Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:

• In a video address on Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US and Joe Biden for the provision of landmines to Ukrainian troops, calling it “essential … to stop Russian assaults”. In addition to the landmines – which aid groups have widely criticized due to their impact on civilians – the latest $275m US aid package includes drones, Himars ammunitions and artillery.

• Various aid groups have expressed criticisms to Agence France-Presse over the US’s decision to send landmines to Ukraine, the outlet reports. Alma Taslidžan of Handicap International said that they “cannot distinguish between combatants and civilians” while Tamar Gabelnick, head of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, called the US’s decision “unconscionable”.

• Four Latin American countries have issued a joint statement in which they called to “avoid actions that would escalate the arms race” in the Ukraine-Russia war, Agence France-Presse reports. The four countries – Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico – said that such actions would “aggravate the conflict”.

• Ukraine has fired UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, the Guardian understands according to multiple sources. The decision to approve the strikes was made in response to the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine in what UK and US officials have warned was a major escalation of the nearly three-year-old conflict.

• US and Ukrainian officials have confirmed Kyiv employed US-made Atacms missiles to strike targets within Russia. The Kremlin stated that six missiles were launched at the town of Karachev, with fragments from one reportedly causing a significant explosion.

• Sergey Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, was quoted in Russian media on Wednesday as saying that attempts by Nato countries to strike inside Russia would not go “unpunished”. Elsewhere, the chief of staff in Belarus, Pavel Muraveiko, described US moves to allow Ukraine to deploy longer-range missiles and anti-personnel mines as “irresponsible”.

• Staff at the Irish embassy in Ukraine have been told to work from home as tensions continue to escalate in the region. It follows from the US shutting its own embassy in Kyiv because of a “potential significant air attack” by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces. Italy, Spain and Greece also closed their embassies in Kyiv today, according to Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.

• In the early afternoon, the Ukrainian air force told people to seek shelter because of a missile threat. Senior officials told people not to ignore the alert. That came shortly before Kyiv’s top military spy agency GUR issued a warning about a Russian psychological operation it said involved fake messages claiming to have been sent by the agency.

• Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that Ukraine lost 400 service personnel on the Kursk front in the last 24 hours. The ministry gave a detailed list of western-supplied Ukrainian equipment it had destroyed. The claims have not been independently verified.

In a video address on Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US and Joe Biden for the provision of landmines to Ukrainian troops, calling it “essential … to stop Russian assaults”.

In addition to the landmines – which aid groups have widely criticized due to their impact on civilians – the latest $275m US aid package includes drones, Himars ammunitions and artillery.

“This marks the 70th defense package from the United States. Ukraine deeply values the bipartisan support from America and the decision of president Biden,” the Ukrainian president said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the US’s decision to provide Ukraine with landmines, Agence France-Presse reports.

Calling the weapons – which have been condemned by international aid groups – “very important to stop Russian assaults”, the Ukrainian president said they would “really strengthen our troops on the front”.

Describing the landmines, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Wednesday that they “would self-activate, self-detonate and that makes it … far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own”.

Various aid groups have expressed criticisms to Agence France-Presse over the US’s decision to send landmines to Ukraine, the outlet reports.

Speaking of the anti-personnel landmines, Alma Taslidžan of Handicap International said that they “cannot distinguish between combatants and civilians”.

Taslidžan added to AFP: “In that sense, it’s unethical to use landmines.”

Similarly, Mary Wareham, advocacy director of the arms division at the Human Rights Watch, told the AFP: “It’s just astonishing that the White House now appears to be walking back its own policy to transfer to Ukraine, which is a member of the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.”

Meanwhile, Tamar Gabelnick, head of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, called the US’s decision “unconscionable” and said it “represents a dangerous setback in the global fight against landmines”.

It is approaching 8pm in Kyiv and 9pm in Moscow. Here are the key developments so far today:

• Ukraine has fired UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, the Guardian understands according to multiple sources. The decision to approve the strikes was made in response to the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine in what UK and US officials have warned was a major escalation of the nearly three-year-old conflict. The spokesperson for UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said his office would not be commenting on reports or operational matters.

• The Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use US-supplied antipersonnel landmines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield progress in the war, the US defence secretary said on Wednesday, marking Washington’s second major policy shift in days after it decided to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with longer-range US-made missiles.

• US and Ukrainian officials have confirmed Kyiv employed US-made Atacms missiles to strike targets within Russia. The Kremlin stated that six missiles were launched at the town of Karachev, with fragments from one reportedly causing a significant explosion.

• In response, Russia has announced it is adjusting its nuclear doctrine. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow would interpret any attack against it carried out by a non-nuclear state using weapons supplied by a nuclear state as a joint assault.

• Peskov also reiterated that a “freeze” of the conflict in Ukraine along the existing frontlines would be unacceptable to the Russian Federation. During his daily press briefing, Peskov declined to comment when asked about the US embassy closing in Kyiv, but said that Russia believed the outgoing Joe Biden administration had shown that it is fully committed to continuing the war in Ukraine and is doing everything possible to achieve that.

• Sergey Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, was quoted in Russian media on Wednesday as saying that attempts by Nato countries to strike inside Russia would not go “unpunished”. Elsewhere, the chief of staff in Belarus, Pavel Muraveiko, described US moves to allow Ukraine to deploy longer-range missiles and anti-personnel mines as “irresponsible”.

• Staff at the Irish embassy in Ukraine have been told to work from home as tensions continue to escalate in the region. It follows on from the US shutting its own embassy in Kyiv because of a “potential significant air attack” by Russian president, Vladimir Putin’s forces. Italy, Spain and Greece also closed their embassies in Kyiv today, according to Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.

• The UK and Moldova launched a new defence and security partnership on Wednesday in the face of threats from Russia, the UK government announced. The initiative was disclosed as British foreign secretary, David Lammy, visited the Moldovan capital Chisinau.

• Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he opposed the US decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles to attack inside Russia, because it will enflame the conflict, broadcaster CNN Turk cited him as saying on Wednesday.

• In the early afternoon, the Ukrainian air force told people to seek shelter because of a missile threat. Senior officials told people not to ignore the alert. That came shortly before Kyiv’s top military spy agency GUR issued a warning about a Russian psychological operation it said involved fake messages claiming to have been sent by the agency.

• Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that Ukraine lost 400 service personnel on the Kursk front in the last 24 hours. The ministry gave a detailed list of western-supplied Ukrainian equipment it had destroyed. The claims have not been independently verified.

• Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that it shot down 56 out of 122 drones and two out of six missiles launched by Russia overnight. The claims have not been independently verified.

• Russian media, citing the defence ministry, reports that 44 Ukrainian aircraft-type drones were intercepted over Russia overnight. The Russian defence ministry claims that 20 of them were over Novgorod oblast, which is to the south-east of St Petersburg, and some considerable distance from Ukraine. The claims have not been independently verified.

• The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it detained a German citizen who had been allegedly involved in organising the explosion at a gas distribution station in Kaliningrad in March this year and had been trying to enter Russia, according to state media. Russia detained the German national, named as Nikolai Gaiduk, on sabotage charges.

• Italian prosecutors said on Wednesday that they had opened cases against two people accused of spying for Russia “for the purposes of terrorism and subversion”. In a statement, the Milan public prosecutor’s office said that it was initiating criminal proceedings for suspected “corruption of (Italian) citizens by a foreign actor” against the two unidentified defendants.

Donald Trump’s re-election as US president has prompted fears that he will cut off US support for Ukraine, forcing it into peace talks with Russia that would culminate in a settlement on terms favourable to Vladimir Putin. In an interview with the New Statesman, David Lammy has argued that Trump would not go that far.

That might sound like wishful thinking, but Lammy and Keir Starmer did have dinner with Trump in the autumn. Lammy discusses that too in the interview with George Eaton. Here are the key lines.

• Lammy argued that Trump would not accept a deal over Ukraine that would look like a victory for Putin. Asked about Trump’s stance on Ukraine, Lammy said:

I’ve been a politician for 25 years and I understand the different philosophies at play. There’s a deep philosophical underpinning to friends in the Republican party that I’ve known for many years, thinking back to people like [former US secretary of state] Condoleezza Rice. Donald Trump has some continuity with this position, which is ‘peace through strength’.

What I do know about Donald Trump is that he doesn’t like losers and he doesn’t want to lose; he wants to get the right deal for the American people. And he knows that the right deal for the American people is peace in Europe and that means a sustainable peace – not Russia achieving its aims and coming back for more in the years ahead.”

The Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use US-supplied antipersonnel landmines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield progress in the war, the US defence secretary said on Wednesday, marking Washington’s second major policy shift in days after it decided to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with longer-range US-made missiles.

The US and some other western embassies in Kyiv stayed closed on Wednesday after a threat of a major Russian aerial attack on the Ukrainian capital.

US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the change in Washington’s policy on antipersonnel landmines for Ukraine follows changing tactics by the Russians, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Russian ground troops are leading the movement on the battlefield, rather than forces more protected in armoured carriers, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians,” Austin said during a trip to Laos.

The announcement came two months before Donald Trump moves back into the White House. Trump has pledged to swiftly end the war and has criticised the amount the US has spent on supporting Ukraine. Biden administration officials say they are determined to help Ukraine as much as possible before Joe Biden leaves office.

Antipersonnel landmines have long been criticised by charities and activists because they present a lingering threat to civilians.

According to the AP, Norway’s foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, called the US decision “very problematic” because Ukraine is a signatory to an international convention opposing the use of landmines.

Austin sought to allay concerns. He said:

The landmines that we would look to provide them would be landmines that are not persistent, you know, we can control when they would self-activate, self-detonate and that makes it far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own.”

Austin noted that Ukraine is already manufacturing its own antipersonnel landmines. And the US already provides Ukraine with anti-tank mines. Russia has routinely used landmines in the war, but those do not become inert over time.

Staff at the Irish embassy in Ukraine have been told to work from home as tensions continue to escalate in the region, reports the PA news agency.

It follows on from the US shutting its own embassy in Kyiv because of a “potential significant air attack” by Russian president, Vladimir Putin’s forces.

The closure of the US embassy comes after the first use of US-supplied missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia.

According to the PA news agency, the Irish premier and minister for defence, Micheál Martin, said that “for the purpose of precaution”, Ireland’s embassy staff are working from home and not in the embassy building in Kyiv.

“That follows consultations between different embassies across Ukraine at the moment, but there’s no plans of withdrawing staff from the embassy,” Martin said.

He added:

This is an abundance of caution here, but obviously the situation is escalated, and we believe Russia should stop this war.

The amount of carnage in this war hasn’t got the proper headlines, but it’s absolutely unacceptable.

I spoke to somebody who came back working with an NGO (non-government organisation) yesterday. He said to me that the level of fatalities of young soldiers on both sides is enormous, and it’s just an appalling lack of any moral compass that leaders can preside and president [Vladimir] Putin can preside over such carnage and it should stop.”

He further stated that Putin is using migration as a war weapon. Martin said that the number of people seeking asylum, including from Ukraine, in Ireland is “unprecedented”.

“I think in fairness, back in 2020 no one anticipated what has now transpired,” he added. “I think the government has behaved responsibly, this government has done anything we possibly can, and the government is moving towards a state accommodation approach.”