Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin bans oil sales to price cap nations

Italy’s government has pledged its support for Kyiv and reiterated its commitment to achieving a “just peace” for Ukraine, it said in a statement following a phone call between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Zelenskyy.

“[Prime Minister] Meloni renewed the Italian government’s full support for Kyiv in the political, military, economic and humanitarian fields, to repair energy infrastructure and [to work] for the future reconstruction of Ukraine,” the statement said.

In a tweet, Zelenskyy thanked Meloni for her “solidarity and comprehensive support” and said Italy was considering providing Kyiv with air defence systems.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree banning the sale of oil and oil products to nations participating in the price cap.

The G7, the European Union and Australia agreed to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil effective from December 5 due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin’s decree stated: “This … comes into force on February 1, 2023, and applies until July 1, 2023.”

Crude oil exports will be banned from February 1 but the Russian government will determine the date for the oil products ban, which could begin later.

The decree includes a clause that allows Putin to overrule the ban in exceptional cases.

Spain is undertaking a new series of measures, including scrapping the value-added tax (VAT) on staple foods, such as bread and milk, to help ease the economic crisis caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the measures in an end-of-year speech.

The government said it would also cut cooking oil and pasta VAT from 10 percent to 5 percent.

Sánchez said the three packages of aid measures passed since the start of the war in February would cost about 45 billion euros ($48bn), including 10 billion ($10.6bn) for the latest measures.

He said the aim was “to protect the middle and working classes given the rise in the cost of living, energy and food”.

The head of the Ukrainian Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv is accusing Zelenskyy of putting pressure on Orthodox Christians.

“We have had enough of the enemy striking against our people; we have had enough of the misery and sorrow when people starve in the cold and without light,” Metropolitan Pavel Lebed said in a video message addressed to the president.

He asked Zelenskky not to remove the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s two places of worship at the UNESCO World Heritage site at the end of the month.

“Do you want to take away people’s faith, as well? Do you want to take away the last hope? Don’t do that,” the cleric pleaded.

Zelenskyy has banned religious organisations with links to Russia.

In November, the SBU Ukrainian secret service searched the monastery complex, the main shrine of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

Kosovan Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla says Serbia is under the influence of Russia and aims to destabilise Kosovo by supporting the Serb minority in the north who have been blocking roads.

“It is precisely Serbia, influenced by Russia, that has raised a state of military readiness and that is ordering the erection of new barricades, in order to justify and protect the criminal groups that terrorise … citizens of Serb ethnicity living in Kosovo,” Svecla said in a statement.

Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo put up new barricades hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

Serbia denies trying to destabilise its neighbour and says it wants to protect its minority there.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia would “continue to fight for peace and seek compromise solutions”.

Western countries have financially supported Kyiv since Russia’s invasion in February, with the United States pledging $45bn to Ukraine’s military efforts last week.

The US is the largest donor to Ukraine, with the United Kingdom second and Germany third.

But, in total, how much money have Western countries gifted Ukraine?

Read more here.

Former Russian president, and Putin ally, Dmitry Medvedev, predicts a war between Germany and France next year as well as a civil war in the US that would lead to Elon Musk becoming president.

In his list of predictions for 2023, published on his personal Telegram and Twitter accounts, he also foresaw the UK rejoining the EU, which would, in turn, collapse.

Medvedev, deputy head of Putin’s advisory security council who served as president during a four-year spell when Putin held the office of prime minister, will now be Putin’s deputy on a body overseeing the military industry.

Political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov said Medvedev’s newly outspoken public persona appeared to have found favour with his boss.

“Medvedev’s Telegram posts have found at least one reader, and indeed an admirer: Putin,” Pastukhov, a political science professor at London’s University College London, wrote on his own Telegram.

Recovering consumer demand and helping the corporate sector become profitable are the biggest tasks for the Russian government to address in 2023, the first deputy prime minister, Andrei Belousov, said.

Russia’s economy is set to contract for the second year in 2023 as Western sanctions take effect and a “partial mobilisation” bill is changing Russia’s workforce.

“The consumer market is recovering very slowly,” Belousov said in an interview on state television.

He referred to the situation as something “close to stagnation”.

“This is above all because our real wage growth is recovering very slowly and, in turn, is the flip side of a low unemployment rate,” Belousov said.

“The price of high employment is very slow real wage growth”.

Inflation is projected to be 5-6 percent next year but Belousov expects it to drop lower, which could allow the Bank of Russia to ease monetary policy and foster growth.

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, who reported extensively from Ukraine, reflects on the conflict and her experience living and covering a warzone.

Ukraine’s defence minister suggests a peace summit to end the war but Russia’s foreign minister says Ukraine must accept Moscow’s proposals to begin peace negotiations. Just how possible are talks to end the fighting?

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts on how the war could end.

In a message to Ukrainians, Zelenskyy said on Telegram: “In this battle, we have one powerful and effective weapon. The hammer and sword of our spirit and consciousness. Courage and bravery. Virtues that incline us to do good deeds and overcome evil.”

He added: “The main act of courage is endurance and bringing one’s work to the end in spite of everything. The truth illuminates our path. We know it. We protect it. Our truth is a struggle for freedom. Freedom comes at a high price. But slavery costs even more.”

The Russian embassy says the police have not found any criminal link to the deaths of two citizens in India’s Rayagada district of Odisha, according to the NDTV broadcaster.

According to local media reports, Pavel Antov and Vladimir Bidenov died at the same hotel two days apart, prompting suspicions of foul play as Putin critics around the world have been killed in unexplained ways.

Antov, a lawmaker in Russia, had recently criticised Russia’s attacks on Ukraine but later retracted the statement, according to several reports.

He died after falling from the third floor of his hotel on December 25, while Bidenov was found unconscious in his room with empty wine bottles around him at the same hotel on December 22.

Indian police have also suspected Antov’s death was a result of depression after his friend Bidenov’s death.

According to the Ukrainian military update, Russia launched “two missile strikes and fired 44 MLRS attacks” in the past 24 hours.

“In the Volyn, Polissya, Siverskyi and Slobozhanskyi directions, the situation has not changed significantly, the enemy maintains a military presence along the state border, and no signs of the formation of its offensive groups have been detected,” the update said.

It added that 25 settlements in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka areas were hit.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the US and NATO were seeking victory on the battlefield to destroy Russia.

“The actions of countries of the collective West and [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is controlled by them, confirm the global nature of the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov said in an interview with the state-owned TASS news agency.

“It is no secret that the strategic goal of the US and its NATO allies is victory over Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism for significantly weakening or even destroying our country.”

Lavrov added that the US remained the “main beneficiary” of the Ukraine war while pursuing its “geopolitical goal of breaking traditional Russian-European ties to further subjugate Europe”.

“The US is doing everything to prolong the conflict and make it more violent. The Pentagon is openly planning orders for the American defence industry for years to come, constantly raising the bar for military spending … and demanding the same from other members of the anti-Russian alliance,” the minister said.

Here are four maps we update daily, charting the latest developments in the war.

President Zelenskyy said on Monday night that power shortages across the country persisted, with nearly nine million people without electricity.

Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that power workers repairing the grid after repeated Russian attacks had reconnected many people over Christmas, but problems remained.

“Naturally, shortages persist. Blackouts are continuing”, he said.

“The situation as of this evening in different regions of Ukraine is that nearly nine million people are without electricity. But the numbers and the length of the blackouts are gradually decreasing”.

Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, says “Russia needs to face reality” and that no amount of mobilisation will help them win.

Podolyak tweeted: “Neither total mobilisation, nor panicky search for ammo, nor secret contracts with Iran, nor Lavrov’s threats will help. Russia needs to face the reality. Ukraine will demilitarise the RF [Russian Federation] to the end, oust the invaders from all occupied territories. Wait for the finale silently…”

In his Monday night address, Zelenskyy said the situation in the Donbas was “hard” as Russia was hitting the Bakhmut and Kreminna regions.

“The occupiers use all resources – significant resources – to squeeze out at least some advance. I thank all our guys who hold their positions firmly, stand strong and find opportunities not only to not lose anything, but also to oust the occupiers, to ‘subtract’ them”, Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president also spoke about the energy and infrastructure situation as the country prepares for next year, adding: “there are threats we must eliminate”.

He said the agreements made at last week’s meeting in Washington, DC, would be implemented “quickly”.

The fighting in Ukraine has remained centred around the Bakhmut region over the past 48 hours, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

“Russia continues to initiate frequent small-scale assaults in these areas, although little territory has changed hands”, the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

“To the north, elements of Russia’s 1st Guards Tank Army were probably amongst the Russian forces recently deployed to Belarus. This formation was likely conducting training before its deployment and is unlikely to have the support units needed to make it combat-ready.”

The German government has approved arms exports worth at least 8.35 billion euros ($8.9bn) this year, the second-highest annual figure in the country’s history.

More than a quarter of the weapons and military equipment delivered from January 1 to December 22 went to help Ukraine. The data comes from the Economy Ministry at the request of Sevim Dagdelen, a lawmaker with the far-left Linke Party.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine in February, deliveries worth 2.24 billion euros ($2.4bn) have been approved for Ukraine, including anti-aircraft tanks, self-propelled howitzers, multiple rocket launchers and the IRIS-T air defence system.

But even without Ukraine, exports worth more than six billion euros ($6.4bn) received government approval.