Volodymyr Zelenskiy insists US and European support for war will continue; Vladimir Putin says Moscow will ‘not give up what is ours’

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Ukraine’s president is speaking to the world’s media at an end-of-year press conference

Russian air defences downed a hostile drone near Moscow on Tuesday, the city mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said. No casualties were reported.

Two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had restricted flights, a measure often taken during drone attacks.

Russia has destroyed almost every building in easterm Ukranian city of Avdiivka, according to a new report

Russia has no interest in fighting with Nato country, Vladimir Putin says, but says he will send military units near border with Finland. This live blog is closed

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 662

A Ukrainian military intelligence officer is undertaking sabotage missions in Russia that he claims do not have the approval of his superiors, according to this dispatch from south-eastern Ukraine in the Sunday Times.

It comes as the frontlines of the war calcify into something of a stalemate with the onset of bitter winter, boosting the significance of other forms of warfare in Kyiv’s fight against Moscow’s invasion. In this case, without the approval of senior officers.

Mykola is an officer in the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry. He trains operatives for secret missions in Russia: sabotage, poisonings, assassinations, diversions. He claims they are unauthorised by the chain of command above him.

Last week, he invited me to his training centre in south-east Ukraine, a place so secret that before we even got in his car, I had to switch off my phone and seal it in a bag that blocks out all signals.

Often, when Kostiantyn Grygorenko walks the streets of Izium, he spots people he suspects collaborated with the Russians during the five-month occupation of his home town last year.

He used to feel an overwhelming rush of emotions when he saw them. Now, he tries to conserve his energy and nerves and ignore them. But still, it gets to him.

Vladimir Putin vows to make Russia self-sufficient power in face of west and warns of ‘problems’ with neighbouring Finland

Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to make Russia a “sovereign, self-sufficient” power in the face of the west. In a campaign speech he accused the west of unsuccessfully trying to “sow internal troubles” in Russia.

Putin also warned of “problems” with neighbouring Finland after it joined Nato earlier this year. Russia plans to reorganise military divisions to station more troops in its north-west region, by the EU and Nato border.

But Putin dismissed US president Joe Biden’s claims that Russia could attack a Nato country as “nonsense”. It came after Biden said Putin would not stop at Ukraine if it secures victory, as he pleaded with Republican lawmakers to authorise further aid to Kyiv.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington DC last week has yet to bear fruit as Biden called lack of Congressional support for aid a “Christmas gift” to Russia. Biden has requested $61.4bn (£48.4bn) in further aid to Ukraine but Republicans in Republicans in Congress have rejected the proposals.

Russia is not interested in extending the Black Sea grain deal, the agriculture minister said. The deal led to 33m tonnes of grain leave Ukraine’s ports before it collapsed in July.

Ukraine claims Russia has suffered almost 350,000 troops dying or being injured. The figure is higher than the 315,000 estimated by US intelligence, according to reports, but even that represents a significant toll for Moscow.

Ukraine continued its use of ‘memetic warfare’ as the defence ministry posted a video of two Russian tanks being destroyed, with guitar music and the caption “WELCOME TO UKRAINE.” Scholars have tracked the use of memes to try and grab control of the war narrative.

An intelligence report from the UK Ministry of Defence said Russia is likely to deploy “electoral fraud and voter intimidation” when elections take place in occupied Ukrainian territories. Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will vote in March’s presidential elections but they are expected to not be “free or fair”.

It comes as Vladimir Putin was confirmed to be running for president again as an independent candidate in Russia after two decades in power. Russian news agencies reported the news on Saturday, with the victory of Putin, 71, a formality.

Russia continued to batter Ukrainian targets with mortars overnight, with Dnipro in the centre, Sumy in the north and Zaporizhzhia in the south-east hit with artillery.

Russian rocket forces have loaded a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo at the Kozelsk base south-west of Moscow. The missiles are capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads.

More than a year after the Russians retreated from Izium, the Ukrainian city is wracked by suspicion and distrust about collaborators. Read Shaun Walker’s Observer dispatch from a city still in ruins here.

Lorry blockades are continuing at the Polish-Ukrainian border. Polish drivers say Ukraine is undercutting them as about 2,150 Ukrainian lorries remain stuck in Poland unable to return.

Russian leader conducts first end of year press conference since start of invasion

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 659

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, lost an appeal on Thursday to be released from jail and will remain in custody at least until 30 January.

Gershkovich was arrested on 29 March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.

EU leaders prepare for showdown with Hungary over Ukrainian membership talks; more than 50 injured in Russian missile attack on Kyiv

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Russia launched a massive missile attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday in an apparent show of strength, minutes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met his US counterpart Joe Biden for talks in Washington. Ukraine’s air defences shot down all 10 Russian missiles targeting the capital but least 53 people were injured by falling debris.

EU leaders were heading into a high-stakes summit for Ukraine, with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán threatening to block both the start of EU membership talks and 50bn euros ($54bn) in financial aid for Kyiv. If EU leaders give a green light, Kyiv will be able to claim a geopolitical victory just as the Biden administration is struggling to get a Ukraine aid package through the US congress.

Ahead of Thursday’s summit, Zelenskiy said that Orban had no reason to block Ukraine’s EU membership. “I was very direct … He has no reasons to block Ukrainian membership in the EU. I asked him to tell me one reason … I’m [still] waiting for an answer,” Zelenskiy said about his short encounter with Orban in Argentina on Sunday.

Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also urged EU countries to recognise that Ukraine has “much to offer” the bloc. “Values-wise and ideologically, Ukraine is an indisputable part of Europe – which is precisely why Russia attacked us … Without Ukraine, the ‘Europe’ puzzle cannot come together,” he said.

Arriving at the summit in Brussels, Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, said that “apathy on Ukraine” was “unacceptable”. Poland’s previous government had become embroiled in a row with Ukraine over grain exports but new foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski also stressed that supporting Ukraine would be a “priority” for the new administration.

The five Nordic nations told Zelenskiy during previously unannounced talks in Oslo that they would support his country “for as long as it takes” in its struggle to drive out Russian forces. Together, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland have provided aid to Ukraine worth 11bn euros since Russia invaded in February 2022 and are ready to continue giving extensive military, economic and humanitarian support, the five nations said in a joint statement.

Denmark’s government would present a new support package for Ukraine worth 1 bn euros ($1.08bn) to parliament on Thursday, prime minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference in Oslo with the Nordic leaders and Zelenskiy in Oslo.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is expected to hold his annual end of the year press conference on 14 December. The event will include a call-in known as the “direct line”, in which Russians can ask Putin for his advice. “On December 14, Vladimir Putin will sum up the results of the year. It will be a combined format of the direct line and the president’s final press conference,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday.

Ukraine’s top mobile phone operator, Kyivstar, started restoring voice services to some clients a day after its networks were knocked out by a major cyber-attack, Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said, with data and other services to follow. The company, which provides services to more than half of Ukraine’s population, sustained “huge” damage during the attack on Tuesday, Komarov told Reuters, calling it “the biggest cyber-attack on telco infrastructure in the world”.

A hacking group believed by Kyiv to be affiliated with Russian military intelligence claimed responsibility for the cyber-attack. A group of activist hackers, or “hacktivists”, called Solntsepyok said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that it carried out the cyber-attack, and published screenshots appearing to show that the hackers had accessed Kyivstar’s servers.