Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has again refused to negotiate with US on ending the war in Ukraine.
Mr Putin is open to talks on a possible settlement in Ukraine but the West must accept Moscow’s demands, the Kremlin said on Friday.
The Kremlin’s response comes a day after US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to speak with Mr Putin if the Russian president is interested in ending the war in Ukraine, as he sought to alleviate European anger over US subsidies.
Mr Biden said that the “one way” for the war to end in a “rational way” is for Mr Putin to “pull out of Ukraine”.
The French leader said he would continue to talk to Mr Putin to “try to prevent escalation and to get some very concrete results” like assurances on the safety of nuclear plants.
In other news, Ukraine’s armed forces have lost around 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers in Vladimir Putin’s war against the country, Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has said.
The top Ukrainian officials said that the war-hit country is “open in talking about the number of dead” and added that more soldiers have been injured than had died.
Key Points
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Putin can pull out of Ukraine to end war in a rational way, says Biden
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Russia unable to restart attack on Ukraine due to shortage of munitions – MoD
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Biden willing to discuss end to Ukraine war with Putin
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Ukraine has lost 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers so far – official
Ukraine says it has lost up to 13,000 soldiers in war against Russia
12:35 , Eleanor Sly
Ukraine has lost up to 13,000 soldiers since the beginning of Russia‘s nearly 10-month-long unprovoked war, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.
Mr Podolyak, a senior adviser to president Volodymyr Zelensky, on Thursday said the number is between 10,000-13,000.
“We are open in talking about the number of dead,” he told Kanal 24 channel, adding that more soldiers had been wounded than had died.
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Ukraine says it has lost up to 13,000 soldiers in war against Russia
Scholz urges Putin to find diplomatic solution to Ukraine conflict
11:57 , Eleanor Sly
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on Vladimir Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible, “including a withdrawal of Russian troops”, Ms Scholz’s spokesperson disclosed in a written statement.
“The chancellor condemned in particular the Russian airstrikes against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and stressed Germany’s determination to support Ukraine in ensuring its defence capability against Russian aggression,” the spokesperson added.
The two leaders spoke for an hour.
Archbishop of Canterbury says support for Ukraine to be ‘very long term’
11:11 , Eleanor Sly
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the need for support in Ukraine will be “very long term”, the Press Association reported.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, following his visit to Kyiv, the Archbishop said: “First of all, the need for solidarity and support for Ukraine.
“And secondly, that there must be no way in which we force peace on Ukraine or they’re put under pressure. Third, that the need for support is going to be very long term.
He went on: “Peace is always better than war. But there are times when justice demands that there is the defeat of what we call, the archbishop of York and I called when it started, an evil invasion. And I don’t regret saying that.”
“Ukraine is the victim here, we can’t slip back to a 1938 Czechoslovakia, sort of people far away of whom we know little situation. There has to be real resilience.”
Kremlin says Putin open to talks but US stance on Ukraine makes it difficult
10:29 , Eleanor Sly
The Kremlin said on Friday that President Vladimir Putin is open to negotiations to secure Russia’s interests, but that finding a mutual basis for talks is challenging due to the fact that the United States does not recognise the “new territories” in Ukraine that Russia claims as its own.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday he had no immediate plans to contact Mr Putin.
He did however say that he was prepared to speak with the Russian president if he showed an interest in ending the war in Ukraine. Mr Biden said he would only do so in consultation with NATO allies.
Three killed in Russian artillery attacks on Kherson region
09:54 , Eleanor Sly
Three people were killed and seven wounded in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson over the past 24 hours, the regional governor said on Friday.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said that Russian troops had bombarded the city of Kherson and other parts of the region 42 times in the same period.
The city of Kherson was liberated by Ukrainian forces in mid-November following months of Russian occupation, but has been under fire since then from Russian troops who retreated to the opposite side of the River Dnipro.
The city has also suffered problems with its power supply. Mr Yanushevych announced on Thursday that power had been lost again after it had recently been restored.
Hungarian filling stations running out of price-capped fuel
09:30 , Eleanor Sly
Drivers in Hungary are increasingly running into gas and diesel shortages at filling stations as a government-imposed price cap squeezes the operators of independent stations and leaves the state energy company struggling to keep up with demand.
At hundreds of fuel stations across Hungary, a confusing mosaic of paper signs hang from the pumps to let customers know what is available — or not — and at what price and quantity.
A sign at one station in Martonvasar, a town 20 miles southwest of Budapest, Hungary’s capital, informs motorists they may only purchase two liters (a 1/2 gallon) of fuel at a reduced price set by the government more than a year ago. The quantity limit, the station’s owner said, is the result of state energy company MOL failing to make any fuel deliveries to his business and many others like it for the past three weeks.
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Germany to send seven additional Gepard tanks to Ukraine
08:18 , Eleanor Sly
Germany is aiming to deliver seven Gepard tanks that had been destined for the scrap pile to Ukraine this spring, adding to 30 of the air-defence tanks that are already being used to fight against the Russian army, Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.
The seven tanks, which are currently being repaired by Munich-based arms manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), are meant to help Ukraine in protecting its cities and infrastructure against Russian shelling, reported Spiegel.
The government in German also hopes to send more ammunition for the Gepards along with the additional tanks, it reported.
Supply of ammunition for the Gepard has proven problematic as Switzerland, which has stocks of ammunition, refuses to supply it, citing its neutral status.
‘If you want to understand what Russia has done, come to Ukraine,’ Zelensky claps back at Musk
07:55 , Eleanor Sly
Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked Elon Musk‘s proposed peace plan and invited the billionaire to visit Ukraine to see the damage done to the war-torn country by Russian forces.
The Ukrainian president mocked Mr Musk’s peace deal at an event organised by The New York Times and asked him to visit the European country instead.
“I think that either someone has influence over him, or he somehow draws conclusions on his own,” Mr Zelensky said by video link at the summit.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar reports:
‘Come to Ukraine,’ Zelensky claps back at Musk
Russia unable to restart attack on Ukraine due to shortage of munitions – MoD
06:57 , Arpan Rai
Russia’s military salvo has been interrupted due to its shortage of munitions, the British defence ministry said today, as Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have not launched an effective attack on Ukraine after abandoning Kherson.
“Russia’s shortage of munitions (exacerbated by these logistics challenges) is likely one of the main factors currently limiting Russia’s potential to restart effective, large scale offensive ground operations,” the ministry said in its latest war update.
It added that after Russia’s withdrawal from the west bank of the Dnipro River last month, the Ukrainian Armed Forces gained the opportunities to strike additional Russian logistics nodes and lines of communication.
“This threat has highly likely prompted Russian logisticians to relocate supply nodes, including rail transfer points, further south and east,” the ministry said.
“Russian logistics units will need to conduct extra labour-intensive loading and unloading from rail to road transport. Road moves will subsequently still be vulnerable to Ukrainian artillery as they move on to supply Russian forward defensive positions,” according to the British defence ministry.
Putin can pull out of Ukraine to end war in a rational way, says Biden
06:36 , Arpan Rai
Joe Biden has said that the “one way” for the war to end in a “rational way” is for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “pull out of Ukraine” but he said he has no plans to engage with the Russian leader in the immediate future.
“He’s paying a very heavy price for failing to do it, but he’s inflicting incredible, incredible carnage on the civilian population of Ukraine. I mean, nurseries, hospitals, children’s homes, it’s sick, what he’s doing, but the fact of the matter is, I have no immediate plans to contact Mr Putin,” he said, adding later that the idea that Russian forces would ever be victorious in Ukraine is “beyond comprehension”.
He was speaking at a news conference alongside French president Emmanuel Macron after a three-hour bilateral meeting between the two leaders and their respective advisers.
Zelensky commemorates Ukrainian referendum anniversary: ‘Our desire to live freely’
06:05 , Arpan Rai
Volodymyr Zelensky commemorated the anniversary of a referendum held in Ukraine 31 years ago when the country was still part of the Soviet Union – voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence.
“Every year on 1 December, we recall an event that defined history. An event that said a lot about all of us, about Ukrainians. About who we are. And about who we will never become,” he said.
“Our desire to live freely … will not be broken. Ukrainians will never again be a tiny stone in some empire,” Mr Zelensky added.
The referendum, he said, was held that united the entire territory of their state. “None of our people remained outside the All-Ukrainian decision. Kyiv and Sevastopol, Odesa and Crimea, Lviv and Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk, Khmelnytskyi and Kirovohrad regions, Volyn and Dnipropetrovsk regions, Sumy and Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil, Zhytomyr region and Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Kyiv region, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Rivne… Everyone expressed their support,” he said in his nightly address.
Hours later in the early hours today, Russian forces shelled a building in the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, setting it ablaze, city official Anatoly Krutyev said.
New sanctions on Russians recruiting conscripts and prisoners to Putin’s war machine
05:30 , Arpan Rai
Britain has today announced sanctions on Russian officials responsible for the forced mobilisation of citizens to fight in Ukraine.
Also targeted was the head of Russia’s prison system, accused of supporting the recruitment of convicts to fight as mercenaries in return for pardons for crimes including murder and sex attacks.
Ill-equipped and poorly trained conscripts – many of them drawn from Russia’s ethnic minorities – have been sent to the frontline in recent months as “cannon fodder” as Vladimir Putin’s invasion met fierce resistance from Ukraine.
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New sanctions on Russians recruiting conscripts and prisoners to Putin’s war machine
Shelling injures one in Kharkiv
05:19 , Arpan Rai
At least one civilian has been injured in Russian shelling in Kharkiv oblast.
The attack targeted a high-rise in the Kluhyno-Bashkyrivka village, said the spokesperson for the Ukrainian state emergency service in Kharkiv oblast.
Ukraine has lost 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers so far – official
04:42 , Arpan Rai
Around 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in Russia’s war against the country, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on television network.
This comes as Ukraine’s armed forces reported heavy shelling of a number of eastern frontline villages near the city of Bakhmut.
Russian rockets pounded neighbourhoods in Kherson knocking out power in the city where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops left.
Residents in Kyiv have been asked to stock up on water, food and warm clothes in the anticipation of a total blackout caused by Russian strikes, mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.
US poses existential threat to Russia, says Putin’s leading diplomat
04:24 , Arpan Rai
Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat claimed the US posed an existential threat to Russia through its support for Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov, the Kremlin’s foreign minister who has a reputation for wild statements, used a press conference on Thursday to condemn Washington and Nato, while defending Russia’s bombing of Ukraine’s civil infrastructure.
He said the Kremlin’s assault on the Ukrainian power grid was aimed at cutting off the country’s supply of western arms, countering the view held by Kyiv and allies that knocking out heat and electricity for ordinary citizens was an attempt to break the national spirit.
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US poses existential threat to Russia, says Putin’s leading diplomat
Biden willing to discuss end to Ukraine war with Putin
04:11 , Arpan Rai
Joe Biden said he would be willing to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin to learn whether he’s willing to end his nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, but not unilaterally and only after discussions with America’s Nato allies first.
The US president said he’d take a meeting with Mr Putin “if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do”, speaking at a news conference alongside French president Emmanuel Macron after a three-hour bilateral meeting between the two leaders and their respective advisers.
“But I’ll only do it in consultation with my Nato allies. I’m not going to do it on my own,” he added.
He also thanked his French counterpart for welcoming over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to his shores, adding that such actions were “a mark of who you are as a people”.
“Putin thinks that he can crush the will of all those who oppose his imperial ambitions by attacking civilian infrastructures in Ukraine, choking off energy to Europe as a driver of crisis, [and] exacerbating [a] food crisis that’s hurting very vulnerable people not just in Ukraine, but around the world. And he’s not going to succeed,” he said.
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Biden willing to discuss end to Ukraine war with Putin
03:37 , Arpan Rai
Good morning, welcome to our coverage of the Ukraine war on Friday, 2 December.
