Zelensky won’t sacrifice young troops to Putin’s forces for more weapons – latest

Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv injured ten people and destroyed an administrative building, according to the governor on Tuesday.

Governor Oleh Syniehubov stated that Russian soldiers launched two missile attacks on the village of Zlatopil.

The first strike harmed non-residential structures and cars, while the second struck an administration facility.

Russia has bombarded the border region with numerous attacks since the beginning of Moscow’s full-fledged invasion in February 2022.

Russian state media reports that its forces have captured the village of Zhovte in eastern Ukraine.

The TASS state news agency cited the defence ministry as its source but Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the Ukraine war would continue until president Vladimir Putin’s goals were met, either through military action or negotiations.

Putin has asked that Ukraine forsake its aspirations to join NATO and withdraw completely from four regions of the country that Russia claims as its own, proposals that Kyiv has rejected as akin to capitulation.

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

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

Peskov said no talks between Moscow and Kyiv were currently underway because “the Ukrainian side refuses any negotiations”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday made the case for a diplomatic settlement to the war and raised the idea of foreign troops being deployed in Ukraine until it could join NATO.

As part of an ongoing effort to repatriate more than 20,000 deported children, officials announced Monday that five Ukrainian children who had been sent abroad or placed in foster care since February 2022 have returned home.

Daria Zarivna, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said those brought home on Monday included three young people who in the course of their movements had reached the age of 18.

One girl has long yearned to return home, Zarivna said on the Telegram chat platform, despite being exposed to Russian propaganda.

Another youngster was reunited with his whole family after he and his mother escaped to Russia at the beginning of the war.

While another family with two children had to face searches and interrogations at their home before being transported to a secure region, a third person sought assistance in navigating his way out of Russian-occupied portions of Ukraine.

A Ukrainian man was rescued fleeing his war-torn country from a deep mountain ravine in subzero temperatures with an unlikely companion: his months-old kitten named Peach.

More than a dozen rescuers worked in a harsh blizzard to save Vladislav Duda, 28, who was found “soaked and frozen” and severely hypothermic in a 400-meter (437-yard) deep ravine in the northern Maramures region in Romania last week, according to the region’s mountain rescue service. Duda had fled Ukraine to avoid being drafted into his country’s armed forces fighting Russia.

“The cat was warm and was warming him … so he saved his life,” Dan Benga, the director of the Maramures mountain rescue service, told The Associated Press. “The only thing we saw he is caring about is the cat. He doesn’t care about himself.”

When the rescue team located and found the Ukrainian, they unzipped his jacket and discovered Peach snuggled up inside. Benga recalls asking Duda if he was OK, to which he replied: “I’m happy because my cat is alive. I got a chance from God for a new life. The happiest moment is because the cat is here with me,” Benga recalled Duda saying.

Russia is close to accomplishing its military objectives in Ukraine and has the strategic advantage in all sectors, according to Moscow’s foreign intelligence chief, as reported by Russian media on Tuesday.

“The situation on the front is not in Kyiv’s favour,” RIA quoted Sergei Naryshkin as saying in Razvedchik, the foreign intelligence agency’s official newsletter.

He continued: “The strategic initiative in all areas belongs to us.”

North Korean troops in Russia are yet to engage in combat but have been seen in Kursk, the Pentagon said in its latest assessment.

“…DPRK troops are still in that Kursk region. Haven’t seen them engaged in combat. But, you know, we know they’re there. We know that they’re staged to engage in combat and, you know, we’re continuing to monitor that,” Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a press briefing last night.

The official said that the US is watching a “deepening cooperation” between Russia and the DPRK.

“You know, we’re seeing certainly a trading of information and capabilities between these two countries including North Korea providing soldiers on the battlefield,” Ms Singh said.

Ukraine plans to call a critical meeting of its key European allies this month to work out a joint position for the new year.

The aim of the talks will be to ensure Kyiv is in a strong position on the battlefield and in any potential peace talks, the presidential spokesperson said.

Ukraine has intensified calls for help from its supporters, particularly in the build-up to the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, who has said he wants to end the Ukraine-Russia war quickly.

“Ukraine is gathering key European partners who, together with the United States, are able to ensure the maximum strengthening of our state,” spokesperson Sergiy Nykyforov said.

The meeting is needed to coordinate a joint position and guarantee that Ukraine is “strong in any scenario, both in negotiations and on the battlefield”, he added. The final list of participants was still being decided, he said.

It should include countries which possess long-range weapons, invest in Ukrainian arms production and can decide on Ukraine‘s future in the Nato alliance, he added.

Four hundred years ago, Sir John Harington explained, “Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason? If treason prosper, none dare call it treason.” Maybe, terrorism is never successful – as Western governments insist – for much the same reason.

The rebranding of Syria’s new strongman, Abu Mohammad al Jolani, from internationally outlawed terrorist to international partner, is well underway.

On Sunday, Sir John Sawers – Tony Blair’s guru in the run-up to the Iraq War, as well as MI6’s boss – led the choir of Whitehall’s most far-sighted mandarins singing the praises of Al Jolani as “the leader of a liberation movement, not a terrorist organisation”; and calling for his HTS group’s designation as a terrorist group to be reviewed.

Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, told Sky News that a review was in order in “the new situation”. Now, No 10 says the review is “proceeding quickly”.

A Ukrainian man was rescued from a deep mountain ravine in subzero temperatures while fleeing his war-torn country with an unlikely companion: his months-old kitten named Peach.

More than a dozen rescuers worked in a harsh blizzard to save Vladislav Duda, 28, who was found “soaked and frozen” and severely hypothermic in a 400-metre (437-yard) deep ravine in the northern Maramures region of Romania last week, according to the region’s mountain rescue service.

Peach is said to have saved Mr Duda’s life. Read more on that here: