Republican Kevin McCarthy has been elected as the new US Speaker after winning the 15th vote as tensions boiled over in Congress.
Mr McCarthy's party had taken control of the House – the US lower chamber – following the midterm elections in the autumn, with a slim 222-212 majority.
Usually, election of the Speaker follows seamlessly, as a formality, with the leader of the largest party a shoo-in for the job.
However, recent splits in the Republican Partymeant that did not happen until the 15th round of voting.
In the 14th ballot, Mr McCarthy received 216 votes - one shy of the number needed for a victory - as a small faction of right-wing hardliners held out.
He finally won, on the 15th ballot, on a margin of 216-211.
Image:Rep. Kevin McCarthy smiles after winning US Speaker vote
He was elected with the votes of fewer than half the House members only because five in his own party withheld their votes – not backing Mr McCarthy as leader, but also not voting for another contender.
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"My father always told me, it's not how you start, it's how you finish," he told cheering fellow Republicans.
US President Joe Biden congratulated him on his success and said he is "prepared to work with Republicans" when he can.
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However, the Republican party are now likely to turn the fight on the President and the Democrats, with Mr McCarthy promising subpoenas and investigations.
"Now the hard work begins," Mr McCarthy said.
'Stay civil'
After four days of ballots, stretching into a 14th round, a tense exchange ensued, with Mr McCarthy seen walking to the back of the chamber to confront Rep. Matt Gaetz, who did not vote for him.
Mr Gaetz was one of the six remaining Republican holdouts, and voted "present" in the 14th and 15th round.
This essentially meant he registered that he was in the House for the vote, but did not back anyone as the next Speaker.
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'An utterly extraordinary few hours'
A hostile back and forth took place after Mr McCarthy approached him, while a number of Republican lawmakers began to crowd them.
Rep. Mike Rogers, who did back Mr McCarthy in the vote, appeared to lunge in the direction of where Mr Gaetz was sitting, but was held back by other members.
Rep. Richard Hudson - another Mr McCarthy supporter - was also seen grabbing Mr Rogers around the mouth, but it was unclear what the argument was about.
Meanwhile, in another incident, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was seen waving a mobile phone around while on a phone call to a person saved as 'DT', implied to be Donald Trump.
Sharing the image on her Twitter account, the GOP member from Georgia wrote: "It was the perfect phone call."
Despite many of the rebel Republicans being supporters of Mr Trump, the former president had repeatedly backed Mr McCarthy for Speaker.
McCarthy's extensive concessions
A handful of far-right Republicans, from the conservative Freedom caucus, had felt Mr McCarthy was not conservative enough for the job, despite him agreeing to many of the detractors' demands.
One of the most difficult requests that Mr McCarthy has agreed to is the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office.
Image:Members of the House of Representatives get physical with each other as Rep. Andy Harris pushes back Rep. Mike Rogers
That will sharply cut the power he will hold when trying to pass legislation on critical issues including funding the government, addressing the nation's looming debt ceiling and other crises that may arise.
The Speaker is one of the most powerful positions in US politics, and this week's failed votes marked the highest number of ballots for the speakership since 1859, two years before the start of the American Civil War.
Sessions to decide on the person for the job had rumbled on for hours in the chamber this week – one even topping eight hours.
What does the US Speaker do?
The Speaker of the House is one of the most powerful positions in US politics.
They oversee the daily business and set the running order in the House of Representatives.
Using their position, an effective Speaker can make or break a US President's agenda, or, if from the same party as the President, effectively hinder opposition to their policies.
The Speaker is taken from the party with the largest majority in the House and so depending on their allegiances can be a help or a hindrance to the US President.
Previously the role was held by Democrat Nancy Pelosi. But after losing the House to the Republicans in the recent midterm elections, the position will now switch hands.
Since winning control of the House, Republicans have vowed to make voting investigations into US President Joe Biden and his family's business dealings as a top priority.
In December, a White House statement accused House Republicans of planning to go after Biden "with politically motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories".
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By Max Matza
BBC News
Kevin McCarthy says he now has enough support to become Speaker of the US House of Representatives, amid the longest such congressional stalemate in more than 150 years.
The front-runner has lost 13 rounds of ballots over four days despite his Republicans holding a majority of seats in the lower chamber of Congress.
Fifteen of 20 or so holdouts changed their vote on Friday to back him, but six diehard dissidents remain.
The House reconvenes on Friday night.
The Speaker sets the House agenda and oversees legislative business. The post is second in line to the presidency after the US vice-president.
After the 13th vote, as the lower chamber of Congress adjourned until 22:00 EST (03:00 GMT), Mr McCarthy told reporters: "I'll have the votes."
In a remarkable turnaround on the 12th round of voting, Mr McCarthy was able to persuade 14 Republican holdouts to cast their vote for him. A 15th rebel followed suit for the 13th ballot.
But the California congressman was still three votes short of the 217 he needed to take the prized gavel.
The dissidents included members of the House Freedom Caucus, who argue that Mr McCarthy is not conservative enough to lead them as they work to stymie Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda.
Congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said on Twitter he was switching to support Mr McCarthy after voting 11 times against him.
"We're at a turning point," he said.
Two Republicans who missed votes earlier on Friday were flying back to Washington DC to cast their ballots for Mr McCarthy.
Mr McCarthy has offered various concessions to the rebels, including a seat on the influential rules committee, which sets the terms for debate on legislation in the chamber.
He also agreed to lower the threshold for triggering a vote on whether to unseat the Speaker, to only one House member, leading to the possibility that the Republican coalition could easily fracture again even after Mr McCarthy's potential victory.
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Democrats likened the stand-off to the riot exactly two years ago on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters who disrupted Mr Biden's certification as president.
"The same extremist forces continue to have a stranglehold on House Republicans," said Massachusetts congresswoman Katherine Clark, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the chamber.
The minority Democrats have continued to vote in unison for their leader, New York's Hakeem Jeffries, the first black person ever to lead a party in Congress.
But it is highly unlikely he could win over any Republican defectors to garner the simple majority of votes in the 435-seat chamber needed to become Speaker.
Friday was the first day that Mr McCarthy's vote count actually surpassed that of Mr Jeffries.
Not since 1860 in the build-up to the American Civil War has the lower chamber of Congress voted this many times to pick a speaker. Back then it took 44 rounds of ballots.
In November's midterm elections, Republicans won the House by a weaker-than-expected margin of 222 to 212. Democrats retained control of the Senate.
Republican Kevin McCarthy insisted he has the votes to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, after convincing a large number of party rebels to support his bid to lead the lower chamber of Congress.
By Friday afternoon, McCarthy had lost a historic 13 ballots, spread over four days, in his effort to be selected as Speaker.
But as the House voted to adjourn until late Friday night, McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill: “I’ll have the votes.” When asked why he was confident, the congressman from California replied: “Because I count.”
McCarthy struck the bullish tone after making several rounds of concessions to his critics, including rule changes that would make it easier to call for a vote of no confidence in a future Speaker, and promises of plum committee assignments for members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Those efforts swayed more than half of the 20 Republicans who had opposed his speakership in previous rounds, including Dan Bishop of North Carolina and Byron Donalds of Florida. But by the 13th round of voting on Friday, McCarthy was still short of the simple majority required to seize the Speaker’s gavel.
One previous holdout who flipped to support McCarthy in the 12th vote, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, tweeted after the ballot: “We’re at a turning point. I’ve negotiated in good faith, with one purpose: to restore the People’s House back to its rightful owners. The framework for an agreement is in place, so in a good-faith effort, I voted to restore the People’s House by voting for McCarthy.”
But resistance from six members of his own party remained steadfast and defiant — enough to scupper his chances of winning the gavel in the House in the first round of voting on Friday.
Bob Good, a Virginia Republican who has been among the dissidents, told the FT on Friday morning that he would not support McCarthy “at any time”.
“The whole reality is he does not have 218, he’s not going to have 218, and the sooner that he surrenders to that reality, the sooner we can move forward as a conference and begin to debate, vet and assess . . . [alternative] candidates,” he said.
Good said he would like to see Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican, as Speaker, but suggested that other members should propose Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican and a member of the House Republican leadership, as a possible candidate. “There are members who are in support of him, I think they should put his name forward, nominate him, and vote for him.”
Even though McCarthy had made big concessions in recent days, there remained a significant lack of “trust” in his willingness to follow through with them, Good said.
“He doesn’t believe in any of the things he’s agreeing to do so he would be doing them only under compulsion because he’s desperate,” Good said.
The last time it took more than one round of voting to select a Speaker was 1923, when it took nine ballots. The House is constitutionally required to select a Speaker, and cannot move on to any legislative business until someone is handed the gavel.
The Republican infighting has exposed long-simmering tensions in a party that is grappling with how to move forward after a relatively disappointing performance in November’s midterm elections.
McCarthy finds himself in a difficult position in part because the “red wave” he and others predicted did not materialise, and Republicans now control the House by a razor-thin margin.
The gridlock in the House has also raised questions about how Congress will function for the next two years, and whether McCarthy or any other Speaker will be able to wrangle the party’s warring factions to pass any legislation.
One looming threat is the possibility of a debt ceiling crisis later this year. Economists have forecast that the US economy risks default in the third quarter if lawmakers do not agree to raise the limit on government borrowing.
The duke has ‘undermined’ his security, the army top brass say (Picture: Getty Images)
A retired British Army colonel says the Duke of Sussex ‘shot himself in the foot’ over revealing that he killed 25 people in Afghanistan.
Harry wrote that flying six missions during his second tour of duty on the front line in 2012 to 2013 resulted in ‘the taking of human lives’, of which he was neither proud nor ashamed.
The disclosure has reportedly raised ‘security concerns’ amongst the Army’s top brass.
Retired military officer Colonel Richard Kemp told the Sun: ’It undermines his personal security. He has shot himself in the foot.
‘Fighting in Afghanistan, Harry gained a very strong reputation both in the Army and in the country.
‘These comments will damage that reputation and he won’t be looked on in quite the same light, by people who thought highly of him before, including me.’
Harry says he killed 25 people in Afghanistan (Picture: Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA/WireImage)
The Telegraph, which obtained a Spanish language copy of the memoir from a bookshop in Spain, reports that Harry said he did not think of those he killed as people, but instead as ‘chess pieces’ that had been taken off the board.
‘So, my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,’ he wrote.
Colonel Tim Collins, known for a pre-battle speech he made in Iraq, said the duke has now turned against his ‘other family, the military’.
He criticised the disclosure’s inclusion in Spare, calling it ‘a tragic money-making scam’.
Spare, due out Tuesday, explores a variety of personal aspects of Harry’s life (Picture: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
He told Forces News on Friday: ‘Amongst his assertions is a claim that he killed 25 people in Afghanistan.
‘That’s not how you behave in the Army; it’s not how we think.
‘Harry has now turned against the other family, the military, that once embraced him, having trashed his birth family.’
Meanwhile, Lord Darroch told Sky News that he ‘slightly’ shared the security concerns military experts have raised after Harry’s comments.
The duke has been warned of ‘safety concerns’ following his comments (Pictur: POOL/Tim Graham Picture Library/ Getty Images)
‘You have to respect all of those who fought in Afghanistan,’ he said.
‘I went there a number of times when I was national security adviser. It’s a really tough environment, it was a really dangerous war, we lost more than 500 British servicemen.
‘I respect and appreciate all those who fought there.
‘Personally if I’d been advising the prince, I would have advised against the kind of detail that he goes into there.
‘But it’s out there now, and I believe it was a just war, and therefore what he has written about how he justified to himself what he was doing, I can understand and appreciate that.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said they do not comment on operational details for ‘security reasons’.
A brief ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin but dismissed by Ukraine as an empty gesture was due to have taken effect on Friday in what would be the first full pause since Moscow's invasion in February 2022.
Putin's order to stop fighting for 36 hours during the Orthodox Christmas came after Moscow suffered its worst reported loss of life of the war and as Ukraine's allies pledged to send armored vehicles and a second Patriot air defense battery to aid Kyiv.
A senior Ukraine official said shortly after the supposed start of Russia's pause in fighting that Moscow's forces had struck the southern city of Kherson in an attack that left several people dead or wounded.
"There were at least four explosions ... They talk about a ceasefire. This is who we are at war with," said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential administration.
He did not say whether the strikes themselves had occurred before or after the ceasefire's start time.
Both countries celebrate Orthodox Christmas and the Russian leader's order came following ceasefire calls from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's spiritual leader Patriarch Kirill, a staunch Putin supporter.
Ceasefire 'not serious'
The halt was to begin on Friday (09:00 GMT) and last until the end of Saturday (21:00 GMT), the Kremlin said.
Ukraine has dismissed it as a strategy by Russia to gain time to regroup its forces and bolster its defenses following a series of battlefield reversals.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the unilateral ceasefire "cannot and should not be taken seriously" while a close advisor said Russia "must leave the occupied territories" for there to be any real let up in hostilities.
U.S. President Joe Biden was equally dismissive.
"He was ready to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches" on Dec. 25 and on New Year's Day, he said. "I think he's trying to find some oxygen."
And British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly wrote on Twitter: "A 36 hour pause of Russian attacks will do nothing to advance the prospects for peace."
Since the invasion began on Feb. 24 last year, Russia has occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, but Kyiv has reclaimed swathes of its territory and this week claimed a New Year's strike that killed scores of Moscow's troops.
The Kremlin said Thursday that during a telephone conversation with Erdogan, Putin had told the Turkish leader Moscow was ready for dialogue if Kyiv recognizes "new territorial realities."
He was referring to Russia's claim to have annexed four regions of Ukraine, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions — despite not fully controlling them.
Kirill, 76, made his ceasefire appeal "so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the Nativity of Christ," he said on the church's official website Thursday.
The Kremlin's decision to send troops into Ukraine resulted in many clerics who had continued to remain loyal to Kirill turning away from Moscow.
In May, the Moscow-backed branch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church severed ties with Russia, citing his lack of condemnation of the fighting.
More arms for Ukraine
News of Putin's ceasefire order came as Germany and the United States pledged to provide additional military aid for Kyiv, with Biden saying the promised equipment comes at a "critical point" in the war.
Washington and Berlin said in a joint statement that they will respectively provide Kyiv with Bradley and Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
And "Germany will join the United States in supplying an additional Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine," the statement said, doubling the number of the advanced systems that have been promised to Kyiv.
Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has faced renewed calls to deliver Leopard light tanks, long sought by Kyiv, after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French-made AMX-10 RC light tanks to Ukraine.
Putin's ceasefire order came a day after Moscow lifted its reported toll in its worst single reported loss from a Ukrainian strike to 89 dead.
Ukraine's military strategic communications unit has said nearly 400 Russian soldiers died in the town of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine, held by pro-Russian forces. Russian commentators have said the death toll may be far higher than the Kremlin's figures.
Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy lost a historic tenth round of voting in his bid to become Speaker of the House on Thursday, after his efforts to offer fresh concessions to members of his own party fell on deaf ears and the impasse in Washington rolled on for a third day.
Despite last-ditch attempts by McCarthy to quell opposition and secure the votes he needs to be elected Speaker of the House, 20 Republicans repeatedly voted against him on Thursday, depriving him of the simple majority needed to clinch the Speaker’s gavel.
The enduring gridlock exposed long-simmering tensions in the Republican party and prompted questions about how lawmakers might be able to chart a path forward. McCarthy has so far resisted calls for him to step aside in favour of another Republican, and Democrats have demurred at suggestions that they might back McCarthy or work with Republicans to select a different Speaker.
The lower chamber of Congress is constitutionally required to select a Speaker and cannot move on to legislating until someone is handed the gavel.
McCarthy has made history with the relentless succession of votes, becoming the first candidate for Speaker to require 10 such rounds in nearly 200 years. The last time at least 10 ballots were needed was 1859.
Some of the rebels have personal grievances with McCarthy while others have demanded rule changes that would make it easier to oust the Speaker.
After months of negotiations, it appeared on Thursday as though McCarthy had capitulated to those demands, agreeing to change the rules so that just one member of the House could call a vote of no confidence. But the changes did little to move the dial and get him any closer to securing the 218 votes required to win a simple majority in the chamber.
Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections. But McCarthy finds himself in such a tough position because the “red wave” he predicted did not materialise and Republicans control the chamber by a razor-thin margin, leaving him beholden to a small number of rebels.
Late on Wednesday, the Club for Growth, the ultra-low-tax group, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, a McCarthy-aligned fundraising vehicle, said they had struck a deal whereby the latter would not spend money in open Republican primaries in safe seats. The agreement was seen as a win for rightwing Republicans who have taken issue with McCarthy’s efforts to support more centrist candidates in the past.
McCarthy had received an apparent boost earlier on Wednesday when Donald Trump, the former US president, issued a full-throated endorsement of his candidacy, saying: “It’s now time for all our GREAT Republican House members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY.”
But Trump’s push did little to sway the dissenters, in the latest signal that his influence over the party is waning. Lauren Boebert, one of the Republican rebels, called Trump her “favourite president” but said he should be urging McCarthy to withdraw.
Some of McCarthy’s allies have also quietly called for the California congressman to step aside in favour of a consensus candidate who could unite the party’s warring factions. Many members have publicly and privately suggested Steve Scalise, a congressman from Louisiana and McCarthy’s deputy, as an alternative.
At the same time, Democratic leaders have shown little willingness to help end the stalemate, despite suggestions that Democrats could band together with a group of Republicans to back an alternative Speaker candidate. Instead, Democrats have been united in voting in favour of Hakeem Jeffries, who took over as the party’s leader in the House after Nancy Pelosi said she would step down from leadership.
Ukraine has started the new year with a major attack that killed many Russian soldiers in their barracks, and with a defensive victory – its air force said it managed to shoot down all the Iranian drones Russia launched against Ukrainian infrastructure since the beginning of the year.
Ukraine launched six artillery rockets at a barracks in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, using its US-supplied HIMARS system a couple of minutes into New Year’s Day.
Four of the rockets got through air defences, the Russian defence ministry admitted, striking their target.
Russia acknowledged 63 deaths two days after the strike, later raising that number to 89.
But video of the wreckage showed that the temporary barracks, a former vocational school, had been almost completely flattened, suggesting that casualties may be much higher and it may take time to extract bodies.
Ukraine said the soldiers were being housed alongside a major ammunition dump, which detonated, and claimed an estimated 400 Russian soldiers killed and 300 wounded.
The strike caused a furore among Russian military reporters and lawmakers, who called for the resignation of Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, though he is not technically part of the Russian military hierarchy.
Donetsk law enforcement tried to deflect blame by suggesting that the soldiers themselves were to blame for using their mobile phones, enabling Ukrainian electronic surveillance to track them.
“Preliminarily, the reason for the HIMARS hit was the active use of mobile phones by the [newly] arrived military personnel. The enemy, using the ECHELON reconnaissance complex, revealed the activity of cellular communications and the location of subscribers,” a source told Russia’s Tass news agency.
Russia’s defence ministry adopted that explanation.
Ukraine said it had scored some success on the ground as well.
Brigadier-General Oleksiy Gromov said Ukrainian ground forces had advanced 2.5km (1.5 miles) towards the occupied town of Kreminna in Luhansk region over the last week of 2022, and were continuing to make progress.
Military analysts have opined that if Ukraine were to recapture Kreminna and Svatove, both just a few kilometres from the line of contact in Luhansk, they could roll over a 40km (25 miles) section of territory before reaching the next natural Russian defensive position in a counteroffensive similar to that which retook much of Kharkiv region last September.
“In the event of a breakthrough … of the defensive lines of the Russian occupying forces on the Svatove-Kreminna line and, accordingly, the transfer of hostilities closer to the city of Luhansk, a significant part of the servicemen of the units of the 2nd Army Corps, especially among those mobilised for temporary occupied territories, plans to surrender,” Gromov said.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Ukraine could capture Kreminna as early as the beginning of 2023.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC that the two sides were in an effective stalemate for now, and that hardware would make the difference.
“The situation is just stuck,” Budanov said. “We can’t defeat them in all directions comprehensively. Neither can they … We’re very much looking forward to new weapons supplies, and to the arrival of more advanced weapons.”
Russia continues air campaign
Russia was not idle on the last day of 2022, pounding Ukraine with drone and missile fire, albeit at a slightly reduced intensity.
Ukraine said it shot down all 13 drones launched by Russia, and 12 out of 20 cruise missiles. Eight people were injured when one of the missiles hit a residential building. More drones were to follow overnight, and Ukraine declared on January 1 that it had shot down all 45 Shahed-136 drones Russia had sent on New Year’s Eve.
Ukraine reported it shot down a further 39 drones launched on New Year’s Day.
By January 2, Ukraine said it maintained a 100 percent kill rate against enemy drones, a rate “never achieved before” according to air force spokesman Yuri Ignat.
“Only two days have passed since the beginning of the year and the number of Iranian drones shot down over Ukraine is already more than 80,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on January 2.
“We have information that Russia is planning a lasting attack by the Shahed drones, he said. “Her bet might be on exhaustion. On the exhaustion of our people, our air defence, our energy. But we must and will make sure that this terrorist goal fails like all the others.”
Ukraine’s air defences have been strengthened in recent weeks by at least two NASAMS and one IRIS-T air defence systems. But even without those, Ukraine’s air force had begun to develop ground-breaking countermeasures that were effective against drones and cruise missiles, the latter being notoriously difficult to stop.
On December 29, for example, Ukrainian officials reported that their forces shot down 54 out of 69 cruise missiles Russian forces launched, and 11 out of 23 drones.
Ukraine has also made it a priority to remind Russia that it is not itself immune to long-range air raids.
On December 29, Ukraine attacked Engels airbase in Russian territory with a drone, three days after causing three deaths there with a similar attack. Engels houses some of Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet. Ukraine had killed another three servicemen at Engels and Dyagilevo bases on December 5.
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Moscow “is struggling to counter air threats deep inside Russia”, with air defence systems such as the Pantsir needed to protect forward field headquarters in or near Ukraine.
Who has the greater staying power in weapons and troops?
There has been an ongoing discussion among military observers about Russia’s ability to generate firepower and manpower. Ukraine has devastated both with precision strikes, like that on Makiivka, since July thanks to deliveries of HIMARS rocket systems.
Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said Russian forces were conserving artillery rounds, firing 19,000-20,000 a day, a decreased rate compared with their previous track record.
The UK MoD agreed that “shortage of munitions likely remains the key limiting factor” on Russia, which was “unlikely to have increased its stockpile of artillery munitions enough to enable large scale offensive operations”, given that “even just sustaining defensive operations along its lengthy front line requires a significant daily expenditure of shells and rockets”.
Russia has been buying artillery rounds from Belarus and North Korea to supplement large losses of ammunition dumps near the front.
But one Ukrainian official warned against complacency.
“One should not underestimate the resource of the Russian Federation as a state in general. Perhaps they are not capable of conducting hostilities with the same intensity as before, but, unfortunately, they still have enough reserves, and in no way can they relax,” said Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar in a telethon.
Maintaining manpower has been a challenge for both sides. Ukraine has mandated conscription since the early days of the war, but Russia delayed mobilisation, an unpopular measure, until September and October, when it enlisted 300,000 men for the war.
Russia’s defence ministry said its regular autumn conscription had enlisted 120,000 men in November. The announcement emphasised that the conscripts were not destined for Ukraine, and would receive five months’ training on “modern weapons and military equipment”.
“Citizens called up for military service are not involved in the special military operation in Ukraine, and conscripted servicemen who have served the established terms of military service are dismissed in a timely manner and sent to their places of residence,” the ministry said.
The delay in mobilising troops and the assurances that regular cycle conscripts would not be sent to Ukraine could be signs of growing unease with the war in Russia.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov cast doubt on Russia’s reassurances, saying that Russia was in such need of manpower, it was about to declare martial law, close its borders to men of military service age and conduct a new mobilisation a week or so into the new year.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview that Moscow will not accept a peace plan Zelenskyy proposed in early November, in the first official Russian rebuttal of its specific terms.
The Kremlin rejects conditions that Russian troops withdraw to 1991 boundaries, that Russia pay Ukraine reparations, and that it participate in an international criminal tribunal at the Hague.
