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KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he expected the situation to "stabilise" in Ukrainian regions annexed by the Kremlin after Moscow suffered military setbacks and lost several key towns to Kyiv.

Ukraine earlier claimed victories over Russian troops in the eastern region of Lugansk as the Kremlin vowed to recapture territory lost in a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive.

In recent weeks, Ukraine's forces, bolstered by Western weapons, have wrested Russian troops out of a string of towns and villages in the southern Kherson region and the eastern separatist strongholds of Lugansk and Donetsk.

"We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilise," Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call.

Just hours earlier, the Ukrainian-appointed head of Lugansk Sergiy Gaiday announced that the "de-occupation of the Lugansk region has already officially started".

A senior Russian lawmaker called on military officials to tell the truth about developments on the ground in Ukraine following the string of bruising defeats.

"We need to stop lying," the chairman of the lower house of parliament's defence committee, Andrei Kartapolov, told a journalist from state-run media.

"The reports of the defence ministry do not change. The people know. Our people are not stupid. This can lead to loss of credibility."

'Not be returned' 

Putin on Wednesday signed into legislation his annexation of four Ukrainian territories — including Lugansk — as the European Union agreed a new round of sanctions against Moscow in response.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would take back land it lost to Kyiv within the annexed regions, vowing they would be "Russian forever and will not be returned."

Putin last week signed agreements with the Moscow-installed leaders of the four regions to become subjects of the Russian Federation, despite condemnation from Kyiv and the West.

The four territories — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — create a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Together, the five regions make up around 20 per cent of Ukraine.

The Kremlin annexed the territories after hastily conducting referendums, denounced as void by Kyiv and its Western allies, but has yet to confirm what areas exactly of those regions are being annexed.

Russian forces do not have full control over Kherson or Zaporizhzhia and recently lost control of several settlements in Donetsk.

“The way we are regrouping [our forces] along the front means that we can gather strength and strike back,” Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of Kherson region, told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Ukraine’s forces “won’t enter Kherson. Its impossible”, he said referring to the region’s eponymous main city.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces were making “rapid and powerful” gains and had retaken “dozens” of villages in the east and south.

The latest battlefield maps from Moscow showed that Russian troops had left many areas in Kherson, including along the west bank of the Dnipro River.

In Kharkiv, the maps indicated that Russian forces had almost entirely abandoned the east bank of the Oskil River, potentially giving the Ukrainians space to shell key Russian troop transportation and supply corridors.

While Russian authorities remain largely silent about the extent of the setbacks, war correspondents of pro-Kremlin media admitted that troops were in trouble.

“There won’t be any good news in the near future. Not from the Kherson front nor from Lugansk,” newspaper journalist Alexander Kots wrote on his Telegram channel with over 640,000 followers.

Near Lyman, a strategic transport hub in Donetsk that Kyiv recaptured over the weekend, a Ukrainian paratrooper told AFP that forces were “exhausted”.

‘Chase them’ 

“We’ll rest for a bit and then we will go further,” said the young, bearded soldier. “We will chase them,” he added.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told Zelensky that another $625 million in military assistance was on the way.

The new batch includes more HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which have allowed Ukraine to strike Russian command depots and arms stockpiles far behind the front line.

From the EU, there were no details about the nature of fresh sanctions agreed against Russia.

The latest package — the eighth since Russia’s invasion in February — is now going through a final approval procedure which, if no objections emerge, will be published and come into effect on Thursday, the Czech Republic’s EU ambassador said on Twitter.

Otherwise, Russia insisted that it should be part of an international probe into leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline that carries gas from Russia to Europe. Sweden has blocked off the area pending an investigation.

Moscow has accused the West of being behind blasts that lead to four leaks on the Baltic Sea pipelines.

Both Moscow and Washington have denied involvement.

CANBERRA — A former government aide allegedly sexually assaulted inside Australia’s federal parliament gave her first direct testimony on Wednesday to the high-profile rape trial.

Brittany Higgins alleges she was raped by former political aide Bruce Lehrmann, 27, on a couch inside a minister’s office in the early hours of March 23, 2019.

The allegations first came to light through media reports in early 2021 and — on the back of the global #MeToo movement — sparked national protests and multiple investigations.

Lehrmann denies the charge.

Higgins, questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday, described the boozy culture at the centre of Australian politics.

She said that on one occasion before the alleged rape, Lehrmann had tried to kiss her after the pair had been drinking.

“We’d been drinking. On a Wednesday, everyone will drink at the end of a sitting day. It was quite late, I believe it was around 9:30pm,” she told the court.

“At that point he made an approach at me and attempted to kiss me. I rebuffed the kiss, mostly out of shock.”

The court heard that on the night of the alleged rape, Higgins had consumed 11 alcoholic drinks in the space of some four-and-a-half hours.

Higgins told the court she had paid for just two drinks that night, and Lehrmann had bought her multiple rounds.

Lehrmann, wearing a pastel tie and dark navy suit, was present in the courtroom for Higgins’s testimony.

Both Lehrmann and Higgins were political aides for Australia’s previous centre-right government.

Pregnancy fears 

The supreme court in Australia’s capital Canberra was played tapes on Wednesday of two separate police interviews conducted with Higgins in the wake of the allegations.

“It was never something that I wanted to voluntarily share with people,” Higgins said in a police interview conducted in February 2021.

“I find it much easier to tell strangers than I do to tell family, it’s really hard.”

Higgins told police in a second interview — conducted in May 2021 — that she feared she might be pregnant.

“I remember buying a pregnancy test in Perth. There was a convenience store not far from my hotel,” she told police.

“I was quite slow on the uptake of processing everything. I was late and I was stressed.”

The trial made front-page news after opening on Tuesday, when Lehrmann’s lawyers rejected the charge and reportedly said he had faced “trial by media”.

A number of prominent Australian politicians, government officials and journalists are expected to give evidence in the course of the trial.

SEOUL — The South Korean and US militaries fired a volley of missiles into the sea in response to North Korea firing a ballistic missile over Japan, Seoul said on Wednesday, as global condemnation mounted over Pyongyang’s likely longest-ever test.

Nuclear-armed North Korea fired an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) over Japan for the first time in five years on Tuesday, prompting Tokyo to issue evacuation warnings for some residents.

South Korea and the United States staged a drill of their own in response, firing ground-to-ground missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, Seoul’s military said.

Both militaries fired two ATACMS short-range ballistic missiles into the water “to precisely strike a virtual target”, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The military also confirmed that a South Korean missile failed soon after it was launched and crashed, without causing any casualties.

South Korean and US fighter jets had carried out a bombing drill at a virtual target in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday.

The joint drills aim to “make sure that we have the military capabilities at the ready to respond to provocations by the North if it comes to that”, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN.

South Korea’s military also announced on Wednesday that the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier would return to the area, having already conducted joint drills with Seoul’s navy last month.

Pyongyang’s Tuesday launch is part of a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by the isolated regime, which recently revised its nuclear laws, with leader Kim Jong-un declaring his country an “irreversible” nuclear power.

US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decried the launch “in the strongest terms” while South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called it a “provocation”.

The United Nations Security Council was set to meet on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

The IRBM flew about 4,600km, Seoul and Tokyo said, likely the longest-ever distance for a North Korean test, which are typically fired on a “lofted” trajectory to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.

Officials and experts said it was likely a Hwasong-12 IRBM, a nuclear-capable missile that North Korea likely first tested in 2017, which has a range that could put US bases on Guam within reach.

North Korea has not commented on the launch in state media.

‘Ridicule’ response 

“Regardless of today’s missile launch by the US and South Korean military, North Korea’s plan to carry out its next nuclear test will not change,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

“It’s likely that Pyongyang’s going to ridicule today’s missile launch — especially since one of the launches failed — and proceed with their next nuclear test, given the law changes they made on the nuclear use in September.”

The Tuesday test was Pyongyang’s fifth missile launch in 10 days.

The spate of launches comes as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have been ramping up joint military drills to counter Pyongyang’s growing threats, staging the first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years on Friday.

That came just days after the US and South Korean navies conducted large-scale exercises.

Such drills infuriate North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Seoul last week and toured the heavily fortified De-militarised Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, on a trip to underscore her country’s commitment to South Korea’s defence.

About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to help protect it from the North.

South Korean and US officials have been warning for months that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test, saying last week that this could happen soon after Pyongyang’s key ally China holds a Communist Party congress from October 16.

Pyongyang has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006, most recently in 2017.

SEOUL — North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years on Tuesday, prompting Tokyo to activate its missile alert system and issue a rare warning for people to take shelter.

The latest launch — which the United States branded “reckless and dangerous” — comes in a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by North Korea, which recently revised its laws to declare itself an “irreversible” nuclear power.

The last time Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan was in 2017, at the height of a period of “fire and fury” when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un traded insults with US president Donald Trump.

South Korea said the intermediate-range ballistic missile flew some 4,500 kilometres — possibly a new distance record for North Korean tests, which are usually conducted on a lofted trajectory to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the launch a “provocation” that violated UN regulations, and vowed a “stern response”, in a statement issued by his office.

Later Tuesday, South Korean and US fighter jets carried out a “precision bombing drill” in response, Seoul’s military said, with South Korean F-15Ks dropping joint direct attack munitions at a target in the Yellow Sea.

The drills aimed to demonstrate the allies’ “capabilities to conduct a precision strike at the origin of provocations”, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement.

On the same day, eight Japanese and four US fighter jets carried out a joint drill in airspace west of the country’s Kyushu region, according to Japan’s joint staff.

The forces “confirmed their readiness and demonstrated domestically and abroad the strong determination of Japan and the United States to deal with any situation”, it said in a statement.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described Pyongyang’s latest test as “an act of violence”, while European Union head Charles Michel called it “an unjustified aggression”.

The US State Department said the “reckless and dangerous launch” posed “an unacceptable threat to the Japanese public”.

Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile could have been a Hwasong-12.

Pyongyang used Hwasong-12s the last two times it fired missiles over Japan — in August and September 2017 — tweeted Chad O’Carroll of specialist site NK News.

Japan activated its missile warning system and urged people in two northern regions of the country to take shelter early Tuesday.

Nuclear message 

The Tuesday test is Pyongyang’s fifth missile launch in 10 days and sends a clear message to the United States, Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha University in Seoul, told AFP.

The missiles “put South Korea, Japan, and Guam within range”, and show that Pyongyang could hit US bases with nukes if war broke out on the Korean Peninsula, he said.

“As these are missiles that can carry nuclear warheads, the launch also has a political goal of once again declaring North Korea a de facto nuclear power and showing its complete de-nuclearisation is impossible,” Park added.

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have been ramping up joint military drills to counter Pyongyang’s growing threats, staging the first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years Friday.

That came just days after the US and South Korean navies conducted large-scale exercises.

Such drills infuriate North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Seoul last week and toured the heavily fortified De-militarised Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, on a trip to underscore her country’s “ironclad” commitment to South Korea’s defence.

About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to help protect it from the North.

Significant escalation 

Firing a missile over Japan represented a “significant escalation” by North Korea, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University.

“Pyongyang is still in the middle of a provocation and testing cycle,” he added.

South Korean and US officials have been warning for months that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test, saying last week that this could happen soon after Pyongyang’s key ally China holds a Communist Party congress from October 16.

Pyongyang has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006, most recently in 2017.

“North Korea always starts with a low-level provocation and gradually raises the level to attract media attention from all over the world,” said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

“Their final provocation will probably be a nuclear test,” he said, adding that North Korea had taken the unusual and “very aggressive” step of overflying Japan to attract more attention.

“By launching the missile over Japan, they are showing that their nuclear threat is not just targeting South Korea.”

KRYVYI RIG, Ukraine — A Kremlin-installed official in the south Ukraine region of Kherson urged residents to remain calm on Tuesday as reports were surfacing that Kyiv's forces were making sweeping gains into Russian-controlled territory.

Moscow this month called up hundreds of thousands of troops to bolster the military in eastern Ukraine where Kyiv's forces have recently made lightning advances and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu meanwhile put the number at 200,000 as of Tuesday.

Ukraine's southern region of Kherson was one of the first where Kyiv's defences collapsed in February after Russian forces invaded but Ukrainian forces recently have accelerated a months-long offensive to recapture it.

"Our artillery and fighter jets are hitting enemy forces that enter the sovereign territory of Russia," said Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region.

"There is no reason to panic," he added in his message to residents of the Black Sea region on social media.

The reported gains into Kherson are a threat to the Kremlin's claim to have formally integrated the agriculturally rich region with a pre-war population of around 1 million people into the Russian Federation last week.

According to Russian news agencies and unconfirmed social media reports, unidentified forces have attacked occupying Russian units and officials, while Ukrainian forces have destroyed river bridges, leaving Russian units vulnerable to being trapped.

Some 80 per cent of the region is estimated to be under Russian control.

"Yes, you can hear explosions at a distance, but they're infrequent," Stremousov said in his message.

He called on Kherson’s residents to remain calm after his superior, Vladimir Saldo, conceded in an interview that Ukrainian forces had made a “breakthrough” in the region’s north east, at the village of Dudchany along the Dniepr River.

But he claimed the push was short-lived and that Russian forces had pushed back again the advancing Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian officials have so far remained silent about any concrete territorial gains but the head of the presidential administration Andriy Yermak on Tuesday posted emojis of watermelons on social media, hinting at gains in the region famous for the fruit.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address to the nation Monday evening said that “there are new liberated towns and villages in several regions”.

“Fierce fighting continues in many sectors of the frontline,” he added, claiming that “more and more occupiers are trying to escape”.

Western officials have said that as many as 20,000 Russian troops could be at risk of being trapped on the western bank of the Dniepr River, which cuts diagonally through the region and flows into the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s apparent gains in Kherson follow a similar trend in the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Dontetsk in recent weeks, with a series of setbacks coinciding with Moscow’s claim to have annexed the regions.

The four territories — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south and Donetsk and Lugansk in the east — create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Together, all five make up around 20 per cent of Ukraine.

Shoigu said the Russian men mobilised to back up Moscow’s forces were being trained at “80 training grounds and six training centres”.

“As of today more than 200,000 people have entered the army,” Shoigu during a televised meeting.

The Kremlin’s mobilisation has led to some protests and an exodus of men of military age — with tens of thousands fleeing the draft, mainly to ex-Soviet neighbours.

Kazakhstan said Tuesday that more than 200,000 Russians had crossed into it in two weeks.