Moscow reported to have forcibly moved dozens of people from border village; Florida peace talks described as ‘productive’. What we know on day 1,398

The Ukrainian army was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region, it said on Sunday, after reports that Moscow forcibly moved 50 people from a border village there. That marks a renewed Russian advance in the part of the region largely spared from intense ground fighting since Ukraine regained land there in a 2022 counteroffensive. “Fighting is currently ongoing in the village of Grabovske,” Ukraine’s joint taskforce said, adding the troops were “making efforts to drive the occupiers back into Russian territory”. It has also refuted media reports saying Moscow’s troops were in the neighbouring Ryasne village. Earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian rights ombudsman said Russian troops forcibly moved about 50 people from Grabovske to Russia. There was no official comment from Russia. On Saturday, the Russian army said it had captured the village of Vysoke, a short distance from Grabovske.

US and Ukrainian envoys issued a joint statement on Sunday saying talks in Miami had been “productive and constructive” but did not announce any apparent breakthrough in efforts to end the Russian invasion. “Over the last three days in Florida, the Ukrainian delegation held a series of productive and constructive meetings with American and European partners,” Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said in separate statements on X on Sunday. Witkoff posted: “Our shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security and create conditions for Ukraine’s recovery, stability and long-term prosperity. Peace must be not only a cessation of hostilities, but also a dignified foundation for a stable future.”

The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US were on the cards. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a day earlier that Washington had mooted the trilateral format, which would mark Moscow and Kyiv’s first face-to-face negotiations in half a year, but the Ukrainian president expressed scepticism that they would lead to progress. Russian news agencies reported Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, as telling reporters: “At present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge it is not in preparation.” Russian representatives have also been in southern Florida for discussions with the US over Ukraine, with a Kremlin envoy saying on Saturday that the talks had been pressing on “constructively”.

Keir Starmer discussed efforts to achieve a “just and lasting end” to the war in a Sunday call with Donald Trump, the British prime minister’s office said in a statement after the Florida talks. “The two leaders began by reflecting on the war in Ukraine,” Starmer’s office said in a readout of the call, adding they had discussed the work of the so-called “coalition of the willing” countries that have pledged to support Kyiv.

Russia has renewed its criticism of efforts by Europe and Ukraine to amend US proposals to end the war in Ukraine, saying they did not improve prospects for peace. Rory Carroll reports that Putin aide Ushakov told reporters on Sunday that the proposed tweaks to Washington’s plan could prolong the conflict. “I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” Ushakov said. He added that he had not seen the exact proposals and that his criticism was “not a forecast”.

US intelligence reports continue to warn that Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, Reuters reported six sources familiar with intelligence as saying, even as negotiators seek an end to the war that would leave Russia with far less territory. The most recent of the reports dates from late September, one of the sources said. The intelligence contradicts the Russian leader’s denials that he is a threat to Europe. “The intelligence has always been that Putin wants more,” Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House intelligence committee, told Reuters. “The Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they’re first.”

Deal will allow app to continue operating in US as Elizabeth Warren condemns Trump and his ‘billionaire buddies’

TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US business to three American investors – Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX – ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States.

The deal is expected to close on 22 January, according to an internal memo seen by he Associated Press and Reuters. The TikTok chief executive officer, Shou Zi Chew, said in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors.

Mexican leader warns of conflict as US president targets sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela

• What action is Trump taking against Venezuela’s oil industry?

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has urged the United Nations to “prevent any bloodshed” in Venezuela, as Donald Trump piled more pressure on the South American country.

“The United Nations has been conspicuously absent. It must assume its role to prevent any bloodshed and to always seek the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” the leftwing president told reporters the morning after Washington announced a blockade of “sanctioned oil tankers” entering or leaving Venezuela.

Susie Wiles has spoken to Vanity Fair magazine in a series of 11 interviews that she has since dismissed as a ‘hit piece’

The president’s chief of staff Susie Wiles has given her own, unvarnished thoughts about Donald Trump’s administration, in a series of interviews published by Vanity Fair magazine, revealing details and opinions that presidential aides usually save for memoirs long after they have left power.

From calling out attorney general Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, to criticising Elon Musk over the dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Wiles has offered an unusually candid look inside the White House, after maintaining a low profile for much of Trump’s term.