Ukraine’s military said it shot down dozens of drones launched by Russian forces overnight. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have spoken directly for the first time since 2022 – a move that has prompted anger from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Saturday 16 November 2024 08:53, UK
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Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson says yesterday’s phone call between the German and Russian leaders means “we risk drifting back” to a diplomatic set up which saw Ukraine and Russia given equal weight in war resolution talks.
As we’ve been reporting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the call between Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin opened “Pandora’s box” and gave Putin what he has “long sought”.
In a post to X, Johnson, who previously boasted a good relationship with Zelenskyy, said the Ukrainian leader was “completely right”.
“We risk drifting back to the ghastly Franco German Normandy format which treated Russia and Ukraine as equally valid interlocutors in a domestic squabble,” he said in a post to X.
“That is a shameful betrayal of the reality – that Putin has launched a criminal and unjustifiable invasion while Ukraine is an entirely innocent party.”
For context: The Normandy Format is an informal set up involving France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.
It was created in June 2014 with the aim of finding a peaceful resolution to the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, started by Russia.
The group achieved early success with the Minsk agreement which paved the way for an end to the conflict. However, it ultimately failed to stop the fighting, with both Ukraine and Russia repeatedly accusing each other of violating the agreement. Despite further meetings, there has been no breakthrough as a result of the Normandy Format.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine must do what it can to ensure the conflict ends next year through diplomacy.
In a radio interview aired today, the Ukrainian president acknowledged a “difficult” battlefield situation in the east, where Russia is making advances and has claimed the capture of several towns and villages.
However, he said Vladimir Putin was not interested in agreeing a peace deal.
According to a report by news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, Zelenskyy said a “strong Ukraine” was his main condition – either in diplomacy or on the battlefield.
“If we are talking with Putin, and we are not strengthened in the conditions we are in now, this is a losing status for Ukraine at the entrance,” he was reported as saying.
Zelenskyy to meet Trump next year
During the interview, Zelenskyy also said US legislation prevented him from meeting Donald Trump until after his inauguration in January.
He insisted he would only talk with the president-elect himself, and not any adviser.
“I, as the president of Ukraine, will only take seriously a conversation with the president of the United States of America, with all due respect to any entourage, to any people,” he said.
Russia is “intensifying” a campaign aimed at “influencing Western decision-making in Russia’s favour”, military analysts have said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin spoke via phone call yesterday – the first between the pair since December 2022.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised the call, saying it opened “Pandora’s box” and undermined efforts to isolate the Russian leader.
During the call, Putin “reiterated several Kremlin information operations aimed at influencing the German government and other Western states to pressure Ukraine into premature peace negotiations instead of providing Ukraine with further military support”, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest briefing.
According to the Washington-based think tank, Putin and other senior officials in Moscow have “intensified rhetoric aimed at influencing the foreign policy of the incoming US government under president-elect Donald Trump”.
The Kremlin has also underlined its demand that any peace deal should acknowledge Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine.
“The Kremlin likely aims to take advantage of uncertainty about the future US policy regarding Ukraine by intensifying its reflexive control campaign against Ukraine’s European allies,” the ISW said.
Japan’s foreign minister has arrived in Ukraine on an unannounced visit, the Kyodo news agency is reporting.
Takeshi Iwaya has stopped in Kyiv for talks with officials and to underscore Japan’s support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the agency said.
Iwaya is reportedly set to meet Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, with talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy “possible” later in the day.
A Japanese foreign minister has not visited Ukraine since Yoko Kamikawa in January.
Russia attacked Ukraine with a barrage of drones last night, the Ukrainian military has said.
Ukraine’s air force said Moscow’s forces launched 83 “Shahed” drones and drones “of an unknown type” at the country overnight, as well as attacking the northeastern Kharkiv region with an anti-aircraft guided missile.
Some 53 drones were intercepted, it said – but it added 30 were “lost in various regions of Ukraine” after “active countermeasures” by Kyiv’s defence forces.
It did not say what happened to the missile.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
This morning, Russia’s gas producer is expected to cut off its natural gas supply to Austria – one of only three European countries that still relies on Russian gas.
The cut-off follows OMV’s announcement that it would stop paying for Gazprom gas to its Austrian arm to offset a €230m (£192m) arbitration award it won over an earlier cut-off of gas to its German subsidiary.
Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer said that the decision by Gazprom had been long expected since the start of the war and the country had been “preparing for this situation”.
He said the country’s underground gas storage is full and that it has alternative, non-Russia supplies.
Yesterday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for an hour, the first time they have had direct contact since December 2022.
The conversation was criticised by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said that it only emboldened the Russian leader, as he was able to “weaken his isolation”.
We’ll bring you all the latest updates throughout the day…
That’s all our coverage on the war in Ukraine for now.
Here’s a round-up of today’s headlines before we go:
German chancellor calls Russian president
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for an hour, the first time they have had direct contact since December 2022.
The German government said Olaf Scholz condemned “Russia’s war of aggression” during the call, calling on Putin to end it by withdrawing troops.
While the Kremlin said despite differences of the two leaders, the dialogue was “extremely positive”.
Putin phone call has opened ‘Pandora’s box’
Reacting to the phone call between Russia and Germany, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Putin has got exactly what he wanted.
He said the conversation between the two leaders undermined efforts to isolate the Russian leader.
“Now there may be other conversations, other calls. Just a lot of words,” Zelenskyy said.
“And this is exactly what Putin has long wanted: It is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said “strong actions, not phone calls” are needed to push the Russian president “towards peace”.
One dead and 10 injured in Ukrainian port city
One person has died and at least 10 others have been injured in an overnight Russian airstrike in Odesa, officials said.
Oleh Kiper, the regional governor of the southern port city, said a multistorey residential building was destroyed in the centre of the city and that high-rise flats and cars were damaged.
While the region’s mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov said the attack temporarily left more than 40,000 people without heating.
Also tonight, the Russian defence ministry said it intercepted a series of Ukrainian drones – 15 of which were in the Kursk region where Ukrainian troops launched a surprise incursion back in August.
Russia to cut off natural gas to Austria
The chancellor of Austria has said “no home will go cold” as Russia’s Gazprom is expected to cut off its natural gas supply to the country from tomorrow.
In a notice published on the central European gas hub platform, Austrian oil and gas company OMV said it had been informed by Gazprom that the Russian gas producer would reduce its deliveries of natural gas to zero from 5am tomorrow morning.
The country is one of the few European states still dependent on Russian gas, as others reduced imports following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The US, Japan and South Korea have said they “strongly condemn” the decisions by leaders in Russia and North Korea to “dangerously expand” the war in Ukraine.
In a joint statement, the three nations said the deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including the transfer of munitions and ballistic missiles, is “particularly egregious” given Russia’s status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
The US first said it had evidence that North Korea had sent at least 3,000 troops to Russia last month, which it marked as a “significant escalation”.
Last week Kyiv announced that it had struck units from Pyongyang in the Kursk region of Russia following a subsequent deployment.
In the joint statement earlier today, the US, Japan and South Korea said: “We remain resolute as ever in supporting Ukraine as it exercises its inherent right to self defence as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter.”
Russian air defence units have claimed to have intercepted a series of Ukrainian drones.
The Russian defence ministry said 15 of the drones were stopped in the Kursk region, with one in the border region of Bryansk, another in the Lipetsk region further north, and one in the central Oryol region.
The governor of the Belgorod region, a frequent target on the Ukrainian border, said a series of attacks had smashed windows in an apartment building and caused other damage, but no casualties were reported.
Ukrainian soldiers will receive financial bonuses for completing combat missions in Russia, according to the Ukrainian government’s representative in parliament.
Taras Melnychuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian military personnel operating in the Kursk region will receive an additional monthly payment of 100,000 hryvnias (approximately £1,900), proportional to the amount of time they have spent on combat missions there.
They will also receive a lump sum payment of 70,000 hryvnias (approx £1,300) for every 30 days of combat.
He said the bonuses are only being offered to those currently involved in combat in the Kursk region.
Kyiv launched the surprise offensive into Kursk in August, and while Russian forces have recaptured about half of the territory initially lost, fighting continues.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Ukraine was holding off around 50,000 troops in the region.
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