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Kremlin threatens British targets inside and outside Ukraine and says UK and France bear ‘direct responsibility’ for Ukrainian strikes on Russia
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Politics — Taz Ali
Number of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen, Home Office figures show
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels has fallen, according to Home Office figures.
At the end of June, that figure stood at a new low of 16,021, 50% lower than a year earlier and down 70% on the peak of 56,018 in September 2023.
It is the lowest figure since data was first reported in 2022. The Labour Government has pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of this parliament.
While we wait to see what more comes of those Russian threats, we have some figures from the Home Office on migration. Posts incoming…
Zakharova took particular aim at the UK, according to the Tass report of a briefing this morning, taking issue with Burnham’s decision to hand over British classified information that will allow Ukraine to manufacture its own Storm Shadow missiles.
She did also mention a deal by the French aerospace and defence company Safran to supply guidance systems for the Ukrainian FP-5 “Flamingo” cruise missile.
“Those in the west who make and implement these decisions must know that they are playing with fire,” Zakharova was quoted as saying.
“The consequences could be completely unpredictable, including for themselves.”
Zakharova said the UK and France bear “direct responsibility” for any Ukrainian attacks carried out on Russian territory, Tass reported.
She was quoted by the Russian news agency as saying:
It’s clear that by transferring so-called assembly functions to the Ukrainians, London and Paris are frantically trying to absolve themselves of responsibility for carrying out strikes deep into our country’s territory.
It won’t work. You in Paris, London, Berlin, and other capitals bear direct responsibility for participating in terrorist attacks.”
She also included Germany in her tirade this morning, saying Berlin “dreams of creating the strongest army in Europe”, while the UK and France “are announcing steps to transfer military technology to [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy”.
She said the three countries were “fuelling and stoking the Ukrainian crisis”.
Russia threatens to strike UK military sites over its help with supplying weapons technology to Ukraine
Russia has warned the UK and France that they were “playing with fire” by supplying missile technology to Ukraine, saying Moscow would retaliate by striking British military sites in Ukraine and elsewhere, according to Russian media.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Russia would respond to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons by hitting any British military facilities in Ukraine and beyond, Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency reported.
It came after Andy Burnham announced earlier this week that the UK government will release the blueprints for British-made components for the Scalp missile , a French version of the UK’s Storm Shadow cruise missile, allowing Ukraine to work with France to produce its own version.
Opening summary: McFadden hails 'inspiring' jobs scheme for young people as Burnham due to make first Wales trip as PM
Hello, and welcome to our UK politics blog. It’s all work, work, work this morning, with the government sounding a triumphant note over its jobs guarantee scheme to get young people into work, while the prime minister is due to visit Wales to speak to workers and apprentices.
The work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, declared “work is good for you” during a trip to Boots’s headquarters in Nottingham yesterday, where he met some of the first cohort of 18- to 21-year-olds recruited under the scheme. “It’s bad for your mental health to be sitting at home, isolated,” he added.
Related: ‘Work is good for you’: how UK scheme could help tackle youth mental health crisis
McFadden was put to work earlier in the day when he visited Sainsbury’s in south-west London, stacking shelves in the bread aisle with Andy Burnham and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan , after the government announced the supermarket would offer 10,000 work experience placements for young people. We covered the main points of that announcement in yesterday’s live blog.
Tackling youth employment has become a key priority for the government, as it hopes to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (or, as the ugly acronym has it, Neet ). About 1 million young people fall into this category, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to release the latest figures today.
On the media round this morning, McFadden said speaking to young people yesterday was “inspiring”.
“Just a matter of weeks ago, these young people had been on the dole, sometimes for two, three or four years,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“They told me how they’d lost hope, they’d lost confidence, they’d lost belief in the future. And now, in some cases, just three or four weeks into work, that was changing.”
Burnham will make his first official visit to Wales as prime minister, where he will speak to Welsh workers and apprentices about “reindustrialisation, jobs and the cost of living”.
“I am in south Wales today because the answers to the UK’s challenges will not come from an echo chamber,” Burnham said. “They will come from the places that know their own strengths, and from a government willing to listen and then act.
“Good jobs in every community, in every part of the UK. That is what I want every leader in this country signed up to.”
Burnham is also due to speak to ministers in the Plaid Cymru government that ended Labour’s 100-year control of Wales in the May Senedd elections. The prime minister is reportedly also speaking with the boss of Tata Steel, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, in Port Talbert, where the company had closed down its blast furnaces in 2024, resulting in the loss of about 2,800 jobs. On Sunday, Alex Daniel had this report on Tata Steel’s Llanwern plant in south Wales, which is operating at roughly half capacity because it is struggling to compete with cheap imported steel from Asia.
The prime minister is due to speak to the media from 10am, we will bring you the latest lines once we get them.
Burnham’s Wales trip forms part of his summer listening tour around the UK before parliament returns next week, but Scotland is seemingly feeling snubbed. Scottish first minister John Swinney said he was “surprised” Burnham did not make a trip to Scotland as part of his tour, but the prime minister confirmed he will meet the leaders of the devolved nations in a forum in October.
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels has fallen, according to Home Office figures.
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Taz Ali. Published 27 Aug 2026, 09:41 am.
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