Ukraine-Russia war: Putin’s troops disguised as Ukrainians in assault on key city

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s war against Ukraine will “end sooner” after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office next year.

“It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House,” he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne yesterday.

“This is their approach, their promise to their citizens.”Mr Trump has attempted to foster relations with both the Ukrainian and Russian presidents since he defeated vice president Kamala Harris at the ballot this month.

Deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s war against Ukraine is a “grave escalation” of the conflict, German chancellor Olaf Scholz told Vladimir Putin during their first phone call in nearly two years.

German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Mr Scholz urged Mr Putin in the hour-long call to withdraw his troops and end the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

The Kremlin said the conversation between the two leaders was “detailed and frank” on the situation in Ukraine.

Russian forces have breached the outskirts of Ukraine’s northeastern city Kupiansk, part of a region it briefly held after first invading Ukraine, military officials said.

Moscow’s forces attacked the region in four waves and used soldiers disguised as Ukrainian troops but were repelled from the city by Kyiv’s forces, Ukraine’s General Staff said. But why does the control of Kupiansk, a significant rail hub in the area, matter?

Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of the February 2022 invasion and then liberated by Ukraine in a counteroffensive months later.

Vladimir Putin’s forces deployed 15 pieces of hardware in their assault on Kupiansk, including tanks and armoured vehicles, as they attempt to expand offensive operations on a sprawling more-than-1,000km front, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Russian attack looked opportunistic and Kyiv appeared to have isolated and destroyed most of the Russian forces that penetrated the outskirts of Kupiansk, Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group, said.

“However, a penetration like that certainly signals confusion and weakness in Ukrainian defences in that area, which could prompt the local Russian commanders to increase their efforts to squeeze or cut off the Ukrainian salient,” he added.

He said the coming days would likely indicate whether the Kremlin was going to react to this by ramping up attacks there further.

Ukraine is fighting to liberate all territory captured by Russia in the last decade, and any claim that Kyiv is shifting its focus in the war to prioritise security over land is false, the country’s defence minister has said.

“Territorial integrity is part of our values,” Rustem Umerov told a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo.

When asked about reports that Ukraine is shifting its focus in the war, Mr Umerov said this was false and part of Russian propaganda efforts.

“Our priority is still to protect people, protect the nation, to liberate people from almost 10 years of temporary occupation, so Crimea and Donbas [are] part of Ukraine,” he said, adding that people living in territories held by Russia are all waiting to be liberated.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia’s war against his country will “end sooner” under US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

“The war will end, but there is no exact date. Of course, with the policy of this team, which will now lead the White House, the war will end sooner,” he told Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne.

He stressed that “fair peace” is vital for Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Olaf Scholz had a “detailed and frank exchange of views” on Ukraine in their first phone call since 2022, the Kremlin has said.

According to the Kremlin, the Russian president set out the same position he has been stating for months – that any peace deal must address Moscow’s security interests and be based on “new territorial realities”, a reference to the fact that Russian troops now control a fifth of Ukraine.

Mr Putin also spoke of an “unprecedented degradation” in relations between the two countries, for which he blamed unfriendly actions by Germany, the Kremlin claimed, following Russia’s decision to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine in 2022.

Mr Putin claimed in June that the war could end if Kyiv gave up its Nato ambitions and handed over the entirety of four regions claimed by Russia. Ukraine rejected those conditions as tantamount to surrender and merely enabling Russia to regroup before mounting another attack on Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin has told Germany’s Olaf Scholz that Russia is ready to look at energy deals if Berlin is interested, the Kremlin has said, following their first phone conversation since December 2022.

A readout from the Kremlin claimed: “It was emphasised that Russia has always strictly fulfilled its treaty and contractual obligations in the energy sector and is ready for mutually beneficial cooperation if the German side shows interest in this.”

Germany was heavily reliant on Russian gas before the war, but direct shipments ceased when the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.

Germany and other European Union countries have imposed successive waves of sanctions on Russia over the war and taken steps to wean themselves off their dependence on Russian oil and gas.