Friedrich Merz, an opposition candidate for German chancellor, says he is open to supplying Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine as the current government refuses to do so.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz is said to fear that Ukraine would use Taurus missiles to hit politically sensitive targets in Russia – which could plunge Germany into hostilities with Russia.

But Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel – says he would consider supplying the missiles under certain conditions.

First, there should be a call on Russia to stop attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.

If Putin refuses, Ukraine should be free to use any weapons supplied by Germany as they wish.

“And the second step would be delivering the Taurus missiles. Then it is up to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to decide to what extent he wants to escalate this war,” Merz said, according to N-TV.

Taurus is a German-Swedish cruise missile with a range of over 500 kilometers (310 miles).

A Russian military aircraft Tu-134 was set on fire at a military airfield in the Orenburg region from Saturday to Sunday, Ukraine said.

The plane is used to “transport the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense,” according to the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Service (HUR).

The plane burned to the ground at the Orenburg-2 military airfield, about 1,250 kilometers (780 miles) from the front line in Ukraine.

HUR did not claim responsibility for the incident, but in sharing images of the fire it said: “Any crime against the Ukrainian people will be duly punished.” Kiev independent reported.

Ukraine has previously carried out attacks on Russian air bases.

A Ukrainian refugee says she is living a “surreal nightmare” after being refused permission to take her two children to Britain.

Pressure is mounting on ministers to open a family reunification pathway for Ukrainians with temporary immigration status, after the rules were changed without warning in February. Charities say the Home Office’s “restrictive rules and poor decision-making” are “tearing families apart”.

Maria Kondratska, who arrived in Britain just months before Russia’s massive invasion, is now appealing on human rights grounds after the Home Office rejected her application to have her son and daughter, aged 11 and 15, old, to offer her shelter in Great Britain.

Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, a 27-year-old award-winning reporter, died in Russian detention last month, Ukrainian authorities confirmed.

“I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia,” Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said in a statement.

“We have every reason to believe that her death was the result of a deliberate killing or the result of the cruel treatment and violence to which she was subjected during her time in Russian captivity,” Ukrainian journalists and media professionals said in a statement. they condemned the murder. her death, CNN reported.

BBC director general Tim Davie will warn that the withdrawal of the World Service due to budget cuts has helped Russia and China broadcast ‘unchallenged propaganda’.

On Monday afternoon, Mr Davie will discuss the global importance of the BBC World Service, which operates in more than 40 languages, in a speech at the Future Resilience Forum, a non-partisan meeting attended by international political figures.

Discussing the war in Ukraine and unrest in the Middle East, Mr Davie is expected to say: “This is a crucial moment of challenge to stability and democracy worldwide.”

Ukraine is considering ceding its territory to Russia to end the war, the German News Agency reported Der Spiegelciting official sources.

An important condition for Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace formula so far is that Russia forfeits the invaded territory. But now Ukrainian officials are discussing abandoning the goal of full recovery of the occupied territories, the German newspaper reported.

“We believed that victory should mean the unconditional surrender of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia,” the source said.

Factors forcing Ukraine to consider this option include uncertainty over the outcome of the US presidential election and the advancement of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

“Whether it is (former US President Donald) Trump or (Vice President Kamala) Harris, the Americans will slowly but surely withdraw,” the official said. Der Spiegel.

Trump had previously criticized US aid to Ukraine, vowing to get the US “out” of the conflict if re-elected.

Russian forces recently advanced near Kupjansk, Donetsk City and Robotyne in Ukraine, a US war think tank said.

Russia has recaptured nearly 20 settlements in Kursk Oblast since October 11, Russian military sources claim, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Meanwhile, the ISW said Ukrainian forces have partially regained lost positions, Ukrainian military officials reported, amid continued intense Russian counterattacks on Sunday.

On October 5, videos showed a drone flying near Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine before it was shot down by another aircraft flying close to it.

Initial reports suggested it was either a Russian plane shot down by the Ukrainian air force or a Russian plane that lost control and was shot down by Moscow.

However, the drone that crashed was no ordinary weapon. It was later identified as a stealth S-70 Okhotnik-B, also known as “Hunter,” one of Russia’s most advanced stealth drones, designed to escort a Su-57 fighter jet.

Some 30,415 people, including nearly 8,000 children, have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine as a result of shelling and attacks, Russia’s human rights commissioner said in comments published on Monday.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the commissioner, told Argumenty I Fakty in an interview that the evacuees have been placed in nearly 1,000 temporary shelters across Russia, Reuters reported.

Ukraine, subject to an invasion from Russia since February 2022, has retaliated with shelling and other attacks on Russia’s border regions, with the military saying the attacks are targeting infrastructure essential to Moscow’s war effort.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, taking control of dozens of settlements and occupying most positions since then.

Ms Moskalkova said she had received calls regarding more than 1,000 Russian citizens from Kursk, whose whereabouts are unknown and who were reportedly taken by Ukrainian forces.

Reuters could not independently verify Moskalkova’s reports. There was no immediate comment from Kiev.

Both sides deny targeting or imprisoning civilians, but thousands have been killed in the war, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman on Sunday called on international organizations to respond to claims that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kiev launched an incursion in August.

DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, said Russian forces shot dead nine Ukrainian “drone operators and contractors” on October 10 after they surrendered.

Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram that he was sending letters to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross about the case, calling it “a new crime committed by the Russians.”