Russia says its forces have captured two more villages in Ukraine and were attacking in the town of Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold. The reports have been denied by Ukrainian officials in the region.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken the villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka. The Russia-installed head of Donetsk Denis Pushilin said fighting was taking place inside Vuhledar, which had a pre-war population of 14,000.

However, Ukraine army’s General Staff said there had been eight armed clashes in the Vuhledar area. “Seven enemy assaults were stopped near Vuhledar and Vodiane,” it said in late night report referring to another nearby village. “One battle is still going on. The situation is under the control of Ukraine’s defence forces.”

It made no mention of the two villages Russian officials said their forces had captured further north, but reported 23 clashes in that sector.

Vadym Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the region, said Russia’s troops had not reached the outskirts of Vuhledar but it’s reconnaissance groups were operating there. “Our defenders are trying to knock them out. The town has not been captured,” he said in televised comments.

Russia has a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine, two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents reviewed by Reuters confirm.

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists, according to one of the documents, a report that Kupol sent to the Russian defence ministry earlier this year outlining its work.

Kupol told the defence ministry in a subsequent update that it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a factory in China so the weapons could be deployed in the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term Moscow uses for the war.

The G3 drones can travel about 2,000km (1,200 miles) with a payload of 50kg (110 pounds), according to the reports to the Russian defence ministry from Kupol.

Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defence think-tank, said the delivery of UAVs from China to Russia, if confirmed, would be a significant development.

“If you look at what China is known to have delivered so far, it was mostly dual-use goods – it was components, sub-components, that could be used in weapon systems,” he told Reuters. “This is what has been reported so far. But what we haven’t really seen, at least in the open source, are documented transfers of whole weapon systems.”

Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian defence ministry have not issued a response to the reports.

Vladimir Putin has lowered the bar for Russia to respond with a nuclear attack, amid ongoing discussions in Washington over Ukraine’s use of Western-provided long-range weapons.

The Russian president has said any conventional attack on Moscow that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.

Putin claimed that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if Moscow received “reliable information” about the start of a massive launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.

Speaking at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, which considers changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, Mr Putin announced that a revised version of the document says that an attack against Russia by a non-nuclear power with the support of a nuclear power will be seen as their “joint attack on the Russian Federation”.

The threat aims to discourage the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Ukraine’s desire to use western missiles to strike targets in Russia will not be the “sole issue” in Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Sir Keir is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where Mr Zelensky will present his plan for the next stage of the war to his allies.

The PM said: “I do think it’s going to take quite a bit of time at the UN General Assembly. And I think that’s really important, because it’s at a critical stage.

“Obviously, President Zelensky has a plan that he wants to walk through with all of us – we knew that was going to happen.

“The support for Ukraine is resolute. We supply quite a lot of capability already under the last government; we’ve increased that under this government – that’s not a criticism of the last government – and we will always listen very carefully to what Ukraine says it needs by way of capability.

“I don’t think that will be a discussion, I don’t think the victory plan will be about a sole issue like long-range missiles, it will be about a strategic, overarching route for Ukraine to find a way through this and succeed against Russian aggression.”

When pressed on Storm Shadows, he said: “We will have discussions about a whole range of issues, and we will listen carefully to what President Zelensky’s got to say, and that’s what’s going to happen in the next few days.”

Foreign secretary David Lammy came down heavily on Vladimir Putin in his United Nations Security Council address and said the invasion of Ukraine serves the Russian president’s interests alone.

“Vladimir Putin, when you fire missiles into Ukraine hospitals. We know who you are. When you send mercenaries into African countries. We know who you are. When you murder opponents in European cities. We know who you are,” the foreign secretary told the gathering of member nations in New York last night.

“Your invasion is in your own interests. Yours alone. To expand your mafia state into a mafia empire. An empire built on corruption,” Mr Lammy told the security council.

He also lauded the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts to lead the defence of his country. “President Zelensky, the UK commends you not only for standing up for your people but for standing up for democracy,” he said.

“Seeing you in Kyiv a few weeks ago with Secretary Blinken I saw ordinary people from all walks of life. The soldiers and the civilians. The firefighters and the first responders,” Mr Lammy said.