Ukraine-Russia war latest: Nato ‘waiting for Trump’ over key decision as Putin’s planes ‘stole children’

Ukraine needs to get younger people such as 18-25 year-old individuals into its war against Russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Having people on the battlefield, on top of ammunitions and weapons, was key to success, he said.

“These are very hard decisions,” Blinken told Reuters. “But, for example, getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary. Right now, 18-25 year olds are not in the fight.”

Nearly 50,000 relatives of Russian troops have submitted DNA samples, a government minister has been recorded as saying.

The figure was given by Deputy Defence Minister Anna Tsivilyova at a round-table discussion on 26 November, prompting a senior lawmaker to warn that such data should not be published anywhere.

Russia has not released official statistics about its war losses in Ukraine since the initial months following its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Western countries believe hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in gruelling trench warfare in Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Independent news site Astra published a video of last week's meeting where Russian officials and lawmakers were discussing support for troops involved in what Moscow calls its "special military operation" and for their family members.

Tsivilyova said the 48,000 soldiers' relatives had submitted their DNA for free to an interior ministry database.

A German defence ministry spokesperson could not confirm reports about an incident between a German army helicopter and a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea.

According to the German press agency dpa, the crew of the Russian ship had fired signal ammunition. The helicopter had been on a reconnaissance mission, according to the report.

There was no immediate Russian response to the German media reports.

Last month two subsea cables - one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania - were damaged in less than 24 hours, prompting German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed it was sabotage.

Sweden, Germany and Lithuania all launched criminal investigations last week, zeroing in on Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15.

Russia denied any responsibility for the damaged cables.

Nato boss Mark Rutte sharply criticised arms companies inside the US-led alliance, saying they were producing too little, charging too much and delivering too slowly as Nato seeks to support Ukraine and boost its defences against Russia.

With Nato countries bracing for renewed pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump to raise their defence spending, Rutte also said the current target of 2 per cent of economic output would not be enough to deter attacks in the future.

Rutte did not say whether he thought 3 per cent should be the new target, as Trump has insisted. However, he said Nato would not only have to spend more on defence but also get better value.

“We are producing not enough, at too high prices, and delivery is too slow, so defence industry needs to put in more shifts, needs to put in more production lines,” Mr Rutte said.

“We cannot have a situation where we just pay more for the same and we see large kickbacks to the shareholders,”

Ukraine has to decide on further mobilisation of troops in its war against the Russian invasion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

“Ukraine has hard decisions to make about further mobilisation, but these are necessary decisions,” Mr Blinken said after a two-day meeting with foreign ministers of the Nato alliance in Brussels.

“This is critical, because even with the money, even with the munitions, there have to be people on the frontlines to deal with the Russian agression.”

A top Ukrainian official has begun a visit to the USA to build contacts with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, the foreign minister has said.

Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak was already in the US, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha told reporters in Brussels, news agency Interfax Ukraine reported.

"This contact at the level of the head of the (president's) office is very important for establishing, among other things, relations with representatives of the new administration,” Mr Sybiha said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said the presence of a Russian attack submarine in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea was “very worrisome”.

“That’s very concerning. Any intrusion into the West Philippine Sea, of our EEZ, of our baselines, is very worrisome,” Marcos told reporters, referring to part of the South China Sea within the Philippines’ maritime zone.

A Russian Kilo-class submarine was sighted 80 nautical miles off the western province of Occidental Mindoro on Nov. 28, Navy spokesperson Roy Vincent Trinidad said in a statement on Monday, confirming a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Russia said the submarine was exercising freedom of navigation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“The submarine did not violate the Philippine economic zone regime in any way,” the embassy said, adding it had kept the Philippines informed of its presence to make clear there were no “unscrupulous intentions”.

Russia is following events in South Korea with concern after the president briefly declared martial law, but there are no threats to Russian citizens there, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

Moscow has deepened ties with Seoul's neighbour North Korea since the start of its war in Ukraine, drawing concern from Western countries.

South Korean lawmakers submitted a bill on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law before reversing the move hours later, triggering a political crisis in Asia's fourth-largest economy, a major U.S. ally.

"We are watching with concern the tragic events unfolding in South Korea," Ms Zakharova told a news briefing.

"The situation on the Korean peninsula is already complicated by the provocative actions of the United States of America and its allies," she said.