A major drone attack by Ukraine forced the closure of two Moscow airports this morning, with Russia saying it intercepted as many as 121 UAVs.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early today that air defence units had intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations around the Russian capital and air defence units southeast of the capital in the Kolomna and Ramenskoye districts had repelled one group of “enemy” drones, without specifying how many were involved.
The attack came as South Korea’s military said North Korea is preparing to send more troops to join Russia’s fight against Ukraine, despite Pyongyang suffering a high rate of losses among its existing deployment of 11,000 and seeing some of its soldiers captured.
At Davos on Thursday, Donald Trump issued some of his harshest criticism of Vladimir Putin yet for the ongoing war, and said he “really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon to get that war ended”.
Yet just hours later an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity was aired in which Mr Trump suggested the war only started because of Volodymyr Zelensky’s failure to preemptively capitulate before Russian troops began their invasion.
Key Points
- Russia shuts airports amid major drone attack
- North Korea suspected of preparing to send more troops to Russia, Seoul says
- Trump says Ukraine should have surrendered to Russia, blames Zelensky for war
- Trump says he wants to meet Putin soon and discuss nuclear arms
- Trump says he is not sure US should spend 'anything' on Nato
Russia says 121 Ukrainian drones downed overnight
05:23
,
Arpan Rai
Russia’s air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 121 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, its defence ministry said today.
The drones were downed over 13 Russian regions, including seven over Moscow and the nearby region, the ministry said in a statement.
Unofficial Russian Telegram channels reported a “large number” of drones over the Kursk region and posted videos of explosions.
Kursk mayor Igor Kutsak said the attack had damaged power lines and cut off electricity to one city district.
UK monitors Russian spy ship and steps up undersea cable protection
05:00
,
Andy Gregory
Britain said it monitored a Russian spy ship in the English Channel in recent days and would strengthen its response to secret operations by Russian ships and aircraft in an effort to protect undersea cables.
Defence minister John Healey said Yantar, a Russian spy vessel used for intelligence and mapping critical infrastructure on the sea floor, entered British waters on Monday and the Royal Navy tracked it for two days until it entered Dutch waters. Russia’s embassy in London did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
“We will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain,” Mr Healey said on Wednesday. “We are strengthening our response to ensure that Russian ships and aircraft cannot operate in secrecy near UK or Nato territory.”
Worries over the potential sabotage of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been growing after a string of outages in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Britain decided to send maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft to help Nato’s efforts to protect cables in the Baltic Sea, Sir John announced, adding that it would also deploy an advanced AI system to help safeguard undersea infrastructure.
Trump says Ukraine should have surrendered to Russia, blames Zelensky for war
04:46
,
Arpan Rai
President Donald Trump claimed in part two of a televised interview that the nearly three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine that started when Moscow’s forces kicked off an invasion in 2022 was the fault of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s failure to preemptively capitulate before Russian troops began their attack.
Trump made the incendiary comments in a pre-taped interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Thursday on Hannity’s program.
After Hannity asked about Trump’s threat to impose tariffs as a penalty on Russia if the Ukrainian war continues much longer, Trump responded that Zelensky “has had enough” and “wants to settle” with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
North Korea suspected of preparing to send more troops to Russia, Seoul says
04:36
,
Arpan Rai
North Korea is preparing to send more troops to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces, despite suffering a high rate of losses and seeing some of its soldiers captured, South Korea’s military said.
“As four months have passed for the dispatch of troops for the Russia-Ukraine war, and multiple casualties and captives have occurred, (North Korea) is suspected to be accelerating follow-up measures and preparation for an additional dispatch of troops,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement today.
The JCS analysis did not specify what other follow-up measures Pyongyang might take.
North Korea is also preparing to launch a spy satellite and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), though there were no signs of immediate action on this front, the JCS said.
Pyongyang has deployed about 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, according to Ukrainian and Western assessments. Ukraine seized Kursk in a surprise attack last year. More than 3,000 have been killed or wounded, according to Kyiv.
Ukrainian army deploys cat noises to lure Russians into explosive-laden traps, soldier claims
04:30
,
Andy Gregory
Ukrainians are using recordings of cat noises to lure Vladimir Putin’s forces into explosive-rigged traps, a Russian soldier has claimed.
With the grit and ingenuity of the Ukrainian army frequently evidenced in its success in defending against Russia’s vast invading force, it has now been claimed that they are turning to an unusual tactic in appealing to the Russians’ reported fondness for cats.
The tactic has been reported on the frontline of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which has seen some of the war’s most gruelling fighting in recent months as Mr Putin’s forces sought to capture as much territory as possible ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House this week.
Nato chief says stopping Putin will cost trillions if they don’t support Ukraine now
04:20
,
Arpan Rai
A Russian victory over Ukraine would greatly undermine the power of Nato and its credibility would cost trillions to restore, the alliance’s secretary general has warned.
Mark Rutte insisted that Ukraine‘s Western backers must not scale back the support they are providing to the country, almost three years after Vladimir Putin’s invasion began.
Nato has been increasing its forces along its eastern flank with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, deploying thousands of troops and equipment. This is to deter Moscow from expanding its war into the territory of any of the organization’s 32 member countries.
Trump says he has no desire to hurt Russia
04:00
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war” in a post to his Truth Social site on Wednesday.
He said he had no desire to hurt Russia — which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in the Second World War — and has a good relationship with Mr Putin, but warned of penalties if the war isn’t stopped soon.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump has been sceptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other materiel to defend itself. He has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.
Trump says he is not sure US should spend 'anything' on Nato
03:42
,
Arpan Rai
Donald Trump has said he was not sure the United States should be spending anything on Nato, telling reporters the US was protecting Nato members, but they were “not protecting us”.
“I’m not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them,” Mr Trump told reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office. “We’re protecting them. They’re not protecting us.”
“They should up their 2 per cent to 5 per cent,” he said, repeating his remarks earlier to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. No Nato nation, including the US, is is currently spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence.
Washington finances 15.8 per cent of the 32-member military alliance’s yearly expenditure of around $3.5bn. That is the joint-largest share, alongside Germany’s, according to a Nato breakdown for 2024.
‘I didn’t know I would be fighting in Ukraine’ - captured North Korean soldier
03:30
,
Andy Gregory
A North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine has said he did not know who he would be fighting against or where he would fight.
In the recording of the interview, posted by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on X, the soldier says he arrived with Russia along with 100 fellow North Koreans on a ship, before being later transported by train.
The soldier, who had joined the army aged 17 as a conscript, said some of his compatriots were trained on heavy Russian military equipment - but that he did not go through this training.
“I didn’t know before coming to Russia that I would be fighting here, in Russia and I didn’t even know who we were fighting against,” the soldier told Ukrainian investigators.
“There were a lot of casualties when I was there alone, starting from the battle on Jan. 3. Overall, it’s hard to answer about such large-scale numbers.”
When asked what he knew about the world outside of North Korea, he said: “Not much.” Asked what he knows about South Korea, he said: “I only know that South Korea has fewer mountains than North Korea.”
Russia shuts airports amid major drone attack
03:14
,
Arpan Rai
Rosaviatsiya, the federal aviation agency, has said two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, were handling flights after suspending operations for a time. Six flights were redirected to other airports.
In the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, regional governor Pavel Markov said on Telegram that emergency services were tackling the aftermath of an air attack.
Russian officials say Ukrainian drones downed in Moscow, other regions
03:01
,
Arpan Rai
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early today that air defence units had intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations around the Russian capital.
Mr Sobyanin said air defence units southeast of the capital in the Kolomna and Ramenskoye districts had repelled one group of “enemy” drones, without specifying how many were involved.
“At the site where fragments fell, no damage or casualties have occurred,” Mr Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram app. “Specialist emergency crews are at the site.”
The mayor posted three more announcements in quick succession. He said two drones also headed for Moscow had been downed by air defences in Podolsk district, south of the capital.
He then reported a single drone downed in Troitsky district, in the southwest of the capital and in Shchyolkovo, to the northeast.Specialist emergency crews were dispatched to all the sites, the mayor said.
Pro-Russian candidate leads Romanian poll ahead of May election
03:00
,
Andy Gregory
A pro-Russian candidate currently leads the Romanian polls four months before a crucial election in May.
Calin Georgescu, the far-right candidate who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine in its defense against Putin’s invasion, is the voters’ top choice ahead of a re-run of a presidential election.
The European Union state’s top court annulled the initial presidential election two days before the second round of voting, due to allegations of Russian interference.
The election of Georgescu would be a critical blow for Ukraine, which has relied on Romania to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.
Georgescu is critical of NATO and has praised Romania’s fascist leaders of the 1930s. The EU court said he had benefited from a social media campaign likely orchestrated by Russia - Moscow denied the accusations.
But the latest polls for the first round show Georgescu set to gain 38 percent of the vote, with Crin Antonescu, leader of the pro-European governing coalition, sitting at just 25 percent.
Drones attack city near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, officials say
02:30
,
Andy Gregory
Russia-installed officials in Ukraine’s partly-occupied Zaporizhzhia region have claimed that Ukrainian drones attacked Enerhodar, a city serving the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“This is a terrorist act,” Russia-installed acting mayor Maksim Pukha told Russia’s RIA news agency, saying civil infrastructure and residential areas had been targeted. “Peaceful residents should in no way be targets of such an attack.”
Each side has accused the other of risking a nuclear catastrophe by attacking the station. Monitors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, are permanently stationed at the plant.
Russian court orders Austria’s bank to pay 2 billion euros damages
02:00
,
Andy Gregory
A Russian court has ordered Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International to pay €2bn in damages for a collapsed deal.
The ruling is a blow to the largest western bank in Russia, which has made billions in profit during the nearly three years of war in Ukraine.
The bank has provided a payment bridge for Russia’s middle class and companies into the West, but will now be forced to set aside a large sum as it challenges the ruling.
Sat in the courtroom as the ruling was read out were armed men in balaclavas, along with those involved in the case.
“This is a final warning to all Western companies that you cannot do business with Putin’s Russia,” said Helmut Brandstaetter, a liberal Austrian lawmaker in the European Parliament.
Decisive Trump leadership could change the course of history - senior Russian official
01:30
,
Andy Gregory
The chief of Russia’s $23bn sovereign wealth fund said new US president Donald Trump’s decisive leadership could “change the course of history”.
His praise came after MR Trump signed a batch of executive orders straight after his inauguration. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said Mr Trump’s actions could boost growth and open opportunities for dialogue.
“President Trump’s bold actions today prove that decisive leadership can change the course of history, unlocking economic growth and transforming global challenges into opportunities for dialogue and resolution through problem solving,” Mr Dmitriev said.
Mr Dmitriev, who is currently under US sanctions deemed illegal by Russian officials, is a US-educated former Goldman Sachs banker who played a key role in early contracts between Moscow and Trump’s first administration, after election in 2016.
EU leaders to hold unique talks on security and defence
01:00
,
Andy Gregory
EU leaders are set to meet for an “informal retreat” outside Brussels on 3 February for talks focused uniquely on security and defense for the first time.
Nato chief Mark Rutte is due to attend.
Russian disinformation campaign looking to boost support for Germany’s far-right AfD
00:30
,
Andy Gregory
A Russian disinformation campaign is seeking to support the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaign ahead of the country’s February election, a think tank has found.
An analysis of hundreds of German-language posts on X over the past month have exhibited patterns of Russia’s Doppelgaenger disinformation campaign against the West.
The campaign spreads links to falsified Western news outlets sharing fake information, a German foreign ministry report published last June. Russia has consistently denied involvement.
Recent posts have blamed the Greens for Germany’s economic woes, criticised chancellor Olaf Scholz’s support for Ukraine, and spoken in favour of the AfD, CeMAS said.
The tracked posts share links to falsified German news websites or to articles on authentic ones supporting their narrative, and have achieved over 2.8 million views, CeMAS said.
UK to explore possibility of military bases in Ukraine
Thursday 23 January 2025 23:59
,
Andy Gregory
The UK will explore the possibility of establishing military bases in Ukraine, according to a 100-year declaration signed between the two countries.
Signed alongside the 100-year Partnership Agreement last week, the declaration states the UK will work with Ukraine to identify common defence needs and expand the capabilities of both countries.
“The Participants will explore options for deploying and maintaining defence infrastructure in Ukraine, including military bases, logistics depots, reserve military equipment storage facilities and war reserve stockpiles,” the declaration reads.
“These facilities could be utilised to bolster their own defence capabilities in the event of a significant military threat.”
The possibility of military bases is only presented as a theoretical possibility, and no specifics of the placement of potential bases is laid out.
It is also unclear how Article 17 of the Ukrainian Constitution - which prohibits military bases on Ukrainian territory - may impact any future plans.
Trump blames Putin for ongoing Ukraine war
Thursday 23 January 2025 23:58
,
Alexander Butler
On Thursday, Trump directly blamed Putin for the fact the war in Ukraine is still raging, saying Ukraine was ready to make a deal.
Asked whether he believed the war in Ukraine would end by the time the WEF returned to Davos in a year, Trump said: “Well you’re gonna have to ask Russia. Ukraine is ready to make a deal.”
Kyiv will not agree to Russian demands to cut military, Zelensky warns
Thursday 23 January 2025 23:30
,
Andy Gregory
Ukraine will not agree to Russian demands that it drastically reduces the size of its military in a future peace agreement, president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Zelensky warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin would demand that Ukraine reduce its military five-fold.
“This is what he wants. We will not allow this to happen,” Mr Zelensky said.
Trump’s full statement
Thursday 23 January 2025 23:00
,
Andy Gregory
“I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin - and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX.
“We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process.
“All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR.
“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.
“Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’ NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”
Zelensky warns Europe of Russian attack: ‘War closer to Davos than Pyongyang’
Thursday 23 January 2025 22:30
,
Andy Gregory
Volodymyr Zelensky used his speech at Davos earlier this week to warn that European nations need to work together to defend their continent, rather than wait for the Trump administration.
“Europe must establish itself as a strong, global player, as an indispensable player,” the Ukrainian president said at the World Economic Forum.
“Let’s not forget there is no ocean separating European countries from Russia. European leaders should remember these battles involving North Korean soldiers are now happening in places geographically closer to Davos than Pyongyang,” Mr Zelensky said.
“Does anyone in the United States worry that Europe might abandon them someday – might stop being their ally? The answer is no,” Mr Zelensky said.
The war-time president said that Europeans needed to devise a united security and defence policy and alluded to a pre-inauguration remark by Mr Trump, who proposed a massive hike in defence spending for Nato members to 5 per cent of GDP.
“If it takes 5 per cent of GDP to cover defence, then so be it, 5 per cent it is. And there is no need to play with people’s emotions that defence should be compensated at the expense of medicine or pensions – that’s not fair,” Mr Zelensky said.
Russia’s battlefield losses hit record high, says Ukraine
Thursday 23 January 2025 22:00
,
Andy Gregory
Trump warns Putin on day one in office
Thursday 23 January 2025 21:30
,
Andy Gregory
Trump has a key decision to make on Ukraine – is he an ally of Kyiv or Putin?
Thursday 23 January 2025 21:00
,
Andy Gregory
The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary
Thursday 23 January 2025 20:30
,
Andy Gregory
It was a month into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces had withdrawn from around Kyiv and in their wake Bel Trew and her team stumbled on a body by an abandoned Russian camp.
His hands were tied. He had been burned and shot in the back. Soldiers said he was a teenager.
As Bel tried to find out who he was and what had happened, she uncovered a nightmare world: a nation struggling to find thousands of its missing and to identify its dead.
The Body in the Woods by Bel Trew is streaming now on Independent TV and on your smart TV.
EU needs to end its military dependency on the US and arm itself 'to survive,' says Tusk
Thursday 23 January 2025 20:00
,
Andy Gregory
Poland wants the EU focused on security. Its border with Belarus highlights the challenges
Thursday 23 January 2025 19:30
,
Andy Gregory
ICYMI: Husband and wife Ukrainian heroes warn against Trump’s peace plan
Thursday 23 January 2025 19:00
,
Andy Gregory
Serge in his blue anorak, Olena in her black faux fur jacket – an inconspicuous couple on a trip in Kyiv to show their daughter the capital they did so much to save three years ago.
Their clandestine work as part of self-starting groups of volunteers, heroic by the standards of any war, turned back two invading Russian convoys as they converged on Kyiv in 2022. Serge and a small group of comrades, veterans of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, took on Putin’s invaders in hit-and-run raids using pickup trucks and weapons they found in a warehouse in Sumy province.
Now Donald Trump is threatening to turn the course of history against Ukraine, by cutting US military support to the embattled nation. This could ultimately allow Vladimir Putin to hang on to the 20 per cent of the country Russia has already taken as part of a future peace deal forced on Kyiv.
“We can’t have a peace deal of any kind with Russia,” Serge said on Saturday, two days before Mr Trump’s inauguration. “If we freeze the front lines then Putin will just re-arm and invade again. And now Russia is better equipped, has better tactics, knows how the weapons we’ve had from Nato work. He won’t stop and so neither will the killing.”
Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley reports:
Trump says Ukraine war would end immediately if cost of oil fell
Thursday 23 January 2025 18:30
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump has announced that he will be asking Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil and said he would be asking Riyadh to increase a planned US investment package to $1trn from an initial $600bn.
“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue – you got to bring down the oil price,” the US president told the World Economic Forum in Davos by video link.
Full report: Ukraine praises Trump ultimatum as ‘strong signal’ to Putin to end war
Thursday 23 January 2025 18:00
,
Andy Gregory
Ukraine has praised Donald Trump’s threat to Vladimir Putin to end the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “the hard way” using tariffs and sanctions as sending a “strong signal” to the Kremlin.
Read our full wrap of today’s events here:
Trump says efforts to secure Ukraine peace deal are now hopefully underway
Thursday 23 January 2025 17:30
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump has said that US efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now hopefully underway, but gave no details.
“It’s so important to get that done. That is an absolute killing field ... it’s time to end it,” he told the World Economic Forum in Davos by video link.
Trump says he hopes China can help end Russia's war in Ukraine
Thursday 23 January 2025 17:06
,
Andy Gregory
Donald Trump has said he sees a very good relationship between the United States and China, and that he hopes China can help end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“They have a great deal of power over that situation,” the US president told the World Economic Forum, echoing similar remarks earlier this week.
“Hopefully, we can work together and get that stopped.”
Trump says he wants to meet Putin soon to talk Ukraine and arms
Thursday 23 January 2025 17:04
,
Andy Gregory
US President Donald Trump has said that he wants to meet Vladimir Putin soon and to get the war with Ukraine stopped.
Speaking remotely, he told the World Economic Forum in Davos that he also wants to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding that he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.
Ukraine says too soon to say how many peacekeeping troops could be needed
Thursday 23 January 2025 16:25
,
Andy Gregory
The Ukrainian government’s talks with its partners on possible foreign military contingents in Ukraine are in their “very early stages”, and it is too soon to talk specific numbers, Kyiv’s foreign ministry has said.
“Yes, the discussion is ongoing about ... the military contingents of foreign powers, foreign nations that can be potentially deployed to Ukraine,” a spokesperson told reporters in Kyiv. “This discussion is in its very early stages.”
Ukraine reforming recruitment efforts to attract younger soldiers and boost forces
Thursday 23 January 2025 16:05
,
AP
Ukraine is in the final stages of drafting recruitment reforms to attract 18 to 25-year-olds who are currently exempt from mobilisation as it looks for ways to bolster its fighting force, the battlefield commander recently appointed to the President’s Office has said.
In his first interview with foreign media since taking up his new position last fall, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Colonel Pavlo Palisa said Ukraine is exploring new recruitment options because the current drafting system inherited from Soviet times is hindering progress.
While Ukraine passed a mobilisation law last spring and lowered the age of conscription from 27 to 25 years old, the measures have not had the impact needed to replenish its ranks or replace battlefield losses in its war with Russia.
One initiative is what Mr Palisa described as an “honest contract,” a plan that includes financial incentives, clear guarantees for training, and measures to ensure dialogue between soldiers and their commanders.
The plan is aimed at attracting mainly 18- to 25-year-olds who are currently exempt from mobilisation, and will also target Ukrainians who have the right to deferment or were discharged after the mobilisation law was passed.
“To secure the unit commander and the contract soldier, establish open and professional relations between them, and set clear boundaries that are understandable to both,” he said on Wednesday. “In my opinion, this is essential for effective dialogue.”
UK exports of eels to Russia not currently banned, government says
Thursday 23 January 2025 15:45
,
Andy Gregory
UK exports of eels to Russia are not currently banned, the government has said after being challenged over the trade at Westminster.
The legality of sending glass eels to a country slapped by an array of sanctions after its brutal invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, was raised in Parliament by Tory peer Lord De Mauley.
Responding to a written parliamentary question, environment minister Baroness Hayman of Ullock said: “As an endangered species, the international trade in European eel is regulated through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
“Any exports are subject to rigorous scrutiny, including through assessments of legal acquisition and non-detriment. The UK’s approach to these exports is being reviewed by the new government to ensure legality, sustainability, and alignment with global conservation efforts.”
But she added: “The export of European eel to Russia is not currently sanctioned.”
Russian man jailed for 17 years for passing information to US
Thursday 23 January 2025 15:25
,
Andy Gregory
A Russian man was jailed for 17 years after being found guilty of passing classified information to a representative of a US intelligence agency, the Tass state news agency has reported.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the accused’s lawyer declined to answer questions, Reuters reported.
Tass reported that the 40-year-old, who was sentenced on Wednesday, lived in a city just outside the Russian capital and worked in logistics.
At least 792 people in Russia have been charged with treason, espionage or cooperating with a foreign state since the conflict began almost three years ago, according to Pervy Otdel, a Russian lawyers’ association.
Nato chief says stopping Putin will cost trillions if they don’t support Ukraine now
Thursday 23 January 2025 15:06
,
Andy Gregory
A Russian victory over Ukraine would greatly undermine the power of Nato and its credibility would cost trillions to restore, the alliance’s secretary general has warned.
Mark Rutte insisted that Ukraine‘s Western backers must not scale back the support they are providing to the country, almost three years after Vladimir Putin’s invasion began.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Rutte said: “If Ukraine loses then to restore the deterrence of the rest of Nato again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we are contemplating at this moment in terms of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production.”
“It will not be billions extra; it will be trillions extra,” he added.
Jabed Ahmed reports:
ICYMI: Putin proposes deeper ties with China in call with ‘dear friend’ Xi Jinping
Thursday 23 January 2025 14:40
,
Andy Gregory
Russian president Vladimir Putin has called on Moscow and Beijing to deepen their strategic ties, as he spoke with “dear friend” Chinese president Xi Jinping on a video call.
Putin waved at Mr Xi over the call as he proposed outlining plans to develop the “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” between Russia and China, strengthening a geopolitical alliance which seeks to weaken western hegemony.
In a video released by the Kremlin of the conversation, Putin said: “I agree with you that cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is based on a broad commonality of national interests and a convergence of views on what relations between major powers should be.”
Alex Croft reports:
Trump ‘needs to come out on top’ against Putin over Ukraine, says Zelensky
Thursday 23 January 2025 14:20
,
Andy Gregory
The end of the war in Ukraine must be a victory for Donald Trump, not Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Warning that any peace deal brokered by the US president must prevent Mr Putin from restarting the conflict again in the future, Mr Zelensky urged that “everyone should have a plan” before they start communicating directly with the Russian president.
“I think the issue of ending the war in Ukraine must be a victory for Trump, not for Putin. Putin is nobody to him. America is much stronger, Europe is much stronger, China is stronger than Russia. They are all players,” Zelensky told Bloomberg TV, in remarks translated by the Kyiv Independent.
He added: “[Russia] are big, they have a lot of weapons, and they don’t spare people. We are specifically defending Europe, Nato countries. And Putin will go there ... That’s why Trump needs to come out on top. And he is capable of doing so.”
Ukraine’s central bank will take steps to ease wartime capital controls, official says
Thursday 23 January 2025 13:44
,
Andy Gregory
Ukraine’s central bank is committed to take further steps this year to liberalise the foreign exchange market and ease wartime capital controls, Reuters has quoted a deputy bank governor as saying.
Ukraine says Trump threats send ‘strong signal’ to Putin
Thursday 23 January 2025 13:30
,
Andy Gregory
Ukraine has praised Donald Trump for threatening to impose tariffs and sanctions on Russia if it refuses to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine and said the comment sent a “strong signal” to Vladimir Putin.
“We do really welcome such strong messages from President Trump and we believe that he will be the winner. And we believe that we have an additional chance to get new dynamic in diplomatic efforts to end this war,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said at a panel in Davos.
Ukraine welcomes Trump’s threat to intensify sanctions on Russia
Thursday 23 January 2025 13:15
,
Andy Gregory
Ukrainian officials welcomed Donald Trump’s threat to intensify sanctions against Russia, suggesting punitive measures against Russian oil and gas could run down Vladimir Putin’s war machinery.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, sanctions commissioner for president Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Independent there were at least 10 areas Mr Trump can look at to sanction Russia in the coming months.
“These can be Russia’s fintech sector, companies involved in the development of e-ruble, central bank digital currency used as an alternative to the SWIFT international payment system Russia is already cut off from, and cryptocurrency payment systems,” he said.
Arpan Rai reports:
Germany will send Eurofighter jets to Poland, minister says
Thursday 23 January 2025 13:00
,
Andy Gregor