Closing summary
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Friday signed a security accord between the two countries in Kyiv. Zelenskiy described it as an “unprecedented security agreement”. Local media cited him as saying the agreement would remain in effect until Ukraine joined Nato.
Rishi Sunak said if the UK wavered in its support of Ukraine it would embolden Vladimir Putin and “his allies in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere”. Giving a press conference alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, the prime minister said “our opponents around the world believe that we have neither the patience nor the resources for long wars”.
Zelenskiy said on Friday he was more positive now that Ukraine would secure financial aid from the United States than he was last month. “I am viewing this with more positivity than in December, I think we will [get it],” he told a press conference in Kyiv.
A senior Ukrainian presidential aide said on Friday he was confident that an amended bill seeking to tighten Ukraine’s mobilisation laws would be passed in the coming days or weeks, despite hitting setbacks this week. Thousands of Ukrainians rushed to enlist immediately after Russia invaded in February 2022, but nearly two years into the war, some men are trying to avoid the fight, Reuters reported.
A Russian naval base in Abkhazia, a breakaway territory internationally recognised as part of Georgia, may become operational in 2024, the Russian state news agency RIA quoted Abkhazia’s security council as saying on Friday. Russian and Abkhazian authorities agreed in October that Russia could open a permanent naval base in the town of Ochamchire, Reuters reported.
An Asiatic black bear, which was found in an abandoned zoo in eastern Ukraine five months after Russia’s invasion in 2022, arrived at his new permanent home in Scotland on Friday. Yampil, named after the village in the Donetsk region where he was found, was one of only a few out of 200 animals at the zoo to survive, Reuters reports.
Poland has been cooperating with allies in a probe into the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, the minister in charge of Polish intelligence services said, denying a newspaper report that it was hindering investigations. In an interview with Reuters, Tomasz Siemoniak said the country’s prosecutors have been supplying information to European investigators and could allocate more resources to the probe if requested.
Russian ex-president Dmitry Medvedev said in a post on Telegram on Friday that deployment of any British military contingent in Ukraine would be a declaration of war against Russia. Responding to British prime minister, Rishi Sunak’s, visit to Kyiv, Medvedev asked how the western public would react if Sunak’s delegation came under fire from cluster munitions, as he said had happened to the southern Russian city of Belgorod.
Russian tourists reportedly going on a skiing trip to North Korea will be the first international travellers to visit the country since its borders closed in 2020 amid the global pandemic lockdown. The report, published on Wednesday by the Russian state-run Tass news agency, underscores deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.
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UK PM warns that Putin will not stop if he wins in Ukraine and victory would embolden Russian allies
Rishi Sunak said if the UK wavered in its support of Ukraine it would embolden Vladimir Putin and “his allies in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere”.
Giving a press conference alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, the prime minister said “our opponents around the world believe that we have neither the patience nor the resources for long wars”.
He added:
Ukraine is not alone, and Ukraine will never be alone. Putin might think that he can outlast us but he is wrong. We stand with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.
Because this war is about Ukraine’s right to defend itself and to determine your own future and the Ukrainian people’s historic choice to be an independent democracy at the heart of Europe.
Your quest for freedom has inspired and moved the British people and for the free nations of the world, aid to Ukraine is also an investment in our own collective security.
Because if Putin wins in Ukraine, he will not stop there, and our opponents around the world believe that we have neither the patience nor resources for long wars. So waver now and we emboldened not just Putin, but his allies in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere.
That’s why the United Kingdom and the free world will continue to stand with Ukraine, as we have since the very beginning of this war.
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