Summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here’s a summary of the latest events:
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited the frontline city of Bakhmut. He met military representatives and handed out awards to soldiers, his office has said.
A blast ripped through the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhhorod gas exporting pipeline that leads from Russia through Ukraine. Reuters reported that three people died in the incident.
Ukraine was warned to prepare for new Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure. Its prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Moscow wanted his people to spend Christmas and new year in darkness.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said the situation in four areas of eastern Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – that Moscow illegally annexed in September, was “extremely difficult”. Russia’s illegal annexation of the four territories, which together make up 15% of Ukraine, marked the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war and was condemned by Kyiv and its western allies as illegal. Russia has suffered acute setbacks in the areas, halting its ambitions.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, on Tuesday condemned Iran’s support for Russia in its war in Ukraine and the ongoing repression of opposition in the country, but said the EU would continue to work with Iran on restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “Necessary meeting with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Jordan amid deteriorating Iran-EU relations,” Borrell tweeted ahead of a regional conference being hosted by Jordan.
Ukraine is accelerating efforts to erase the vestiges of Soviet and Russian influence from its public spaces by pulling down monuments and renaming hundreds of streets to honour its own artists, poets, soldiers, independence leaders and others – including heroes of this year’s war. Following Moscow’s invasion that has killed or injured untold numbers of civilians and soldiers and pummelled buildings and infrastructure, Ukraine’s leaders have shifted a campaign that once focused on dismantling its communist past into one of “de-Russification”.
China says Chinese-Russian naval drills beginning on Wednesday aim to “further deepen” cooperation between the sides whose unofficial anti-western alliance has gained strength since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, AP reports. The drills will be held off the coast of Zhejiang province south of Shanghai until next Tuesday, according to a brief notice posted Monday by China’s eastern theatre command under the ruling Communist party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.
Putin was in Belarus on Monday, where he and the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, hardly mentioning the war raging in nearby Ukraine, conducted a late-night joint news conference, Reuters reports. Russian forces used Belarus as a launchpad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in February, and there has been Russian and Belarusian military activity there for months.
Asked about Putin’s comment dismissing the prospect of Russia “absorbing” Belarus, the US state department spokesperson Ned Price said it should be treated as the “height of irony”, given it was “coming from a leader who is seeking at the present moment, right now, to violently absorb his other peaceful nextdoor neighbour”. He added that Washington would continue to watch very closely whether or not Belarus would provide additional support to Putin and would respond “appropriately” if it did.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik, in Minsk ahead of Putin’s visit. The foreign ministers discussed “specific topical issues, the efforts to counter the illegal sanctions of the west, as well as interaction on international platforms”, Belarusian state media cited Belarus’s foreign ministry as saying, as well as having “touched upon trade and economic cooperation matters and the implementation of joint projects”.
Zelenskiy urged Georgia on Monday to allow its jailed former president to go abroad for treatment to safeguard his health.
Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was initially credited with implementing reforms. He was later sentenced to six years in prison on abuse of power charges his supporters say are politically motivated.Belarus’s defence ministry said it had completed a series of inspections of its armed forces’ military preparedness, hours ahead of Putin’s visit to Minsk. Weeks of military manoeuvres and inspections have raised fears in Kyiv that Belarus could be preparing to take a more active role in the conflict once again.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine was ready for “all possible defence scenarios” against Moscow and its ally. “Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus, is our constant priority,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday after a meeting with Ukraine’s top military command. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.”
We’re pausing this live blog for now, but will reopen it should there be any major developments.
Updated
Two Turkish military transport aircraft that had been stranded in Ukraine since the beginning of the war 10 months ago safely returned to Turkey on Tuesday, the defence ministry has said.
Reuters reports that the two Airbus A400M military transport planes of the Turkish air force had flown to Kyiv-Boryspil airport just as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The defence ministry said the two aircraft had gone to Kyiv to deliver humanitarian supplies and evacuate Turkish citizens, but became stuck at Kyiv’s airport when Ukrainian air space was closed due to the outbreak of hostilities.
The two aircraft left Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon and arrived at the airport in the central Turkish city of Kayseri in the evening, a defence ministry statement said.
Updated
Ukraine should prepare for new Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, warns its prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, saying Moscow wants his people to spend Christmas and new year in darkness.
He made his remarks after a series of Russian missile and drone strikes that Ukrainian officials say have left electricity supplies in the Kyiv region at a critically low level, with less than half the capital’s power needs being met.
Reuters quotes him as telling a government meeting: “Repairs continue but the situation remains really difficult,” adding that eight nuclear power units and 10 thermal power stations were operating, but that the energy deficit was “significant”.
Russian terrorists will do everything to leave Ukrainians without electricity for the new year. It is important for them for Christmas and the new year to take place in darkness in Ukraine. That’s why we should prepare for new attacks.
Moscow says attacks on basic infrastructure are militarily legitimate. Ukraine says attacks intended to cause civilian misery are a war crime.
Updated
Ukraine has revoked the press accreditation of the Danish state broadcaster DR’s correspondent over allegations of having spread Russian propaganda, DR has said, prompting denials from both the journalist and her employer.
Reuters reports that Matilde Kimer, an award-winning journalist who has covered Ukraine and Russia for DR since 2014, said Ukraine initially revoked her accreditation in August.
At a December meeting in Kyiv, the Ukrainian security service (SBU) alleged that she was spreading Russian propaganda and that her social media posts appeared to sympathise with Russia, Kimer told Reuters. According to her, the security service did not provide evidence of their allegations.
Neither the SBU, nor the Ukrainian defence ministry immediately responded to written requests for comment when contacted by Reuters.
DR’s foreign policy editor, Niels Kvale, called the allegations “completely undocumented and crazy” and Kimer herself denied biased reporting.
I have not engaged in propaganda. I work with no other task than to inform Danes about what is going on in Ukraine.
Kimer, 41, was also expelled from Russia in August amid Moscow’s crackdown on western media outlets following its invasion.
The Danish foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, told Reuters he would work to resolve the matter at a political level.
I myself have followed Matilde Kimer’s coverage of the war with great interest. This is a journalist whose journalistic integrity, as far as I know, has not been questioned.
Updated
About a quarter of Ukraine’s population – some 10 million people – may suffer from a mental health disorder in relation to the conflict, the World Health Organization’s representative in the country, Jarno Habicht, has said.
Disorders likely to be seen include anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by distressing events. Cases are rising after 10 months of conflict, prompting a separate UN agency to launch online support services.
Reuters reports that Ukraine’s health care system has been under pressure since Russia invaded in February. So far, there have been at least 700 attacks on its health care system, WHO data shows, and Russia’s increase in attacks on critical infrastructure since October has added to the challenges by causing blackouts. Moscow denies targeting civilians.
Habicht said respiratory diseases would increase with the cold weather and insufficient heating, as would car accidents on unlit streets due to blackouts.
The health system is functioning. But as it is 10 months it’s a huge stress test. We are constantly seeing new challenges.
Updated
In the UK’s House of Commons, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is giving evidence to the liaison committee.
He is asked if he will “commit to supporting Ukraine” amid concern about his audit of the war. Sunak says he would not read too much into the reports about the audit. Look at the support for Ukraine he has shown. Of course he will continue to back Ukraine, he says.
Sunak says the UK wants to give Ukraine what they need. The priorities are air defence, armoured vehicles and artillery ammunition. He says munitions are being replenished. The issue is less money than supply chain capacity, he says.
Asked about homelessness among Ukrainian refugees in the UK, Sunak starts by paying tribute to families who have hosted those who have fled the war. He says the thank-you payments were recently extended, and made more generous. And he adds that £150m has gone to councils to allow them to mitigate homelessness.
Lord Harrington, the former minister for refugees, says payments should be doubled (from £350 to £700). They only went up to £500 for families after a year of hosting someone. He asks Sunak: can’t you be more generous?
Sunak says some financial assistance has been provided, but adds that it is also a matter of what can be afforded.
Updated
There are conflicting views in Russia on whether or not to launch a counteroffensive in Ukraine, a senior state department official said on Tuesday, but reiterated that Washington would continue its support of Kyiv regardless of which scenario played out.
“Certainly there are some [within Russia] who I think would want to pursue offensives in Ukraine. There are others who have real questions about the capacity for Russia to actually do that,” a senior state department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.
Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhniy, told the Economist last week that Russia was preparing 200,000 fresh troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus as early as January, but more likely in spring, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russia intends to give Iran advanced military components in exchange for hundreds of drones, the British defence minister, Ben Wallace, said on Tuesday.
“Iran has become one of Russia’s top military backers,” Wallace told parliament as part of a statement on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“In return for having supplied more than 300 kamikaze drones, Russia now intends to provide Iran with advanced military components, undermining both Middle East and international security.”
Updated
Vladimir Putin has made a rare admission of his country’s military challenges in the 10-month-old war in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited a key city in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has failed to capture despite months of relentless shelling.
In a video message addressed to Russia’s security services, Putin said the situation in the four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions was “extremely complicated”, and urged security agencies to intensify their efforts to identify “traitors, spies and diversionists”.
The video was released on a special holiday dedicated to Russia’s powerful security services.
Putin’s speech sheds light on Moscow’s growing acknowledgment that the war in Ukraine is not going to plan. Earlier this month, the Russian leader said the conflict in Ukraine could turn into a “long-term process”, after Moscow was forced to abandon some of the territories it annexed illegally in September, notably fleeing the city of Kherson.
Putin’s message on Tuesday came hours before Zelenskiy’s office announced that the Ukrainian leader had made a surprise visit to the embattled city of Bakhmut, which has largely been ravaged after nearly five months of fighting and has been referred to by both sides as the “Bakhmut meat-grinder”.
Updated
Poland’s PKN Orlen will not extend a contract for Russian oil that expires in January 2023, and a second long-term contract will cease to be implemented when sanctions are introduced, Reuters quotes the refiner as saying, confirming an earlier report by the Polish agency PAP.
PKN Orlen will not extend the long-term contract, which expires in January 2023. The only binding contract for the supply of Russian oil in 2023 will cease to be implemented when the sanctions are introduced, for which we are prepared.
Updated
We reported earlier that a blast had ripped through a gas pipeline in central Russia. Citing the Tass news agency, Reuters is now reporting that three people died in the incident.
Reuters says local officials wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the flow of gas through the section of the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline had been cut as of 1.50pm local time (10.50am GMT).
Tass cited local emergency services as saying three people had died and one had been injured.
The Chuvashia regional emergencies ministry said the pipeline had blown up during planned maintenance work near the village of Kalinino, about 90 miles (150km) west of the Volga city of Kazan. It said the resulting gas flare had been extinguished.
The pipeline, built in the 1980s, enters Ukraine via the Sudzha metering point; currently the main route for Russian gas to reach Europe.
The head office of the state-owned gas producer Gazprom and its local branch did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Gazprom had said earlier on Tuesday that it expected to pump 43m cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine through Sudzha in the next 24 hours; a volume in line with recent days.
Updated
The office of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has released several images it says show him in Bakhmut; the scene of heavy recent fighting.
Updated
Many of the millions of Ukrainian refugees in central and eastern Europe plan to mark Christmas early this year in solidarity with their hosts, learning carols in new languages to generate holiday cheer despite fears for relatives back home, the Reuters news agency reports.
Ukrainians generally celebrate Christmas on 7 January – in common with Russians – but the country’s Orthodox church has gradually shifted from Moscow’s orbit in recent years.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, the church has said congregations can now also celebrate on 25 December – something many refugees said they would embrace.
Svetlana Safonova, 48, said when she fled Lviv in March she did not imagine she would have to spend Christmas away from her husband and adult daughter, who serves in the Ukraine army. Safonova, who plans to make traditional potato dumplings with her 9-year-old son and her niece’s family, said:
We would like to celebrate on 25 December to respect Bulgaria and show one more time we are cutting off ties with Russia. We will go to an Orthodox church and pray for peace in Ukraine and for the health of our soldiers and children.
Vasil, 45, and Marina, 36, Khymyshynets who fled their village near Kyiv in March with their two children after a missile or artillery round exploded near their house, now live in a two-room flat in Prague.
The family, who could not afford a tree because they were saving to send gifts to relatives in Ukraine, baked Christmas cookies and taped pine branches and Christmas lights on the wall while the children practiced singing carols in Czech.
We decided to just use some pine branches for the decoration so that it looks good and makes the children happy.
Updated
A blast has ripped through the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhhorod gas exporting pipeline, which leads from Russia through Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing the RBC news outlet.
According to RBC, the regional emergency ministry in Russia’s Chuvash Republic where the accident took place, near the Volga city of Kazan, said it had received a call about a fire at a gas pipeline, without naming the pipeline. It said that, according to preliminary information, no one has been injured in the incident.
Updated
Zelenskiy visits frontline city
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited the frontline city of Bakhmut to meet military representatives and hand out awards to soldiers, his office has said.
Reuters reports that, earlier, he renewed calls for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets in a third air strike on power facilities in six days. In his evening address, he said:
Weapons, shells, new defence capabilities … everything that will give us the ability to speed up the end to this war.
Ukraine’s military said it had shot down 30 of 35 “kamikaze” drones fired by Russia on Monday, mostly at the capital, Kyiv. The unmanned aircraft fly towards their target, then plummet and detonate on impact.
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that five people had been killed in the eastern Donetsk and southern Kherson regions, with eight wounded, and that 21 missiles had knocked out power in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.
Updated
Summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 1pm. Here is a round-up of the days events so far:
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said the situation in four areas of eastern Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – that Moscow illegally annexed in September was “extremely difficult”. Russia’s illegal annexation of the four territories, which together make up 15% of Ukraine, marked the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war and was condemned by Kyiv and its western allies as illegal. Russia has suffered acute setbacks in the areas, halting its ambitions.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday condemned Iran’s support for Russia in its war in Ukraine and the ongoing repression of opposition in the country, but said the EU would continue to work with Iran on restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “Necessary meeting with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Jordan amidst deteriorating Iran-EU relations,” Borrell tweeted ahead of a regional conference being hosted by Jordan.
Ukraine is accelerating efforts to erase the vestiges of Soviet and Russian influence from its public spaces by pulling down monuments and renaming hundreds of streets to honour its own artists, poets, soldiers, independence leaders and others – including heroes of this year’s war. Following Moscow’s invasion that has killed or injured untold numbers of civilians and soldiers and pummeled buildings and infrastructure, Ukraine’s leaders have shifted a campaign that once focused on dismantling its Communist past into one of “de-Russification”.
China says Chinese-Russian naval drills beginning on Wednesday aim to “further deepen” cooperation between the sides whose unofficial anti-western alliance has gained strength since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, AP reports. The drills will be held off the coast of Zhejiang province south of Shanghai until next Tuesday, according to a brief notice posted Monday by China’s eastern theatre command under the ruling Communist party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.
Putin was in Belarus on Monday, where he and the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, hardly mentioning the war raging in nearby Ukraine, conducted a late-night joint news conference, Reuters reports. Russian forces used Belarus as a launchpad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in February, and there has been Russian and Belarusian military activity there for months.
Asked about Putin’s comment dismissing the prospect of Russia “absorbing” Belarus, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said it should be treated as the “height of irony”, given it was “coming from a leader who is seeking at the present moment, right now, to violently absorb his other peaceful nextdoor neighbour”. He added that Washington would continue to watch very closely whether or not Belarus would provide additional support to Putin and would respond “appropriately” if it does.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik, in Minsk ahead of Putin’s visit. The foreign ministers discussed “specific topical issues, the efforts to counter the illegal sanctions of the West, as well as interaction on international platforms”, Belarusian state media cited Belarus’s foreign ministry as saying, as well as having “touched upon trade and economic cooperation matters and the implementation of joint projects”.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Georgia on Monday to allow its jailed former president to go abroad for treatment to safeguard his health.
Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was initially credited with implementing reforms. He was later sentenced to six years in prison on abuse of power charges his supporters say are politically motivated.Belarus’s defence ministry said it had completed a series of inspections of its armed forces’ military preparedness, hours ahead of Putin’s visit to Minsk. Weeks of military manoeuvres and inspections have raised fears in Kyiv that Belarus, which acted as a staging post for Russia to launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, could be preparing to take a more active role in the conflict once again.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was ready for “all possible defence scenarios” against Moscow and its ally. “Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus, is our constant priority,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday after a meeting with Ukraine’s top military command. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.”
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for the time being. My colleague Kevin Rawlinson will be along shortly to bring you all the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday condemned Iran’s support for Russia in its war in Ukraine and the ongoing repression of opposition in the country, but said the EU would continue to work with Iran on restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Necessary meeting with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Jordan amidst deteriorating Iran-EU relations,” Borrell tweeted ahead of a regional conference being hosted by Jordan.
“Stressed need to immediately stop military support to Russia and internal repression in Iran. Agreed we must keep communication open and restore JCPOA on basis of Vienna negotiations.”
The Biden administration has crossed a new line in its support for Ukraine, by indicating its willingness to send Patriot air and missile defence systems to aid in the war against Russia.
The system – which includes powerful missile interceptors and radar – is likely to prove highly effective for Ukraine, and marks a significant step forward in the scope and complexity of the US’s support. But the gift of such prestige systems will present longer-term challenges for Nato.
Joe Biden previously ruled out sending Patriot systems to Ukraine. The shift in policy appears to have arisen from Russia’s extensive targeting of Ukraine’s civilian critical national infrastructure, which has left much of the country without power.
Russia is now seeking to obtain Iranian ballistic missiles to bolster its own depleted stocks, and this, combined with ongoing domestic missile production, means these attacks may persist for a long time. Defending Ukraine from missile attacks is now a humanitarian priority.
The Patriot is one of the world’s most capable air and missile defence systems. Over the past five years Saudi Arabia has shot down hundreds of Iranian-designed missiles fired by the Houthis using the system.
Beyond protecting Ukraine’s cities, the provision of such medium-range air defences may also free up some capacity for Ukraine’s S-300 missile systems, expanding the available air cover over the frontlines.
Damage to buildings in the city of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine.
Updated
Vladimir Putin released a statement on Russia’s Security Services Day, ordering the federal authorities to step up surveillance at the country’s borders to prevent risks from threats abroad and “traitors” at home.
The Russian president went on to say the situation in the illegally annexed parts of Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, is “extremely difficult” and ordered security services to ensure the safety of people living there.
If you’re worried about your screen time, spare a thought for Francis Scarr. Every morning, he settles down in front of his laptop at Broadcasting House and puts on one of Russia-1, Channel One, and NTV, the leading state-controlled TV stations in Russia.
He does this for three to four hours every day. “It can get pretty repetitive,” he said. “I’ve got a knack now for knowing when I can skip through the stuff that isn’t as much of interest.”
If you immerse yourself in just a fraction of this content via Scarr’s Twitter account, some persistent themes become obvious: bloviating military commentators, Fox News-style presentation, and obscure western news clips cheerfully magnified out of all proportion.
There is little question that it is the Kremlin calling the shots. A New York Times story last week quoted an email from the military to state media, providing a misleading video about the March bombing of Mariupol with the message: “Please use in stories.”
As the war has worn on, the coverage has changed. “They won’t ever criticise Putin, and with very rare exceptions they won’t criticise the broad strategy,” Scarr said. “But when things started to go wrong on the ground, they had to acknowledge at least part of the reality.”
Ukraine is accelerating efforts to erase the vestiges of Soviet and Russian influence from its public spaces by pulling down monuments and renaming hundreds of streets to honour its own artists, poets, soldiers, independence leaders and others – including heroes of this year’s war.
Following Moscow’s invasion that has killed or injured untold numbers of civilians and soldiers and pummeled buildings and infrastructure, Ukraine’s leaders have shifted a campaign that once focused on dismantling its Communist past into one of “de-Russification”.
The Associated Press reported:
Streets that honoured revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin or the Bolshevik Revolution were largely already gone; now Russia, not Soviet legacy, is the enemy.
It’s part punishment for crimes meted out by Russia, and part affirmation of a national identity by honouring Ukrainian notables who have been mostly overlooked.
Russia, through the Soviet Union, is seen by many in Ukraine as having stamped its domination of its smaller south-western neighbour for generations, consigning its artists, poets and military heroes to relative obscurity, compared with more famous Russians.
If victors write history, as some say, Ukrainians are doing some rewriting of their own – even as their fate hangs in the balance. Their national identity is having what may be an unprecedented surge, in ways large and small.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken to wearing a black T-shirt that says: “I’m Ukrainian.”
Updated
Chinese-Russian naval drills to ‘further deepen’ ties
China says Chinese-Russian naval drills beginning on Wednesday aim to “further deepen” cooperation between the sides whose unofficial anti-western alliance has gained strength since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, AP reports.
The drills will be held off the coast of Zhejiang province south of Shanghai until next Tuesday, according to a brief notice posted Monday by China’s eastern theatre command under the ruling Communist party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.
“This joint exercise is directed at demonstrating the determination and capability of the two sides to jointly respond to maritime security threats … and further deepen the China-Russia comprehensive new-era strategic partnership of coordination,” the notice said.
Setting aside decades of mutual distrust, China and Russia have stepped up such drills as part of their aligning of foreign policies. China has refused to criticise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations, or even to refer to it as such, has condemned western sanctions against Moscow and has accused Washington and Nato of provoking Vladimir Putin into taking action.
China declared a “no limits” friendship with Russia weeks before the invasion and remains a major customer for Russian oil and gas bought at a heavy discount, although it is not known to have sold military hardware to Moscow.
Updated
Asked about Putin’s comment dismissing the prospect of Russia “absorbing” Belarus, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said it should be treated as the “height of irony”, given it was “coming from a leader who is seeking at the present moment, right now, to violently absorb his other peaceful nextdoor neighbour”.
He added that Washington would continue to watch very closely whether or not Belarus would provide additional support to Putin and would respond “appropriately” if it does.
Updated
Putin was in Belarus on Monday, where he and the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, hardly mentioning the war raging in nearby Ukraine, conducted a late-night joint news conference, Reuters reports.
Russian forces used Belarus as a launchpad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in February, and there has been Russian and Belarusian military activity there for months.
Ukrainian joint forces commander Serhiy Nayev had said he believed the Minsk talks would address “further aggression against Ukraine and the broader involvement of the Belarusian armed forces in the operation against Ukraine, in particular, in our opinion, also on the ground”.
But none of the journalists invited to speak asked Putin or Lukashenko – who has repeatedly said his country will not be drawn into the Ukraine conflict – about the war.
Belarus’s political opposition, largely driven into jail, exile or silence, fears a creeping Russian annexation or “absorption” of its much smaller Slavic neighbour which, like Russia, has been targeted by sweeping western economic sanctions.
Both Putin and Lukashenko dismissed the idea. “Russia has no interest in absorbing anyone,” Putin said. “There is simply no expediency in this … It’s not a takeover, it’s a matter of policy alignment.”
Updated
Putin says situation in illegally annexed parts of Ukraine ‘extremely difficult’
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said the situation in four areas of eastern Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – that Moscow illegally annexed in September was “extremely difficult”. Russia’s illegal annexation of the four territories, which together make up 15% of Ukraine, marked the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war and was condemned by Kyiv and its western allies as illegal.
Russia has suffered acute setbacks in the areas, halting its ambitions.
“The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin said late on Monday in comments translated by Reuters.
Putin’s comments were made on Security Services Day, which is widely celebrated in Russia. Putin also ordered the Federal Security Services (FSB) to step up surveillance of Russian society and the country’s borders to combat what he deemed the “emergence of new threats” from abroad.
Updated
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said the situation in four areas of eastern Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – that Moscow illegally annexed in September was “extremely difficult”. Russia’s illegal annexation of the four territories, which together make up 15% of Ukraine, marked the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war and was condemned by Kyiv and its western allies as illegal. Russia’s ambitions in eastern Ukraine have since ground to a halt, with high-profile retreats from key areas.
Putin’s comments came as Kyiv renewed calls for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets on Monday and as fears grow that Moscow’s ally Belarus – to Ukraine’s north – could open a new invasion front against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians are marking the 300th day of the war. Below are the key recent developments:
Vladimir Putin has travelled to Belarus to meet the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, as fears grow in Kyiv that Moscow is pushing its closest ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine. Putin described the talks as “very productive” and insisted that Russia has no interest in “absorbing” anyone, adding that unspecified “enemies” wanted to stop Russia’s integration with Belarus. Lukashenko said high level Belarusian-Russian negotiations covered “the entire range of matters concerning Belarusian-Russian relations”.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik, in Minsk ahead of Putin’s visit. The foreign ministers discussed “specific topical issues, the efforts to counter the illegal sanctions of the West, as well as interaction on international platforms”, Belarusian state media cited Belarus’s foreign ministry as saying, as well as having “touched upon trade and economic cooperation matters and the implementation of joint projects”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Georgia on Monday to allow its jailed former president to go abroad for treatment to safeguard his health.
Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was initially credited with implementing reforms. He was later sentenced to six years in prison on abuse of power charges his supporters say are politically motivated.Belarus’s defence ministry said it had completed a series of inspections of its armed forces’ military preparedness, hours ahead of Putin’s visit to Minsk. Weeks of military manoeuvres and inspections have raised fears in Kyiv that Belarus, which acted as a staging post for Russia to launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, could be preparing to take a more active role in the conflict once again.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was ready for “all possible defence scenarios” against Moscow and its ally. “Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus, is our constant priority,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday after a meeting with Ukraine’s top military command. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.”
The exiled Belarus opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has warned that the chances of Minsk sending soldiers into Ukraine “may increase in coming weeks”. Kyiv was “right to prepare” for Minsk to join Moscow’s new offensive because the probability “might increase in coming weeks”, Tsikhanouskaya said in an interview with Kyiv Post.
The head of Moldova’s security service, Alexandru Musteata, has warned of a “very high” risk of a new Russian offensive towards his country’s east. Russia still aims to secure a land corridor through Ukraine to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, Musteata said, adding that his agency believed Moscow was looking at several scenarios to reach Moldova and that it was possible an offensive would be launched in January-February or later in March-April.
A Russian drone attack caused “fairly serious” damage in the Kyiv region on Monday and three areas have been left without power supply, governor Oleksiy Kuleba said. Russia unleashed 35 “kamikaze” drones on Ukraine in the early hours of Monday as many people slept, hitting critical infrastructure in and around Kyiv in Moscow’s third air attack on the Ukrainian capital in six days.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 30 out of 35 of the Russian-launched Shahed drones overnight. The Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones were reportedly launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, the force added.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down four US-made HARM anti-radiation missiles over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, in the space of 24 hours, the state-run TASS news agency reported. One person died and several were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the region on Sunday morning, the region’s governor said.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said he believes Russia’s war in Ukraine “will go on” and does not see a prospect for “serious” peace talks in the immediate future. Speaking to reporters during his annual end-of-year conference in New York, Guterres said he “strongly hoped that peace could be reached in 2023, citing the “consequences” for Ukraine’s people, Russian society and the global economy if a deal is not found
Rishi Sunak said that the west should reject unilateral calls by the Kremlin for a ceasefire in Ukraine and focus on “degrading Russia’s capability to regroup and to resupply” at a meeting of European leaders in Latvia. The UK prime minister was speaking at a summit of the 10-country Joint Expeditionary Force in the Latvian capital at a time of heightened concern as to whether Britain will continue the robust support for Ukraine that began under Boris Johnson.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, asked western leaders meeting in Latvia to ramp up the supply of a wide range of weapons systems to his country. He called on leaders “to do everything to accelerate the defeat” of Russia, and said supplying air defence systems to Kyiv would be “one of the most successful steps against Russian aggression and this step is required right now”.
EU ministers have agreed a plan to cap the price of gas, ending months of argument over how to handle the cost of soaring energy prices after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe. A gas price cap will kick in if prices on the main European gas exchange, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), exceed €180 (£157) a megawatt-hour for three consecutive working days, far lower than the European Commission’s original proposal of €275 a MWh, which had been derided by cap-supporting countries as a joke.
The Canadian government has announced plans to seize $26m in sanctioned assets from the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, with the proceeds from the forfeiture to go towards reconstruction in Ukraine and compensation of victims of the Russian invasion. The move marked the first case of the Canadian government using new powers to pursue the seizure of assets belonging to sanctioned individuals, it said in a statement.
