Closing summary
A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv early this morning killed at least one person and injured 12 others. The attack damaged a number of buildings in the capital and left over 600 residential buildings as well as medical facilities and schools.
Ukraine’s air force said it downed five ballistic missiles and 40 drones in overnight attacks, with a further 20 drones failing to reach their targets. It said a total of 65 drones had been launched overnight.
Russia said it targeted arms industry and security service targets in strikes on Kyiv this morning as a “response” to this week’s strikes by Ukraine using Western missiles on a chemical plant in southern Russia. Russia said yesterday that Ukraine had launched six US-made long-range ATACMs missiles and four British-made Storm Shadow missiles at Russia’s southern Rostov region on Wednesday.
Portugal condemned Russia’s early morning attacks on the city after its embassy was damaged. Portugal’s foreign minister said several diplomatic missions that are housed in the same building were also damaged citing Argentina, Albania and Montenegro as examples.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence said Russia has suffered it’s biggest daily losses since its invasion of Ukraine began. The ministry said 2,200 Russian soldiers died in the last 24 hours of fighting – the previous highest total was 2,030, set on 29 November.
Russia has sentenced a resident of east Ukraine’s Luhansk region to 16 years in prison for “high treason”, Moscow’s FSB security service said. The man was sentenced by a military court in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Prosecutors said he had handed information on the Russian armed forces to Kyiv’s security services.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces had taken control of two more settlements in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Uspenivka and Novopustynka. Russia has been moving toward the strategic city of Pokrovsk.
Russia has hit Kyiv with eight powerful ballistic missiles, a day after Vladimir Putin claimed his troops were winning on the battlefield and that his maximalist goals to seize more territory in Ukraine were unchanged, Luke Harding reports.
Several explosions were reported in Kyiv on Friday around 7am local time. Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down eight Khinzal and Iskander-M missiles, with debris falling in several districts of the city. One person was killed and at least 12 were injured.
Residents woke to the sound of loud booms and wailing air raid sirens. One intercepted missile fell on the Toronto business centre, smashing its top storey, and setting fire to cars parked in the street beneath. A mangled vehicle was tossed over a fence.
The complex was home to Superhumans, a prosthetics and rehabilitation centre for wounded Ukrainian soldiers. Its founder Andrey Stavnitser said his office was devastated. “It’s scary to think what would have happened if our glass room had been blown a couple of hours later,” he posted.
The same blast broke stained glass windows in the St Nicholas Roman Catholic church opposite. The church’s facade, rose window and external and internal glazing were damaged. Stairwells leading to its gothic spires, built early in the 20th century, were wrecked.
You can read the full report at the link below.
