Ukraine updates: Russia, Belarus to sign security treaty

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is confident he will be able to agree with US President-elect Donald Trump on a joint strategy for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone, Scholz told the Funke group of newspapers.

"I have already spoken extensively on the phone with the future US president, and we are also in direct contact with those responsible for security policy," Scholz said in an interview published on Saturday morning.

"I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say," he stressed.

Germany has been one of the Kyiv's biggest military backers, second only to the United States in terms of the aid sent to Ukraine.

US policy on Ukraine, which has been closely coordinated with European allies, is expected to change under Trump. The president-elect has vowed to push for a quick deal to end Russia's war, but has offered no details on how he would do so.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country could deploy its newly developed hypersonic Oreshnik missiles in Belarus next year.

"As for the possibility of deploying, to put it bluntly, such formidable weapons as Oreshnik on Belarusian territory... it will become possible, I think, in the second half of next year," Putin said in a televised meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.

The Russian president said this would happen as "serial production" of the missile is "ramped up in Russia."

The Oreshnik nuclear-capable missile was revealed last month when it was used to strike the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, a move that sharply escalated tensions in the war in Ukraine. 

It is said to be capable of flying at 10 times the speed of sound and may be able to strike targets up to 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) away.

The Russian economy is showing "significant" signs of a slowdown in some sectors, German Gref, the CEO of state-run Sberbank, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies at an investor forum.

Inflation in the country is running high and the value of the Russian currency, the ruble, has slumped in recent months. The central bank, meanwhile, has raised interest rates to a two-decade high of 21%.

"We are now seeing significant signals of economic slowdown, particularly in housing construction and investment," Graf said.

He warned the central bank against "overshooting" on its rates policy, making it "harder to return to the rails of economic growth.”

Russia has massively ramped up military spending since it launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine over two-and-a-half years ago.

The spending boost has supported the economy, which has been hit hard by Western sanctions on Moscow.

Romania's far-right, pro-Kremlin presidential candidate, Calin Georgescu, has vowed to stop providing aid to Ukraine if he wins the presidential vote.  The run-off vote against the conservative-liberal reform politician Elena Lasconi was originally due this weekend but the nation's top court annulled it on Friday. 

The court said the whole election process must be rerun, after the declassification of security documents. 

Georgescu made the comments on Ukraine aid during an interview with the BBC.

When asked whether Romania, under his leadership, would continue to provide military and political support to neighboring Ukraine, he said, "No."

He added: "Zero. Everything stops. I have to take care just about my people. We have a lot of problems ourselves."

In Romania, the president determines the guidelines for foreign and security policy.

The country is a member of NATO and the EU. It has so far firmly sided with Kyiv in its fight against Moscow's invasion.

Sweden and Denmark have signed a contract with a Swedish military equipment manufacturer for the purchase of 205 armored combat vehicles.

Of the 205 CV90 vehicles ordered, 115 will be delivered to Denmark, 50 to Sweden and 40 to Ukraine, the Swedish government said in a statement on Friday.

The contract with BAE Systems Hagglunds is worth 25 billion Swedish kronor ($2.3 billion, €2.17 billion).

"These investments will make it possible for more Swedish combat vehicles to make Europe, and especially Ukraine, safer," Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in the statement.

Russian oil is once again flowing to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline, authorities said on Friday.

Deliveries via the pipeline resumed on Friday morning, Mariusz Wnuk, director of the company Orlen Unipetrol, wrote on the social media platform X.

On Wednesday, the Czech government said oil supply through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline had stopped. It did not provide any information on the possible reasons.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have been allowed temporary exemptions from the EU sanctions banning the import of Russian oil.

Last year, the Druzhba pipeline provided about 58% of the oil consumed in the Czech Republic.

The country is currently investing in the expansion of the Transalpine Oil Pipeline (TAL) — which runs from the port of Trieste in Italy to Central Europe — to end its reliance on Russian oil.

German lawmakers are debating on Friday on whether to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far rejected delivering them to Kyiv despite repeated appeals from the Ukrainian government as well as some German politicians.  

He argues that Germany runs the risk of being drawn into the war between Russia and Ukraine if the Taurus cruise missiles are used.

The Taurus is one of the most powerful weapons in the German army's arsenal, with the ability to penetrate bunkers.

It has a range of 500 kilometers (300 miles) and can be fired by a fighter jet.

Ukraine wants to use it to attack positions inside Russia.

The motion to discuss the Taurus delivery was submitted by the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), which was until recently part of Scholz's governing coalition. The motion is unlikely to be voted on.

The collapse of the coalition last month triggered new elections, which are scheduled to take place in February next year.

Russia said Friday it had captured two key villages in eastern Ukraine, where its troops have been advancing for months.

One village, Sukhi Yaly, is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) southwest of Kurakhove, a strategic industrial town on the banks of a reservoir that Moscow is trying to encircle.

The other one is Pustynka, which lies just south of Pokrovsk, an embattled logistics hub key to supplying Ukrainian troops across the front line.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Belarus to sign a treaty offering security guarantees to Moscow's closest ally.

Speaking alongside Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said: "I'm sure that the treaty will ensure the security of Russia and Belarus."

The planned signing follows changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for Moscow’s use of its nuclear weaponswhile also extending Russia's nuclear umbrella to cover Belarus.

Putin said on Friday that the new treaty document includes a potential use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed to Belarus in response to an aggression.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994, said in October that any use of Russian nuclear weapons now deployed in Belarus would require his personal assent.

sri/ab (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)