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

In a push to reverse the drain of its potential soldiers, Kyiv has dramatically announced that men of conscription age will no longer be able to renew passports from outside Ukraine.

The Cabinet of Ministers said late on Wednesday that men between 18 and 60 years old who are deemed fit for military service will only be able to replace their passports inside Ukraine.

Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, mostly to neighboring European countries. The European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, says 4.3 million Ukrainians are living in EU countries, 860,000 of them men 18 years of age or older.

Poland’s defence minister said his country – which is home to one of the largest Ukrainian diasporas – was ready to help “in ensuring that those who are subject to compulsory military service go to Ukraine” as they “have obligations towards the state” – but he did not specify how.

However the move has met with some criticism inside Ukraine, with senior opposition politician Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze warning that denying military-age men access to consular services could lead to “well-founded” legal challenges at the European Court of Human Rights.

“I think that these actions will only push an enormous number of Ukrainians to look for different ways to obtain citizenship from other countries,” she warned.

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.