Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ally warns Moscow will launch preventative strikes against the west ‘if necessary’

President Zelensky on Thursday said Olha Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, will be Ukraine’s new ambassador to the United States.

Zelensky wrote on Telegram that he had appointed her as the special presidential representative to the US so that she could develop relations with Washington while the procedures necessary for her appointment took place.

Stefanishyna has served as Ukraine’s minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration since 2020, during which time Ukraine began its accession process to the EU.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on remarks made by former president Dmitry Medvedev about potential preemptive strikes on the West, but said Medvedev was right to draw attention to a “confrontational environment” in Europe.

Asked about the remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not comment in detail as he was a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin and not Medvedev, but that Medvedev had vast experience and was expressing his own opinion.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky announced unspecified future agreements with the United States which he said would strengthen his country, as he appeared in parliament to put forward his new government.

Zelensky also said he would task the new government with auditing existing defence procurement contracts as part of a push to produce 50% of the country’s weapons and battlefield equipment in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s parliament has voted to appoint Yulia Svyrydenko as the country’s new prime minister.

Opposition lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said 262 lawmakers voted for Svyrydenko, a comfortable majority in the 450-seat parliament.

Her appointment was supported by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Svyrydenko, 39, has served as economy minister and one of Ukraine’s deputy prime ministers since November 2021.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, a Kremlin aide has said.

The swap was part of an agreement struck at the second round of peace talks in Istanbul in June.

Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s delegation at those peace talks, said in a statement on Telegram that Moscow had handed over the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers and had received 19 bodies of its fallen soldiers in return.

The RIA state news agency reported, citing a source, that Russia plans to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers and that the exchange on Thursday was the beginning of that process.

The warring sides have carried out a series of swaps of captured troops and the remains of dead soldiers since renewing peace talks in Istanbul in May following a gap of more than three years.

Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 per cent “secondary tariffs” on countries that continue to trade with Russia if a Ukraine peace deal is not agreed within 50 days. Industry experts warn that these proposed sanctions would be “extremely painful” for the United States and would cause a significant global spike in oilprices, leading to increased inflation. The tariffs would target major buyers of Russian oil, such as India, China, and Turkey, aiming to remove Russian oil, a crucial source of income for Moscow, from global markets. Despite the threat, experts express doubt that Trump will implement the tariffs in their proposed form, citing the severe economic damage they would inflict on the US and the global economy. An analyst suggests that closing existing loopholes in US sanctions, such as banning the import of oil products from refineries using Russian crude, would be a more effective way to diminish Russia’s war chest.

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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that the West was practically waging a full-scale war against Russia, so Moscow should respond in full, and if necessary, launch preventative strikes, according to reports.

“We need to act accordingly. Respond in full. And if necessary, launch preventative strikes,” Medvedev was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS.

Medvedev dismissed statements by Western officials that Russia could attack Europe as complete rubbish.

“Let me remind you that our president has unequivocally stated that Russia has no intention of fighting Nato or ‘attacking Europe’,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, is known for frequently issuing aggressive statements and empty threats towards the West.

Preparations are underway to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, Nato’s top military commander has said, as the country suffers some of the heaviest Russian attacks of the war so far.

“Preparations are underway, we are working very closely with the Germans on the Patriot transfer”, Alexus Grynkewich told a conference in the German city of Wiesbaden.

“The guidance that I have been given has been to move out as quickly as possible.”

Ukrainian forces have been engaged in 160 combat clashes on the frontline in the past day, the army has said.

Russian forces launched one missile strike and 78 airstrikes at Ukrainian territory, using two missiles and dropping 125 guided aerial bombs over the past 24 hours, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said.