A key Vladimir Putin ally has admitted that Russia is interfering in US elections and said that they “will continue to interfere”.

On Monday, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin revealed that he had interfered in American elections – the first admission from someone blamed by the US for attempting to influence US politics.

“We have interfered (in US elections), we are interfering, and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” Mr Prigozhin said, according to comments posted by the press department of his catering company Concord.

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Ukraine will negotiate the end of the ongoing war in the country with Russia’s future president but not with Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

“Important: Ukraine has never refused to negotiate. Our negotiating position is known and open,” the top Ukrainian official said.

He also laid out Kyiv’s precondition to sit on the negotiating table with Russia, stating that the Kremlin will have to withdraw troops from Ukraine.

But added that Mr Putin is not open to negotiating.

“Is Putin ready? Obviously not. Therefore, we are constructive in our assessment: we will talk with the next leader of RF [Russian federation],” he said.

This comes as Mr Zelensky said that Russia should be forced to participate in “genuine” peace talks.

Rishi Sunak has told leaders at the Cop27 summit that Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and rising energy prices are a reason to “act faster”, not go slow on climate change.

The British PM said it was morally right to deliver on promises on tackling climate change – but also economically right, reducing energy dependency and providing new jobs and growth. He was speaking at the latest round of UN climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Mr Sunak’s comments came after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned at the start of Cop27 that the world is “on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”.

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The Ukrainian military officials have accused Russian forces of theft and loot in Russia-occupied Kherson city.

Russian forces are “involved in looting and theft from residents and from infrastructure sites and are taking away equipment, food and vehicles to the Russian Federation,” the military officials said late yesterday.

It added that the Russian forces have been found “disguised in civilian clothes” to “occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles."

A key Ukrainian city in the south, Kherson has been a repeated target of Russia and is now battered in the eight-month old war. The city is now deserted, left cold and dark as it faces power cuts along with water shortage, with supply cut in the nearby areas, officials from both sides said.

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of dismantling 1.5 kms of power lines, while Russia-backed officials have accused Ukraine of “sabotage”.

The ground in Ukraine’s war positions is “literally littered with bodies” of Russian soldiers, Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding that the troops sent by Moscow are “dying by the hundreds every day”.

Speaking during his nightly address yesterday, he said: “The Donetsk region remains the epicenter of the greatest madness of the occupiers - they die by the hundreds every day. The ground in front of the Ukrainian positions is literally littered with the bodies of the occupiers...”

Mr Zelensky also said that the Ukrainian soldiers are gradually pushing the Russian soldiers back in the war.

“In general, along the front, our forces are in a state of active defense - in some parts of the east and south, we are gradually pushing back the enemy. We are gradually moving forward,” he said.

He added: “As of today, we can say that the recent escalation of Russian missile and drone terror has only resulted in the world responding - responding with new aid to Ukraine. We will do everything so that as many countries as possible join this aid.”

The US state department has accused Russia of escalating the war in Ukraine and delaying negotiations instead of bringing the conflict to an end.

The Kremlin is doing the opposite of ending the ongoing war in Ukraine, the US state department spokesperson Ned Price said yesterday in a briefing with reporters.

Mr Price said Russia is continuing to “escalate this war rather than to offer any sort of real signal that it is ready for or open to negotiations”.

“If Russia is ready for that negotiation, it should stop its bombs. It should stop its missiles. It should stop attacking and killing Ukrainian civilians – pursuing infrastructure, including civilian infrastructure,” Mr Price said.

He further said Russia should start by committing to renew the Black Sea grain initiative if it wants to demonstrate a “serious commitment to de-escalation”.

“If Russia wants to negotiate, why then did it walk away, even if temporarily, from the Black Sea Grain Initiative? That was perhaps the one forum where Russians and Ukrainians spoke and now speak, directly, on a daily basis,” he said.

Good morning, welcome to our coverage of the Ukraine war on Tuesday, 8 November.