Ukraine war: Russian attack on Ukraine cities hits deadly new level
More than 160 people were injured as Russia hit Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Lviv in the early hours of Friday morning. Russia "used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal", with homes and a maternity hospital hit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukraine's air force said it had never seen so many missiles launched at once. Kyiv's air defences have drastically improved in recent months, but on Friday they were overwhelmed. An Air Force spokesperson said Russia used hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including X-22 type, which are difficult to intercept. "We've never seen so many targets hit simultaneously," he added. The air force said 114 of 158 missiles and drones had been shot down. Black smoke billowed from the different blast sites. We headed to one which was a 200-metre-long warehouse in Kyiv's Podilskyy district, owned by a construction company. It had been completely hollowed out from the impact. It's a level of devastation only caused by a direct missile strike. For months, mostly falling debris caused the damage and loss of life that Ukrainians constantly fear. A bigger threat has now returned.
Biden Warns US Military May Get Pulled Into Direct Conflict With Russia
President Joe Biden warned that the United States is at risk of being pulled into a direct conflict with Russia if the Kremlin succeeds in its war against Ukraine. Biden's statement follows Russia's massive aerial attack across Ukraine on Friday. Kyiv air force officials said that about 110 missiles struck Ukraine, hitting hospitals, residential buildings and a shopping center. At least 31 citizens were killed in the attack and another 120 wounded, according to Ukraine officials cited by Reuters.
"Overnight, Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since this war began," Biden said in a statement released Friday. "It is a stark reminder to the world that, after nearly two years of this devastating war, Putin's objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped."
The 22-month-long war has raised tensions between Russia and members of the NATO alliance, who have supported Ukraine's fight through billions of dollars in military aid and weaponry. Support for Kyiv, however, has started to waver in countries like the U.S., where Republican lawmakers have blocked sending additional funding to Ukraine unless a deal can be reached that also boosts aid for America's immigration system.
Russia hammers Ukraine's 2 largest cities with hypersonic missiles
Ukraine's biggest cities, the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the northeast, were bombarded by Russian missiles overnight, killing four people and wounding nearly 100, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday. The attack came after both Russia and Ukraine carried out major aerial assaults against one another in recent days. People crowded into subway stations for shelter during Monday's attack as Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles slammed into the Ukrainian cities, the Associated Press reported. Debris from the Russian attack hit apartment buildings, supermarkets and warehouses in Kyiv, cutting power to parts of the city, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.
Ukraine war: What Russia's escalating air attacks mean
On Tuesday night President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched 500 missiles and drones against Ukraine in just five days. At least 32 people have died in Ukraine's capital in that time, 30 of them in one attack - on 29 December, when Russia launched one of the largest ever aerial attacks of this war. And it's not just the capital. Nearly 60 people have been killed nationwide, with Kharkiv in the northeast, Zaporizhzhia in the south, Odesa on the southern coast and even Lviv in the far west all suffering strikes. Since launching its invasion Russia has never stopped attacking Ukraine by the air, but this latest series of strikes marks a deadly escalation. What does this new phase in the war mean for Ukraine? And what's the plan behind Russia's renewed aerial assault?
Ukraine war: Russians find no shelter in border city of Belgorod
Twenty-five people were killed and more than 100 others hurt in the biggest Russian city in close proximity to Ukraine. The Ukrainian missile strikes came a day after Russia launched its biggest aerial bombardment of the war so far, leaving more than 40 dead. President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Russia had launched 500 missiles and drones against Ukraine in just five days. Ukraine's response in targeting Belgorod would not go unpunished, vowed President Vladimir Putin. But the city's residents accuse authorities of not doing enough to keep people safe. Air raid alerts were only audible half an hour into Saturday's attack, local people told independent Russian media. They were told to take cover, only for some to find that basement shelters in their apartment blocks were locked. "Some basements have a piece of paper on the door with a mobile number for the person with the key," one resident told the BBC. "The worst-case scenario is when the key is with the management company, and because it's the winter holidays no-one is at work."
Russia used North Korean missiles in Ukraine, US says
The United States has said that Russia is using ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that recently declassified intelligence found that North Korea had provided Moscow with the weapons, at least one of which was fired into Ukraine on December 30, landing in an open field in the Zaporizhia region. Russia also launched “multiple” of the North Korean missiles on Tuesday during an overnight attack, he added. Kirby also said that a Russia-Iran deal had not been completed but that the US “is concerned that Russia’s negotiations to acquire close-range ballistic missiles from Iran are actively advancing”. He said Washington and its allies will now raise the matter at the United Nations Security Council as it signals a breach of US sanctions against North Korea. In October, the White House said that North Korea had delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Moscow.
Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow accidentally bombs Russian-occupied Luhansk region; ‘bang’ on railroad in Russia’s Ural region – as it happened
British former defence secretary Ben Wallace warned his successor, Grant Shapps, that the UK was at risk of “falling behind” in its military support for Ukraine because ministers had yet to announce a military aid budget for 2024-5.
A section of railroad near the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Urals region was hit by a “bang”, Tass and RBC news agencies reported. Baza, a Russian media outlet, said the blast on the railway took place near the station of San-Donato, near an oil depot.
The Swedish prime minister announced that Sweden will send troops to Latvia next year as part of a Canadian-led force to deter Russia from attack – despite not yet being a full member.
In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the region Moscow-appointed goverment, said. He reportedly said the bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries.
Pope Francis was quoted as saying in a speech referencing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine that "indiscriminately striking" civiliams is a war crim
because it violates international humanitarian law.
Russia sent dozens of missiles across Ukraine early on Monday, killing at least four civilians, Ukrainian authorities said. Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region, local officials said. In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was reported to have been killed. Elsewhere, the governor of the Kharkiv region said a 63-year-old woman was killed in a strike on a town south of Kharkiv. Ukrainian forces destroyed 18 out of 51 missiles launched during the wave of Russian air strikes on Monday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said that Russia has :left people homeless" through its attacks on Ukraine, a reality of war she says “can only be changed by weapons”. “Russian shelling damaged homes and infrastructure in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytsky regions. There are dead and injured, including children,” she wrote on X.
Russia evacuated about 300 residents of Belgorod, a city near the Ukrainian border, because of strikes by Kyiv, the govenor of thr region said. The evacuation from Belgorod is the largest of a major Russian city since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia claims ‘strategic initiative’ in war; Ukraine running short of anti-aircraft guided missiles
The Kremlin said the Russian military will do everything to minimize and eliminate the threat of shelling of Russian cities by Ukraine’s armed forces, following repeated shelling of the border city of Belgorod. “Our military will continue to do everything to first minimize this danger, and then completely get rid of it,” the Kremlin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters, news agency Tass reported. Ukraine again shelled the Russian border city of Belgorod Monday evening, leaving three people injured, Russian officials said. Separately, Russia’s defense minister claimed Moscow retained the “strategic initative” in the war while a Ukrainian official warned earlier of a deficit of anti-aircraft guided missiles.
It’s time for ‘diplomatic action’ over Ukraine, ally says, as pressure mounts on Kyiv for peace talks
Diplomatic pressure could be mounting on Kyiv to pursue a diplomatic way out of the war with Russia as the conflict approaches its second anniversary. Italy’s defense minister said Wednesday that while Rome’s support of Ukraine remained steadfast, the time had come for “incisive diplomatic action alongside the aid we are providing.” On a surprise trip to Lithuania today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there was no pressure from the country’s partners to stop the fight against Russia, however. A day before the World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland, next Monday, Ukraine and Switzerland are due to co-host a summit of allied national security advisors with the focus on promoting Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan. Russia will not be attending the event.
Neo-Nazis in the US no longer see backing Ukraine as a worthy cause
Two years into the war in Ukraine, once a destination for American extremists, many within the underground far-right movement in the US are avidly disavowing it and advising followers to stay away. Extremists now see the upcoming election year as tailor-made for activism on the home front. At the outset of the war, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an intelligence bulletin that far-tight American extremists were heading to the conflict and could use it to hone terrorist skills to bring back stateside. After an open call for international volunteers, the Ukrainian military attracted nearly 20,000 fighters from around the world. Within weeks, there were already so-called American “Boogaloo Bois” flying out.
White House says U.S. Ukraine assistance has ‘ground to a halt’; UK announces increased drone funding
U.S. military assistance to Ukraine has “ground to a halt,” with Congress yet to authorize the emergency spending requested by President Joe Biden’s administration in late October. In a White House press briefing on Thursday, National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said Washington had “issued the last drawdown package that we had funding to support.” “And that’s why it’s critical that Congress move on that national security supplemental request and we get more funding. The assistance that we provided has now ground to a halt,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday thanked Estonia and Latvia after meeting with leaders of the two Baltic nations to discuss further military aid and Ukraine’s path toward EU and NATO membership. More than 130 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions came under artillery fire.
Russia-Ukraine war - live: Serious blow for Putin as Kyiv says it has shot down £250m spy plane
Ukraine has shot down a £250m Russian spy plane, as well as a bomber aircraft in what amounts to its most successful attack on Kremlin aviation since the start of the war. A Russian A-50 spyplane was reportedly downed in southeast Ukraine, while a Russian Il-22M11 airborne command post was hit near a village just above the Crimean peninsula. It is the second A-50 to be damaged or destroyed after one was attacked by Belarusian partisan groups last February. Phillips O’Brien, a UK-based war analyst, said the Ukrainian attack amounts to “arguably their best day in their war against Russian fixed wing aircraft so far in the war”.
Blinken promises Ukraine's leader "enduring" U.S. support as war with Russia nears 2-year mark
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, far left, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken,
second from left, speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second from right,
during a bilateral meeting at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 16, 2024.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised sustained U.S. support for Ukraine in a meeting Tuesday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite a row in the U.S. Congress on approving new funding. "We are determined to sustain our support for Ukraine and we're working very closely with Congress in order to work to do that. I know our European colleagues will do the same thing," Blinken told Zelenskyy as they met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Biden administration has struggled to get Congress to approve a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine in the face of opposition from Republican lawmakers.
President Biden's request for the Ukraine aid, part of a $106 billion foreign aid package, has been stalled for weeks amid demands from Republicans — including many supportive of the Ukraine assistance — that it include strict new border security provisions and changes to U.S. immigration policy. Negotiations continue, but the White House warned before Christmas that the U.S. would run out of funding to assist Ukraine by the end of 2023 if more was not approved, with Mr. Biden warning that if the funding wasn't approved, it would be the "greatest Christmas gift" for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
France denies Russian claim of mercenaries in Ukraine
France has denied Russia’s claim that there were French mercenaries in Ukraine after Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops had killed “foreign fighters” earlier this week. “France helps Ukraine with supplies of military material and military training, in full compliance with international law, in order to help Ukraine in its fight to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” France’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. “In connection with the destruction by the Russian armed forces of a temporary deployment point of foreign fighters in Kharkiv, among whom were several dozen Frenchmen, the French ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was cited as saying.
Russia strikes back at Ukraine for ‘monstrous act of terrorism’ after market, oil terminals attacked
Russia and Ukraine traded retaliatory strikes over the weekend after another Russian oil terminal was attacked on Sunday, as were the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk and nine Ukrainian regions. Moscow accused Kyiv of launching a missile strike on a market in Donetsk city, killing at least 25 people and wounding 20 others, Russian officials said. Ukrainian armed forces operating in the region denied they had carried out the strike, stating that they “did not conduct any combat operations with means of destruction.”
Canada sending more equipment to Ukraine as full-scale war with Russia nears 2-year mark
Canada is contributing another $35 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine as the embattled Eastern European country's allies meet to discuss its future needs, and as Russia's full invasion edges toward the two-year mark. Defence Minister Bill Blair, who participated in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting via video link, said Canada is providing 10 Multirole Boats from Zodiac Hurricane Technologies, valued at approximately $20 million. The rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) are a favourite of Canadian Special Forces for commando operations. The Department of National Defence (DND) says they also can be used for search and rescue, troop and cargo transport, surveillance and reconnaissance. Each boat has a sophisticated sensor, navigation and communications system, the department said in a media statement. The cost includes commercial training for the Ukrainian operators, as well as spares.
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