Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers Anton Domaratskyi (2nd R) and Victor Nesterenkoi (2nd L), brought to New York through the nonprofit organization Kind Deeds, receive prosthetic limbs at an orthopedic clinic in the city of Brooklyn, New York.

—Eren Abdullahogullari | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Russia’s central bank kept its interest rate unchanged at 7.5%, citing inflationary expectations and geopolitical uncertainty following the “partial mobilization” of Russian troops in Ukraine and the prospect of a protracted conflict.

The decision to hold the interest rate on hold ended a months-long cycle of cuts that began in April. The central bank more than doubled rates to 20% shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine to counter the ruble’s fall.

The central bank has cut rates six times since then, reaching the pre-war interest rate of 9.5% in June, citing improving fiscal conditions and falling inflation. While inflation is still well above the bank’s 4% target of 13.7% in September, it has fallen significantly from the 20-year high of 20.37% hit in April as Western sanctions and foreign exchange freezes set in.

The decision to hold rates at 7.5% was expected by a majority of analysts polled by Reuters, the news agency reported.

—Natasha Turak

The United States has dismissed Russian accusations that the Pentagon is helping Ukraine build banned biological weapons, dismissing them as lies.

These claims are “pure fabrications presented without any evidence”, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, saying Russia was trying to “entertain the atrocities” committed in Ukraine.

“Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. The United States does not have a biological weapons program. There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories supported by the United States” , said Thomas-Greenfield.

Russia’s UN ambassador said Moscow would launch an investigation into what he described as US and Ukrainian violations of the arms convention.

—Natasha Turak

US President Joe Biden has expressed skepticism over claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent speech that he has no need or intention to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it? Why is he talking about the ability to use a tactical nuclear weapon?” Biden said during an interview with NewsNation. “He was very dangerous in the way he approached this.”

Putin, in a speech on Thursday, downplayed the possibility of nuclear conflict and denied that Russia had threatened to use nuclear weapons. He said Moscow was simply responding to the West’s “nuclear blackmail”.

In previous weeks, however, Putin and other senior Kremlin officials had expressed Russia’s willingness to use all means at their disposal, including nuclear weapons, to protect Russia’s territorial integrity, which was supposed to include the illegally annexed territories of Ukraine.

—Natasha Turak

Russian President Vladimir Putin has poured cold water on claims that Russia is deploying nuclear weapons on Ukraine, although he has repeatedly cited its ability to use such weapons if “territorial integrity of Russia was threatened.

“We don’t see the need for it,” Putin told a conference of foreign policy experts on Thursday. “It makes no sense, political or military.”

Putin had previously vowed to use ‘all available means to protect Russia’, which observers considered nuclear weapons, but the president said in his final remarks that was just a response to what he called the “nuclear blackmail” of Western leaders.

In particular, he referred to comments by former British Prime Minister Liz Truss in August that she would be willing to use nuclear weapons as a leader.

—Natasha Turak

Russia is likely using mobilized reservists to bolster its units west of Ukraine’s Dnipro river, but troop numbers there are already very low, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update on Twitter.

“In September 2022, Russian officers described the companies in the Kherson sector as consisting of six to eight men each. The companies are expected to deploy with around 100 personnel,” the ministry tweeted.

“Over the past six weeks, Russian ground forces have made a clear decision to shift to a long-term defensive posture in most frontline areas in Ukraine,” the ministry said.

“This is likely due to a more realistic assessment that the understrength and poorly trained force in Ukraine is currently only capable of defensive operations.”

He continued: “Even if Russia succeeds in consolidating long-term defensive lines in Ukraine, its operational design will remain vulnerable.”

—Natasha Turak

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his inspectors will arrive in Ukraine this week in the wake of Russian allegations that Kyiv is preparing to use a “dirty bomb”.

“I am very grateful for the openness with which the Ukrainian government and I had a very thorough discussion with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba on this subject. He came to the conclusion and I agree that the best way to dispel any doubt is to allow the inspectors in and that’s what we’re going to do,” Grossi told reporters at the United Nations.

Grossi added that it would probably only take a few days to complete the inspections.

The United States and its allies have dismissed Russian claims that Ukraine is assembling a “dirty bomb”.

—Amanda Macias

Ahead of the UN Security Council meeting, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told her colleagues she would be brief because “frankly, this meeting is a waste of time for everybody “.

“Russia has called us here, once again, for the sole purpose of spreading disinformation. We all know that these claims are pure fabrications, presented without any evidence whatsoever,” Thomas-Greenfield said, referring to recent claims from Moscow that Kyiv has a biological weapon. .

“We hear Russia sounding the alarm that biological weapons will be delivered by birds and bats and now even mosquitoes. Birds and bats,” she said, calling the Russia’s allegations of “absurd”.

“Russia’s claims are absurd for many reasons, not least because such species, even if they could be weaponized, would pose as much of a threat to the European continent and to Ukraine itself as they would for any other country,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

—Amanda Macias