Ukraine-Russia war: ‘Obsessed’ Putin ‘won’t accept Trump peace deal’

Europe is no longer in a “pre-war situation” with Russia, but “an actual war”, the former head of MI6 said.

“I think we have to face up to the fact that the Russians think they’re in a state of war with us,” Sir Richard Dearlove told tonight’s Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge as he disagreed with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk’s remarks of Europe being in a pre-war era.

“Donald Tusk has referred to it as a pre-war situation. I think he’s wrong. I think it’s an actual war. We’ve seen already quite clearly some very aggressive moves on the part of the Russians in various European countries,” he told Sky News.

The UK should be on alert for possible acts of sabotage, he warned.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

Mr Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social account, and said “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”

Mr Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book that lays out an “America First” national security agenda for the incoming administration, will come into the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February.

The 80 year-old retired Army lieutenant general has long been Mr Trump’s top adviser on defence issues, served as national security adviser to vice president Mike Pence, was chief of staff of the National Security Council and then stepped in as an acting security adviser for Mr Trump after Michael Flynn resigned.

As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Mr Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations.

Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service for its soldiers to 18 from 25, a senior US administration official said.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said Ukraine was not mobilising or training enough new soldiers to replace those lost on the battlefield, according to Reuters. “The need right now is manpower,” he said.

“The Russians are in fact making progress, steady progress, in the east, and they are beginning to push back Ukrainian lines in Kursk… Mobilisation and more manpower could make a significant difference at this time as we look at the battlefield today.”

However, a source in president Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said the country did not have what it needed to equip the troops it was mobilising now.

“Right now, with our current mobilisation efforts, we don’t have enough equipment, for example armoured vehicles, to support all the troops we are calling up,” the source said. “We cannot compensate for our partners’ delays in decision-making and supply chains with the lives of our soldiers and of the youngest of our guys.”

A senior Kremlin aide said on Tuesday he was not aware of any contacts yet between President Vladimir Putin’s office and the team of US president-elect Donald Trump.

Putin has publicly congratulated Trump on defeating Kamala Harris in this month’s election and has said he is willing to talk to him. Trump told NBC on 7 November he had not spoke with Putin since his election victory but “I think we’ll speak”.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters: “There are no contacts going on with Trump’s team yet, as far as I know.”

Trump said repeatedly during his election campaign that he could bring a swift end to the Ukraine war, but without saying how. Putin said on 7 November that what Trump had said “deserves attention, at least”.

The Biden administration is preparing a $725m weapons package for Ukraine, two US officials told Reuters yesterday, as the outgoing president seeks to bolster the government in Kyiv before leaving office in January.

According to an official familiar with the plan, the Biden administration plans to provide a variety of anti-tank weapons from US stocks to blunt Russia’s advancing troops, including land mines, drones, Stinger missiles and ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

Ukrainian drones attacked two districts of Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar in the early hours of Thursday, its governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram.

At least one person has been wounded by the debris from a downed drone, he said.

Russia opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because Moscow needs a “solid and long-term peace” that resolves the core reasons for the crisis, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign intelligence chief has claimed.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), said that Russia had the initiative on the battlefield.

Naryshkin said Russia was categorically opposed to the “freezing of the conflict”, adding that Russia wanted a long-term peace. Russia is open for talks, Naryshkin said.

Ukraine faces a difficult winter, with worries about the reliability of the electricity supply amid Russia’s attacks and how much US support it can count on next year after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Russia has been hammering civilian areas of Ukraine with increasingly heavy drone, missile and glide bomb attacks since the middle of the year.

At the same time, Russia’s army has largely held the battlefield initiative for the past year and has been pushing hard in the eastern Donetsk region where it is making significant tactical advances, according to Western military analysts.

Josep Borrell has said “you cannot approve the court when it goes against Putin and oppose it when it goes against Netanyahu”, referring to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The comments from the Vice President of the EU Commission comes after some countries rejected the court’s warrant for the Israeli prime minister’s arrest.