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

There is no reason to think Russia is going to run out of steam any time soon in its attacks on Ukraine, an analyst has warned.

Warning that a ceasefire in the conflict is “a terrible idea” which would hand Vladimir Putin time to regroup for another attack, Keir Giles of the Chatham House think-tank told The Independent that Russia’s heavy assaults in Ukraine’s east are “probably” sustainable, at least in the short term.

“Especially if there is not a Western response which dissuades Russia from expanding that North Korean group into something which is militarily significant and actually brings increased pressure to bear on the Ukrainians,” said Mr Giles, author of the recently published book Who Will Defend Europe?

“And especially if they can keep up their campaign of pressure both militarily and against Ukraine functioning as a state through these attacks on critical infrastructure.

“There’s no reason to think Russia is going to run out of steam any time soon. Eventually of course, they’ll find it is not sustainable. But that’s in the medium-term, and we have to survive the short-term in the meantime.”

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.

A “sophisticated” UK-based spy ring passed secrets to Russia for nearly three years, a court has heard.

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, allegedly carried out surveillance on individuals and places of interest to Russia.

The spying activities allegedly included locations in London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart, jurors have heard.

Read the full report from our crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin below:

Facing condemnation from the United States and defiance from his own president, Georgia’s new prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze has praised police for cracking down on protesters who he sought to claim were acting on foreign orders to undermine the state.

Georgia has been plunged into crisis since his governing Georgian Dream party said on Thursday it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years, following an election contested by the country’s pro-Western president, who alleges interference by Russia.

Large-scale anti-government protests have taken place in the capital Tbilisi for the past three nights, with police have fired water cannon and tear gas into the crowds, resulting in scores of injuries. More protests are planned in Tbilisi for Sunday night, with demonstrations reported throughout the country.

Brushing off Washington’s suspension of a new strategic partnership with Georgia, Mr Kobakhidze said this was merely a “temporary event”, and that Georgia would talk to the new administration when Donald Trump takes office in January.

Responding to condemnation of “excessive force” being used against protesters, he said: “Despite the heaviest systematic violence applied yesterday by the violent groups and their foreign instructors, the police acted at a higher standard than the American and European ones and successfully protected the state from another attempt to violate the constitutional order.

Any future ceasefire negotiations with Russia would need to include representatives from the EU and Nato, because Ukraine views its future security as being within both alliances, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

However, in remarks at a press conference with European Council president Antonio Costa, the Ukrainian president said he failed to see what any such negotiations would focus on, adding that Ukraine would “never legally recognise any occupation of our lands by the Russian Federation”.

Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that most Nato members see “no risks” to Ukrainian membership of the military alliance.

Urging Joe Biden’s outgoing administration in Washington to use its remaining two months in office to exert influence “over those few European sceptics about our future”, the Ukrainian president told reporters on Sunday: “I personally see no risks.

“And most Nato countries see no risks from the recommendation regarding the positive future of Ukraine's membership in Nato.”

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was the “opening stage” of a third world war, national security expert Mark Toth and former US intelligence officer Jonathan Sweet have said in comments reported by the Daily Mail.

“This third global conflagration doesn’t look or feel like what Hollywood envisioned,” they said. “No mushroom clouds or apocalyptic wastelands. Rather, it is war by a thousand cuts, conducted across multi-regional and multi-domain battlefields.”

“Putin's invasion of Ukraine was the opening stage. It was his marker to the global community that the world order as it had existed since the end of the Second World War was no longer,” they said, adding that Moscow “continues to play the victim while escalating against Ukrainian civilians”.

They continued: “‘It’s already a World War, only largely contained to the borders of Ukraine – until August when Ukraine invaded Kursk.”

However the outlet also carried comments by Adeline Van Houtte, of the Economist Intelligence Unit, who rejected the idea that a new world war had begun, saying: “Action to widen the scale of the war to bring in new players or expand the current battlefield within Ukraine remains highly unlikely”.

Speaking at a news conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the new European Council president Antonio Costa reiterated the EU’s recent commitment to help Ukraine continue through the war.

That includes €4.2bn (£3.4bn) to support Ukraine’s budget and €1.5bn (£1.25bn) of assistance every month from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.

Asked whether the EU would step up funding if Donald Trump withdraws support upon his return to the White House in January, Mr Costa – a former prime minister of Portugal – said the bloc would “stand for Ukraine as long as necessary”.

The United States is not considering returning to Ukraine the nuclear weapons it gave up after the Soviet Union collapsed, the White House has said.

Asked about a New York Times article last month that said some unidentified Western officials had suggested US president Joe Biden could give Ukraine the arms before he leaves office, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said: “That is not under consideration, no.

“What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not [giving them] nuclear capability,” he told ABC.

Last week, Russia said the idea was “absolute insanity” and claimed that preventing such a scenario was one of the reasons why Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

Kyiv inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse but gave them up in 1994 in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.