A senior Russian diplomat has suggested that Moscow is open to conducting nuclear missile tests for the first time since 1990. Elsewhere, Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed a potential ceasefire deal in an exclusive interview with Sky News – watch the full version below.
Saturday 30 November 2024 09:42, UK
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Violence again broke out in Georgia’s capital yesterday after protesters took to the streets near parliament over the suspension of EU membership talks.
Police used water cannon and pepper spray as thousands gathered in Tbilisi to demand the government change its stance.
Some protesters hurled fireworks at police and pushed a burning industrial bin towards officers.
There were also protests on Thursday after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced accession talks were being put off until 2028 due to EU “blackmail”.
It followed the European Parliament adopting a resolution condemning last month’s election as neither free nor fair and criticising the ruling Georgian Dream party.
The party won almost 54% of votes, but opponents claim Russia helped rig the vote to halt the country’s move towards the West.
There were allegations of ballot box stuffing, intimidation and civil servants being forced to vote for the status quo.
The previous Ukrainian position of not conceding an inch of territory to Russia may be proving too costly for Kyiv, says our chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested a ceasefire deal could be struck if Ukrainian territory he controls could be taken “under the NATO umbrella” in an interview with Ramsay yesterday.
The Ukrainian president said NATO membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of Ukraine to end the “hot phase of the war”, as long as the NATO invitation itself recognises Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
“They’re in an awful lot of trouble, to be absolutely frank,” Ramsay says, reflecting on the interview.
“They’re running out of infantry and they don’t have enough arms – that’s not just hearsay – that’s from talking to actual commanders on the ground.”
He notes that the Ukrainian position since the start of the war has been not to give up land at any cost.
“The cost is now getting too high – and if he wants to keep the country that he has left and to protect the people, then giving up land is better than giving up the nationhood, if you like.”
Watch highlights from Ramsay’s interview here…
An airport in southern Russia has temporarily shut due to a drone threat, according to state media.
TASS said the main airport at Makhachkala would shut until 8.30am local time “due to the threat of drone attacks”, citing the airports general director.
It’s not clear who was behind the drone attacks.
Makhachkala is the capital of Russia’s Dagestan region.
By Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent
In the freezing mist, heavily-armed soldiers checked our passports and press accreditation. We’re in an exclusive district of Kyiv, home to the city’s presidential palace.
We waited on a near-deserted street until an adviser to the president arrived and led us to another set of guards, who checked our papers again.
Eventually, we were taken to the rear of the palace where our paperwork was scrutinised for the third time.
We had been told to come early so that our equipment and bags could be scanned and checked by sniffer dogs.
We had come to meet and interview Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hence the security.
Read more from Ramsay here.
The resumption of Russia’s nuclear tests remains an open question amid hostile American policies, a senior Moscow diplomat has suggested.
Russian has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“This is a question at hand,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency when asked whether Moscow was considering a resumption of tests.
“And without anticipating anything, let me simply say that the situation is quite difficult. It is constantly being considered in all its components and in all its aspects.”
The minister had previously indicated that Putin would not carry out nuclear tests unless the US did.
Putin last year withdrew Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, saying the move brought him in line with the US – who signed but never ratified it.
This month, the Russian leader lowered the threshold governing the country’s nuclear doctrine, meaning now Moscow could consider a nuclear strike in response to a conventional attack on Russia or Belarus that “created a critical threat to their sovereignty and [or] their territorial integrity”.
Vladimir Putin has promised Syria’s Bashar al Assad more military aid to help thwart a rebel takeover.
Russia is one of Syria’s closest allies, and Damascus expects military hardware from Moscow in the next 72 hours, according to sources cited by Reuters.
Aleppo airport and a number of major roads have been closed by Syrian authorities – after anti-regime rebels claimed to have reached the heart of the city.
It comes after opposition fighters, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, carried out a surprise sweep through government-held towns earlier in the week.
Ukrainian figure doubts Putin can spare arms
Former Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has cast doubt over whether Putin has the military hardware to spare in Syria, given the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“With Putin’s army being decimated in Ukraine, he likely can’t spare sufficient forces to save Assad,” he said.
There’s been no suggestion that Russian troops could be sent to the Middle East, but it remains unclear what hardware Moscow will supply Syria.
Russia has been forced to use Soviet-era tanks and and other older hardware as Putin’s “special military operation” has dragged on.
However, Russia’s arsenal is undoubtedly vast, so supplying its ally may not prove too costly.
Welcome back to our coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Before we bring you the latest, here is an overview of what has happened over the past day:
The map below shows the latest territorial picture in Ukraine…
Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested a ceasefire deal could be struck if Ukrainian territory he controls could be taken “under the NATO umbrella” in an interview with Sky News’s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay.
The Ukrainian president said NATO membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of Ukraine to end the “hot phase of the war”, as long as the NATO invitation itself recognises Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
You can watch the full interview here…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russia’s defence minister today that Moscow is entitled to defend itself in the face of Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons, according to state media.
Mr Kim met Andrei Belousov in Pyongyang today and said the US and the West “made Kyiv authorities attack Russia’s territory with their own long-range strike weapons” and Moscow should take action to make “hostile forces pay the price,” the KCNA news agency said.
The North Korean leader pledged to expand ties with Russia in all areas including military affairs under the strategic partnership he signed with Vladimir Putin in June, which includes a mutual defence agreement, KCNA said.
KCNA made no mention of whether Mr Kim and Mr Belousov discussed North Korea’s current deployment of troops in Russia to help it fight Ukraine.
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
An invitation to join the NATO alliance requires all 32 member states to agree and cannot be extended to a country – like Ukraine – that is at war.
Should the fighting in Ukraine cease, though, there would still be huge resistance from some countries – Germany, Italy and Hungary just to name a few – about offering Kyiv membership to the club given the risk of the conflict with Russia reigniting – a move that would then draw the entire alliance into direct war with Moscow.
This anxiety is why it already took a lot of diplomatic pressure by some of Ukraine’s strongest backers, including the UK, France, the Baltic states and Poland, to persuade all allies merely to sign up to a form of words stating that Ukraine is on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO.
However, experts have mused about a possible peace deal option that would see NATO offer membership to the government and control part of Ukraine, while Russia holds onto the land it’s already seized but without any international legitimacy or recognition.
Such a move would involve concessions by both sides – with Kyiv forced to accept temporarily the loss of territory and Moscow failing to achieve a core war aim of preventing the majority of Ukraine joining the Western alliance.
Even if Volodymyr Zelenskyy might be willing to countenance such an option, Vladimir Putin would have to be forced to feel as though he has no greater chance of success through military force to do the same.
Just as important is what NATO allies think – and given the risk of war with Moscow it is highly unlikely that all member states would sign up to such a plan without significant pressure by whichever nations might be in favour.
If those nations do not include the US then it is hard to imagine such a push having any chance of success.
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