Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin hails ‘courageous’ Trump after election win as Zelensky rejects ceasefire

Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Sir Tony Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell as National Security Adviser.

The veteran diplomat, who served for 17 years in the Foreign Office, will take over from Sir Tim Barrow in the role based in 10 Downing Street.

The Prime Minister said his experience in helping to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and working on “some of the world’s most complex conflicts” meant he was “uniquely qualified” to advise the government.

Mr Powell was also involved in talks over the Chagos Islands sovereignty dispute, which earlier this year saw Britain hand the territory over to Mauritius.

He will now be expected to play a key role in forging links with Donald Trump’s new US administration, as well as helping to shape the UK’s response to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Russian intelligence services were likely behind a series of parcels that exploded in courier depots across Europe, Polish prosecutors have said.

Western officials have previously said that Russia has tried to destabilise allies of Ukraine with acts of sabotage. The explosions in courier depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July had the potential to mark a serious escalation by causing an explosion on an aircraft, officials warn.

Security officials have said that the parcels were part of a plot that ultimately aimed to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States and Canada.

“The evidence collected in the case indicates a high probability that the discussed acts of sabotage ... were inspired by Russian special services,” the Polish Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

Polish authorities are searching for two Russians and have detained four Ukrainian citizens as part of the investigation. Polish prosecutors said in October they had detained four people and were searching for two others in relation to the packages, but did not reveal the nationalities of those accused of involvement.

“Intensive activities are being carried out to identify the remaining individuals involved in the above international group,” the statement said. “These actions are undertaken in cooperation with law enforcement agencies of other European Union countries.”

Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss Ukraine with Donald Trump – but that does not mean he is willing to alter Moscow’s demands, the Kremlin has sai.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “The president has never said that the goals of the special military operation are changing. On the contrary, he has repeatedly said that they remain the same.

“All this concerns the security interests of our country, the security interests of the Russian people living there. Therefore, there was no talk of any changes here.”

Laying out his terms in June for ending the war, Mr Putin claimed Ukraine would have to drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from all of the territory of four annexed regions claimed by Russia – which Kyiv and many allies say would amount to capitulation to Moscow.

The Russian foreign ministry has summoned the deputy head of Canada’s embassy in Moscow to protest over what it called “false accusations” that Russia was behind a sabotage campaign against Nato countries.

Western security officials have said that parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States. Russia has rejected the accusations.

War in Ukraine could end easily if Donald Trump’s future US administration takes a solution-based approach, Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan has been quoted as saying.

Mr Erdogan also said efforts of the Western countries led by the US to end war in Ukraine would accelerate a solution, based on his reported in-flight interview with reporters on his way back from Budapest.

European nations boosted their defences in response to the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but much remains to be done for them to be ready to face threats from Russia, according to a new report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Published as the think-tank opened a three-day gathering in Prague to discuss European and transatlantic military capabilities, the report said: “Nato has not just significantly increased its ambitions regarding its deterrence and war-fighting posture, but European members have sought to address critical capability and readiness shortfalls.

“Unsurprisingly, however, after decades of neglect and underinvestment, much remains to be done and progress has been mixed.”

Former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger has said that Donald Trump’s desire for a swift end to the war in Ukraine will see Kyiv lose territory to Russia.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He will attempt to engineer a rapid solution, but he’s been pulled in two directions. There will be a land swap. That is a terrible thing for the people who end up living under Russian rule.

“But fundamentally, it’s not the main argument. The main argument is whether Ukraine is a western or eastern country in future.”

Sir Alex added: “Trump’s advisers, on the one hand, are saying that Ukraine should be forced into neutrality, so basically back into the bosom of Putin. Others are talking about the need to do a land swap, but then reinforce its military and economic capabilities, and we need to make sure we are compounding that second argument.”

Ireland’s Taoiseach Simon Harris has said there was a very resolute view at the European Political Community summit in Budapest this week that the EU must stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

“The US had its election and it made its decision but that doesn’t change European values, and European values around the importance of the UN Charter, the importance of territorial integrity remain,” he said.

Vladimir Putin has described China as Russia’s ally and threw his weight behind Beijing’s claims over Taiwan, while insisting that no countries have anything to fear from their deepening co-operation.

The two countries have not declared a formal military alliance, but signed a “no limits” partnership deal in 2022, less than three weeks before Mr Putin sent his troops into Ukraine.

“We do not believe that China is pursuing an aggressive policy in the region,” Mr Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian resort of Sochi.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite strong objections by the government in Taipei, and regularly holds wargames near the island. But Mr Putin suggested that Taiwan was trying to stir up a Ukraine-style crisis in Asia in order to attract outside support.

“A lot is going on around Taiwan,” Mr Putin said. “Everyone formally acknowledges, yes, Taiwan is part of China. But in reality? In reality, it is acting in a completely different direction. Provoking the situation towards escalation.

“We do support China. And because of this, we believe that [China] is conducting a completely reasonable policy. And also because it is our ally. We have a very large trade turnover, we co-operate in the security sector.”

South Korea has been targeted with cyberattacks by pro-Russia hacking groups after North Korea dispatched troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, Seoul’s presidential office has warned.

The office held an emergency intra-agency meeting after detecting denial-of-service attacks on some government and private websites in recent days.

Some of the websites experienced temporary outages but there was no serious damage, the presidential office said, adding that the government will strengthen its ability to respond to such attacks.