Ukraine war live updates: Putin-sympathizing candidate could win election in major Kyiv-allied country; drone strikes hit Russian power station

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with a former Wagner Group senior commander to discuss setting up volunteer units for the war in Ukraine, Russian state media outlet Tass reported.

Putin was quoted as telling the former commander Andrey Troshev, “At our last meeting, we discussed a project for you to build units of military volunteers who will be able to perform various combat tasks, primarily in the special military operation zone.”

The Russian leader added that Troshev “fought in such a unit for more than a year” and would therefore be able to take on the mission “in the best possible way.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Tass that Troshev is now working for the Russian defense ministry.

The move demonstrates the Russian government’s apparent control over the private mercenary group, which carried out much of the brutal fighting in Ukraine. The mercenaries were led by former Putin confidant Yevgeniy Prigozhin until his death in a plane crash in late August.

Prigozhin and Wagner fighters’ brief and unsuccessful attempt to carry out a coup against the Russian government in late June resulted in the group’s forced exile.

— Natasha Turak

The governor of Russia’s western Kursk region reported drone strikes on an electrical substation in Kursk, blaming the attack on Ukraine.

“A Ukrainian drone dropped two explosive devises on a substation in the … Belovsky district. One electric transformer caught fire. Five populated areas and one hospital are without power,” Governor Roman Starovoit wrote in a post on his Telegram account, according to a translation by Russian state media outlet Tass.

He added that emergency response crews were on their way to the area.

“Repairs will begin as soon as it is safe to do so,” he wrote.

Ukraine’s government has not commented on the attack.

— Natasha Turak

Slovakia heads to the polls on Saturday for a general election that threatens to further fracture European Union support for Ukraine.

Robert Fico, a front-runner in the race to be the country’s next prime minister, has fiercely criticized Ukraine and the EU’s anti-Russian stance and vowed not to send “any arms or ammunition” to its eastern neighbor.

The central European country of 5.4 million people has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. However, Fico — who served as prime minister twice before, from 2006-2010 and 2012-2018 — has vowed to change that.

So far, the race is neck and neck, with less than a percentage point between Fico’s populist party and the rival progressive party, according to a recent local poll.

Read the full story here.

— Jenni Reid

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu was another high-profile visitor to Kyiv on Thursday, along with  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps.

“In Kyiv to reaffirm France’s long-term support,” Lecornu wrote on social media platform X, per a Google translation. “By mobilizing our defense industry for ambitious partnerships with Ukrainian industry.”

France and the U.K. are key supporters of the Ukrainian military, with the U.K. set to spend £4.6 billion ($5.62 billion) across 2022 and 2023, and France supplying a variety of weaponry and training along with contributing to EU support funds.

— Jenni Reid

Germany should not fear that Kazakhstan will try to help Russia circumvent Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, Kazakh President Tokayev said on Thursday after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.

Tokayev said Kazakhstan continued to call for talks between Russia and Ukraine on ending the war, now in its 20th month, and that it had no concerns about Moscow threatening its own territorial integrity.

The large former Soviet state in Central Asia shares a long border with Russia and is home to a large ethnic Russian minority.

— Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed the need to strengthen the country’s air defenses with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during his visit to Kyiv Thursday.

“Substantial talks, as they should be between de facto allies. It is only a matter of time before Ukraine becomes a de jure one as well,” Zelenskyy said on social media platform X.

NATO helps to coordinate requests for assistance from Ukraine and supports delivery of humanitarian and non-lethal aid, while NATO members have provided billions in military aid.

Kyiv applied for fast-track NATO membership in September 2022. The alliance in 2023 said it was committed to eventual Ukraine membership under certain conditions, including “democratic and security sector reforms,” but has not developed any timeline.

— Jenni Reid