Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces ready for ‘large missile attack’ as US vows North Korea troop response
US secretary of state Antony Blinken warns North Korean troops deployment ‘will get a firm response’
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Your support makes all the difference.Vladimir Putin’s forces are ready to launch a massive attack on Ukraine, the head of Kyiv’s national security council has warned, as the country braces for large-scale missile attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Blasts were heard over Kyiv on Wednesday as Ukraine accused Russia of launching its first missile attack on the capital since August and urged residents to take cover as air raid sirens blared in multiple regions.
But Ukraine security chief Andrii Kovalenko warned the the attacks on Wednesday – involving cruise and ballistic missiles – were less intense than those Moscow was equipped to carry out in the future, as it continues to stockpile cruise missiles. Russia’s plans are known and understood, and Ukraine will counter, he insisted.
It came as US secretary of state Antony Blinken travelled to Brussels, meeting Nato chief Mark Rutte and Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
Vowing that the Biden administration will bolster Ukraine ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Mr Blinken also warned that Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops “demands and will get a firm response”.
Isolationism has never worked for America, EU’s Kallas says
Kaja Kallas, the nominee to be the European Union’s next foreign policy chief, has warned against making assumptions about what US president-elect Donald Trump would do in Ukraine and said isolationism had never worked for the United States.
The former Estonian prime minister told her confirmation hearing in the European Parliament on Tuesday that she did not think anybody knew what Mr Trump would do and that the EU would need to hear directly from his team.
“If we look to the history, then isolationism has never worked well for America ... If America is worried about China, they should first be worried about Russia, and we will have these dialogues with the United States,” Ms Kallas said.
Blasts heard in Kyiv
Loud blasts have been heard in Kyiv in the early hours today amid reports on missiles heading for the Ukrainian capital.
“A rocket in Chernihiv region heading for Kyiv region!” the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. “Rocket to Kyiv, take cover immediately,” it said.
“Russia’s winter campaign against Ukraine’s civil energy infrastructure appears to be starting. Some cruise missiles are headed Kyiv’s way,” said Oliver Carroll, a journalist based in Kyiv.
“Ballistic missiles reported headed to Kyiv right now. The sound of air defence is very audible in centre of capital,” he said in another tweet.
Recao: Trump told Putin not to escalate war in Ukraine days after the election, reports say
President-elect Donald Trump reportedly advised Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine in a phone call the day after the presidential election, a report says.
As one of his first orders of unofficial business as the president-elect, Trump spoke with Putin on Thursday in a telephone conversation that he took from his home in Florida, sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
He allegedly asked the Russian president not to escalate his war and reminded him of the US’s military presence in Europe.
My colleague Ariana Baio reports:
Trump told Putin not to escalate war in Ukraine days after the election, reports say
On the campaign trail, Trump has promised to end the Russia–Ukraine war
Blinken heads to Europe for Ukraine talks ahead of Trump return
The outgoing Biden administration’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, headed to Brussels on Tuesday for talks with European allies concerned that US president-elect Donald Trump could abandon Ukraine in its war with Russia.
In his first overseas trip since Mr Trump’s election victory, the secretary of state will stop in Brussels ahead of scheduled visits to Peru and Brazil later this week, his department said.
In meetings with Nato and European Union officials, Mr Blinken will “discuss support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s aggression,” the US State Department said, without elaborating on what message he will deliver.
Recap: Watch as BBC’s Steve Rosenberg confronts Putin on Ukraine war
Ukraine in 'final stages' to set up three new JVs with European armsmakers
Ukraine is close to setting up three new joint ventures with European weapons producers in its effort to boost arms output during the war with Russia, the first deputy prime minister said.
Yulia Svyrydenko, who is also the economy minister, said five joint ventures with Western weapon producers had already been set up, including with German and Lithuanian companies. Several arms producers have opened offices in Ukraine.
“We have three more agreements with European companies in the final stages to set up joint ventures,” Svyrydenko told Reuters in an interview in the government headquarters in central Kyiv.
She gave no details about the planned new ventures or the scale of the investments.
Ukraine’s military industrial production has exploded in size with state and private companies rapidly increasing their production and innovating, as the government has scrambled to respond to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Full story: Doctor given more than five years in prison for criticising Russia’s war in Ukraine
A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, part of an unrelenting Kremlin crackdown on dissent.
Dr Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to authorities. Akinshina alleged that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who was killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kyiv’s troops and had blamed Moscow for the war.
A video of the outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicized, and chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin personally demanded a criminal case be brought against the doctor.
Read the full story here:
Doctor accused of criticizing Russia's war in Ukraine is convicted and given over 5 years in prison
A doctor accused of criticizing Russia's war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted of spreading false information about the military and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison
‘Massive’ Russian losses ‘won’t see war grind to a halt any day soon’
Leading Russia expert Mark Galeotti, has warned that Russia’s war in Ukraine is unlikely to grind to a halt any day soon in spite of “massive” losses for Moscow, as Ukraine claimed that Moscow had suffered record losses for two consecutive days.
“I think both sides are able just about to hold on,” he told Sky News. “The Russians can’t really continue quite at this rate indefinitely. But on the other hand, they have the economy for at least another year or two at something like this kind of tempo.
“So it’s not as if this is a war which is going to grind to a halt any day soon, unfortunately.”
Full story: NATO’s Rutte calls for more Western support for Ukraine and warns of Russian alliances
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has called on Western allies to provide Ukraine with further support “to change the trajectory of the conflict” with Russia.
Speaking ahead of a meeting Tuesday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, Rutte said: “We must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight.”
He added: “We need to raise the cost for Putin and his enabling authoritarian friends by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict.”
Read the full story here:
NATO's Rutte calls for more Western support for Ukraine, warns of Russian alliances
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called on Western allies to provide further support to Ukraine “to change the trajectory of the conflict.”
Britain shadows Russian warship as it transits through Channel
Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said it shadowed a Russian warship as it passed through the English Channel on Sunday.
Russian state media reported that the Admiral Golovko frigate carried out military drills in the Channel, however it is understood that UK observers witnessed no evidence of this.
An MOD spokesperson said: “The Russian frigate Admiral Golovko was shadowed by a number of maritime and air assets, including HMS Iron Duke, as it transited the English Channel on Sunday.
“The Royal Navy monitors UK territorial waters to protect the UK, including to ensure compliance with maritime law and deter malign activity.
“The passage was in line with international law and norms.”
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