Vladimir Putin warned that the threat of nuclear war was “on the rise” while speaking during a televised annual session of his human rights council.
Putin insisted Russia had not “gone mad” and that it saw its own nuclear arsenal as a purely defensive deterrent. He said:
We haven’t gone mad, we realise what nuclear weapons are. We have these means in more advanced and modern form than any other nuclear country, that’s an obvious fact. But we aren’t about to run around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor.
He went on to claim that Russia “could be the only guarantor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity”, adding:
President Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could turn into a “long-term process”. Speaking to members of his personal human rights council on Wednesday, Putin sought to defend an invasion in which Russian troops have been forced to retreat and even airbases deep inside Russia have come under attack.
Putin also claimed that Russia would not use nuclear weapons first in any conflict, denied that Russian troops were deserting in mass from the field of battle, and claimed that the Russian military would not need to mobilise more troops, a process that has caused considerable upheaval in Russia.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said Russia is attempting to “freeze” the fighting in Ukraine over the winter to prepare its forces for a renewed assault early next year. Stoltenberg urged Nato allies to continue sending weapons to Kyiv over the winter, adding that the conditions for a peaceful settlement to the war are “not there now”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said 31 “suspicious packages” had been sent to Ukrainian missions in 15 countries. In the past week, Ukraine says its embassies and consultants across Europe have received “bloody” packages, some containing animal eyes, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
Eight people were killed by Russian shelling in the town of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to a Ukrainian official. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said five people were also wounded in the attack, in which a market, bus station, petrol stations and residential buildings came under fire in the town in the Donetsk region.
A road accident in the temporarily occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk has left 16 people dead and several injured, according to a Russian-backed official and state media. The accident involved a minibus and a truck, whose passengers included soldiers, and took place between Torez and Shakhtarsk, emergency services told the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, has called on the country’s western allies to boycott Russian culture. Writing in the Guardian, Tkachenko argues that a halt to performances of the music of Tchaikovsky and other Russian composers until the end of the war would be “pausing the performance of his works until Russia ceases its bloody invasion”.
The European Commission has proposed a ninth package of sanctions on Russia, including adding almost 200 additional individuals and entities on the sanctions list. In a statement, the head of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accused Russia of “deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure” and of continuing to “bring deaths and devastation to Ukraine”.
The US has made clear to Ukraine its “concerns” about any escalation of the war with Russia, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said. Kirby said the principle behind the war in Ukraine was one of sovereignty, and “unlike the Russians, we respect Ukrainian sovereignty”. Kirby’s comments came after Kyiv appeared to launch a pre-emptive strike on bombers on two Russian airbases far from the frontlines earlier this week.
The Kremlin has said a US military aid spending bill providing $800m to Ukraine approved by lawmakers on Tuesday was “provocation towards our country”. The Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorises the additional spending for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, an increase of $500m over President Joe Biden’s request earlier this year.
Britain has ordered “several thousand” NLAW anti-tank weapons to replace the 7,000 donated to Ukraine in the past year. Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, said the NLAWs played “a decisive role” in pushing back the Russian invasion, but Labour has complained that the deal took nearly 10 months to sign and the replacements will take three years to make.
BP should donate its “wartime profits” in Russia to the reconstruction of Ukraine or ministers should impose a special windfall tax on the oil company to force it to do so, British MPs have told parliament. The British oil supermajor has a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, one of the Kremlin’s most important oil assets and signalled its intent to exit Russia nine months ago, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Belarus plans to move military equipment and security forces on Wednesday and Thursday in what it says are checks on its response to possible acts of terrorism, the state Belta news agency reported. “During this period, it is planned to move military equipment and personnel of the national security forces,” the news agency cited the country’s security council as saying.
At least 441 civilians were killed by Russian forces during the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, according to a report by the UN’s human rights office. Many of the bodies documented in the report bore signs that the victims may have been intentionally killed, the report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.
An Orthodox priest accused of leaking information on Ukrainian defence positions to Russia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office. The priest from Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, had been informing the Russians about the positions of Ukrainian troops since April, it said in a statement on Telegram.
The European Commission has proposed a ninth package of sanctions on Russia, including adding almost 200 additional individuals and entities on the sanctions list.
In a statement, the head of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accused Russia of “deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure” and of continuing to “bring deaths and devastation to Ukraine”.
She added:
But we stand by Ukraine, and we will make Russia pay for its cruelty.
Russia continues to bring death and devastation to Ukraine.
We stand by Ukraine and we are making Russia pay for its cruelty
The existing 8 packages of sanctions we introduced so far are already biting hard.
An Orthodox priest accused of leaking information on Ukrainian defence positions to Russia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office.
The priest from Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, had been informing the Russians about the positions of Ukrainian troops since April, it said in a statement on Telegram.
The statement read:
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 priest “gathered information about the number and deployment of equipment, as well as the Ukrainian armed forces’ weapons in Sievierodonetsk and the neighbouring settlements”, it continued.
He then sent the information to Russian representatives via mobile messengers, it said, adding that Ukrainian officials discovered the priest’s phone correspondence.
Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could turn into a “long-term process” as he sought to defend an invasion in which Russian troops have been forced to retreat and even airbases deep inside Russia have come under attack.
Speaking to members of his personal human rights council on Wednesday, Putin claimed that Russia would not use nuclear weapons first in any conflict, denied that Russian troops were deserting in mass from the field of battle, and claimed that the Russian military would not need to mobilise more troops, a process that has caused considerable upheaval in Russia.
But mainly the Russian president defended the “special military operation” – his preferred term for what he openly admitted was a Russian war of conquest that he compared with the territorial ambitions of former Russian tsars.
“As for the slow process of the special military operation, then, of course, it can be a long-term process,” Putin said.
But then you mentioned that new territories had appeared. This is such a significant result for Russia … The Azov Sea has become an internal Russian sea. Even Peter I had fought for access to the Azov Sea.
Russia has been forced to abandon some of those “annexed” territories, notably fleeing the city of Kherson last month due to a sweeping Ukrainian counterattack. Russia now shells the city of Kherson regularly from the other side of the Dnieper River, in effect attacking its own territory.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers run to help people in an apartment house in fire after the Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photograph: LIBKOS/AP
An expert from the Ukrainian prosecutor's office examining collected remnants of shells and missiles used by the Russian army to attack the second-largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Photograph: Aleksey Filippov/AFP/Getty Images
A local resident walks past her burning house after Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photograph: LIBKOS/AP
The US has made clear to Ukraine its “concerns” about any escalation of the war with Russia, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said.
Kirby’s comments to reporters today came after Kyiv appeared to launch a pre-emptive strike on bombers on two Russian airbases far from the frontlines earlier this week.
Kirby said the principle behind the war in Ukraine was one of sovereignty, and “unlike the Russians, we respect Ukrainian sovereignty”.
The US has had conversations with Ukraine about the accountability of weapons systems “but in the end these are Ukrainian decisions that they have to make”, he said.
He added:
When we give them a weapons system, it belongs to them. Where they use it, how they use it, how much ammunition they use to use that system, those are Ukrainian decisions, and we respect that.
During a press conference with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and their Australian counterparts in Washington, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken,said the US had not “encouraged nor enabled” Ukraine to strike inside Russia.
Austin, however, said the US was not stopping Ukraine from developing its own long-range strike capability.
Russian shelling kills eight in Donetsk town, says official
Eight people were killed by Russian shelling in the town of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to a Ukrainian official.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said five people were also wounded in the attack, in which a market, bus station, petrol stations and residential buildings came under fire in the town in the Donetsk region.
Russian occupation troops shelled Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast, again on December 7, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said. As a result of the attack, 8 people were killed and 5 more were wounded. pic.twitter.com/uPwh1nsVGP
BP should donate its “wartime profits” in Russia to the reconstruction of Ukraine or ministers should impose a special windfall tax on the oil company to force it to do so, MPs have told parliament.
The British oil supermajor has a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, one of the Kremlin’s most important oil assets and signalled its intent to exit Russia nine months ago, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The company took a £18.7bn hit by writing off the shareholding from its books, but still owns the stock in the Russian state-controlled firm.
In a parliamentary debate on Wednesday, MPs from all parties put pressure on the government to ensure BP completely left the country.
An analysis by Global Witness shows that a dividend Rosneft has offered BP is worth an estimated £580m, or the equivalent of a third of the UK’s direct aid to Ukraine this year.
The Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who raised an urgent question on the matter, told the Commons on Wednesday:
It is utterly shameful that a large, publicly listed British company profits from the sale of oil that is funding Putin’s war.
BP must either voluntarily donate the entirety of its Russian dividends to the reconstruction of Ukraine, or the government must take action to force them to do so.
The Guardian revealed last week that Oleg Ustenko, the chief economic adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has written to BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, to demand it cuts ties with Rosneft.
It’s just past 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will “defend ourselves with all the means at our disposal” and warned that the threat of nuclear war is “on the rise”. In an address to his human rights council, Russia’s leader said his army’s “special military operation” in Ukraine could be a “long process”, but he saw no need to mobilise additional soldiers at this point.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said Russia is attempting to “freeze” the fighting in Ukraine over the winter to prepare its forces for a renewed assault early next year. Stoltenberg urged Nato allies to continue sending weapons to Kyiv over the winter, adding that the conditions for a peaceful settlement to the war are “not there now”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said 31 “suspicious packages” had been sent to Ukrainian missions in 15 countries. In the past week, Ukraine says its embassies and consultants across Europe have received “bloody” packages, some containing animal eyes, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
A road accident in the temporarily occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk has left 16 people dead and several injured, according to a Russian-backed official and state media. The accident involved a minibus and a truck, whose passengers included soldiers, and took place between Torez and Shakhtarsk, emergency services told the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, has called on the country’s western allies to boycott Russian culture. Writing in the Guardian, Tkachenko argues that a halt to performances of the music of Tchaikovsky and other Russian composers until the end of the war would be “pausing the performance of his works until Russia ceases its bloody invasion”.
The Kremlin has said a US military aid spending bill providing $800m to Ukraine approved by lawmakers on Tuesday was “provocation towards our country”. The Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorises the additional spending for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, an increase of $500m over President Joe Biden’s request earlier this year.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said it had not “enabled” Ukraine to carry out strikes inside Russia, after a spate of drone attacks on military-linked facilities deep within Russian territory. Kyiv did not directly claim responsibility but neither did it criticise the action, which killed three people and damaged long-range bombers and a fuel depot, according to reports from Russia.
US has not 'encouraged nor enabled' Ukraine to strike inside Russia, says Blinken – video
Britain has ordered “several thousand” NLAW anti-tank weapons to replace the 7,000 donated to Ukraine in the past year. Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, said the NLAWs played “a decisive role” in pushing back the Russian invasion, but Labour has complained that the deal took nearly 10 months to sign and the replacements will take three years to make.
Iran has so far not delivered ballistic missiles to Russia and may not do so, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser has said. Mykhailo Podolyak also told the Guardian that Russian forces had run short of their first batch of Iranian drones – and only had enough of their own cruise missiles in their stockpile for “two or three” more mass strikes against Ukraine.
Belarus plans to move military equipment and security forces on Wednesday and Thursday in what it says are checks on its response to possible acts of terrorism, the state Belta news agency reported. “During this period, it is planned to move military equipment and personnel of the national security forces,” the news agency cited the country’s security council as saying.
At least 441 civilians were killed by Russian forces during the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, according to a report by the UN’s human rights office. Many of the bodies documented in the report bore signs that the victims may have been intentionally killed, the report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong, here to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Vladimir Putin warned that the threat of nuclear war was “on the rise” while speaking during a televised annual session of his human rights council.
Putin insisted Russia had not “gone mad” and that it saw its own nuclear arsenal as a purely defensive deterrent. He said:
We haven’t gone mad, we realise what nuclear weapons are. We have these means in more advanced and modern form than any other nuclear country, that’s an obvious fact. But we aren’t about to run around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor.
He went on to claim that Russia “could be the only guarantor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity”, adding:
Putin: Russia ‘will defend itself with all means at its disposal’
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will “defend ourselves with all the means at our disposal” in what he described as a “struggle for our national interests” against the west.
Putin said western rights organisations viewed his country as “a second-class country that has no right to exist at all” during a televised annual session of his human rights council. He said:
There can be only one answer from our side – a consistent struggle for our national interests. We will do just that. And let no one count on anything else.
He continued:
We will do this by various ways and means. First of all, of course, we will focus on peaceful means, but if nothing else remains, we will defend ourselves with all the means at our disposal.
The Russian leader said his army’s “special military operation” in Ukraine could be a “long process”, but he saw no need to mobilise additional soldiers at this point.
Out of the 300,000 reservists who were called up to fight in Russia’s partial military mobilisation in September and October, 150,000 were now deployed in Ukraine, Putin said.
Of those, 77,000 were in combat units and the remainder performing defensive functions, he said.
Britain has ordered “several thousand” NLAW anti-tank weapons to replace the 7,000 donated to Ukraine in the past year, prompting complaints from Labour that the deal took nearly 10 months to sign and the replacements will take three years to make.
The Ministry of Defence announced a £230m contract with Saab, the prime contractor, to make 500 in 2023 and thousands more between 2024 and 2026, demonstrating how long it can take to replenish stocks depleted by gifts to Ukraine.
Britain was one of the earliest weapons donors to Ukraine, announcing it would send over the first batch of NLAWs in January, a month before the Russian invasion. It has since donated about 7,000, although exact figures are not available.
NLAWs helped Ukraine stop the Russian advance on Kyiv in February and March, with their simplicity of use praised by the Ukrainian military. The shoulder-mounted bazookas have a range of 50 to 800m and can simply be pointed at an oncoming tank.
Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, said the NLAWs played “a decisive role” in pushing back the Russian invasion. “We are continuing to fulfil our commitment to Nato by ensuring our armed forces will receive a steady supply of these weapons over the coming years,” he said.
The NLAWs will be assembled in Belfast by Thales, and the minister highlighted the contribution the contract would make in supporting British jobs.
But Labour complained about the length of time taken to sign off the deal. John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, said: “287 days after Putin’s invasion, ministers have finally got their act together.”
He said the first new NLAWs “still won’t be delivered until two years after the invasion”, and added: “It’s not clear when the MoD will sign contracts to restock other weapons and ammunition needed for the British army and to support Ukraine.”
Britain has committed £2.3bn in military aid in 2023, providing a total of 10,000 anti-tank weapons including Javelin and Brimstone missiles, NLAWs, M270 rocket artillery, 200 armoured vehicles, 28 M109 artillery guns plus almost 100,000 rounds, and 3m bullets, plus more than 25,000 sets of winter clothing.
Vladimir Putin has said there is no need for an additional call-up of Russian reservists to fight in Ukraine at the moment, Reuters reported.
Putin said that of the more than 300,000 Russian reservists who were drafted in what Moscow called a “partial mobilisation” in September and October, 150,000 were deployed in the zone of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Of those, 77,000 were in combat units and the remainder were performing defensive functions, he said.
The US has been very clear with Ukraine about accountability over weapons systems and its concerns over escalation of the war with Russia, the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday.
“We have been consistent on our concerns over escalation. We have not encouraged them to do that,” Kirby said, after apparent Ukrainian drone strikes on two airbases deep inside Russia.
In his office in Kyiv city hall, the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, is planning for the worst and hoping for the best, Peter Beaumont writes.
The previous day, in the middle of the sixth mass Russian missile strike against Ukrainian cities that had sent Kyiv’s resident to the bomb shelters and metro stations, no rockets had made it through to hit the capital.
On the mayor’s desk is a newspaper he has had produced and distributed around the city in recent days. Bearing his name, and the headline “We will overcome and win”, it lists all the emergency services in Kyiv that will be available in case of what should be unthinkable but isn’t: the failure of all power and services to a city of 3 million in the depths of Ukraine’s winter.
Vitali Klitschko: ‘They want to freeze the civilian population. They want … to have a Ukraine without Ukrainians.’ Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters
Across three densely printed pages are details of supermarkets with generators that will work in that emergency, the post offices and banks, and arrangements for public transit.
It lists the 45 underground metro stations that will remain open as shelters and provide phone charging and internet, as well as tips for surviving a prolonged blackout.
“It’s for the worst-case scenario,” says Klitschko, a former world champion boxer turned politician, picking up the paper.
We need to tell people what they need to do if the situation becomes critical and they don’t have internet and connection to media.
Life in the city can often seem largely normal, outside of the massive airstrikes that have been taking place, often weekly, since 20 October. Restaurants are busy and the streets are jammed with traffic at close to prewar levels, but with the first snow on the ground and the temperature hitting -8C this week, life in the capital is also overshadowed by the risk of a humanitarian crisis.
“Thanks to our military, they knocked out all the missiles fired at Kyiv yesterday,” says Klitschko.
But it was only two weeks ago we came close to a total blackout. Then the temperature was above freezing, but imagine the same situation if it happened now when it is close to -10 outside and with no electricity water, or heating. The consequences would be disastrous.
UN: Russian forces killed at least 441 civilians, including children, in first weeks of Ukraine war
At least 441 civilians were killed by Russian forces during the first weeks after President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine, according to a report by the UN’s human rights office.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented summary executions and attacks in dozens of towns across three regions, and warned the actual number of victims in the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions was likely to be much higher.
The report covered the beginning of Moscow’s invasion on 24 February until early April, and gathered evidence from 102 towns and villages in Ukraine.
It said:
The acts in question were committed by Russian armed forces in control of these areas and led to the deaths of 441 civilians (341 men, 72 women, 20 boys and 8 girls).
Many of the bodies documented in the report bore signs that the victims may have been intentionally killed, the report said. Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in what it calls a “special military operation”.
In a statement, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said:
There are strong indications that the summary executions documented in the report constitute the war crime of wilful killing.
Overall in the war through 4 December, the OHCHR said it had counted 6,702 civilian deaths, and that its monitoring includes violations by all parties.
