Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin loses ‘record 2,000 troops’ in a day

Any accusations of Russian interference in Romania’s presidential election are groundless, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has insisted – after far-right, anti-Nato candidate Calin Georgescu surged into the lead in a shock first round of voting.

Romanian authorities have said they have found evidence of meddling in the election campaign by hostile actors, and officials are awaiting a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to validate the results of the first round.

The head of Romania’s electoral commission said on Friday that the first round of voting could be re-run on 15 December, with the run-off between the final two candidates pushed back from 8 December to 29 December.

According to Romanian law, the court can annul the result of the first round vote only it finds evidence of fraud that affected who reached the run-off.

Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has vowed to strengthen troops deployed on the eastern front with reserves, ammunition and equipment, after visiting two key sites in Donetsk – where Russia’s forces are advancing at the fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

Visiting the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhhove, Mr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces were continuing to repel Russian advances, but said: “Based on the results of the work, all necessary decisions have been made to strengthen the units with reserves, additional ammunition, weapons, and military equipment.

“We continue to restrain the enemy and inflict heavy losses in terms of their manpower and equipment.”

British troops should be sent to guard Ukraine’s border under any future ceasefire with Russia, Boris Johnson has said.

The former prime minister has said responsibility for keeping any deal intact should fall to a group of European peace-keeping forces.

Ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, which is expected to spark talks to end the conflict, Mr Johnson said British troops should be sent to Ukraine to maintain a ceasefire.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has assured Volodymyr Zelensky of Germany’s continued support in a phone call in which they agreed to stay in contact.

“We will continue our military support for Ukraine in close coordination with our European and international partners. I agreed with Zelenskiy that we will remain in contact – also with a perspective to possible paths to a just peace,” Mr Scholz said.

Following the collapse of his governing coalition, Mr Scholz is reportedly planning to call a confidence vote on 16 December, which he is expected to lose, paving the way for an election in February.

The head of MI6 has warned that Russia is conducting a “staggeringly reckless” sabotage campaign against Ukraine’s Western allies, and that his spies are working to stop the consequences from spiralling out of control.

Sir Richard Moore said his agency and its French counterpart were working together to prevent a dangerous escalation by “calibrating the risk and informing the decisions of our respective governments” in response to Vladimir Putin’s “mix of bluster and aggression.”

“We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear saber-rattling, to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine,” said Britain’s foreign intelligence chief.

“Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible,” he said, in remarks at an event marking 120 years of the Entente Cordiale, a series of pacts between Britain and France that bound the centuries-old rivals together as military and diplomatic allies.

Russia’s defence ministry claims that its forces have shot down 10 US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles fired by Ukraine over the past week, Russian state media reports.

It was reported on 17 November that US president Joe Biden had for the first time authorised Ukraine to strike some targets on internationally-recognised Russian territory using the American-supplied missiles, with Britain soon following suit in allowing Kyiv to do so with UK-made Storm Shadow missiles.

The Russian rouble will strengthen when temporary speculative factors and market nervousness subside, but the economy will need to adapt to new US sanctions targeting the banking sector, minister Maxim Reshetnikov has said.

The latest US sanctions on Russia’s financial sector hit Gazprombank, which handles payments for Russia’s energy trade with Europe and is the major supplier of Western currencies to the market.

The sanctions created a shortage on the Russian foreign exchange market, which led to panic buying of foreign currencies. The rouble was largely stable against all major currencies on Friday but remained at its lowest level since March 2022. The currency is down by over one quarter against the US dollar since early August.

Insisting that there were no fundamental reasons for the rouble’s fall, Mr Reshetnikov said: “It is evident that adaptation to the new anti-Russian sanctions will be necessary, including changes to banking mechanisms and channels for currency inflows into the Russian market.”

He added: “We assume that once the market nervousness subsides, the exchange rate will return to its fundamental values.”

His remarks came after Vladimir Putin urged Russians not to panic over the rouble’s fall and a decision by Moscow’s central bank not to buy foreign currency on the domestic market until the end of the year.

Jailed Russian dissident Alexei Gorinov has been found guilty of “justifying terrorism” in his latest trial and sentenced to a further three years in prison, independent news outlet Mediazona said.

Mr Gorinov, who denied the charge, had already been serving a seven-year sentence after being convicted in 2022 of spreading supposedly false information about Russia’s armed forces.

He was reported to have been the first person convicted under a strict censorship law brought in shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military claims to have inflicted 2,030 casualties among Vladimir Putin’s forces over the past 24 hours.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its daily update that more than 200 combat clashes had been recorded over the past day, with Russian forces launching nearly 100 aviation strikes and more than 4,800 shells as they attacked positions along the front line.