Here is a summary of today's events:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that Ukrainian territory under his control should be taken under the “Nato umbrella” to try to stop the “hot stage” of the war with Russia. Speaking to Sky News, the Ukrainian president said that such a proposal has “never been considered” by Ukraine because it has never “officially” been offered.
The head of MI6 has warned in a speech yesterday – that amounted to a plea to Donald Trump to continue supporting Kyiv – that abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise British, European and American security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term. Richard Moore, giving a rare speech, said he believed Vladimir Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming US Republican administration.
Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov has said on a visit to Pyongyang, North Korea, that cooperation between the two countries is growing “in all areas” while Kim Jong-un vows North will “invariably support” Moscow’s war.
Ukraine has asked Latin American parliamentarians and diplomats to assist in its defence in the war with Russia. Representatives of Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica arrived in Kyiv for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pictures show.
Former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton has said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “playing a very sophisticated game” in calling for Ukrainian-controlled territories to come under the Nato umbrella. But he added that Zelenskyy had made “quite a major concession“ in stating he is prepared to see a ceasefire and then negotiate the return of Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine over the long term.
Police in Moscow raided multiple bars early Saturday and arrested the director of a gay travel agency under laws criminalising “LGBT propaganda”, state media reported. The Kremlin has ramped up conservative rhetoric since launching its military assault on Ukraine almost three years ago, casting the conflict as a battleground against the West and its values.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) says it has charged Russian Colonel-General Yevgeny Nikiforov in absentia for ordering a missile strike on a theater in Chernihiv, in the North of the country, that killed seven people and wounded 200 in August 2023.
The SBU charged Nikiforov, the commander of the “West” grouping of troops in the Russian Armed Forces, with “violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder”, the Kyiv Independent reports.
It said Nikiforov ordered the missile strike on the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater that took place on August 19, last year.
As of November 2024, Ukraine has charged 730 people and convicted 137 in absentia for committing war crimes in Ukraine, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Updated
