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Putin Warns of Long War as West Seeks to Unblock Ukraine's Grain Exports

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan June 29, 2022. Sputnik/Grigory Sysoyev/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan June 29, 2022. Sputnik/Grigory Sysoyev/Pool via REUTERS
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Putin Warns of Long War as West Seeks to Unblock Ukraine's Grain Exports

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan June 29, 2022. Sputnik/Grigory Sysoyev/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan June 29, 2022. Sputnik/Grigory Sysoyev/Pool via REUTERS

Western officials on Friday tried to coax Russia into allowing Ukraine to ship its grain out to the world as the four-month-old war threatened to bring hunger to countries far away from the battlefields.

Moscow, however, accused the West of waging economic warfare on Russia by attempting to isolate it with sanctions imposed over the Feb. 24 invasion.

President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia's military operations in Ukraine had barely got started and the prospects for negotiation would grow dimmer the longer the conflict dragged on.

"We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading towards this," Putin said in a speech to parliament on Thursday.

On the frontlines in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, officials reported continued Russian shelling of towns and villages ahead of an anticipated new push to grasp more territory.

At a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Bali, Indonesia, some of the staunchest critics of the Russian invasion confronted the Kremlin's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov.

High on their concerns was getting grain shipments from Ukraine out of blockaded Black Sea ports. Ukraine is a top exporter and aid agencies have warned that countries in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere face devastating food shortages if supplies do not reach them.

At a plenary session, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Moscow to let Ukrainian grain out to the world, a Western official said.

"He addressed Russia directly, saying: 'To our Russian colleagues: Ukraine is not your country. Its grain is not your grain. Why are you blocking the ports? You should let the grain out,'" the official said.

Earlier, Lavrov had berated the West, saying that instead of focusing on how to tackle global economic problems at the meeting, ministers had embarked on "frenzied criticism" of Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi called on the G20 to "find a way forward" to address global challenges and said the repercussions of the war, including rising energy and food prices, would hit poor countries the hardest.

"It is our responsibility to end the war sooner than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not at the battlefield," Retno said at the opening of talks.

However, Putin's comments in Moscow indicated that the prospects of that happening were dim right now.

The biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two has killed thousands, displaced millions and flattened Ukrainian cities.

Russia says its "special military operation" is intended to degrade Ukraine's military and root out people it calls dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia is engaged in an unjustified land grab.

After failing to quickly take the capital Kyiv, Russia is now waging a war of attrition in Ukraine's industrial heartland of the Donbas, made up of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

On Sunday, Moscow declared it had "liberated" Luhansk and now plans to capture parts of neighboring Donetsk it does not control.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Friday Russian forces were indiscriminately shelling villages, towns and cities.

"They hit houses, every building that seems to them a possible fortification. To move forward, do not count personal losses and do not feel sorry for the inhabitants of the area," he said.

The situation was similar in settlements in Donetsk.

Vadym Lyakh, the mayor of Sloviansk in Donetsk, said a woman was killed overnight when Russian shelling hit a residential building.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

Britain's defense ministry said Russian forces were likely to be pausing to replenish before undertaking new offensive operations in Donetsk. The ministry said Russia's immediate tactical objective might be Siversk, a small industrial city in the north of Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video message, said the raising of the Ukrainian flag on Snake Island in the Black Sea on Thursday was a sign his country would not be broken.

Russia abandoned Snake Island, about 140 km (85 miles) south of the port of Odesa, at the end of June - a victory for Ukraine that Kyiv hoped could loosen Moscow's blockade of Ukrainian ports.

"Let every Russian captain, aboard a ship or a plane, see the Ukrainian flag on Snake Island and let him know that our country will not be broken," Zelenskiy said.

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World

Starmer, Xi Signal Reset in China-UK Ties, Eye Economic Wins

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer receives a bouquet of flowers at an airport, as Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan reacts alongside, in Beijing, China, January 28, 2026. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer receives a bouquet of flowers at an airport, as Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan reacts alongside, in Beijing, China, January 28, 2026. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS
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Starmer, Xi Signal Reset in China-UK Ties, Eye Economic Wins

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer receives a bouquet of flowers at an airport, as Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan reacts alongside, in Beijing, China, January 28, 2026. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer receives a bouquet of flowers at an airport, as Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan reacts alongside, in Beijing, China, January 28, 2026. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he wanted to build a "sophisticated relationship" with Beijing to boost the UK economy, signaling a reset after years of strained ties.
On the key day of his four-day visit to China, the first by a British prime minister in eight years, Starmer held an 80-minute summit with Xi at the Great Hall of the People before they lunched together. Starmer said the pair chatted about soccer and Shakespeare, as well as business matters, Reuters reported.
The British leader will also meet Premier Li Qiang.
Starmer, whose center-left Labor Party government has struggled to deliver the growth it promised, has made improving relations with the world's second-largest economy a priority, despite lingering misgivings about espionage and human rights.
"China is a vital player on the global stage, and it's vital that we build a more ‌sophisticated relationship where we ‌can identify opportunities to collaborate, but of course, also allow a meaningful dialogue on ‌areas ⁠where we disagree," ‌Starmer told Xi at the start of their meeting.
Xi said ties with Britain had gone through "twists and turns" that did not serve the interests of either country and that China was ready to develop a long-term partnership.
"We can deliver a result that can withstand the test of history," the Chinese leader told Starmer, flanked by his top ministers.
Starmer is the latest Western leader to engage in a flurry of diplomacy with China, as nations hedge against unpredictability from the United States under President Donald Trump.
Trump's on-off threats of trade tariffs and pledges to grab control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, have rankled long-standing allies like Britain.
Starmer's visit immediately follows that ⁠of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who signed an economic deal with Beijing to tear down trade barriers, drawing Trump's ire.
The British leader told reporters he had ‌made progress in discussions with China's leader to reduce tariffs on whisky, while Xi ‍also said China would consider waiving visas for British nationals.
The "relationship ‍is in a good place, a strong place," said Starmer, who is being accompanied by more than 50 business leaders ‍on the trip.
Asked by a reporter if Xi was someone he could do business with, Starmer replied 'yes'.
TACKLING MIGRANT SMUGGLING GANGS
Starmer has adopted a new policy of engagement with China after ties deteriorated for years under previous Conservative governments, when London curbed some Chinese investment over national security worries and expressed concern over a crackdown on political freedoms in Hong Kong.
"I made the promise 18 months ago, when we were elected into government, that I would make Britain face outwards again," Starmer told Xi.
"Because, as we all know, events abroad affect everything that happens back in our home countries, to prices on the supermarket shelves to ⁠how secure we feel."
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party, said on Wednesday she would not have gone to China because of the security risks the country poses.
British security services have said China routinely spies on the government. China has denied the claims.
In a sign of how the countries can work together, Starmer also announced that Britain and China would jointly tackle gangs involved in trafficking illegal migrants.
The deal focuses on reducing the use of Chinese-made engines for small boats that transport people across Europe to claim asylum.
British and Chinese officials will share intelligence to identify smugglers’ supply routes and work with Chinese manufacturers to prevent legitimate businesses from being exploited by organized crime, Downing Street said.
Starmer told reporters he also had a "respectful discussion" with Xi about the case of Jimmy Lai, the former Hong Kong media tycoon and British citizen who was convicted in December of national security crimes.
After arriving in the Chinese capital late Wednesday, Starmer dined at a restaurant known for its mushroom-laden dishes that also hosted former US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ‌during her 2023 visit.
He practiced pronouncing the Chinese word for thank you - 'xie xie' - with restaurant staff as he posed for photographs, a video posted on Weibo showed.

World

Report: Russia and Ukraine's Combined War Casualties Could Reach 2 Million Soon

FILE PHOTO: Service members of the 152nd Jaeger Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces load a shell into a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system at their position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Service members of the 152nd Jaeger Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces load a shell into a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system at their position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Report: Russia and Ukraine's Combined War Casualties Could Reach 2 Million Soon

FILE PHOTO: Service members of the 152nd Jaeger Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces load a shell into a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system at their position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Service members of the 152nd Jaeger Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces load a shell into a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system at their position in a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

The number of soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides of Russia's war on Ukraine could be 2 million by spring, with Russia sustaining the largest number of troop deaths for any major power in any conflict since World War II, a report warned Tuesday.

The report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies came less than a month before the fourth anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

As the war grinds through another bitterly cold winter, Russian strikes damaged an apartment block Wednesday on the outskirts of Kyiv, killing two people. Nine others were injured in attacks in the Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih and in the front-line Zaporizhzhia region, The Associated Press said.

The CSIS report said Russia suffered 1.2 million casualties, including up to 325,000 troop deaths, between February 2022 and December 2025.

“Despite claims of battlefield momentum in Ukraine, the data shows that Russia is paying an extraordinary price for minimal gains and is in decline as a major power,” the report said. “No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II."

It estimated that Ukraine, with its smaller army and population, had suffered between 500,000 to 600,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths.

Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each side seeks to amplify the other side’s casualties.

Commenting on the report, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the research could not be considered “reliable information” and that only Russia’s Ministry of Defense was authorized to provide information on military losses.

The ministry has not released figures on battlefield deaths since a statement in September 2022 that said just under 6,000 Russian soldiers had been killed.

The Ukrainian government had no immediate comment on the report. In an interview with NBC in February 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the war began.

The CSIS report estimated that at current rates, combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties may be as high as 1.8 million and could reach 2 million by spring.

The figures from the CSIS were compiled using the Washington-based think tank’s own analysis, data published by independent Russian news site Mediazona with the BBC, estimates by the British government and interviews with state officials.

A war of attrition

Reports about military losses have been repressed in Russian media, activists and independent journalists say.

Mediazona, together with the BBC and a team of volunteers, has so far collected the names of more than 160,000 troops killed by scouring news reports, social media and government websites.

The report also said Russian forces were advancing at a sluggish pace since they seized the initiative on the battlefield in 2024, despite their much larger size.

Russia’s advance in Ukraine has largely settled into a grinding war of attrition, and analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin is in no rush to find a settlement, despite his army’s difficulties on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

The report said Russian forces have advanced at an average rate of between 15 and 70 meters (49 to 230 feet) per day in their most prominent offensives.

That is “slower than almost any major offensive campaign in any war in the last century,” the report said.

Putin told his annual news conference last month that 700,000 Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine. He gave the same number in 2024, and a slightly lower figure — 617,000 — in December 2023. It was not possible to verify those figures.

2 killed in attack in Kyiv region Officials said Wednesday that two people were killed near the Ukrainian capital and at least nine others were injured in attacks across Ukraine.

A man and a woman died in an overnight attack in the Bilohorodka area on the outskirts of Kyiv, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the regional military administration.

Officials in the Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih, as well as the Zaporizhzhia region, also reported Russian strikes overnight, wounding at least nine people and damaging infrastructure.

Ukraine's air force said that Russia attacked overnight with one ballistic missile and 146 strike drones, 103 of which were shot down or destroyed using electronic warfare.

Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Defense said its air defenses destroyed 75 Ukrainian drones overnight. Twenty-four were shot down over Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, with 23 more shot down over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2016.

Two drones were reportedly shot down over Russia's Voronezh region, where Ukraine's General Staff said Wednesday that it had struck the Khokholskaya oil depot. Regional Gov. Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram that falling drone debris sparked a fire involving oil products, but did not give further details.

World

Kallas: EU Expected to Put Iran Guards on 'Terrorist List'

European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas arrives for an informal meeting of the members of the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2026. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas arrives for an informal meeting of the members of the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2026. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
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Kallas: EU Expected to Put Iran Guards on 'Terrorist List'

European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas arrives for an informal meeting of the members of the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2026. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas arrives for an informal meeting of the members of the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2026. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS

EU foreign ministers are expected to agree Thursday to put Iran's Revolutionary Guards on the bloc's "terrorist list" after a deadly crackdown on mass protests, the EU's foreign policy chief said.

"If you act as a terrorist, you should also be treated as terrorists," top diplomat Kaja Kallas told journalists ahead of the ministers' meeting in Brussels said AFP.