President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said he ‘100%’ supports raising sanctions on Russian oil producers if the future president requests doing so.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Thursday to work with Ukraine and allies to offer Kyiv robust security guarantees if a ceasefire is negotiated with Russia, offering more support to President Volodymyr Zelensky with a 100-year partnership deal.
Planned Russian military reforms that would increase Moscow’s troop numbers by 30% were a threat to Nato and should be met with vigilance, said the chief of Finland’s military intelligence service, Pekka Turunen, on Thursday.
Trump’s Treasury pick calls for stronger sanctions on Russia
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said he “100%” supports raising sanctions on Russian oil producers if the future president requests doing so.
Bessent told US senators on the Senate Finance Committee that he believes the Russian sanctions from the Biden administration “were not fulsome enough”.
“I think if any officials in the Russian Federation are watching this confirmation hearing, they should know that if I’m confirmed, and if President Trump requests as part of his strategy to end the Ukraine war, that I will be 100% on board with taking sanctions up — especially on the Russian oil majors — to levels that would bring the Russian Federation to the table,” said Bessent.
The nominee also said, “The tragedy going on in Ukraine is one of the greatest tragedies of my adult life, and ending that as soon as possible — and any role that Treasury can play in, that if confirmed, I would like to do.”
UK’s Starmer pledges robust security guarantees for Kyiv
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Thursday to work with Ukraine and allies to offer Kyiv robust security guarantees if a ceasefire is negotiated with Russia, offering more support to President Volodymyr Zelensky with a 100-year partnership deal.
In his first trip to Ukraine since becoming prime minister in July last year, Starmer was keen to underline Britain’s support for the nation just days before Trump returns to power in the US.
In talks punctuated by the sound of a loud explosion from Ukraine’s air defences shooting down a Russian drone above the presidential palace, Zelensky said he had spoken to Starmer about Kyiv’s desire for Western peacekeeping troops to be deployed in Ukraine in the event of peace.
Starmer said Britain would look at “the practical ways to get a just and lasting peace ... that guarantees your security, your independence and your right to choose your own future”, but declined to go into any details of which measures he supported.
“We will work with you and all of our allies on steps that would be robust enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security,” Starmer told a press conference alongside Zelensky.
“Those conversations will continue for many months ahead.”
Starmer’s visit comes two days after German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius also travelled to the country, with European leaders weighing what security guarantees they can provide as part of any peace agreement that may be pushed by Trump.
As the war against Russia approaches its three-year mark, Ukraine is on the back foot on the front lines. Ukrainian forces are suffering from manpower shortages and losing ground in the eastern Donetsk region as Russia’s troops continue their advance.
Since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Britain has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine, with Starmer’s predecessors visiting Kyiv in the early days of their tenure.
It took a little longer for Starmer to make the trip, but he comes armed with a 100-year partnership with Kyiv to deepen security and cultural ties.
The treaty and political declaration aims to boost military cooperation to strengthen security in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Sea of Azov and deter Russian aggression.
The treaty will also cover areas such as energy, critical minerals and green steel production, said Starmer’s office.
“Putin’s ambition to wrench Ukraine away from its closest partners has been a monumental strategic failure,” said Starmer in a statement. “Instead, we are closer than ever, and this partnership will take that friendship to the next level.”
Britain has provided £12.8-billion in support to Ukraine since 2022, a sum dwarfed by Washington’s $63.5-billion in security assistance, underscoring the importance of Trump’s actions over Ukraine.
The partnership announced on Thursday, which provides £40-million for Ukraine’s economic recovery, includes additional support around grain verification and trade with Ukraine’s thriving technology sector that has produced battle-ready equipment.
Finland’s intelligence chief urges vigilance over planned Russian military build-up
Planned Russian military reforms that would increase Moscow’s troop numbers by 30% were a threat to Nato and should be met with vigilance, said the chief of Finland’s military intelligence service, Pekka Turunen, on Thursday.
Finland, which shares the European Union’s longest border with Russia, joined the Western military alliance Nato in 2023 and drew its Nordic neighbour Sweden to follow in March 2024, both in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland’s military intelligence service led by Turunen noted in an annual review published on Thursday that Moscow has announced plans to reform its military by the end of 2026.
“Yes this is a threat to Nato, especially if the plan is executed,” Turunen told Reuters, adding he thought Russia could realistically achieve its goals by 2030. “We need to react in the sense that we need to be vigilant.”
Russia’s defence minister said in December that Moscow must be ready to fight Nato in Europe in the next decade. President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the same gathering, said Western leaders “are simply scaring their own population that we are going to attack someone there using the pretext of the mythical Russian threat”.
Turunen said Russia was targeting a 30% increase in the number of its troops, which would bring the total strength of its military to 1.5 million soldiers.
The number of Russian troops based in Finland’s vicinity could double or triple from the period before the Ukraine war, Turunen said, with a new corps to be deployed in Russia’s adjacent Karelia region and existing units to be expanded in the Kola Peninsula and around St Petersburg.
Russia ‘ready to provide gas to Transdniestria, but needs action from Moldova’
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia was ready to provide gas to Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region, but needed logistical support from Moldova to make that happen.
Vadim Krasnoselsky, the leader of the separatist enclave, said on Wednesday that he expected Transdniestria to receive Russian gas again soon to meet its needs.
Tens of thousands of people there have been without gas or winter heating since 1 January, when Russia’s Gazprom suspended gas exports to the region, citing an unpaid Moldovan debt of $709-million that Chisinau does not recognise as valid.
Moscow blames the suspension of gas supplies on pro-Western Moldova and Kyiv, which refused to extend a five-year gas transit deal that expired on 31 December on the grounds that the proceeds help fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Moldova’s authorities have said that despite a valid contract and the option of an alternative transit route, Gazprom is refusing to supply gas to destabilise its government ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections.
Asked on Thursday about Moscow’s plans, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia would be prepared to provide gas, but needed Moldova to cooperate as well from a technical point of view.
“Yes, Moscow will be ready and is ready to provide assistance to Transdniestria, but at the same time, purely logistically, of course, actions must be taken on the part of Moldova that ensure gas supply and contracting,” Peskov told reporters.
“So far we have not heard any statements [from Moldova] about their readiness to do this,” he said.
Russian gunpowder factory attacked
A major Russian gunpowder factory in the Tambov region was attacked, said a Ukrainian official on Thursday, without directly claiming Ukrainian responsibility or specifying the consequences of the attack.
“The enterprise is one of the main suppliers of explosive materials for the army of the Russian Federation,” Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, wrote on Telegram of the powder factory.
There was no immediate public comment from Russia on the attack on the factory.
Separately, Ukraine’s military said it had hit the Liskinska oil depot in Russia’s Voronezh region overnight.
“According to the available information, at least three strike drones hit the target. A large-scale fire broke out at the facility,” said a military statement on the Telegram app.
Russia-Iran pact ‘will not include mutual defence clause’
A strategic cooperation agreement that Russia and Iran are poised to sign will not include a mutual defence clause like pacts that Moscow has signed with Pyongyang and Minsk, the state Tass news agency reported on Thursday, citing Iran’s envoy.
“The nature of this agreement is different. They [Belarus and North Korea] established partnership relations [with Moscow] in a number of areas that we did not particularly touch upon. Our country’s independence and security, as well as self-reliance, are extremely important. We are not interested in joining any bloc,” Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, was cited as saying by Tass.
Russia has partnerships with North Korea and Belarus which include a mutual defence provision. Jalali was quoted as saying that Iran would ensure its own security.
Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are due to hold talks in Russia on 17 January after which they will sign the long-awaited comprehensive strategic partnership pact, said the Kremlin on Monday.
Ukraine downs 34 Russian drones in overnight attack
Ukraine downed 34 out of 55 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, said the Ukrainian air force on Thursday, with a further 18 failing to reach their targets, something which usually indicates they were jammed by electronic warfare.
Drones were downed in 11 regions across Ukraine, said the air force.
Falling drone debris damaged energy infrastructure in the central region of Poltava, leaving more than 300 users without power, said local authorities. DM