LIVE – War in Ukraine: Moscow says Paris wanted to establish a “dialogue” without kyiv

During a press conference, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, affirmed that France tried to establish “a dialogue on the Ukrainian question” with Moscow without warning kyiv. “I won't go into details so as not to disappoint anyone, but, on several occasions, our French colleagues have launched appeals through confidential channels: 'let us help, let's establish a dialogue on the issue Ukrainian'. Besides, without Ukraine,” said Sergei Lavrov.

“Simply a dialogue on the Ukrainian question, in violation of what the West keeps repeating: 'not a word about Ukraine without Ukraine',” he added. “We did not refuse,” said Sergei Lavrov, saying Russian officials are “ready to listen.”

A source at the top of the State denied this to TF1/LCI. “No contact with Russia. We have always been clear on this. Everything with the Ukrainians, nothing without the Ukrainians,” we were told.

The FSB announces that it has foiled a series of attacks on Russian soil, as summarized in the sequence in this video. Last week, Russian General Igor Kirillov was killed in a bomb attack in Moscow.

LCI was able to go to Vougledar, a town in eastern Ukraine ceded to the Russians at the beginning of October. Thomas Misrachi met Kichen, the last soldier to leave the city after months of combat. “Our mission was to leave as quickly as possible with as little loss as possible,” says the soldier.

Six people were injured in a suicide drone attack in Nikopol, including women in serious condition. All victims were hospitalized to receive necessary medical treatment, Serhii Lysak, head of the military administration of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, announced on Telegram.

US President Joe Biden yesterday described the massive Russian attack on Ukraine's power grid on Christmas Day as “outrageous”, after Moscow launched more than 170 missiles and drones, killing one person. “The goal of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during the winter and jeopardize the security of their grid,” Biden said in a statement.

Russia yesterday launched more than 170 missiles and drones at Ukraine's energy system, an “inhumane” attack that left one person dead, kyiv said, and left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity or heat. on Christmas Day. Russian President Vladimir “Putin consciously chose Christmas for his attack. What could be more inhumane?” launched his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram. “More than 50 missiles” and some drones were shot down, but some strikes led to “power cuts in several regions,” he added. The strikes targeted six regions, leaving at least one dead and six injured and causing widespread heating outages in near-zero temperatures, according to Ukrainian authorities.