Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: Zelensky gives to ‘cede territory’ for Nato seat amid North Korea army talks

Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv were to acquire nuclear arms.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US president Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

“If the country which we are essentially at war with now becomes a nuclear power, what do we do? In this case, we will use all, I want to emphasize this, precisely all means of destruction available to Russia. Everything: we will not allow it. We’ll be watching their every move”, Putin said during a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

“If officially someone were to transfer something, then that would mean a violation of all the non-proliferation commitments they have made,” Mr Putin said.

The Russian president also said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of “dirty bomb”, a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material in order to spread contamination. In that case, Russia would respond appropriately, he said.

Russia has repeatedly said, without providing evidence, that Ukraine might use such a device.

Ukraine is asking its allies to speed up deliveries of military aid, saying quicker delivery of critical battlefield equipment was more important than drafting more men.

“We are now in the situation when we need more equipment to arm all the people that have already been mobilised, and we think the first priority is to send quicker, faster military aid,” Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, told reporters in Kyiv.

His statement echoed a comment from Ukrainian presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, who criticised what he said was sluggish military aid. “Ukraine cannot be expected to compensate for delays in logistics or hesitation in support with the youth of our men on the frontline,” Mr Lytvyn wrote on X.

A senior US official said earlier that Ukraine was not mobilising enough new soldiers to replace those lost on the battlefield, and urged Kyiv to reduce the mobilisation age from 25 to 18.

Moscow could possibly resume testing of nuclear weapons due to hostile US policies, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying.

“This is a question at hand,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS news agency when asked whether Moscow was considering a resumption of tests.

“And without anticipating anything, let me simply say that the situation is quite difficult. It is constantly being considered in all its components and in all its aspects.”

In September, Mr Ryabkov referred to president Vladimir Putin as having said that Russia would not conduct a test as long as the US refrained from carrying one out.

Moscow has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed into law Ukraine’s first wartime tax increases as the war against Russia reaches its 34th month.

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenkko said that the bill was vital to ensure smooth funding for the Ukrainian defence sector next year. The changes will take effect from 1 December, he said.

The government is raising the war tax for residents to 5% from 1.5% paid currently on personal income and is introducing the war tax for tens of thousands of individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.

It also increases some rental payments, taxes commercial banks’ profits at 50%, and raises taxes on the profits of other financial institutions to 25%.

The tax increases would help raise about 140 billion hryvnias (£2.8 billion) in additional revenues next year to fund Ukraine’s defence efforts at a critical juncture of the war as Kyiv is battling with a much bigger and better-equipped enemy.

The world is at its most dangerous point for 40 years, the head of MI6 has warned, accusing Russia of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe to undermine support for Ukraine.

Sir Richard Moore also said the West could face a “reckoning” as potential terrorists are radicalised over war in the Middle East.

“In 37 years in the intelligence profession I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state. And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious,” Sir Richard said, adding that if “Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state he will not stop there”.

Andy Gregory reports.

Russian forces have killed five Ukrainian prisoners of war in Zaporizhzhia region, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor general.

In a statement on Facebook, the prosecutor general said an investigation has been launched after Russian forces shot five out of six captured Ukrainian soldiers.

Investigators also received a video of the moment the shooting was recorded, the prosecutor said.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has urged his Nato counterparts to issue an invitation to Kyiv at a meeting in Brussels next week to join the Western military alliance.

In a letter sent to the members of Nato, Ukraine has renewed push to secure an invitation to join the alliance, which is part of a “victory plan” outlined last month by president Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Mr Zelensky told UK-based Sky News that offering Ukraine Nato membership while allowing Russia to keep for the moment territory it had captured could be a solution to end the “hot stage” of the 33-month-old war.

“The invitation should not be seen as an escalation,” Mr Sybiha wrote in the letter, Reuters reported.

“On the contrary, with a clear understanding that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is inevitable, Russia will lose one of its main arguments for continuing this unjustified war,” he wrote.

“I urge you to endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the Nato Foreign Ministerial Meeting on 3-4 December 2024.”

Ukrainian poet and screen writer Myroslav Herasymovych was reportedly killed in the frontline in Donetsk Oblast, according to his brother.

“In the battle with Russia, my brother, Myroslav, gave away his life in the city of Avdiivka,” his brother Taras Kulyk wrote on Facebook.

Herasymovych was killed on 25 November just four days before his 57th birthday, the sibling added.