Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says four people were killed and 92 injured across the country

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and its second-largest city, Kharkiv, have come under heavy Russian missile attacks, killing at least five people, a day after Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would “intensify” its assault on Ukraine.

Explosions were heard in all districts of the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning, shaking buildings in the city centre, in the third successive day of airstrikes on Ukraine

Oleksandr Prokudin said that 70% of subscribers’ had been left without electricity

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Any fresh European Union aid to Ukraine will not affect the outcome of the conflict, the Kremlin has said.

It added that such spending would only hurt Europe’s economy.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has held talks in Moscow with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and said progress had been made on plans for Russia and India to jointly produce military equipment.

Ukraine’s armed forces commander has said his troops remain in an area of the eastern town of Maryinka despite Russia’s assertions that Moscow is in control of the settlement. Capturing Maryinka would amount to Moscow’s most significant battlefield gain since May.

Russia’s newest howitzers will be deployed “soon” against Ukrainian forces. The head of the state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, told the RIA news agency that testing of the new self-propelled artillery units, named Coalition-SV, had been completed and mass production has already started, with the first pilot batch to be delivered by the end of this year.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has warned that a move by Japan to hand over Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, would have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties.

Russia has lost 355,750 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, according to data published by the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces on Wednesday. This includes 790 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day. The Guardian has been unable to verify the figures.

One person was killed after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in their latest overnight airstrike, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine‘s interior ministry also reported another death from overnight shelling of Kherson.

Russian forces shelled the railway station in Kherson as a train was set to evacuate residents, killing one police officer and injuring four people, said Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.

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Here is a video of the large explosion in Crimea as a Ukrainian airstrike hit a Russian warship during an overnight attack on the Crimean port city of Feodosia, Russia’s defence ministry and officials said.

The Interfax news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying that Ukraine had used guided missiles launched by aircraft to attack Feodosia.

Waves of Russian attacks hit Kherson region, say officials; Ukraine to celebrate Christmas Day on 25 December for first time

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David Cameron could rewrite some of his international legacy by delivering crucial weapons to Ukraine.

While prime minister, Cameron was part of a generation that believed doing more business with Russia would secure peace and profit. As foreign secretary, he is now firmly focused on supporting Ukraine and restraining Russia.

Maybe this is the moment in which we have to look at the danger coming from a great power which threatens our democracy, which threatens Europe itself, not only Ukraine.

And if we don’t change course rapidly, if we don’t mobilise all our capacities, it will let Putin win the war in Ukraine. Similarly If we are not able to stop the tragedy which is happening in Gaza, I think our project will be very much damaged.

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Financial institutions that support the Russian military industrial complex are to be blacklisted in the US after president Joe Biden signed an executive order yesterday to deny banks under sanctions access to the American financial system.

“This announcement makes clear that those financing and facilitating the transactions of goods that end up on the battlefield will face severe consequences,” deputy US treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote in a Financial Times op-ed.

What we’re trying to do is go after materials that are key to Russia’s ability to build weapons of war. In order for them to get those materials, they need to use the financial system, which makes the financial system a potential choke point and this is a tool that’s targeted at that choke point.

Our overall goal here is to put sand in the gears of Russia’s supply chain, which we think is one of the most effective ways to slow Russia down. But in order for the Ukrainians to speed up frankly and go faster, they need our support and that’s going to require Congress to act.

Russia’s recent advances near Avdiivka, as well as around other cities such as Kupiansk, Bakhmut and Marinka, are also further evidence that Russia has firmly seized the initiative on much of the battlefield.

“Currently, the situation on the front line is difficult and is gradually deteriorating,” Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s committee on national security, defense and intelligence, said in an interview. “Without American ammunition, we are beginning to lose territory that was hard won this summer.”

Zelenskiy confirms exchange after call with Dutch PM; Russian defence ministry claims five Ukrainian downed south of the capital

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Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador over a call by a Russian politician to annex the former Soviet republic, it said late on Thursday.

The Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who is co-chair of the A Just Russia – For Truth party, said this week he believed Russia should annex Uzbekistan and other countries whose citizens travelled en masse to Russia for work.

Ukraine president seeks to boost morale after difficult year as Russian opponent claims to hold initiative

The leaders of Ukraine and Russia have struck a defiant tone and vowed to reach their military goals as the war heads toward its third year.

Speaking in Kyiv during his end-of-year press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to boost the domestic mood and maintain western support that has been stuttering in recent weeks.

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Russia is increasing its efforts to capture Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, transporting battalion reserves to the area, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army has said.

Kupiansk was liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022 by the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and has been a target since then, as it serves as an important logistics centre for the Russian invasion’s progression to the south and west. It was captured by Russia in February 2022.

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Russian police have put the prominent Russian American journalist and author Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army.

The independent Russian news outlet Mediazona was the first to report on Friday that Gessen’s profile has appeared on the online wanted list of Russia’s interior ministry, and the Associated Press was able to confirm that it was. It was not clear from the profile when exactly Gessen was added to the list.