{"id":119857,"date":"2024-12-23T04:25:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T04:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-hosts-slovakian-pm-in-surprise-moscow-visit-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2024-12-23T04:25:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T04:25:47","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-hosts-slovakian-pm-in-surprise-moscow-visit-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-hosts-slovakian-pm-in-surprise-moscow-visit-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin hosts Slovakian PM in surprise Moscow visit – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the Kazan attack
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Russian president Vladimir Putin<\/a> yesterday hosted Slovakia\u2019s prime minister, Robert Fico<\/a>, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow<\/a>\u2019s all-out invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in February 2022.
The visit comes as Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine under a five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of this year.
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> told EU leaders that Kyiv<\/a> has no intention of renewing the deal, something Mr Fico insisted will harm his country\u2019s interests.
Meanwhile, Mr Putin threatened Ukraine with \u201cmore destruction\u201d a day after drones struck several building in Kazan<\/a>.
Residential buildings were damaged and the airport was temporarily shut down, after the drone smashed into a high-rise building and damaged a skyscraper.
Videos posted on Russian social media networks showed the damage and a fireball emerging from the building, while local authorities said there were no casualties.
Robert Fico\u2019s visit to Moscow was reaction to Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s opposition to gas transit to Slovakia through Ukraine.
Sharing details about his visit, Mr Fico said on Facebook that Ukrainian president supported sanctions against Russia\u2019s nuclear program, which was against Slovakia\u2019s interest as it relied on nuclear energy.
Mr Fico said Mr Putin confirmed to him that Russia is still ready to deliver gas to the West. He said the two also discussed the military situation in Ukraine, chances for a peaceful solution to the war and the bilateral relations between their two countries which Fico said they will seek to \u201cstandardise.\u201d
His trip, however, was condemned by the major Slovak opposition parties.
Slovakia last month signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies through Ukraine.
Earlier this year, it struck a deal to import US liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland.
The country can also receive gas through Austrian, Hungarian and Czech networks, enabling imports from Germany among other potential suppliers.
Russian forces executed five Ukrainian prisoners of war, Ukraine\u2019s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said on Sunday.
Lubinets said on the Telegram messenger app that Russian troops shot the five unarmed soldiers after capturing them. He gave no details, but will report this fact to the UN.
\u201cRussian war criminals who shoot Ukrainian prisoners of war should be brought before an international tribunal and punished with the most severe punishment provided for by law,\u201d Lubinets said.
Russia did not immediately comment on the incident, but has previous denied committing war crimes.
Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday hosted Slovakia\u2019s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow\u2019s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr Fico arrived in Russia on a \u201cworking visit\u201d and met with Mr Putin one-on-one on yesterday evening, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia\u2019s RIA news agency.
According to Mr Peskov, the talks were expected to focus on \u201cthe international situation\u201d and Russian natural gas deliveries.
Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine under a five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of this year.
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told EU leaders that Kyiv has no intention of renewing the deal, something Mr Fico insisted will harm his country\u2019s interests.
A fire burned at a Russian oil refinery in the Rostov region, video posted on Thursday, 19 December shows. Local governor Yuri Slyusar said Russian air defence systems repelled a Ukrainian attack in which 10 missiles were fired at the Rostov region. Footage posted on social media showed the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery engulfed in flames. It was the second time in six months that the facility had been hit. Slyusar said emergency crews were dispatched to the fire and details on casualties were being clarified.
Ukraine<\/a> lacks the military capability to retake all the territories occupied by Russia<\/a> since 2014, president Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> has acknowledged, as he urged the West to take stronger action to confront Moscow.
In an interview with the French newspaper Le Parisien<\/em>, Mr Zelensky made it clear that Kyiv<\/a> would not formally recognise Russian control over any Ukrainian territory<\/a>.
\u201cLegally, we cannot give up our territories. This is prohibited by the constitution,\u201d the Ukrainian president said. \u201cBut let\u2019s not use such big words. Russia actually controls part of our territory today.\u201d
Read the full article here: <\/em>
Ukrainian president rules out conceding land to Russia but calls for stronger Western intervention
John Healey has said Britain needs to \u2018make the training a better fit for what the Ukrainians need\u2019 and left the door open to it taking place in the war-torn country
Not so very long ago, Vladimir Putin, the would-be reincarnation of Joseph Stalin, had some cause for satisfaction. True, his ill-fated \u201cspecial military operation\u201d in Ukraine<\/a> had spectacularly failed in its initial stated aim of subsuming the country into a Greater Russia, resistance supposedly crumbling in days, with Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> skulking off into exile.
However, the Kremlin\u2019s \u201cmeat-grinder\u201d strategy has succeeded in occupying roughly a third of what was left of Ukrainian territory<\/a> after the 2014 invasion. Russian troops were advancing, albeit at a glacial pace and an obscene cost in human lives<\/a>.
The attacks on civilians, homes and energy infrastructure were helping to demoralise and exhaust the Ukrainians, brave as they were. Some 40,000 fresh troops were promised by North Korea<\/a> \u2013 Kim Jong Un\u2019s elite squads, according to reports. Mr Kim and Russia\u2019s other allies in the Middle East were assisting with the sanctions-busting; and the Iranians and Syrians (and, to a lesser degree, the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas) shared Russia\u2019s agenda.
Read the full article here: <\/em>
For all of Russia\u2019s recent setbacks, it is increasingly unlikely Ukraine will be able to push back invading forces to the border positions when hostilities first broke out \u2013 but it may yet force Vladimir Putin into a negotiated peace that would ensure greater security for Europe
Ukraine brought the war into the heart of Russia on Saturday morning with drone attacks that local authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan region, over 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the front line.
The press service of Tatarstan\u2019s governor, Rustam Minnikhanov, said that eight drones attacked the city. Six hit residential buildings, one hit an industrial facility and one was shot down over a river, the statement said.
It comes as Moscow\u2019s troops continue to slowly advance in eastern Ukraine, with their defence ministry stating they had taken control of the village of Kostiantynopolske in the Donetsk province.
Read the full article here: <\/em>
Russian authorities said the attacks damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan
Unsettled by Russia<\/a>\u2019s expansionism and emboldened by its accession to NATO, Finland<\/a> is rallying to strengthen its national self-defense.
The popularity of weapons training in the Nordic country has soared in recent months. Few places tell the story of the rise in Finnish affinity for self-defense more than shooting ranges that are riding a boom of interest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u2019s order for a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine<\/a> \u2014 another big Russian neighbor \u2014 in February 2022 continues to resonate in many Finnish minds, and partially explains the ballistics binge.
Read the full article here: <\/em>
The training doesn\u2019t stop at the gun range
Vladimir Putin praised Boris Johnson\u2019s hair as he referred to a quote there is no online record of the former prime minister ever having said. During a four-hour phone-in on Thursday (19 December), the Russian president said: \u201cPrime minister Johnson with the great hair… He said they need to fight until the last Ukrainian, that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing now. They\u2019re running out of Ukrainians who would like to fight, I don\u2019t think there are any left.\u201d Mr Putin appeared to reference a Kremlin-peddled theory that Mr Johnson hindered peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, something the former PM denied, telling The Times it was \u201ctotal nonsense and Russian propaganda.\u201d
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inKyiv has not claimed responsibility for the Kazan attackIndependent PremiumWant to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}