Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces ‘suffer record casualties’

This coming winter will be “a critical point” in the war against Russia, a Ukrainian official has warned.

As Donald Trump’s election win brings the prospect of talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine closer, Kyiv is battling to put itself in the strongest position for any negotiations, including by securing more arms and holding out on the battlefield.

A senior Ukrainian official said the next four to five months would be pivotal, signalling how Trump’s return to the White House is focusing minds in Kyiv on a possible end game in the war.

“This winter is a critical point … I hope the war is drawing to an end. Right now we will define the positions for both sides on negotiations, the starting positions,” the official told Reuters.

Britain’s defence secretary has struck a defiant tone on US support for Ukraine amid fears Donald Trump will force Volodymyr Zelensky to do a deal with Russia.

John Healey said he expects the Americans to stand with Ukraine for “as long as it takes to prevail over Putin’s invasion”, and that Mr Trump “recognises that countries get security through strength, just as alliances like Nato do”.

And Mr Healey stressed that America’s determination to support Ukraine in its campaign against Russia is “just as strong” as before voters in the US went to the polls.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Ukraine’s allies should not prejudge how Donald Trump will handle the Ukraine conflict, France’s foreign minister has said.

Mr Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the scale of Western financial and military aid to Kyiv, spoke in recent days with Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the Ukraine war, both Reuters and the Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. The Kremlin dismissed this as “pure fiction”.

“Facing the speculation on what could be the positions or initiatives of the new US administration, I think that we absolutely should not prejudge and we have to give it time,” Jean-Noel Barrot told the Paris Peace Forum.

However, Mr Barrot said any initiatives would have to ensure that Ukraine itself determined the timing and conditions for engaging in a negotiation process. In the meantime, he said, Western allies had to give Kyiv all the necessary means to push back invading Russian forces.

“Ukraine, and beyond that the international community, would have too much to lose if Russia imposed the law of the strongest,” he said.

A Russian missile has hit a residential building in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, injuring at least seven people, with more trapped under the rubble, officials said.

A 10-year-old girl and a boy of 11 years were among those injured in the attack on Monday, which destroyed multiple floors, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.

The building’s smashed roof and collapsed floors covered in smoke could be seen on images shared by officials. Cars parked outside had been buried.

Ukrainian pesident Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Every day, every night, Russia unleashes the same terror. More and more civilian objects are being targeted. Russia only wants to continue the war, and each of its strikes negates any claims of diplomacy from Russia.”

The Kremlin has claimed to sense that European nations are nervous about Donald Trump’s re-election, but said that they were still “pumping weapons into Ukraine in order to continue this war to the end”.

Asked about reports that Sir Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron want to convince Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Nothing can be ruled out”, adding that European leaders still want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.

“We, in turn, will continue the [special military operation] until we achieve all our goals,” he added. “The dynamic of the SMO is well understood by the military. They understand well what is happening. And it is probably important to note that no individual types of weapons are able to change this dynamic anymore.”

The Kremlin has claimed that reports Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin in recent days are “pure fiction”.

“This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed. “There was no conversation.”

“This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,” Mr Peskov said.

Asked whether Mr Putin had plans for any contacts with Mr Trump, he said: “There are no concrete plans yet.”

A British family has paid tribute to their “brave” son who has been killed while fighting in Ukraine.

Callum Tindal-Draper, 22, from Gunnislake, Cornwall, was killed in action while serving with the foreign volunteer platoon in the country’s struggle against Russia. In an interview with the BBC, his father Steven Draper said he begged his son not to travel to Ukraine, but he told him he was “not frightened of bullies”.

“We begged and begged and begged him not to go,” his father said. “But Callum said ‘dad, I’m not frightened of bullies and what’s going on in Ukraine is awful and someone needs to stand up for these people’.”

In a tribute, his mother Caroline Tindal wrote: “He fought till he could no longer hold them off any more and his platoon are calling him a ‘hero’ and ‘As brave as they come’. 22 is a young age. But you lived and died following your heart, soul and morals.”

Britain should move past the “special relationship” with the US, the frontrunner to become the UK’s next ambassador in Washington has said – amid fears over the impact of Donald Trump’s second presidency on the US’s relationship with Europe, Nato and Ukraine.

Peter Mandelson is a favourite to replace Dame Karen Pierce, who is overseeing the transition to Donald Trump’s second administration.

The Labour grandee, a key architect of Tony Blair’s New Labour, said it is time for a “new relationship” with the US.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports: