Ukraine war live updates: Putin says new nuclear missiles ready to deploy soon; West pledges billions to help rebuild Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin downplayed Ukraine’s counteroffensive, saying Moscow had seen a “lull” in action and that Kyiv was seeing heavy losses, according to comments reported by Reuters that cited Russian news agency Interfax.

Ukraine could lose its fighting capacity as a result of those purported losses, Putin claimed, adding that Kyiv already understood that it had “no chance” in its…