Russia-Ukraine latest: Moscow threatened to shoot French planes out of the sky over Black Sea, Paris says

Ukraine has claimed that Russia has used North Korean missiles in several attacks on the country since December.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Thursday that Russia had used at least 20 North Korean ballistic missiles in attacks on Ukraine since late December. Investigators believe that the missiles have killed least 24 civilians and injured at least 100 in Ukraine.

It comes days after Putin gifted Kim Jong Un a new car, sparking fears about the developing relationship between the two nations.

A Russian military blogger has died in an apparent suicide after facing criticism for revealing heavy losses in Ukraine.

Andrei Morozov, who also served as a soldier on the front line in Ukraine, said in his last post on Wednesday that he decided to “execute” himself to help his comrades in arms avoid fallout from his critical publications, which had angered the military command.

Maxim Pashkov, a lawyer who knew him, confirmed Morozov’s death in a messaging app statement. Morozov was 44 years old and his supporters have blamed Kremlin propagandists for his death.

Russian President Vladimir Putin flew on a modernised Tu-160M nuclear-capable strategic bomber on Thursday in a move likely to be seen in the West as a pointed reminder of Moscow’s nuclear capabilities.

The giant swing-wing plane is a substantially modernised-version of a Soviet-era bomber that the USSR would have deployed in the event of a nuclear war with the West to deliver nuclear weapons at long distances.

The TU-160M is capable of carrying 12 cruise missiles or 12 short-range nuclear missiles and can fly 12,000 km (7,500 miles) non-stop without re-fuelling.

After a flight on one of the aircraft, Putin said aircraft is “reliable,” RIA reported.

Denmark announced a new 1.7 billion crown (£195 million) military aid package for Ukraine as they made an urgent appeal to allies to step up donations.

The package will bring total donations by Denmark to Ukraine to 33.3 billion crowns since Russia’s invasion two years ago. The NATO member has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine and is among the biggest contributors of military aid relative to the size of its economy.

“It is necessary to emphasize that if they (Ukraine) are to succeed on the battlefield, more donations must come now,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s in this light that we continue to make further Danish donations in the hope that more countries will do the same, not in six or 12 months, but now when the need is very, very big.”

A Russian military blogger has died in an apparent suicide after he faced criticism for posting about losses in Ukraine.

Andrei Morozov, who also served as a soldier on the front line in Ukraine, said in his last post on Wednesday that he decided to end his life. Maxim Pashkov, a lawyer who knew him, confirmed the 44-year-old’s death in a messaging app statement.

Morozov, who went by the nickname Murz, said in a recent post that about 16,000 Russian troops were killed and the military lost about 300 armored vehicles since October when the four-month battle for the eastern stronghold of Avdiivka began.

Russian troops captured Avdiivka over the weekend after Ukrainian troops pulled back.

Morozov’s death follows the loss of Putin’s main political opponent Alexei Navalny on Friday.

It comes as Russian authorities have become increasingly intolerant ahead of March’s election in which Putin is all but certain to win another six-year term.

Russia is withdrawing from a 1956 fishing deal struck with Britain by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, an indicator of just how deep the gulf between Russia and the West has become.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered the most serious confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and each side casts the other as a perfidious enemy.

The May 1956 fishing deal was signed in London at a turning point in the Cold War: Khrushchev had that year denounced Josef Stalin, proposed peaceful co-existence with the West and even visited Britain in April.

The 1956 fishing deal allowed British vessels into the rich fishing grounds of the Barents Sea, the coast of the Kola Peninsula and along the coast of Kolguyev Island.

Today, the view from Moscow is harsher.

“When Nikita Khrushchev accepted this deal in 1956, it is difficult to say what guided him but it was definitely not national interest,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, said in a statement.

There’s still limited time to sign up to The Independent’s panel event as we look back on the two years of war in Ukraine.

Hosted by The Independent’s award-winning chief international correspondent Bel Trew, the panel of experts will be looking at key moments as well as looking ahead to what is likely to happen next:

Russia has claimed that their troops have taken the village of Pobieda in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as they continue to push on following the fall of Avdiivka.

The Ukrainian military said it was continuing to repel attacks there.

Pobieda is a village south of Maryinka. Russia’s defence ministry said it had taken the village and improved its position in several other areas of the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said before the Russian statement that Ukrainian troops were repelling attacks near the village and continuing to “contain the enemy”

Russia has launched more than 8,000 missiles and 4,630 drones at targets in Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on Thursday.

Ukraine has received advanced air defence systems, including several units of the Patriot system, from Western allies throughout the invasion, enabling it to shoot down more missiles

Russian forces threatened to shoot down French flights patrolling last month in international airspace over the Black Sea, France’s defense minister said Thursday.

Sebastien Lecornu didn’t give specific details about the French flights or aircraft involved in the threatened shoot-down, but said Russia is returning to a “particularly aggressive” posture reminiscent of the former Soviet Union’s behavior during the Cold War.

“A month ago, to give you a very concrete example, a Russian air traffic control system threatened to shoot down French aircraft in the Black Sea when we were in a free international zone where we patrol,” he said on RTL radio.

“The behavior of Russia in 2024 bears no relation to what we saw in 2022 and, obviously, before the aggression in Ukraine,” the minister said. “It is explained by the fact that Russia is in difficulty on the battlefield in Ukraine.”