US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons is the biggest such threat since the Cuban Missile Crisis, as Russia’s military leadership faced a rare domestic public backlash over the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Conflict

• Biden, commenting on Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons, said the United States was “trying to figure out” the Russian leader’s off-ramp.

• Ukrainian rescuers had found 11 bodies and rescued 21 people from the rubble of buildings destroyed in missile attacks in the city of Zaporizhzhia, in the southern region of the same name, the State Emergency Service said.

• A Ukrainian missile hit a bus in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, killing four and wounding three civilians, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.

• Ukraine’s armed forces have advanced up to about 55 km (34 miles) over the last two weeks in a counteroffensive against Russian forces in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian general said. Reuters could not independently verify the remarks. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

• A Russian-backed official in Ukraine publicly criticised President Vladimir Putin’s “generals and ministers” for failing to understand the problems on the front lines.

Energy

• International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said the UN nuclear watchdog considered the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be a Ukrainian facility.

• A crime scene investigation of the damages on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has strengthened suspicions of “gross sabotage”, Swedish security police said.

Ramifications

• Putin said he expected sanctions pressure on the Russian economy to intensify, in televised remarks from a meeting with government officials.

• The Kremlin denied reports that 700,000 Russians have fled the country since the announcement of a mobilisation drive to call up hundreds of thousands to fight in Ukraine.

• US intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorised a car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, the New York Times reported.

Quotes

Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the annexed Kherson region: “Many say: if they were a defence minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves.”