Ukraine war live: Putin ‘rapidly rearming for possible attack on Nato’

Donald Trump has said he would likely impose sanctions on Russia if its president Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

“We’re talking to (Ukrainian president Volodymyr) Zelensky, we’re going to be talking with president Putin very soon,” Mr Trump said. “We’re going to look at it.”

Mr Trump said he has also pressed Chinese president Xi Jinping in a call to intervene to stop the Ukraine war.

“He’s not done very much on that. He’s got a lot of… power, like we have a lot of power. I said, ‘You ought to get it settled.’ We did discuss it.”

Mr Trump gave no details on possible additional sanctions. The US has already sanctioned Russia heavily for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ending the war in Ukraine will only be possible if both sides are willing to make compromises, the new US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said.

In a conversation with journalists immediately after being confirmed in his role, he said according to CNN: “We want the war to end. That’s pretty clear.

“You saw the President talked about, he wants to be a president that promotes peace and ends conflicts, and it’ll be complicated as well.

“Those are complicated things. I couldn’t put a time frame on it, other than to say that anytime you bring an end to a conflict between two sides, neither of whom can achieve their maximum goals, each side is going to have to give up something.”

Achieving peace is a priority for president Donald Trump’s administration, Mr Rubio added. He did not specify what type of concessions Ukraine would need to make.

Ukrainian forces hit a Russian aviation factory in the Smolensk region and an oil depot in the Voronezh region on Tuesday, its military said.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Kyiv’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said according to Ukrainska Pravda: “This plant [the Smolensk Aviation Plant] is closely connected with other businesses of the Russian defence industrial base, supplying components or involved in collaboration to create modern aircraft systems.”

The Voronezh strike is the second time Ukraine has hit Liskinskaya oil depot in the past week.

Ukraine has increased the regularity of its long-range strikes into Russia for the past several months, damaging energy infrastructure and military-industrial facilities.

A Russian disinformation campaign is seeking to support the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaign ahead of the country’s February election, a think tank has found.

An analysis of hundreds of German-language posts on X over the past month have exhibited patterns of Russia’s Doppelgaenger disinformation campaign against the West.

The campaign spreads links to falsified Western news outlets sharing fake information, a German foreign ministry report published last June. Russia has consistently denied involvement.

Recent posts have blamed the Greens for Germany’s economic woes, criticised chancellor Olaf Scholz’s support for Ukraine, and spoken in favour of the AfD, CeMAS said.

The tracked posts share links to falsified German news websites or to articles on authentic ones supporting their narrative, and have achieved over 2.8 million views, CeMAS said.

Donald Trump’s presidency in the US will prompt a right-wing surge in Europe, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said on Monday, as he called for an offensive to “occupy” Brussels.

Mr Orban envisaged a “golden era” for relations between the US and Hungary, with Mr Trump’s presidency beginning from today, 20 January.

“Only a few hours and even the sun will shine differently in Brussels. A new president in the US, a large faction of Patriots in Brussels, great enthusiasm,” Mr Orban said. “So the great attack can start. Hereby I launch the second phase of the offensive that aims to occupy Brussels.”

Mr Orban’s hard-right Fidesz party formed the Patriots party group in the European Parliament last year. Led by France’s National Rally, the group has become the third largest in parliament with 86 members.

A pro-Russian candidate currently leads the Romanian polls four months before a crucial election in May.

Calin Georgescu, the far-right candidate who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine in its defense against Putin’s invasion, is the voters’ top choice ahead of a re-run of a presidential election.

The European Union state’s top court annulled the initial presidential election two days before the second round of voting, due to allegations of Russian interference.

The election of Georgescu would be a critical blow for Ukraine, which has relied on Romania to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.

Georgescu is critical of NATO and has praised Romania’s fascist leaders of the 1930s. The EU court said he had benefited from a social media campaign likely orchestrated by Russia – Moscow denied the accusations.

But the latest polls for the first round show Georgescu set to gain 38 percent of the vote, with Crin Antonescu, leader of the pro-European governing coalition, sitting at just 25 percent.

The chief of Russia’s $23 billion sovereign wealth fund said new US president Donald Trump’s decisive leadership could “change the course of history” on Tuesday.

His praise came after MR Trump signed a batch of executive orders straight after his inauguration. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said Mr Trump’s actions could boost growth and open opportunities for dialogue.

“President Trump’s bold actions today prove that decisive leadership can change the course of history, unlocking economic growth and transforming global challenges into opportunities for dialogue and resolution through problem solving,” Mr Dmitriev said.

Mr Dmitriev, who is currently under US sanctions deemed illegal by Russian officials, is a US-educated former Goldman Sachs banker who played a key role in early contracts between Moscow and Trump’s first administration, after election in 2016.

In Ukraine’s capital, they know that the 47th president of the US is no particular friend. They also believe he’s potty about Vladimir Putin, and that may be to their advantage when Trump comes around to renewing military support for a nation fighting off the Kremlin.

World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Russia would need 100 years to conquer all of Ukraine if it continued gaining territory at its current “slow” rate, according to the Foreign Secretary.

David Lammy said Vladimir Putin could end the conflict tomorrow by withdrawing from Ukraine, adding that the Russian president’s position is “not one of strength” as the invasion has been a “monumental strategic failure”.

He also said US President Donald Trump understands the importance of the war in Ukraine and “is not prepared to be a loser”, as he sought to allay concerns over the approach of the US under the new administration.

A North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine has said he did not know who he would be fighting against or where he would fight.

In the recording of the interview, posted by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on X, the soldier says he arrived with Russia along with 100 fellow North Koreans on a ship, before being later transported by train.

The soldier, who had joined the army aged 17 as a conscript, said some of his compatriots were trained on heavy Russian military equipment – but that he did not go through this training.

“I didn’t know before coming to Russia that I would be fighting here, in Russia and I didn’t even know who we were fighting against,” the soldier told Ukrainian investigators.

“There were a lot of casualties when I was there alone, starting from the battle on Jan. 3. Overall, it’s hard to answer about such large-scale numbers.”

When asked what he knew about the world outside of North Korea, he said: “Not much.” Asked what he knows about South Korea, he said: “I only know that South Korea has fewer mountains than North Korea.”