Ukrainian president calls latest talks with Trump productive; Zelenskyy says attack on Putin’s residence is ‘lies’. What we know on day 1,406

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine cannot win its war against Russia without US support and accused Moscow of trying to sabotage peace talks after the Kremlin said it had foiled a Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence. Zelenskyy described the claim as “typical Russian lies” after his two-hour meeting on Sunday with Donald Trump in Florida, Luke Harding and Sammy Gecsoyler report. The Ukrainian president said Russia was “at it again” and using “dangerous statements” to undermine “diplomatic efforts” with the US to end the conflict. He added: “This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war.”

Zelenskyy later said his Sunday meeting with Trump was productive. “Can we win without American support? No,” Zelenskyy told Fox News, before laying out the difficulties that would be posed by a lack of US backing. He also said: “I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine.”

Vladimir Putin has told his army to press on with a campaign to take full control of the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine after a Russian commander said Moscow’s forces were 15km (9.3 miles) from its biggest city. Col-Gen Mikhail Teplinsky told the Russian president at a televised meeting with top military officials at the Kremlin on Monday – a day after Putin spoke with Trump about Ukraine – that Russian forces were getting closer to the city of Zaporizhzhia. Moscow controls about 75% of Ukraine’s wider Zaporizhzhia province, one of four Putin annexed in 2022 in a move denounced by Kyiv and the west as illegal. Gen Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff, earlier told Putin that Moscow’s forces were advancing along nearly the entire frontline, while Kyiv’s forces were focused on defence and attempting to counterattack. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.

Russia’s foreign minister said the west must understand that Russia holds the strategic initiative in Ukraine as discussions move forward on a possible settlement. Sergei Lavrov told state news agency RIA that Kyiv and western countries had to come to terms with the fact that Russia held the initiative on the battlefield as the fourth anniversary of its 2022 invasion approaches. “Our principled position remains unchanged. The strategic initiative rests wholly with the Russian army and the west understands this.” Ukraine and the west, Lavrov said, had to take account of the realities on the ground.

Power line repairs near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have been successfully completed, the International Atomic Energy Agency cited its director general, Rafael Grossi, as saying on Monday. An IAEA team was monitoring repairs near the plant after a local ceasefire brokered by the agency began, with the work expected to last several days.

A historic theatre in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol has opened its doors more than three years after it was destroyed in a Russian airstrike that killed hundreds of civilians sheltering inside. Moscow-installed authorities marked the rebuilding of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre with a gala concert on the building’s new main stage Sunday night. The original theatre was destroyed when it was targeted by a Russian airstrike in 2022 as Moscow’s forces besieged the city. Mariupol’s Ukrainian city council, which left the city when it was occupied for Ukrainian-controlled territory, called the rebuilding and the opening of the theatre “singing and dancing on bones”.

• Curator was in a ‘state of shock’ watching match unfold

• ‘We’re very, very disappointed it’s only gone two days’

The MCG’s head curator has conceded staff went “too far” in preparing a pitch that favoured the bowlers too heavily in the Boxing Day Test, saying he was in a “state of shock” while watching the match unfold.

But the stadium’s chief executive is standing by the under-fire curator after the Test match between Australia and England finished within two days.

Turnout appears low for vote in which most candidates seen as allies of junta and large areas excluded by war

Polls have closed in conflict-racked Myanmar, ending the first phase of an election that has been widely condemned as a sham designed to legitimise the military junta’s rule.

The military has touted the vote as a return to democracy almost five years after it seized power in a coup, ousting the country’s then de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, detaining her and sparking a spiralling civil war.

As the military pushes ahead with a widely condemned election, Beijing’s priorities are proving decisive

• Myanmar’s first election since the 2021 coup: everything you need to know

Myanmar’s military has managed to regain momentum in its battle against a determined patchwork of opposition groups, retaking some territory, and pushing ahead with a widely condemned election that begins on Sunday.

It is a turnaround for the military, which had appeared so beleaguered that some dared to question if it could collapse.

New books by Liza Minelli, David Sedaris, Maggie O’Farrell and Yann Martel are among the literary highlights of the year ahead

2026 is already promising plenty of unmissable releases: there are new novels by George Saunders, Ali Smith and Douglas Stuart, memoirs from Gisèle Pelicot, Lena Dunham and Mark Haddon, and plenty of inventive debuts to look forward to. Here, browse all the biggest titles set to hit shelves in the coming months across fiction and nonfiction, selected by the Guardian’s books desk.

Dan, 40, a sock designer and writer, meets Emmie, 39, an art consultant

What were you hoping for?
To snog the love of my life. Failing that, I’d heard good things about the broccoli.

Need something brilliant to read over the holidays? Here are six of our best pieces from 2025. Look out for part two next Saturday

Two countries pledge in joint statement to halt all forms of attacks and further troop deployments in long-running dispute over contested territory

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire, pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes that have killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides.

In a joint statement, the two south-east Asian neighbours said the ceasefire would take effect on Saturday at noon local time and involve “all types of weapons, including attacks on civilians, civilian objects and infrastructures, and military objectives of either side, in all cases and all areas”.

North Korea leader speaks of ‘really meaningful year’ for alliance with Moscow; Zelenskyy accuses Russia of using Belarus apartments to attack Ukraine. What we know on day 1,403

Country’s foreign minister says his president signed off on US air attack – key US politics stories from 26 December at a glance

US airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day were aided by intelligence provided by the Nigerian government, the country’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Donald Trump had announced the strikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.

Week 17 delivers a decisive at Soldier Field as Chicago and San Francisco battle for positioning in a crowded NFC race for the No 1 seed and a precious first-round bye

Chicago Bears (11-4) v San Francisco 49ers (11-4)

Parts of the US right have for years been amplifying claims that Christians face violence in Nigeria, a notion the US president has helped to encourage

After spending weeks accusing Nigeria’s government of failing to tackle the persecution of Christians, Donald Trump announced a series of strikes on the west African country on Christmas Day.

The strikes, targeting Islamic State militants in the country’s north, mark the latest overseas military intervention from Trump, who campaigned on a promise to extricate the US from decades of “endless wars” during his 2024 run for president.

Elections will be first since military seized power in 2021, but analysts say vote is far from a step toward democracy

Myanmar is preparing to go to the polls for the first time since its military seized power in a coup in 2021, but with its former leader behind bars, its most successful political party disbanded and roughly a third of the country either disputed or in rebel hands, few believe claims by its military rulers that its 28 December election will be “free and fair”.

“This is not for the people, this is for themselves,” says Pai, 25, who fled Myanmar after the military seized power. “They [the ruling junta] are looking for a way out of the trap they are [in].”

Ahead of his new album, My Days of 58, the US singer-songwriter will answer your questions for the Guardian’s reader interview

In a career hardly plagued with lows, Bill Callahan has been on a hot streak recently. Since 2019’s Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest, the Maryland-born songwriter has shared his beguiling meditations on being changed by parenthood and marriage, while his music has loosened and expanded accordingly. The latter is in part down to the chemistry that Callahan has formed with his live band – guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White also of the Dirty Three – audible on the extraordinary 2024 live album Resuscitate! It’s this ensemble and their facility for improv that powers Callahan’s forthcoming solo record, My Days of 58, the first tastes of which offer up some Callahan wisdom.

The song Lonely City, he said, was an odd one for him to write, being generally more concerned with “humans and the spirit within”.

So writing about concrete and steel felt like a no go. Like I’m going to write a song about a car next? But of course cities are made by humans so they are human, too. You have a relationship with them, like friends.

This year saw everyone from Alan Carr to demon sheep run riot on our screens – but there could only be one winner. Here’s our full countdown of the very best television of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

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Nesrine Malik delivers your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world

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