Ukraine does not have the means to “turn the tables” in the war and will lose if it carries on like it is now, former Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said. Meanwhile, reports suggest Russia has fired 60 North Korean missiles during the conflict.
Monday 2 December 2024 19:30, UK
That’s the end of our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for this evening.
Today, former Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba warned Ukraine does not have the means to “turn the tables” in the war and will lose if it carries on like it is now.
Speaking to the Financial Times, he said things “look bad” on the battlefield.
It came as reports suggested Russia has fired at least 60 North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles against Ukraine during the war.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Andrii Chernyak said that although such missiles lacked accuracy, they still posed a serious danger to Ukraine.
In the US, two American officials said the country was preparing to send an extra $725m in military assistance to Ukraine.
Counter-drone systems and munitions for its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System are included in the package, which could indicate more of the longer-range missiles are headed to the battlefield.
We’ll be back with all the latest updates tomorrow…
Russian forces have been fighting behind “established Ukrainian defences”, the UK’s defence ministry has said.
According to The Telegraph, it said Russian troops had captured swathes of territory in “less well-defended” sectors of the southern Donbas region.
“Russian forces have made rapid advances towards the eastern flank of Velyka Novosilka… a lynchpin of Ukraine’s defensive line,” the ministry said.
It added that the fall of Vuhledar in October had broken Ukrainian defences in the area.
“This enabled increased Russian advances into less well-defended areas,” the newspaper reported it as saying during a weekend briefing.
Velyka Novosilka is a rural settlement that lies on the border of the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The US-based thinktank the Institute for the Study of War recently said the Russian military was planning to advance west from the settlement and then turn north to take on Ukrainian forces in the town of Pokrovsk.
A Russian agent spoke about sending a “true sexy bitch” to “honeytrap” an award-winning journalist in a spy plot, a court has been told.
“Rupert Ticz”, aka Austrian national Jan Marsalek, exchanged a series of messages with lead spy Orlin Roussev about the operation on Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev in 2021, the Old Bailey heard.
The pair discussed engineering a fake romance between Mr Grozev and London-based beautician Vanya Gaberova in an encrypted chat.
Gaberova, 30, had travelled to Valencia in Spain as part of a team to spy on Mr Grozev at a conference in the Palace Hotel which was also attended by Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, jurors were told.
Roussev had noted that Mr Grozev had “very quickly” accepted a Facebook request from Gaberova.
On 28 September 2021, he told Marsalek that their target “seems hooked and in love with Vanya” and had started “liking” her pictures and posts.
“We can move slowly to romance. We slowly push for a date,” he wrote in a message.
Marsalek queried whether she “would be up for that” and warned: “Let’s wait a little, let’s not under-estimate the guy and his paranoia.”
“I hope she does not fall in love with him. I had that problem before with a honeytrap,” he added.
Roussev went on: “You need strong, assertive and independence-driven girls. Vanya is very, very assertive and strongly independent… [a] true sexy bitch.”
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told jurors that Gaberova had been engaged in capturing surveillance photos of Mr Grozev at the conference.
“Roussev would later seek to use face recognition software to check that the image did show Christo Grozev with Higgins together,” she said.
Jurors have heard that Roussev, 46, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and another defendant, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, of Harrow, north-west London, have pleaded guilty to conspiring to spy for Russia.
Bulgarian national Gabverova, Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, are on trial at the Old Bailey for allegedly being part of the same UK-based spy network.
The trial was adjourned until tomorrow morning.
The US is preparing to send an extra $725m in military assistance to Ukraine, two American officials have said.
Counter-drone systems and munitions for its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System are included in the package, which could indicate more of the longer-range missiles are headed to the battlefield.
Two US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to Reuters to discuss the package before it was announced, did not confirm whether the munitions for the HIMARS are the coveted ATACMS – the Army Tactical Missile System.
The package also includes more of the anti-personnel land mines that Ukraine is counting on to slow Russian and North Korean ground forces in Russia’s Kursk region.
Norway’s defence ministry has said it will deploy F-35 fighter jets and NASAMS air defence systems to a logistics hub in Poland which coordinates military aid for Ukraine.
From early December, Norway will safeguard the airspace above the Rzeszow airport in Poland and will send around 100 soldiers in addition to the air defence systems and fighter jets, the ministry said in a statement.
Defence minister Bjorn Arild Gram said: “Ukraine remains in critical need of military support, with Poland as the most critical logistics hub.
“This way Norway contributes to ensuring that aid to Ukraine reaches its destination.”
Hungary needs to strengthen its “peace mission” now there is a risk of escalation of the war in Ukraine, Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto has said.
Speaking in Moscow before talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Mr Szijjarto said: “The past 1,000 days prove that there is no solution to this conflict on the battlefield.”
The minister has met Mr Lavrov several times since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022.
What do we know about Hungary and Russia’s relationship?
Hungary, which is a NATO member, has opposed many EU initiatives to support Ukraine in resisting Moscow’s forces.
The country also gets most of its crude oil and gas from Russia.
Earlier this year, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, in a visit that was heavily criticised by Ukraine and the West.
After the meeting, the Hungarian leader said Russia and Ukraine were still “far apart” in their views on achieving peace.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said Germany will deliver additional air defence systems to Ukraine next year.
During a press conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the German leader also said his trip to Kyiv was demonstrating his country’s unwavering support.
“I am making this very clear to Putin here in Kyiv today. We have staying power and we will stand by Ukraine’s side for as long as necessary,” he said.
Scholz added he had told Vladimir Putin that he should pull back his troops from Ukraine.
During the same press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed how Ukraine needed more air defence systems to protect its important facilities from Russian missile attacks.
Vladimir Putin has discussed the situation in Syria with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian by phone, the Kremlin reports.
In a statement the Kremlin said: “The focus was on the escalating situation in the Syrian Arab Republic.
“Unconditional support was expressed for the actions of the legitimate authorities of Syria to restore constitutional order and to restore the political, economic and social stability of the Syrian state.”
For context: Iran, alongside Russia, is an ally of Syria.
In 2016, it supported Syrian troops in recapturing Aleppo and helped turn the tide of the Syrian war.
Tehran has since established a major foothold in the country and sees Syria as playing a key role in the region strategically, providing a land corridor to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Russia has fired at least 60 North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles against Ukraine during the war, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Andrii Chernyak told the news outlet that although such missiles lacked accuracy, they still posed a serious danger to Ukraine.
“Their accuracy, in principle, is not very high. We understand that the technologies by which they were manufactured are outdated,” he said.
North Korea has been expanding ties with Russia in all areas since the Russian invasion started.
Kim Jong Un pledged to expand ties with Russia in areas including military affairs under the comprehensive strategic partnership he signed with Vladimir Putin in June.
And in October, reports emerged that North Korean troops had also been deployed to help Russia, a move which was seen as a major escalation in the war.
You can scroll back to read our military analyst Sean Bell’s answers to your questions.
We’ll be returning to providing live news updates now.
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