Russia-Ukraine war latest: six children among dead and 19 missing following Dnipro strike

Death toll from Saturday’s Russian missile attack on a residential building in the Dnipro rises to 45

Rescue workers have this morning found the body of a child in the rubble of the high-rise residential building struck by Russia at the weekend, according to Ukrainian officials.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the office of president of Ukraine, posted an update to Telegram to say:

At 09.46am, the body of one dead child was found from under the rubble of a destroyed residential building on the 4th floor. A total of 41 people died (including four children), 79 people were injured (including 16 children), and 39 people were rescued (including six children).

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Ukraine urges world leaders to intensify war efforts on first day at Davos

Kyiv officials ask allies at World Economic Forum to step up military supplies to defeat Russia

Ukraine has urged world leaders to intensify efforts to remove Vladimir Putin’s troops from its soil as the country’s war with Russia dominated the first full day of the gathering of the global elite in Davos.

With the war clouding the outlook for the global economy in 2023, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko, urged the country’s allies to step up supplies of military hardware so that Russia could be more quickly defeated.

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Germany’s no-nonsense new defence minister faces early test over Ukraine

Boris Pistorius is surprise pick for role as he has a low profile in Germany and is little known internationally

A veteran but low-profile politician is to be appointed as Germany’s new defence minister, the government has announced, filling the role at a crucial time when the country is under acute pressure to increase its commitment to Ukraine, especially by allowing it the use of tanks.

Boris Pistorius, 62, who has been the interior minister of the northern state of Lower Saxony for the past decade, will face his first major task on Friday when western allies meet at the US military’s Ramstein base in south-west Germany to discuss providing Kyiv with more weapons and equipment.

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UK seeks more German support as it confirms Challenger tanks for Ukraine

Ben Wallace wants Berlin to allow its Leopard 2 tanks to be re-exported from Nato countries to join British heavy armour

Britain’s defence secretary has called on Germany to release Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine after he confirmed that the UK would send 14 of its own Challenger 2 tanks, the first time a western nation has given its own heavy armour to Kyiv.

Ben Wallace said the UK would allow Ukrainians to start training with the tanks immediately as part of a fresh package of British military aid, unveiled before a western defence ministers’ conference in Ramstein, Germany, on Friday.

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Senior Iranian ex-diplomats expressing open criticism of regime

Former envoys warn against policies including supply of drones to Russia and failure to revive nuclear deal

Senior former Iranian diplomats are expressing open criticism of their government, warning that by failing to revive the nuclear deal and supplying drones to Russia in Ukraine, the country risks becoming isolated, its economy weakened and the protest movement emboldened.

The increasingly stark warnings may reflect the views of a waning old guard of reformist diplomats, but appear to echo a live battle within the government over strategy and policy.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia launches overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia, officials say; Belarus begins air force drills with Russia – live

UK defence secretary says west is accelerating efforts to support Ukraine but urges Germany to permit supply of Leopard tanks

Russia launched an attack on Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, wounding civilians and destroying residential infrastructure, according to regional officials.

Oleksandr Starukh, the Zaporizhzhia regional state administration head, said Russia launched a rocket attack on the regional centre in a Telegram post at about 1am local time.

The enemy launched a rocket attack on the regional centre and suburbs. There is destruction of civil, residential and industrial infrastructure. Information was received about several lightly wounded. All relevant services are on site.”

Russians fired at our city again. As a result of the night attack, people were injured. There are damaged houses. Three people were transported to hospitals. Among them are two children aged nine and 15.”

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German defence minister Christine Lambrecht quits after series of blunders

Criticism growing she was not up to job of getting German army into shape against backdrop of Ukraine war

Germany’s defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, has announced her resignation following a series of blunders and a growing impression that she has struggled to deal with the challenges of overseeing the country’s military since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lambrecht asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz to accept her resignation, she said in a statement on Monday morning, following widespread speculation over recent days that she would stand down.

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Higher UK energy bills here to stay, warns oil company boss

Equinor chief says bills won’t return to levels seen before Ukraine invasion given windfall taxes and move to greener energy

The boss of one of Europe’s biggest energy companies has warned that higher gas and electricity prices are here to stay and consumers should not expect them to return to levels seen before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Anders Opedal, the chief executive of Norway’s state oil company Equinor, said factors including windfall taxes and the large sums energy firms must invest to move from fossil fuels to greener alternatives mean bills are likely to remain elevated.

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German tank manufacturer’s warning puts pressure on Ukraine’s allies

Defence firm dampens Kyiv hopes other European allies will follow UK’s lead in supplying heavy armour

Battle tanks from German industrial reserves wanted by Ukraine will not be ready to be delivered until 2024, the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has warned, increasing pressure on Nato allies to support Ukraine with armoured vehicles in active service instead, ahead of a key meeting this week.

“Even if the decision to send our Leopard tanks to Kyiv came tomorrow, the delivery would take until the start of next year,” Rheinmetall’s chief executive, Armin Papperger, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: rescue attempts continue for survivors of Russian missile attack on Dnipro apartment block — as it happened

At least 20 dead and fate of 40 remains unknown with scores left homeless says governor

From doctors to cocktail bar staff, in this article by Guardian journalists Emma Graham-Harrison and Artem Mazhulin, the people of the Ukrainian capital speak of their everyday acts of resistance and determination to do much more than simply survive.

Images of the rescue efforts at the destroyed block of flats in Dnipro are filtering through.

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Russia carries out two mass rocket strikes on Ukraine killing at least 30 people

The targets of the attack – in which scores were injured – was Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, authorities said

Russia has carried out two mass rocket strikes on Ukraine on Saturday, devastating an apartment block in the south-central city of Dnipro, where at least 30 people have died and scores were injured. Rescue workers are still clearing the rubble at the scene.

The targets of the attack, Ukrainian authorities said earlier on Saturday, was Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, a continuation of its strategy to leave the country without power and limit its ability to fight.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 326 of the invasion

Russian missile attacks in Dnipro kill at least 14; UK pledges to send Ukraine tanks to ‘push Russian troops back’; power outages across Ukraine

Russia carried out two mass rocket attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, devastating an apartment block in Dnipro and leaving at least 14 people dead and 64 injured, at least a dozen of them children. Rescue efforts were ongoing in the south-central city on Sunday. At least one person was also killed in a separate strike on a residential area in the nearby city of Kryvyi Rih. Ukrainian authorities said the targets were the country’s energy infrastructure.

The UK prime minister has confirmed the country will provide tanks to Ukraine to help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back”. Downing Street said Rishi Sunak made the pledge during a call on Saturday morning with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and that Sunak offered Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems as a sign of the UK’s “ambition to intensify our support to Ukraine”. Russia’s embassy in Britain said the move would only “intensify” the conflict.

Emergency power outages were enacted across 11 regions of Ukraine after Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. In a post on Telegram, grid operator Ukrenegro said the consumption limits in force across the country were exceeded in 11 regions, as a result of which “emergency shutdowns have been applied”.

Four explosions were heard in central Kyiv on Saturday morning. For the first time since Russia began regular missile and drone attacks on the capital in autumn, the air raid sirens sounded after the attack. Until now, the sirens have sounded 10-90 minutes before an attack, giving residents time to seek shelter.

Air raid alerts were also issued across the country, including in the major cities of Kherson and Lviv. Alerts were also issued for the regions of Kharkiv, Donestk, Dnipropetrovsk and about a dozen others.

Ukraine has called on its allies to give it more support after its troops suffered heavy losses in fighting at Soledar and Bakhmut in recent months. Russia said on Friday its forces had taken control of Soledar in east Ukraine, its first claim of victory in months of battlefield setbacks, while Kyiv said fierce fighting was continuing in the town. “To win this war, we need more military equipment, heavy equipment,” said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Agence France-Presse reported.

Moldovan authorities said debris from a missile had been found in its territory near the border with Ukraine. They said on Saturday the find came “after Russia’s massive bombardment of Ukraine” and that it was the third time missiles from the conflict had fallen on to Moldova’s territory.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, of shameful subservience to the US and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself. His remarks on Saturday were the latest in a long line of shocking and provocative statements from arch-hawk Medvedev, Reuters reported. Speaking later on Saturday, a day after a summit with the US president, Joe Biden, Kishida made no mention of Medvedev’s comment

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Davos’s elite will need to do some soul-searching in a world falling apart

The first proper World Economic Forum for three years will take place against a humbling backdrop of crisis and conflict

The war in Ukraine. A rapidly slowing economy, fragmentation and de-globalisation. The rising cost of living. Climate change. There is plenty for the global great and good to get their teeth into this week as Davos resumes after a three-year hiatus.

Strictly speaking, it not the first gathering of world leaders, businesspeople, academics and civil society since the start of the pandemic, but last May’s World Economic Forum event was a slimmed-down and not especially well-attended affair. As a dry run it was fine, but a real Davos traditionally happens in January, when the snow is thick on the ground in the Swiss village 1,500 metres up in the Alps. In the past, the mood at Davos has oscillated between extreme optimism and unbridled gloom, depending on the state of the world economy. This year it looks certain to be the latter. As Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chair of the WEF put it last week, “economic, environmental, social and geopolitical crises are converging and conflating”. The aim of this year’s Davos, he added, was to get rid of the “crisis mindset”.

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Ex-Russian president suggests Japanese PM should ritually disembowel himself

Dmitry Medvedev accuses Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to US after Joe Biden meeting

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the US and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself.

His remarks on Saturday were the latest in a long line of shocking and provocative statements from Medvedev, who was once seen as a western-leaning reformer but has reinvented himself as an arch-hawk since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: UK to send tanks to Ukraine as Russian missiles hit multiple cities – as it happened

UK says it will send Challenger 2 tanks and more artillery support defence of Ukraine

The governor of the central Cherkasy region warned Ukrainians that Russia could launch a massive missile strike later on Saturday and urged residents to take shelter during air raid sirens.

Separately, Vitaly Kim, regional governor of the southern Mykolaiv region, said that 17 Russian Tupolev bombers had taken off from their airbases. His statement came shortly after air attacks in Kyiv and Kharkiv hit critical infrastructure.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 325 of the invasion

UN nuclear watchdog boosting presence in Ukraine; hundreds of civilians trapped in eastern town of Soledar

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog announced it would boost its presence in Ukraine to help prevent a nuclear accident during the conflict. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would soon have a permanent presence at all five of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. Currently, only the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant, which is near the frontline, has a permanent IAEA presence.

Ukraine has denied Russia’s claim that Putin’s forces have captured Soledar. On Friday, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken full control of the salt mining town. Ukrainian officials denied the Russian claim, suggesting they were still holding on and counterattacking, with the Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhii Cherevatyi reporting “ongoing battles”.

Soledar is ‘Verdun for 21st century’ according to a top Ukraine official. Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine, likened the fight for the town to the longest and bloodiest battle in the first world war.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east would be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

Hundreds of civilians remain trapped in Soledar, Ukraine has said. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, told Ukrainian state TV that 559 civilians remained in Soledar, including 15 children, and could not be evacuated.

Satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies show the destruction inflicted upon Soledar. The Guardian has a series of striking images from inside the eastern Ukrainian town.

Ukraine is confident Britain will announce it plans to send about 10 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv shortly, a move it hopes will help Germany finally allow its Leopard 2s to be re-exported to the embattled country. A formal announcement is anticipated on Monday but Ukrainian sources indicated they understood that Britain had already decided in favour.

Germany will continue to “weigh every step carefully” and consult with its allies on further weapons deliveries to Ukraine, chancellor Olaf Scholz has said. The German leader is facing mounting pressure to approve German-made battle tanks for Kyiv. Scholz said Berlin would keep its “leading position” as one of Kyiv’s top supporters but said he had no intention of being rushed on “such serious things that have to do with peace and war, with the security of our country and of Europe”.

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Hopes of sharp fall in household energy bills as HSBC cuts gas price forecast

Bank slashes predicted 2023 European wholesale price by 30% as mild weather reduces demand

HSBC has slashed its forecasts for future wholesale gas prices in response to mild weather in Europe – raising hopes of a sharp decline in household energy bills.

The bank cut its 2023 forecasts for the price of gas traded in Europe by about 30% and its forecast for 2024 by 20%.

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Kyiv says battles ongoing in Soledar and denies Russians have taken town – as it happened

Spokesperson for Ukraine army says statements from Russia that it has captured Soledar ‘are not true’. This live blog is closed

Ukraine’s security council chair Oleksiy Danilov tweeted about the plea for German tanks yesterday, and as the Economist’s Oliver Carroll points out – it’s not particularly subtle.

In light of today’s move from France to send light combat tanks to Ukraine, The New York Times’ Lara Jakes and Steven Erlanger have also examined the possibility that other countries in the West will also break a taboo that was seen as too provocative earlier in the conflict.

Western officials increasingly fear that Ukraine has only a narrow window to prepare to repel an anticipated Russian springtime offensive, and are moving fast to give the Ukrainians sophisticated weapons they had earlier refused to send for fear of provoking Moscow.

Over the last few weeks, one barrier after another has fallen, starting with an agreement by the United States in late December to send a Patriot air-defense system. That was followed by a German commitment last week to provide a Patriot missile battery, and in the span of hours, France, Germany and the United States each promised to send armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine’s battlefields for the first time.

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Putin scolds defence industry minister in televised meeting for ‘fooling around’

Russian leader publicly berated Denis Manturov, eye-rolling and shuffling papers during the live call, as his war in Ukraine caused fresh problems

Vladimir Putin has publicly scolded a senior minister and ally during a meeting broadcast on state television as sanctions from the stalling war in Ukraine caused fresh economic headaches for the Russian president.

Speaking during a live video call with officials on Wednesday, the Russian leader appeared agitated and berated deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, who is also his trade and industry minister and responsible for overseeing Russia’s weapons and defence industry and supplies of equipment for troops. Putin criticised him for working too slowly on the country’s aircraft contracts, according to a transcript of the call later published by the Kremlin.

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