War

Ukraine, NATO forces chief in Europe: 'Ready to create difficulties for Russia'

White House special envoys for Ukraine, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will meet with Ukrainian chief negotiator Rusten Umerov in Miami today

4 December 2025

Un militare della 13a brigata "Khartiia" della Guardia nazionale ucraina partecipa a un addestramento tattico in una località non rivelata nella regione di Kharkiv, nell'Ucraina nord-orientale, il 3 dicembre 2025, nel contesto dell'invasione russa. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

6' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

6' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

NATO is ready to react to the increase in hybrid attacks in Europe, including by creating 'difficulties' for Russia and adopting a 'proactive' approach. This was stated by the supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich, echoing the words of Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of the Nato Military Committee. "If Russia tries to create problems for us, then maybe there are ways to create problems for them as well," he said from the headquarters of the Allied Forces near Mons, in southern Belgium. "We are also thinking about being proactive, that is the word I would use," he added, pointing out that he did not want to "go into details about how we might create these problems". After a series of hybrid attacks in Europe - from drone overflights to the sabotage of a railway line in Poland last month, attributed to Russia - several European leaders called for a firmer response from the alliance. 'These hybrid threats are a real problem and I really think we can expect more of these kinds of situations,' said Grynkewich, 'We know that Russia is behind some of this, maybe not all of it, but certainly some of it. And the public should know that'.

The case of Ukrainian children taken to North Korea

The Russian authorities sent some of the thousands of Ukrainian children abducted from the occupied territories to North Korea for 're-education'. This was denounced by the human rights ombudsman of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, without specifying how many children Russia sent to North Korea. Citing a testimony published by a human rights group in Kiev, Lubinets claimed that there are 165 'camps' where Russia is attempting to re-educate children. These camps have been set up in Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, as well as in North Korea. A representative of the Regional Centre for Human Rights (Rchr), quoted by Lubinets, reported that some children were sent to the Songdowon summer camp on the east coast of North Korea. There they were taught how to 'destroy Japanese militarists' and met Korean veterans responsible for the seizure of a US spy ship in 1968.

La geopolitica come proseguimento della comunicazione con altri mezzi

The Ukrainian government claims that Russia has abducted or forced to flee almost 20,000 children since it launched its large-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Russia has admitted that it has relocated some children after launching its offensive, but claims it did so for their safety and is now trying to reunite them with their families. Ukraine rejects this claim as false. In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children's rights for the alleged deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territory.

USA suspends sanctions against Russian Lukoil

The United States has suspended some of the sanctions against the Russian giant Lukoil in order - it is explained - to allow petrol stations located outside Russia to continue operating. This was announced by the Treasury Department. Transactions involving the petrol stations in question are permitted 'to avoid penalising' their customers and suppliers, and provided that revenues are not transferred to Russia.

Moscow: 'Gb sanctions illegitimate, we will react'

"The Russian side does not recognise the illegitimate sanctions imposed on trumped-up pretexts, bypassing the UN Security Council, and reserves the right to retaliate," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to the announced British sanctions against Crane, the Russian intelligence agency that according to British authorities carried out the 2018 Novichok attack on Putin's orders.

Putin: Kiev leaves Donbass or we will liberate it by force

From India Vladimir Putin seems to want to extend a hand to the US president: Donald Trump - he told India Today - is "sincerely trying to find a consensual solution to the Ukrainian problem, but this task is not easy". He added: "This is a difficult task and a difficult mission that President Trump has taken on," the Russian leader said. "Being able to reach a consensus between the conflicting parties is not an easy task." "But President Trump is genuinely trying sincerely to succeed, I am sure," Putin concluded. Russia will liberate the Donbass and 'New Russia' (the unilaterally annexed Ukrainian territories, ed.) Novorossiya by military or other means, Putin added in the same interview with the India Today TV channel, cited by Tass. "It all boils down to this: either we will liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories and stop fighting there," he stressed.

Meanwhile, White House special envoys for Ukraine, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will meet with Ukrainian chief negotiator Rusten Umerov in Miami today, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Yesterday, the scheduled meeting in Brussels between Zelensky and a Trump delegation, led by Witkoff and his son-in-law Kushner, travelling after Putin's visit, was cancelled due to the Ukrainian president's abrupt return to Kiev. This was reported by Kiev Post citing unspecified sources. The reason for the cancellation has not yet been disclosed.

Zelensky: Kiev delegation in US to meet new Putin pretexts

The Ukrainian delegation will hold talks in the US with US President Donald Trump's team to 'get full information about what has been said in Moscow and what other pretexts Putin has come up with to prolong the war and put pressure on Ukraine'. This was said by the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, stressing in his evening speech that 'Ukraine is ready for any possible development'.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, and Kiev's chief of staff, Andrii Hnatov, will meet in Miami, Florida, with the American negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the peace plan for Ukraine with the Russian president. "Of course we will work as constructively as possible with all our partners to ensure that peace is achieved - and that it is a decent peace. Only a decent peace guarantees real security, and we fully understand that this requires - and will continue to require - the support of our partners," Zelensky added.

Trumpian Optimism

Donald Trump for his part says that "Putin wants to end the war" with Ukraine, "that was their impression". The president said this at the White House based on what Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner told him about the meeting they had in Moscow with the Russian president. "A very good meeting, let's see what happens, what came out I can't say," he added, stressing that his envoys got the sense that the Russian president "would like to end the war".

"I think," Trump added, "he would like to go back to a normal life, I think he would like to do business with the United States, honestly, instead of losing thousands of soldiers every week.

china "supports all pro-peace efforts" in Ukraine, President Xi Jinping said at a joint media briefing with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, held in the Great Hall of the People, resorting to Beijing's most frequently used formula to date on Moscow's aggression against Kiev. Xi also emphasised the importance of the talks held, which were useful for "strengthening strategic coördination" with Paris and cooperation in areas such as aerospace and nuclear energy, as well as underlining the scenario of greater Mandarin investment in France.

On the battlefield, a new night of Russian raids in Ukraine: an adult and a six-year-old child died in the Kherson region while an energy plant was hit in Odessa, leaving more than 50,000 people without electricity. This was reported by the Ukrainian media. In Dnipropetrovsk , at least seven people, including a child, were injured after two neighbourhoods were hit, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. In Odessa, according to the energy company Dtek, 'damage is extensive and repairs will take time'. In Kharkiv, at least two villages were hit and one person was injured.

Moscow pressing for frozen Russian assets

In Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now Secretary of the Security Council, warned that the theft of Russian assets frozen in Europe could constitute a 'casus belli'. "If the European Union, in a panic, tried to steal Russian assets frozen in Belgium by issuing a so-called reparation loan, such actions could be classified under international law as a special form of casus belli, with all the consequences that would follow for Brussels and individual EU countries," Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel. "And in that case," he added, "the restitution of these funds could take place not through legal proceedings, but through actual reparations, paid in kind by Russia's defeated enemies.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also spoke about the Russian assets: the EU understands that the theft of frozen Russian assets will have consequences, she said.

"The European Union still understands, deep down, that theft, especially on such a large scale, cannot fail to have consequences for those involved in this criminal scheme and that they will have to answer for it sooner or later. Consequently, an active process of accountability is underway," Zakharova said in a briefing.