{"id":193364,"date":"2025-12-12T16:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-belgium-wont-rule-out-legal-action-against-eu-over-funding-plan-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T16:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:01:12","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-belgium-wont-rule-out-legal-action-against-eu-over-funding-plan-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-belgium-wont-rule-out-legal-action-against-eu-over-funding-plan-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Belgium won't rule out legal action against EU over funding plan – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia has claimed several gains over recent weeks, including the town of Kupiansk. But Ukraine now says it has retaken parts of the north there and left Russian troops “completely cut off”. Follow the latest – and catch up on our live Q&A with Michael Clarke – below.
Friday 12 December 2025 15:54, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sir Keir Starmer will discuss using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine as he holds a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever at Downing Street.
The UK has backed calls within the EU to unlock immobilised Russian sovereign assets, the majority of which are held in Belgium, to help Kyiv financially.
We reported at 8.51 that there had been hesitation in the bloc, with Belgium particularly concerned it could face legal retaliation.
Russia has signalled it would sue a Belgian financial firm, with the country’s central bank saying it was “illegal” and it reserved the right to take any means necessary to protect its interests.
Starmer’s official spokesman said on Friday: “We’re continuing work with our European partners to make use of the value of Russian sovereign assets immobilised in our jurisdictions.”
De Wever arrived at Number10 earlier this afternoon.
We’ve heard from a former special adviser to NATO secretary general who said “any future war” won’t be on the scale of World War II.
Mark Laity was speaking to Sky News presenter Samantha Washington<\/b><\/a>, who questioned him about Mark Rutte’s comments yesterday, urging allies to prepare for a scale of war equal to our grandparents or great-grandparents.
“I think it will be beyond things that we have been thinking about for decades,” he said.
“When he said we need to get prepared for war, he means serious war, and it’s not the first time he said it. He said it earlier this year. And the key point he was talking about [is] we need the mindset to go with it.”
Laity said the UK needs to adopt a similar “wartime mindset” to countries like Sweden, which are telling their citizens “to think about the possibilities”.
Watch his full remarks here…<\/b>
Ukraine says it carried out a joint operation with a local resistance movement to strike two Russian ships, which Kyiv claims were transporting weapons and military equipment in the Caspian Sea.
The Special Operations Forces said in a statement on Telegram that the Chernaya Iskra insurgent movement “provided detailed information on the route and cargo of the hit vessels”.
“Among the hit vessels are the ‘Composer Rachmaninov’ and ‘Askar-Sarydzha’,” the forces say.
It adds that the vessels are under US sanctions “due to their participation in the supply of military cargo between Iran and the Russian Federation”.
We reported yesterday morning that a source within Ukraine’s Security Service had told Reuters that at least four drones struck Russia’s Filanovsky oil rig in the Caspian Sea for the first time 
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posted a video he says is recorded from the frontline town of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine.
We reported a short while ago that Ukraine’s military said it had retaken northern parts of the frontline town in the Kharkiv region (see 13:00).
While it is unclear when the video was exactly taken, Zelenskyy said:
“Today, it is extremely important to achieve results on the front lines so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy.”
Moscow claimed last month that its forces had taken full control of Kupiansk.
“Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off,” Military commander Ihor Obolienskyi told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet.
Sky News has not been able to independently verify either of the battlefield claims. 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is planning to visit Berlin on Monday, a Sky News source in the Ukrainian government confirms.
It is understood he is set to meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and also speak with representatives of Britain and France.
Ukrainian forces have retaken northern parts of Kupiansk in the eastern Kharkiv region, according to its military.
Military commander Ihor Obolienskyi said several villages were also retaken around the key frontline town in an operation that encircled several hundred Russian troops.
Moscow claimed its forces had taken full control of Kupiansk last month.
“Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off,” Obolienskyi told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet.
“For a long time, they couldn’t understand what was happening. But now they know they are surrounded.”
Kyiv’s own battlefield maps online now show at least three villages to the north and west of Kupiansk under their control. 
It comes after Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had captured the town of Siversk in the Donetsk region yesterday.
Sky News has not been able to independently verify either of the battlefield claims. 
Our military analyst Sean Bell<\/b><\/a> has given some insight around comments made by armed forces minister Al Carns, who said the UK is preparing for war.
Carns believes the “shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door once more”, and Bell says: “Although the number one priority for any government is defence of its nation, largely that’s been kept on the back burner all of a sudden.”
He adds:
“If you look at what’s happened to Ukraine [it] isn’t part of NATO, America seems to be less committed… than it once was, and Europe is feeling a little bit more fractured… it’s a bunch of individual countries.”
“If I [were] Putin, I would feel emboldened… he’s now only got his country on a war footing, he’s spending a lot of money,” Bell said.
“That is something that should worry us.”
Watch his remarks in full here…<\/b>
Since the start of 2025, Russia has launched 1,800 missiles, 50,000 drones and attacked energy facilities 4,500 times, a Ukrainian minister said, according to Interfax news agency.
Ukraine’s deputy energy minister Roman Andarak spoke during a briefing today, where he added:
“There are no examples in recent history of an energy system existing under such conditions – such large-scale, targeted terror. Unfortunately, this terror is intensifying every day.”
Andarak said that “restoration and protection work is ongoing, including the implementation of engineering solutions” and funds were being found to proceed into the future.
“We have already finished our repair campaign and gas import plans for the end of this year. We have also contracted for about 50% of next year’s gas needs,” he added.
We’ve got more to bring you from Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov now.
In comments to Russian journalist Alexander Yunashev, he declared “all of the Donbas is Russian”, referring to a region in eastern Ukraine its troops currently occupy.
We reported yesterday that Volodymyr Zelenskyy had suggested any deal must see Ukrainians have a say on any land concessions in a referendum.
He also said the US had proposed the creation of a “free economic zone” in the area of the Donbas it wants Ukraine to withdraw from.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine did not believe the plan was fair without guarantees that Russian troops would not simply take over the zone after a Ukrainian withdrawal.
Ushakov also told the Russian newspaper Kommersant:
“It is quite possible there will be no forces stationed there [Donbas], neither Russian nor Ukrainian. Yes, but there will still be the Russian National Guard, our police, and everything it takes to provide law and order and to organize daily life.”
He doubled down on Moscow’s view that “this area is a territory of the Russian Federation and it will be governed by [us]”.
To be clear – the Donbas, which is made up of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory.
Turning to situation on the ground in Ukraine, the National Police have released pictures showing the destruction of the city of Kostyantynivka, where tens of thousands of residents once lived.
Sitting only 20km away from Kramatorsk – where Russian forces are trying to make gains – the police described the ruins with “burnt-out high-rise buildings, a destroyed kindergarten [and] a broken church”.
“This is Kostyantynivka, a city where 78,179 people lived until 2022, and today the Russians are literally erasing every block, every street,” the police added.
“And the pace of this destruction is a record even for this war.”
Separately, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Moscow’s forces are “literally wiping out block after block every day”.
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia has claimed several gains over recent weeks, including the town of Kupiansk. But Ukraine now says it has retaken parts of the north there and left Russian troops “completely cut off”. Follow the latest – and catch up on our live Q&A with Michael Clarke – below.Friday 12 December 2025 15:54, UKPlease use Chrome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193365,"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":{"0":"post-193364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193364","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=193364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}