Ukraine Russia latest news: Putin shakes up military leadership amid pressure over invasion

Vladimir Putin said the Russian economy, financial and banking system were stable and would remain so this year depsite sanctions.

The Russian president said he planned to embark on a series of socio-economic reforms to make life better for Russians, amid mounting anger over the Ukraine invasion.

The Kremlin said it had not yet seen any cases of the price caps on Russian oil imposed by the West last month.

Russian forces shelled 13 settlements in and around Kharkiv region largely returned to Ukrainian hands in September and October, the Ukrainian military said.

Local officials said rockets hit a pyrotechnics storage facility, setting off a chain of fireworks explosions.

The fate of the devastated salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine hangs in the balance with Ukraine saying its forces were holding out against a furious Russian onslaught in one of the fiercest and costliest recent ground battles of Moscow’s invasion (Joe Sommerlad writes).

As fierce fighting in the Ukraine war continues, Russia has claimed what it believes to be a significant symoblic and strategic victory by announcing the capture of Soledar in Donetsk.

Combatants from the notorious Wagner Group of mercenaries, led by Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, declared late on Tuesday that they had taken control of the eastern mining town in the Donetsk region, home to what is said to be Europe’s largest salt mine and, prior to the war, a population of around 10,000 people.

Were Russian forces to definitively secure Soledar, it would mark its first meaningful territorial gain since last summer.

Russia has been forced into several humiliating retreats in the north, northeast and south since then as Ukraine mounted an impressive counter-attack in the autumn.

The leaders of Britain and Japan are signed a defence agreement that could see troops deployed to each others’ countries.

The two countries are strengthening military ties amid growing concern about China’s increasing military assertiveness and designs toward Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province.

The British government said the defense agreement “cements our commitment to the Indo-Pacific” region. It is due to be signed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and UK leader Rishi Sunak during a meeting in the symbolic setting of the Tower of London fortress.

The two leaders were meeting at the Tower of London, a 1,000-year-old former palace and prison that houses the Crown Jewels. Mr Sunak’s office said they would view Japanese armor presented to King James in 1613 by Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada of Japan to mark the first-ever trade agreement between England and Japan.

Japan has joined Western nations in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions against Moscow. Japan also has supplied Ukraine with helmets and other non-lethal military aid.

The Russian and Ukrainian human rights commissioners agreed to swap more than 40 military prisoners, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Russian official as saying.

The two warring parties have exchanged prisoners multiple times, in one of the few areas of cooperation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country has proposed establishing a corridor to bring the wounded to Turkey for treatment.

“We can ensure they receive medical treatment and send them back,” Mr Erdogan said. “This is our humanitarian duty, our duty of conscience.”

British prime minister Rishi Sunak said no final decision has been made on whether to send tanks to Ukraine.

The UK has been considering whether to provide Challenger 2 battle tanks.

Poland’s prime minister Andrzej Duda today announced he would send Leopard battle tanks but urged allies to make similar offers.

Russia said that the European Union was becoming a vassal of Nato, citing the signing of a joint declaration in which the two organisations pledged to deepen their cooperation in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In the declaration on Tuesday, Nato and the EU stated: “Today, we are faced with the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades. Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine violates international law and the principles of the UN Charter.”

They pledged to “take our partnership to the next level” in response to the growing threats and challenges.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the move “confirms the complete subordination of the European Union to the tasks of the North Atlantic bloc, which is an instrument to guarantee US interests by force”.

She said the Europeans faced “the unenviable fate of an American vassal, losing their positions in world politics and economics, falling into increasing dependence on Washington with every step”.

The statement was in line with Moscow’s efforts to cast the war in Ukraine as part of an existential struggle with Western nations it says are bent on Russia’s destruction.

Vladimir Putin has authorised another shake-up in the military leadership leading the invasion of Ukraine – while Kyiv mocked claims that it had lost the town of Soledar which is at the centre of a furious Russian assault.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, had been appointed as overall commander of forces in Ukraine, one of a number of changes in recent months as Mr Putin seeks a success story to sell at home.

It is clear that pressure is building on the Kremlin, with the move in effect demoting General Sergei Surovikin, who had been named Russia’s top battlefield commander in Ukraine only last October after a spate of offensives by Kyiv’s troops that turned the tide of the war. General Surovikin had earned the nickname “General Armageddon” from the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness.

A Defence Ministry statement said the reshuffle was meant to improve contacts between different military branches and the “quality and effectiveness” of the command structure.

Moscow seeks control of Soledar to strenghten its position around the nearby besieged city of Bakhmut and provide a stepping stone to other cities in the eastern Donbas region. On Wednesday evening, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky mocked claims by the Russian mercenary Wagner group that it has taken control of the town – the scene of some of the most intense fighting since Moscow’s invasion began.

Forces belonging to Russia’s Wagner group on Wednesday found the body of one of two British voluntary workers who had been reported missing in eastern Ukraine, the group said in a statement.

It did not mention the name of the dead man but said documents belonging to both Britons had been found on his body.

The statment was released alongside pictures of what appeared to be passports of two British men, Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry, who had been volunteering to help people evacuate from the frontline of the war before being reported missing after last being seen on Friday.

The fate of the devastated salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine hangs in the balance with Ukraine saying its forces were holding out against a furious Russian onslaught in one of the fiercest and costliest recent ground battles of Moscow’s invasion (Joe Sommerlad writes).

As fierce fighting in the Ukraine war continues, Russia has claimed what it believes to be a significant symoblic and strategic victory by announcing the capture of Soledar in Donetsk.

Combatants from the notorious Wagner Group of mercenaries, led by Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, declared late on Tuesday that they had taken control of the eastern mining town in the Donetsk region, home to what is said to be Europe’s largest salt mine and, prior to the war, a population of around 10,000 people.

Were Russian forces to definitively secure Soledar, it would mark its first meaningful territorial gain since last summer.

Russia has been forced into several humiliating retreats in the north, northeast and south since then as Ukraine mounted an impressive counter-attack in the autumn.