Russian president, Vladimir Putin met the Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, in the Kremlin on Sunday, a rare visit by a European Union leader to Moscow, as a contract allowing for Russian gas to transit through Ukraine nears expiry. Slovakia is dependent on that gas passing through its neighbour Ukraine, and it has ramped up efforts to maintain those flows from 2025, while criticising Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to extend the contract expiring at the end of the year. Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine under a five-year agreement signed before the war. “Russian President V Putin confirmed the readiness of the (Russian Federation) to continue to supply gas to the west and Slovakia, which is practically impossible after 1 January 2025, in view of the stance of the Ukrainian president,” Fico said. Slovakia last month signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, and earlier this year, it struck a deal to import US liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland. The country can also receive gas through Austrian, Hungarian and Czech networks, enabling imports from Germany among other potential suppliers.
Russia has captured two more villages in east Ukraine, the latest territorial gains for Moscow’s advancing army. The defence ministry said on Telegram on Sunday that its troops had “liberated” the villages of Lozova in the north-eastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye – called Sontsivka in Ukraine. The latter is close to the resource hub of Kurakhove, which Russia has almost encircled and would be a key prize for Moscow’s attempt to capture the entire Donetsk region. Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before the US president-elect, Donald Trump, assumes office in January. Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.
Zelenskyy told Ukraine’s diplomats on Sunday that the country will have to fight to persuade allies to allow it to take up Nato membership, but has described the goal as “achievable” as it searches for security guarantees to protect it from Russia. Kyiv says membership in the transatlantic military alliance, or an equivalent form of security guarantee, would be crucial to any peace plan to ensure Russia does not attack again. Nato has said Ukraine will join it one day, but has not suggested when or issued an invitation.
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said he considered the sometimes harsh criticism of German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be unjustified, news wire DPA reported. Although Germany has been a vital ally of Ukraine, its hesitation in providing long-range Taurus cruise missiles has been a source of frustration in Kyiv, which is battling a foe armed with a powerful array of long-range weaponry. Rutte also said that he, unlike Scholz, would supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles and would not set limits on their use. “In general, we know that such capabilities are very important for Ukraine,” Rutte said, adding that it was not up to him to decide what allies should deliver.
Russian forces executed five Ukrainian prisoners of war, Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, claimed on Sunday. Russian troops shot the five unarmed soldiers after capturing them, Lubinets alleged on Telegram, without providing more details. “Russian war criminals who shoot Ukrainian prisoners of war should be brought before an international tribunal and punished with the most severe punishment provided for by law,” Lubinets said. Russia did not immediately comment on the incident, but has previously denied committing war crimes.
A video purporting to show the Russian capture of an Australian man fighting for Ukraine on the war’s eastern front has prompted urgent inquiries by Australia’s government. The man, who identified himself as Oscar Jenkins, is struck several times and questioned roughly in Russian in the video, which is circulating on Telegram. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese noted that Russian forces sometimes seeded incorrect information but said on Monday that the news was “concerning” and the government was working “to provide support, including, for this gentleman” as it ascertained the facts.
Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian fuel depot for the second time in just over a week on Sunday, according to a senior Russian regional official, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow’s military. The strikes came days after Russia launched sweeping attacks on Ukraine’s already battered energy grid, threatening to plunge thousands of homes into darkness as winter tightens its grip over the region, and as Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour nears the three-year mark.
