Russia-backed spaceport proposed for Christmas Island abandoned in 2002 over sovereignty fears

Cabinet papers reveal Russia wanted to limit Australia’s access to its rocket technology and classified information, leading to ‘impasse’

Plans to build a spaceport on Christmas Island with Russian technology were stymied in 2002 over fears that it would impinge on Australia’s sovereignty, cabinet papers reveal.

Russia wanted to limit Australia’s access to its rocket technology and classified information, and had concerns that a planned detention facility on the island would put its security at risk.

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Ukraine claims Putin considering closing Russian border; Kyiv hit by missile strikes – as it happened

Ukrainian minister tells Russians that Putin is set to begin a new round of troop mobilisations. This blog is now closed

The governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitalii Kim, has said there is an incoming missile attack on Ukraine.

Posting on his Telegram account, he said it applied to “all regions”.

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‘Terror on New Year’s Eve’: huge Russian missile attack kills one in Ukraine

More than dozen also injured as over 20 rockets launched in second major strike in three days

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least one person in the capital Kyiv and injuring more than a dozen in what one official described as “terror on New Year’s Eve”.

Moscow’s second major missile attack in three days badly damaged a hotel south of Kyiv’s centre and a residential building in another district. A Japanese journalist was among the wounded and taken to hospital, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

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Russian oligarchs lose $95bn in 2022 amid sanctions after Ukraine war

Roman Abramovich’s fortune fell by 57% to $7.8bn, as the UK government froze more than £18bn of assets belonging to Russians

The richest Russian oligarchs have lost almost $95bn this year amid strict sanctions imposed by western nations over the Ukraine war – shedding $330m a day since the Kremlin launched its invasion.

Roman Abramovich, the former Chelsea FC owner, was the biggest loser, with his fortune falling by 57% to $7.8bn this year, according to the Bloomberg billionaires index.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin announces plan to strengthen cooperation with Chinese armed forces – as it happened

This blog has now closed, you can read more of our Russia-Ukraine war coverage here

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of Sumy region, which is in Ukraine’s north-east and borders Russia, has posted to Telegram to say that overnight three settlements in the area were fired on by Russia. He said details about the consequences were being clarified.

Reuters has a quick snap to say that Ukraine’s air force has reported on Friday morning that Russia launched 16 so-called kamikaze drones overnight, and that Ukrainian air defences destroyed all of them. It added that the drones had been sent from the south-east and north.

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Indian leather companies accused of enabling Russia’s war effort

Soldiers’ boots are made from imported Indian leather as country’s trade with Russia soars by 400%

Indian companies have been accused of enabling Russia’s war effort after exporting leather to Russian companies that make boots for its military in the months since the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and India have longstanding ties and Narendra Modi’s government has not joined western countries in openly criticising Moscow over the war nor stopped Indian companies trading with Russia.

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Russia launches ‘one of the most massive’ missile attacks on Ukraine

Attacks targeting infrastructure across country come as Moscow rejects Ukrainian peace plan

Russia launched a large round of missile attacks across Ukraine on Thursday morning, as Moscow rejected a Ukrainian peace plan and kept up its attacks on the country’s infrastructure.

Targets from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east came under fire on Thursday morning. The Ukrainian army command said Russia launched 69 missiles from land, sea and air, 54 of which it said were shot down by Ukrainian air defences.

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Turkish and Syrian defence and security officials meet for first time in a decade

Move towards peaceful relations represents cause for alarm for more than 4m refugees in Turkey since 2011

Top Turkish and Syrian defence and security officials have held their first public meeting in more than a decade, in a dramatic shift towards normalising relations between the two countries after Ankara backed rebels during Syria’s civil war.

The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, and the head of the country’s national intelligence organisation (MIT), Hakan Fidan, met the Syrian defence minister, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, and the notorious spy chief Ali Mamlouk in Moscow, in a meeting attended by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Belarus summons Ukrainian ambassador over missile incident

Minsk says it shot down a Ukrainian air defence missile over its territory on Thursday

Missiles are being launched at Ukraine from ships on the Black Sea, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Ukrainian military administration of Kryvyi Rih, on Telegram.

As we get the first reports of the sound of blasts in Kyiv, Presidential office adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has written on Facebook that over 100 missiles were incoming in several waves and air raid alarms could be heard across the country.

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ExxonMobil launches legal challenge to EU’s windfall tax on energy firms

US oil firm contests legal authority for ‘solidarity contribution’ to raise funds to offset soaring energy prices

ExxonMobil has launched a legal challenge against the EU in an attempt to derail the bloc’s windfall tax on the profits of energy producers.

In a high-stakes political battle as countries across Europe and the wider western world struggle with soaring energy costs and sky-high inflation, the US oil firm said it believed the EU had overreached its powers with the windfall tax.

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Kherson residents told to evacuate as bombardment intensifies; Bakhmut ‘covered with blood’, says Zelenskiy – as it happened

Ukraine official says Kherson is ‘one of the most dangerous cities’; Ukrainian president says only few civilians remain in Bakhmut. This live blog is closed

An “official” channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – one of the areas of Ukraine that Russia claimed to have annexed in September – has posted on Telegram to say in the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have fired at seven of the settlements the DPR claims as its territory.

It says one civilian was injured, and two houses and three civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged. The claims have not been independently verified. Russia, Syria and North Korea were the only UN member states to recognise the DPR as any kind of legitimate authority before the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, declared it was territory of the Russian Federation.

IOM’s winter preparedness support, made possible by EU funding, includes repairs to collective centres for displaced people, improvements to water, drainage and heating systems, repairs to damaged houses, and the provision of warm blankets, bedding, mattresses and hygiene items. The programme also provides solid fuel and cash assistance to help people have flexible winter livelihoods. This funding will also enable IOM to ensure the availability of critical assets to ensure that aid continues to reach war-affected populations, and to support partner organisations responding to urgent needs on the ground.

Vulnerable sections of the population of Ukraine are going through the hardest winter. As the attacks continue, leaving millions without reliable access to electricity, heating and water, our humanitarian partners, including IOM, continue to work to meet the most urgent needs.

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Indian police investigate Russian politician’s hotel death

Death of Pavel Antov, who reportedly criticised Ukraine war, comes days after his travelling companion died at same hotel

Indian police are investigating the sudden deaths at a luxury hotel of a wealthy Russian politician who reportedly criticised the Ukraine war, and his travelling companion.

The body of Pavel Antov, 65, was found on Saturday in a pool of blood outside his lodgings in eastern Odisha state, where he was on holiday with three other Russian nationals.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: air raid warning across Ukraine; Russia bringing in large reserves near Kreminna, local official says – as it happened

Country-wide air raid warning issued; heavy fighting near Kreminna according to head of Luhansk regional military

As we reported in the previous post, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, yesterday attended an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a Moscow-led group consisting of former Soviet states, in St Petersburg.

In footage posted by the Kremlin, Putin is seen welcoming the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

We have to admit, unfortunately, that disagreements also arise between the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The main thing, however, is that we are ready and will cooperate, and even if any problematic issues arise, we strive to solve them ourselves.

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Weeks turn to months as children become stuck at camps in Crimea

The Russian-run camps were advertised as restorative breaks; parents say some children have been kept there for months

Kherson city was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November. But for some, the horrors of the Russian occupation are still not over. Nadia* sent her 14-year-old son to a Russian-run summer camp in Crimea – occupied by Moscow since 2014 – in October. He was meant to return after two weeks. It has now been more than two months.

In late November, he forwarded her a series of chilling voice messages from his camp leader telling him he would not be allowed back to Kherson because of his pro-Ukraine views.

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Chandeliers and avatars: how conflict spawned a new lexicon in Ukraine

From terms to mock the Russian foe to those that mask the grim reality of war, new usages abound

It was once a superstition only among Ukrainian air crew: the word “last”, especially in the context of a last or final meeting, should be avoided as it denotes a premonition of death.

In its place air crew would say krajne, which translates very roughly to English as “on the edge”.

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Ukraine aims for UN-backed peace summit in February

Russia can only be invited if it has faced a war crimes tribunal first, says foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba

Ukraine is aiming to hold a peace summit by the end of February – preferably at the United Nations with its secretary general, António Guterres, as a possible mediator – according to its foreign minister.

But Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia could only be invited if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first.

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