Ukraine-Russia war latest: Nato says Putin wants to ‘wipe Ukraine off map’ as Russia targets its energy grid
Putin ‘is trying to crush our freedom and way of life’, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte says
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Your support makes all the difference.Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte warned that Vladimir Putin wants to “wipe Ukraine off the map” and could come after other parts of Europe next as he called for the alliance to adopt a wartime mindset.
Talking to security experts and analysts in Brussels, Mr Rutte warned of the prospect that Russia might try to use “swarms of drones” in Europe after seeing their deadly impact in Ukraine.
Moscow is preparing for a long-term confrontation with Ukraine and Nato, he said, adding that the Russian president “is trying to crush our freedom and way of life”.
This morning, Russia launched a large-scale attack using missiles targeting Ukraine’s energy facilities. Ukrainian officials said the entire country was under air raid alerts.
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s military commander admitted fighting around the key city of Pokrovsk was “extremely intense” with analysts estimating Russian forces are now within just a few kilometres of the city.
And Donald Trump has criticised Ukraine’s use of US-supplied missiles for attacks deep into Russian territory. “It’s crazy what’s taking place. It’s crazy. I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia.
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Tusk, Macron hold Ukraine talks with eye on troop security guarantee
The leaders of France and Poland are holding talks on Ukraine, including the possibility of sending European troops there as a security guarantee in the event of a peace deal with Russia, as Europe gears up for the new Trump presidency.
European powers are keen to demonstrate to Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, that they are willing to assume their share of the burden to end the almost three-year war in Ukraine.
Trump has made clear that he will push for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to end the conflict. He has also sharply criticised in the past those European allies who failed to spend NATO’s target two per cent of their national output on defence.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is a staunch supporter of neighbouring Ukraine, will host French President Emmanuel Macron for Thursday’s talks in Warsaw.
“Ukraine will be top of the agenda when the two leaders meet and how to make sure that it is able to resist and be in the best position to negotiate (with Russia),” a French diplomatic source said.
One of the issues on the agenda is the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine should there be a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia, two diplomats said.
That would work as a sort of enhanced bilateral security guarantee, given that there is little chance of Ukraine getting NATO membership or even an invitation in the immediate term, but would also show Trump Europe’s willingness to engage directly.
France and Britain already discussed last month the prospect of sending European troops to Ukraine, while there have also been similar talks between Ukraine, Baltic and Scandinavian countries, five European diplomats said.
Russian forces edge closer to key Ukrainian city as Putin faces ‘massive cost’
Russian forces edge closer to key Ukrainian city as Putin faces ‘massive cost’
Russian forces are just miles away from the key Eastern city
Orban proposes Ukraine Christmas truce and POW swap to Putin, chief of staff says
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a prisoner of war swap with Ukraine to Russian president Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Wednesday, Orban’s chief of staff told a briefing on Thursday.
“One (the ceasefire) was regarded as worthy of consideration ... in the other issue, in the POW swap, (Putin) was supportive,” Gergely Gulyas said.
He said Hungary wanted a ceasefire to last forever, “but now this was about the Christmas days”.
Mr Gulyas did not elaborate on whether Ukraine had been consulted on this proposal.
Ukrainians lay flowers at site of Russian attack that killed 10
Ukrainians have laid flowers at the site of a Russian missile strike earlier this week that killed 10 and wounded nearly two dozen more in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
The country’s interior ministry said in an update this morning that emergency and rescue operations at the site of the attack are ongoing.
“There are probably still people under the rubble of the building,” they wrote.
You can read more about the strike here.
Russia will respond to Ukraine's ATACMS strike, Kremlin says
Russia will respond to Ukraine‘s strike that used US-made ATACMS missiles against Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
Russia said on Wednesday that Ukraine had struck a military airfield on the Azov Sea with six US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, a move that could prompt Moscow to launch another experimental intermediate-range hypersonic missile at Ukraine.
Oscar-winner Mstyslav Chernov returns to Sundance with a new doc about war in Ukraine
Oscar-winner Mstyslav Chernov returns to Sundance with a new doc about war in Ukraine
Oscar-winning documentarian and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov has a new film that delves further into the Russia-Ukraine war
Finland blocks more Russian property acquisitions
Finland’s ministry of defence has said it has blocked seven real estate transactions involving two Russian buyers on grounds that allowing the acquisitions to take place could threaten national security.
Helsinki has sought for some time to limit Russian citizens’ purchase of property near strategic locations based on existing regulations, blocking three transactions in October 2023 and another three in January this year.
“The Ministry of Defence carefully investigates the backgrounds of every real estate buyer coming from outside the EU and EEA,” Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said in a statement, referring to the European Union and the European Economic Area which also includes Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
“Protecting our national security is particularly important in the current security situation,” he added.
The latest decisions concern one property in Pargas on the coast of southern Finland and five properties in Kokemaki in the southwestern part of the country, the ministry said in a statement.
The two people making the transactions were both private individuals with Russian citizenship, it added.
Finland’s government in September proposed to ban most Russian citizens from buying property in the country.
Relations between Finland and neighbouring Russia have soured since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, prompting Helsinki to join the NATO military alliance after decades of non-alignment.
AP photos from Ukraine in 2024 convey wartime horror and hope
AP photos from Ukraine in 2024 convey wartime horror and hope
A man falls to his death from the window of a burning apartment after a Russian air strike
Ukraine military chief visits Pokrovsk area as Russia advances nearby
Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has visited the area of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, amid fears that Russian forces are pushing towards its outskirts.
The city of Pokrovsk is a linchpin of the wider Donetsk region’s defences and Russian troops have spent months pushing towards it, taking almost 400 square miles since the fall of the key city of Avdiivka to the southeast in February. This attack accelerated over the summer, though at great cost in personnel to the Russians.
DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker, puts Russian forces now within just two miles of the city.
Mr Syrskryi described the battles in Pokrovsk as “extremely tough”, adding that Russian forces were “prevailing”.
“The Russian occupiers are throwing forward all available forces, trying to break through the defence of our troops,” he wrote on the Telegram messenger.
Two women pulled from rubble 7 hours after Russian missile strike
Two women pulled from rubble 7 hours after airstrike by Putin’s forces on Ukraine
The women called rescue services on their mobile phones to say they were buried
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