Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky accuses Scholz of opening ‘Pandora’s box’ after call with Putin
Zelensky said the call between Scholz and Putin is part of the latter’s strategy to avoid changing policy
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Your support makes all the difference.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised German chancellor Olaf Scholz for speaking with Russian president Vladimir Putin over the phone for the first time in two years.
Mr Scholz urged Putin to pull his forces out of Ukraine and open talks with Kyiv in order to set the region on course for a “just and lasting peace”.
The Kremlin said that Berlin had requested the conversation, and Putin told Mr Scholz that any agreement to end the war in Ukraine must take into account “new territorial realities”.
Mr Zelensky said the call “opens Pandora’s Box”, claiming it is “critical for [Putin] to weaken his isolation, as well as Russia’s isolation, and to hold mere talks that will lead nowhere”.
This is a decades-old strategy which has “allowed Russia to avoid making any changes to its policies, effectively doing nothing, which has ultimately led to this war,” Mr Zelensky added.
“We understand all the current challenges and we know what to do. And we want to make it clear: there will be no ‘Minsk-3’; we need real peace,” he said, referring to the peace agreement signed in 2015 which granted self-governance to certain areas of Donbas.
Can Ukraine hold out facing a ‘hammer blow’ of 50,000 Russian troops in Kursk?
After months spent occupying a swathe of territory in Russia in the wake of a daring summer assault, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Ukraine is now engaged against a force of 50,000 troops amassed by Vladimir Putin in the border Kursk region.
The Ukrainian incursion was the largest on Russian soil since the Second World War and succeeded in taking Moscow – and even Kyiv’s closest allies – by surprise.
But despite Ukrainian troops’ success in bedding into positions deep into Kursk, the offensive received a mixed reaction from analysts, with some questioning the wisdom of drawing vital defensive power away from the fight in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Mr Putin’s forces have been making steady, grinding gains for months.
Andy Gregory and Tom Watling report.
Analysis: Ukraine is facing 50,000 Russian troops in Kursk – can they hold out?
Experts tell Andy Gregory and Tom Watling that the real question is how much Kyiv’s troops are able to inflict casualties on the Russians as the price for taking the territory back
Ukraine’s Zelensky says war will end ‘sooner’ with Trump in office
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s war against Ukraine will “end sooner” after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office next year.
“It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House,” he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne yesterday.
“This is their approach, their promise to their citizens.”Mr Trump has attempted to foster relations with both the Ukrainian and Russian presidents since he defeated vice president Kamala Harris at the ballot this month.
North Korean troops in Ukraine ‘grave escalation’
Deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s war against Ukraine is a “grave escalation” of the conflict, German chancellor Olaf Scholz told Vladimir Putin during their first phone call in nearly two years.
German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Mr Scholz urged Mr Putin in the hour-long call to withdraw his troops and end the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
The Kremlin said the conversation between the two leaders was “detailed and frank” on the situation in Ukraine.
Mapped: Where has Russia made advances on the frontline in Ukraine?
Mapped: Where has Russia made advances on the frontline in Ukraine?
Ukraine’s military say the hottest fighting along the roughly 640-mile frontline is taking place along multiple points in Donetsk
Why did Russia attempt to capture Kharkiv city of Kupiansk?
Russian forces have breached the outskirts of Ukraine’s northeastern city Kupiansk, part of a region it briefly held after first invading Ukraine, military officials said.
Moscow’s forces attacked the region in four waves and used soldiers disguised as Ukrainian troops but were repelled from the city by Kyiv’s forces, Ukraine’s General Staff said. But why does the control of Kupiansk, a significant rail hub in the area, matter?
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of the February 2022 invasion and then liberated by Ukraine in a counteroffensive months later.
Vladimir Putin’s forces deployed 15 pieces of hardware in their assault on Kupiansk, including tanks and armoured vehicles, as they attempt to expand offensive operations on a sprawling more-than-1,000km front, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
The Russian attack looked opportunistic and Kyiv appeared to have isolated and destroyed most of the Russian forces that penetrated the outskirts of Kupiansk, Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group, said.
“However, a penetration like that certainly signals confusion and weakness in Ukrainian defences in that area, which could prompt the local Russian commanders to increase their efforts to squeeze or cut off the Ukrainian salient,” he added.
He said the coming days would likely indicate whether the Kremlin was going to react to this by ramping up attacks there further.
A France-trained and armed force aims to strengthen Ukraine's defenses at critical juncture in war
A France-trained and armed force aims to strengthen Ukraine's defenses at critical juncture in war
A French military task force with the festive name “Champagne” is wrapping up a mission that’s no party
Ukraine fights to liberate all its territory, defence minister says
Ukraine is fighting to liberate all territory captured by Russia in the last decade, and any claim that Kyiv is shifting its focus in the war to prioritise security over land is false, the country’s defence minister has said.
“Territorial integrity is part of our values,” Rustem Umerov told a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo.
When asked about reports that Ukraine is shifting its focus in the war, Mr Umerov said this was false and part of Russian propaganda efforts.
“Our priority is still to protect people, protect the nation, to liberate people from almost 10 years of temporary occupation, so Crimea and Donbas [are] part of Ukraine,” he said, adding that people living in territories held by Russia are all waiting to be liberated.
Zelensky says war will ‘end sooner’ under Trump administration
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia’s war against his country will “end sooner” under US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
“The war will end, but there is no exact date. Of course, with the policy of this team, which will now lead the White House, the war will end sooner,” he told Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne.
He stressed that “fair peace” is vital for Ukraine.
Putin and Scholz had ‘frank exchange of views’ on Ukraine war, says Kremlin
Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Olaf Scholz had a “detailed and frank exchange of views” on Ukraine in their first phone call since 2022, the Kremlin has said.
According to the Kremlin, the Russian president set out the same position he has been stating for months – that any peace deal must address Moscow’s security interests and be based on “new territorial realities”, a reference to the fact that Russian troops now control a fifth of Ukraine.
Mr Putin also spoke of an “unprecedented degradation” in relations between the two countries, for which he blamed unfriendly actions by Germany, the Kremlin claimed, following Russia’s decision to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine in 2022.
Mr Putin claimed in June that the war could end if Kyiv gave up its Nato ambitions and handed over the entirety of four regions claimed by Russia. Ukraine rejected those conditions as tantamount to surrender and merely enabling Russia to regroup before mounting another attack on Kyiv.
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