Russia’s deputy UN ambassador said on Wednesday that any decision by president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to cut support for Ukraine would be a ‘death sentence’ for the Ukrainian army.
Speaking to the UN Security Council, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy accused the outgoing Biden administration of trying through its increased support to Ukraine to create a “mess, both in Russia and with the new team in the White House”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan on Wednesday and discussed boosting energy and industry ties. Kazakhstan has tried to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine, yet the country remains highly dependent on Russia for exporting oil to Western markets and for imports of food, electricity and other products.
Trump Ukraine aid cut would be ‘death sentence’ for Kyiv’s military
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador said on Wednesday that any decision by president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to cut support for Ukraine would be a “death sentence” for the Ukrainian army, while accusing Kyiv of trying to drag Nato countries into direct conflict with Russia in the meantime.
Speaking to the UN Security Council, Dmitry Polyanskiy accused the outgoing Biden administration of trying through its increased support to Ukraine to create a “mess, both in Russia and with the new team in the White House.”
Polyanskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was terrified of the return of Trump in January, and had reason to be so.
“Even if we’re to lay to one side the prediction that Donald Trump will cut assistance to Ukraine, which for the Ukrainian army would essentially be a death sentence, it is becoming clearer that he and his team will, in any case, conduct an audit of the assistance provided to Kyiv,” he said.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Polyanskiy’s remarks.
Polyanskiy said Russia had repeatedly offered to negotiate, but Ukraine and its Western backers have favoured escalation.
He warned that the decision by the Biden administration and its European allies to authorise the Ukrainian army to use long-range missiles far inside Russia had “placed the world on the brink of a global nuclear conflict”.
“Every wave of escalation from the West is going to be decisively responded to,” he said. “I will be frank, we believe that it is our right to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries who allow the use of weapons against our facilities.”
Speaking earlier at the same UN session, UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca highlighted recent Russian long-range missile strikes in Ukraine and called the use of ballistic missiles and related threats there “a very dangerous, escalatory development”.
US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood told the session that Washington would “continue to surge security assistance to Ukraine to strengthen its capabilities, including air defence, and put Ukraine in the best possible position on the battlefield.”
Putin discusses energy ties and trade on visit to Kazakhstan
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan on Wednesday and discussed boosting energy and industry ties and easing a row over farm goods with the Central Asian nation which exports most of its oil through Russia, but is exploring alternatives.
Kazakhstan has tried to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Yet the country remains highly dependent on Russia for exporting oil to Western markets and for imports of food, electricity and other products.
“Our countries are ... constructively cooperating in the oil and gas sector,” Putin wrote in an article titled, Russia – Kazakhstan: a union demanded by life and looking to the future, for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper and published on the Kremlin’s website late on Tuesday.
Kazakhstan’s energy minister said on Monday his country could sharply increase its crude oil exports out of Turkey’s (Türkiye’s) port of Ceyhan, a move that would reduce the share it sends via Russia.
Underscoring that more than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil is exported to foreign markets via Russia, Putin said he and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev always focused on “a specific result” in their talks.
While Tokayev has made several gestures welcomed by Moscow, such as initiating the creation of an international body to support the Russian language across the former Soviet space, his government has also sought to maintain friendly ties with the West.
Last month, Kazakhstan said it had no plans to join BRICS, which Putin hopes to build into a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.
Kazakhstan has also pledged to abide by Western sanctions on Russia, although some Kazakh companies have been caught skirting them.
Security was tight in the capital Astana on Wednesday, with whole blocks of the city cordoned off and military helicopters and fighter jets patrolling the sky.
Trump taps retired General Keith Kellogg for Ukraine envoy role
Donald Trump has tapped Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, to serve as a special envoy for the conflict, the president-elect wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
Kellogg, who was the chief of staff for the White House National Security Council during Trump’s 2017-2021 term and national security adviser to then vice-president Mike Pence, is likely to play a central role in attempting to resolve the conflict in his new position.
While there is currently no special envoy for the war in Ukraine, Trump had privately expressed interest in creating the position.
Quickly winding down the Ukraine war was one of Trump’s central campaign promises, though he has avoided discussing how he would do so.
Kellogg’s plan for ending the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory, involves freezing the battle lines at their prevailing locations and forcing both Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table, Reuters reported in June.
Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, is also in the running for the job. During a Bloomberg roundtable in July, Grenell had advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” as a means of settling the conflict.
Kellogg drafted his plan for Ukraine alongside Fred Fleitz, who also served as a chief of staff to the National Security Council under Trump.
Under their proposed strategy, the US would tell Ukraine that it would only get more American weapons if it entered peace talks. The US would at the same time warn Moscow that any refusal to negotiate would result in increased US support for Ukraine. Nato membership for Ukraine would be taken off the table for the immediate future.
That plan would be unlikely to please Kyiv, given that it would in practice give Russia uncontested control of parts of eastern Ukraine, at least for a significant period.
Additionally, some Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, would probably be reluctant to agree to more aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine ‘discussed boosting security’ with South Korea
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said he had discussed joint steps to strengthen security and stability with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol while on a visit to Seoul on Wednesday.
“We believe that our arguments about the need to increase cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Korea will lead to a tangible strengthening of security for our peoples and regions,” Umerov wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine has asked Seoul in the past for a range of weapons, and Seoul has said it could consider such aid, depending on what Russia and North Korea do.
Umerov raised the presence of 12,000 North Korean troops within the Russian forces and the North Korean military’s “active” support for energy infrastructure attacks on Ukraine, the statement said.
“For the Republic of Korea [South Korea], these actions pose a serious threat, as North Korean troops are gaining combat experience, which could create additional security challenges in the region in the future,” he said.
Umerov’s delegation also met Seoul’s national security adviser and defence minister, according to the statement.
Poland detains German for exporting dual-use goods to Russia
Poland said on Wednesday that it had detained a German citizen and charged the suspect with brokering and exporting dual-use goods to Russia.
“The German citizen traded in specialist machines used in the technological industry, which – through his company – were illegally sent to Russian military plants involved in the production of weapons,” the Internal Security Agency said.
“The suspect pleaded guilty and filed a motion for voluntary submission to punishment.”
A German foreign office source said the embassy in Warsaw was in touch with Polish authorities and working urgently to get details.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already applied a raft of packages of sanctions against Moscow to diminish the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war. The measures span across sectors and include some 2,200 individuals and entities.
The sanctions include a ban on selling to Russia certain dual-use goods and technologies that have both civilian and military applications.
The Internal Security Agency statement did not specify the article of the criminal code under which the suspect was charged and it was not immediately clear what penalty he faced.
US official urges Ukraine to lower fighting age to 18
Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service for its soldiers to 18, a senior US administration official said on Wednesday, putting pressure on Kyiv to bolster its fighting forces in the country’s war with Russia.
Speaking to reporters, the official said Ukraine was not mobilising or training enough new soldiers to replace those lost on the battlefield.
“The need right now is manpower,” he said. “The Russians are in fact making progress, steady progress, in the east, and they are beginning to push back Ukrainian lines in Kursk ... Mobilisation and more manpower could make a significant difference at this time as we look at the battlefield today.”
Russian forces are making gains in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London over the past month, analysts and war bloggers said this week.
In April Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a Bill to lower the mobilisation age for combat duty from 27 to 25, expanding the number of civilians the army could mobilise to fight under martial law, which has been in place since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
In the meantime, while Biden is still in office, the United States will continue to provide Kyiv with hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets of various ranges, hundreds of vehicles and weapons systems to support combat operations as well as air defence interceptors, the senior administration official said.
“Ammunition and vehicle shortages are not the most critical issue facing Ukraine. They now have healthy stockpiles of the vital tools, munitions and weapons that they need to succeed on the battlefield,” he said.
“Without a pipeline of new troops, the existing units who are fighting heroically on the front lines, cannot rotate out to rest, refit, train and reequip.”
Russia warns US against ‘spiral of escalation’ – but channels still open
Russia warned the United States on Wednesday to halt what it called a “spiral of escalation” over Ukraine, but said it would keep informing Washington about test missile launches to avoid “dangerous mistakes”.
The comments from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov sent a signal that Moscow, which last week approved a new policy that lowered its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, wants to keep communication channels open at a time of acute tensions with the US.
Ryabkov was speaking six days after Russia launched against Ukraine what it described as a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile called the Oreshnik – something he said had sent a clear message to the West.
“The signal is very clear and obvious – stop, you should not do this any more, you mustn’t supply Kyiv with everything they want, don’t encourage them towards new military adventures, they are too dangerous,” state media quoted Ryabkov as saying.
“The current (US) administration must stop this spiral of escalation,” Ryabkov added. “They simply must, otherwise the situation will become too dangerous for everyone, including the United States itself.”
President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia fired the Oreshnik in response to Ukraine’s first use of US Atacms ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike at Russian territory with permission from the West.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s use of the new missile – which Kyiv said reached a speed of 13,600km/h – amounted to “a clear and severe escalation” in the war and called for strong worldwide condemnation.
The US military said the missile was experimental and that Russia was likely to possess only a handful.
The Kremlin has said Russia was not technically obliged to warn the United States about the launch of the Oreshnik because it was intermediate-range rather than intercontinental, but that Moscow informed the US 30 minutes before the launch, anyway.
“I am sure you understand that this was a stabilising factor in the very dangerous situation in which we currently find ourselves. We are committed to this practice and we hope that the United States will also be committed to it,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying.
“And we also hope that such actions will help reduce the risks of miscalculation or dangerous mistakes.”
In a separate development on Wednesday, Russian state news agency Tass quoted an official as saying Moscow was continuing work to put its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile – part of its strategic nuclear arsenal – on combat duty.
Sarmat is designed to deliver nuclear warheads to strike targets thousands of kilometres away in the United States or Europe, but its development has been dogged by delays and testing setbacks.
In September, arms experts said Russia appeared to have suffered a catastrophic failure in the missile’s latest test, leaving a deep crater at the launch silo.
South Koreans oppose arms for Ukraine
South Koreans remain widely opposed to directly supplying arms to Ukraine, recent polls show, despite renewed international requests from Kyiv and allied capitals after North Korean troops were reported to be helping Russia.
Ukraine has asked Seoul for a range of weapons and Seoul has said it could consider such aid, depending on future steps by Russia and North Korea.
A Ukrainian delegation led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov met South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday, Yoon’s office said, amid media reports that the visit aimed to seek arms support.
“No to the South Korean government planning arms supply to Ukraine,” read a banner held by a small group of protesters gathered outside Yoon’s office in the capital.
Both sides agreed to keep sharing information on North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia as well as the exchange of technology and weapons between the two, Yoon’s office said.
The delegation also met Seoul’s national security adviser Shin Won-sik and defence minister Kim Yong-hyun and discussed cooperation between Seoul and Kyiv.
Ukraine planned to send Seoul a detailed request for arms support including artillery and an air defence system, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an October interview with South Korean broadcaster KBS.
A Western diplomat told Reuters that discussions behind the scenes focused on air defence systems designed to shoot down aircraft and missiles, but this month’s US presidential election win by Donald Trump had cast uncertainty over the talks.
Yoon, already battling with record-low approval ratings over domestic scandals, faces wide opposition from the South Korean public to the idea of arming Ukraine, surveys have shown.
Most South Koreans viewed growing military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow as a threat, a Gallup Korea poll showed in October, but 82% opposed sending military aid, including arms.
Unlike neighbouring Japan, which has also avoided directly arming Kyiv, South Korea is one of the world’s largest weapons exporters and has inked large, lucrative defence deals with Ukraine’s neighbours.
South Korea has provided demining vehicles, body armour and other non-lethal aid for Ukraine and has not ruled out supplying weapons to Kyiv, especially after Seoul and Washington reported the dispatch of thousands of North Korean troops to Russia. DM