is still much to be done… Ukraine needs systems and tactics that will allow us to defend our sites, our cities and our communities.”
A Russian drone dropped explosives on a police car which was on its way to evacuate civilians in Vovchansk, kill one officer, said the Ukrainian interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. A video posted by the minister online by Klymenko showed what he said was a drone bombing the car. Reuters could not independently verify Klymenko’s statement. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Russia said there was Ukrainian attacks on its Belgorod region across the border from Ukraine, and in the occupied the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychanskkilling up to three people.
The Swedish government has announced additional military support to Ukraine totaling 75 billion crowns (US$7bn) over three years. Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, said that Swedish-made weapons “have already proven themselves on the battlefield … Snipers and CV-90s are helping Ukrainian defenders to drive the enemy out of our land.”
