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Donald Trump has said he sympathises with Vladimir Putin’s position that Ukraine should not be part of Nato, incorrectly accusing Joe Biden of changing US policy on the issue.
“A big part of the problem is, Russia – for many, many years, long before Putin – said, ‘You could never have Nato involved with Ukraine.’ Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone,” Mr Trump said, speaking at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.
“And somewhere along the line Biden said, ‘No. They should be able to join Nato’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”
Nato’s official position since 2008 has been that Ukraine should work towards membership, and that remains the case. No new invitation to join Nato has been offered, despite calls from Kyiv for the alliance to do so.
It comes as a major fire has erupted in an oil facility in the Russian city of Engels after a long range Ukrainian drone attack.
The Ukrainian military, who confirmed Kyiv’s involvement in the attack, said the facility provides fuel for Russian bomber planes responsible for launching missile attacks against Ukraine.
Footage released by a Ukrainian brigade has shown the devastating impact of Russia’s monthslong bombardment of the eastern Ukrainian city of Toretsk.
Russian forces entered the city in the Donetsk region in October and have been engaged in fierce street fighting ever since. They have relentlessly bombed the city in a bid to rid it of Ukraine’s defending soldiers.
Fighting intensified further in recent weeks. Reports this week suggested Russian forces had entered the northwest of the city.
Tom Watling8 January 2025 14:09
Russian forces captured an additional 0.5 per cent of Ukraine in 12 months of fighting last year, a war tracker has claimed.
Vladimir Putin’s troops slowly advanced through eastern Ukraine last year, capturing the city of Avdiivka in February and marching towards the city of Pokrovsk around 30 miles deeper into the country throughout the remainder of the year. They are now within a few miles of it’s outskirts.
This means that the total territory in Ukraine controlled by Russia amounts to 18.14 per cent.
Tom Watling8 January 2025 13:45
Tom Watling8 January 2025 13:13
More than a dozen Russian drones launched at Ukraine overnight crossed into Belarusian airspace, a report has found.
Dozens of Russian drones appear to have misfired and crossed into Belarus, an ally of Moscow, over the past three years.
Tom Watling8 January 2025 12:04
Finland’s public transport agency said on Wednesday that an oil tanker suspected of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea has been found to have serious deficiencies and will not be allowed to operate until repairs have been made.
Baltic Sea nations are on high alert following a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Nato military alliance has said it will boost its presence in the region.
Finnish police seized the Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on 26 December and said they suspected that the vessel had damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed.
While the police investigation is ongoing, Finnish authorities also checked the vessel’s condition in a port state inspection that was concluded on Wednesday.
“Correcting the deficiencies will require repair assistance from outside the vessel and will take time,” director of Maritime Affairs Sanna Sonninen at Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom said in a statement.
Tom Watling8 January 2025 11:00
Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
Editorial: Almost three years after Putin’s invasion, it almost beggars belief that cheap energy from Russia was still being piped across war-ravaged Ukraine into Europe. Stopping it has triggered another global price spiral, and may yet have dire political consequences – but EU leaders cannot afford to maintain this habit
Tom Watling8 January 2025 10:28
Below, you can see the latest updated maps of the front line in Ukraine and the Russian region of Kursk.
We have also highlighted the most significant flashpoints across the roughly 640-mile front line, including Kurakhove, which the Russians claimed to have captured at the start of this week.
Tom Watling8 January 2025 10:00
The governor of the Russian Saratov region has visited a damaged oil facility after a Ukrainian drone strike in the area caused a huge fire.
Governor of the Saratov region Roman Busargin, second right, speaks to firefighters and rescuers at the industrial side damaged after Ukrainian drones’ attack in Saratov, Russia (AP)
Tom Watling8 January 2025 09:38