Russia-Ukraine war live: Kremlin responds after Olaf Scholz makes surprise visit to Ukraine | Russia

Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has warned her Chinese counterpart that Beijing’s support for Moscow would impact ties and instead urged China to help end the war in Ukraine

Speaking in Beijing, she said the over 1,000-day war was affecting the whole world and North Korean troops being deployed to fight for Russia in Ukraine and the use of Chinese-made drones.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Baerbock urged an international peace process for Ukraine and said “that is why I am here in China today”, adding that every permanent member of the UN security council had a “responsibility for peace and security in the world”

“The Russian president is not only destroying our European peace order through his war against Ukraine, but is now dragging Asia into it via North Korea,” she told a press briefing.

“My Chinese counterpart and I have therefore discussed in depth that this cannot be in China’s interest either.

She met with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, for a “strategic dialogue” as Berlin seeks to build better ties with China while engaging on key differences.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the US and other western countries.

But it remains a close political and economic ally of Russia, and Nato members have said Beijing is a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.

“Drones from Chinese factories and North Korean troops attacking the peace in the middle of Europe are violating our core European security interests,” Baerbock said.

As we reported in the opening post, a Russian drone hit a residential building in the western city of Ternopil, killing at least one person and injuring several others, officials said on Monday.

Ternopil – a city with a population of about 225,000 – is far from the frontline and is not commonly targeted by Russian forces.

Serhiy Nadal, the head of the regional defence headquarters in Ternopil, said via Telegram that as result of the attack, a fire engulfed several flats on the top floor of a five-storey apartment building.

He said that residents from several apartments were evacuated and that emergency services were working at the scene. About 20 cars were reported to have been damaged in the yard of the building. Social media videos showed flames bursting out of the windows of a multi-storey apartment building in the darkness.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that retaking parts of Ukrainian territory may have to be achieved through diplomatic means, rather than military force.

In an interview with the Japanese news agency, Kyodo News, Zelenskyy said it is difficult to reclaim some of the Russian occupied parts of his country by force, including the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as things stand.

“Our army lacks the strength to do that. That is true,” Zelenskyy said. “We do have to find diplomatic solutions.”

He stressed that such steps could be considered “only when we know that we are strong enough” to prevent Russia from launching new aggression against Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s comments indicate a shift away from his long-held stance that his country will fight to regain all territory seized by Russia.

Zelenskyy has called on the outgoing Biden administration to help convince Nato members to invite Ukraine to join the alliance, as Russia continues to make battlefield gains. He said the conflict has entered a “complicated period”.

In October, he revealed a so-called victory plan, which contains a step that some crucial western allies have so far refused to countenance: inviting Ukraine to join Nato before the war ends.

As we mentioned in the opening summary, Olaf Scholz held an hour-long call with Vladimir Putin on 15 November, angering Kyiv as it was seen to weaken Europe’s attempt to isolate the Russian president.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it opened a “Pandora’s box” that undermined efforts to end the war in Ukraine with “a fair peace”.

Scholz defended the call with Putin, their first direct communication in almost two years, saying it was important to tell him he cannot count on German support for Ukraine to wane. Scholz reportedly condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine and called on Moscow to negotiate with Kyiv to come to a “fair and lasting peace”.

He also criticised Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops against Ukraine, describing it as a “grave escalation” of the conflict (according to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments, up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia as part of a major defence treaty between Russia and North Korea).

Scholz’s willingness to engage with Putin is likely to provoke frustration in Ukraine, whose future became uncertain after Donald Trump’s victory, as American military aid may be reduced during his presidency.

As the second biggest backer of Ukraine after the US, Germany faces concerns that it will be left to take on a far bigger share of the war effort if Trump carries out his threat to reduce support for Kyiv, my colleagues Pjotr Sauer and Kate Connolly note in this story.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, visited Ukraine for the first time in more than two and a half years on Monday.

The diplomatic trip comes just weeks after he was criticised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for having a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Their call came at a time of widespread speculation about what the new administration of president-elect Donald Trump will mean for Ukraine.

Scholz, who is under pressure from many voters to cut aid to Kyiv, said that, in his meeting with Zelenskyy, he will announce further military supplies this month totalling €650m (£539m). Zelenskyy is set to push Nato to invite Ukraine to join the military alliance at a meeting in Brussels this week.

“Ukraine can rely on Germany – we say what we do and we do what we say,” the German chancellor said.

In other developments:

• At least one person was killed and others injured in a Russian attack on Ternopil in western Ukraine, reports said on Monday morning. The city mayor, Serhiy Nadal, said a drone hit the fifth floor of an apartment building, starting a fire.

• Ukraine’s air force said on Monday that Russia launched 110 drone attacks the previous night. The air force shot down 52 while 50 were “lost”, likely due to electronic warfare, it said. One remained in Ukrainian airspace and six headed toward Belarus and Russia.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country needed security guarantees from Nato and more weapons to defend itself before any talks with Russia. He called for “steps forward with Nato” and a “good number” of long-distance weapons for Ukraine to defend itself. “Only when we have all these items and we are strong, after that, we have to make the very important … agenda of meeting with one or another of the killers,” he said, adding that the EU and Nato should be involved in any negotiations. Zelenskyy made the comments after meeting the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and the EU council chief, Antonio Costa, who were visiting Kyiv as a show of support on their first day in office.

• Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, on Monday warned her Chinese counterpart that Beijing’s support for Russia would “impact” ties. “Foreign minister Baerbock emphasised that the increasing Chinese support for Russia’s war against Ukraine has an impact on our relations, as core German and European security interests are affected,” according to a German foreign ministry spokesperson.