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

Germany will be able to provide most of the 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) pledged to Ukraine even if the 2025 budget cannot be approved on time following the collapse of the coalition government, sources from the budget committee told Reuters.

The funds are largely committed appropriations and can therefore be disbursed under provisional budget management if the budget is not passed, four sources said.

German aid to Ukraine was cut to 4 billion euros in 2025 from around 8 billion euros in 2024, according to the draft of the 2025 budget.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on winning the U.S. election, praised him for showing courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.

In his first public remarks since Trump’s win, Putin said Trump had acted like a real man during an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man,” Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. “I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election.”

Putin said remarks Trump had made during the election campaign about Ukraine and restoring relations with Russia deserved attention.

“What was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to bring about the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion this deserves attention at least,” said Putin.

Fragments from downed Russian drones injured at least two people and damaged several buildings in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight, city officials said on Thursday.

Ten buildings were damaged by drone debris, including a medical facility and a business centre, said Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration.

The attack also caused a fire in a restaurant on the 33rd storey of a building in the wealthy central Pechersk district, and three residential buildings were also damaged in other areas, Popko said.

Photos posted by the city authorities showed burnt-out vehicles in ruined garages, and shattered windows and charred walls in another location.

Popko said more than 30 drones had been brought down in and around the capital in the latest overnight attack.

“Currently, there is no air raid alert in Kyiv. But there are drones in the airspace of Ukraine that may move towards Kyiv,” he warned in a message on the Telegram app on Thursday morning.

Air raid sirens sounded again in Kyiv shortly after 9.00 a.m. (0700 GMT).

Large-scale drone attacks have become a nightly danger for Kyiv residents over the past month as Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, increased the number of drones launched against Ukraine.

Russian shelling of Ukraine‘s frontline Donetsk region on Thursday killed two people and injured five more, the regional governor said.

A five-storey residential house in the town of Mykolaivka was hit in the attack and four more buildings were damaged, Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Read analysis from our foreign editor here.

Ukraine is not considering scenarios of the United States cutting its military aid and welcomes the Biden administration’s efforts to use all allocated aid as fast as possible, Ukraine‘s foreign ministry spokesman said.

“We are not looking into scenarios of the U.S. cutting its military aid because ... we don’t think it is in the best interest of the United States to take such a step in the first place,” Heorhiy Tykhyi told journalists on Thursday.

“There are voices around the world who suppose that if you cut military supplies to Ukraine, Ukraine will be forced to negotiate ... This is not true, this is simply not what is going to happen even if such a scenario is taken,” he added, saying such a move would lead to the war’s expansion instead.

Donald Trump is now likely to call Russia’s Vladimir Putin and tell him to “stop the war”, a former American diplomat has said.

The incoming US president is “going to make a phone call to Putin as quickly as possible and tell Putin that he needs to stop the war, that the fighting has to stop, and that there has to be peace,” Kurt Volker, former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said.

Mr Trump does not want to see the Ukraine war continue once he is actually in office, he said, while emphasising that Putin would inevitably have “demands” and that this would only be the start of the conversation.

A Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine‘s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday killed four people and wounded 33, destroying houses and damaging an oncology centre, officials said.

A four-month-old girl and two boys, aged one and 10, were among the wounded, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on the Telegram messaging app. Two people were in severe condition, he added.

Russia launched six bombs at the city, all of which hit civilian infrastructure, including private houses and a five-storey residential building, according to Fedorov.

A rescue operation was ongoing, with more people likely trapped under the rubble, officials said.

Blood trails and broken glass were visible on the stairs inside the medical facility, according to Reuters.

Sir Keir Starmer's first phone call with President-elect Trump was a "congratulations on your win", Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has said.

Asked if the Prime Minister discussed Ukraine in his call with president elect Trump, Mr McFadden told Sky News: "I'm not sure. To be honest, I think it was more a 'congratulations on your win' call.

"We've just been through a election campaign a few months ago here. So we know how stressful these things can be. There's always a relief if you get to the end of it."

He added: "(Ukraine) is very important. It's very important we back Ukraine in its fight to decide its own destiny, in its fight against Russian aggression, and in the Budget last week, the Chancellor reiterated the support and the aid that the UK gives to Ukraine. That hasn't changed with the election result in the United States.

"We want to back Ukraine, back Ukraine fully in the fight that they're having, because it's also in our interests, in our defence and security interests for Russian aggression not to go unanswered.”