Tag: Vladimir Putin

Ukraine war: Fierce fighting in Soledar and five other top stories

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1. Kyiv sends reinforcements to Soledar after ‘Putin’s Chef’ says he wants its salt mines

Ukraine said it was strengthening its forces around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks there by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, whose leader has vowed to capture the area’s vast underground mines.

Kyiv had sent reinforcements to Soledar, a small town near Bakhmut where the situation was particularly difficult, Ukrainian officials said.

“The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites into battle,” Ukraine’s military said in a statement.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said on Saturday its significance lay in the network of mines there.

“It not only (has the ability to hold) a big group of people at a depth of 80-100 metres, but tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can also move about.”

Military analysts say the strategic military benefit for Moscow would be limited. A US official has said Prigozhin, a powerful ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in nightly video remarks on Sunday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction after months of attacks.

“Our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance,” he said. In Soledar “things are very difficult”.

Pro-Russian bloggers quoted Prigozhin as saying his forces were fighting for the administration building in Soledar.

The Ukrainian military said reinforcements had been sent to Soledar, and everything was being done to fend off the enemy.

“There are brutal and bloody battles there — 106 shellings in one day,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the military in the east, said on Ukrainian television.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential staff, said Moscow was suffering huge losses in trying to justify its mobilisation of reservists but was not succeeding. “Our soldiers’ feat is titanic,” he wrote on Telegram.

2. Russian missile hits eastern Ukrainian market, killing at least two, authorities say

A Russian missile slammed into a village market in east Ukraine on Monday, killing two women and wounding four others, including a 10-year-old girl, regional prosecutors said.

Footage posted by public broadcaster Suspilne on the Telegram messaging app showed rescue workers sifting through large piles of rubble, burning debris and a large crater in Shevchenkove, about 80 km southeast of the city of Kharkiv.

A photograph posted online by the Ukrainian president’s office showed rescuers trying to pull out a woman in a thick winter coat. Her head and arms poked out from under the rubble, but it was not clear whether she was alive.

“The Russian army committed another act of terror against the civilian population — a child was wounded, two women were killed,” the regional prosecutor’s office said. “An enemy missile hit the territory of the local market.”

It said in a written statement that it had opened an investigation into a potential war crime, citing preliminary information that the attack came from an S-300 air defence system in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than 10 months ago, did not immediately comment on the reports from Shevchenkove, which Ukraine retook in September after months of Russian occupation.

Criticising Russia over the attack, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, wrote on Telegram: “Common terrorists.”

Oleh Synehubov, the Kharkiv region’s governor, wrote on Telegram that a 60-year-old woman had been killed and the other victims were being treated in a hospital.

The prosecutors gave no details of the others victims except to say that all were female and one was aged 10.

Suspilne quoted a local official as saying at least three pavilions were destroyed in the attack and that a shopping centre was damaged, but that Monday was not a market day.

3. Western armoured vehicle deliveries will ‘deepen Ukrainian suffering’, Kremlin says

The Kremlin said on Monday that new deliveries of Western weapons, including French-made armoured vehicles, to Kyiv, would “deepen the suffering of the Ukrainian people” and would not change the course of the conflict.

France and Germany announced last week that they would send light combat vehicles to Ukraine, ramping up their military support for Kyiv. The US said it would also provide armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine.

Additionally, the UK is considering supplying Ukraine with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western source. 

“This supply will not be able to change anything”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“These supplies can only add to the pain of the Ukrainian people and prolong their suffering. They are not capable of stopping us from achieving the goals of the special military operation,” Peskov said.

Ukraine, which has scored some battlefield successes since Russian forces invaded last February, has asked Western allies for heavier weapons and air defences as it seeks to tip the balance of the conflict, now in its 11th month, further in its favour.

The Kremlin also said on Monday that despite France’s decision to send more weapons to Kyiv, Moscow appreciated President Emmanuel Macron’s contribution towards maintaining dialogue between the West and Russia.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Macron maintain contact, there are pauses in the dialogue, but during previous stages that contact was quite useful and constructive, despite all the differences,” Peskov said.

Macron was criticised in Ukraine and in some Western capitals for holding hours-long phone calls with Putin in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion.

Just last month, Macron was rebuked by the Baltic states for saying the West should consider Russia’s need for “security guarantees” in any future talks to end the fighting.

4. Rome delays decision on sending more weapons to Kyiv

Italy will not take a decision on the supply of new arms to Ukraine until February due to political tensions, cost considerations and military shortages, the la Repubblica newspaper reported on Monday.

Two weeks ago, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Rome was considering supplying air defences after a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in which she reaffirmed her government’s “full support” for Ukraine.

Shortly afterwards, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto struck a cautious tone on whether Italy would be able to supply Ukraine with air defence systems.

Citing unspecified sources, la Repubblica reported that Meloni, who is a firm supporter of Kyiv, is facing resistance to the approval of a decree to send arms to Ukraine from her right-wing allies Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi.

Both politicians have longstanding ties with Moscow.

But sources from their respective political parties — Salvini’s Lega and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia — on Monday denied having any problems with the decree.

Another issue holding back the decision is concern about depriving the Italian army of air defence systems, la Repubblica wrote, as two of its five missile batteries are already committed to Kuwait and Slovakia.

Under former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy sent five aid packages to Kyiv, including military supplies.

Meloni’s government, installed in October, has been working for weeks on a possible sixth delivery.

5. Prominent Russian actor to face charges for stating he would ‘fight for Ukraine’

Russian actor Artur Smolyaninov faces criminal charges in his home country after allegedly making “anti-Russian” comments in a newspaper interview, investigators said on Monday.

Smolyaninov, who starred in the 2005 film “The 9th Company” about the Soviet Union’s ill-fated military campaign in Afghanistan, said in an interview last week that he would fight for Ukraine, not Russia, if he had to take part in the conflict.

Smolyaninov said last October that he was no longer living in Russia.

His comments — made in an interview for Novaya Gazeta Europe, a newspaper now banned in Russia — drew condemnation from members of the Russian parliament, one of whom said the actor should be barred from all state-contracted films.

“For my part, I will appeal to the Investigative Committee with a request to initiate a criminal case against this traitor,” lawmaker Biysultan Khamzaev told the RIA news agency.

The Investigative Committee said on Monday it had launched a criminal case against Smolyaninov after he took part in an interview with a “Western publication” but did not provide further details.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, dozens of actors and artists have fled abroad in fear of breaching the country’s tough new laws on spreading “misinformation” about the war in Ukraine or discrediting the Russian army.

6. Ukraine wants to see Brussels sanction Russia’s Rosatom

Kyiv expects the European Union to include Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom in its next round of sanctions over the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday.

Shmyhal said after talks in Kyiv with Frans Timmermans, a vice-president of the European Commission, that Russia’s nuclear energy industry should be punished over the invasion of Ukraine more than 10 months ago.

Russia has occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine since last March. 

President Vladimir Putin issued a decree last October transferring control of the plant from the Ukrainian nuclear energy company Energoatom to a subsidiary of Rosatom. Kyiv says the move amounts to theft.

“We are actively working with our European partners on providing support in four areas: demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, supply of electrical equipment, opportunities to import electricity from the EU, and sanctions against Russia,” Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“We expect that the 10th package (of EU sanctions) will contain restrictions against Russia’s nuclear industry, in particular Rosatom. The aggressor must be punished for attacks on Ukraine’s energy industry and crimes against ecology.”

Although the EU has progressively tightened sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, it has not imposed sanctions directly on Rosatom.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear power watchdog, has repeatedly expressed concern over the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant, which each side blames on the other.

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Oil expected to stay volatile in 2023, but the price could depend on China reopening

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Live: Russia threatens to cut oil output in response to price caps

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Russia has warned it may cut oil output by 5%-7% in response to Western-imposed price caps on its crude and oil products, a day after the Kremlin warned that US supplies of Patriot missile systems to Ukraine would not stop Russia from “achieving its goals”. Follow FRANCE 24’s liveblog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+1). 

8:17am: North Korea denies media report it supplied munitions to Russia

North Korea‘s foreign ministry denied a media report it supplied munitions to Russia, calling it “groundless”, and denounced the United States for providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Friday.

Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun reported earlier that North Korea had shipped munitions, including artillery shells, to Russia via train through their border last month and that additional shipments were expected in the coming weeks.

“The Japanese media’s false report that the DPRK [North Korea’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] offered munitions to Russia is the most absurd red herring, which is not worth any comment or interpretation,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

The White House said on Thursday the North has completed an initial arms delivery to a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine.

7:53am: Russian diplomat says NATO instructors must leave Ukraine before talks can start

A senior Russian diplomat said on Friday that talks on security guarantees for Russia cannot take place while NATO instructors and “mercenaries” remain in Ukraine, and while Western arms supplies to the country continue.

In an interview with Russian state-owned news agency TASS, Alexander Darchiev, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North America department, said talks would be premature “until the flood of weapons and financing for the (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky regime stops, American and NATO servicemen/mercenaries/instructors are withdrawn”.

Russian officials have increasingly stressed their openness to talks on Ukraine in recent weeks, even as they have emphasised that they do not believe Zelensky is interested in a peaceful settlement.

In his comments, Darchiev said that talks would also need to be preceded by “recognition of the realities we have defined on the ground”, an apparent reference to Russia’s control of parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

7:50am: Kyiv residents battle blackouts, drone attacks: ‘We have our dog to keep us warm’

Ukrainian authorities are scrambling to restore electricity supplies in Kyiv after Russian drone attacks crippled energy infrastructure earlier this week. The situation remains critical, with entire neighbourhoods forced to endure rolling blackouts as the limited power supplies are rationed.

FRANCE 24’s team on the ground met with residents deprived of both light and heating as they grapple with winter temperatures.


Once the generator shuts off, Karina Samokhvalova’s Kyiv home is plunged back into darkness. © FRANCE 24 screengrab

 

6:55am: Moscow threatens to cut oil output in response to price caps

Russia may cut oil output by 5%-7% in early 2023 as it responds to price caps on its crude and oil products by halting sales to the countries that support them, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has told state television.

Detailing for the first time the Russian response to the price caps introduced by the West over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Novak said the cuts could amount to 500,000-700,000 barrels per day.

The European Union and G7 nations introduced a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil from Dec. 5, on top of the EU’s embargo on imports of Russian crude by sea and similar pledges by the United States, Canada, Japan and Britain.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he would issue a decree early next week detailing Moscow’s actions in response.

1:05am: Former Russian deputy PM wounded in Donetsk shelling

Russian former deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has said he required surgery after being hurt in a blast in Russian-occupied Ukraine, the latest in a series of attacks on pro-Moscow officials.

Rogozin, also former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, was hurt on Wednesday when Ukrainian shells hit the hotel where he was staying in Donetsk, a town controlled by Russian proxies since 2014.

“I have wounds – a piece of metal 8 millimetres by 6 millimetres (1/3 to 1/4 inch) that entered above the right shoulder blade,” Rogozin said on Telegram. “There will have to be an operation. Several people close to me were also hit.”

10:15pm: Russia says US Patriot missiles won’t stand in its way

Russia has warned that Ukraine acquiring Patriot missiles from the United States would not help settle the conflict or prevent Moscow from achieving its goals.

Though the Patriot air defence system is widely regarded as advanced, President Vladimir Putin dismissed it as “quite old”, telling reporters Moscow would find a way to counter it. He also said Russia wants an end to the war in Ukraine and that this will inevitably involve a diplomatic solution.

“Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said. “We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course.”

His comments drew quick US scepticism, with White House spokesman John Kirby noting that Putin has “shown absolutely zero indication that he’s willing to negotiate” an end to the war.


© france 24

 

9:25pm: Russian-installed official killed in car bomb attack

Andrei Shtepa, a local official in a part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region controlled by Russian forces was killed on Thursday in a car bomb attack. The Russian occupation authorities blamed his death on “Ukrainian terrorists”.

Ukrainian media reports about Shtepa’s death referred to him as “an occupier” and as someone who had actively collaborated with Russian forces.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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Zelensky says Ukraine is preparing for all possible defence scenarios

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President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that protecting Ukraine’s borders was a “constant priority” and that his country was ready for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus. Heating has also been restored to Kyiv following the latest Russian bombardment that targeted water and power infrastructure, said the capital’s mayor Vitali Klitschko. Read our live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1). 

This live page is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

03:59am: Nine drones shot down in Kyiv’s airspace early Monday

Nine Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down early on Monday in Kyiv’s airspace, the capital’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Air alert continues in Kyiv,” the administration said. “The enemy is attacking the capital with ‘Shahed’ barrage ammunition. Air defence is being at work.”

03:54am: Blasts heard in Kyiv city and region early Monday

Several loud blasts were heard early on Monday in Kyiv and the region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital, Reuters witnesses reported.

Earlier, Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region, said that the region was under a drone attack.

It was not immediately clear whether the blasts were air defence systems destroying the drones or hitting targets.

03:50am: Russian troops stationed in Belarus to ‘begin military exercises’

Russian troops that were moved to Belarus in October to become part of a regional formation will conduct battalion tactical exercises, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing the Russian defence ministry.

It was not immediately clear when and where in Belarus the exercises will be conducted.

Belarus defence ministry said in October that 9,000 Russian troops were moving to the country as part of a “regional grouping” of forces to protect its borders.

02:30am: Ukraine watchful of borders as Putin heads to Belarus

President Volodymyr Zelensky said protecting Ukraine’s borders was a “constant priority” and his country was ready for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus, which Kyiv has warned could be drawn into the 10-month conflict.

Zelensky, in his nightly video address to Ukrainians, also issued a fresh appeal to Western nations to provide Kyiv with better air defences as “one of the most powerful” steps to halt the Russian invasion.

Early on Monday, air raid warnings again rung out over Kyiv and eastern Ukraine, with videos of blasts and air defence systems shared on social media.

“Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus – is our constant priority,” Zelensky said after a meeting on Sunday of Ukraine’s top military command. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.”

10:12pm: Zelensky says power restored to 3 million more Ukrainians following attacks

Power has been restored to three million more Ukrainians after the latest Russian attacks on infrastructure, bringing the total to nine million after two days, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.

“Electricity supplies have been restored to a further three million Ukrainians,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Plus six million yesterday. That means after the terrorist strikes on Friday, we have results already for nine million of our people.”

Russia fired scores of missiles on Ukraine’s power grid last Friday, killing at least three people and damaging nine energy facilities.

10:05pm: Zelensky says Ukraine preparing for all defence scenarios

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that protecting Ukraine’s borders was a “constant priority” and that his country was ready for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus.

“Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus – is our constant priority,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.”

Zelensky made his remarks on the eve of a visit to Belarus by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s amid discussion of a possible new offensive by Moscow and suggestions it could originate in Belarus.

In his address, Zelensky issued a new appeal to Western nations to provide Ukraine with effective air defences. He also said his forces were holding the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where some of the fiercest fighting has been seen.

7:00pm: Ukraine Jews mark ‘Festival of Lights’ amid blackouts

War-weary Ukrainian Jews gathered on Sunday for prayer and candle-lighting ceremonies to kick off Hanukkah, the so-called Festival of Lights, vowing to overcome blackouts caused by persistent Russian bombardment. 

In the capital’s iconic Independence Square, known as Maidan, worshippers huddled together for warmth near what officials claimed was the largest Hanukkah menorah – a nine-branched candelabra – in Europe. 

6:54pm: Kissinger calls for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, Kyiv dismisses his proposal

Veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger said the time is approaching for a negotiated peace in Ukraine to reduce the risk of another devastating world war, but the Kyiv government dismissed his comments as amounting to “appeasing the aggressor” and said there could be no deal involving ceding territory.

2:23pm: Russian shelling targets heart of Kherson

Russian military forces on Sunday shelled the centre of Kherson, the major city that Russian soldiers retreated from last month in one of Moscow’s biggest battlefield setbacks in Ukraine.

Three people were wounded in the attacks, said presidential deputy chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko. 

The southern city and its surrounding region have come under frequent attack since the Russian pullback. Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said Sunday that Russia had carried out 54 attacks with rocket, mortar and tank fire over the previous day, killing three people and wounding six.

1:15pm: Putin’s invasion of Ukraine opened ‘gates of hell’, says Anglican leader

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Sunday said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “opened the gates of hell” unleashing “every evil” force worldwide from murder and rape in occupied territory to famine and debt in Africa and Europe.

Welby, the highest-ranking cleric in the worldwide Anglican communion, travelled to Ukraine late last month to meet church leaders and local Christians as well as those displaced by the conflict.

He said he had been struck by the “size of the mass graves in Bucha, the photos of what had been done to the people there, the rape, the massacres, the torture by the occupying Russian forces”, and that the repercussions of the invasion were also being felt far beyond Ukraine’s borders.

1:07pm: Heating restored in Kyiv after Russian bombardment, Mayor Klitschko says

Heating has been restored to Kyiv after the latest Russian bombardment targeting water and power infrastructure, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Sunday.

“The city is restoring all services after the latest shelling,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. “In particular, the capital’s heat supply system was fully restored. All sources of heat supply work normally.”

Ukrainian officials said Russia fired more than 70 missiles on Friday in one of its heaviest barrages since the Kremlin’s February 24 invasion, forcing emergency blackouts nationwide and cutting access to heat and water.

Temperatures in Kyiv and many places across Ukraine were below freezing on Sunday morning, with forecasts expecting them to dip to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21.2 °F) in the capital by  the evening.

Kyiv is the largest city in Ukraine with an estimated population of about 3 million, with up to two million more in the Kyiv region.

12:39pm: One dead, several injured in strikes on Russian region near Ukraine, says governor

Strikes on the Russian region of Belgorod that borders Ukraine killed one person and injured five others on Sunday, the regional governor said, two days after renewed attacks by Moscow battered the Ukrainian energy grid.

In the regional capital Belgorod, “there are four wounded (with injuries) of moderate severity”, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media.

One of those injured is a man whose back was cut by shrapnel and another is a woman who suffered facial injuries, according to Gladkov. 

He said more than a dozen residential buildings and several cars were damaged across the city.

Gladkov added there was also “one dead and one injured” in the Belgorod district that surrounds the main city, where a poultry farm was damaged. 

11:16am: Russian defence minister inspects troops involved in Ukraine offensive

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected troops involved in what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine, his ministry said Sunday.

Shoigu “made a working trip to the Southern Military District and inspected troops in the areas of the special military operation”, the defence ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

The statement did not say where exactly the trip took place and whether Shoigu visited Ukraine. 

8:07am: Ukraine races to restore power after Russian missiles batter grid

Ukraine worked Saturday to restore electricity and water supplies after Russia’s latest wave of attacks pitched multiple cities into darkness and forced people to endure sub-zero temperatures without heating or running water.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Saturday that electricity had been restored to almost six million Ukrainians, but noted ongoing problems with heat and water supplies, and “large-scale outages” in many regions.

In the capital Kyiv, the metro had stopped running so that people wrapped in winter coats could take shelter at underground stations, but Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday the service had resumed. 

 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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Millions of Ukrainians without power and other key developments

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1. Russia boosting production of ‘powerful’ weapons, says Medvedev

Russia is producing more destructive weapons to counter western countries that support Kyiv, said Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday.

“Our enemy is entrenched … in Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and a whole number of other places that have sworn allegiance to today’s Nazis,” the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council wrote on Telegram. 

“That is why we are boosting the production of the most powerful means of destruction, including those based on new principles,” he said.

Russian officials often refer to Ukraine’s leadership as “Nazis”, using this as a justification for their invasion. This claim that Ukraine is ruled by the far-right has been dismissed as a “plain and simple lie” by experts. 

Medvedev said the weapons would be based on “new physical principles”, without detailing exactly what these were. 

AFP reported that this could be in reference to a new generation of hypersonic weapons that Moscow has been developing in recent years. 

Such weapons fly at exceptionally high speeds, making them extremely difficult for defensive systems to intercept. 

Serving as the President of Russia between 2008 and 2012, Medvedev has become one of the most vocal critics of the West within the Russian government, slamming western sanctions and alleged Russophobia. 

The spectre of nuclear war has returned since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, with Russian President Vladimir Putin discussing how Russia would use nuclear weapons as a “means of defence”. 

Russian setbacks on the battlefield in recent months have raised fears that Moscow is considering using such weapons to reverse its fortunes. 

The US State Department condemned Putin’s comments, saying “any discussion, however vague, of nuclear weapons is absolutely irresponsible.”

2. Freed Russian arms dealer rallies heaps praise on Putin and Ukraine war

Viktor Bout, an infamous arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death”, has praised Putin, backed Moscow’s assault on Ukraine and given a damning assessment of the West, during his first public interview since being released from prison. 

Speaking to the Kremlin-backed RT channel, Bout said he kept a portrait of Putin in his prison cell in the United States.

“I am proud that I am a Russian person, and our president is Putin,” he said. “I know that we will win.”

Bout — a former Soviet air force pilot — was freed from the US on Friday as part of a prisoner exchange with the American basketball star Britney Griner this week. 

His chequered past was the inspiration for the Nicolas Cage film Lord of War, which depicts the life of an unscrupulous weapons seller. 

Since being released, Bout said he had been enjoying the snow and “air of freedom”. 

Bout was interviewed by Maria Butina, who herself served a short prison stint in the US for illegally acting as a foreign agent for Russia.

Bout, 55, said he “fully” supported Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine and would have volunteered to go to the front if he had the “opportunity and necessary skills.”

“Why did we not do it earlier?” he said, referring to Putin’s decision to launch the invasion. 

Bout, who was accused of arming rebels in some of the world’s bloodiest conflicts, was arrested in Thailand in a US sting operation in 2008. He was extradited to the country and sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in a maximum security prison.

He complained about the quality of food while incarcerated in the US, saying he missed the taste of garlic and strawberries.

Bout also gave a damning assessment of the western world, saying developments there looked like a suicide of civilization. 

“What is happening in the West is simply the suicide of civilization. And, if this suicide is not prevented, at least within the non-Western world, within the world that is not controlled by the Anglo-Saxons, then the whole planet will commit suicide. And it may be happening in all areas, with drugs and LGBT+ among them,” he said.

3. Ukraine hunts for Russian ‘collaborators’ in Kherson

Ukrainian authorities are rooting out Russian “collaborators” in the southern city of Kherson, AFP reports. 

Kherson, which was liberated from Russian forces in November, has been placed under tight police control, with continued patrols by security personnel and tight checkpoints at the entrances and exits of the city. 

“These people stayed here for more than eight months”, Kherson region governor Yaroslav Yanushevich told AFP. “They worked for the Russian regime and now we have information and documents about each of them.”

“Our police know everything about them and each of them will be punished,” he added. 

Kherson, a strategic port city on the Black Sea, was one of the first major cities seized by Russian troops when they rolled across the border. It had a pre-war population of nearly 300,000, though a large number of people fled to seek safety elsewhere.

Checks are made at industrial and port areas, alongside the train station, which some Kherson inhabitants still use to evacuate from the city on a daily train. 

On certain roads in the city, large propaganda posters which praised Russia have been torn down and replaced with others that glorify the liberation of Kherson.

Other posters have appeared inviting residents to denounce people who they think collaborated with the Russians. 

“Provide information on traitors here”, reads one of the posters, displaying a QR code linking to a website where reports can be made and a telephone number.

“It helps us to identify them, to know if they are on the territory that we control”, said the Kherson governor. 

“Most of the information is received from the local population during simple conversations … We also analyse the accounts on social networks and continue to monitor the Internet”, said Andriï Kovanyi, Head of Public Relations at Kherson’s region police.

Ukrainian security services (SBU) take over the investigations, after the police. 

According to Deputy Interior Minister Yevgen Yenine, more than 130 people have already been arrested for collaboration in the Kherson region.

4. Russia drones smash power network in Odesa leaving millions without power

All non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, officials said on Saturday.

The crippling strikes are reported to have left 1.5 million people without power, in damp cold conditions. 

“The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

“Unfortunately, the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity… It doesn’t take hours, but a few days, unfortunately.”

Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.

Norway was sent more than 100 million euros to help restore Ukraine’s energy system, Zelenskyy said, thanking the country. 

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Odesa’s regional administration, said electricity for the city’s population will be restored “in the coming days,” while complete restoration of the networks may take two to three months.

Bratchuk said an earlier Facebook post by the region’s administration, advising some people to consider evacuating, was being investigated by Ukraine’s security services as “an element of the hybrid war” by Russia.

That post has since been deleted.

“Not a single representative of the authorities in the region made any calls for the evacuation of the inhabitants of Odesa and the region,” Bratchuk said.

Odesa had more than 1 million residents before 24 February. 

5. 10,000 Russian troops have died in Ukraine: BBC investigation

Russia’s military has suffered over 10,000 confirmed deaths during its grinding invasion of Ukraine, according to research conducted by the BBC and independent Russian news outlet Mediazona. 

Released on Friday, it found that 10,002 servicemen had been killed. 

But the true figure is likely to be much higher than that verified by the research, the BBC added.

Scores of these casualties were elite servicemen from airborne units, plus more than 100 pilots and 430 recruits drafted by the Kremlin in October, following Russia’s push to bolster troop numbers in Ukraine.

Rank-and-file soldiers suffered the greatest losses overall, with infantry units consisting of lesser-trained and inexperienced recruits making up 17% of the death toll.

Russia has been accused of sending newly recruited troops to the frontlines with just days of training, helping fuel a casulaty figure that is already far higher than that recorded during Russia’s past wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Some of Russia’s poorest regions have contributed a disproportionately high number of recruits to the war in Ukraine. 

While soldiers from the Moscow region account for just 54 verifiable deaths in the research, the figure for the Siberian republic of Buryatia is six times higher at 356. 

This far-eastern area has one-seventh of the population of the Moscow region. 

Approximately 15% of Russia’s dead in the conflict are officers, including four generals and 49 colonels, the investigation found. 

One factor behind this is believed to be the breakdowns in communication between the Russian ranks, which forced commanding officers to travel directly to the frontlines. 

In December, a senior official put Ukraine’s casualty figure at 13,000. 

“We are open in talking about the number of dead,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, adding that Zelenskyy would make the official data public “when the time was right”.

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Live: France’s TotalEnergies writes down stake in Russian gas firm Novatek

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French energy group TotalEnergies said Friday it was withdrawing its representatives from the board of Russian gas giant Novatek and taking a $3.7 billion hit in the wake of sanctions against Moscow. The move comes a day after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would continue to strike Ukraine’s energy grid in a campaign that has left swaths of the country without clean water and electricity. Follow our live blog for the latest on the war. All times are Paris time (GMT+1). 

3:09pm: Germany to send Skynex air defence systems to Ukraine, reports Handelsblatt

Germany is to send two additional air defence systems to Ukraine of the type Skynex by Rheinmetall, the Handelsblatt daily reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources in Berlin.

The systems are to be delivered in early 2024, the report said.

2:49pm: Putin threatens production cuts over oil price cap

President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia could reduce oil production in response to a $60 price cap on its oil exports agreed by Western nations over Moscow’s Ukraine offensive. 

“We will consider a possible reduction in production if necessary,” Putin told reporters at a press conference in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek following a regional summit, calling the price cap a “stupid decision” that is “harmful to global energy markets”.

2:45pm: Putin says Russia has no need for new round of mobilisation

Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need to call up additional troops to fight in Ukraine, as there were 150,000 recently conscripted fighters who had not yet been sent to the frontlines.

Moscow called up more than 300,000 reservists in a mobilisation drive in September and October, and Putin said on Wednesday that around half had been deployed to Ukraine.

Although Putin has repeatedly said mobilisation is over, the Kremlin has refused to rescind an official decree ordering the call-ups, stoking fears that a second wave could be announced.

1:35pm: Brittney Griner arrives home after Russia prisoner swap

American basketball star Brittney Griner has arrived in the United States after she was released from a Russian prison in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death”.

Griner, 32, who was arrested in Russia in February on drug charges, was seen by an AFP reporter walking across a runway after her plane landed in San Antonio, Texas.

She was expected to be transferred to a nearby military facility for medical checks, US media reported.

WNBA star Brittney Griner pictured on board the plane that flew her out of Russia on December 8, 2022. © Russian Federal Security Service via AP

 

12:47pm: Russia and United States will keep discussing prisoner swaps, says deputy foreign minister

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Russia and the United States will continue to talk about possible prisoner swaps directly, without intermediaries, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

On Thursday, the United States freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been jailed in Russia.

US President Joe Biden said Washington remains committed to also securing the return of imprisoned former marine Paul Whelan from Russia.

12:10am: Putin critic found guilty of ‘fake information’ about Russian army

Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has been found guilty of spreading “fake information” about the army, Russian news agencies report, with sentencing due later in the day.

Prosecutors are seeking a nine-year sentence for Yashin, a Moscow district councillor. 

Yashin was tried over a YouTube video released in April in which he discussed evidence uncovered by Western journalists of Russian war crimes in Bucha, near Kyiv, and cast doubt on the official Moscow version that such reports had been fabricated.

Russia passed new legislation after invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 that provides for jail terms of up to 15 years for disseminating “false information” about the military.

In his final statement to the court this week, Yashin appealed directly to President Vladimir Putin, describing him as “the person responsible for this slaughter” and asking him to “stop this madness”.

11:45am: Ukrainians seek aid, shelter in shadow of Russia-occupied nuclear plant

The Ukrainian city of Enerhodar has been at the centre of international attention since Russian troops occupied its nuclear power station in March – soon after the start of the war. Ukraine has since accused Russia of using the territory of the station to fire at the nearby Ukranian towns of Zaporizhzhia and Nikopol.

The harsh terms of the Russian occupation and fear of nuclear disaster have forced thousands of people to flee the city. Many of them have sought refuge in Zaporizhzhia, where FRANCE 24 reporters Robert Parsons, Pauline Godart and Raid Abu Zaideh have been to a centre for internal displaced persons to discover how they are coping.


 

10:15am: TotalEnergies quits Russian gas firm’s board, taking $3.7 billion hit

French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies says it is withdrawing its two members from Novatek’s board and will take a $3.7 billion hit in its fourth-quarter accounts for the write-down of its stake in the Russian company.

Unlike London-based rivals BP and Shell, TotalEnergies has held on to several investments in Russia after the country invaded Ukraine, and faced criticism for doing so.

Among its Russian investments are a 19.4% stake in gas producer Novatek and minority holdings in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG.

“In view of the European sanctions in force since the beginning of the war, the two directors representing TotalEnergies on the board of directors of Novatek are led to abstain from voting in meetings of the board of directors of this company, in particular on financial matters,” a statement from the company said.

“Under these circumstances, the board of directors of TotalEnergies has decided to withdraw the representatives of the company from the board of PAO Novatek with immediate effect.”

9:40am: Griner-Bout swap not a sign of improving relations, Kremlin says

The deal to swap Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for US basketball star Brittney Griner should not be seen as a step towards improving bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington, the Kremlin has warned.

“The talks were exclusively on the topic of the exchange. It’s probably wrong to draw any hypothetical conclusions that this may be a step towards overcoming the crisis in bilateral relations,” the TASS news agency has quoted the Kremlin’s press office as saying.

“Bilateral relations remain in a sorry state,” the Russian presidency added.

9:30am: Putin says West’s desire for global dominance stokes conflicts

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West’s desire to maintain its dominance on the world stage for increasing the risks of conflict.

“The potential for conflict in the world is growing and this is a direct consequence of the attempts by Western elites to preserve their political, financial, military and ideological dominance by any means,” Putin said in a video message to a summit of defence ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

“They deliberately multiply chaos and aggravate the international situation,” Putin said.

The Russian leader has repeatedly cast the war in Ukraine as a conflict between Russia and the West, criticising those who have provided military and financial backing to Ukraine.

8:45am: US sports world overjoyed at Brittney Griner’s release

Brittney Griner’s former coaches and teammates as well as a host of elite athletes have celebrated the US basketball star’s release from a Russian prison after 10 months of captivity. FRANCE 24’s Washington correspondent Kethevane Gorjestani has the details.


 

6:50am: US to send Ukraine anti-drone, air defence aid worth $275 million

The United States is preparing to send Ukraine a 275-million-dollar (€260 million) military aid package offering new capabilities to defeat drones and strengthen air defences, according to a document seen by Reuters and people familiar with the package.

The Pentagon is also expected to include rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.N, 155mm ammunition, Humvee military vehicles and generators, according to the people and the document.

A National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment on the aid package. The contents and size of aid packages can shift until they are signed by the president.

The $275 million will be covered by Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) which allows the United States to transfer defence articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

4:35am: Brittney Griner heads home after prisoner swap

American basketball star Brittney Griner was headed back to the United States on Thursday after being released from a Russian prison in exchange for an arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death”.

Griner, 32, who was arrested in Russia in February on drug charges, and Viktor Bout, 55, who was serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison, were exchanged at an airport in Abu Dhabi.

In footage released by Russian state media, Griner, shorn of her distinctive dreadlocks, and a relaxed and animated Bout could be seen crossing paths on the airport tarmac and heading towards the planes that would take them home.

President Joe Biden announced Griner’s release in an address to the nation at the White House. “She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” he said.

The president said he had spoken to her and she was in “good spirits” after suffering “needless trauma”.


 

10:35pm: Russia ‘deploying rocket launchers near Ukraine nuclear reactor’

Russian forces have installed multiple rocket launchers at Ukraine’s shut-down Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine’s nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement that Russian forces occupying the plant have placed several Grad multiple rocket launchers near one of its six nuclear reactors, which are all shut down. It said the offensive systems are located at new “protective structures” the Russians secretly built, “violating all conditions for nuclear and radiation safety”.

The claim could not be independently verified.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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Ukraine hunts collaborators in its divided church

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KYIV — “He consecrated their tanks — blessed military equipment!”

Kyiv’s regional police chief Andrii Nebytov doesn’t hide his disgust as he describes how Father Mykola Yevtushenko, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, collaborated with the Russians, offering benedictions and urging his parishioners to welcome the invading forces.

The 75-year-old cleric, whose trial is underway in Kyiv, is accused not only of trying to stamp an ecclesiastical imprimatur on the invasion, but also of identifying locals most likely to resist Russia’s savage 33-day occupation of Bucha, the suburban town just northwest of Kyiv that has become a byword for war crimes.

Yevtushenko is far from being the only clergyman in the sights of the Ukrainian authorities over accusations of collaboration. More than 30 priests are under investigation, and the intelligence services mounted a series of raids in monasteries and churches across the country to root out pro-Russian clerics.

The investigations cut to the heart of a profound and highly political schism that divides the churches of this predominantly Orthodox nation. The growing tensions raise significant questions over how far President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can go in ratcheting up pressure on what is ostensibly a religious institution over fears that it is a hotbed of dangerous fifth columnists.

Ukraine’s church splintered in 2018 into two bodies with unhelpfully similar names. In the teeth of opposition from the Kremlin, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was granted ecclesiastical independence by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2019. In a sign of the political fault lines underpinning the feud, OCU churches had offered support to the Maidan protesters of 2014, who toppled Viktor Yanukovych, Moscow’s satrap in Ukraine. 

This left the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which was still loyal to Moscow and is the church to which Yevtushenko and the other investigated clergy belong. The UOC has more land and buildings but the OCU claims at least double the number of worshippers. Although the UOC claimed in May to have ended its subordination to Moscow’s Metropolitan Kirill, a vociferous supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, few believe the split is sincere. Kirill casts the invasion as a religious war, an apocalyptic battle against evil forces determined to shatter the God-given unity of Holy Mother Russia, and Ukrainian lawmakers and other critics accuse the UOC of faking its rupture with his authority.

Butchery in Bucha

The army that Yevtushenko blessed in Bucha committed atrocities.

As they withdrew, they left behind 458 bodies, mostly civilians, including those of children. All were victims of a reign of rape and murder, that saw an old man shot dead in his garden and a family machine-gunned to death in their car as they tried to flee to safety. After the Russians withdrew, the town was littered with bodies, some buried and others not. Eighteen mutilated corpses of men, women and children were found in a basement — and on a roadside under a blanket, three naked women, whom Russian soldiers had attempted to incinerate before retreating.

The bestiality didn’t deter Yevtushenko.

As the rampage unfolded, he persisted in supporting the Russians, singling out local officials, Ukrainian army veterans and the “houses where wealthy people live, which were later robbed by the occupiers,” according to investigators.

The priest’s defense is that he was forced into his actions, but the police chief has little sympathy.

“He doesn’t accept his guilt and says the Russians threatened to kill him, or something like that,” Nebytov said, with a shake of his head.

Among the other 30 priests under investigation is Oleksandr Boyko from the village of Deptivka in Sumy Oblast, detained on suspicion of having “propagated hostile ideology, justified the actions of the aggressor country in Ukraine and supported the occupation,” according to prosecutors. Locals have told Ukrainian media that Boyko accompanied the Russians in his car around the village, delivering a pro-Moscow sermon: “We must love Russia. Without Russia, we are nothing.”

Ukrainian prosecutors announced Wednesday that a priest from the Luhansk region had been convicted of collaborating with the Russians and sentenced to 12 years. He was found guilty of supplying the Russians with intelligence on Ukrainian forces. 

“A priest from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate in Luhansk region has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for informing the enemy about Ukrainian defense positions. The prosecutors proved in court that the priest from Lysychansk-based church assisted the Russian armed groups during hostilities against the Ukrainian army,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said on its Telegram channel.

As more evidence emerges about treacherous priests, public clamor is swelling for a ban on the UOC. A public petition last week calling for the UOC to be shuttered rapidly attracted the required 25,000 signatures for it to be referred formally to President Zelenskyy.

To ban or not ban

Even before the petition reached Zelenskyy’s desk, more than 30 Ukrainian lawmakers led by Kniazhytskyi and drawn from a variety of political parties, sponsored legislation that would ban the church and transfer its property to the OCU.

In the past, Zelenskyy’s government has been wary of acting against Moscow’s church in Ukraine, not wanting to cross any lines on the freedom of religious belief, or fall foul of the European Union or international norms in protecting worship. It has wanted to avoid offending the church’s adherents, acutely aware that within the ranks of its priests and worshippers are plenty of patriotic Ukrainians, some fighting on the frontlines against the Russians.

But evidence that church leaders have acted to varying degrees as cheerleaders for the enemy has prompted a change of heart.

In one of his nightly addresses, Zelenskyy announced his government was working on legislation to protect the country’s “spiritual independence” and to make it impossible for “religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia to function in Ukraine. He has called for the naming and shaming of leading church figures and priests who have aided Russia.  

The Ukrainian leader has also ordered a probe into the management of the UOC and its canonical relationship with the Moscow Patriarchate, to be completed within two months.

Talk of banning the UOC has prompted fury from the Kremlin. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has accused Kyiv of mounting a “war on the Russian Orthodox Church” — an odd turn of phrase considering the UOC’s claims to be no longer affiliated with its mother church in Moscow.

Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda has dubbed the proposed moves as an “act of intimidation” and the latest round in the persecution of Orthodox faithful that he claims began in 2014 after Yanukovych’s ouster. He offered no examples of persecution. The Moscow Patriarchate and Putin and his aides cited Kyiv’s oppression of the UOC as justification for military moves into Ukraine’s Donbass region after 2014.

Russian world

Among the institutions targeted by Ukraine’s security service was the 11th-century Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, a preeminent center of Orthodox Christianity. In western Ukraine, agents raided the Koretsky Convent and the Volyn monastery of the icon of the Mother of God.

In a statement, Ukraine’s security agency (SBU) said it needed to conduct inspections to check for weapons and to ensure saboteurs or collaborators wanted by the police weren’t being sheltered in church buildings. “These activities are being carried out to prevent the use of religious communities as cells of the ‘Russian world’ and to protect the population from provocations and terrorist acts, among other things,” the SBU said. Ukrainian officials say material was found during the raids that indicated the UOC had maintained links to the Russian Orthodox Church throughout the war. (The phrase “Russian world,” or Russkiy mir, is a concept Putin evoked to justify his annexation of Crimea and has cited as his reason for invading Ukraine.)

Speaking to POLITICO, Metropolitan Klyment, the UOC’s spokesman, initially made light of the raids, saying “the security service was more looking into health measures in terms of COVID.” But then added: “It is political manipulation — they want to accuse the Lavra of wrongdoing, but in the end, they didn’t find anything incriminating, weapons or saboteurs or anything like that.”

Weapons maybe not, but the SBU has charged several clergymen from the Lavra with “glorifying Russia” during church services, leading hymns and songs about a Russian awakening and offering justification for the invasion of Ukraine. “Those who wait for the ‘awakening of Mother Rus’ during the full-scale war that Russia is waging against Ukraine need to understand that this harms the interests and the security of Ukraine and its citizens,” SBU head Vasily Malyuk said. “We will not allow such expressions.”

Pro-Kremlin pamphlets, books and newspapers such as the “Russian Messenger” were found during the raids, say SBU officials.

Since the 2014 Maidan uprising, there have been episodic calls for the Russian-linked church to be banned, with detractors accusing it of being a Trojan Horse. Around 600 parishes defected to the OCU from 2014 to early 2022. After the invasion, that turned into a torrent with another thousand parishes switching affiliation.

With criticism mounting — and in a bid apparently to try to stem defections — the church announced in May that it had rewritten its charter, ending its subordination to the Russian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Kirill. But the UOC has failed to publish its new constitution and continues to hold services where priests pray for Russia and promulgate a vision of the Russian world.

Still loyal to Moscow

The rewriting of the charter “is just a game,” Archbishop Yevstratiy of the breakaway OCU told POLITICO. “It is cosmetic and just rhetoric; it is not a real decision to break with Moscow. They said they changed the laws of the church to omit their ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. But that was more than six months ago and they have still not published the new version,” Yevstratiy said.

He says a ban is justified. “Ukraine resists Russian aggression not only on the battlefield but across different spheres. Ukraine prohibits the activity of Russian banks, of Russian media, and Ukraine has banned pro-Russian political parties, and I think there should be a law that prohibits a church tied to Russia, which Moscow uses as a tool of ideological aggression. That doesn’t mean people can’t believe what they want and pray how they want, but we can’t have Ukrainian religious entities controlled by Moscow,” he said.

The archbishop highlighted the origins of the Moscow Patriarchy and its establishment in 1943 by communist dictator Joseph Stalin as the governing body to run Orthodox religious affairs in the Soviet Union. “The Moscow Patriarchy is a Russian state agency,” Yevstratiy said.

That is also the view of the late KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin, who defected in the early 1990s to Britain. In a subsequent book, Mitrokhin revealed that the Patriarchy was set up as a front organization of the Russian intelligence services, with its priests used as “agents of influence” and even for “active measures” and spying missions.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, not much has changed, say some Western analysts and Ukrainian lawmakers, including Kniazhytskyi, who has long campaigned for a ban on the UOC.

Kniazhytskyi told POLITICO the Russian Orthodox Church and UOC are one and the same — “part of the Russian state” used by the Kremlin in Ukraine and elsewhere in subversive hybrid warfare and as a tool of foreign policy as well as an agency for Russia’s intelligence services. 

Kniazhytskyi and others say the use of the church for state purposes predates Stalin — orthodoxy was used by Russian leaders, including Catherine the Great and Czar Nicholas I, as an ideological justification for the expansion of the Russian empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“The church is not religious in nature; it implements the state policy of the Russian Federation,” he said.



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Live: Ukraine’s Zelensky visits troops near Donbas front line

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President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the frontline city of Sloviansk on Tuesday in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Russia claims as its own, his office said, as Ukraine scrambled to restore its battered power grid a day after key facilities were targeted in the latest wave of Russian missile strikes. Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).

2:16pm: Hungary blocks 18 billion euro Ukraine aid package

Hungary on Tuesday blocked a mammoth EU aid package for Ukraine, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban seeks to pressure Brussels into handing him billions of euros in frozen funds. 

Budapest made good on its threat to oppose 18 billion euros ($19 billion) of financial support for war-torn Ukraine at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels. 

The much-needed aid for Kyiv is one of several initiatives Budapest is stalling as it faces having 13 billion euros in EU funds for it frozen by the bloc over its failures on stopping graft and ensuring judicial independence. 

1:51pm: Russian-appointed mayor says six killed by Ukraine shelling in Donetsk city

The Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine said Tuesday that incoming fire from Kyiv’s forces had killed at least six civilians in the city controlled by the Russian military.

“Preliminary data shows that, today six civilians were killed as a result of shelling in Donetsk, the number of wounded is being specified,” Alexei Kulemzin, the Moscow-installed head of the city, said on social media.

11:53am: ‘Absurd’ to stoke fear of winter power cuts, says France’s Macron 

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was “absurd” to stoke fear in France over the country’s energy situation and reaffirmed France would get through this winter in spite of energy market tensions caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“The role of public authorities is not to spread fear nor to govern by fear,” said Macron, as he arrived at a summit of European Union and Western Balkans leaders in Albania.

“We must not make people feel scared. We must stop all that,” Macron also said. “We will get through this winter, despite the war,” he added.

11:39am: Russian lawmaker says 60 soldiers to be freed in prisoner swap

Russia is set to receive 60 soldiers in a prisoner swap with Ukraine today, a lawmaker from Russia’s ruling party said.

“The Russian Ministry of Defence is conducting another exchange of prisoners of war today. Sixty Russian servicemen are returning home,” State Duma deputy Shamsail Saraliev wrote on Telegram.

11:30am: Ukraine’s Zelensky visits troops near Donbas front line

President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the frontline city of Sloviansk in the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk, where Russian forces have been pressing an offensive for months, the presidency has said.

Zelensky appeared in a video on social media wearing a winter coat and standing next to large sign in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colours bearing the city name Sloviansk and calling for a moment of silence to commemorate slain Ukrainian soldiers.

“From the bottom of my heart, I congratulate you on this great holiday, the Day of the Armed Forces,” Zelensky said in the video.

Sloviansk, which was briefly held by Russian-backed separatists in 2014, lies some 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of Bakhmut, which has become the centre of fighting since the fall of Kherson.

10:44am: Kremlin does not see prospect for peace talks

The Kremlin has said it agrees with the United States about the need for lasting peace in Ukraine but does not see the prospect of negotiations at the moment.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview on Monday that the conflict in Ukraine would end “almost certainly with diplomacy” and negotiations, and that “just and durable peace” was needed.

“That the outcome should be a just and durable peace – one can agree with this. But as for the prospects for some sort of negotiations, we do not see any at the moment,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

10:22am: Ukraine aims to significantly reduce power outages by Tuesday evening

Ukraine aims to significantly reduce the power deficit caused by the latest Russian air strikes by Tuesday evening, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

Missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday destroyed homes and knocked out power in some areas, but Ukrainian air defences limited the impact and the damage appeared less severe than the previous wave of air strikes on Nov. 23.

Galushchenko said power generation facilities and substations had been hit and signalled that the regions of Kyiv, Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine and Odesa in the south had suffered the worst damage.

“We are now bringing the nuclear blocks (power stations) back into operation and the (power) deficit will be significantly reduced by evening,” he told Ukrainian television.

10:12am: Russia sees ‘positive dynamics’ in talks on Zaporizhzhia safety zone, says TASS

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has spoken of “positive dynamics” in discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the creation of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the TASS news agency reports.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of threatening to trigger a nuclear catastrophe at the site, which has been under Russian control since the early days of the war but is located near the front line.

Earlier this morning, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russian forces are taking “all measures” to ensure the safety of the nuclear power plant in the face of what he called “nuclear terrorism” from Kyiv.

10:01am: Latvia licence withdrawal ‘unfair and absurd’, says exiled Russian TV channel

Russian exiled independent TV channel Dozhd said Tuesday that accusations against it were “unfair and absurd” after Latvia, where the outlet is now based, revoked its broadcasting license.

“The TV channel will stop broadcasting on cable but will remain on YouTube. We continue to work and believe all accusations against us to be unfair and absurd,” Dozhd (Rain) said on Twitter after it was accused of showing the Crimea peninsula annexed from Ukraine as part of Russia, among other alleged violations.

06:54am: Ukraine races to restore power grid after Russian strikes 

Ukraine is racing to restore power after Russia’s latest wave of missile strikes caused disruptions across the country, right as winter frost builds and temperatures plunge.

Out of the 70 missiles launched by Moscow, “most” were shot down, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, but the barrage still hit Ukraine’s already battered infrastructure. 

Fresh power cuts were announced in all regions “due to the consequences of shelling,” national electricity provider Ukrenergo said on Telegram.

The head of Ukrenergo said he had “no doubt that Russian military consulted with Russian power engineers during this attack”, judging by where the missiles landed. 

“The time that Russians chose for this attack was connected with their desire to inflict as much damage as possible,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told a Ukrainian news programme, explaining that the attacks were launched as the country enters a “peak frost” period.

06:30am: ‘Drone attack’ strikes Russian airfield bordering Ukraine, says governor

A drone has attacked an airfield in Russia‘s Kursk region bordering Ukraine, the local governor has said, a day after Moscow blamed Ukraine for drone strikes at two Russian airfields.

“As a result of a drone attack in the area of the Kursk airfield, an oil storage tank caught fire. There were no casualties,” governor Roman Starovoyt said on social media. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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Ukraine war: Putin slams the West as ‘dangerous, bloody and dirty’

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West is trying to dictate the actions of other nations, in a “dangerous, bloody and dirty” game. 

Putin made the comments during a lengthy speech at a conference near Moscow on Thursday, where he also denied having any intention of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 

He said it was pointless for Russia to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons, saying “there is no point in that, neither political nor military.” 

The Russian president claimed an earlier warning of his readiness to use “all means available to protect Russia” didn’t amount to nuclear saber-rattling but was merely a response to Western statements about their possible use of nuclear weapons.

He particularly mentioned former British Prime Minister Liz Truss saying in August that she would be ready to use nuclear weapons if she became Britain’s prime minister, a remark which Putin said worried the Kremlin.

“What were we supposed to think?” Putin said. “We saw that as a coordinated position, an attempt to blackmail us.”

Putin, who sent his troops into Ukraine on 24 February, has cast Western support for Ukraine as part of broad efforts to enforce their will upon others through a rules-based world order. 

He argued that the world has reached a turning point, when “the West is no longer able to dictate its will to humankind but still tries to do it, and the majority of nations no longer want to tolerate it.”

The Russian leader claimed that the Western policies will foment more chaos, adding that “he who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind.”

Putin claimed that “humankind now faces a choice: accumulate a load of problems that will inevitably crush us all or try to find solutions that may not be ideal but could work and could make the world more stable and secure.”

Without offering evidence, the Russian leader repeated Moscow’s unproven allegation that Ukraine was plotting a false flag attack involving a radioactive dirty bomb it would try to pin on Russia.

Ukraine has strongly rejected the claim, and its Western allies have dismissed it as “transparently false.” Ukraine argued Russia might be making the unfounded allegation to serve as a cover for its own possible plot to detonate a dirty bomb.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. has still not seen anything to indicate that Putin has decided to use a dirty bomb.

Putin said he personally ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to call his foreign counterparts to tell them about the purported plot. He maintained that Russia knows the Ukrainian facilities working on the project.



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