{"id":119490,"date":"2024-12-20T05:48:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T05:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-says-he-should-have-invaded-kyiv-earlier-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T05:48:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T05:48:42","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-says-he-should-have-invaded-kyiv-earlier-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-says-he-should-have-invaded-kyiv-earlier-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin says he should have invaded Kyiv earlier – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Putin says he is open to talks with Donald Trump, saying \u2018we will have things to discuss\u2019
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Russia<\/a> should have invaded Ukraine<\/a> earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin<\/a> has said, as he used an end-of-year press conference to double down on his decision to start the war.
Despite the toll his war has taken on Russia\u2019s finances and the lives of its young men, Putin claimed that sending troops into Ukraine in 2022 has boosted his country\u2019s military and economic power.
If he could do it all again, he said, \u201csuch a decision should have been made earlier\u201d and Russia could have \u201cprepared for it in advance and more thoroughly\u201d.
Putin also said he was open to talks with Donald Trump,<\/a> saying \u201cwe will have things to discuss\u201d. The US president-elect has pledged to negotiate a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine.
On the battlefield on Friday morning, five people have been injured after a Russian missile strike damaged a two-storey residence in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>\u2019s hometown, Kryvyi Rih.
Russia has also carried out a cyberattack on Ukraine\u2019s state registries containing citizen information on births, deaths, marriages and property ownership. It has resulted in a temporary suspension of services, said Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna.
European Union leaders insisted yesterday that no decisions can be taken about the future of war-ravaged Ukraine without its consent \u2014 or behind the backs of its partners in Europe, barely a month before president-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Ukraine\u2019s position is precarious, more than 1,000 days into the war. Russia continues to make gains on the battlefield, pushing the front line gradually westward despite suffering heavy casualties. Ukraine\u2019s energy network is in tatters and military recruits are hard to find.
In a show of solidarity at a summit in Brussels with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, many EU leaders repeated a variation of what has become a common mantra \u2014 nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, nothing about security in Europe without Europeans.
\u201cOnly Ukraine as the aggressed country can legitimately define what peace means \u2014and if and when the conditions are met for credible negotiations,\u201d summit host Ant\u00f3nio Costa said at the end of the daylong meeting of the 27-nation bloc.
\u201cSo now is not the time to speculate about different scenarios. Now is the time to strengthen Ukraine for all scenarios,\u201d said Mr Costa, the president of the European Council.
President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal to European allies to coordinate work to reach lasting peace in Ukraine which is battling Russia\u2019s almost three-year full-scale invasion.
\u201cWe need coordinated work for lasting peace, not just the suspension of hostilities that Putin seeks to buy time. We must push Moscow towards genuine, sustainable and guaranteed peace,\u201d Mr Zelensky said in his address to the European Council.
Russia should have invaded Ukraine earlier, said Russian president Vladimir Putin as he claimed the war had strengthened Russia\u2019s military and economic power.
Mr Putin made the comments during his annual press conference, a tightly choreographed event which lasted about four and half hours and spanned everything from consumer prices to military hardware.
A number of questioned covered the invasion of Ukraine, and Mr Putin said that if he could do it over, \u201csuch a decision should have been made earlier\u201d and Russia could have \u201cprepared for it in advance and more thoroughly\u201d.
\u201cRussia has become much stronger over the past two or three years because it has become a truly sovereign country,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are standing firm in terms of economy, we are strengthening our defence potential and our military capability now is the strongest in the world.\u201d
Russia and countries that support it will remain a danger to Europe even after the war in Ukraine has ended, Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said on Thursday.
\u201cRussia, together with its allies, will remain a dangerous actor in Europe even after the war in Ukraine and we cannot exclude the possibility of threatening European countries with the use of military force,\u201d Hakkanen told a press conference.
Finland on Thursday published its first defence policy review since it last year joined the NATO military alliance in a historic policy shift brought on by neighbouring Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
An Uzbek citizen accused of acting on behalf of Ukraine has been charged by Russian authorities with this week\u2019s assassination of a senior Russian general and his assistant in a bombing claimed by Ukraine\u2019s security services, state media reported yesterday.
Akhmadzhon Kurbonov was ordered detained by a Moscow court until at least 17 February in Tuesday\u2019s bombing that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia\u2019s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the Tass state news agency reported.
Mr Kurbonov was charged with the killings, carrying out a terrorist act and illegally manufacturing explosives, the Russian news agency said.
Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine\u2019s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, also was killed.
A Russian missile struck and badly damaged a two-storey residence in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, injuring five people, including two pulled alive from under the rubble, officials said.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on Telegram that a man and a teenage girl had been rescued in Kryvyi Rih, president Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s hometown. Windows were shattered in a nearby 10-storey apartment building.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city\u2019s military administration, said three other people were injured. He said rescue operations had been completed.
Russia has carried out a mass cyberattack on Ukraine\u2019s state registries leading to a temporary suspension of services, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna said late yesterday.
The registries contain vital information about Ukrainian citizens such as births, deaths, marriages and property ownership.
\u201cToday the largest external cyberattack in recent times occurred with Ukraine\u2019s state registries,\u201d Ms Stefanishyna wrote on Facebook.
\u201cAs a result of this targeted attack, the work of the unified and state registries, which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, was temporarily suspended.\u201d
Ms Stefanishyna said it was clear the attack was \u201ccarried out by the Russians to disrupt the work of the country\u2019s critically important infrastructure\u201d.
She said work to restore operations would require about two weeks, but offices would be providing some services already on Friday. An initial assessment, she said, showed other state services were unaffected.
\u201cAfter restoration is completed, a thorough analysis of the attack will be conducted to increase protection against similar attacks in the future,\u201d she wrote.
Amid reports Britain is considering sending more UK troops to Ukraine to train soldiers in the fight against Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion, Downing Street confirmed those already stationed in the country are protecting British diplomats and assisting Ukrainian counterparts.
The prime minister\u2019s official spokesman said: \u201cWe have a small number of trainers and British troops in Ukraine that support the armed forces of Ukraine and our diplomatic presence.
\u201cWe are clear we stand ready and continue to support Ukrainians with training… but we are very clear we are not sending any British troops to fight alongside Ukrainians.
\u201cOur focus remains putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position going into the winter.\u201d
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that relations between Russia and China had reached a level never seen before, lauding their positive nature.
Russia and China were coordinating their actions on the international stage and would continue to do so, he added.
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