Ukraine war: Kyiv drone downed over Moscow as Russia takes village

Furloughed workers at Volkswagen’s former plant in Russia are being offered redundancy, according to the union representing them.

The plant, in Russia’s Kaluga region south of Moscow, has annual production capacity of 225,000 cars, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought work to a standstill. The plant will remain idle until at least March 2024, the trade union added.

Under the furlough scheme being offered by the new owners, who took over the plant in May, the staff are currently paid two thirds of their salary.

They are now being offered three months’ pay if they quit, with bonuses for those who have been employed there for a long time.

Only a few of the remaining staff of around 3,600 people have taken up the new owners on their offer so far, Elena Kryukova, head of the MPRA trade union’s plant committee, told Reuters.

A Russian court has ordered a man to be jailed for 10 days after he used his finger to write “No to War” on a snow-covered turnstile.

According to court papers, the incident happened on November 23 at the entrance to an ice-skating rink at Moscow’s Gorky Park.

The man, named as Dmitry Fyodorov, was sentenced the following day after being detained by the police.

Police decided his actions could amount to a civil offence under a law which targets anyone deemed to have acted publicly to discredit Russia’s armed forces, a crime which in his case was punishable by a fine.

New laws cracking down on dissent were brought in soon after President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in what he called a “special military operation.”

For those opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine, speaking out in public has since become a risky thing to do and critics say nearly 20,000 people have been detained and over 800 criminal cases opened.

The Ukrainian military has claimed the number of Russian casualties since the beginning of the ward has reached 327,580.

In its latest update, they added that 5,538 Russian tanks and 10,312 Russian armored combat vehicles had been destroyed.

Vladimir Putin will not consider ending his invasion of Ukraine until he knows the result of the 2024 US presidential election, a senior official from the Joe Biden administration has said.

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A senior Russian diplomat said the US would be mistaken to expect to win the next armed race.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister in charge of ties with the U.S., non-proliferation and arms control, also told the Izvestia daily that a military conflict between NATO and Moscow could not be ruled out.

“If the United States expects to win the next arms race, repeating to some extent the experience of the presidency of Ronald Reagan … then the Americans are mistaken,” Izvestia cited Ryabkov as saying.

“We will not succumb to provocations …. but we can guarantee that we will ensure our security.”

He also told the newspaper that Russia was not threatening a conflict with the Western military alliance and that “the onus is entirely on NATO’s side”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that there was “no sense of fatigue” among NATO allies when it came to helping Ukraine.

“We must and we will continue to support Ukraine,” he said after a NATO-Ukraine meeting in Brussels, adding that NATO allies were unanimous on this position and that he was also hearing continued support for Ukraine in both chambers of the US Congress.

Kyiv has been concerned that the Israel-Hamas war could divert international attention away from its efforts to defeat Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“It is important that our solidarity with Ukraine is not only demonstrated in words but also in deeds,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, urging allies to do more. “These are concrete actions, we need more of them and we need sustained and stepped up support.”

Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had taken control of a village in eastern Ukraine.

Khromove, which Russia calls Artyomovskoe, is on the western outskirts of Bakhmut, a city which Russia captured last summer after a months-long battle. The village had a pre-war population of 1,000 people.

Reuters could not independently verify the defence ministry’s assertion and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not make peace in Ukraine before he knows the results of the November 2024 US election, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.

The comments come amid concerns that victory for former President Donald Trump – who is seeking reelection in 2024 – could upend Western support for Kyiv.

A senior official briefing reporters after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels said the alliance reiterated its support for Ukraine knowing that a peace agreement in the next year is unlikely.

“My expectation is that Putin won’t make a peace or a meaningful peace before he sees the result of our election,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked whether they were expressing a personal opinion or the view of the U.S. government, the official said it was a “widely shared premise.”

Russia has amassed a large missile stockpile ahead of winter, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

Russia has been making new attempts to strike Ukraine’s power grid and energy infrastructure, “trying to leave Ukraine in the dark and cold,” he said.

It comes after Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy has repeatedly expressed concern that Moscow would hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the winter as it did last year.

Commenting on media reports that Poland plans to send troops to Finland’s border with Russia, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would see such a move as a threat.

Finland has closed its border with Russia after a sudden wave of refugee arrivals that Helsinki said was orchestrated by Moscow – something Russia denied.

The head of Poland’s National Security Bureau was reported to have said this week that Warsaw planned to approve a Finnish request for troops to be deployed close to its border with Russia.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is an absolutely redundant measure to ensure border security, because there is no threat there, there is no tension in reality,” he said.

“That is why tension may arise during the concentration of additional units on our border, because the Finns must be clearly aware that this will pose a threat to us – an increase in the concentration of military units on our borders.”

The planned deployment was unprovoked and unjustified, said Peskov