Vladimir Putin has been speaking in Russia at an annual TV event – where he’s compared the EU to “burglars”, after it agreed a deal overnight to fund Kyiv’s defence efforts for two years. Follow live below – and watch footage of what Ukraine says is a drone strike in the Mediterranean.
Friday 19 December 2025 14:51, UK
A growing number of people in the UK support deploying European troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal than they did two months ago, new polling shows.
The survey of 1,002 UK adults, conducted by H/Advisors, shows 40% now back the idea of sending troops to Ukraine to help protect the country from potential future Russian aggression.
That’s up from 34% in October, before the US-backed peace proposal was on the table and the latest talks between Washington and Moscow had taken place.
Despite that, public opinion in the UK is still seemingly at odds with Donald Trump’s approach to ending the war.
While Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has praised Trump as the “only Western leader” showing an understanding of Moscow’s position, only 23% of Brits support US-Russia negotiations without Ukraine at the table, while trust in Vladimir Putin to respect any ceasefire stands at just 19%.
Meanwhile, 88% say Ukraine needs strong security guarantees in any peace deal, and 72% believe Russia would target other European countries if Ukraine loses.
Finally, 69% of Britons want the UK to be among the countries responsible for enforcing any ceasefire agreement – 12 points higher than the European average.
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine following an overnight Russian air attack in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
As we’ve reported, Ukraine’s air force said Moscow launched 160 drones at the country overnight, with 47 drone strikes recorded at 23 separate locations.
We can now bring you video footage of the Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea.
As a reminder, Ukraine says it hit the vessel more than 1,000 miles away from its borders -and Vladimir Putin has already warned Russia will retaliate for the strike (see 12.40 post).
Watch Ukrainian footage of the strikes…
“Russia used this tanker to circumvent sanctions and earn money that went to the war against Ukraine,” an informed source in the Ukraine’s intelligence service, the SBU, said.
They added: “Therefore, from the point of view of international law and the laws and customs of war, this is an absolutely legitimate target for the SBU.
“The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop and will strike it anywhere in the world, wherever it may be,” said an informed source in the SBU.”
In a statement, Ukraine’s SBU said:
“The Security Service of Ukraine has carried out a new unprecedented special operation more than 2,000 km from the territory of our state.
“As a result of multi-stage measures in the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the SBU’s Alpha unit struck the tanker QENDIL, part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” with aerial drones.
“At the time of the special operation, the Russian ship was not carrying any cargo and was empty. Accordingly, this attack did not pose any threat to the ecological situation in the region.”
The tanker suffered “critical damage”, according to the SBU.
Speaking at his marathon TV event in Moscow, which has just ended, Vladimir Putin says Russia is “ready to think” about halting strikes on Ukraine so that Kyiv can hold elections.
He said Ukrainian citizens living in Russia should also be able to take part in the voting.
The Kremlin has led calls for Volodymyr Zelenskyy – whose term as president was scheduled to end in 2024 – to hold wartime elections in Ukraine, despite the country’s constitution not allowing them to be called during wartime.
Ukraine has expressed concern that Russia could easily interfere with its elections and said it would be impossible to bring Ukrainians to polling stations en masse out of fear of deadly Russian strikes.
Despite this, Zelenskyy has suggested he could hold elections if Ukraine’s security could be guaranteed during a vote.
This came after US President Donald Trump called for an election to take place and suggested the Zelenskyy government was “using war” to avoid going to the polls.
Donald Trump said he believes talks towards ending the war in Ukraine are “getting close to something” ahead of a meeting between US and Russian officials this weekend.
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner plan to meet a delegation from Moscow in Miami this weekend, a White House official said, as they continue trying to coax a peace agreement out of both Russia and Ukraine.
Witkoff and Kushner met a Ukrainian delegation over two days in Berlin on Sunday and Monday, and US officials said they came away with a belief that the two sides are not far apart.
But despite this, the thorniest issue, Russia’s insistence on gaining Ukrainian territory as part of any settlement, remains outstanding.
“I hope Ukraine moves quickly because Russia is there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last night, an apparent reference to recent Russian gains on the battlefield.
He warned that delays could shift Russia’s position: “Every time they take too much time, then Russia changes their mind.”
“There’s a chance we can get this done, maybe soon,” he added.
We can bring you some analysis from Keir Simmons now, who asked Vladimir Putin a question on behalf of our US partner network, NBC News.
Reporting from Moscow, he says Putin is determined not to be seen to block Donald Trump’s peace plans in Ukraine.
But he adds that Putin genuinely believed some of his arguments.
Simmons writes:
My question to President Putin elicited an angry response, but it also illuminated the Russian leader’s negotiating strategy.
Suggesting he might reject President Trump’s peace deal was ‘inappropriate’, he told me.
Putin is determined not to be accused of blocking Trump’s push for peace but he is equally intent on not agreeing to any deal that does not meet his demands.
‘We do not consider ourselves responsible for the loss of life, because it was not us who started this war,‘ he told me.
This is something he truly believes, blaming the war on NATO and Ukraine’s pro-Western color revolution.
But he also said repeatedly that he does believe he is ‘making compromises’.
Vladimir Putin has commented on a recent Ukrainian strike on a Russian tanker (see post at 11.36), saying that while it won’t disrupt supplies, Moscow will always retaliate.
It was the first time Ukrainian drones had struck a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, more than 1,000 miles away from Ukraine, with Putin saying it is only “going to create additional threats”.
He added that Russia regularly responds with “much stronger strikes” against Ukraine.
Putin also warned against any threat to blockade Russia’s Kaliningrad , which he said would “just lead to unseen escalation of the conflict” and could trigger a “large-scale international conflict”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine could offer advice to Poland on how to defend against drones and ensure better security in the Baltic Sea region.
In return, Polish President Karol Nawrocki suggested Poland could swap MIG-29 jets for Ukrainian anti-drone systems.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Warsaw, Zelenskyy also invited Polish businesses to participate in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Addressing this morning’s funding announcement from the EU for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said the loan is a “signal to Russia that there is no point in continuing fighting as Ukraine is supported financially”.
Vladimir Putin has blamed Western leaders who “created the current situation” in Ukraine “with their hands” and are making the conflict worse.
“They are constantly talking about the fact that they are preparing for a war with Russia,” he said, adding it was “nonsense” to suggest Russia would attack Europe.
“This is being done based on their internal political motivation, in order to create an image of enemy,” he added.
“To cover mistakes that were systematically created by leaders in economy, in social policy.”
Putin said Russia would be ready to stop the war in Ukraine immediately if it received guarantees of its security.
Rachel Reeves has given the first UK government response to the EU funding deal for Ukraine.
Posting on X, the chancellor says she’s “pleased to see the agreement made today at the European Council to provide vital financial support for Ukraine”.
“The UK’s support for Ukraine remains iron-clad. We will work with partners to urgently consider options to ensure that Ukraine gets the funding it needs.”
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