Ukraine-Russia battle – stay: Moscow shuts down airports as Kyiv launches main drone assault

Ukrainian overnight drone attacks have set several non-residential buildings on fire in Russia’s Kaluga and Bryansk regions, regional governors said this morning.

“Emergency services and firefighters are on the site,” Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian border region of Bryansk said, without providing further detail.

The defence ministry said its air defence units had destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 17 over Bryansk.

Vladislav Shapsha, governor of the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, said a non-residential building in the region was on fire as result of Ukraine’s drone attack.

Ukraine launched at least 17 drones targeting Moscow early today, forcing the temporary closure of two of the capital’s airports, Russian officials said.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the 12 drones were destroyed in the Ramenskoye and Kolomensky districts of the Moscow region, as well as in Domodedovo city, southwest of Moscow.

“According to preliminary information, there is no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris,” Sobyanin said on Telegram. “Emergency services are on the sites.”

The Ramenskoye district, some 45km (30 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, was last targeted in September Ukraine’s biggest attack on the Russian capital, when Russian air defence units destroyed 20 drones.

Rosaviatsia, Russia’s federal air transport agency, said on Telegram that “to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions have been introduced on the operation of the Domodedovo and Zhukovo airports,” starting at 5.30am GMT.

It did not say how long the restrictions would be in force.

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed into law a treaty on the country’s strategic partnership with North Korea which includes a mutual defence provision, according to a decree published yesterday.

The accord, signed by Mr Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June after a summit in Pyongyang, calls on each side to come to the other’s aid in case of an armed attack.

Russia’s upper house ratified the treaty this week, while the lower house endorsed it last month. Mr Putin signed a decree on that ratification that appeared on Saturday on a government website outlining legislative procedures.

The treaty galvanises closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Read more about Moscow and Pyongyang’s pact here:

Russia is open to hearing president-elect Donald Trump’s proposals on ending the war, an official in Moscow has said.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow and Washington were “exchanging signals” on Ukraine via “closed channels.” He did not specify whether the communication was with the current administration or Mr Trump and members of his incoming administration.

Russia is ready to listen to Mr Trump’s proposals on Ukraine provided these were “ideas on how to move forward in the area of settlement, and not in the area of further pumping the Kyiv regime with all kinds of aid,” Mr Ryabkov said yesterday in an interview with Russian state news agency Interfax.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin described Donald Trump in one word as he spoke publically for the first time about the Republican’s election victory.

Putin said he had been “impressed” by Trump, before describing him as “courageous” concerning the assassination attempt on the president-elect at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump’s incoming administration’s priority in Ukraine will be to establish peace, and not restore lost territory, a senior aide to president-elect said.

Bryan Lanza, a long-time Republican party strategist, told the BBC that Trump’s administration would be asking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for a “realistic vision for peace.”

Mr Zelensky has repeatedly said peace cannot be established until all Russian forces are expelled and all territory captured by Moscow, including Crimea, is returned. His “victory plan” presented last month maintains that provision as well as an invitation for Ukraine to join Nato, long denounced by Russia.

“And if president Zelensky comes to the table and says, well we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows to us that he’s not serious. Crimea is gone,” he said. “And if that is your priority of getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you’re on your own.”

He said the priority was “peace and to stop the killing.”

“What we’re going to say to Ukraine is, you know what you see? What do you see as a realistic vision for peace? It’s not a vision for winning, but it’s a vision for peace. And let’s start having the honest conversation,” he said.

A Russian general whose soldiers have been accused of torturing an American blogger to death for the Kremlin has died in Ukraine, according to reports.

It is believed he was killed in a missile strike as he rode a motorbike.

He is reported to have run torture camps used on dissenting Russian soldiers and pro-Moscow agents who refuse orders.