Up to 26 injured as Ukrainian councillor detonates grenades at meeting – live

Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Sweden’s application to join the NATO alliance in a phone call on Thursday.

The White House said President Biden and President Erdogan discussed “the importance of welcoming Sweden as an ally as soon as possible and further enhancing” Turkey’s “interoperability” with NATO.

Mr Erdogan’s senior foreign policy adviser, said that there were still some issues that need to be “ironed out” for Sweden’s bid to be ratified by the Turkish parliament.

He said the ideal situation would be for Washington to move forward with the sale of F-16 jets Turkey has requested to buy, simultaneously.

A Ukrainian councillor detonated two grenades at a village meeting and injured up to 26 people, according to police.

A man was filmed standing near a door and taking grenades out of his jacket, before tossing them onto the floor in Transcarpathia, Ukraine.

A number of explosions followed, leaving the room filled with smoke and bodies on the ground. It is not clear why he carried out the attack.

Russia has said the EU’s decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova was politicised and could destabilise the bloc.

“Negotiations to join the EU can last for years or decades,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“The EU has always had strict criteria for accession and it is obvious that at the moment neither Ukraine nor Moldova meets these criteria.

“It is clear that this is an absolutely politicised decision, the EU’s desire to demonstrate support for these countries.

“But such new members could destabilise the EU, and since we live on the same continent as the EU, we, of course, are closely watching this.”

Vladimir Putin’s forces are using Ukrainian prisoners of war as human shields to advance on enemy positions, according to a US think tank.

The Institute for the Study of War said footage showed Russian soldiers covering themselves behind Ukrainian POWs as they advance on Ukrainian positions near Robotyne.

The prisoners in the video appear unarmed, while the Russian soldiers force them forward at gunpoint, according to the ISW.

The EU’s decision to begin negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova is a “powerful affirmation” of their respective “European future” and a “historic moment” for Europe, State Department spokesperson

“We welcome the European Council vote on EU enlargement and congratulate Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina on a historic step toward their EU aspirations. T

“The United States strongly supports enlargement and prospective candidates on their EU paths,” Matthew Miller said on X.

The United States could pay a “much higher cost” than most people imagine if they allow Russia to win in Ukraine, a US think tank warned.

The Institute for the Study of War said the US would have to deploy “a sizable portion of its ground forces” and “a large number of stealth aircraft” to Eastern Europe to guarantee security if Russian won in Ukraine.

“The entire undertaking will cost a fortune, and the cost will last as long as the Russian threat continues—potentially indefinitely,” the ISW said

“Helping Ukraine keep the lines where they are through continuous Western military support is far more advantageous and cheaper for the United States than allowing Ukraine to lose.”

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has claimed that Ukrainians in the eastern part of the country do not mind Russian occupation.

The biotech CEO told a CNN town hall in Iowa that he would give Russia some concessions to end its unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

Mr Ramaswamy told the audience of GOP voters he was confident he could get Vladimir Putin to accept his peace plan, which would involve Russia cutting itself off from China militarily.

And just like that, the first year of the 118th Congress came to a close. With no aid to Ukraine on the horizon, no aid to Israel, no potential breakthrough negotiations on spending bills and no aid to Gaza, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives rewarded itself by leaving for the holidays, The Independent’s Washington correspondent Eric Garcia writes.

Hungary has blocked a massive £43bn EU aid package for Ukraine just hours after an agreement was reached to start membership talks with Kyiv.

The country’s prime minister Viktor Orban said he had vetoed the extra money for Ukraine and would come back to the issue next year after “proper preparation”.

Leaders of 26 EU countries endorsed the plan, which would support Kyiv’s budget between 2024 and 2027, but Mr Orban was against the decision, which requires unanimous approval of all 27 EU member states.

Mr Orban announced the veto on social media. He wrote on X: “Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine. We will come back to the issue next year in the #EUCO after proper preparation.”

Officials from Russia’s prison authority told a court on Friday that jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was no longer in the penal colony where he had been serving his sentence but they did not explain where he had gone, an ally said.

Lawyer Vyacheslav Gimadi wrote on the X social network that it has been 10 days since those close to the politician lost track of his whereabouts.

Another Navalny ally, Kira Yarmysh, cited the authorities as saying Navalny had left the penal colony on 11 December. Mr Navalny is a high-profile critic of Putin, and has been imprisoned since 2022.