{"id":121260,"date":"2025-01-03T13:33:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-russia-drafts-180000-convicts-as-zelensky-says-decisive-trump-can-stop-putin-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-01-03T13:33:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:33:38","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-russia-drafts-180000-convicts-as-zelensky-says-decisive-trump-can-stop-putin-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-russia-drafts-180000-convicts-as-zelensky-says-decisive-trump-can-stop-putin-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russia \u2018drafts 180,000 convicts\u2019 as Zelensky says decisive Trump can stop Putin – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Trump \u2018capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin\u2019, says Zelensky
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Russia<\/a> has enlisted between 140,000 and 180,000 prison inmates to fight in the war<\/a> against Ukraine<\/a>, Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) said, according to the Kyiv<\/em><\/a> Independent<\/em>.
A Russian government decree abolishing the one-time payment of \u00a32,842 to prisoners for signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry to participate in the war against Ukraine came into effect on 1 January.
\u201cThe legislative abolition of the one-time payment is evidence of the deepening crisis in the Russian economy and the shortage of financial resources,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service claimed.
The Independent<\/em> could not verify these claims.
It comes as\u00a0 Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> auded incoming US president Donald Trump saying he could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Vladimir Putin<\/a>.
\u201cHe can be decisive in this war,\u201d the Ukrainian president said. \u201cHe is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.\u201d
Ukraine\u2019s navy has destroyed more than 37,000 Russian drones in the year 2024, it said.
The downed platforms include Russian strike drones, operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, first-person-view drones, and Shahed-type attack drones, the navy said in a Facebook post. Ukrainian naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft, it added.
Russia\u2019s drone losses included 35,670 destroyed FPV drones and 1,140 strike drones, the navy said. Ukraine\u2019s naval units also eliminated 192 operational and tactical drones and another 164 Shahed-136\/131 drones.
Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine\u2019s partial hold of the border region of Kursk
President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Mr Zelensky, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Mr Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.
The Ukrainian president also said a priority was to stabilise the frontline early in the new year. Mr Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.
\u201cHe\u2019s very strong and unpredictable, and I would really like to see President Trump\u2019s unpredictability apply to Russia. I believe he really wants to end the war,\u201d he said. \u201cTrump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,\u201d he said in a televised interview.
\u201cHis qualities are indeed there,\u201d Mr Zelensky said of Mr Trump. \u201cHe can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.\u201d
Russia has enlisted between 140,000 and 180,000 prison\u00a0inmates to fight in the war\u00a0against Ukraine, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) said, according to the Kyiv Independent<\/em>.\u00a0
There were about 300,000-350,000 prisoners in Russian prisons in 2024, which is half as many as in 2014, according to the Ukrainian intelligence agency.
Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0on Friday, killing one civilian and injuring four others in the Kyiv region, the military and regional officials said.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 60 out of 93 Russian drones, the air force said. It also said that 26 drones were \u201clost\u201d, in reference to\u00a0Ukraine\u2018s use of electronic warfare to redirect Russian drones.
One Russian drone was still in the air, the air force added.
Mykola Kalashnyk, acting governor for the Kyiv region, said that a truck driver was killed by drone debris. The debris also damaged several private houses, injuring four people, including a 16-year-old boy, he said.
Russian gas is no longer flowing to EU states through Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an energy route that has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the move means Russia<\/a> can no longer \u201cearn billions on our blood\u201d.
His energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows \u201cin the interest of national security\u201d.
\u201cThis is a historic event,\u201d he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. \u201cRussia is losing markets and will incur financial losses.\u201d
Alicja Hagopian<\/a>, our Data correspondent explains:
Russia will no longer transport gas to Europe via Ukraine\u2019s pipelines, further limiting its ability to raise capital
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus.
Zelensky spoke after a visit to Syria by his Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and by Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval who said earlier Ukraine had already sent a shipment of food aid.
\u201cWe are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,\u201d Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Syria in June 2022 after the then government in Damascus said it recognised the \u201cindependence\u201d of the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Since rebels overthrew Syria\u2019s President Bashar al-Assad last month, Ukraine has been moving to build ties with the new Islamist rulers there. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, was a staunch ally of Assad and has given him political asylum.
Moscow has also said it is in contact with the new administration in Damascus, including over the fate of Russian military facilities in Syria.
President-elect Donald Trump<\/a> has boasted on social media about taking over Greenland<\/a>, making Canada<\/a> the 51st state, and wresting control of the Panama Canal<\/a>.<\/a>
His expansionist rhetoric has worried allies but elated enemies, <\/a>with Russians viewing the statements as evidence that Trump isn\u2019t opposed to foreign wars of conquest, as is the Kremlin, despite what he has otherwise stated.
To Russian president Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u2019s top propagandists, Trump\u2019s statements have revealed that he would blithely invade <\/a>a country unable to fight back, according to Julia Davis, an observer of Russian media and columnist at The Daily Beast.<\/em><\/a>
By talking of making Canada the 51st state, \u201cTrump is basically saying, \u2018Russians, you can take the Baltics,\u2019\u201d said TV host
Russian forces gained 4,168sq km of land, largely fields and small settlements in Ukraine and the Kursk region, in 2024 but suffered over 420,000 casualties in the process, an American think tank monitoring the war has claimed.
The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi\u2019s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.
\u201cISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that the Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized,\u201d it said in an assessment released on Wednesday.
Russian forces made 56.5 per cent of their 2024 territorial gains between September and November period, it added.
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