Russia-Ukraine news live: Germany cuts military aid to Kyiv in view of the worsening crisis surrounding Selenskyj

One person was killed and eight injured in Ukrainian attacks on a part of the southern Kherson region controlled by Russian forces, Vladimir Saldo, the region’s Russia-backed governor, wrote on Telegram.

Saldo accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the area and attacking it with drones.

Reuters could not independently verify his claims and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Germany has announced it will halve its military aid to Ukraine next year, despite fears that US support for Kyiv could wane if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump returns to the White House.

According to a draft budget for 2025 seen by Reuters, the amount will be cut from around 8 billion euros (6.72 billion pounds) in 2024 to 4 billion euros (3.36 billion pounds) in 2025. Germany has come under criticism for repeatedly missing NATO’s target of spending two percent of its economic output on defense.

Germany hopes that Ukraine will be able to cover most of its military needs with the $50 billion loans approved by the G7 from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets and that the funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used up.

“Thanks to European instruments and G7 loans, Ukraine’s financing is secured for the foreseeable future,” said German Finance Minister Christian Lindner at a press conference yesterday.

According to official sources, EU leaders agreed to the idea, among other reasons, because it would reduce the likelihood of Ukraine suffering from a lack of funds if Trump returned to the White House.

Alarm bells rang across Europe this week after Trump named Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential nominee. Vance is an opponent of military aid to Ukraine and warned that Europe would have to rely less on the United States to defend the continent.

The mayor of the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk issued a drone warning this morning about a possible attack by Ukraine on Russia.

Mayor Andrei Kravchenko called on residents to stay away from the coast. Ukrainian sea drones had previously attacked Russian ships near the port, disrupting traffic.

Novorossiysk is Russia’s largest Black Sea port and an important transshipment point for crude oil and oil products in southern Russia. It also handles oil from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and handles grain, coal, fertilizers, timber, containers, food and chemicals.

This is consistent with Russian forces saying they destroyed a Ukrainian naval drone in the Black Sea near the city, according to the Russian-appointed governor of the city of Sevastopol in Crimea.

Germany will halve its military aid to Ukraine next year, despite the possibility that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will return to the White House and reduce his support for Kyiv.

German aid to Ukraine will be cut from around 8 billion euros in 2024 to 4 billion euros ($4.35 billion) in 2025, according to a draft budget for 2025 seen by Reuters.

Germany hopes that Ukraine will be able to cover most of its military needs with the help of the $50 billion loans agreed by the G7 from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets and that the funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used up.

The German armed forces’ stocks, already depleted by decades of underinvestment, were further decimated by the arms deliveries to Kiev.

So far, Berlin has donated three Patriot air defense units to Kyiv, more than any other country, bringing the number of Patriot systems in Germany to nine.

Although military aid to Ukraine is to be cut, with a total amount of 75.3 billion euros, Germany will meet NATO’s target of spending two percent of GDP on defense in 2025.

Switzerland has launched investigations into more than 50 cases of possible sanctions violations and has so far identified violations in 15 of them, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland has imposed similar sanctions to other Western countries and adopted new measures earlier this month.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said in an email to Reuters that the effective implementation of the sanctions was a priority for the government and that 56 proceedings had so far been opened for violations of the sanctions.

About half of these cases were dropped and penalties were imposed for 15. The remaining cases are still being investigated, it said.

SECO did not name the sectors affected or the individual companies being investigated.

Switzerland announced earlier this year that it had set up a team of experts to investigate and enforce the sanctions imposed by Bern following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 95 prisoners of war from both sides after the United Arab Emirates acted as mediator, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement via the messaging app Telegram that the returning Russian soldiers would undergo medical examinations in Moscow.

The ministry noted the UAE’s “humanitarian mediation activities”.

Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused the United States of holding the entire West “at gunpoint” and hindering international cooperation. The US ambassador to the United Nations condemned the claim as “hypocrisy” from a country that invaded neighboring Ukraine.

The attempt to shift blame came at a showcase event for Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council this month. The theme of the event was “Multilateral cooperation for a fairer, more democratic and more sustainable world order.” Top Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov flew in from Moscow to chair the event.

The US ambassador to the United Nations called on the Russian foreign minister on Tuesday to release the detained Americans. He specifically named journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan and accused the Russian president of treating “people as bargaining chips”.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield took the opportunity when Moscow’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council to promote multilateralism and democracy and to campaign for the release of the Americans.

In Russia, there has been a sharp increase in cases of treason and espionage over the last decade.

Lawyers and experts say the number of prosecutions for these serious crimes increased after 2014, the year Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula. At the time, Moscow also supported a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

The number of such cases in Russia rose significantly after the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022 and Russian President Vladimir Putin called on security agencies to “toughly suppress the actions of foreign intelligence services (and) promptly identify traitors, spies and saboteurs.” The crackdown has trapped scientists and journalists as well as ordinary citizens.

When one man saw the military patrol handing out draft notices on the outskirts of Kyiv, he sneaked into a nearby shop. Another refused to stop for the officers. Others, however, complied quietly.

“As far as I know, most of the people in the queues (at the draft boards) right now are people who want to get some kind of exemption (from military service),” said the 36-year-old, who was recently accompanied by Reuters on a draft patrol in the Ukrainian capital.