German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is confident he can develop a “joint strategy” towards Ukraine with incoming US President Donald Trump He said in an interview published Saturday after speaking by phone. “I am confident that we can formulate a joint strategy for Ukraine. My basic principle is that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a voice,” Scholz told Funke Media told the group. He added that he has been speaking “at length” with the future president of the United States and that his team is consulting directly with Trump's national security advisers. “What is important is that the killings end soon and that Ukraine's independence and sovereignty are guaranteed,” he said.
But Scholz again ruled out sending Ukraine the German-made long-range Taurus missiles that Kiev is seeking. Scholz, who is facing a snap election in February, said in an interview that the weapon could be used to attack targets inside Russia, posing a risk of escalating the situation and “must be avoided.'' ” he said. Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is seeking to oust Scholz, said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles.
On Friday, Russia attacked the cities of Zaporizhzhya and Kryvyi in southeastern Ukraine, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 40, regional officials said. A strike at a car repair shop in Zaporizhzhia oblast turned the facility into a huge fireball, killing 10 people, the regional governor announced. Media reported, citing local officials, that 24 people, including two children, were injured. In Quivi Ri, two people were killed in a missile attack on an administrative building. At least 19 people, including children, were injured, emergency services said, adding that homes were also damaged.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed Russia and its President Vladimir Putin over the two attacks. “Thousands of such attacks by Russia during this war clearly show that President Putin does not need real peace,” Zelenskiy said in a Telegram post. said. “We can only resist this by force, and only by force can we establish true peace.”
Ukraine's president may use Saturday's visit to Paris to meet with Trump, diplomatic sources told Reuters. Efforts were underway to arrange a meeting between Mr. Zelensky and the next U.S. president, who will attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. Plans will probably not be finalized until the last moment, and any negotiations will be held in secret, the people added. The Ukrainian delegation met in Washington on Wednesday with Mike Walz, Trump's choice for chief of staff, and Keith Kellogg, the special envoy to Ukraine.
The European Union needs a “big bang” of spending and policy changes to strengthen its defense capabilities in the face of the Russian threat, the EU's new defense chief, Andrius Cubilius, said. “We need to move from what some people call incremental improvements in defense capabilities to some kind of big bang approach,” the former Lithuanian prime minister said, adding that Europe could spend an additional 500 billion euros ($530 billion) on defense. ), he reiterated the need to invest. Next 10 years.
Kubilius argued that the real reason Europe needs to strengthen is the threat from Putin, not the next U.S. president.. President Trump has threatened U.S. commitments to help protect allies in Europe and questioned continued U.S. support for Ukraine. But Kubilius said Europe's industry needed to be able to withstand a “long war”.
Russia may deploy new intermediate-range hypersonic missile Oreshnik to Belarus in the second half of next year, Putin spoke after the Russian president signed a mutual defense agreement with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a summit in Minsk. “I think this will be possible in the second half of next year, as the serial production of these systems in Russia increases and these missile systems begin to enter service with Russia's strategic forces,” Putin said. Russia fired an Oreshnik into a Ukrainian city last month, in what President Putin described as the weapon's first test under combat conditions.
