Ukraine live: Moscow car bomb kills Putin’s general on ammunition

 LIVE – Updated at 05:04

A general in charge of ammunition supplies for the Russian army has been killed in an attack in the Moscow region, officials said.

Damir Davydov, the head of the Russian defence ministry’s missile and artillery wing, was reportedly killed in a car explosion in Balashikha

The explosion took place around 5.30am on Tuesday, when a BMW X3 exploded near Koldunova Street in Balashikha’s Aviatorov neighbourhood, with reports saying the driver was pulling out of a parking space.

Ukraine has not issued a comment on his death so far, though Kyiv has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Russian generals since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war.

It comes after a Russian minister warned Moscow could deploy nuclear weapons "to ensure security" if threatened by Nato.

And the EU has proposed a 21st package of sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine, heavily targeting the country's banks and crypto networks as well as drone ⁠production, oil traders and refiners.

Russia says Europe not ready to mediate peace talks

04:42 , Arpan Rai

The Kremlin has claimed that the European Union was far from ready to act as a mediator in any ‌Ukraine peace ‌process and ‌appeared ⁠to be more focused ⁠on continuing the war.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was speaking to journalists when he was ⁠asked about ‌the ‌possibility of the ‌EU stepping in as ‌a mediator at a time US-led negotiations have taken a backseat due to the war in Iran.

"First of ‌all, starting mediation efforts by putting ⁠forward certain ⁠conditions to Russia is likely illogical and wrong. And, of course, this is unacceptable to us," Peskov said.

His remarks came after Volodymyr Zelensky returned from a meeting in London with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany who said they were ready to support ceasefire talks and engage with Russian president Vladimir Putin, if required.

Russian banks targeted as EU proposes 21st package of sanctions

04:16 , Arpan Rai

The EU has proposed a 21st package of sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine, heavily targeting the country's banks and crypto networks as well as drone ⁠production, oil traders and refiners, EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said.

The new package will propose listing 170 individuals and entities. These include close to 90 banks – the biggest in one go – and would take the total number of listed banks to over 100, or more than half of Russia's 213 internationally connected lenders.

The banks will come under the full weight of EU sanctions including asset freezes, travel and transaction bans.

“We intend to deal a heavy blow to Russia’s financial sector, imposing assets freezes on close to 90 banks and additional transactions bans on over 30 banks in Russia and other third countries," Kallas said in a post on X.

An EU diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aim was to weaken Russia's financial system and incentivise Moscow to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.

The package will be presented to EU ⁠ambassadors today for negotiations. Sanctions require unanimity to be adopted.

Western sanctions already heavily target Russia's banking system and its major banks were disconnected in 2022 from SWIFT, a secure global financial payment instructions system.

Russian companies now use a broad network of smaller lenders to evade sanctions and continue trading.