World

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised and his adviser resigned on Wednesday after a video emerged of senior aides joking about a Christmas party at Downing Street last year when social events were banned under COVID-19 rules.

The leaked footage appears to contradict more than a week of denials by Johnson and his ministers that a party took place, following newspaper reports that dozens of staff had attended an evening-long gathering on December 18, 2020.

The embattled leader, facing calls for his resignation from some opposition politicians during a raucous parliamentary questions session, vowed "disciplinary action" would be taken if the investigation found rules had been broken.

"I understand and share the anger up and down the country at seeing No 10 staff seeming to make light of lockdown measures," he said.

"I apologise unreservedly for the offence that it has caused... and I apologise for the impression that it gives."

Johnson added he had been "repeatedly assured" that there was no party inside his Number 10 Downing Street office and that no rules were broken.

Johnson’s adviser Allegra Stratton, a former political journalist who was serving as his press secretary at the time the footage was recorded, swiftly tendered her resignation.

The footage showed her referring jokingly to a “fictional party” while preparing for a press conference.

In a tearful statement, Stratton acknowledged her comments “seemed to make light of the rules” and said she would “regret those remarks for the rest of my days”.

“I understand the anger and frustration that people feel,” she said, while not specifying whether a party took place.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer told the prime minister that his account strained credulity.

“They knew there was a party, they knew it was against the rules, they knew they couldn’t admit it and they thought it was funny,” he told MPs.

“Does the prime minister think he has the moral authority to lead and to ask the British people to stick to the rules?” he asked.

The country’s most senior civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, will lead the newly announced probe.

Case “has been asked to establish the facts on any events on [December] 18, and that’s what he will start work on”, Johnson’s spokesman told reporters. The team will “rightly” set its timeframe, “but obviously we want it [a report] as soon as possible”.

‘Total incredulity’ 

The alleged party is the latest instance of apparent government hypocrisy over restrictions after several previous scandals, including health secretary Matt Hancock resigning in June for breaking coronavirus curbs during an affair with an aide.

The incendiary footage shows Stratton fielding questions from adviser Ed Oldfied and other staff during a rehearsal press conference on December 22 with no media present.

The group laugh and trade jokes over a “fictional party” four days earlier, which reportedly involved food, drink, games and “secret Santa” gift-giving.

“This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced,” Stratton laughs over joking exchanges about “cheese and wine” and whether the prime minister would “condone” such an event.

At the time, London was under strict restrictions and indoor social gatherings of two or more people were banned, while office parties were specifically outlawed.

The video, which was leaked to broadcaster ITV News late Tuesday, has led main news bulletins, drawn millions of views online and sparked condemnation from across the political spectrum.

“The prime minister is responsible for losing the trust of the people. He can no longer lead on the most pressing issue facing these islands,” leader of the Scottish National Party Ian Blackford said.

Conservative lawmakers have also been among those demanding answers.

“This isn’t a laughing matter,” Tory MP Roger Gale told the BBC after he watched the footage with “total incredulity”.

The scandal has echoes of an infamous incident earlier in the pandemic involving Johnson’s then-chief aide Dominic Cummings, who drove hundreds of kilometres to stay away from his London home during a lockdown.

It triggered outrage over perceived double standards by the government, and is widely seen as leading to a drop in compliance with restrictions in its aftermath.

With the Omicron variant spreading fast in Britain, some Conservative lawmakers said the latest scandal would make reintroducing curbs “much more difficult”.

“The events of the last 24 hours make it probably almost impossible now,” influential backbench MP Charles Walker told Times Radio.

GARDERMOEN, Norway — Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, this year’s co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, on Wednesday urged fellow reporters to defend their rights in order not to lose them to “authoritarian-style leaders and budding dictators”.

“It has become incredibly hard and far more dangerous for every one of us,” Ressa told reporters awaiting her arrival at Oslo’s airport ahead of Friday’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, where she will be honoured alongside Dmitry Muratov of Russia.

Ressa, the co-founder of the investigative news site Rappler, and Muratov, a co-founder of Russia’s leading independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, were given the award in October for their efforts to “safeguard freedom of expression”.

Criticising “our authoritarian-style leaders and budding dictators” who “want us to voluntarily give up our rights”, Ressa urged journalists to defend their rights.

“Now more than ever we need to protect our rights, otherwise we will lose them,” she said.

“When facts are under threat, when you don’t have integrity of facts, you cannot have integrity of elections. So it begins with us, we must keep getting the facts and serving the people,” the former CNN correspondent said.

Ressa, 58, is a staunch critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his government’s policies, including a drug war that has killed thousands.

Her visit to Oslo was long uncertain. Currently on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber libel case, she applied to four courts for permission to travel to Norway for the ceremony.

Wearing a black facemask inscribed with the words “Journalism is not a crime”, Ressa was emotional after her arrival and struggled to fight back tears in the icy temperatures.

“It’s very cold but it’s very warm.”

The Philippines is currently ranked 138th in the world for press freedom on an annual list compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

WASHINGTON —  Top US scientist Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday early indications suggested the COVID-19 Omicron variant was not worse than prior strains, and was possibly milder, while cautioning it would take weeks to judge its severity.

Speaking to AFP, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser broke down the knowns and unknowns about Omicron into three major areas: Transmissibility, how well it evades immunity from prior infection and vaccines, and severity of illness.

The new variant is "clearly highly transmissible", very likely more so than Delta, the current dominant global strain, Fauci said.

Accumulating epidemiological data from around the world also indicates re-infections are higher with Omicron.

Fauci, the long-time director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said results from lab experiments that tested the potency of antibodies from current vaccines against Omicron should come in the "next few days to a week".

On the question of severity, "it almost certainly is not more severe than Delta", said Fauci.

"There is some suggestion that it might even be less severe, because when you look at some of the cohorts that are being followed in South Africa, the ratio between the number of infections and the number of hospitalisations seems to be less than with Delta."

But he noted it was important to not over-interpret this data because the populations being followed skewed young and were less likely to become hospitalised. Severe disease can also take weeks to develop.

"I think that's going to take another couple of weeks at least" to confirm in South Africa, where the variant was first reported in November, he said.

"Then as we get more infections throughout the rest of the world, it might take longer to see what's the level of severity."

Fauci said a more transmissible virus that doesn’t cause more severe illness and doesn’t lead to a surge of hospitalisations and deaths was the “best-case scenario”.

“The worst-case scenario is that it is not only highly transmissible, but it also causes severe disease and then you have another wave of infections that are not necessarily blunted by the vaccine or by people’s prior infections,” he added.

“I don’t think that worst-case scenario is going to come about, but you never know.”

The Omicron variant has now been detected in at least 38 countries.

Though it has not yet been linked to any deaths, scientists are particularly concerned by the unique “constellation” of more than 30 mutations on the spike protein that dots the surface of the coronavirus and allows it to invade cells.

Fauci said the science remains unclear on how the variant originated, but there are two main theories.

Either it evolved inside the body of an immunocompromised patient, such as a person with HIV who failed to rapidly fight off the virus.

Or, the virus could have crossed from humans to animals, then returned to people in a more mutated form, in an example of “reverse zoonosis”.

Asked whether vaccinated people should act more cautiously given the unknowns, Fauci said the public should remain prudent, particularly during travel, and wear a mask when gathering indoors where the vaccination status of others is unknown.

Those who are fully vaccinated should also seek a booster when eligible, he stressed.

Booster shots have been shown to drastically increase the level of antibodies that bind to the spike and also translate to better disease outcomes in the real world, as seen in Israel, which embarked on its booster campaign earlier than the United States, said Fauci.

But, while boosters heighten the intensity and breadth of a person’s immune response, it’s still too soon to know how durable the response will be and whether additional shots might be required in future, he added.

Misinformation concerns 

On Tuesday, the United States hit its latest vaccination milestone, with 60 per cent of the population fully vaccinated — but Fauci said there remained a long way to go.

The 80-year-old physician and scientist stressed that misinformation continued to hamper the country’s pandemic response, with the problem particularly acute in Republican-led states.

“Misinformation is still a really, really important detriment to an adequate response,” he said.

“We have in this country still 60 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated and have not gotten vaccinated, and much of that is along ideological and party lines, which is very unfortunate.”

So-called “red states” led by Republicans continue to be less vaccinated than “blue” states run by Democrats.

“There’s no reason for that, that should not be, we should have a uniform public health attitude,” he concluded.

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin held a two-hour video summit on Tuesday in which the US president said he would warn of painful sanctions and increased military support for Eastern Europe if Russia invades Ukraine.

"Greetings, Mr President," Putin said in a brief video clip released by the Kremlin. Biden said it was "good to see" his Russian counterpart, adding that he hoped their next session would be in person.

Despite the friendly opening scene, the summit, lasting just over two hours, was steeped in tension.

Russia denies planning to invade Ukraine, but with satellite pictures showing massive troop concentrations on the border, fears are growing of war in Europe.

Reflecting the brittle atmosphere, Biden sat behind closed doors in the White House's high security Situation Room. By contrast, Biden held a similar video summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping three weeks ago in the more decorative Roosevelt Room, with journalists invited to witness the opening minutes.

The United States says it does not know for sure what Russia intends to do in Ukraine, but is alarmed at the deployment of some 100,000 battle-ready Russian troops to the border. Russia already supports a powerful separatist rebellion across swaths of eastern Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Kiev in 2014.

Moscow calls invasion talk "hysteria". Instead, Putin intends to tell Biden he sees Ukraine's growing alliance with Western nations as a threat to Russian security — and that any move by Ukraine to join NATO or to host NATO missiles would be unacceptable.

Even though Ukraine is nowhere near being able to join the US-led military alliance, Putin wants a "legal" guarantee this will never happen.

"Russia has never planned to attack anyone," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. "But we have our own red lines."

The United States and NATO say Russia cannot be given a veto over Ukraine's ambitions.

The White House said Biden and Putin, who last met in Geneva in June, began their video summit at 15:07 GMT — 10:07 am in Washington and 6:07 pm in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Putin has a residence. The Kremlin announced it had ended at about 17:15 GMT.

The United States and European allies have worked to bolster Ukraine’s military since 2014 when the country’s armed forces crumpled in the face of Russian pressure. However, there is no Western appetite for direct military conflict with Russia.

The White House says Biden will instead lay out a range of economic sanctions that will impose “real cost”.

Ahead of the summit, the Biden administration has also stressed that its posture has been worked out in unison with European partners.

Biden talked with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Monday to coordinate his message, and the White House said he would speak again to the four countries after he was finished with Putin.

“The leaders agreed to stay in close touch on a coordinated and comprehensive approach in response to Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders,” the White House said.

Putin was also planning to reach out to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky after his virtual summit.

‘Severe harm’ 

The United States says it has options short of military confrontation to pressure Putin.

“We’ve consulted significantly with our allies and believe we have a path forward that would impose significant and severe harm on the Russian economy,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

“You can call that a threat. You can call that a fact,” she said.

And while there is no expectation for a US troop deployment to Ukraine itself, a Russian invasion would spur boosts in NATO strength in other parts of Eastern Europe that are part of the alliance, the White House says.

“If Putin moved in, there would be an increasing request from eastern flank allies and a positive response from the United States for additional forces,” a senior US official told reporters on Monday.

Beyond Ukraine, Biden and Putin will also discuss a range of issues where their countries are at odds, including Iran’s problematic nuclear programme and a wave of cyberattacks against the United States.

Zelensky to the front 

Clad in a combat uniform, Zelensky visited troops fighting pro-Moscow separatists in the country’s east on Monday.

The conflict has claimed over 13,000 lives and while Ukrainian forces are currently in a deadlock against their separatist opponents, they would likely be overwhelmed if Russian regular troops crossed the border.

“Thank you for protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Zelensky told the soldiers, according to a statement released by Kiev.

On Monday, he spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, writing on Twitter after that he was “grateful” to the United States and allies for supporting Ukraine.

BELGRADE — Boxing is risky at the best of times, but Hasib Malikzada now faces one of his most unpredictable opponents yet — the uncertainties of life as an Afghan refugee far from home.

Just 19 years old, the lightweight amateur champ of Afghanistan is stuck in Serbia following his team’s decision to not return home after competing at the International Boxing Association (AIBA)’s world championships in Belgrade last month.

The Afghan national boxing team have been bouncing between hotels, while finding the occasional gym for training.

Even amid the relentless bustle, their new life in Serbia is an island of stability compared to the chaos back home.

“After the Taliban came... we couldn’t continue boxing,” Malikzada tells AFP, saying his gym in Kabul closed shortly after the insurgents overthrew the US-backed government in August.

Life after Kabul’s fall to the Taliban has been mired with worries ever since, says Malikzada, who fears his family will be targeted for their links with the past government.

His brothers, he admits, had also joined the fledgling resistance in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul — where former government soldiers and militia fighters briefly made a last stand against the Taliban.

“If the Taliban find us... they will kill us,” says Malikzada.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are believed to have fled the country in recent months, hoping to escape persecution and a collapsing economy in the face of international sanctions and a banking crisis that has mired much of the population in deepening poverty.

Fighting on

Like most of the Afghan national boxing team — 11 of whom are now in Serbia along with two officials — Malikzada’s life has been overshadowed by the conflict that followed the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Boxing offered a rare refuge during the dark days of the war — when waves of suicide bombers ravaged Kabul and rampant crime and the threat of being kidnapped kept the population on edge.

The boxing gym provided an environment where violence could be managed — with rounds, weight classes, and rules.

Training partners became close friends, helping release stress through sparring sessions.

“Boxing refreshed our minds, our bodies and also our health,” explains Tawfiqullah Sulaimani, a 20-year-old heavyweight on the national squad.

After the Taliban took power, Sulaimani and other boxers kept training in secret, hiding gear in bags as they moved in between discrete locations to practice.

To reach Belgrade, the team kept a low profile as they passed through checkpoints en route to the Iranian border and later secured last-minute Serbian visas in Tehran.

Running on little sleep after days of travel, the team arrived in Serbia in time to cut weight and compete, achieving “good” results despite the stressful sojourn.

“We didn’t sleep, but we did a good performance every day,” says Waheedullah Hameedi, the secretary general of the Afghan Boxing Federation.

‘A painful story’

Much of the responsibility for the team’s future now falls on Hameedi’s shoulders.

Glued to his phone in between practice sessions, the 24-year-old fires off messages to a range of contacts across the globe, with the hope that someone can find a way to help his athletes.

Hameedi is all too familiar with the Taliban’s brutality.

In 2019, the insurgents assassinated his father — who was also a boxing official — for recruiting women to box, according to Hameedi.

“I have received too many warnings,” Hameedi tells AFP, saying he was advised by family and friends not to return to Afghanistan.

During their iron-fisted rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban declared boxing to be “against human dignity” and banned the sport along with most other forms of entertainment.

The Taliban have yet to make a formal ruling on boxing’s future but have sought to promote a number of sports since taking power, especially the country’s national cricket team.

Even still, scores of Afghan athletes have fled abroad — including female footballers and basketball players — following the Taliban takeover, stirring resentment from the country’s new rulers.

“I expect the heads of all federations who are still abroad as a result of propaganda and rumours that they return to their country and live together with us,” said Nazar Mohammad Motmaeen, the Taliban-appointed director for physical education and sports during a speech in Kabul last month.

“The honour of every athlete is in his own country,” he added.

But for the boxers mired in limbo in Serbia, life outside of Afghanistan is far from ideal.

“This is a painful story,” says Hameedi. “Nobody wants to leave their motherland.”

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden will hold talks by video conference on Tuesday, the Kremlin and Washington said, as tensions rise over Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday the conversation would take place in the evening Russia time and the two leaders would determine its duration, according to Russian news agencies.

A statement from the White House also confirmed the talks, saying the leaders would discuss a range of issues by a secure video link.

"President Biden will underscore US concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United States' support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," press secretary Jen Psaki said in the statement.

Biden said on Friday he would make it "very, very difficult" for Russia to launch any invasion of Ukraine, which had warned that a large-scale attack may be planned for next month.

Washington and Kiev say Moscow has massed troops near Ukraine's borders and accuse Russia of planning an invasion.

Russia has denied any bellicose intentions and accused the West of provocation, particularly with military exercises in the Black Sea, which it sees as part of its sphere of influence.

Biden and Putin had been expected since Friday to hold a video call.

'Security guarantees' 

Biden told reporters in Washington he was putting together "the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do".

And on Saturday, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin made it clear they were taking the threat of invasion seriously, in comments following a speech in California.

"They've invaded before," he said, when asked how concerned he was.

“And so as we look at numbers of forces that are in the border region, as we look at some of the things that are occurring in the information space, as we look at what’s going on in the cyber domain, it really raises our concern,” Austin said.

“We are certainly committed to helping Ukraine defend its sovereign territory.”

Moscow seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has since backed separatists fighting Kiev in the east of the country. The conflict has left more than 13,000 dead.

Moscow meanwhile wants to see an end to NATO’s eastward expansion, after much of eastern Europe joined the alliance following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide “security guarantees” that NATO would not come closer to Russia’s borders.

Despite increased contacts between the two rivals since Putin and Biden met for the first time at a summit in Geneva in June, tensions remain high.

As well as the Ukraine conflict, Russia and the United States continue to argue over cyberattacks and the staffing of their embassies, after several waves of diplomatic expulsions.

LESBOS ISLAND, Greece — Pope Francis on Sunday returned to the island of Lesbos, the migration flashpoint he first visited in 2016, calling the neglect of migrants the "shipwreck of civilisation".

The Pope has long championed the cause of migrants and his visit comes a day after he delivered a stinging rebuke to Europe which he said was "torn by nationalist egoism".

“In Europe there are those who persist in treating the problem as a matter that does not concern them,” the Pope said as he spent some two hours at the Mavrovouni camp on Lesbos, where nearly 2,200 asylum-seekers live.

On the second day of his visit to Greece, he met dozens of child asylum-seekers and relatives standing behind metal barriers and stopped to embrace a boy called Mustafa.

“I am trying to help you,” Francis told one group through his interpreter.

People later gathered in a tent to sing songs and psalms to the Pontiff, who listened to them, visibly moved.

“His visit is a blessing,” said Rosette Leo, a Congolese asylum-seeker at the site.

However, Menal Albilal, a Syrian mother with a two-month-old baby whose asylum claim was rejected after two years on the island, said refugees “want more than words, we need help”.

“The conditions here are not good for a baby,” she told AFP.

‘A grim cemetery’ 

Pope Francis warned that the Mediterranean “is becoming a grim cemetery without tombstones” and that “after all this time, we see that little in the world has changed with regard to the issue of migration”.

The root causes “should be confronted — not the poor people who pay the consequences and are even used for political propaganda”, he added.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 1,559 people have died or gone missing attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing this year.

Several people have died on the Belarus-Poland border in recent weeks, caught between the two countries’ border guards. The European Union accuses Minsk of having “weaponised” migrants against the West.

And 27 people drowned in a single incident last month trying to cross to England. Britain and France have traded barbs over the increasing number of migrants attempting the deadly Channel crossing.

‘Terrible modern Odyssey’ 

The temporary Mavrovouni tent camp was hurriedly erected after the sprawling camp of Moria, Europe’s largest such site at the time, burned down last year.

Greek authorities blamed a group of young Afghans for the incident and security was substantially enhanced for the Pontiff’s Sunday visit.

The Pope’s trip to Lesbos was shorter than his last as he later held a mass for some 2,500 people at the Megaron Athens Concert Hall.

In Cyprus, which the Pope visited before Greece this week, authorities said that 50 migrants would be relocated to Italy thanks to Francis.

He took 12 Syrian refugees with him during his last visit to Lesbos in 2016.

EU ‘torn by egoism’ 

At the start of his Athens visit on Saturday, Francis said that “today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy”, warning against populism’s “easy answers”.

In 2016, Francis visited Moria with Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and Archbishop Ieronymos II, head of the Church of Greece.

The Mavrovouni camp currently holds 2,193 people and has a capacity of 8,000, a facility official said this week.

Authorities insist asylum procedures and processing times are now faster.

With EU funds, Greece is building a series of “closed” facilities on Greek islands with barbed wire fencing, surveillance cameras, X-ray scanners and magnetic gates that are closed at night.

Three such camps have opened on the islands of Samos, Leros and Kos, with Lesbos and Chios to follow next year.

Once asylum-seekers are recognised as refugees, they are no longer eligible to remain in the camps, a fate shared with migrants whose requests for protection are rejected and who face deportation.

Many of these refugees are unable to find accommodation or work, another criticism that charities and aid agencies direct at the Greek state.

The groups have also raised concerns about the new camps, arguing that people’s movements should not be restricted as well as claiming Greek border officers have pushed back migrants.

Greece vehemently denies the claims, insisting its coast guard saves lives at sea.

KABUL — Afghanistan's Taliban government on Sunday rejected condemnation by Western nations over dozens of alleged "summary killings" of former security force personnel documented by rights groups since the Islamists returned to power.

The US, other Western nations and allies on Saturday said they were "deeply concerned" by allegations by Human Rights Watch(HRW) and others that point to "serious human rights abuses".

Alleged summary killings and enforced disappearances "contradict" an amnesty declared by the Taliban for former security force personnel after the Islamists defeated a Western-backed regime and retook control of the country in mid-August, the State Department said.

The European Union, Australia, Britain, Japan and others also put their names to the statement.

But the Taliban's interior ministry on Sunday rejected both the Western rebuke and rights groups' allegations.

"These reports and claims are not based on evidences," spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti said in a video statement released by the Taliban. "We reject such claims."

"We have some cases where some former ANDSF members were killed but they have been killed because of personal rivalries and enmities," he said, referring to the now-defunct Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.

Many ex-regime security personnel "who had martyred hundreds of mujahideen and civilians are living peacefully" in the country on the basis of the general amnesty the Taliban granted, he added.

HRW on November 30 released a report that it says documents the summary execution or enforced disappearance of 47 former members of the ANDSF, other military personnel, police and intelligence agents "who had surrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces" from mid-August through October.

The Taliban's return came some 20 years after they were driven out by US forces who toppled a government that earned outrage for its brutal treatment of women, failure to uphold human rights and harsh interpretation of Islam.

Today’s Taliban leaders, keen to gain international respectability, have pledged their regime will be different.

But in its report HRW said Taliban leaders have directed surrendering security forces to register with authorities in order to be screened for ties to certain military or special forces units, and to receive a letter guaranteeing their safety.

“The Taliban have used these screenings to detain and summarily execute or forcibly disappear individuals within days of their registration, leaving their bodies for their relatives or communities to find,” HRW said.

Calling for an investigation into these incidents, the joint statement released by the State Department said: “We will continue to measure the Taliban by their actions.”

“We underline that the alleged actions constitute serious human rights abuses and contradict the Taliban’s announced amnesty,” the US-led group of nations said, as they called on Afghanistan’s new rulers to ensure the amnesty is enforced and “upheld across the country and throughout their ranks”.

The Taliban demanded that the claims be backed by evidence.

“If they have documents and evidences they should share it with us,” Khosti said, adding that falsely “tagging personal enmities” onto actions by the Taliban authorities “is unjust”.

Washington held talks with Taliban officials earlier this week, the second round of discussions since US forces left the country at the end of August.

At the talks, in Doha, US officials urged the hardline Islamist group to provide access to education for women and girls across the country.

It also “expressed deep concern regarding allegations of human rights abuses”, a US spokesman said.

Cut off from billions of dollars in aid provided to the previous regime, Afghanistan’s new rulers — designated Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the US — are grappling with an insurgency by a division of the Daesh and are struggling to feed millions of people as Winter descends.

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden said on Friday he would make it "very, very difficult" for Russia to launch any invasion of Ukraine, which warned that a large-scale attack may be planned for next month.

Washington and Kiev say Moscow has massed troops near Ukraine's borders and accuse Russia of planning an invasion.

Biden and President Vladimir Putin are due to hold a video call shortly to discuss the rising tensions, both sides confirmed on Friday.

Biden told reporters in Washington he was putting together "the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do".

Moscow seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has since backed separatists fighting Kiev in the east of the country. The conflict has left more than 13,000 dead.

"The most likely time to reach readiness for escalation will be the end of January," Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told parliament in Kiev on Friday.

A report in the Washington Post on Friday citing US officials and an intelligence document said Russia was planning a multifront offensive involving up to 175,000 troops as soon as next year.

Reznikov said a "winter training period" had started in Russia and that Moscow had already launched exercises near Ukrainian territory.

He estimated that Russia had around 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border. Russia denies any military build-up.

On the frontline in eastern Ukraine, government troops said they were ready to repel any Russian assault.

“Our task is simple: Not to let the enemy enter our country,” a soldier named Andriy, 29, told AFP, smoking in a trench near the frontline town of Svitlodarsk.

“All our guys are ready to hold them back. This is our land, we will protect it until the end,” another soldier, Yevgen, 24, added.

Kremlin Foreign Policy Adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters a date had been agreed for the Putin-Biden video summit but would not be announced until final details of the talks have also been set.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the call was expected “in the very near future”.

Asked if he had spoken to Putin on Friday morning, Biden shouted “no” as he left a press conference in Washington.

He gave no further details of his planned “initiatives” on Ukraine.

Putin has warned the West and Kiev against crossing the Kremlin’s “red lines” over staging military exercises and building up weaponry in Ukraine.

When reporters asked Biden whether he would accept Putin’s line, he responded, “I won’t accept anybody’s red line.”

Despite increased contacts between the two rivals since Putin and Biden met for the first time at a summit in Geneva in June, tensions remain high.

As well as the Ukraine conflict, Russia and the United States continue to argue over cyberattacks and the staffing of their embassies, after several waves of diplomatic expulsions.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AFP on Friday that it rejects any efforts to get it to scrap its plans to join NATO.

Moscow wants to see an end to NATO’s eastward expansion, after much of Eastern Europe joined the alliance following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Agreeing to abandon its plans to join the alliance “is not an option”, Kuleba said on the sidelines of an OSCE meeting in Stockholm.

“I reject this idea that we have to guarantee anything to Russia. I insist that it’s Russia who has to guarantee that it will not continue its aggression against any country,” he said.

NATO officially opened the door to Ukraine membership in 2008, though no progress has been made since.