Ukraine war latest: UK damage from Russia's hybrid warfare 'very real'; Germany 'drawing up list of bunkers'

Germany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter to civilians, according to reports. Meanwhile, an expert has told Sky News the damage to the UK from Russia's hybrid war will be "long-lasting".

Ukraine war latest: UK damage from Russia's hybrid warfare 'very real'; Germany 'drawing up list of bunkers'

Twelve British soldiers injured in major traffic pile-up in Estonia

Twelve British soldiers were injured in a major traffic pile-up in Estonia, close to the border with Russia, local media have reported.

Eight of the troops - part of a major NATO mission to deter Russian aggression - were airlifted back to the UK for hospital treatment on Sunday after the incident, which happened in snowy conditions on Friday, it is understood.

Five of these personnel have since been discharged with three still being kept in the military wing of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The British troops are serving in Estonia as part of Operation Cabrit, the UK's contribution to NATO's "enhanced forward presence" mission, which spans nations across the alliance's eastern flank and is designed to deter attacks from Russia.

Russian army expanding but 'quality has dropped'

Russia's army has gotten bigger since Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine - but its quality has dropped, according to a NATO top military official. 

Speaking of Russia's land forces, admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO's military committee, said: "The quality of those forces has gone down."

Pointing to the level of training of troops and the state of Russia's military equipment, the admiral said the army was currently "not the same threat" as it was when Moscow launched its land, air and sea invasion of its smaller neighbour almost three years ago. 

"So we have a bit of time to prepare ourselves," the admiral said, adding this meant ramping up investments into the defence industry. 

The comments come after North Korean troops were deployed to help Russia.

US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang to the war under a pact with Moscow.

Germany 'drawing up list of bunkers'

Germany is working on drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter to civilians, according to the German news outlet Spiegel.

The country's interior ministry reportedly said today that basements, underground car parks, private properties and subway stations could be converted into shelters, with a special app detailing where the closest bunker is.

The country has already been increasingly focused on defending itself since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

And the plan comes at a time of rising tensions with Russia and as civil protection organisations in Germany call for a faster expansion of shelters.

Erdogan and NATO chief discuss end to Ukraine war

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed possible ways to end the war between Ukraine and Russia during talks in Ankara today.

The Turkish presidency said that during the meeting, what could be done to end the Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle East was discussed.

What role has Turkey played in the war?

Turkey at the beginning of the war in Ukraine took on the role of the peacemaker.

The country brokered the Black Sea grain deal in 2022, which aimed to ensure the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the sea, where Russia control Ukraine's sea lanes.

And that same year Mr Erdogan also invited both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Turkey to have a discussion together - this did not happen.

This month, Mr Erdogan reportedly proposed a peace plan for Ukraine which was rejected by the Kremlin.

Damage to UK from Russia's hybrid warfare 'very real'

The damage that could be caused to the UK through Russia's hybrid warfare is "very real", an expert has told Sky News.

Arsalan Bilal, who works at the centre for peace studies at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, says Russia has been "unleashing its hybrid warfare against the West for decades".

"We're talking about Russia combining military and non-military strategies in a sophisticated manner so it is not done randomly," he says.

He points to the war in Ukraine as a "classic case of Russia's hybrid warfare against the West".

"It is a war that aims to undermine Western security," he adds.

This month, Russia was accused by European governments of escalating hybrid attacks on Ukraine's Western allies after two fibre-optic telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea were severed.

Asked about this, Mr Bilal says: "I wouldn't be surprised if it was Russia.

"That's classic sabotage where you do something indirectly or directly but deny involvement. So, for example, the attack on Nord Stream and the attack on under sea cables in Europe."

He says in terms of how much damage hybrid warfare can cause to the UK, in isolation "you would conclude not much".

"But in totality the damage is very real. It's long-lasting and goes much beyond what we see with the naked eye," he warns.

Five European countries to ramp up support for Ukrainian defences

Five European countries will step up their support to strengthen Ukraine's defence industry, Germany's defence minister has said.

After a meeting with his French, British, Polish and Italian counterparts today, Boris Pistorius said: "Our target must be to enable Ukraine to act out of a position of strength."

For context: The Ukrainian army has entered its third winter of the war and the conflict has also taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to help Russia on the battlefield.

The development prompted Joe Biden's policy shift on allowing Ukraine to fire longer-range US missiles into Russia this month and that angered the Kremlin.

And then unconfirmed news reports said Ukraine had fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles at Russia for the first time. British and Ukrainian officials did not confirm the reports.

Officials with France's military and president's office, meanwhile, declined to say whether Ukraine is using French long-range SCALP missiles to strike targets in Russia, citing France's military secrecy policy. But French President Emmanuel Macron has been advocating for such a step for months.

Destruction in Ukrainian town

Ukraine has faced almost daily bombardments from Russian forces since the war began in 2022. 

In the town of Avdiivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, dozens of buildings have been destroyed. 

In February 2024, it fell into Russian hands after months of airstrikes, creating a major breach in Ukraine's defences. 

Since then, Russia's troops have concentrated their advance efforts in the nearby strategic city of Pokrovsk. 

North Korea 'expanding plant used to make missiles for Russia'

North Korea is expanding a key weapons manufacturing plant that assembles short-range missiles to be used by Russia, researchers at a US-based thinktank have said. 

Satellite images show what appears to be a building under construction at the site, as well as a housing facility, experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) found.

The site, known as the February 11 plant, is part of the Ryongsong Machine Complex in North Korea's second-largest city of Hamhung. 

Sam Lair, a research associate at CNS, said the plant was the only one known to produce the Hwasong-11 class of solid-fuel ballistic missiles.

"We see this as a suggestion that they're massively increasing, or they're trying to significantly increase, the throughput of this factory," he said. 

Ukrainian officials say these munitions - known as the KN-23 in the West - have been used by Russian forces in their assault on Ukraine.

However, Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defence treaty at a summit in June and have pledged to boost their military ties.

Russian man jailed for sending military videos to Ukraine's security agency

A Russian man has been sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison after being found guilty of high treason for sending a military video to Ukraine's security services. 

Prosecutors said Nikita Zhuravel filmed a trainload of military equipment and warplanes in 2023 and sent the video to a representative of Ukraine's security agency.

Rights activists say Zhuravel is a political prisoner who was beaten while in custody.

While in pretrial custody before his first sentence, he was beaten by the 15-year-old son of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya.

Kadyrov posted the video online and praised his son, causing public outrage.

Zhuravel is already serving a three and a half year prison term for burning a Quran in front of a mosque. 

'We will not be intimidated by Russia's cyber threats'

The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has warned a NATO cyber defence conference that for the UK and its allies, "cyberwar is now a daily reality".

Pat McFadden said the UK is locked in a "new AI arms race" with countries such Russia and North Korea - and security officials are countering their attacks both publicly and behind the scenes.

He said Russia is engaged in a deliberate attempt to "pick away" at state and public support for Ukraine by targeting the infrastructure of NATO members, such as financial services and energy and healthcare sectors.

'Appeasing dictators only encourages them'

He singled out the activity of Unit 29155, a Russian military unit the government claims has been behind a number of attacks in the UK and Europe.

"We know from history that appeasing dictators only encourages them," he said. 

"Britain learned long ago the importance of standing strong in the face of such actions.

"We will not join those voices of weakness who want to give Putin a veto over our help for Ukraine. We will not be intimidated by it, and we will never allow it to dictate our decisions or our policies."

Talks on sending UK and French troops to Ukraine 'reignited'

Talks on sending French and British troops to Ukraine have been revived in the wake of the US election, according to a report.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that the sensitive discussions have reignited as questions swirl over whether US support for Kyiv will continue when Donald Trump takes office again in January.

The debate about sending Western troops to Ukraine, initiated by Emmanuel Macron back in February when he said the prospect had not been not ruled out, was strongly opposed by some European countries.

But according to Le Monde, it came back to life in recent weeks after Sir Keir Starmer visited France for Remembrance Day commemorations.

"Discussions are under way between the UK and France on defence cooperation, particularly with a view to creating a hard core of allies in Europe, focused on Ukraine and wider European security," a British military source told the paper.

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot has also told the BBC that there should be no "red lines" when it comes to support for Ukraine. Asked whether that could mean French troops in combat, he responded: "We do not discard any option."

Moscow mulling deploying missiles to Asia if US does the same

Russia's deputy foreign minister has said Moscow will consider deploying short and intermediate-range missiles in Asia if the US does the same, according to Russian media reports.

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported yesterday that Tokyo and Washington were aiming to compile a joint military plan for a possible Taiwan emergency that includes the deployment of missiles.

The report, which cited anonymous sources, said the US would deploy missile units to the Nansei islands of Japan's southwestern Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, and to the Philippines.

Sergei Ryabkov was cited by the RIA news agency as saying Moscow was considering the possibility of deploying short and intermediate-range missiles in Asia "in the event that US missiles appear there".

Russia attacks village during aid handout

Russia has launched a drone attack on a village in the southern Mykolaiv region while humanitarian aid was being distributed, regional governor Vitalii Kim said.

The governor said five people - aid workers and residents - were injured and taken to hospital.

"Two men and a woman are in moderate condition, two men are in serious condition," he said.

It follows an overnight attack by Russian forces which caused temporary blackouts in the region.

-SKY NEWS