Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv agrees not to strike Moscow during CIA chief’s mysterious visit

A warehouse of ⁠Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries in ⁠Russia’s ​Tambov ⁠region caught ⁠fire ​after ⁠a drone attack, ‌local governor Evgeniy ‌Pervyshov said ‌on ⁠the Telegram messaging app.

Pervyshov said one person was injured in the incident.

Ukraine should mobilise women in its fight against Russia as they “fight no worse than men,” a former US special envoy has urged.

Keith Kellogg told the Naspravdi MAX YouTube channel: “Do I believe women should be mobilised into the army?

“My answer is yes, because they fight no worse than men.”

This comes just days after former defence minister Oleksii Reznikov also said that the government should consider a universal conscription model.

Pointing to Israel as an example where women serve alongside men, he said: “That immediately would double our mobilisation resource.

“Then you can clearly see which military positions and specialties can easily be filled by women – they don’t have to go to the battlefield.

“They fill many rear positions, logistics and support, and men can be moved from rear positions closer to the front.

“The question is whether society is ready to say, like Israel, that we can survive only if everyone accepts that they must defend Ukraine.”

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he is planning on travelling to the US in September to join European leaders in lobbying President Donald Trump on support for Ukraine’s defence.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Burnham said he was “looking forward to going to New York” next month, which is when the UN General Assembly will meet.

He said details of the trip are not yet “fully confirmed” but it is “likely” to go ahead. The trip would mark Mr Burnham’s first US visit since becoming Prime Minister in July.

Russia downed ⁠426 drones ⁠overnight, Russian ​news ⁠agencies ⁠quoted ​the ⁠defence ‌ministry as ‌saying.

The figure ⁠includes operations in Russia-controlled parts of ‌Ukraine.

At least two employees at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack, the plant’s Russian-installed management said.

The ‌strike occurred near the ‌plant’s hydraulic ‌structures and wounded two ⁠maintenance and construction workers.

Management did not provide details on ‌any damage ​caused ‌by the ⁠attack.

The agreement was signed as prime minister Andy Burnham made his first visit to Kyiv on Monday to chair his first meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” and pledge “continuity” in the UK’s approach to Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky handed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) access to Ukraine’s “Avengers” AI database, which is expected to help the UK learn from Ukraine’s experience on the battlefield and develop AI-powered solutions to national security challenges in both countries, making it the first outside of Ukraine to receive the intelligence, Downing Street said.

Ukraine ​appears to be slowly losing the war against Russia and has a window of only a few months to make key decisions needed to turn the tide in its facour, ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

Fedorov said Ukraine lacked any overall vision for how to win the four-year-old conflict, and was hobbled by its failure to innovate.

Ukraine still had “every chance” to win but urgently needed a plan to end the war, he added.

Ukraine’s presidential office said in response to Fedorov’s comments that he had been positive about the conduct of the war when he was at the ministry and the only thing that had changed was his personal status.

Mystery is mounting as to why the CIA director has made a visit to Moscow – in secret – on Tuesday.

It appears to be John Ratcliffe’s first known trip to Russia since taking the post in 2025, and it comes at a time when the peace negotiations remain stalled.

Neither the US nor Russian governments has commented on the identity of the official in Russia or the purpose of the visit.

“No, there are no plans for US envoys {travelling to Moscow, ” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a press briefing.

So far, CBS News and Axios are reporting that Ratcliffe flew to the Russian capital for meetings, citing unnamed sources.

He personally negotiated the release of a US-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina in April 2025, and the agency has been involved in exchanges of detainees between the two governments.

The CIA was also involved in the 2024 prisoner exchange that led to the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who had spent a year and four months in a tsarist-era prison.

Ukraine is counting on further cooperation with China and on Beijing’s “strong diplomatic role” in ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.

“Peace can be ‌our shared ⁠achievement,” Zelensky said, as he thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping ‌for ​congratulations ‌on Ukraine’s Independence ⁠Day.

Russia and Ukraine are discussing a new ‘quite big’ swap of prisoners of war, Russian news agency TASS cited Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova as saying on Wednesday.

Thousands of ‌prisoners have been exchanged since ‌Russia’s full-scale invasion ‌of Ukraine in February 2022.

An agreement in May to swap a further 1,000 captives each was one ‌of the main tangible ​results ‌of US-brokered ⁠peace negotiations ⁠between Russia and Ukraine.