Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to talks on a possible settlement in Ukraine but the West must accept Moscow’s demands, the Kremlin said on Friday, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would be willing to speak with Putin on ending the war.
FIGHTING
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* Ukraine’s armed forces have lost somewhere between 10,000 and 13,000 soldiers so far in the war against Russia, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told a Ukrainian television network.
* Russia’s Defence Ministry and the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration said the two countries had swapped 50 service personnel in the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides.
* Russian rockets pounded neighborhoods in Kherson knocking out power in the city where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops left.
* Ukraine’s armed forces reported heavy shelling of a number of eastern frontline villages near the city of Bakhmut.
* Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko told residents to stock up on water, food and warm clothes in the event of a total blackout caused by Russian strikes.
DIPLOMACY, FOREIGN RESPONSE
* Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call on Friday that the German and Western line on Ukraine was “destructive” and urged Berlin to rethink its approach, the Kremlin said.
* Several Ukrainian embassies abroad have received “bloody packages” containing animal eyes, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Friday, after a series of letter bombs were sent to sites in Spain including Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid.
* Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure have increased the cost to keep Ukraine’s economy going next year, adding up to $1 billion a month to previous estimates of $3-$4 billion, the head of the International Monetary Fund told the Reuters NEXT conference.
NUCLEAR
* The International Atomic Energy Agency hopes to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine to create a protection zone at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by the end of the year, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog was quoted as saying. (Compiled by Nick Macfie)
