Russia Ukraine war live: Putin ‘open to nuclear tests’ as Zelensky discusses ending ‘hot phase of war’

Myroslav Herasymovych died on 25 November just four days before turning 57, his brother Taras Kulyk confirmed on Facebook.

“In the battle with Russia, my brother, Myroslav, gave away his life in the city of Avdiivk, Donetsk region,” Mr Kulyk wrote on Friday about his brother whose real name is Myroslav Kulyk, according to Ukrainska Pravda. He shared a picture of his brother wearing a military uniform.

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Ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, which is expected to spark talks to end the conflict, Mr Johnson said British troops should be sent to Ukraine to maintain a ceasefire.

Speaking to The Telegraph’s Ukraine: The Latest podcast, he said: “I don’t think we should be sending in combat troops to take on the Russians.

“But I think as part of the solution, as part of the end state, you’re going to want to have multinational European peace-keeping forces monitoring the border [and] helping the Ukrainians.

“I cannot see that such a European operation could possibly happen without the British.”

The former PM said Western countries should ensure Russia cannot simply re-arm and launch another attack on Ukraine down the line by making clear what security guarantees are on offer.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law Ukraine’s first wartime tax increases as the war against Russia reaches its 34th month.

Finance minister Serhiy Marchenkko said that the bill was vital to ensure smooth funding for the Ukrainian defence sector next year. The changes will take effect from Sunday, he said.

The government is raising the war tax for residents to 5 per cent from 1.5 per cent paid currently on personal income and is introducing the war tax for tens of thousands of individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.

It also increases some rental payments, taxes commercial banks’ profits at 50 per cent, and raises taxes on the profits of other financial institutions to 25 per cent.

The tax increases would help raise about 140 billion hryvnias (£2.8bn) in additional revenues next year to fund Ukraine’s defence efforts at a critical juncture of the war as Kyiv is battling with a much bigger and better-equipped enemy.

The head of MI6 has accused Russia of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe to undermine support against Vladimir Putin’s push to turn Ukraine into a “vassel state”.

“In 37 years in the intelligence profession I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state. And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious,” Sir Richard Moore said, adding that if “Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state he will not stop there.”

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Explosions were heard across the country as damage to the energy and other critical infrastructure was reported by officials in cities in the west, south and centre of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia used cruise missiles with cluster munitions in Thursday’s attack, calling it a “vile escalation”.

In this article, The Independent takes a look at why Russia is launching so many strikes and the likely impact of them on Ukraine.

Russia has suffered more than 2,000 casualties in a single day, Ukraine’s military has claimed, in what would mark the heaviest toll of losses inflicted on Vladimir Putin’s forces at any point in the war so far.

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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his need to speak to Donald Trump directly without “different voices from people around him” that could risk destroying their communication, my colleague Holly Patrick reports.

In a wide-ranging interview with Sky News, Mr Zelensky said he did not want to allow “anybody [around] to destroy our communication.”

Vladimir Putin’s youngest daughter is an occasional DJ who has lived in Paris under a pseudonym, according to reports.

While the Russian president officially has two daughters with his ex-wife, who has remarried as Lyudmila Ocheretnaya after she and Putin were divorced in 2014, he is also alleged to have had a daughter with a woman named Svetlana Krivonogikh.

Her daughter Elizaveta has now been reported in Ukrainian media to haved lived in Paris under the name Elizaveta Olegovna Rudnova, and to have studied at the ICART international school of art management.

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Ukraine’s air force has warned that Russia was using thermal and radar decoys to trick Ukrainian air defences, and putting electronic warfare devices on its missiles.

“All this significantly complicates the operation of Soviet-made anti-aircraft missile systems. Western systems work much more effectively in such conditions, but Ukraine does not have enough to reliably cover hundreds of critical infrastructure facilities,” the air force said.

It said foggy weather conditions also made it harder for machine gunners to spot drones, as Russia launched a large-scale attack this week on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

There is no reason to think Russia is going to run out of steam any time soon in its attacks on Ukraine, an analyst has warned.

Warning that a ceasefire in the conflict is “a terrible idea” which would hand Vladimir Putin time to regroup for another attack, Keir Giles of the Chatham House think-tank told The Independent that Russia’s heavy assaults in Ukraine’s east are “probably” sustainable, at least in the short term.

“Especially if there is not a Western response which dissuades Russia from expanding that North Korean group into something which is militarily significant and actually brings increased pressure to bear on the Ukrainians,” said Mr Giles, author of the recently published book Who Will Defend Europe?

“And especially if they can keep up their campaign of pressure both militarily and against Ukraine functioning as a state through these attacks on critical infrastructure.

“There’s no reason to think Russia is going to run out of steam any time soon. Eventually of course, they’ll find it is not sustainable. But that’s in the medium-term, and we have to survive the short-term in the meantime.”