Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ‘won’t accept any Trump peace deal’ as he is ‘obsessed’ with crushing Ukraine
Trump risks collapsing Ukraine’s front lines if he decides to starve Kyiv of military aid, Dmytro Kuleba warns
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Your support makes all the difference.Vladimir Putin will not accept a peace deal pushed by US president-elect Donald Trump, because the Russian president is “obsessed” with “crushing” Ukraine and exposing the weakness of the West, Ukraine’s former foreign minister has warned.
Dmytro Kuleba – who resigned in September – warned that Mr Trump instead risks collapsing Ukraine’s front lines if his administration decides to starve Kyiv of military aid.
Warning that Mr Putin still believes he “can snuff out Ukrainian statehood”, he told Politico: “Ukraine is a personal obsession for Putin, but crushing Ukraine is also a means to accomplish his grand goal – to show to the world how the West is incapable of defending itself or what it stands for.”
It came as Ukrainian officials said an experimental new ballistic missile fired by Russia at Dnipro last week carried multiple dummy warheads but no explosives. Mr Putin has called the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile strike a successful test and claimed it reached its target – a missile and defence facility.
Putin ‘won’t accept Trump peace deal’ as he is ‘obsessed’ with crushing Ukraine, ex-Kyiv minister says
Ukraine’s former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has warned that Vladimir Putin will not accept a peace deal brokered by US president-elect Donald Trump, because the Russian president is “obsessed” with “crushing” Ukraine and exposing the weakness of the West.
Speaking to Politico, Mr Kuleba – who resigned in September – warned that Mr Trump instead risked collapsing Ukraine’s front lines if his administration decides to starve Kyiv of military aid.
Mr Kuleba said: “Putin still believes he can snuff out Ukrainian statehood and crush Ukraine as an independent democracy, and he thinks he’s one step away from exposing the West as weak.
“Ukraine is a personal obsession for Putin, but crushing Ukraine is also a means to accomplish his grand goal – to show to the world how the West is incapable of defending itself or what it stands for.”
Footage appears to show Russia's ICBM launch hitting Ukraine
South Koreans remain opposed to sending arms to Ukraine, polls suggest
South Koreans remain widely opposed to directly supplying arms to Ukraine, polls suggest – despite renewed international requests from Kyiv after North Korean troops were deployed to Russia.
A Ukrainian delegation led by defence minister Rustem Umerov were set to meet South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol – who is suffering record low approval ratings due to domestic scandals – as early as Wednesday, amid media reports that their visit aimed to seek arms support.
“No to the South Korean government planning arms supply to Ukraine,” read a banner held by a small group of protesters outside the presidential office in Seoul.
Most South Koreans viewed growing military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow as a threat, a Gallup Korea poll showed in October, but nevertheless 82 per cent opposed sending military aid, including arms.
“To the South Korean government, there will be fewer benefits for continuing to support (military aid) when there is little domestic support and the relationship with the next US government could deteriorate,” Yang Uk, an analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told Reuters.
Mr Yoon’s low approval ratings, along with little public backing for supply of weapons, are burdens sapping his mandate on foreign policy, he added.
Georgian ruling party nominates hardline ex-soccer player for president
Georgia’s ruling party has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili, a fierce critic of the West who briefly played football for Manchester City in the 1990s, as its candidate for president ahead of next month’s election.
Mr Kavelashvili is a founder member of People’s Power, a splinter group of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and has a record of hardline, anti-Western statements, in September describing the opposition as a “fifth column” who were trying to undermine peace in Georgia at the instruction US officials.
In June, he accused US congressmen of planning for “a direct violent revolution, a plan for the Ukrainisation of Georgia, and an insatiable desire to destroy our country”.
His election is all but assured, as Georgian Dream dominates the electoral college of members of parliament and local government representatives. He is set to succeed President Salome Zourabichvili, who was elected as an ally of the governing bloc, but has become a trenchant critic, accusing it of deliberately derailing Georgia’s EU accession hopes.
Although the president’s post is largely ceremonial, the choice of Mr Kavelashvili is likely to be viewed by the European Union and the United States as a further sign that Georgia is turning away from the West and moving closer to Russia.
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