Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin says he should have invaded Kyiv earlier

There were no agreements reached in Istanbul between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Speaking during a press conference at the European Council meeting in Brussels, Mr Zelensky said: “Ukraine did not agree to the ultimatum from the Russian Federation. Ukraine did not sign anything, no agreements existed. There was a response to the ultimatum from the Russian Federation.”

Putin had earlier claimed a preliminary agreement had been reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators during the early weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, adding that it had not been implemented but could be a basis for future discussions.

European Union leaders insisted yesterday that no decisions can be taken about the future of war-ravaged Ukraine without its consent — or behind the backs of its partners in Europe, barely a month before president-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Ukraine’s position is precarious, more than 1,000 days into the war. Russia continues to make gains on the battlefield, pushing the front line gradually westward despite suffering heavy casualties. Ukraine’s energy network is in tatters and military recruits are hard to find.

In a show of solidarity at a summit in Brussels with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, many EU leaders repeated a variation of what has become a common mantra — nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, nothing about security in Europe without Europeans.

“Only Ukraine as the aggressed country can legitimately define what peace means —and if and when the conditions are met for credible negotiations,” summit host António Costa said at the end of the daylong meeting of the 27-nation bloc.

“So now is not the time to speculate about different scenarios. Now is the time to strengthen Ukraine for all scenarios,” said Mr Costa, the president of the European Council.

President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal to European allies to coordinate work to reach lasting peace in Ukraine which is battling Russia’s almost three-year full-scale invasion.

“We need coordinated work for lasting peace, not just the suspension of hostilities that Putin seeks to buy time. We must push Moscow towards genuine, sustainable and guaranteed peace,” Mr Zelensky said in his address to the European Council.

Russia should have invaded Ukraine earlier, said Russian president Vladimir Putin as he claimed the war had strengthened Russia’s military and economic power.

Mr Putin made the comments during his annual press conference, a tightly choreographed event which lasted about four and half hours and spanned everything from consumer prices to military hardware.

A number of questioned covered the invasion of Ukraine, and Mr Putin said that if he could do it over, “such a decision should have been made earlier” and Russia could have “prepared for it in advance and more thoroughly”.

“Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years because it has become a truly sovereign country,” he said. “We are standing firm in terms of economy, we are strengthening our defence potential and our military capability now is the strongest in the world.”

Russia and countries that support it will remain a danger to Europe even after the war in Ukraine has ended, Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said on Thursday.

“Russia, together with its allies, will remain a dangerous actor in Europe even after the war in Ukraine and we cannot exclude the possibility of threatening European countries with the use of military force,” Hakkanen told a press conference.

Finland on Thursday published its first defence policy review since it last year joined the NATO military alliance in a historic policy shift brought on by neighbouring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

An Uzbek citizen accused of acting on behalf of Ukraine has been charged by Russian authorities with this week’s assassination of a senior Russian general and his assistant in a bombing claimed by Ukraine’s security services, state media reported yesterday.

Akhmadzhon Kurbonov was ordered detained by a Moscow court until at least 17 February in Tuesday’s bombing that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the Tass state news agency reported.

Mr Kurbonov was charged with the killings, carrying out a terrorist act and illegally manufacturing explosives, the Russian news agency said.

Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, also was killed.

A Russian missile struck and badly damaged a two-storey residence in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, injuring five people, including two pulled alive from under the rubble, officials said.

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on Telegram that a man and a teenage girl had been rescued in Kryvyi Rih, president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown. Windows were shattered in a nearby 10-storey apartment building.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration, said three other people were injured. He said rescue operations had been completed.

Russia has carried out a mass cyberattack on Ukraine’s state registries leading to a temporary suspension of services, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna said late yesterday.

The registries contain vital information about Ukrainian citizens such as births, deaths, marriages and property ownership.

“Today the largest external cyberattack in recent times occurred with Ukraine’s state registries,” Ms Stefanishyna wrote on Facebook.

“As a result of this targeted attack, the work of the unified and state registries, which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, was temporarily suspended.”

Ms Stefanishyna said it was clear the attack was “carried out by the Russians to disrupt the work of the country’s critically important infrastructure”.

She said work to restore operations would require about two weeks, but offices would be providing some services already on Friday. An initial assessment, she said, showed other state services were unaffected.

“After restoration is completed, a thorough analysis of the attack will be conducted to increase protection against similar attacks in the future,” she wrote.

Amid reports Britain is considering sending more UK troops to Ukraine to train soldiers in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Downing Street confirmed those already stationed in the country are protecting British diplomats and assisting Ukrainian counterparts.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We have a small number of trainers and British troops in Ukraine that support the armed forces of Ukraine and our diplomatic presence.

“We are clear we stand ready and continue to support Ukrainians with training… but we are very clear we are not sending any British troops to fight alongside Ukrainians.

“Our focus remains putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position going into the winter.”