Over the next few weeks we will be relaunching our series in which Sky News analysts and army correspondents answer your questions about the war.
Among those volunteering to respond are defense specialists Michael Clarke and Sean Bell, who can report on army operations on the ground, and Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay, who provides an overview of Russia.
Use the form above to submit a question.
A nuclear waste site in the UK was hacked into by cyber groups linked to Russia and China, The Guardian reports.
An investigation by the newspaper found that computer systems at Sellafield, Cumbria, had been compromised by cyber groups, and resources suggested they had likely accessed high-level confidential documents on the site.
It is unclear when the systems were hacked but sources said breaches were first detected in 2015.
“Sources suggest that foreign hackers have most likely obtained highly confidential documents on the site,” the newspaper states.
What do we know about the site?
The Magnox chip storage silo at Sellafield has been described as the most damaging construction in Western Europe.
It was built in the late 1950s to power the UK’s developing fleet of nuclear reactors.
For decades, the waste has dissolved in intensely radioactive sludge, releasing hydrogen fuel into the air, a potentially explosive aggregate that will have to be constantly vented.
The Hungarian prime minister has called for the EU club of Ukraine and billions of euros in investments for the country to be removed from the calendar of next week’s summit of the bloc’s leaders.
In a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, who will chair the Dec. 14-15 summit in Brussels, Orban insists that a “strategic discussion” on Ukraine’s long-term European future is needed first and warns that forcing a resolution can only destroy the EU’s position. unit.
Decisions on the EU’s enlargement and a review of its long-term budget, which includes £42.8bn in aid for Kyiv, can only be taken unanimously by all 27 member countries.
“I respectfully urge you to invite the European Council to adopt a resolution on these issues in December, as the apparent lack of consensus would inevitably lead to failure,” Orban wrote in the Dec. 4 letter seen by The Associated Press. .
EU leaders, he writes, “must avoid this counterproductive scenario for the sake of unity, our most important asset”.
He does not explicitly say that Hungary would veto any moves to open membership talks with Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin visited an exhibition of Russian achievements.
The Russian leader was given an explanation of a Soviet nuclear bomb design and shown a mock control panel for launching a nuclear test, before observing images of a blast and mushroom cloud through a viewing window.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Putin has reminded the West of the length and functions of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
He has deployed tactical nuclear missiles in Belarus and shifted Russia’s stance on two major arms treaties, while insisting that Moscow is not recklessly “brandishing” atomic weapons or changing its doctrine on their use.
Putin is expected to verify this month that he will seek a six-year term in March.
Volodymyr Zelensky is “paying for the mistakes he made” and other Ukrainians are wondering why the country was not better prepared, the mayor of Kyiv said in media interviews.
Vitali Klitschko said Ukrainians had confidence in the war leader’s handling of the crisis.
“People are wondering why we weren’t better prepared for this war, why Zelensky denied until the end that it had come to this,” Klitschko told Swiss outlet 20 Minuten.
“People see who’s effective and who’s not. And there were, and still are, a lot of expectations. Zelensky is paying for the mistakes he has made. “
When asked about Zelensky’s mistakes, the mayor responded: “People are wondering why we weren’t better prepared for this war.
“Or why it was imaginable that the Russians could triumph in kyiv so quickly.
“There was too much data that didn’t correspond to reality. But the president still has a vital role as today and we will have it until the end of the war.
“But at the end of this war, each and every politician will pay for their successes or their failures. “
The former boxing champion claimed that the Ukrainian leader had authoritarian tendencies.
In another interview, he told German magazine Der Spiegel: “At some point we will not be others from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one man. “
The comments come as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive, which has made small gains but is not advancing at the speed it had hoped.
Vladimir Putin will travel to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia this week, Russian newspaper Shot reports, citing the president’s adviser Yuri Ushakov.
This comes after OPEC’s oil producers’ organization, which includes the three countries, agreed last Thursday to voluntary production cuts totaling about 2. 2 million barrels per day.
Putin has rarely traveled in recent years, most commonly to states in the former Soviet Union.
Its last outing outside of those countries was in China in October.
Diplomatic envoys from the EU’s 27 member countries will meet to begin discussing a delicate proposal to start accession talks with Ukraine, officials and diplomats said.
The meeting marks the start of preparations among the 27 for a December summit of the bloc’s leaders that is due to assess and decide on EU integration prospects for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and others.
Specifically, Tuesday’s assembly will begin discussing a draft agreement from the Leaders’ Summit.
Diplomats and EU officials said the first draft ready for discussion is sure to change.
The initial draft reads: “The European Council takes the decision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. “
As for Georgia, he said it would be granted EU candidacy “on the condition” that Tbilisi implements exceptional conditions.
For Bosnia, the initial draft stated that the bloc “is ready to start EU accession negotiations. . . once the mandatory degree of compliance with the accession criteria has been reached. “
Ukrainian agents used two drones to destroy Russian ammunition and aircraft depots near the occupied city of Svatove in the eastern Luhansk region, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.
In a message posted on Facebook, the SBU said it had amassed intelligence on the location of the depots and carried out overnight attacks.
“We continue to work until total victory,” they added.
What do we know about Svatove?
The Russians entrench themselves in Svatove, east of the Oskil River.
Dominion was vital to them because Svatove controlled the last direction of intelligent origin from Belgorod in Russia towards his forces further south.
The first 30 empty trucks passed the new Uhryniv-Dolhoviachuv crossing on the Ukrainian-Polish border, which Kyiv hopes will bring relief as protests by Polish drivers have blocked other land corridors.
Ukraine’s border service reported that four border crossings are blocked through Polish carriers, whose protests have paralyzed traffic for weeks.
The main request of Polish hauliers is to prevent Ukrainian truck drivers from entering the EU without permission, something that Kiev and Brussels make impossible.
To put it in context: Polish drivers have been blocking several border crossings with Ukraine in protest for a month.
Both Polish and Slovak drivers complain that their Ukrainian counterparts offer cheaper costs for their facilities and also for shipping goods within the EU than between the bloc and Ukraine.
They demand the EU reinstate a system of granting a limited number of permits to Ukrainian companies to operate in the bloc and for European truckers to enter Ukraine.
We reported earlier that Kyiv officials had accused Russia of a war crime after footage emerged on social media appearing to show two uniformed Ukrainian soldiers being shot while surrendering (see post at 8.07am).
Today, Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for the Ukrainian army organization fighting near the eastern city of Avdiivka, said that “the organization of Russian occupiers that committed this crime has ceased to exist. “
The Ukrainska Pravda reports that he made the comments on air during a news broadcast.
He added that proceedings have been initiated and the investigation continues.
“Then those documents will go abroad as war crimes,” he added.