Ukraine updates: France backs longer-range missiles

German football club Borussia Dortmund members have voted against a controversial sponsorship deal with arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.

In May Dortmund signed a three-year sponsorship deal worth between €7 and €9 million per year.

Of 855 participating members, 556 backed a motion at the general assembly to end the partnership as soon as possible and at the latest when the three-year deal expired.

The identity of Rheinmetall as a leading player in the arms manufacturing industry has been seen as controversial among sections of Borussia Dortmund's 200,000 members and wider fanbase.

CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke defended the deal at the assembly, saying: "We discussed it very intensively. And believe me, I had sleepless nights at the beginning of the process. Because I knew that this was a very, very difficult decision to weigh up."

"It was a tough decision. A decision that also demanded a lot from me personally. But I stand by it," Watzke said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that he wants to expand trade between Ankara and Moscow.

According to a Turkish presidency statement, Turkeywould like to "increase the cooperation" with Russia in several areas, "notably expanding the volume of trade."

While condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Turkey took a neutral stance in the war and did not match Western sanctions imposed on Moscow, with Erdogan justifying his policy on the country's reliance on Russian oil and gas.

Russia said it repelled an overnight Ukrainian drone attack.

In a post on Telegram, the Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 34 Ukrainian drones, 27 of which were flying over Russia's Kursk region.  

The governor of Kursk said earlier that "two Ukrainian missiles" had been intercepted overnight over Kursk, which borders Ukraine.    

Ukrainian troops launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August to put Russia on the defensive.

A Ukrainian military source told Reuters that Ukraine has lost over 40% of the land it had taken in the Kursk region. The source said Ukraine had once controlled about 1,376 square kilometers (531 square miles) in Kursk, but now controls approximately 800 square kilometers of Russian territory. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for better defenses after Russia carried out another massive drone attack early Sunday. 

"Just last night, our defense forces managed to shoot down nearly 50 strike drones," Zelenskyy said on Telegram. He added that, in the past week, Russia has launched more than 800 guided aerial bombs, about 460 strike drones, and over 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

The overnight drone attack targeted Kyiv and other parts of the country. Russia frequently carries out attacks with Iran-supplied Shahed drones in the early hours of the morning. 

"Ukraine is not a testing ground for weapons. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state," Zelenskyy said. He emphasized that "strengthening the protection of our skies is absolutely critical."  

Shortly after the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022, Zelenskyy pushed for the NATO alliance to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The US, Canada and some other countries had ruled out the no-fly zone due to the risk of a direct conflict between the West and Russia.  

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the BBC that Ukraine may launch French longer-range missiles into Russia "in the logics of self-defense."

He did not, however, reveal whether Ukraine had already used French-provided longer-range weapons on Russian targets. However, the French Scalp missiles are the same as the UK Storm Shadow missiles, which Ukraine has already fired into Russia.

Barrot said there were no "red lines" when it comes to backing Ukraine. He added that French messages to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "have been well received."    

"We will support Ukraine as intensely and as long as necessary. Why? Because it is our security that is at stake. Each time the Russian army progresses by one square kilometer, the threat gets one square kilometer closer to Europe," Barrot said. He did not definitively rule out the deployment of French troops in Ukrainian combat zones. 

Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova derided Barrot's comments regarding longer-range missiles. She said French permission for the use of the weapons is "not support for Ukraine, but rather a death knell for Ukraine."     

The remarks by France's foreign minister come after US President Joe Biden greenlit the use of long-range ATACMS missiles by Ukraine, which have a range of 300 kilometers (190 miles). Soon thereafter, Russia accused Ukraine of firing the ATACMS missiles into the western Russian Bryansk region next to Belarus.  

Earlier this week, British media reported that Ukraine had fired Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia's Kursk region. Developed in cooperation with France, the Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missiles can hit targets as far as 250 kilometers (155 miles) away.   

Although some Western countries back the use of longer-range weapons by Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly shied away from sending longer-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, due to fears of escalation and lack of support for such a move among the German population. Taurus missiles have a maximum range of 500 kilometers (300 miles).

wd/ab (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)