LIVE – War in Ukraine: Washington will spend six billion dollars in aid to kyiv before Trump arrives

US President-elect Donald Trump spoke by telephone on Thursday with his future Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, whom he asked not to escalate the war in Ukraine, reports Sunday Washington Post (new window). According to the daily, which cites people close to the matter, the man who beat Kamala Harris at the polls reminded the master of the Kremlin of “Washington's significant military presence in Europe.” Donald Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the day before.

It was concluded during Vladimir Putin's rare visit to North Korea in June. The mutual defense agreement between Moscow and Pyongyang entered into force on Saturday, November 9, after its ratification by the master of the Kremlin. This treaty provides for reciprocal “immediate military aid” in the event of an attack.

The head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, suggested on Sunday that the approximately $300 billion in Russian assets frozen by the West could be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war. “This could be used to pay these bills and for compensation to the people who suffered, for the destruction produced by the Russian invasion,” he said.

Russia will have to answer for the war crimes committed in Ukraine and pay for the destruction committed whatever the future peace agreement, said the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, on Sunday. “Peace, for it to be peace and not just a ceasefire, must be just and lasting,” stressed the first senior European leader to visit Ukraine since the election in the United States of Donald Trump, whose promise of a rapid end to the war has made Ukrainians fear being forced to give in to territorial demands presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“This is a warning to those who say that this war must end, and therefore they might as well end it as quickly as possible, no matter how,” he added during a trip to the Cherniguiv region, in the north. of Ukraine. “What matters is that the war ends in a way where there is accountability, that it is not just an economic reconstruction, but that everyone is accountable” for their actions, he said. he said, after visiting the basement of a village school in Yahidne where 300 Ukrainian civilians had been detained for a month in atrocious conditions by Russian troops after the invasion.

The United States will spend the remaining six billion dollars dedicated to Ukraine before Donald Trump comes to power, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, warning of the risks linked to stopping the American support for kyiv. “The President (Biden) will have the opportunity to explain to President Trump how he sees things, where they stand, and to discuss with him how he plans to approach these issues when he takes office” , he said on CBS.

One of the goals of the Biden administration in the remaining months, before the transfer of power with the Republican billionaire, will be to “place Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it or in the strongest possible at the table of negations,” explained Jake Sullivan.

The Kremlin said Donald Trump had shown “positive signals” regarding the US president-elect's position on the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“The signals are positive. Trump, during his electoral campaign, said that he perceives all this (the conflict in Ukraine, editor's note) through agreements. And that he can obtain an agreement which leads to peace”, affirmed the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Ukraine was targeted during the night from Saturday to Sunday by an attack by 145 Russian drones, a “record”, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a message on X.

In a statement, the Ukrainian Air Force said that, as of 9:30 a.m. (07:30 GMT), 62 of these 145 drones had been neutralized over 13 regions of the country.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had shot down “seventy Ukrainian drones” on Sunday morning, almost half of which were in the Moscow region, an unprecedented attack on the capital in terms of its scale since the start of the conflict in 2022.

In addition to these 34 drones near the capital, drones were neutralized, according to the Russian army, in the regions bordering Moscow of Kaluga (7) and Tula (2), and in three border regions of Ukraine: those of Bryansk (14), Oriol (7) and Kursk (6).

Russia shot down 25 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow during the night from Saturday to Sunday and in the morning, said the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin. This is one of the most significant drone attacks targeting the Russian capital since the start of the Ukraine offensive in 2022.

The drones mainly targeted the districts of Ramenskoye and Domodedovo, south of Moscow, according to Mr. Sobyanin. The attack disrupted the operation of Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, located in the affected areas, and flights there were suspended, according to Russian airport authorities.

The attack comes at a time when Russia welcomes heads of diplomacy and high-ranking officials from around fifty African countries to Sochi (southwest) for a ministerial conference.