Good evening. Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko have made an agreement on troops, stoking fears of a fresh invasion, on a day when Ukraine has been the scene of horrifying Russian missile strikes.
Evening briefing: Today’s essential headlines
Lucy Letby trial | A “poisoner was at work” in the heart of a hospital maternity unit, killing seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others, a court has heard. Lucy Letby, 32, was working as a midwife in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital when she is alleged to have carried out the attacks between mid 2015 and mid 2016. She has pleaded not guilty to murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 more as her trial got under way, with the prosecution opening their case.
The big story: Kyiv feels Putin’s wrath in missile strikes
Broadcasting live from a downtown rooftop, the BBC’s man in Kyiv had just warned that Vladimir Putin was about to take revenge.
Seconds later, his voice was drowned out by the sound of an incoming missile, forcing him to duck for cover live on air as a thunderous explosion shook the city.
It was one of more than 80 missiles to rain down across Ukraine today, as Putin replied to yet another military humiliation with one of his heaviest bombardments yet.
Sergio Olmos in Kyiv, Roland Oliphant in Sloviansk and Colin Freeman report on the horrors.
A Russian rocket was filmed smashing into the ground near a popular pedestrian bridge in Kyiv as a man was walking across, a moment of horror among dozens of scenes of destruction during the Russian bombardment in revenge for the bombing of a key bridge in Crimea.
At least four people were killed in a strike on Sloviansk, the force of which was so great that it threw the body of a violinist over a neighbouring house into a back garden.
[embedded content]
Russia’s retaliatory mass strikes across Ukraine were only the “first episode” of Moscow’s planned response to the attack on the bridge to Crimea, said former President Dmitry Medvedev, claiming it had become necessary for Russia to “dismantle” Ukraine.
Once considered a reformer ready to liberalise Russia, Mr Medvedev has become one of Moscow’s most radical hawks. Our live blog will keep you up to date.
Mark Almond says Putin is showing the world what terrorism really looks like.
New invasion fears
Meanwhile there are fears of a new invasion attempt after Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, agreed to form a joint group of troops on the Ukrainian border.
Mr Lukashenko told a security meeting he and the Russian president last weekend agreed to bring their troops together “due to tensions on the western border” of Belarus.
He did not specify how many Belarusian troops will be deployed nor where exactly they will be sent to.
But the statement is the closest he has come to admitting a possibility of sending Belarusian troops into Ukraine.
Jade McGlynn warns never underestimate Putin’s appetite for bloodshed.
Opec’s ‘fatal mistake’
The devastation comes as Europe is facing an energy crisis that might see power cuts over the course of a cold winter.
To the small collection of autocrats who run the oil cartel Opec, it must have seemed like the perfect moment to strike.
Over the last week, the group has decided to throw its weight behind Putin with production cuts designed to make the energy crisis even worse.
The cartel may think it can now flex its muscles and restore some of the global power it once enjoyed.
However Matthew Lynn analyses why, in reality, it has made a fatal mistake.
Comment and analysis
Around the world: Trump addresses Spanish rally
Donald Trump urged the Spanish hard-Right to do “great, conservative things” at a rally in Madrid where a growing coalition of Eurosceptic leaders declared war on Brussels. The event, hosted by Spain’s Vox party, also featured speeches by Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, and Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s incoming prime minister, all of whom demanded an end to EU overreach into national sovereignty. “We have to make sure that we protect our borders and do lots of very good conservative things,” the former US president told a crowd of several thousand.
Monday interview
‘We swooped to lay flares at Dresden at 400mph – in a wooden plane’
Meet the last of the Mosquito Men, the squadron that played a crucial role in the most infamous episode of allied bombing in Nazi Germany
Sport briefing: Red Bull guilty of F1 budget cap breach
Red Bull have been found guilty of an overspending breach of the 2021 budget cap, with their punishment yet to be determined, although they are unlikely to lose points. Max Verstappen’s comfortable cruise to the 2022 drivers’ title has been reminiscent of Lewis Hamilton’s six dominant championships for Mercedes. The best driver in the fastest car tends to be a recipe for success. Luke Slater outlines the four key improvements Mercedes must make next year to catch Verstappen. In football, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has blamed “bad feelings” over his Arsenal exit as the reason behind his latest criticisms of manager Mikel Arteta after reigniting their feud. Meanwhile, on the anniversary of Newcastle’s takeover, Luke Edwards analyses how, like Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson, Eddie Howe is building something special at the club.
Editor’s choice
-
Money Makeover | ‘I’m 39 and earn £120,000 – how can I be semi-retired by 55?’
-
Tweaks to daily diet | Three easy ways to improve blood cholesterol levels
-
Prints for the colder months | Four winter dresses that go with absolutely anything
Business briefing: IMF veteran calls for an rate rise
The Bank of England should push through an emergency rate rise to restore global confidence in UK policy-making and head off a potentially dangerous cliff-edge when its bond support operation expires, a top economist has warned. Maurice Obstfeld, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said the Bank of England has been put in a position where it must demonstrate that it is not a captive of the Treasury even if this means inflicting economic harm. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has the details. It comes as the cost of long-term borrowing for the Government rose to its highest level since the Bank of England launched its £65bn pension bailout, as analysts warned the jump signalled further market turmoil could be on the cards.
Tonight starts now
Interrogation of cancel culture | You could painlessly junk a fair few of the shows that were around before the pandemic and which have since resumed or had delayed openings. No obsolescence, though, has set in with Robert Icke’s scalpel-sharp reinvention of Schnitzler’s Professor Bernhardi; in fact, quite the reverse. This West End transfer of The Doctor hurtles a neglected classic of Austrian drama from an early-20th-century Vienna simmering with anti-Semitism to a 21st-century London beset by those same prejudices and complex layers of identity politics too. Dominic Cavendish gives a five-star review to this brilliant interrogation of cancel culture starring a riveting Juliet Stevenson.
Three things for you
And finally… for this evening’s downtime
Sandy solaces | According to data, the cheeriest, most contented places are the most isolated of our islands. Mark Easton examines the psychology of why island holidays make you happier.
