Vladimir Putin has announced a successful test of a Poseidon nuclear-powered submarine torpedo which experts have warned is capable of causing a “radioactive tsunami”.
The Russian president said the test of the weapon had been a “great success”, in a move that came days after Donald Trump described Moscow’s test of a nuclear missile as a mistake.
There are few confirmed details about the Poseidon in the public domain but experts say it is capable of triggering radioactive ocean swells to render coastal cities uninhabitable, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
“For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a launch engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch the nuclear power unit on which this device passed a certain amount of time,” Putin said. “There is nothing like this.”
Putin last week held a nuclear launch drill and on Sunday announced that
Russia has successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, a nuclear-capable weapon Moscow says can pierce any defence shield.
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Zelensky says frontline situation most difficult in Pokrovsk
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the most difficult situation on Ukraine’s frontline remained the eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Kyiv’s forces were having more success defending their positions around the northeastern city of Kupiansk, Zelensky said.
“The most difficult area now is the Pokrovsk direction. As in previous weeks, this is the area with the most intensive combat activity,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address after a discussion with Ukraine’s top commander.
He said the situation in Kupiansk “remains complicated, but out forces have more control in recent days. We are continuing to defend our positions”.
British military instructor arrested for ‘spying’ for Russia in Ukraine
A British national has been detained for spying for Russia in Ukraine, prosecutors in Kyiv said.
The Ukrainian officials said an unnamed man “collaborated” with Russia’s special services and agreed to sell military information in exchange for money.
The British national has been accused of “unauthorised dissemination of information about the defence forces in conditions of martial law”.
He has been detained in Kyiv at a “temporary residence”, officials said.
The Security Service of Ukraine said the man was also “preparing to carry out terrorist attacks”.
It said he initially travelled to Ukraine in 2024 to work as a military instructor, but then posted on pro-Russia forums online saying he was willing to sell information. He was then allegedly contacted by Russia’s secret police, the FSB.
“The occupiers provided him with instructions for making an improvised explosive device. They also sent him the coordinates of a weapons cache, from which he retrieved a pistol with two loaded magazines,” the SSU said in a statement.
Kremlin says it will ‘destroy’ foreigners fighting for Kyiv
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russian troops were constantly hearing foreign languages spoken by those fighting for Ukraine on the front line, and promised that such fighters would be “destroyed”.
Russia has long claimed that Nato military personnel have been present in Ukraine and that its eavesdropping services have picked up English and French being spoken repeatedly at the front lines.
“Our military hears foreign speech, they constantly hear foreign languages at the front,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about claims that France was preparing to deploy some soldiers to Ukraine.
“So, these foreigners are there, we are destroying them. Our military will continue to do their job.”
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Ukraine has funds for 70% of gas imports needed this winter, Zelensky says
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday Ukraine had secured the funds to buy 70 per cent of the natural gas it needs to import this winter and that the Ukrainian government would make up the rest of the funding.
His comments appeared intended to reassure Ukrainians that their energy needs will be met this winter after Russia stepped up attacks on energy facilities in its war in Ukraine.
Russian drone and missile strikes have deprived Ukraine of 55% of domestic gas production, according to the head of the country’s central bank, forcing the government to import an additional 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas to prevent cities from freezing.
Putin widens military conscription to all year
Permanent year-round military conscription is set to be introduced in Russia after politicians endorsed a bill mandating it as authorities seek to fill the ranks.
At the moment conscription is done in spring and autumn.
The bill will allow conscription offices to summon draftees for medical exams and other procedures at any time of the year but it still stipulates that conscripts will enter military service only during spring and summer months as before.
All Russian men aged 18-30 are obliged to serve in the military for one year, although many avoid the draft by using deferments granted to students, declaring chronic illnesses and other reasons.
Russian authorities say the military does not use draftees in Ukraine, relying on volunteers and reservists mobilised for action. But human-rights activists and media reports have said the military has encouraged or coerced many draftees into signing contracts as volunteers.
Last year, Mr Putin ordered the number of active troops to be increased by 180,000, to 1.5 million. He said last month that over 700,000 troops were fighting in Ukraine.
Ukrainian military denies claims that Russian troops have encircled forces
Vladimir Putin suggested he was ready to open safe corridors for journalists after Ukraine vigorously denied claims he made earlier.
Ukraine’s military officials have disputed Putin’s claims that Russian troops have encircled Ukrainian forces in two key eastern cities of Ukraine and offered to negotiate a deal for their surrender.
Putin has suggested he is ready to open safe corridors for Ukrainian and Western journalists.
“Let them see with their own eyes what’s going on”.
He earlier alleged that Ukrainian troops were surrounded in Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold, and in Kupiansk, an important rail junction.
Ukrainian armed forces said the claims of Kupiansk being surrounded were “fabrications and fantasies”.
Pictured: Russia’s Poseidon nuclear torpedo system
Russia’s Poseidon nuclear-capable system is seen in this still image taken from an animated video released in 2018 by the Russian Defence Ministry.
Vladimir Putin said a test of the weapon had been a “great success”, in a move that came days after Donald Trump described Moscow’s test of a nuclear missile as a mistake.
