Ukraine-Russia news – live: Putin warns anyone attacking Moscow will be ‘wiped out’
Kremlin’s move violates conditions for nuclear safety, nuclear operator warns
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Russian forces have placed Grad multiple-launch-rocket systems on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s territory, according to Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator.
The rocket launchers are next to spent nuclear fuel storage units near the plant’s sixth reactor, it said, and are likely to be used to strike cities on the opposite side of the Dnipro River, using the reactor and fuel storage as a “shelter” from return fire, according to Energoatom.
Russia’s move violated conditions for nuclear and radiation safety, the company said in its statement, which was backed by several Ukrainian ministers.
The risk of a nuclear meltdown is greatly reduced as none of the reactors is operating, but experts say a release of radiation is still possible at the Russian-occupied site, it’s been reported.
Ukraine’s atomic power agency has accused Russian forces of abducting two senior staff at the plant and detaining a third.
Meanwhile, Russian forces stepped up their military offensive in Ukraine’s east and shelled the entire frontier with the relentless attacks continuing for most of the week.
The fiercest fighting has raged near the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, the region’s governor Pavlo Kyurylenko said.
Germany boosts Kyiv’s air defence systems
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.
And Bulgaria will send its first military aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion after parliament on Friday approved a list of arms drawn up by the interim government.
It had been one of the few EU countries not to send aid after the Russia-friendly Socialist party, a coalition partner in the previous government, blocked a previous proposal in May.
The list of arms is classified, but government officials have said Sofia would mainly send light weaponry and ammunition.
Watch: Pope Francis cries for Ukraine war victims
Pope Francis cries for Ukraine war victims during address in Rome
Pope Francis cried as he mentioned the suffering of Ukrainians during a traditional public prayer in Rome on Thursday, 8 December The pontiff was overcome with emotion as he appealed for peace for the Ukrainian people amidst the Russian invasion at a ceremony to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. “Immaculate Virgin, today I would have wanted to bring you the thanks of the Ukrainian people,” he said, before pausing his prayer and crying. A crowd applauded the Pope, who was then able to continue. Click here to sign up for our newsletters.
This could snowball into Russia-Nato war, warns bloc chief
The head of Nato has expressed worry that the fighting in Ukraine could spin out of control and become a war between Russia and and the military alliance.
“If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between Nato and Russia,” he said.
“We are working on that every day to avoid that.”Mr Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said “there is no doubt that a full-fledged war is a possibility”, adding that it was important to avoid a conflict “that involves more countries in Europe and becomes a full-fledged war in Europe”.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Nato allies of effectively becoming a party to the conflict by providing Ukraine with weapons, training its troops and feeding military intelligence to attack Russian forces.
President Vladimir Putin has again accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool against his country.
“For many years, the West shamelessly exploited and pumped out its resources, encouraged genocide and terror in the Donbas and effectively turned the country into a colony,” he said.
“Now it’s cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, as a ram against Russia by continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, sending mercenaries and pushing it to a suicidal track.”
Putin expanding nuclear arsenal, says US defence secretary
Russia is expanding and modernising its nuclear arsenal, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin says, at a time when Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested he could use nuclear weapons.
“Russia is also modernising and expanding its nuclear arsenal,” Mr Austin said at a ceremony for the incoming commander of US Strategic Command, which oversees the United States’ nuclear arsenal.
“And as the Kremlin continues its cruel and unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine, the whole world has seen Putin engage in deeply irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling.”
Putin issues dire warning on any potential attack on Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow could adopt what he described as a U.S. concept of using preemptive military strikes, noting it has the weapons to do the job, in a blunt statement amid rising Russia-NATO tensions over Ukraine.
“We are just thinking about it. They weren’t shy to openly talk about it during the past years,” Putin said, referring to the U.S. policy, as he attended a summit in Kyrgyzstan of a Moscow-dominated economic alliance of ex-Soviet nations.
For years, the Kremlin has expressed concern about U.S. efforts to develop the so-called Conventional Prompt Global Strike capability that envisions hitting an adversary’s strategic targets with precision-guided conventional weapons anywhere in the world within one hour.
“Speaking about a disarming strike, maybe it’s worth thinking about adopting the ideas developed by our U.S. counterparts, their ideas of ensuring their security,” Putin said with a thin smile, noting that such a preemptive strike was intended to knock out command facilities.
He claimed that Russia already has commissioned hypersonic weapons capable of carrying out such a strike, while the U.S. hasn’t yet deployed them. He also claimed that Russia now has cruise missiles that surpass their U.S. equivalents.
While Putin appeared to refer to conventional precision-guided weapons when he talked about possibly mimicking the U.S. strategy, he specifically noted that the U.S. hasn’t ruled out the first use of nuclear weapons.
“If the potential adversary believes that it can use the theory of a preemptive strike and we don’t, it makes us think about the threats posed by such ideas in other countries’ defensive posture,” he said.
United States announces new military aid for Ukraine
The United States has announced new military aid for Ukraine, after a British envoy said Russia had sought hundreds of ballistic missles from Iran in return for military support.
Tehran and Moscow have denied Western accusations that Russia is using Iranian drones to attack targets in Ukraine, which is projected to suffer a power deficit throughout the winter after repeated Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Washington was very concerned about the “deepening and burgeoning defense partnership” between Iran and Russia, and would work to disrupt that relationship, including on drones.
Washington was sending a $275 million package of aid to Ukraine to strengthen air defences and defeat drones, he said.
Two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters in October that Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles as well as more drones.
Putin says more prisoner swaps with US ‘possible’
Vladimir Putin has said more US-Russian prisoner exchanges are possible.
The Russian president was speaking a day after Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was swapped for basketball star and two-time US Olympian Brittney Griner.
Asked whether other prisoners could be swapped, Mr Putin replied that “everything is possible”, noting that “compromises” were found to clear Thursday’s exchange.
“We aren’t refusing to continue this work in the future,” he added.
Banksy to raise funds for Ukraine by selling 50 prints
Banksy had revealed they will be raising funds for a charity supporting the people of Ukraine through the sale of 50 prints.
The anonymous graffiti artist announced the project with the Legacy of War Foundation on Instagram, who will be using the £5,000 from each sale to purchase vehicles to evacuate citizens from the war-torn country and provide heating to communities facing a difficult winter.
Each print is signed and numbered and depicts a white mouse scratching out the word “fragile” which is branded across a piece of a cardboard box.
The charity noted that each print is “unique” as during the production process, Banksy attacks each one with a sharpened pizza cutter to create the scratching effect.
Ukrainian Nobel Prize winner says Putin must face tribunal
A representative of one of the organisations sharing this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has said Russian President Vladimir Putin should face an international tribunal for the fighting in Ukraine.
Oleksandra Matviychuk of Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties told a news conference in Oslo, Norway, that such a tribunal should be established to hold Mr Putin, as well as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko “and other war criminals”, accountable.
In October, the Ukrainian group was named a co-winner of the 2022 peace price along with Russian human rights group Memorial and Ales Bialiatski, head of the Belarusian rights group Viasna.
Mr Bialiatski is in jail in Belarus and was unable to travel to receive the prize, which is due to be formally presented on Saturday.
Belarus will allow grains from Ukraine to pass through its territory for export from Lithuania - UN
Belarus told the United Nations on Friday that it would accept, without preconditions, the transit of Ukrainian grains through its territory for export from Lithuanian ports, a U.N. spokesman said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Belarus Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Ambrazevich in New York on Friday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement after the meeting.
Ambrazevich also “reiterated the requests from his government to be able export its own fertilizer products, which are currently subject to sanctions,” Dujarric said.
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