Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ‘won’t accept any Trump peace deal’ as he is ‘obsessed’ with crushing Ukraine

Ukraine’s front lines “will collapse” if Donald Trump halts military aid for Ukraine, Kyiv’s former foreign minister has warned – as he criticised a lack of Western support for Kyiv in comparison with North Korea’s intensified backing of Russia.

“The front line in the Donbas will collapse and the Russians will be at the gates of Dnipro, Poltava and Zaporizhzhia,” Dmytro Kuleba told Politico. “That will be the most dangerous moment for Ukraine in this war.”

“People in Europe can be pissed off with me, but I kept saying, and I will keep saying, that the truth is today Russia has a friend ready to send its soldiers to die for Russia[’s] war,” he said, whereas Ukraine’s friends are hesitant even to send it the weapons it needs.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has said that he will urge Baltic and Nordic countries to take joint action regarding the security of Baltic Sea waters, during a two-day trip to Sweden.

In the face of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, Nato countries are taking joint action to protect themselves, including joint control of airspace over the Baltic countries within the framework of so-called “air policing”.

“I will convince our partners of the need to immediately create an analogous formula when it comes to the control and security of the Baltic waters, to ‘navy policing’, a joint undertaking of the countries that lie on the Baltic Sea and that have the same sense of threat when it comes to Russia,” Mr Tusk said.

Mr Tusk will take part in a meeting of the prime ministers of the Baltic and Nordic countries on Wednesday and Thursday, and will meet with Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson. The talks will cover transatlantic relations, regional cooperation on security and a common policy towards the Ukraine war.

Ukraine’s former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has warned that Vladimir Putin will not accept a peace deal brokered by US president-elect Donald Trump, because the Russian president is “obsessed” with “crushing” Ukraine and exposing the weakness of the West.

Speaking to Politico, Mr Kuleba – who resigned in September – warned that Mr Trump instead risked collapsing Ukraine’s front lines if his administration decides to starve Kyiv of military aid.

Mr Kuleba said: “Putin still believes he can snuff out Ukrainian statehood and crush Ukraine as an independent democracy, and he thinks he’s one step away from exposing the West as weak.

“Ukraine is a personal obsession for Putin, but crushing Ukraine is also a means to accomplish his grand goal – to show to the world how the West is incapable of defending itself or what it stands for.”

South Koreans remain widely opposed to directly supplying arms to Ukraine, polls suggest – despite renewed international requests from Kyiv after North Korean troops were deployed to Russia.

A Ukrainian delegation led by defence minister Rustem Umerov were set to meet South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol – who is suffering record low approval ratings due to domestic scandals – as early as Wednesday, amid media reports that their visit aimed to seek arms support.

“No to the South Korean government planning arms supply to Ukraine,” read a banner held by a small group of protesters outside the presidential office in Seoul.

Most South Koreans viewed growing military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow as a threat, a Gallup Korea poll showed in October, but nevertheless 82 per cent opposed sending military aid, including arms.

“To the South Korean government, there will be fewer benefits for continuing to support (military aid) when there is little domestic support and the relationship with the next US government could deteriorate,” Yang Uk, an analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told Reuters.

Mr Yoon’s low approval ratings, along with little public backing for supply of weapons, are burdens sapping his mandate on foreign policy, he added.

Georgia’s ruling party has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili, a fierce critic of the West who briefly played football for Manchester City in the 1990s, as its candidate for president ahead of next month’s election.

Mr Kavelashvili is a founder member of People’s Power, a splinter group of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and has a record of hardline, anti-Western statements, in September describing the opposition as a “fifth column” who were trying to undermine peace in Georgia at the instruction US officials.

In June, he accused US congressmen of planning for “a direct violent revolution, a plan for the Ukrainisation of Georgia, and an insatiable desire to destroy our country”.

His election is all but assured, as Georgian Dream dominates the electoral college of members of parliament and local government representatives. He is set to succeed President Salome Zourabichvili, who was elected as an ally of the governing bloc, but has become a trenchant critic, accusing it of deliberately derailing Georgia’s EU accession hopes.

Although the president’s post is largely ceremonial, the choice of Mr Kavelashvili is likely to be viewed by the European Union and the United States as a further sign that Georgia is turning away from the West and moving closer to Russia.

A Ukrainian delegation led by defence minister Rustem Umerov is visiting South Korea this week to ask for weapons aid, according to reports.

Seoul, which has emerged as a leading arms producer, has been under pressure from some Western countries and Kyiv to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons – but has so far focused on non-lethal aid including demining equipment.

However, South Korea’s foreign minister Cho Tae-yul said earlier this month that all possible scenarios were under consideration as thousands of North Korean troops were deployed to Russia, with Moscow expected to share military technology with Pyongyang in return.

The Ukrainian delegation met with South Korea’s national security adviser Shin Won-sik to exchange views on the conflict in Ukraine, the DongA Ilbo newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The South China Morning Post also reported this week that a Ukrainian delegation was due to visit South Korea to request weapons aid, citing an informed source.

The delegation was expected to meet with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as early as Wednesday, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Asked for comment, an official at Yoon’s office declined to confirm the reports.

In an interview with South Korean broadcaster KBS in October, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would send a detailed request to Seoul for arms support including artillery and an air defence systems.

A Russian drone attack on Kyiv has wounded three people, officials in the Ukrainian capital have said.

Falling debris from a destroyed drone damaged a non-residential building in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said that air defence units were operating in the city after midnight on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian military said its air defences downed 36 of 89 Russian drones launched overnight. The military said it had lost track of 48 drones, and another five had left Ukraine’s airspace in the direction of Russia and Belarus.

The strikes come after Russia launched a record number of drones targeting Ukraine on Tuesday, cutting power to much of the western region of Ternopil and damaging residential buildings in the Kyiv region.

Ukraine’s air defences downed 36 of 89 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian military said this morning.

The military said on Telegram it had lost track of 48 drones, and another five had left the territory of Ukraine to Russia and Belarus.

The overnight attack comes a day after Russia fired its biggest aerial attack with 188 drones on Kyiv yesterday.

Nato’s new secretary general Mark Rutte said the alliance “needs to go further” to support Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion and accused Moscow of dangerously escalating the conflict by bringing in thousands of North Korean troops.

“In pursuing its illegal war in Ukraine, Russia makes use of North Korean weapons and troops, Iranian drones and Chinese dual use goods for its defense industry,” Mr Rutte said while on a visit to Greece yesterday. “This is a dangerous expansion of the war and a challenge to global peace and security.”

Mr Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister who took over as Nato chief last month, met Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens and thanked him for Greek support for Ukraine that includes weapons and ammunition, as well as training for F-16 pilots and technicians.