Vladimir Putin has vowed to back soldiers who defend Russia’s interests and ordered his government to give greater support to those who fight – after two people were killed in the latest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine.
Speaking on the eve of Orthodox Christmas, the Russian president said on Saturday while meeting families of soldiers killed in Ukraine: “Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, Russian warriors, even now, on this holiday, defend the interests of our country with arms in hand.”
Last year Mr Putin called for a ceasefire in Ukraine to coincide with the holiday, which many Orthodox Christians celebrate on 6-7 January, but this year he made no such remark.
Image: Vladimir Putin with the families of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine
State TV showed Mr Putin attending an intimate midnight service, known as the Divine Liturgy, with a small group of families at a chapel at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside of Moscow.
Russian soldiers marked Orthodox Christmas on Sunday, with Russia’s Defence Ministry saying military priests led prayer services on the front line of the war this weekend.
Image: Russian priests conduct Orthodox Christmas services for soldiers in Ukraine. Pics: AP
Image: Pic: AP
Meanwhile, two people were killed and several others wounded in Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, local officials said.
Ukraine said Russia launched 28 drones and cruise missiles in attacks mostly on the south and east overnight, adding that its air defence systems destroyed 21 of the drones.
Twelve people were injured in a drone attack in Dnipro city, Dnipropetrovsk authorities said on Telegram.
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1:15
Moments after Russian strike on Ukraine
Elsewhere more than 100 residents of the Russian border city of Belgorod evacuated to an area further from the Ukrainian border, local officials said. Ukrainian attacks on the city on 30 December killed 25 people there, the officials said, with rocket and drone attacks continuing throughout this week.
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Russia fired almost 300 missiles and used more than 200 drones in attacks in the last days of 2023 and the first days of 2024.
Image: Rescuers at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone attack in Dnipro
Image: Firefighters at the aftermath of a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in Pokrovsk. Pic: AP
Russia can be defeated, Zelenskyy says
Moscow’s assault on Ukraine can be defeated, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding the situation on the battlefield remains relatively stable.
“Even Russia can be brought back within the framework of international law. Its aggression can be defeated,” the Ukrainian president told a conference in Sweden via video link on Sunday.
The war has shown Europe must develop joint weapons production to ensure the continent can “preserve itself” under any global situation that might arise, Mr Zelenskyy added.
“Two years of this war have proven that Europe needs its own sufficient arsenal for the defence of freedom, its own capabilities to ensure defence,” he said.
Image: Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking via video link at a defence conference in Sweden
Mr Zelenskyy will continue to seek support from allies in 2024 and will welcome the support of Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Bilstrom, who told the conference the primary task of Sweden’s foreign policy in the coming years will be to support Ukraine.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa also pledged her country’s continued support for Ukraine when she visited Kyiv – and was forced to hold a news conference in a shelter due to an air raid alert.
Donald Trump has said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call with Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News.
Mr Trump said the Russian president’s recent comments, calling for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine in a move that could effectively push out Mr Zelenskyy, were “not going in the right direction”.
He told NBC’s Kirsten Welker: “If I feel we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when Putin said yesterday that – you know, when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy’s credibility, because that’s not going in the right direction.”
It is a rare move by Mr Trump to criticise Mr Putin, whom he has generally spoken positively about during discussions to end the war in Ukraine.
Last month, he also released a barrage of critical comments about Mr Zelenskyy’s leadership, calling him a “dictator” and making unfounded claims that he had “poor approval” ratings in Ukraine.
The president added that if Russia is unable to make a deal on “stopping bloodshed in Ukraine” – and Mr Trump felt that Moscow was to blame – then he would put secondary tariffs on “all oil coming out of Russia”.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil,” he said.
‘Industrial language’ shows Trump in two-way negotiation
Industrial language from the US president.
“Very angry” and “p***ed off” he said he was with Vladimir Putin.
What’s upsetting him is an intervention by the Russian leader at the end of last week.
Mr Putin questioned Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy – he said a peace agreement brokered by the Ukrainian president could be challenged by future governments.
Donald Trump didn’t like that and doesn’t see that as productive in terms of progress towards peace.
A rare rebuke from Mr Trump for Mr Putin on the face of it, the like of which we have not heard from the president for a while.
Remember that Mr Trump himself has undermined the credibility of Mr Zelenskyy in the past, so clearly Trump is in the middle of a two-way negotiation.
This has the sound, at least, of an even-handedness, that for most outside Moscow has been lacking on the part of the US president up until now.
Mr Trump said Mr Putin knows he is angry, but added that he has “a very good relationship with him” and “the anger dissipates quickly… if he does the right thing”.
He said he plans to speak with the Russian president again this week.
In the wide-ranging interview with NBC, Mr Trump also discussed:
• The possibility of seeking a third term in office; • Imposing secondary tariffs on Iran; • Not ruling out military rule to annex Greenland; • Confirmed no one will be fired over Signal group chat blunder.
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When asked if he will seek to stay in the White House for a third term, which is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment, Mr Trump told NBC: “A lot of people want me to do it.”
He added: “I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current.”
The president said he liked working, and would be interested in staying in the role for another four years after his second term comes to an end in 2028.
“I’m not joking,” he said, when asked to clarify. “But I’m not – it is far too early to think about it.”
Mr Trump said one method in which a third term could be possible is by Vice President JD Vance running for office and then handing the responsibility over to him. He refused to share details on other methods he claims exist.
Image: Trump at the White House on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Threatening Iran with bombing and tariffs
Mr Trump said if Tehran did not make a deal with the US to ensure it did not develop a nuclear weapon, there could be bombing and secondary tariffs.
The tariffs would affect buyers of the country’s goods. It comes after he signed an executive order last week authorising such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that Iran had rejected direct negotiations with the US, but left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington.
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2:45
Marjorie Taylor Greene lashing out at Sky’s Martha Kelner
No one will be fired over Signal group chat blunder
Addressing the national security blunder, which saw a journalist mistakenly added to a Signal chat group discussing planned strikes on Yemen, Mr Trump confirmed no one will be fired.
It was revealed this week that national security adviser Michael Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat with senior members of the Trump administration who were discussing plans to strike Houthi militants earlier this month.
The president said he doesn’t fire people “because of fake news and because of witch hunts”, adding that he still had confidence in Mr Waltz and defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also in the Signal chat.
Military option to annex Greenland not off the table
Mr Trump also discussed his commitment to annexing Greenland – a semi-autonomous territory which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark – and said that using military force was “not off the table”.
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2:22
Why does the US want Greenland?
“We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%,” the president said. He added: “[There’s a] good possibility that we could do it without military force. [But] I don’t take anything off the table.”
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen responded to Mr Trump’s comments by reiterating that the US will not take control of the Arctic territory, and that it “controls its own future”.
An armed resistance group in Myanmar has accused the ruling military government of continuing to carry out airstrikes on “civilian areas” in the wake of the huge earthquake in the country.
The 7.7 magnitude quake struck near the city of Mandalay at around 12.50m local time (6.20am UK time) on Friday while Myanmar is in the grips of a bloody civil war.
The death toll from the quake stands at 1,700, with 3,400 others injured and 300 missing, according to pro-military government Telegram channels, citing the country’s rulers.
Image: Chinese rescuers prepare to carry out a search and rescue operation in Mandalay. Pic: Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua via AP)
But the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) predictive modelling estimates that the number of dead will increase into the thousands, and could reach 10,000.
It comes as rescue and relief efforts in the country have been hampered by the ongoing civil war, which has raged since 2021.
Image: Buddhist monks walk past a collapsed building in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Pic: AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo
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0:17
Monks film as building collapses
The Karen National Union (KNU), one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armies, has said in a statement that the military government, known as a junta, is continuing to “carry out airstrikes targeting civilian areas”.
It said the strikes come “even as the population suffers tremendously from the earthquake”.
The KNU said that under normal circumstances, the military would be prioritising relief efforts after an earthquake, but instead it is focused on “deploying forces to attack its people”.
The Free Burma Rangers, a relief organisation, said military jets launched airstrikes and drone attacks in Karen state, near the KNU headquarters, in the south of the country, shortly after the quake on Friday.
It came before there were reports of mortar and drone attacks on Saturday.
Image: A Karen National Union soldier in 2024. Pic: Reuters
The junta has not confirmed whether or not it has been carrying out strikes since the disaster.
The epicentre of the quake was in an area held by junta forces, but the devastation is widespread and also affected some territory held by armed resistance movements.
On Sunday, the opposition National Unity Government, which includes remnants of the government ousted in a 2021 coup, said anti-junta militias under its command would pause all offensive military action for two weeks.
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0:38
Rescuers look for survivors of Myanmar earthquake
Image: A Buddhist monk walks near a pagoda in Mandalay after the earthquake. Pic: AP
Richard Horsey, the senior Myanmar adviser at Crisis Group, which works to resolve armed conflicts, said some anti-junta forces have halted their offensives, but fighting continues elsewhere.
“The regime also continues to launch airstrikes, including in affected areas. That needs to stop,” he said.
He claimed that the junta was not providing much visible support in quake-hit areas.
“Local fire brigades, ambulance crews, and community organisations have mobilised, but the military – who would normally be mobilised to support in such a crisis – are nowhere to be seen,” Mr Horsey said.
Image: Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar. Pic: Reuters
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0:18
Building in Thailand collapses after earthquake
The junta has said the earthquake is one of Myanmar’s strongest in a century – while the USGS suggests financial losses due to the disaster could exceed the country’s annual economic output.
While emergency rescue teams have started trickling into the area hardest hit by the quake, efforts have been hindered by damaged roads, downed bridges, poor communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the middle of a civil war.
Many areas still have not been reached.
Image: Rescuers workers at the site of a collapsed building in Mandalay: Pic: Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua via AP
Image: A building tilts precariously in Mandalay, Myanmar. Pic: Reuters
Most rescues occur within the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival diminishing as each day passes.
Neighbouring Thailand was also shaken, such as in the capital, Bangkok, where 18 people were killed, including 11 who died when an under-construction skyscraper collapsed. At least 76 people are missing and believed to be trapped under the debris.
Twelve Chinese nationals are among the injured, according to Chinese state media.
Image: The earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand, and tremors also affected Laos, Vietnam, and Bangladesh
Image: Debris of a damaged building in Mandalay. Pic: AP
An initial report on earthquake relief efforts issued on Saturday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities in Myanmar.
And it warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers”.
India, China and Thailand are among the neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel.
The UK government has announced a package of £10m to support the people of Myanmar in the aftermath of the quake.
Four years of civil war
Myanmar has been locked in a conflict involving multiple armed opposition groups since a 2021 coup, when the military seized power from the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Many places are now dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach.
More than three million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.
Donald Trump has said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call with Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News.
Mr Trump said the Russian president’s recent comments, calling for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine in a move that could effectively push out Mr Zelenskyy, were “not going in the right direction”.
He told NBC’s Kirsten Welker: “If I feel we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when Putin said yesterday that – you know, when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy’s credibility, because that’s not going in the right direction.”
It is a rare move by Mr Trump to criticise Mr Putin, whom he has generally spoken positively about during discussions to end the war in Ukraine.
Last month, he also released a barrage of critical comments about Mr Zelenskyy’s leadership, calling him a “dictator” and making unfounded claims that he had “poor approval” ratings in Ukraine.
The president added that if Russia is unable to make a deal on “stopping bloodshed in Ukraine” – and Mr Trump felt that Moscow was to blame – then he would put secondary tariffs on “all oil coming out of Russia”.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil,” he said.
Mr Trump said Mr Putin knows he is angry, but added that he has “a very good relationship with him” and “the anger dissipates quickly… if he does the right thing”.
He said he plans to speak with the Russian president again this week.
In the wide-ranging interview with NBC, Mr Trump also discussed:
• The possibility of seeking a third term in office; • Imposing secondary tariffs on Iran; • Not ruling out military rule to annex Greenland; • Confirmed no one will be fired over Signal group chat blunder.
Spreaker
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When asked if he will seek to stay in the White House for a third term, which is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment, Mr Trump told NBC: “A lot of people want me to do it.”
He added: “I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current.”
The president said he liked working, and would be interested in staying in the role for another four years after his second term comes to an end in 2028.
“I’m not joking,” he said, when asked to clarify. “But I’m not – it is far too early to think about it.”
Mr Trump said one method in which a third term could be possible is by Vice President JD Vance running for office and then handing the responsibility over to him. He refused to share details on other methods he claims exist.
Image: Trump at the White House on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Threatening Iran with bombing and tariffs
Mr Trump said if Tehran did not make a deal with the US to ensure it did not develop a nuclear weapon, there could be bombing and secondary tariffs.
The tariffs would affect buyers of the country’s goods. It comes after he signed an executive order last week authorising such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that Iran had rejected direct negotiations with the US, but left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington.
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2:45
Marjorie Taylor Greene lashing out at Sky’s Martha Kelner
No one will be fired over Signal group chat blunder
Addressing the national security blunder, which saw a journalist mistakenly added to a Signal chat group discussing planned strikes on Yemen, Mr Trump confirmed no one will be fired.
It was revealed this week that national security adviser Michael Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat with senior members of the Trump administration who were discussing plans to strike Houthi militants earlier this month.
The president said he doesn’t fire people “because of fake news and because of witch hunts”, adding that he still had confidence in Mr Waltz and defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also in the Signal chat.
Military option to annex Greenland not off the table
Mr Trump also discussed his commitment to annexing Greenland – a semi-autonomous country which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark – and said that using military force was “not off the table”.
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2:22
Why does the US want Greenland?
“We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%,” the president said. He added: “[There’s a] good possibility that we could do it without military force. [But] I don’t take anything off the table.”
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen responded to Mr Trump’s comments by reiterating that the US will not take control of the Arctic country, and that it “controls its own future”.