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The United States and Britain are enduring allies, and their strong bond will last, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday after British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation, Reuters reported.
"The United States and the United Kingdom are strong Allies and enduring friends — and that fact will never change. I thank Prime Minister Liz Truss for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine. We will continue our close cooperation with the U.K. government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face," Biden said in a statement.
In Russia, its foreign ministry welcomed the Truss' departure, saying she was a disgrace of a leader who would be remembered for her "catastrophic illiteracy."
"Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a social media post.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter in English: "Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce," referring to the British Daily Star tabloid's days-long livestream asking whether Truss' troubled premiership would outlast the shelf life of lettuce.
Spain, Portugal and France said on Thursday they will build a sea-based pipeline to carry hydrogen and gas between Barcelona and Marseille, substituting plans to extend the so-called MidCat pipeline across the Pyrenees that France opposed, Reuters reported.
The route, dubbed BarMar, will mainly be used to pump green hydrogen and other renewable gases but will also temporarily allow for the transportation of a "limited amount" of natural gas to help alleviate Europe's energy crisis, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.
Europe is scrambling to secure alternative energy supplies in the face of a squeeze from Russia which has progressively cut gas flows after the West imposed sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Ukrainian forces are advancing on Kherson, and Russian troops are withdrawing. A ferry on the Dnieper River appears to be part of an ongoing Russian pullback of soldiers and equipment from the right bank of the river, in the southern Kherson region, where Ukrainian forces have been making gradual advances, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany will train a brigade of up to 5,000 Ukrainian troops as part of a European Union training mission approved earlier this week, The Associated Press reported.
The EU on Monday approved the mission, which will run for two years initially. Its immediate aim is to train about 15,000 troops, chiefly in Poland and Germany, and it’s hoped that the mission will be up and running by mid-November.
Scholz told lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday that one of the headquarters will be in Germany and “by spring, we will train a complete brigade with up to 5,000 soldiers.”
He said that “with this, we are underlining are readiness to participate in the long-term building of strong Ukrainian armed forces, hand in hand with our partners.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday inspected a training ground for mobilized troops and was shown firing shots from a sniper rifle in footage apparently intended to show his personal backing for soldiers heading to fight in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Putin was accompanied on the trip to Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who reported to him on how the men were being trained, the Kremlin said.
Footage showed a figure who appeared to be Putin lying flat on the ground and firing from a rifle. In the next frame, Putin was seen dusting down his overcoat, slapping a soldier on the shoulder and wishing him good luck.
Ukrainian authorities say at least three civilians were killed and 14 wounded overnight in shelling across the country, The Associated Press reported.
The Russian military overnight fired drones and missiles at eight regions in the southeastern part of the country, the president's office said.
The attack on southcentral city of Kryvyi Rih damaged an energy facility and a plant, leaving the city without electricity.
“Now every illuminated business sign, billboard or washing machine can lead to serious emergency shutdowns,” regional Gov. Valentin Reznichenko said.
The city is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown and an industrial center.
Fighting continued in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions that were recently illegally annexed by Russia.