Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday for discussing Ukraine in a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Russia said on Wednesday that Ukraine had struck a military airfield on the Azov Sea with six US-made Atacms ballistic missiles, a move that could prompt Moscow to launch another experimental intermediate-range hypersonic missile at Ukraine.
Changes to Russia’s economy indicated it had military ambitions in Europe beyond Ukraine, said incoming Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene in an interview at the Reuters Next conference in New York.
Zelensky criticises Orbán over phone call with Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday for discussing Ukraine in a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Orbán, who has had closer ties with Putin than other European leaders throughout Russia’s 33-month-old war in Ukraine, said on X that Wednesday’s call lasted an hour and that “these are the most dangerous weeks” of the war.
“No one should boost [their] personal image at the expense of unity,” said Zelensky on X in comments that appeared to mock Orbán’s self-styled attempts to launch a “peace mission” for Ukraine.
“We all hope that Orbán at least won’t call Assad in Moscow to listen to his hour-long lectures as well,” said Zelensky, referring to Russia’s decision to grant overthrown Syrian President Bashar al-Assad political asylum.
Replying to Zelensky on X, Orbán said Hungary had proposed a “Christmas ceasefire” and a prisoner exchange but that Zelensky had “clearly rejected and ruled this out”. Orbán did not spell out exactly when or how he had proposed such a truce, or whether the same offer was made to Putin.
Ukrainian officials have consistently said that a ceasefire would play into Russia’s hands, as it could freeze the current frontlines with Russia holding about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin said Putin had told Orbán during the phone call that Kyiv’s stance excluded the possibility of a peaceful settlement to the war. The phone call came at a sensitive diplomatic moment in the war in Ukraine as US President-elect Donald Trump has called for an immediate ceasefire and a swift end to the war.
Russia vows response after Ukraine uses US-made Atacms to strike airfield
Russia said on Wednesday that Ukraine had struck a military airfield on the Azov Sea with six US-made Atacms ballistic missiles, a move that could prompt Moscow to launch another experimental intermediate-range hypersonic missile at Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry said two of the missiles fired by Ukraine were shot down by a Pantsir missile defence system and the rest were destroyed by electronic warfare.
“On the morning of December 11, 2024, the Kyiv regime launched a missile strike with Western precision weapons at the Taganrog military airfield in the Rostov region,” said the defence ministry.
“This attack by Western long-range weapons will not go unanswered and appropriate measures will be taken.”
Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik, or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on 21 November in what Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with US and British missiles.
A US official said on Wednesday that Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington did not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war.
The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final and most dangerous phase as Moscow’s forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict.
Lithuanian defence minister warns of Russia’s military ambitions
Changes to Russia’s economy indicated it had military ambitions in Europe beyond Ukraine, said incoming Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene in an interview at the Reuters Next conference in New York.
A ceasefire in the war in Ukraine “will allow Russians mostly to prepare for the third wave of annihilation of Ukraine and, secondly, for their next steps in Europe. Because they have transformed their peacetime economy to a military economy for a reason, and Ukraine is not reason enough”, said Sakaliene.
Biden pushes new Russia, Iran, Korea, China effort before Trump term
President Joe Biden is pushing US national security agencies ahead of Trump’s inauguration to devise new strategies to tackle the risky, deepening ties among Russia, Iran, North Korea and China, according to US officials.
In exchange for Iran’s help with the Russian war effort in Ukraine, Moscow is giving its ally fighter aircraft, missile defence and space technology, concluded Biden in a national security memorandum issued on Tuesday.
Putin is giving North Korea fuel, money and technology, and is recognising it as a de facto nuclear state. Russia was conducting joint patrols with China in the Arctic, said the administration.
Biden’s new document orders various arms of the US government to restructure groups currently organised by region to better focus on issues linking the four countries that span Europe and Asia.
The document’s strategies and policy suggestions could be implemented — or rejected altogether — by Trump, who takes office on 20 January.
The officials said the challenges ahead included ensuring that any sanctions and export controls imposed on the four countries were applied in a coordinated way that didn’t risk blowback from those countries and enabling the US to better handle simultaneous crises involving several of the countries.
EU slaps new sanctions on Russian shadow fleet, Chinese drone makers
European Union ambassadors agreed on a 15th package of sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, targeting its shadow tanker fleet and Chinese firms making drones for Moscow, said diplomats.
The Hungarian presidency said on X that the sanctions would target vessels from third countries supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and add more individuals and entities to the sanctions list.
The sanctions will not be adopted until after foreign ministers approve the package on Monday.
Diplomats told Reuters that the package also includes an extension of six months for the Czech Republic to import Russian oil-based products coming mainly through Slovakia.
“I welcome the adoption of our 15th package of sanctions, targeting in particular Russia’s shadow fleet,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on X.
The sanctions package is likely to be formally adopted at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday and will target close to 30 entities, more than 50 individuals and 45 tankers.
Zelensky made case for security guarantees at meeting with Trump
Zelensky used his first meeting with Trump since the US election to explain Ukraine’s need for security guarantees in any negotiated end to the war with Russia, said two sources familiar with the 7 December discussions.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting in Paris during which Ukraine’s leader sought to build a rapport with Trump, whose promise to end the conflict swiftly has raised concerns in Kyiv that it could be largely on Moscow’s terms.
Reuters spoke to a total of nine people who were briefed on the meeting.
The three leaders, who talked for 35 minutes without advisers in the Elysee’s Golden Room, did not discuss specific details of any vision for peace, but Trump repeated that he wanted an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to end the war quickly, said four of the people.
The meeting offered some early clues as to how negotiations on ending the conflict might play out, although the process that would involve Putin is fraught with difficulty and the role of the US as yet unclear.
Trump behaved in a friendly, respectful and open manner and appeared to be in listening mode, one of the sources said.
Neither Trump nor officials close to him dealing with Ukraine have been forthcoming on how exactly they envisage a solution to the war and to Ukraine’s insistence that it has to receive security guarantees as part of any settlement.
That has created a mounting sense of uncertainty in Kyiv that has been compounded by months of steady Russian territorial gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and nightly drone attacks on cities far behind the front lines.
“Some key points were mentioned during the meeting — for example, it was said that peace needs guarantees because a ceasefire alone isn’t enough, Putin could break it again, as he has done before, without proper guarantees,” said a source in the Ukrainian president’s office.
Asked how that was received, the source said, referring to Trump, “He’s thinking about all the details.”
One of Trump’s advisers told Reuters that Zelensky may be “overplaying his hand” to an extent, given the perilous position Ukraine faces on the battlefield.
Kyiv has been pushing the outgoing US administration for an invitation to join the Nato military alliance, having long made the case that it will need security guarantees to prevent any new Russian invasion later on.
The latter message has been consistent even as Zelensky has recently acknowledged that a diplomatic end to the war would save lives, softening his earlier insistence that all Moscow’s forces must be expelled from Ukraine for peace to be achieved.
Several officials close to Trump have said he has geared his meetings to building a personal rapport, which is key to how he conducts diplomacy, and that he will ultimately make the call on how to proceed.
The generally cordial nature of Trump’s direct dealings with Zelensky differs from some of his public pronouncements about the Ukrainian leader on the campaign trail, including calling him “the greatest salesman on Earth” for having solicited and received billions of dollars of US military aid.
Macron and Zelensky were on the same page at the Paris meeting, but were careful not to seem like they were cornering Trump, said one official.
Macron’s pitch to Trump was focused on the message that a defeat for Ukraine would reflect badly on the US and be taken by US rivals across the globe, including China, as a sign of US weakness, said two sources familiar with the meeting.
Another official said Macron and Zelensky explained to Trump that Putin in 2024 was not the same as he was in 2017, when the US president-elect previously dealt with the Kremlin leader while in the White House.
Russia teams up with BRICS to create AI alliance
Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would develop artificial intelligence with BRICS partners and other countries, in a bid to challenge the dominance of the US in one of the most promising and crucial technologies of the 21st century.
Speaking at Russia’s flagship AI conference, Putin said the new AI Alliance Network would include national associations and development institutions in the field of AI from BRICS countries and other interested states.
“Russia must participate on equal terms in the global race to create strong artificial intelligence. It is precisely the advanced solutions that Russian scientists are currently working on,” Putin told an AI conference in Moscow.
“We invite scientists from all over the world to join in the collaboration,” he added.
Western sanctions intended to restrict Russia’s access to the technologies it needs to sustain its war against Ukraine have resulted in the world’s major producers of microchips halting exports to Russia, sorely limiting its AI ambitions.
Russia’s dominant lender Sberbank is spearheading AI development in Russia, but Sberbank CEO German Gref acknowledged in 2023 that graphics processing units (GPUs), the microchips that underpin AI development, were the trickiest hardware for Russia to replace.
On Wednesday, the bank said national AI associations from BRICS members Brazil, China, India and South Africa, but also from Serbia, Indonesia and other non-BRICS countries, had joined the AI Alliance Network.
It said the network would facilitate joint research into technology and AI regulation, and provide opportunities for AI products to be sold in member countries’ markets.
The US and China are the world’s top AI powers, and Trump has named a “White House AI and Crypto Czar” to help ensure the US remains the richest and most technologically advanced power in the world.
But Putin’s move to ally with China could change the dynamics of the AI race.
Russia is one of 10 countries, including the US, China, Britain and Israel, that are developing their own generative AI models. The Yakov and Partners consultancy, run by former McKinsey employees in Moscow, says this gives it the potential to become a much more significant player.
Russia nears strategic Ukrainian logistics hub
Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, said Kyiv’s military on Wednesday, as Moscow bears down on the strategic logistics hub that is home to a unique Ukrainian coking mine.
After months of accelerating advances towards Pokrovsk, Moscow’s forces are now as close as 3km from the southern outskirts of the city, according to Ukraine’s DeepState, which maps the front lines using open sources.
“As a result of prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed, one was lost. Currently, measures are being taken to restore positions,” said Nazar Voloshyn, Ukraine’s military spokesperson for the eastern front, in televised comments.
Pokrovsk, situated about 18km from the boundary of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, has for months been the area of the fiercest battles in Russia’s 33-month-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In October and November, the Russian military advanced towards the city at its fastest rate since the early months of the war, said analysts. Ukraine, which has been on the back foot since its failed 2023 counteroffensive, says Russia has been sustaining some of its heaviest losses of the war to date.
Russia, which Ukraine says has over 70,000 troops on the Pokrovsk front, has rapidly advanced towards Shevchenko, a village to Pokrovsk’s south, in recent weeks.
Its forces are currently trying to gain a foothold in the village and sending in reconnaissance and sabotage groups, said Voloshyn. Ukraine was holding them back for now, he added.
The fall of Pokrovsk, an important logistics centre for the Ukrainian military in the east, would amount to the biggest military setback for Kyiv in months. DM