Russia-Ukraine war live: France’s new foreign minister pledges continued support for Ukraine in visit

U.S. President Joe Biden said during a press briefing on Saturday that Republicans will have “an awful lot to pay for” if they don’t help pass military aid for Ukraine.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a supplemental funding bill that included $61 billion in aid for Ukraine in a procedural vote held on Dec. 6. Republicans in both chambers of Congress had demanded stricter border regulations in exchange for their support, and they said the bill failed to meet their requirements. Ahead of the December 6 vote, Biden had delivered an address to urge Congress to pass the bill, warning that a failure to act would only benefit Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.

A former mayor of the Russian city of Vladivostok has enlisted to fight in Ukraine and departed for the front after he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Sunday, citing his lawyer.

Oleg Gumenyuk, a former Vladivostok mayor, was last year sentenced to 12 years in prison for taking bribes of 38 million roubles ($432,000). He served as mayor from 2018 to 2021, resigning amid a flurry of criticism of his record from local and federal officials, Reuters reports.

“According to an order issued to Gumenyuk, he was supposed to report to his military unit on December 22,” Kommersant cited Gumenyuk’s lawyer Andrei Kitaev as saying. Kitaev could not be reached for immediate comment.
Tens of thousands of Russian prisoners volunteered for service in Ukraine taking advantage of an offer of clemency for those who survive their stints at the front.

President Zelenskiy said he and Séjourné had discussed Ukraine’s defence needs including joint production of drones and artillery.

He posted on X :“We discussed Ukraine’s defense needs, including joint production of drones, artillery, and further strengthening of air defense. I updated Minister Séjourné on the Peace Formula’s progress. I thank France for its active role in this global effort.”

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

In other key developments:

• France’s newly appointed foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Saturday on his first official visit abroad, vowing that Paris would maintain its support. “Despite the multiplying crises, Ukraine is and will remain France’s priority,” Séjourné told Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at a joint news conference earlier Saturday.

• Russia’s justice ministry designated one of the country’s most popular fiction writers a foreign agent because of his opposition to Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The historical detective stories of Boris Akunin, the pen name of Georgian-born Grigori Chkhartishvili, used to be bestsellers in Russia before the authorities turned on him for what they said were his unacceptable anti-Russian views.

• A prominent liberal priest faces expulsion from the Russian Orthodox church for refusing to read out a prayer asking God to guide Russia to victory over Ukraine. In a verdict published on Saturday, a church court said Aleksiy Uminsky should be “expelled from holy orders” for violating his priestly oath.

• Ukraine suffered a massed Russian missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, its air force said, adding that Moscow had fired some of its most fearsome hypersonic missiles. Air defences shot down Russian missiles in at least five regions across Ukraine, according to local officials from those provinces. However, no details were given on whether any targets were hit, and far less information about the attack than usual was provided by officials. Ukraine’s air force warned during the attack that Russia had fired Kinzhal missiles - perhaps the hardest conventional Russian missile to shoot down, moving at several times the speed of sound.

• Russia, meanwhile, said it had destroyed all targets in a barrage of strikes on facilities producing ammunition and drones in Ukraine. “This morning the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a group strike … against facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex,” the defence ministry said in a daily briefing. It said it was targeting places producing shells, gunpowder and unmanned aerial vehicles.

• Zelenskiy will speak in person at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos on Tuesday, according to the WEF’s event programme. Forum president Børge Brende last week told reporters Zelenskiy would give an address during the event, while more than 70 national security advisers from around the world would on Sunday discuss ways forward on the Ukrainian president’s peace plan.