War in Ukraine: Trump wants to meet Putin and Zelensky to stop the “carnage”, North Korean losses… the latest on the situation

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Monday, December 16, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

Trump wants to talk to Putin and Zelensky to stop the “carnage”

US President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he wanted to talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to stop the “carnage”of the war in Ukraine, after the Kremlin master welcomed the advance of his troops on the front lines.

Donald Trump, who is due to take office in January, promised during his election campaign to bring the war to a swift end, and has already called for an “immediate ceasefire” and talks, so much so that Europeans and Ukrainians fear that he could force kyiv into major concessions and hand the Kremlin a geopolitical victory.

“We're going to talk to President Putin and we're going to talk to Zelensky and the representatives of Ukraine. This has to stop, it's carnage,”, Mr. Trump said Monday from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

“A lot of this territory, when you look at what's happened… There are cities where there's not a building standing, it's a demolition site. So people can't go back to those cities, there's nothing left,” said the future US president. Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said he's ready for talks with Ukraine provided they're based on “the realities on the ground”, where Russian forces have had the upper hand since the beginning of the year.

Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede four regions it partially occupies — Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south — in addition to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and that kyiv renounce its ambition to join NATO. Volodymyr Zelensky has long been categorically opposed to any concessions to Vladimir Putin, but has softened this position in recent months in the face of his army's difficulties on the front and fears of a weakening of Western aid. He notably suggested that Ukraine temporarily renounce recovering territories controlled by Russia, in exchange for security guarantees from NATO and new deliveries of Western weapons.

This announcement by Donald Trump comes a few hours after the Russian president took stock of the year 2024 of the fighting in Ukraine, congratulating himself on the pace of the advance of his troops and having “the initiative” on the entire front at the end of this “pivotal year”.

Outnumbered and outgunned, Ukrainian forces have been losing ground for months, but at a pace that has accelerated since the fall. Russian soldiers are now at the gates of the strategic cities of Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, and Kurakhove. “Russian troops have the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact,” assured Mr. Putin in a speech to the main executives of his Defense Ministry.

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He thus claimed the capture of “189 localities” by 2024, a year marked in particular by the fall of the Ukrainian fortresses of Avdiivka in February and Vougledar in October. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that Russia had captured 4,500 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory this year, and was currently advancing “30 square kilometers per day.”

The Russian army again claimed on Monday the conquest of a new locality, Yelyzavtivka, located about ten kilometers south of Kurakhove, an industrial city in the East which is home to a large lithium deposit.

In this context, Ukraine, which fears arriving at the negotiating table in a weak position, is trying to contain the Russian troops and is demanding increased support from its Western allies. But the sustainability of this crucial assistance is not guaranteed, with the return to power of Donald Trump in January in the United States, which has been until now, with the EU, the main donors of Ukraine.

Trump said that Ukraine should expect “probably” less aid from Washington and said he was opposed to kyiv using Western missiles to strike Russia. The head of Polish diplomacy said on Monday that it was Russia that should be “forced” to engage in peace negotiations and not kyiv, while Europe fears pressure from the future Trump administration for an agreement to the detriment of kyiv.

On Monday, the United States and its allies also denounced the “direct” support of North Korea to Russia which represents “a dangerous widening” of the conflict in Ukraine. kyiv affirmed Monday that “at least 30 soldiers” North Koreans, fighting alongside the Russian army, had been wounded or killed Saturday and Sunday in the Russian region of Kursk, partially occupied by kyiv's forces. According to Western sources, some 11,000 North Koreans are deployed on the Russian side.

Ukraine reports North Korean losses in Russia's Kursk region

At least 30 North Korean soldiers fighting with Russia were killed or wounded around several frontline villages in Russia's Kursk region over the weekend, Ukrainian military intelligence said in a statement Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Moscow had begun mobilizing “a significant number” of North Korean troops to push back Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region, where they launched an incursion last August.

This is the first time that kyiv has reported North Korean losses of this magnitude. Ukrainian military intelligence said the losses were recorded near the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka. It has not been possible to independently verify these figures.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops in its ranks. “Due to the losses, the assault groups are being replenished with reinforcements, in particular from the 94th Brigade of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Army, in order to continue combat operations in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian agency said. Ukrainian and South Korean officials have previously reported that more than 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia.