Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian strikes kill 12 as Zelensky hopes to meet Trump in Paris

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said a second batch of F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine from Denmark.

“The second batch of F-16s from Denmark has arrived in Ukraine. This is an example of leadership in defending lives that sets Denmark apart,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he is confident he will be able to agree with US President-elect Donald Trump on a joint strategy for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone.

“I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say,” he told the Funke group of newspapers in an interview.

He added he had spoken with the future US president “in detail” and that his team was in a direct exchange with Trump’s security advisers.

Ukraine is shaping up as a major issue in campaigning for Germany’s snap election in February, which follows the collapse last month of Scholz’s three-party governing coalition in Berlin.

Friedrich Merz, the conservative opposition leader who is on course to unseat Scholz, has said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles. Scholz has opposed such a move, saying it could escalate the war.

Scholz on Monday announced new military aid for Ukraine during a rare visit to Kyiv that he said sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Berlin would stand by Kyiv for as long as needed in the war.

President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia could deploy its new Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile on the territory of its ally Belarus in the second half of next year.

Putin was responding to a request from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a summit in Minsk, where the two leaders signed a mutual defence pact.

“… since we have today signed an agreement on security guarantees using all available forces and means, I consider the deployment of such systems as the Oreshnik on the territory of the Republic of Belarus to be feasible,” Putin said.

“I think this will become possible in the second half of next year, as serial production of these systems in Russia increases and as these missile systems enter service with the Russian strategic forces,” he added in televised comments.

Russia first fired the Oreshnik at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on 21 November, in what Putin cast as a response to Ukraine’s first use of US ATACMs ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Paris to attend the re-opening of Notre-Dame cathedral on Saturday, and could use the trip to hold talks with US President-elect Donald Trump, two diplomatic sources said.

There were efforts to arrange the meeting between Zelensky and Trump, who is also attending the celebrations, the two sources said. The plans would probably not come together until the last minute and any talks would be discreet, they added.

A Ukrainian delegation met on Wednesday with senior Trump aides, two sources familiar with the meeting said, as Ukraine seeks support from the incoming US team for its war to repel Russia’s invasion.

Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Vladimir Putin over strikes that at least 12 in southeastern Ukraine.

At least 10 people were killed in Zaporizhzhia, while two were killed in Zelensky’s hometown Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said.

“Thousands of such strikes carried out by Russia during this war make it absolutely clear that Putin does not need real peace,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. “Only by force can we resist this. And only through force can real peace be established.”

Russia is open to talks with US President-elect Donald Trump but will use “any means” to prevent Washington and its allies from defeating it in Ukraine, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told US journalist Tucker Carlson.

In an 80-minute interview released late on Thursday, Mr Lavrov spoke positively of Mr Trump, who returns to the White House next month, despite urging the West to take Russia’s “red lines” seriously.

Mr Lavrov said Mr Trump was “a very strong person, a person who wants results” and said he saw no reason why the two countries could not “cooperate for the sake of the universe”.

Mr Lavrov’s comments were part of a pattern of Russian signals designed to deter Washington from further escalation in support of Ukraine while displaying openness to negotiations.

Read more on the interview here:

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus on Friday to sign a treaty offering security guarantees for Moscow’s closest ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel an aggression.

The signing of the document follows the publication of a revised version of Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which for the first time placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella amid the tensions between Moscow and the West over the Ukrainian conflict.

Speaking alongside Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin emphasized that the new document includes the potential use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed to Belarus in response to an aggression.

“I’m sure that the treaty will ensure the security of Russia and Belarus,” Putin said in televised remarks.

After the two leaders signed the security pact, Lukashenko asked Putin to deploy more advanced weapons in Belarus, including the Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile that Russia used for the first time last month against Ukraine.

“I would like to publicly ask you to deploy new weapons systems, primarily Oreshnik, to Belarus,” Lukashenko said. “It will help calm some heads.”

A leading Estonian defence firm has said it will start testing anti-drone missiles in Ukraine in 2025.

The tests intend to check the system’s effectiveness in real combat conditions, Frankenburg Technologies said.

Recognised as Europe’s top technology startup, Frankenburg Technologies has developed missiles to intercept Iranian Shahed drones at altitudes of two kilometres using artificial intelligence for autonomous targeting.

“The technology is promising, and we will start testing it in Ukraine in the new year,” the company’s CEO Kusti Salm told Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR.

Production will start increase from a few dozen units per week to hundreds by the third quarter of 2025.

Russia’s top diplomat said in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released on Friday that Moscow doesn’t want a war with the United States but will use “all means” to defend its interests.

Sergey Lavrov argued that while Russia and the U.S. are officially not at war, Washington’s permission for Ukraine to use American longer-range missiles for strikes on Russian territory marked a dangerous escalation.

“It is obvious that the Ukrainians would not be able to do what they’re doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the American servicemen. And this is dangerous, no doubt about this,” he said, adding that the Western belief that Russia’s red lines could be “moved again and again” is “a very serious mistake.”

Read the full report here.