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EU decides to open membership negotiations with Ukraine; Putin says ‘there will only be peace in Ukraine when we achieve our aims’
The EU has decided to open membership negotiations with Ukraine, in an unexpected move that will be a critical boost to Volodymyr Zelenskiy and deal a blow to Vladimir Putin. The announcement, made on Thursday after eight hours of tense negotiations in Brussels, came despite the opposition of Hungary, whose prime minister, Viktor Orbán, had for weeks said it would veto any opening of accession talks.
After hours of talks, Orbán walked out the room as leaders formally made the decision to open accession talks – thus getting unanimity. The Hungarian prime minister said “Hungary does not want to share in this bad decision, and for this reason Hungary did not participate in the decision today.”
Zelenskiy said: “this is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens.”
The EU also decided to open membership negotiations with Moldova. Maia Sandu, Moldova’s president, said her country “turns a new page today.”
Putin held his annual end-of-the-year press conference for the first time since launching the invasion, saying “there will only be peace in Ukraine when we achieve our aims”, seeking to project confidence in his war machine.
Putin also said he was open to repairing relations with Europe and the US but added that Russia had done nothing wrong in its invasion of Ukraine. He blamed the west for “spoiling relations” with Russia.
Ukraine said on Thursday that its air defence systems had downed dozens of Iranian-designed drones launched by Russian forces targeting the southern city of Odesa, in Moscow’s latest overnight barrage that wounded 11 people.
The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, lost an appeal on Thursday to be released from jail and must remain in custody until at least 30 January.
Putin was asked about a possible prisoner swap for Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan. He said he hoped to find an agreement with the US that was “satisfactory to both sides”.
A Moscow court on Thursday ordered a retrial in the case of a veteran Russian human rights campaigner who is fighting charges of discrediting the country’s armed forces.
Finland will sign a defence agreement with the US, the Finnish government has said, to grant the US military broad access across the Nordic country to the vicinity of its long border with Russia.
Romania has identified a drone crater near its border with Ukraine after an overnight Russian attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure, its defence ministry has said.
The Guardian visited Avdiivka. After almost a decade on the frontline, the city is a wreck, with just 1,200 people left, but it remains of huge symbolic value.
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