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Russia says it held exercise with strategic nuclear

weapons

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Ukraine's Zelenskiy plans to buy Gripen fighter jets from

Sweden

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Russia and Ukraine carry out heavy attacks overnight

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US says Putin-Trump summit plans on hold

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Russia says summit takes time to prepare

By Dmitry Antonov, Pavel Polityuk and Simon Johnson

MOSCOW/KYIV/LINKOPING, Sweden, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Russia

said on Wednesday it had carried out a major training exercise

involving nuclear weapons, a day after the United States

announced a delay in plans for a second summit between

presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on the Ukraine war.

The Kremlin released video showing General Valery Gerasimov,

head of the General Staff, reporting to Putin on the drills.

Russia said it fired missiles from ground launchers, submarines

and aircraft, including intercontinental ballistic weapons that

are capable of striking the United States.

At key moments in the war in Ukraine, Putin has issued

reminders of Russia's nuclear might as a warning signal to Kyiv

and its allies in the West. NATO has also been conducting

nuclear deterrence exercises this month.

In a separate development, Sweden said it had signed a

letter of intent to export Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, as

European governments move to boost Kyiv's defences in a war that

has ground on for three years and eight months, and shows no

sign of ending soon.

Ukrainian pilots have been in Sweden to test the Gripen, a

rugged and relatively low-cost option compared to aircraft such

as the U.S. F-35.

"We have started the work to obtain Gripens... and expect

the future contract to allow us to acquire no less than 100 such

jets," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a

visit to Swedish defence manufacturer Saab. Kyiv aims

to receive and start using them next year, he said.

TRUMP DOESN'T WANT WASTED MEETING

Russia and Ukraine pounded each other with heavy overnight

missile attacks as renewed uncertainty surrounded the U.S.-led

peace effort.

After months of stalled diplomacy, Putin and Trump spoke

last week and unexpectedly announced they would hold a summit in

Hungary that the Kremlin said could take place within a couple

of weeks.

But following a phone call on Monday between the two

countries' top diplomats, the White House said the next day that

Trump had no plans to meet Putin "in the immediate future".

Trump said he did not want to have a wasted meeting - something

the Kremlin said Putin also wanted to avoid.

Russian officials said, however, that preparations continued

for a summit.

"The dates haven't been set yet, but thorough preparation is

needed before then, and that takes time," Kremlin spokesperson

Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

A U.S. official said the summit had not been cancelled, but

the U.S. side was focusing for now on Trump's upcoming visit to

Asia.

The delay came after Russia reiterated to the U.S. its

previous terms for reaching a peace deal, including that Ukraine

cede control of the whole of the southeastern Donbas region,

three sources told Reuters.

That amounted to a rejection of Trump's statement last week

that both sides should stop at the current front lines.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by

state news agency RIA as saying he could not confirm that Moscow

had conveyed its position as reported by Reuters.

SHARES IN EUROPEAN DEFENCE COMPANIES RISE

Through the first nine months of his second term, Trump has

pressed for an end to the conflict, the deadliest in Europe

since World War Two.

Sharply critical at times of Zelenskiy, he has also

expressed frustration with Putin - but has not followed through

on his repeated threats of new sanctions against Moscow.

Shares in European defence companies rose on news of the

delay to the Putin-Trump summit. Most European governments

strongly back Kyiv and have pledged to raise their military

spending to help Ukraine meet its defence needs.

European Union leaders are due on Thursday to discuss a

proposal to use frozen Russian assets in Europe to extend a $163

billion loan to Ukraine. Moscow says the scheme amounts to

theft, and has said it will retaliate.

A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Kyiv must have

the freedom to choose how to spend the funds, and should not be

limited to buying arms from European countries.

Ukraine's military said late on Tuesday that it used

Franco-British Storm Shadow air-launched missiles to strike a

chemical plant in southern Russia's Bryansk region.

Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that Russian attacks

had killed six people, including two children, in Kyiv and the

nearby region, and forced power outages nationwide.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha appealed to Kyiv's

international partners to mobilise "additional energy support"

to prevent a humanitarian crisis as winter approaches.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv,

Simon Johnson in Linkoping, Sweden, Tom Balmforth in London,

Steve Holland in Washington and Reuters bureaux in Moscow, Kyiv

and Stockholm; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Ros

Russell)