Summary
That is the end of today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here’s a summary of the main events. Head over to our Europe blog, helmed by my colleague Lili Bayer in Brussels.
Vladimir Putin has held his annual end-of-the-year press conference, saying Russia’s sovereignty is under threat and “the very existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible … the whole country cannot exist without sovereignty.
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals. They haven’t changed. Denazification of Ukraine, the demilitarisation of Ukraine.”
Putin also said he was open to repairing relations with Europe and the US but added that Russia had done nothing wrong in its invasion of Ukraine. He blamed the west for “spoiling relations” with Russia.
The Russian president has held similar media events, where journalists or carefully selected Russians are chosen to ask him questions on national television, for most of his 24 years in power.
The Kremlin cancelled last year’s event after a series of humiliating military defeats in Ukraine. The resumption of the call-in show – this year featuring members of the public and journalists in a single format – indicates the Kremlin is hoping to show that its Ukraine strategy is back on track and that Putin is firmly in control.
Ukraine said on Thursday that its air defence systems had downed dozens of Iranian-designed drones launched by Russian forces targeting the southern city of Odesa, in Moscow’s latest overnight barrage that wounded 11 people.
At the EU summit on Thursday, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told reporters that Ukraine did not yet meet the “merit-based” criteria to join the EU and that the issue should not even be discussed.
The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, lost an appeal on Thursday to be released from jail and must remain in custody until at least 30 January.
When asked about a possible prisoner swap for the jailed Wall Street journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, Putin said he hoped to find an agreement with the US that was “satisfactory to both sides”.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged a summit of EU leaders on Thursday to open membership talks with his country, warning that Europe would not understand if the meeting resulted in a “satisfied smile” for Putin.
There is a “real risk” that Putin will not stop with Ukraine if he achieves military victory there, the Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned.
A Moscow court on Thursday has ordered a retrial in the case of a veteran Russian human rights campaigner who is fighting charges of discrediting the country’s armed forces.
Finland will sign a defence agreement with the US, the Finnish government has said, to grant the US military broad access across the Nordic country to the vicinity of its long border with Russia.
Romania has identified a drone crater near its border with Ukraine after an overnight Russian attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure, its defence ministry has said.
Updated
Finland will again shut its entire border with Russia to stop the inflow of asylum seekers, the country’s interior minister, Mari Rantanen, said on Thursday, just hours after the Nordic nation ended a two-week closure of all roads between the two countries.
Helsinki has said a recent rise in asylum seekers arriving via Russia was an orchestrated move by Moscow in retaliation for the Nordic country’s decision to increase defence cooperation with the United States, a charge the Kremlin denies.
The arrivals stopped when Finland shut the border in late November but resumed on Thursday when two of the eight crossings were opened, with some 36 people seeking asylum, the Finnish border guard said.
“Now the phenomenon has restarted and we will close the entire border,” Rantanen told parliament.
Updated
