Closing Summary
It’s close to 6pm in Kyiv. Here is a summary of Sunday’s major developments in Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion.
Russian president, Vladimir Putin, vowed to make Russia a “sovereign, self-sufficient” power in the face of the west. In a campaign speech he accused the west of unsuccessfully trying to “sow internal troubles” in Russia.
Putin also warned of “problems” with neighbouring Finland after it joined Nato earlier this year. Russia plans to reorganise military divisions to station more troops in its north-west region, by the EU and Nato border.
But Putin dismissed claims from the US president, Joe Biden, that Russia could attack a Nato country as “nonsense”. It came after Biden said Putin would not stop at Ukraine if it secures victory, as he pleaded with Republican lawmakers to authorise further aid to Kyiv.
Visit of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to Washington DC last week has yet to bear fruit as Biden called lack of congressional support for aid a “Christmas gift” to Russia. Biden has requested $61.4bn (£48.4bn) in further aid to Ukraine but Republicans in Republicans in Congress have rejected the proposals.
But one top Democrat said he was “very optimistic” about a resolution. US congressional negotiators worked deep into the weekend in a bid to craft an urgent deal linking aid to Ukraine and Israel to new border security. “I’m very encouraged,” said senator Joe Manchin.
Russia is not interested in extending the Black Sea grain deal, the agriculture minister said. The deal led to 33m tonnes of grain leave Ukraine’s ports before it collapsed in July.
Ukraine claims Russia has suffered almost 350,000 troops dying or being injured. The figure is higher than the 315,000 estimated by US intelligence, according to reports, but even that represents a significant toll for Moscow.
Ukraine continued its use of “memetic warfare” as the defence ministry posted a video of two Russian tanks being destroyed, with guitar music and the caption “WELCOME TO UKRAINE”. Scholars have tracked the use of memes to try and grab control of the war narrative.
An intelligence report from the UK Ministry of Defence said Russia is likely to deploy “electoral fraud and voter intimidation” when elections take place in occupied Ukrainian territories. Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will vote in March’s presidential elections but they are expected to not be “free or fair”.
It comes as Putin was confirmed to be running for president again as an independent candidate in Russia after two decades in power. Russian news agencies reported the news on Saturday, with the victory of Putin, 71, a formality.
Russia continued to batter Ukrainian targets with mortars overnight, with Dnipro in the centre, Sumy in the north and Zaporizhzhia in the south-east hit with artillery.
Russian rocket forces have loaded a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo at the Kozelsk base south-west of Moscow. The missiles are capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads.
More than a year after the Russians retreated from Izium, the Ukrainian city is wracked by suspicion and distrust about collaborators. Read Shaun Walker’s Observer dispatch from a city still in ruins here.
Lorry blockades are continuing at the Polish-Ukrainian border. Polish drivers say Ukraine is undercutting them as about 2,150 Ukrainian lorries remain stuck in Poland unable to return.
That’s all from me, Jem Bartholomew in London, and for The Guardian’s live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war for today. Thanks for following along. See you next time.
Updated
When Moscow launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, western powers imposed strict sanctions and western companies began pulling out of Russia.
Across Russia, Krispy Kreme became Krunchy Dream, Starbucks is now Stars Coffee, McDonald’s morphed into Vkusno i tochka – western companies were repurposed for Russian consumers.
But this mass exit of western businesses created an opportunity for Russia to raid their assets, blocking exits and setting the terms of withdrawal to turn a “boycott into a bonanza”, according to an investigation published by the New York Times on Sunday.
The result is “one of the biggest transfers of wealth within Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union”. Read the full story here.
Mr Putin has turned the exits of major western companies into a windfall for Russia’s loyal elite and the state itself. He has forced companies wishing to sell to do so at fire-sale prices. He has limited sales to buyers anointed by Moscow. Sometimes he has seized firms outright.
A New York Times investigation traced how Putin has turned an expected misfortune into an enrichment scheme. Western companies that have announced departures have declared more than $103bn in losses since the start of the war, according to a Times analysis of financial reports. Putin has squeezed companies for as much of that wealth as possible by dictating the terms of their departure.
He has also subjected those exits to ever-increasing taxes, generating at least $1.25bn in the past year for Russia’s war chest.
No private deal is safe. The Dutch beer company Heineken, for example, found a buyer this spring and set a price. But the Russian government unilaterally rejected the deal, people close to the negotiations said, and put the company’s Russian holdings in the hands of an aerosol-packaging titan married to a former Russian senator.
In all, Putin has overseen one of the biggest transfers of wealth within Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Huge swaths of industries – elevators, tires, industrial coatings and more – are now in the hands of increasingly dominant Russian players.
Updated
