Residents in Ukraine’s capital defiant, with many ready to fight – but they also have other concerns

At weekends Yevgeny Tereshchenko goes to the woods outside Kyiv and practises his shooting. “We need to be ready, morally and physically,” Tereshchenko explained, showing off a video in which he springs athletically into action and fires a rifle several times.

A Ukrainian army officer until two years ago, Tereshchenko is preparing for a possible Russian attack. If Moscow does launch a further military operation against Ukraine, assuming diplomatic talks fail this week, he and his friends are ready to fight, he said. “There are a lot of us. It’s our house, our country,” he pointed out.

Sergei Lavrov says Moscow may be forced to ‘eliminate unacceptable threats to our security’ following Biden-Putin call

Russia’s top diplomat has warned the west that its “aggressive” approach to Ukraine and threat of sanctions could force Moscow to “eliminate unacceptable threats to our security”, after a high-stakes conversation between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden failed to deescalate the crisis.

The remarks by the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, were published shortly after the Russian and US presidents held a 50-minute telephone call in which the two sides traded threats regarding tensions over Ukraine.

In Kyiv and beyond, people carry on with the festive season despite rhetoric about imminent conflict

Russia is threatening war on Ukraine, but in Kyiv the city council is putting up Christmas trees rather than bomb shelter notices, and organising concerts rather than army recruitment drives.

Amid a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s eastern border and in annexed Crimea, hostile rhetoric between Russia and the US and its allies is edging towards a cold war high, with Ukraine the battlefield for any actual fighting. Ukrainians, however, just emerging from Covid quarantine, are enjoying ice rinks and markets put up for the holiday season and would rather think about how to celebrate the coming new year.