Ukraine updates: Russia, N. Korea defense pact takes effect

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he hoped the West took "seriously" Moscow's recent use of a hypersonic missile in Ukraine.

Speaking during an interview with US media personality Tucker Carlson, Lavrov said the weapon was used to make the West understand that Moscow was ready to use any means to ensure no "strategic defeat" would be inflicted on Moscow.

Lavrov also said it was a "very serious mistake" for anyone in the West to presume that Russia had no red lines or that they were "being moved again and again."

Two weeks ago, Russia fired its new "Oreshnik" hypersonic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in a major escalation of the nearly three-year war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has since threatened to use the weapon against Kyiv in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.

With Ukraine, Poland, and Estonia boycotting a speech by Russia's diplomat Sergey Lavrov, US and European leaders confronted Putin's aide over the war in Ukraine at Europe's annual security and cooperation conference.

Russia has ordered Poland to shut down its consulate in Saint Petersburg.

The move is in retaliation for Warsaw shuttering the Russian consulate in the Polish city of Poznan, Moscow said.

"Three diplomatic staff members of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Saint Petersburg have been declared persona non grata," the Russian Foreign Ministry said, ordering them to leave Russia by January 10, 2025.

Warsaw, meanwhile, has threatened to close all Russian consulates in Poland.

"If acts of diversion and terrorism continue, I will close down the rest of the Russian consulate presence in Poland," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had not received enough help from the United Nations and Red Cross in bringing back Ukrainians held in Russia.

Kyiv says Russia is holding thousands of its civilians, including Ukrainian children, in captivity.

"Do we currently receive much assistance from organizations such as the UN or the International Committee of the Red Cross in protecting and securing the return of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia? In fact, we do not," Zelenskyy said at a human rights conference in Kyiv.

"We all see, in particular, how weak the world's response is to what Russia is doing to Ukrainian prisoners," he said.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the West of failing to heed the Kremlin's warnings over the dangers of dispatching troops to support Ukraine.

His comments came amid speculation over possible Western deployments, potentially as a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire. 

Lavrov said the political discourse indicates that the West was not listening to Moscow's concerns.

"All these fantasies are only exacerbating the situation, and show that the people who hold such ideas, prefer not to hear the very clear warnings that President Putin has repeatedly given," Lavrov said.

Western countries have again condemned Russia's war in Ukraine at an annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Ukraine dominated the foreign ministers' meeting politically.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told the meeting that his country was continuing to fight for its right to exist.

"And the Russian war criminal at this table must know: Ukraine will win this right and justice will prevail," he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is taking part in the meeting, accused Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of spreading a "tsunami of misinformation" and blamed Moscow for escalating the war in Ukraine.

"Now I regret that our colleague, Mr. Lavrov, has left the room, not giving me the courtesy to listen to us as we listen to him. And of course, our Russian colleague is very adept in drowning listeners with a tsunami of misinformation," Blinken said.

Lavrov and Blinken, whose term in office ends next month, were not scheduled to meet.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Thursday that Russia's membership in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should be suspended over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He made the comments while attending the organization’s gathering this year in Malta.  

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also taking part in the meeting.

"Russia is destroying Ukraine, but it is also destroying its country's future. Until it ends this brutal war, its membership in the OSCE should be suspended," Sikorski told reporters after boycotting Lavrov's speech at the summit.

The top military officials in the US and Russia held virtual talks last week amid heightening tensions between the two sides in recent weeks.

US Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by phone with Russia's Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov last week, the US military said.

It's the first time Brown spoke with his Russian counterpart.

"The leaders discussed a number of global and regional security issues to include the ongoing conflict in Ukraine," a spokesperson for Brown said in a statement.

The rare call took place on November 27, but "at the request of Gen. Gerasimov, Gen. Brown agreed to not proactively announce the call."

The request for the call was made by the Russian Defense Ministry, the spokesperson said.

Brown became the top US general last year, and Gerasimov last spoke with Brown's predecessor, Mark Milley.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is visiting Malta to attend a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday.

This is his first visit to an EU member state since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also attending the meeting but he has no plans to meet Lavrov.

The OSCE has 57 members and it helps them coordinate issues such as human rights and arms control.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the organization.

Kyiv boycotted last year’s summit over Lavrov's attendance but the Ukrainian foreign minister is attending the meeting in Malta.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski criticized Lavrov's attendance and said he would walk out.

"Mr Lavrov is coming here to lie about [the[ Russian invasion and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And I'm not going to listen to those lies," he said.

"Well, I will not be sitting at one table with Mr Lavrov. Russia corrupts every organization she joins. We need Russia to get out of Ukraine and only then will this organization make sense."

His Latvian counterpart Baiba Braze said she would be doing the same.

"I will not be in one room with Mr Lavrov, I will walk out, yes. ((Flash)) I don't know what signal it sends, but i cannot be in one room as an aggressor state."

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has warned of increasing Russian military provocations in the Baltic Sea region.

There is an "increased presence of the Russian navy and civilian ships in the Baltic Sea," the minister said speaking to the German public radio on Thursday.

There are repeated incidents there that "result from warning shots being fired into the air, warning shots being fired into the water," Pistorius said, adding that the Russian navy is trying to "send signals."

Germany and its NATO allies are countering this with their presence in the Baltic Sea, but want to avoid an escalation, the minister underlined.

"Our navy and that of the allies are behaving very prudently and with foresight," he said, stressing that it is important "that we are present in the Baltic Sea with the allies."

A major defense pact between North Korea and Russia has gone into effect after the two sides exchanged ratification documents, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the treaty in June.

The agreement obligates both states to provide military assistance in the case of an attack on the other, and to jointly oppose Western sanctions.

Moscow and Pyongyang have moved closer to each other in recent years amid increased tensions with the West.

The US and South Korea have accused the North of getting involved in Ukraine by dispatching thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

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