Defence ministry says drone was shot down on approach to Engels airbase but falling debris killed three
Three Russian servicemen have died after a Ukrainian drone attack on a crucial airbase deep inside Russian territory, Moscow has said.
According to the defence ministry, a Ukrainian drone was shot down on the approach to Engels base early on Monday morning but falling debris killed three service personnel.
Continue reading...A shared sense of national history is proving to be a crucial weapon, spurring on Ukraine resistance and Russian soldiers
The Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko recalls a quote attributed to Otto von Bismarck: “Wars are not won by generals, but by schoolteachers and parish priests.” It’s a country’s taught collective memory, its shared sense of its own history, that are the decisive instruments for mobilisation, and are as important on the battlefield as weaponry.
Few conflicts have been so shaped by the chief actors’ sense of their own national story as the Ukrainian war that began in February. It is the competing grand narratives of the past, not just in Russia and Ukraine, but in Germany, France, Poland, the Baltics, the UK, the US, and even the global south, that make this war so hard to resolve.
Continue reading...‘Every war ends in a diplomatic way,’ says Dmytro Kuleba
Christo Grozev, from the investigative journalism organisation Bellingcat, describes the announcement by Russia’s defence ministry that a Ukrainian drone attacked a base in Russia’s Saratov region as “mind boggling”.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s president says Ukrainians are creating their own ‘miracle’ in Christmas address as Russian president accuses Kyiv and western allies of ‘refusing to negotiate’
At least 16 people were killed and 64 injured in Russia’s shelling of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Saturday, the region’s governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said.
Russian forces “opened fire on the Kherson region 71 times” with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, Yanushevych said in an update posted on social media this morning.
The enemy attacked the regional centre 41 times. Downtown Kherson came under extensive enemy fire: civilians were killed and buildings destroyed. The enemy shelling also affected industrial premises, health facilities, detached houses and apartment blocks.
Continue reading...Ten dead and more than 50 injured in Russian strikes on Kherson; ‘We will endure this winter,’ Volodymyr Zelenskiy says in Christmas eve message
At least ten people were killed and an estimated 58 wounded on Saturday in Russian shelling on the recently recaptured Ukrainian city of Kherson. The region was targeted by 74 Russian strikes. 66 cars caught fire in a residential area of the city due to the shelling, the emergency services said.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the attacks on Kherson “terror … killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure”. He said: “it is the real life of Ukraine … The world must see and understand what absolute evil we are fighting against.”
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said the attack in Kherson is more evidence that Ukraine needs to be supplied with more defence systems and called for more weapons and ammunition.
In a message on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians will create their own miracle this Christmas by showing they remain unbowed despite Russian attacks that have plunged millions into darkness. The president made his remarks in a video address to Ukrainians who celebrate Christmas in December. Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and mark the occasion in early January.
Reuters reporters in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol have confirmed that authorities are demolishing and clearing what is left of the smashed rear portion of the cities theatre, where hundreds of Ukrainians were killed in Russian airstrikes after a protracted siege earlier this year.
Ukraine has announced it has killed another 480 Russian troops, according to its latest casualty figures.
A Ukrainian official has called for Iranian drone and missile factories to be destroyed because of their use by Russia in the war. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Iran “blatantly humiliates the institution of international sanctions”.
The Netherlands has pledged €2.5bn ($2.7bn) to help Ukraine in 2023, with most of the money earmarked for military aid.
The rock band Pink Floyd has raised $600,000 for Ukraine with the song Hey Hey Rise Up.
Continue reading...City of Kherson suffers worst toll as Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemns killing ‘for intimidation and pleasure’
Russia launched artillery barrages in southern and eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more.
The worst civilian toll was in the southern city of Kherson, which was liberated last month from Russian occupying forces. The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general confirmed that eight people had been killed.
Continue reading...Eight people confirmed dead and more than 50 injured as Russian shelling hits city of Kherson
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the shelling on Kherson that has killed five and injured 20 others is “terrorism”.
Posting photographs of the aftermath of the attacks, including casualties lying on the street, he said: “The terrorist country continues bringing the Russian world in the form of shelling of the civilian population. Kherson. In the morning, on Saturday, on the eve of Christmas, in the central part of the city.
Continue reading...Blaze in Siberian city guts second floor of building housing illegal home for older people
Twenty-two people have been killed in a fire at an illegal care home in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia’s emergencies ministry said.
The fire broke out early on Saturday morning in the two-storey wooden building in the industrial city more than 2,000 miles east of Moscow. Initial reports say it may have been caused by a faulty boiler.
Continue reading...Putin orders defence chiefs to quickly get military all it needs; Russian forces accused of cover-up in demolishing Mariupol theatre after deadly airstrike
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
In early 2022, the Ukrainian photojournalist Evgeny Maloletka was covering violence in Kazakhstan when his attention turned back home: there were several reports signalling that Russia was preparing an invasion.
He didn’t have to think twice: he knew he had to be back in his home country. By mid-January, he was already working on assignment for the Associated Press in the city of Kharkiv and the Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, where there was a growing tension among Russian proxies.
Continue reading...US announces fresh sanctions; North Korea denies supplying weapons to Russia; Moscow-installed official in Kherson reportedly killed in car blast
Continue reading...US intelligence official tells Reuters news agency Russian mercenary group received arms shipment from North Korea
A Christmas tree at Sofia Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 21 December.
In homes and schools around Bosnia, young people this December have been preparing gift boxes they hope will put a smile on the faces of their peers living through war in Ukraine – as such presents did for many of their parents a generation ago.
Responding to an appeal launched by a small Sarajevo museum, hundreds of Bosnian children have been filling small boxes with warm clothes, toys, candies and other simple gifts to be delivered to the children of Ukraine in time for the New Year.
For parents and educators who are helping them select what to send, the experience has awakened rare happy memories from the time when they were on the receiving end of the kindness of strangers while growing up in constant fear of death.
Continue reading...Federal intelligence service says man is suspected of treason for sharing state secrets this year
Germany arrested a foreign intelligence service agent on Wednesday on suspicion of sharing state secrets with Russia this year, raiding his home and workplace as well as that of another person.
“The accused is suspected of state treason,” the federal prosecutors’ office said in a statement. “In 2022, he shared information that he came by in the course of his work with a Russian intelligence agency. The content is considered a state secret.”
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses US Congress on first foreign visit since war began; the White House pledges new $1.58bn aid package to Ukraine
Continue reading...Russian president dismisses weapon as ‘outdated’ as he implies Kyiv will have to cede territory for peace
The Kremlin says US supplies of Patriot missiles to Ukraine, agreed upon during Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s trip to Washington, will not stop it achieving its military goals.
Vladimir Putin dismissed the weapon as old and said Russia’s missile systems would be able to shoot it down. “The Patriot air defence is outdated. An antidote will always be found … Russia will knock down the Patriot system,” he declared on Thursday.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy to speak at US Congress in person ahead of vote on bill for billions in US aid to Ukraine
If you’re just joining us, we’re waiting to hear from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his first foreign visit since Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine started in March.
My name is Helen Sullivan, and I’ll be bringing you the latest. You can find me on Twitter here – ask a question and I’ll do my best to answer it.
Continue reading...US and Ukrainian presidents hold two-hour meeting before press conference, as Zelenskiy seeks more aid against Russia
Joe Biden has promised Volodymyr Zelenskiy that “you will never stand alone” as the Ukrainian leader visited the White House in a bid to keep American weapons supplies flowing for the war against Russia.
Zelenskiy, wearing his now trademark green military-style trousers and shirt, welcomed the US support while warning that it was difficult to see an easy end to the conflict and that there “cannot be any just peace in a war that was imposed on us”.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president makes first known foreign trip since invasion before vote on package worth $45bn
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made his first known foreign trip since Russia invaded Ukraine more than 300 days ago, travelling to the US on a high-stakes visit to secure support for his war effort well into next year.
The Ukrainian president was filmed travelling with cars outside Przemyśl railway station in Poland.
Continue reading...Russia is expected to dramatically increase military spending over next two years, as it signals it is preparing for a long war
Vladimir Putin has pledged to give his army anything it asks for in a meeting with Russia’s top military officials as the war in Ukraine enters its 11th month.
Speaking in Moscow at the closing session of the expanded board of the ministry of defence, Putin said there were no “funding restrictions” for the military. “The country, the government will give everything that the army asks for. Everything,” the Russian president added.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president is meeting with president Joe Biden and Congressional leaders on Wednesday evening
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has undertaken a surprise trip to Beijing and held talks with the Chinese president Xi Jinping during which he said they discussed the Ukraine conflict.
Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him meeting Xi, smiling for photos and a meeting between Chinese and Russian officials.
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