Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ‘dragging Asia into war’ as North Korea troops join marine and air forces

Ukraine needs more air defence systems to protect its important facilities from Russian missile attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.

“We are looking at how to protect two dozen special facilities, there are simply not enough (air defence) systems because of such dense missile strikes,” Zelenskiy told a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Kyiv.

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.

"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," Defence Minister Bjoern Arild Gram said.

Asked whether Ukraine ceding territory in a peace deal would hand a form of victory to Vladimir Putin, the UK’s former representative to Nato Sir Adam Thomson told Sky News: “The outcome that Zelensky is suggesting is agreement to disagree over who owns a chunk of Ukraine currently owned by Russia.

“Russia would claim it as its own. Zelensky is making the crucial point that this would not be internationally legally recognised – it would just be a de facto control that could change at some future stage through diplomacy.

“Putin would have seized some territory, he would have done it at extraordinary cost – billions and billions of dollars, two new Nato members already, a thousand or more Russian soldiers being killed or wounded every day at the moment.

“It’s in that sense a compromise. He’s got some territory under his control, it’s not recognised, and it’s an outcome that means he’s lost the rest of Ukraine and alienated Europe for a generation.”

Volodymyr Zelensky’s suggestion that Ukraine could temporarily cede territory to Russia in return for Nato assurances are “quite smart” but it is unlikely that Vladimir Putin would accept such an arrangement, an expert has suggested.

Asked about the Ukrainian president’s recent remarks on ending the “hot phase” of Russia’s war, James Nixey, of the Chatham House think-tank, told The Independent in emailed remarks: “It’s quite smart.

“Because territory can be regained – even militarily if need be (and the Ukrainians could switch to ‘deniable’ subversive warfare). Or it could be re-acquired under a post-Putin regime. It’s hard to see Ukraine ever giving up on it forever.

“However, it’s even harder to see Putin going for it,” said Mr Nixey, adding: “Putin wants control, not territory. That’s why he hasn’t invaded Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan etc. He controls them ‘enough’ and they have not been so wayward.

“So Ukraine – any part of it – in Nato as part of a deal would be unacceptable.”

James Nixey of the Chatham House think-tank has warned that any part of Ukraine being in Nato would be unacceptable to Vladimir Putin, after Volodymyr Zelensky said he could accept territory being temporarily ceded to Russia in exchange for security assurances from the alliance.

“After all, [Nato] is, for him, an abhorrence. Putin doesn’t want a pause anyway – he believes he’s on the brink of an historic and strategic victory, kindly deal-sealed by Donald Trump,” Mr Nixey told The Independent.

Vladimir Putin has approved plans which raise 2025 military spending to record levels, with 13.5trn roubles £99.5bn) – nearly a third of the budget posted on a government website – allocated for national defence.

Politicians in both houses of the Russian parliament have already approved the plans over the past 10 days.

The increase in military spending – from a reported 28.3 to 32.5 per cent of Russia’s budget – comes despite discussions over US president-elect Donald Trump’s desire to bring the war to a rapid end.

More than 100,000 soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army, Ukraine’s prosecutor general has said, starving Kyiv of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia.

Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials have told the Associated Press.

Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, military commanders and soldiers said. Some take medical leave and find themselves unable to bring themselves to return. Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights.

Nearly half of the 100,000 peope charged have deserted in the last year alone, after Kyiv launched an aggressive mobilisation drive that government officials and military commanders concede has largely failed.

There were an estimated 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers engaged in combat before the mobilisation drive began. One politician with knowledge of military matters estimated the actual number of deserters could be as high as 200,000.