Russia Ukraine latest news today: Kyiv starts using US long-range missiles as Moscow sends nuclear warheads to Belarus

Vladimir Putin has announced that he plans to visit China in May, in what is likely to be the first overseas visit of his new six-year presidential term.

He last visited China in October 2023, having previously signed a “no limits” partnership agreement with Chinese president Xi Jinping just weeks before launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At least seven people have been injured in a Russian air attack which hit an area close to a railway station in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, its governor has said.

Oleh Syniehubov said the attack hit the city of Balakliia, which was seized by Russia early on in its full-scale invasion but recaptured by Ukraine months later.

Kharkiv and the surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks – but the strikes have become more intense in recent weeks, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.

Russia has warned that Poland is playing a “very dangerous game” by considering the possibility of hosting US nuclear weapons.

It came hours after Polish president Andrzej Duda revealed he had invited prime minister Donald Tusk for talks next week about the possibility of nuclear weapons from Nato states being deployed in Poland.

Mr Duda has reiterated his position that Poland would be ready for such a possibility, prompting Mr Tusk to say he would like a clarification from the president.

Russian state news agency RIA quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that such discussions were provocative.

“If they follow the path of further escalation – and this is how the discussions can be assessed, these so far verbal games with nuclear weapons – then a further round of tension will occur. And in general, this game is very dangerous, its consequences may be hard to predict,” he said.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova added that any US nuclear missiles in Poland could become targets in the event of a Russia-Nato war.

Sweden will move ahead with plans to send troops to Latvia as part of Nato’s deployment in the Baltic countries, which share land borders with Russia and its ally Belarus, Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson has said.

“This morning, the government took the formal decision to assign the armed forces the task of preparing the Swedish contribution to the reduced battalion,” Mr Kristersson told a news conference with his Latvian counterpart Evika Silina. “The goal is to have this force operational from the beginning of next year.”

The contribution will include armoured vehicles and Leopard tanks, Mr Kristersson added. Sweden’s armed forces have previously said the country’s deployment to Latvia could include about 600 army troops.

The Nordic country joined Nato last month, abandoning decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden had already said it aimed to contribute a reduced mechanised battalion to Nato’s deployment in Latvia as early as next year, troops intended to deter and defend against any attack, but the final decision awaited Nato membership.

Lithuania’s army has denied taking any hostile action against other states – after the Belarusian security service claimed to have thwarted attack on Minsk by drones launched from Lithuania, which is part of the Nato military alliance.

“This is nonsense – I can’t find another word,” a Lithuanian military spokesperson told reporters.

“Such statements by the Belarusian KGB can be regarded as a continuous hostile provocation and an informational attack against Lithuania, which has nothing to do with reality,” added the Lithuanian crisis management centre.

“It can be considered that they are also intended for the domestic audience of the country.”

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that the country’s exiled opposition plans to seize a western district and request support from Nato troops, Russian state news reports.

“I don’t know why they chose Kobrin district, they talk a lot about it. [They plan to] seize it … and appeal to Nato to deploy troops,” the autocractic leader told the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly – as he insisted that current realities required changes to the country’s security stance.

Mr Lukashenko – who has frequently talked up the dangers of an attack by Nato or Ukraine as justification for maintaining his military and security apparatus on a constant state of high alert – also claimed on Wednesday to have “several dozen” Russian tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus.

“It has acquired a new topic: nuclear deterrence. Those who will push us towards it should know about it and have a rational look at the straightforward consequences of their ill-considered decisions, to put it mildly,” state news agency Belta quoted him as saying.

It was unclear whether Mr Lukashenko provided any evidence for such a plan to seize Kobrin, but all of Belarus’s main opposition figures are either in prison or have been forced into exile.

Franak Viacorka, a top aide to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, derided the claims and said Mr Lukashenko was “losing the connection to reality”, and said his desire to change Belarus’s military stance was “a desperate attempt somehow to restore his confidence in himself internally”.