At least 130 people also injured, says president, with Kharkiv apartment block and Kyiv sports club among buildings hit
Russia has carried out a wave of attacks on Ukraine, killing 18 people and injuring more than 130, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, with a sports club in central Kyiv one of several civilian buildings damaged.
Making his nightly video address on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said more than 200 sites were struck, including 139 dwellings.
Continue reading...Government uses cyber sanctions powers under Magnitsky laws for first time to target Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov, alleged to be responsible for hack
Australia has used its new cyber sanctions powers for the first time against a Russian citizen, Aleksandr Ermakov, in connection with the Medibank Private data breach.
Magnitsky-style sanctions laws that were introduced in Australia in late 2021 include a world-leading measure to allow the imposition of Australian travel bans and asset freezes on those allegedly involved in “significant” cyber-attacks.
Continue reading...Opposition leader says prisoners forced to listen to ‘I am Russian’ by Shaman as part of 5am regime
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has complained of being poisoned, assaulted and deprived of proper medical care, but this week he disclosed he faced a new challenge: being forced to listen to a pro-Putin pop singer at 5am every morning.
Navalny, 47, a former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning president Vladimir Putin’s elite and voicing allegations of vast corruption, is now in a jail about 60 km (40 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.
Continue reading...‘Looking for a solution in the Middle East doesn’t mean that we are not continuing supporting Ukraine,’ says Josep Borrell
In an intelligence update published today, the British defence ministry said: “Ukraine’s ports exported more agricultural products in December 2023 than at any other point since Russia’s invasion, almost certainly driven by the reopening of Ukraine’s main Black Sea ports and the establishment of a unilateral shipping export channel.”
It added:
Ukraine has achieved this because it has largely prevented the Russian Black Sea fleet from operating in the western Black Sea, where it is held at risk by Ukrainian missiles and uncrewed surface vessels.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report shows Russian ships loading at North Korean port, amid accusation that Pyongyang supplies missiles and shells
The UK has provided satellite photographs of North Korean cargo shipments to Russia to a panel of UN experts as part of an attempt to trigger an official investigation into arms deals in violation of international sanctions.
North Korea has been accused of supplying ballistic missiles and hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the Russian government for its war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin met with Kim Jong-un in Russia’s far east in September.
Continue reading...Rescue teams find charter ambulance flight from Thailand to Moscow after it disappeared from radar screens
Four people are reported to have survived after a private jet carrying out a medical evacuation from Thailand to Russia disappeared from radar screens and crashed in a remote and mountainous area of north-eastern Afghanistan on Saturday.
Russian aviation authorities said two passengers and four crew members were onboard the charter ambulance flight, which was travelling from Utapao airport, near Pattaya, to Moscow via India and Uzbekistan.
Continue reading...Local officials are now saying that at least 25 were killed in the strike; cause of fire at gas plant unknown but drones were reported in area
Further information has come in on claims by Russia that it had captured the small village of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine.
“The village of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkiv region was liberated,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily bulletin on operations in Ukraine, citing “successful active operations”, reports AFP.
Continue reading...Russian-installed mayor and governor say another 20 people were injured in attack on occupied city in eastern Ukraine
At least 25 people have been killed after Ukrainian forces shelled a busy suburban shopping area in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to local officials.
Alexei Kulemzin, the city’s Russian-installed mayor, said Ukrainian artillery had fired on a bustling district where shops and a market are located. Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk region, said emergency services were working at the scene, adding that a further 20 people, including two children, had been injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik.
Continue reading...State-owned railway company RZhD apologises as conductor faces calls to be sacked and potentially prosecuted
A cat has died in Russia after being thrown off a train in freezing temperatures by a conductor who has faced calls to be sacked and potentially prosecuted.
The state-owned railway company RZhD has apologised to the owners of Twix, the ginger-and-white cat who was dumped into the snow in Kirov on 11 January.
Continue reading...Ukrainian leader invited Trump to Ukraine but says if he returns to White House he could make unilateral concessions to Russia
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fears that if Donald Trump returns to the White House next year he could make unilateral concessions to Russia that override Ukraine’s interests and branded the former US president’s claims he could stop the war in 24 hours as “very dangerous”.
In an interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News, Zelenskiy said he was “stressed” that the former president “is going to make decisions on his own, without … I’m not even talking about Russia, but without both sides, without us.”
Continue reading...Strike on Friday targeted a Rosneft oil storage facility about 50km from the Ukrainian border, in Russian town of Klintsy, officials said
Russian troops have reinstalled mines along the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, the Euromaidan Press website has reported, citing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Although the plant, the largest in Europe, has been under Russian occupation since 4 March 2022, it continues to work.
Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the IAEA expressed concern over this development, emphasising that the presence of mines contradicts IAEA safety standards. This area is restricted and not accessible to operational plant personnel.
We are counting on out partners, and we are also working to develop our military-industrial complex.
Continue reading...Trial of local activist provokes one of largest reported demonstrations in country since Ukraine invasion
Hundreds of protesters have clashed with police in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan in a rare display of public outrage after a court convicted a local activist and sentenced him to prison, according to media reports and rights groups.
The unrest on Wednesday – one of the largest reported demonstrations since the war in Ukraine began in 2022 – erupted amid the trial this week of Fail Alsynov in the town of Baymak, about 870 miles (1,400km) south-east of Moscow, in the southern Ural mountains.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says there are legal, moral and political justifications for using assets of $350bn
Britain is ramping up pressure on western governments to use $350bn (£275bn) of frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine’s war-shattered economy, with David Cameron insisting there were legal, moral and political justifications for action.
The foreign secretary said the countries that were backing Ukraine had economies that when combined were 25 times the size of Russia and it was important to make that firepower count.
Continue reading...Jailing of Fail Alsynov for ‘inciting hatred’ sparks protests; Dmytro Kuleba said his country’s priority for 2024 was to gain control over its skies
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has updated his X account with details of his numerous meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
Zelenskiy said he met Polish president, Andrzej Duda to discuss their bilateral relations, including “cooperation on Ukraine’s path to EU membership”. He said the battlefield situation and further defence assistance for Ukraine was discussed. Zelenskiy added that the pair had acoordinated their positions ahead of the Nato summit in Washington.
Continue reading...Ukraine president speaks at World Economic Forum in Davos; European Commission president says Europe ‘must empower Ukraine’s resistance’
The Kremlin has declined to comment on a Bloomberg report that Chinese state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients for fear of US secondary sanctions, describing it as a highly sensitive topic.
Asked about the report, the spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said it was a matter for the companies and departments involved, and not for the Kremlin, Reuters reports.
This is a very, very sensitive area and it is unlikely that anyone will undertake to talk about it – you shouldn’t expect that.
We continue to develop relations with China; it’s our very important strategic partner.
Continue reading...Standing ovation greets Ukrainian president’s speech amid strong support from EU and business leaders
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made an impassioned plea for international support for his country’s war against Russia, insisting that Vladimir Putin must live to regret starting the conflict almost two years ago.
In a speech that received a standing ovation from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Ukrainian president said the Putin had stolen 13 years of peace and would only respond to military defeat.
Continue reading...It is unclear how Ukraine succeeded in shooting down the command planes flying above the Sea of Azov
Ukraine’s military has shot down two of Russia’s command planes, in one of the most disastrous days for the Kremlin’s air power since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander in chief, said his air force had destroyed an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an Il-22 control centre plane. Both were flying above the Sea of Azov on Sunday when they were hit at 9.10pm local time.
Continue reading...Ukraine army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi says A-50 spy plane and Il-22 command aircraft downed near Sea of Azov; Britain to send army, navy and RAF personnel to Nato exercise
Shapps has cited the UK’s increase in support to Ukraine in the highest level ever as an example of its commitment to defence spending.
To some the cost may seem steep but Britain cannot afford to reverse the gains we have.
Under this Conservative government Britain never will.
Continue reading...The country has been fighting since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and many people are battling mental health issues
Serhii Dovbysh was defending his home in Chernihiv when something inside him snapped. The Russians were a few kilometres away. Enemy planes bombed the city. Shells landed among its gold-domed cathedrals. And young soldiers under his command were dying in battle. Dovbysh, a major in Ukraine’s armed forces and a deputy commander, felt responsible.
“Everything broke in my head and soul. And my body. You are alive but you don’t feel alive,” he said. He estimated that about 10% of the men in his battalion were killed during fighting, and another third wounded. “You eat with people. For months you share a room with them. It’s like a big family. When they die you feel a wound in your heart.”
Continue reading...Stéphane Séjourné meets Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv during first official visit abroad and says Ukraine ‘will remain France’s priority’
President Zelenskiy said he and Séjourné had discussed Ukraine’s defence needs including joint production of drones and artillery.
He posted on X :“We discussed Ukraine’s defense needs, including joint production of drones, artillery, and further strengthening of air defense. I updated Minister Séjourné on the Peace Formula’s progress. I thank France for its active role in this global effort.”
France’s newly appointed foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Saturday on his first official visit abroad, vowing that Paris would maintain its support. “Despite the multiplying crises, Ukraine is and will remain France’s priority,” Séjourné told Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at a joint news conference earlier Saturday.
Russia’s justice ministry designated one of the country’s most popular fiction writers a foreign agent because of his opposition to Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The historical detective stories of Boris Akunin, the pen name of Georgian-born Grigori Chkhartishvili, used to be bestsellers in Russia before the authorities turned on him for what they said were his unacceptable anti-Russian views.
A prominent liberal priest faces expulsion from the Russian Orthodox church for refusing to read out a prayer asking God to guide Russia to victory over Ukraine. In a verdict published on Saturday, a church court said Aleksiy Uminsky should be “expelled from holy orders” for violating his priestly oath.
Ukraine suffered a massed Russian missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, its air force said, adding that Moscow had fired some of its most fearsome hypersonic missiles. Air defences shot down Russian missiles in at least five regions across Ukraine, according to local officials from those provinces. However, no details were given on whether any targets were hit, and far less information about the attack than usual was provided by officials. Ukraine’s air force warned during the attack that Russia had fired Kinzhal missiles - perhaps the hardest conventional Russian missile to shoot down, moving at several times the speed of sound.
Russia, meanwhile, said it had destroyed all targets in a barrage of strikes on facilities producing ammunition and drones in Ukraine. “This morning the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a group strike … against facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex,” the defence ministry said in a daily briefing. It said it was targeting places producing shells, gunpowder and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Zelenskiy will speak in person at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos on Tuesday, according to the WEF’s event programme. Forum president Børge Brende last week told reporters Zelenskiy would give an address during the event, while more than 70 national security advisers from around the world would on Sunday discuss ways forward on the Ukrainian president’s peace plan.
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