US disburses $20bn portion of G7 loan funds for Kyiv; Russia won’t invade Nato - Latvian foreign minister

Russia would not invade Nato as it has too many complications with the fighting in Ukraine, said Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže in an interview at the Reuters Next conference in New York.

Three people were killed and 16 hurt in a Russian missile strike that destroyed a private clinic in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, and many more were trapped under the rubble, said officials.

US Treasury disburses $20bn in Ukraine loan funds to World Bank facility

The US Treasury on Tuesday said it disbursed the $20-billion US portion of a $50-billion G7 loan to Ukraine backed by frozen sovereign Russian assets to a World Bank intermediary fund for economic and financial aid to the war-torn country.

The Treasury said the disbursement makes good on its October commitment to match a $20-billion European Union loan to Ukraine alongside loans from Group of Seven allies Britain, Canada and Japan to help the Eastern European nation fight Russia’s invasion.

The disbursement before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January is aimed at protecting the funds from being clawed back by his administration. Trump has complained that the US is providing too much aid to Ukraine and said he will end the war quickly, without specifying how.

The $50-billion in credit for 30 years will be serviced with the interest proceeds from some $300-billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets that have been immobilised since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Russia would not invade Nato, says Latvian foreign minister

Russia would not invade Nato as it has too many complications with the fighting in Ukraine, said Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže in an interview at the Reuters Next conference in New York.

“What you’re asking is whether I’m afraid Russia would invade Nato. No, I don’t think Russia would do that because that would mean a lot more complications than it already has in Ukraine,” said Braže, whose country borders both Russia and its ally Belarus.

The minister said Russia was losing more than 2,000 soldiers a day in the war, and the 600,000 to 700,000 who had already been killed or seriously wounded were weighing down on Russia’s economy.

“Russia is not doing very well, also economically, so we don’t have direct military threats, but we are very serious about our defence,” said Braže.

Reuters reported last month that Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump but ruled out making any major territorial concessions and said Kyiv must abandon its ambitions to join Nato.

Braže pledged Latvia would work with all members of Trump’s administration when his term begins, such as proposed secretary of state Marco Rubio, who would become her counterpart.

Russian missile kills three, destroys clinic in Zaporizhzhia

Three people were killed and 16 hurt in a Russian missile strike that destroyed a private clinic in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, and many more were trapped under the rubble, said officials.

Rescuers continued working in piles of waste from the collapsed building after the strike in the city centre, searching for at least eight more people, said regional governor Ivan Fedorov on the Telegram messaging app.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike “brutal” and issued a fresh appeal for allies to supply Ukraine with air defences.

Putin meets Indian defence minister

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Kremlin on Tuesday, according to the Russian state-run RIA news agency, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov did not disclose the details of the meeting.

Ukraine peace talks possible this winter, says Poland’s Tusk

Peace talks on the war in Ukraine could possibly start this winter, said Poland’s Prime Minister on Tuesday, as he outlined a series of planned meetings as Warsaw seeks to play a leading role in ending the conflict.

Poland has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw would be heavily involved in any talks when it takes up the European Union’s rotating presidency on 1 January.

“I will have a series of talks concerning primarily the situation beyond our eastern border,” he told a government meeting.

“As you can imagine, our delegation will be co-responsible for, among other things, what the political calendar will look like, perhaps what the situation will be like during the negotiations, which may, although there is still a question mark, start in the winter of this year.”

Tusk said French President Emmanuel Macron would visit Warsaw on Thursday to give a rundown on talks with Trump and Zelensky in Paris last weekend.

He said he was in constant contact with Warsaw’s Scandinavian and Baltic allies, and that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would visit Warsaw in the early days of Poland’s EU presidency.

Poland protests over damage to monuments in Russia

Poland will send a note to Russian authorities to demand an inquiry into the devastation of monuments commemorating Polish Home Army soldiers in the town of Yogla in eastern Russia, said the Polish foreign ministry on Tuesday.

Relations between Poland and Russia are tense, especially since Moscow invaded neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.

“This is a place where former prisons, gulags were located, to which people from different parts of the world were sent, including Polish soldiers,” said Polish foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski.

“And there were monuments commemorating prisoners, but they were not just monuments, they stand on the graves of people who died there from hunger, exhaustion, repression and diseases.”

Wronski added that Poland was asking Russia whether an inquiry would be launched and if perpetrators would be punished.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw said it had no information on the matter.

EU envoys to discuss first sanctions targeting Russian hybrid threats

EU envoys would discuss on Wednesday the first potential sanctions targeting Russian hybrid threats such as undermining elections, cyber-attacks and economic sabotage, said EU diplomats.

A list of 16 individuals and three entities could be added to a new sanctions framework agreed in October in response to a rise in such attacks across the 27-member bloc since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said last week that up to 100 incidents in Europe this year could be “attributed to Russian hybrid attacks, espionage, influence operations”.

“We need to send a strong signal to Moscow that this won’t be tolerated,” said Lipavsky.

Most of the sanctions targets proposed by the EU Commission are Russian. The listing also identifies three people from Moldova, Ivory Coast and Georgia and one entity based in Togo.

Nato said in May attacks attributed to Russia had increased across Europe, mainly affecting the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom.

The EU is struggling to contain Russian influence. In recent weeks, Georgia’s Russia-leaning ruling party said it would stop EU accession talks, fuelling widespread protests. Meanwhile, Romania’s top court annulled its presidential election last week after accusations of Russian meddling.

Ukraine to raise Nato invitation at meeting with European allies

Zelensky will raise the issues of Ukraine being invited to join Nato as well as security guarantees at a meeting with European partners this month, said Kyiv on Tuesday.

Ukraine announced the meeting on Monday and said it would help coordinate a joint position and ensure Kyiv was in a strong position for potential talks and on the battlefield.

“One of the issues on the agenda of such a meeting will certainly be the issue we are discussing now of obtaining a membership application and the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine until it joins Nato,” said Ihor Zhovkva, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office.

He said there would also be discussions about military aid for Ukraine.

“It is absolutely clear that the issue of Ukraine’s membership in Nato, unfortunately, remains unattainable for now. I mean, as long as Russian aggression against Ukraine continues, until we win. And so today ... we need appropriate guarantees of our security before we join Nato,” said Zhovkva.

Kremlin says Ukraine war will go on until Putin’s goals are met

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the Ukraine war would continue until the goals set by Putin were achieved by military action or negotiation.

Putin has demanded that Ukraine abandon its ambition to join Nato and withdraw fully from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own — terms Kyiv has rejected as tantamount to surrender.

“The special military operation will end when all the objectives set by the president and commander-in-chief have been achieved,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Moscow’s term for the conflict.

“These goals can be achieved as a result of the special military operation or a result of relevant negotiations.” DM