Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
North Korean forces alleged to be among those stationed in Kursk, where Ukraine launched its incursion in August
Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Ukraine’s forces are engaged against nearly 50,000 enemy troops in Russia’s Kursk region, president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.
Ukraine’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, insisted earlier on Monday that Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk operation was still successfully diverting Russian forces from mounting heavier attacks on the eastern front – as he confirmed New York Times reporting that Moscow had assembled some 50,000 troops in Kursk.
“These tens of thousands of enemies from the best Russian shock units would have stormed our positions in the Pokrovsk, Kurakhiv or Toretsk directions, which would have significantly worsened the situation at the front,” he said.
The Times report, citing a US assessment, said Russia had built up the force in Kursk – where North Korean troops have reportedly been stationed in recent days – without needing to move troops from eastern Ukraine.
It came as Kyiv claimed Russia had suffered its deadliest day of the Ukraine war, alleging that Mr Putin’s forces suffered record daily high of 1,770 losses as they continued their offensive in the east.
Donald Trump Jr took a swipe at Volodymyr Zelensky after sharing a social media post suggesting that the Ukrainian president was just weeks away from losing his “allowance” – a reference to US military funding for fighting Vladimir Putin’s.
President-elect Donald Trump has staunchly criticised the Biden Administration spending more than $64 billion in providing security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of the nation in February 2022, according to figures from the US Department of State.
On Sunday, Trump’s eldest son mocked Mr Zelensky in a social media tirade, teasing that Ukraine’s military aid budget was about to be abolished.
The outspoken political scion shared an Instagram post by former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, as per screenshots taken by the Daily Beast, with the caption: “POV: You’re 38 Days from losing your allowance.”
Our US news reporter James Liddell has more details in this report:
President-elect’s eldest son also called to keep ‘neocons and war hawks’ out of the Trump Administration
The European Union has supplied Ukraine with more than 980,000 artillery shells, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
A target to supply a total of one million shells would be reached “very soon”, Mr Borrell told Ukrainian outlet European Pravda.
He said: “I know that we made a commitment to reach this level by spring and we failed,” adding: “But we can do it by the end of the year.”
This coming winter will be “a critical point” in the war against Russia, a Ukrainian official has warned.
As Donald Trump’s election win brings the prospect of talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine closer, Kyiv is battling to put itself in the strongest position for any negotiations, including by securing more arms and holding out on the battlefield.
A senior Ukrainian official said the next four to five months would be pivotal, signalling how Trump’s return to the White House is focusing minds in Kyiv on a possible end game in the war.
“This winter is a critical point … I hope the war is drawing to an end. Right now we will define the positions for both sides on negotiations, the starting positions,” the official told Reuters.
Leading Russia expert Mark Galeotti, has warned that Russia’s war in Ukraine is unlikely to grind to a halt any day soon in spite of “massive” losses for Moscow.
“I think both sides are able just about to hold on,” he told Sky News. “The Russians can’t really continue quite at this rate indefinitely. But on the other hand, they have the economy for at least another year or two at something like this kind of tempo.
“So it’s not as if this is a war which is going to grind to a halt any day soon, unfortunately.”
Russian infantry groups could launch ground assaults in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region in a matter of days, a military spokesperson has warned.
The attacks – on a front in the south where fighting has been less active for months – could create a new pressure point for Kyiv’s overstretched defenders, who already are on the back foot in Ukraine’s east. Although it was unclear if they would involve a single offensive push or separate assaults, the spokesperson said.
“[The assaults] could begin in the near future, we’re not even talking about weeks, we’re expecting it to happen any day,” Vladyslav Voloshyn told Reuters.
Ukraine’s allies should not prejudge how Donald Trump will handle the Ukraine conflict, France’s foreign minister has said.
Mr Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the scale of Western financial and military aid to Kyiv, spoke in recent days with Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the Ukraine war, both Reuters and the Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. The Kremlin dismissed this as “pure fiction”.
“Facing the speculation on what could be the positions or initiatives of the new US administration, I think that we absolutely should not prejudge and we have to give it time,” Jean-Noel Barrot told the Paris Peace Forum.
However, Mr Barrot said any initiatives would have to ensure that Ukraine itself determined the timing and conditions for engaging in a negotiation process. In the meantime, he said, Western allies had to give Kyiv all the necessary means to push back invading Russian forces.
“Ukraine, and beyond that the international community, would have too much to lose if Russia imposed the law of the strongest,” he said.
Britain’s defence secretary John Healey has told MPs that the government “has a cast-iron commitment” to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.
He told the Commons: “We promised this in our manifesto at the election, the prime minister promised it at Nato in Washington in July and the Chancellor promised this in the Budget two weeks ago as well as announcing a £3bn boost for defence spending next year to start to fix the foundations for our armed forces.
“This is on top of £3bn each year for Ukraine.”
He added: “Everyone agrees that defence spending must increase to match and deal with the threats that we face and one of our very first acts as a government was to launch the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which is working at pace to look at the threats we face, the capabilities we need and the resources we have available. This isn’t just about how much we spend but it is how we spend it too.”
Mr Healey said the SDR will come first before the government sets out the “pathway” to spending 2.5 per cent, adding that this will come in the spring.
Forcing neutrality onto Ukraine will not bring about a peaceful solution to Russia’s war, Finland’s foreign minister has warned.
Speaking in an interview with Reuters, Elina Valtonen poured cold water on using the “Finlandisation” model as a way of securing peace in Ukraine.
“I’m against it, yes. Let’s face it, Ukraine was neutral before they were attacked by Russia,” Ms Valtonen said on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum. “It’s definitely not something I would be imposing on Ukraine. Definitely not as a first alternative.”
Ms Valtonen questioned whether Russia could be trusted even if it agreed a deal and said forcing Ukraine’s hand to accept terms against its will would tear down the international system.
“I really want to avoid a situation where any European country, or the United States for that matter, starts negotiating over the heads of Ukraine,” she said. “A larger power can not just grab territory, but also essentially weaken the sovereignty of another nation,” she said.
Threats of a renewed mass missile attack by Russia which saw air raid alerts issued across Ukraine today are reportedly believed to have been a Russian training exercise.
Bringing some relief to Ukrainians awaiting feared mass missile attacks ahead of winter, the Kyiv Independent reported that the warnings that sounded on Monday after Russian bombers and fighter jets took off turned out instead to merely amount to a Russian training exercise, with the all clear given just before 9am local time.
But Ukraine’s counter-disinformation chief Andrii Kovalenko warned: “The Russians are ready for massive strikes. There are enough missiles, they are accumulated at strategic aviation airfields and continue to accumulate.”
“Aviation is also ready. Rehearsing the tactics of simulated launches by the Russians is also part of maintaining the readiness of aviation for action.”
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Log in
New to The Independent?
Or if you would prefer:
Hi {{indy.fullName}}