Russia-Ukraine war live: US sends first power equipment to Ukraine; EU breaks Hungary stalemate to approve €18bn aid plan | Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will hold talks to discuss the events of 2022 in late December, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told the newspaper that the date and the agenda of the meeting are already known, but an official announcement will come later.

European Union governments on Monday struck a deal with Hungary that sorts out financial aid for Ukraine in 2023 and gains Budapest’s approval for a global minimum corporate tax, all in exchange for EU flexibility about funds paid to Hungary.

The complex deal came after months of wrangling between EU institutions, member countries and Hungary and was spelled out on Monday by the council that represents EU member governments and by diplomats speaking anonymously. It means Ukraine will get €18bn from the EU budget next year.

Budapest had been vetoing making payments by that stable, predictable and cheaper means, rather than by the bilateral loans that member countries have been extending to Kyiv.

It also agreed to drop its veto over the OECD-agreed global minimum corporate tax of 15% to be applied to large international corporations where they make money, rather than where they set up offices for tax purposes.

The United States has shipped the first part of its power equipment aid to Ukraine, US officials said on Monday, as Washington works to support the country’s energy infrastructure against intensifying attacks from Russia.

The first tranche was power equipment worth about $13m, one of the officials said. Another source familiar with the matter said two more planeloads of equipment would leave from the United States this week.

A US official said the equipment departed from a US military base. The first tranche is part of the $53m aid announced last month, after Ukraine said it needed transformers and generators as well as air defence systems.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments for the next while.

It’s 7.30am in Kyiv. Our main stories this morning: the European Union reached a deal in principle to send an €18bn ($18.93bn) financial aid package to Ukraine and approve a minimum tax on major corporations in a big move that narrowed a rift between the bloc and recalcitrant member Hungary.

And the United States has shipped the first part of its power equipment aid to Ukraine, US officials said on Monday, as Washington works to support the country’s energy infrastructure against intensifying attacks from Russia.

Here are the other key recent developments.

• Ukraine has called for the west to supply Patriot missiles batteries and other modern air defence systems. The country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, made the appeal to western allies amid growing concerns that attacks by Russia on its electricity grid could create a new wave of refugees.

• The head of Norway’s refugee council said he expects another wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine to go to Europe over the winter because of “unliveable” conditions. Millions of people in Ukraine have been left without heat, clean water or power amid plummeting temperatures, following Russian missile strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged leaders of the Group of Seven nations on Monday to support his idea of convening a special global peace summit in winter dedicated to bringing peace to his country. Zelenskiy also appealed to the G7 nations for an additional 2bn cubic metres of natural gas as well as long-range weapons, modern tanks, artillery units and shells.

• Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has joined the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic party (LDPR), its leader said. Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death”, was freed last week after 14 years in US custody in a high-profile swap with the American basketball star Brittney Griner. The move could see Bout seek a seat in the Russian parliament.

• The exiled mayor of Melitopol claims Russian troops are “redeploying” and “panicking” following Ukrainian attacks on the Russian-occupied city over the weekend. Russian forces “are busy moving their military groups to other places to try to hide them”, Ivan Fedorov said without providing evidence.

• Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence has warned that Russia has enough missiles to launch another three to five waves of strikes on the country. Vadym Skibitsky also claimed Russia is using old Ukrainian missiles against Kyiv and outlined the four general directions from which Russia is launching missiles into Ukraine.

• Two civilians have been killed and 10 more injured after Russian rocket attacks on the town of Hirnyk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces struck the centre of the town “with cluster munitions and Uragan MLRS [multilaunch rocket systems]”, the prosecutor general’s office said.

• Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to local authorities. “The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson,” governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday.

• Vladimir Putin will not hold a year-end press conference for the first time in at least a decade, in what Kremlin watchers view as a break with protocol due to his war in Ukraine. There would also be no New Year reception at the Kremlin, officials said.

• Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said he would be “open minded” about supplying Ukraine with longer-range weapons if Russia continued to target civilian areas. Wallace said he “constantly” reviewed the weapons systems the UK sends to Ukraine, and that he “will be open minded to see what we do next” if Moscow tries to “break those Geneva conventions”.

• The EU has secured enough gas for this winter but could face a gas shortage next year if Russia further cuts supplies, the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have warned.

• An international team of legal advisers has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine’s recaptured city of Kherson to gather evidence of alleged sexual crimes by Russian forces. A team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, are conducting a full-scale investigation part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities.