Russia-Ukraine war latest: President Zelenskiy reveals number of Ukrainian casualties as President Trump calls for immediate ceasefire

Denmark has delivered a second batch of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a weekend trip to Paris to meet with top politicians and officials.

Mr. Zelensky praised Denmark in a telegram message and lamented the lack of commitment from other allies.

“The first wave of planes provided by the Danes has already shot down Russian missiles and rescued our people and infrastructure. Now our air shield is further strengthened,” he said. “If all partners were so determined, we could have made Russian terrorism impossible.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad highlighted Russia’s weakness and inability to fight on two fronts.

Starting in 2015, Russia strengthened Mr. Assad’s regime by carrying out airstrikes against rebel targets, operating from two bases in Syrian territory.

However, Moscow’s 33-month invasion of Ukraine has depleted significant military resources.

“The events in Syria demonstrate the weakness of the Putin regime, which is unable to fight on two fronts and is abandoning its closest ally in order to continue its attacks on Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. said.

Russia earlier announced that al-Assad had stepped down and left the country after ordering a peaceful transfer of power, but where is he now and are there any plans for Russian troops to remain in Syria? was not disclosed.

The HUR Information Directorate posted on its Telegram app that Russian forces in Syria “withdrew their warships from the naval base in Tartus, which President Assad had allowed Moscow to use as a security payment.”

President Donald Trump has urged Russian leader Vladimir Putin to take action towards an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine, indicating that the president-elect will take no aggressive steps to end the war, even though he is weeks away from taking office. He explained that this is part of an ongoing effort.

“Mr. Zelensky and Ukraine want to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump wrote on social media, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a television interview aired yesterday, Trump said he was open to cutting military aid to Ukraine and withdrawing the United States from NATO. These two threats have alarmed many in Ukraine, NATO allies, and U.S. national security officials.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he was actively working to end the nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine, Trump answered, “Yes.”

He declined to say whether he had spoken to Putin since his November election victory. “I don’t want to say anything about that because I don’t want to do anything that could preclude negotiations,” the U.S. president-elect said.

Canada has announced that it will outlaw 324 additional types of firearms. The Minister of Public Safety said these guns belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters.

Ottawa also said it is working with the Ukrainian government on how guns can be donated to help fight Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The measure follows a ban on 1,500 makes and models of firearms in May 2020, a number that rose to more than 2,000 by November this year as new variants were identified.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States would provide an additional $988 million in long-term arms assistance to Ukraine.

“The baton will be passed soon,” Austin said. “Others will decide our future course, and I hope they will build on the strength we have built over the past four years.”

The latest package will include more drones and ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

The package is in addition to $725 million in military aid announced by the United States on Monday.

A major Estonian defense company has announced that it will begin testing anti-drone missiles in Ukraine in 2025.

Frankenberg Technologies said the test was aimed at confirming the system’s effectiveness in real-world combat situations.

Frankenburg Technologies, known as Europe’s top technology startup, has developed a missile that uses artificial intelligence for autonomous targeting to intercept Iran’s Shahed drone at an altitude of two kilometers.

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

Production is expected to begin increasing from dozens to hundreds of pieces per week by the third quarter of 2025.

Russia is open to talks with US President-elect Donald Trump but will use “all means” to prevent the US and its allies from defeating Russia in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US journalist Tucker. -Told Carlson.

In an 80-minute interview published late Thursday, Lavrov affirmed Trump’s return to the White House next month, even as he urged Western countries to take Russia’s “red lines” seriously. He spoke in detail.

Lavrov said Trump is a “very strong person and a person who wants results” and said there was no reason why the two countries could not “cooperate for the sake of space.”

Mr. Lavrov’s comments were part of a pattern of Russian signals aimed at deterring further escalation of U.S. support for Ukraine while showing openness to negotiations.

Around 32.5% of the budget posted on the government’s website earlier this month was allocated to defence, amounting to 13.5 trillion rubles (over £107bn), compared to 28.3% this year, according to a report. Exceeds.

Members of both the Russian parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council approved the plan.

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

President Putin responded to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s request at a summit in Minsk, and the two leaders signed a mutual defense agreement.

“…We today signed a security agreement using all available forces and means, so we consider it feasible to deploy systems like Oleshnik on the territory of the Republic of Belarus,” Putin said. said.

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

Russia first fired the Oreshnik towards Dnipro, Ukraine, on November 21, the first time Ukraine used the US ATACM ballistic missile and the UK Storm Shadow to attack Russian territory with Western permission. It was a response to President Putin’s actions.