President-elect Donald Trump on Monday suggested he may reverse Joe Biden’s recent decision to allow Ukrainian forces to use American long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory. Trump called the decision by Biden “stupid”. Asked if he would consider reversing the decision, Trump responded: “I might. I think it was a very stupid thing to do.” The White House pushed back, noting that the decision was made after months of deliberations that started before last month’s election. The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said: “All I can assure you is that in the conversations we’ve had with them since the election, and we’ve had at various levels, we have articulated to them the logic behind it, the thinking behind it, why we were doing it.”
North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon. The deaths are the first reported since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. The news came as the White House said it now believed North Korean troops were on the “front lines” of Russia’s war and were “actively engaged in combat operations” against Ukraine.
The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Monday his country would likely play a role in securing a future ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine but that it was far too early to tell what a peacekeeping force might look like. “If there is a ceasefire, then of course the western community, Nato partners, potentially the United Nations and the European Union will have to discuss how such a peace, such a ceasefire can be secured,” he said. “And it is obvious that Germany, as Europe’s biggest economy, would play a role there.” He underlined it also needed to be clear that both Ukraine and Russia accepted such a mandate but “there are far more questions than answers right now”.
A Russian military court on Monday sentenced 23-year-old Vasily Zharkov to 19 years in prison after finding him guilty of treason, attempted sabotage on strategic infrastructure as well as joining a terrorist group, Russian media reported. Prosecutors said Zharkov, arrested in November 2023, spoke to a representative of a banned unit of Russians fighting for Ukraine, the Freedom of Russia Legion, and had acted on its orders, entering a military base outside Moscow with plans to start a fire but instead being arrested.
Ukraine has called on the international community to take action against Russia’s sanctions-busting oil fleet, after an ageing tanker sank in the Black Sea, causing an environmental disaster. Luke Harding writes that the Russian cargo ship, Volgoneft-212, broke in half during a heavy storm off the coast of occupied Crimea on Sunday. A second tanker, Volgoneft-239, got into difficulties in the same area. It eventually ran aground near the port of Taman at the south end of the Kerch strait.
Keir Starmer is to visit British troops serving on Russia’s border after saying that Ukraine will require more funding and capability. The prime minister was speaking at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) conference in Estonia, where he met leaders of other Baltic states, writes Nadeem Badshah. Asked what else could be done to support Ukraine, Starmer said: “There is an ever-increasing demand for more capability. That is understandable, and Ukraine needs all the capability that it can get, so I think all of us have put in more capability into Ukraine by way of equipment.”
A senior Russian military commander has claimed Russia is boosting its ballistic arsenal with new strategic missile systems, plans maximum-range launches and may increase testing in response to growing external threats. “In terms of range, there is no place where our missiles cannot reach,” Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Sergei Karakayev as telling a Russian defence ministry newspaper. He claimed Russia was developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Osina. Vladimir Putin has said Russia will soon start mass-producing the Oreshnik ballistic missile – apparently backtracking from his earlier suggestions that it was already in production and could be fired again at a time of Russia’s choosing. Russia struck Ukraine in November with an Oreshnik.
A former FBI informant on Monday admitted to making up a story that Joe Biden and his son Hunter had taken $5m in bribes from a Ukrainian energy firm. Alexander Smirnov, 44, pleaded guilty to creating a false record in a federal investigation, as well as three counts of tax evasion for failing to pay taxes and penalties on $2.1m in income for 2020 to 2022. Russian-born Smirnov, a dual US-Israeli citizen, faces up to six years in prison under a plea deal. He is due to be sentenced on 8 January.
