Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv starts using US long-range missiles as Moscow sends nuclear warheads to Belarus

Ukraine is set to step up long-range missile attacks on Russia with the help of Western military aid, the UK’s defence chief has admitted.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said long-range weapons would help Kyiv shape the war in “much stronger ways”, after US officials said long-range missiles used by Ukraine were “already hitting” Putin’s forces in Crimea under a secret deal secured by Joe Biden earlier this year.

The Army Tactical Missile System, or Atacms, arrived in Ukraine last week under a secret deal agreed in March before the £76bn US security package was passed by congress on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed “several dozen” Russian tactical nuclear weapons had been deployed in Belarus, Russia’s Tass news agency said, under an agreement jointly announced last year with Vladimir Putin.

It came as the Belarusian security service claimed to have thwarted an attack on the capital Minsk by drones launched from Nato-member Lithuania, which denied taking any hostile action.

Mr Lukashenko further claimed that the exiled Belarusian opposition planed to seize a western district request support from Nato troops.