Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia is upgrading its nuclear arsenal as west wages ‘hybrid war’ against it, says Vladimir Putin | Ukraine

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Russia had laid 7,000 sq km of minefields along the 2,000km frontline.

Speaking at a meeting with senior defence officials, he also said Russia had increased tank production by 5.6 times since what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

At the same meeting, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said Russia’s defence industry has reacted to the conflict in Ukraine faster than that of the west.

Russia has summoned Finland’s ambassador over concerns about a new defence agreement between Helsinki and Washington, the Russian foreign ministry has said.

Russian officials told the ambassador that Moscow would “take the necessary measures to counter the aggressive decisions of Finland and its Nato allies”, notably the growing Nato military presence near its border, ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

Denmark reached the defence agreement with the US that will allow US soldiers and military equipment to be based on Danish soil, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday.

The agreement is aimed at allowing swift military access and aid to Finland, which shares a 1,340km border with Russia, in case of conflict, officials have said.

The pact will make “organising peacetime operations easier, but above all it can be vital in a crisis,” Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, has said.

Putin warned of “problems” with neighbouring Finland after it joined Nato earlier this year, in an interview with Rossiya state TV on Sunday.

The west “dragged Finland into Nato. Did we have any disputes with them? All disputes, including territorial ones in the mid-20th century, have long been solved,” Putin said.

“There were no problems there, now there will be, because we will create the Leningrad military district and concentrate a certain amount of military units there.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will take questions from journalists later today at an end-of-year press conference.

He is due to meet Ukrainian journalists and foreign reporters after 1400 GMT, according to AFP.

The press conference comes as some allies waver on aid and when recent polling suggests the general public are losing trust in Zelenskiy.

Recent polling shows the number of Ukrainians who trust Zelenskiy has dropped to 62%, compared to 84% one year ago, as Kyiv’s forces were celebrating gains in the east and south.

The advances from this year’s counteroffensive were much more modest, with a few villages in the south and east frontlines recaptured after months of fighting against entrenched Russian forces.

But society still overwhelmingly backs the armed forces and their commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said there had been an “extensive failure” by Russia to protect civilians in Ukraine and that there were indications that Russian forces had committed war crimes there.

“There has been extensive failure by the Russian Federation to take adequate measures to protect civilians and protect civilian objects against the effects of their attacks,” Turk said at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to Reuters.

He added that his office’s monitoring indicated “gross violations of international human rights law, serious violations of international humanitarian law, and war crimes, primarily by the forces of the Russian Federation”.

In March, the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Britain and France will continue to be “staunch supporters” of Ukraine for as long as it takes, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said after a meeting with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, in Paris.

Cameron has urged the west to be patient about the pace of Ukraine military advances.

In Ukraine, concern has grown about global support, with conflict in the Middle East taking attention away from the country, and longer-term questions about western financial backing as the US heads into an election cycle.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

The White House has warned that the US has only enough authorised funding for one more aid package to Ukraine this year before Congress will be required to greenlight new contributions.

Washington has committed more than $43bn in military assistance to ally Ukraine since Moscow launched its deadly full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

But hardline US Republicans in Congress, who complain that the Biden administration is prioritising contributions to Kyiv over addressing domestic problems such as border security, have all but blocked new funding.

“We have … one more aid package here before our replenishment authority dries up,” national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday, referring to the congressionally approved system by which the Pentagon replaces its donated weapons and equipment.

In other developments:

• Ukraine’s top general issued his strongest criticism to date of Volodymr Zelenskiy’s decision to fire all of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment heads in August in a corruption crackdown, Interfax Ukraine reported. Asked by reporters on the sidelines of an event on Monday about whether the decision affected mobilisation levels, the armed forces’ commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, bemoaned the recruitment chiefs’ sacking. “These were professionals, they knew how to do this, and they are gone,” Interfax Ukraine cited him as saying.

• Zaluzhnyi also said the situation on the frontline of the war had not reached a stalemate, despite comments published last month in which he described the war as moving towards a new stage of static and attritional fighting. Asked on Monday whether he considered the battlefield situation a stalemate, Zaluzhnyi replied “No”, Ukraine’s RBC media reported.

• Zaluzhnyi declined to comment on whether Ukraine plans counteroffensive operations over winter. “This is a war, I can’t say what I plan, what we should do. Otherwise, it will be a show, not a war,” he was quoted as saying.

• Finland signed an agreement to enhance military cooperation with the US, saying it saw a long-term threat from Russia, a day after Russia issued a warning over Helsinki’s recent entrance into Nato.

• The EU adopted a new package of sanctions on Russia that include an import ban on Russian diamonds, officials said. The package is the 12th packet of sanctions levelled at Moscow since it launched its invasion of Ukraine.

• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the new sanctions would “truly reduce” Russia’s economic foundation for war. The sanctions are designed to reduce Russia’s access to revenues, metals and technology used to sustain its war effort.

• The EU will hold an extraordinary summit on 1 February to discuss its multi-annual budget, including funding for Ukraine, the European Council president, Charles Michel, said. EU leaders agreed last week to open membership talks with Ukraine, but they could not agree on a 50bn euro ($54.6bn) package of financial aid for Kyiv due to opposition from Hungary.

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has urged traditionally male professions to employ more women to reduce major labour shortages exacerbated by thousands of soldiers being called up to fight in Ukraine. “Girls represent a huge reserve for Russia. In sectors where they are not yet working, they need to exploit their potential to the fullest,” Putin said.

• Russia has placed the renowned detective novelist Grigory Chkhartishvili – known under the pen name Boris Akunin – on its list of individuals identified as terrorists or extremists for his criticism of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Chkhartishvili, 67, has long been critical of Putin.

• The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will discuss topics including Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East with the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, on Tuesday, the Élysée Palace said in a statement.

• The Moldovan prime minister, Dorin Recean, said Moscow was the country’s biggest security threat, and that an upgraded anti-aircraft defence system was needed to counter threats from Russia. “If the Kremlin decides to attack us, just what are we going to do?” Recean told a TV8 interviewer. “Neutrality will not protect Moldova.”

• Polish truckers resumed their blockade of one of the main crossings at the Ukrainian border, a protest leader said, a week after it was temporarily lifted. Polish drivers have been blocking several crossings with Ukraine since 6 November, demanding that the EU reinstate a system whereby Ukrainian companies need permits to operate in the bloc and the same for European truckers to enter Ukraine.