Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin says Moscow is ready for talks

Iran’s top general has said that Western claims that its drones are being used by Russia against Ukraine show the ‘effectiveness’ of Tehran’s unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Iranian media.

Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian-made drones to carry out attacks against Ukraine in the months-long conflict, causing significant damage to civilian and energy infrastructure.

In response, Western nations have sanctioned a number of Iranian firms and military generals, including the chief of the staff of Iran’s armed forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri.

Pope Francis has urged an end to the use of “food as a weapon” of war, noting the Ukraine conflict had put “entire peoples at risk of famine”.

“We know that every war causes hunger and exploits food as a weapon … [let us], starting with those who hold political responsibilities, commit ourselves to making food solely an instrument of peace,” he said in his annual Christmas message.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that his goal in the war in Ukraine is to “unite the Russian people”.

Putin used the concept of “historical Russia” to argue that Ukrainians and Russians are one people – undermining Kyiv’s sovereignty and justifying his 10-month offensive in Ukraine.

Putin said his government was acting “in the right direction … protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, of our people”.

There is widespread opposition among the German population to supplying Ukraine with the Leopard 2 tanks that are widely seen as an icon of the country’s military technology, according to a published survey commissioned by dpa news agency.

The representative survey of 2,075 respondents conducted by the YouGov institute found 45 percent against supplying the tanks which Zelenskyy has specifically requested. The survey found 33 percent in favour, with the remaining 22 percent not stating a preference.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has turned down repeated requests from the Ukrainian government for the battle tanks, noting that no other countries supporting the Ukrainian war effort have provided arms of this kind. The Germans have also said that Ukrainian tank crews would need intensive training to use the Leopard 2.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. Ten months on, there is no end in sight to the fighting, and many Ukrainians are enduring a dark and cold winter.

Al Jazeera looks at the events that have shaped the conflict. Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Russia will be able to produce at least 490-500 million tonnes of oil in 2023, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has told state TASS news agency.

According to Novak, Russia will produce such volumes of oil even under the new EU oil embargo imposed on December 5, and after a similar measure on oil products starts working on February 5.

“I do not rule out that in 2023 there will be downside risks to production in certain periods. It is possible that maximum reduction will reach 7-8 percent. However, for the year as a whole, we will produce at least 490-500 million tonnes. But again, a lot will depend on logistics,” Novak said.

Pope Francis has appealed for an end to the “senseless” war in Ukraine in his traditional Christmas message from St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

“May the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to assist all those who are suffering, and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war,” the 86-year-old said.

Read more here.

The death toll from Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has risen to 16, with a further 64 injured, the Ukrainian military governor of the region reported on Sunday, as air raid sirens sounded across the country on Christmas Day.

Among the dead were three men who died while clearing mines, Yaroslav Yanushevych reported on Telegram.

Germany has been reliant on Russian gas to meet its heating needs, but as the war in Ukraine rages on, energy prices have soared.

Germany has had to rethink options for staying warm this winter. Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane reports from Berlin, Germany.

Putin says he is “100 percent” confident that his forces would destroy the Pentagon’s most advanced air defence system that US President Joe Biden has promised to send to Ukraine.

“Of course, we will destroy it, 100 percent!” Putin said, referring to the Patriot missile battery in extracts of an interview aired on Russian television.

Putin has blasted the West for trying to “tear apart” Russia, in extracts from an interview to be broadcast on national television later on Sunday.

“At the core of it all is the policy of our geopolitical opponents, aiming to tear apart Russia, the historical Russia,” Putin said. “They have always tried to ‘divide and conquer’… Our goal is something else – to unite the Russian people.”

Air raid sirens wailed in Kyiv and across all Ukrainian regions on Sunday morning but no new Russian attacks have been reported, officials said. The all clear was later given.

Unconfirmed Ukrainian social media reports suggested the sirens may have been triggered after Russian jets took to the skies in Belarus and that the all clear was sounded after the planes returned to their bases. Reuters was unable to verify those reports.

Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air forces, told national television earlier that Russian military jets were flying virtually around the clock. “But we have increased readiness – everything that takes off must be under our control,” Ihnat said.

Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers had refused to engage in talks, Putin says.

“We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them – we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in an interview.

“I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens,” he said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has defended China’s position on the war in Ukraine and signalled that it would deepen ties with Russia in the coming year. China’s refusal to condemn the invasion of Ukraine and join others in imposing sanctions on Russia has further frayed ties and fuelled an emerging divide with much of Europe.

Wang, speaking by video at a conference in the Chinese capital, said China would “deepen strategic mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation” with Russia. Warships from the two countries held joint naval drills in the East China Sea last week.

“With regard to the Ukraine crisis, we have consistently upheld the fundamental principles of objectivity and impartiality, without favouring one side or the other, or adding fuel to the fire, still less seeking selfish gains from the situation,” Wang said, according to an official text of his remarks.

Read more here.

Ukrainians usually celebrate Christmas on January 7, as do the Russians. But this year, some orthodox Ukrainians have decided to observe the festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25, like many Christians around the world.

The idea of commemorating the birth of Jesus in December was considered radical in Ukraine until recently, but Russia’s invasion changed many hearts and minds.

In October, the leadership of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is not aligned with the Russian church and one of the two branches of Orthodox Christianity in the country, agreed to allow the faithful to celebrate on December 25.

“What began on February 24, the full-scale invasion, is an awakening and an understanding that we can no longer be part of the Russian world,” Olena Paliy, a 33-year-old Bobrytsia resident, told the AP news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reporting from Kyiv said Ukrainian authorities and the military have been pressured “in recent weeks in protecting vital infrastructure from Russian-launched kamikaze and cruise missile attacks – around 1,000 of them in the last two-and-a-half months”.

“We know that there are still millions of people who have no electricity, that are having to endure rolling blackouts, and have poor – if any heating at all – as these winter temperatures continue to drop,” Stratford said.

“There have been a couple of lines from Ukrainian authorities within the last 12 hours or so, saying that the situation remains critical for electricity – that’s just in Kyiv – and significant across the country as all efforts focus on trying to get as much of this infrastructure back up and running.”

Zelenskyy has urged the people of Ukraine to persevere in the face of Russian attacks as they observed a Christmas defined by war.

“We endured at the beginning of the war – we withstood attacks, threats, nuclear blackmail, terror, missile strikes,” Zelenskyy said in the video address to Ukrainians who celebrate Christmas in December.

Most Ukrainians are orthodox Christians and mark the occasion in early January. “We will endure this winter because we know what we are fighting for,” he said.

Read more here.

Russia might be preparing to renew its offensive on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv by launching a possible new invasion from the north, the Washington, DC-based Institute for the Study of War said.

Click here to read more about the situation in Ukraine as it stands on Sunday, December 25.

Air raid sirens have been issued in Kyiv and across all Ukrainian regions, officials say. Local authorities urged residents to take shelter until the alarms are deactivated.

Unconfirmed Ukrainian social media reports said the alert may have been declared after Russian jets took to the skies in Belarus. Reuters was unable to immediately verify that information.

Air raid alerts sound in Ukraine on a nearly daily basis due to missile and drone strikes targeting the country’s civilian and energy infrastructure. Such strikes rose dramatically after an October explosion damaged Russia’s key Kerch Bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma says the Russian lower house of parliament is preparing a law to introduce higher taxation for people who have left the country, as many have since the war in Ukraine began in February.

“It is right to cancel preferences for those who have left the Russian Federation and to introduce an increased tax rate for them,” Volodin wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “We are working on appropriate changes to the legislation.”

The number of Russians who have left since the start of the war is unclear. By early October, some local media had reported that as many as 700,000 had fled following the September announcement of a mobilisation drive to call up as many as 300,000 to fight. The government rejected that figure at the time.