Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin threatens to target Kyiv with new missile after energy grid attack

The surprise far-right winner of the first round of Romania’s presidential election has denied that he wants to leave Nato and the European Union, appearing to roll back some of his positions amid protests over his victory.

Having polled in single digits prior to the first round of Romania’s elections on Sunday, the 62-year-old independent candidate Calin Georgescu surged to a shock victory with 22.9 per cent of the vote, lining him up to face centrist contender Elena Lasconi in a run-off on 8 December.

Mr Georgescu has previously praised 1930s Romanian fascist politicians as national heroes and martyrs, has been critical of Nato and Romania’s pro-Ukraine position, and has said the country should engage, not challenge Russia.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Bucharest on Tuesday evening, chanting: “No Putin, no fear, Europe is our mother,” and “young people ask you not to vote for a dictator”, with demonstrations also held in other major cities.

But in a stream on Facebook on Tuesday evening, he said: “I do not want to leave Nato, I do not want to leave the European Union. What I want, however, is to take a stance, not to kneel over there, not to take everything. Like I said, we should do everything in our national interest.”

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.