Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US expects that the war in Ukraine will continue “for some time going forward” and there is “no expectation” that fighting will stop in the winter months. Kirby also confirmed that a US citizen has been released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, but did not release additional details, citing privacy concerns.
The Ukrainian military said it shot down 13 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv and the surrounding region following Russia’s first major drone attack on the capital in weeks. Authorities described the assault early on Wednesday as a continuation of Russia’s “energy terror” against the country. There were no victims, the spokesperson for Kyiv’s rescue services, Svitlana Vodolaga, told Ukraine’s Suspilne news.
Wednesday’s Russian drone strikes damaged five buildings in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv – though air defences thwarted many more, authorities said. The attacks underline how Ukraine’s biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks which have devastated infrastructure and other population centres, mostly in the country’s east and south in recent weeks.
One unofficial Telegram channel has posted a picture of what appears to be a piece of a downed drone with the words “For Ryazan!!!” written on it in Russian. On 5 December, a Russian military airbase in the city of Ryazan in western Russia was attacked. A Russian Tu-95 bomber plane, which has been used to attack Ukraine, was damaged and three soldiers at the base were fatally wounded, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
Russian forces firing multiple rocket launchers hit the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to a senior Ukrainian official. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said two floors of the building on the central square of the recently liberated city had been damaged, but that no one was reported hurt. An unconfirmed video circulating on social media showed a huge plume of smoke pouring up from the top of the administration building.
Russian drone strikes on Kyiv and the region around the Ukrainian capital, on Wednesday, did not damage any energy facilities, national power grid operator Ukrenergo said. “Thanks to the brilliant work of the air defence forces, the energy infrastructure facilities were not damaged (on Wednesday) – all 13 drones were shot down,” Ukrenergo said on Telegram.
The Russian assault on Wednesday morning came as the US was expected to decide whether to supply Ukraine with its advanced Patriot air defence system. US officials told CNN that the missiles could be delivered in a matter of days after the repeated Russian barrages against Ukrainian cities. The Patriot, which would be the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the west has provided to Ukraine, is usually in short supply, with US allies around the world vying for it.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia has not received any proposals about a “Christmas ceasefire” in Ukraine, adding that the topic was “not on the agenda”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, earlier this week called on G7 leaders to back a peace solution that would start with Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine, beginning this Christmas.
Peskov insisted at Tuesday’s briefing that Kyiv needed to accept new territorial “realities” that included Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions as its “new subjects” – annexations that most UN countries have condemned as illegal. Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Wednesday that it was Peskov and President Vladimir Putin who had to accept the “new reality” that “there are no stolen Ukrainian territories within the [Russian Federation] ‘forever’”.
Ukraine’s state-run energy agency, Energoatom, said it will offer higher bonuses to staff at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant who remain loyal to Kyiv. Energoatom said Russian forces have told Ukrainian workers at the plant that they will not be paid in the new year unless they sign contracts with Russia’s nuclear energy company, Rosatom.
Nearly seven million children in Ukraine, or almost every child in the country, have been put at “desperate risk” as a result of continued attacks on Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure, the UN’s children agency has warned. Without sustained access to electricity, children in Ukraine are “facing a bleak winter huddled in the cold and the dark” with temperatures of below -20C, Unicef said. Many schools in the country have been destroyed or damaged by missile attacks, leaving children unable to continue the online learning opportunities which, for many, is their only access to education, it said.
Ukrainian investigators have uncovered a “torture chamber“ in Kherson city where children were allegedly detained and abused by Russian occupying forces, Ukraine’s human rights chief said. Russian security services kept the children in what they called “the children’s cell” where they were given little water and almost no food, Dmytro Lubinets said, citing local residents’ testimonies.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Europe to support a war tribunal to try senior Russian officials as he accepted the EU’s top human rights award. The EU and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have lent support for the creation of a special tribunal to try senior Russian officials – potentially including Vladimir Putin – for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
President Zelenksiy said 184 Ukrainian athletes have been killed as a result of Russia’s war since its troops invaded Ukraine in February. The Ukrainian leader noted the figure during a conversation with the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach. It is not possible to independently verify the number of Ukrainian athletes that have been killed in the war.
The European Union is united in its support for Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German parliament, adding, with apparent reference to Hungary, that attempts to undermine the bloc’s values by blocking foreign policy measures would fail. Support for Ukraine, including sanctions against Russia, would be maintained and intensified for as long as President Vladimir Putin keeps up his war against Kyiv, Scholz added.
A US national who was arrested by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine in the summer has now been released as part of a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said. Suedi Murekezi, 35, was released by Russia along with 64 Ukrainian soldiers and the bodies of four fallen soldiers, Yermark said. Murekezi told the Guardian earlier this month that he felt “trapped” after he was released in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk without his papers.
The new head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said she intends to go to Moscow to discuss access to prisoners of war “when the moment is there”. Mirjana Spoljaric Egger told reporters she had personally been “speaking with Russian counterparts”, adding that she sees the possibility of a major prisoner of war swap deal in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Russian oil revenues fell last month despite a boost in production to just below levels before the invasion of Ukraine, the International Energy Agency has said. The IEA estimated that Russia earned about $15.8bn (£12.8bn) from oil sales in November, the second lowest this year after $14.7bn in September, a sign that western efforts to choke off the Kremlin’s income are working.
Pope Francis urged people to spend less on Christmas celebrations and gifts this year and send the difference to Ukrainians to help them get through the hunger and cold of winter. The pope, who has been making appeals for Ukraine at nearly every public event since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, made the unscripted plea at the end of his weekly general audience.
Volodymyr Zelenksiy has said 184 Ukrainian athletes have been killed as a result of Russia’s war since its troops invaded Ukraine in February.
The Ukrainian leader noted the figure during a conversation with the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, today. It is not possible to independently verify the number of Ukrainian athletes that have been killed in the war.
Zelenskiy informed Bach of Kyiv’s opposition to the idea of Russian athletes taking part in the 2024 summer games in Paris, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
Talking with @iocmedia President Bach I noted the support for 🇺🇦 athletes. Urged to contribute to rebuilding 🇺🇦 sports objects destroyed by RF. Upset with the intention to return RF's & 🇧🇾's athletes to world competitions. Аs long as RF destroys peaceful life – only isolation.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 14, 2022
Bach said last week that the participation of Russian and Belarusian sportsmen and women at the 2024 Olympics was still unclear.
Ukraine was disappointed by what he called the IOC’s intention to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete under a neutral flag, Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy was quoted by his office as saying:
One cannot try to be neutral when the foundations of peaceful life are being destroyed and universal human values are being ignored. A just response to such actions can only be the complete isolation of the terrorist state in the international arena. In particular, this applies to international sporting events.
Updated
US ‘has no expectation’ fighting in Ukraine will stop in winter
The White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US expects that the war in Ukraine will continue “for some time going forward” and there is “no expectation” that fighting will stop in the winter months.
Asked about prospects for negotiating an end to the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kirby told reporters:
Just given what we’re seeing in the air and on the ground in Ukraine, it’s difficult to conclude that this war will be over by year’s end. So there is active fighting going on right now. We would expect that that will continue for some time going forward.
He warned against assuming that the harsh winter weather would curtail war manoeuvres in the air or on the ground. He said:
While that is true, we have no expectation that the fighting will stop in the winter months to come.
Kirby also confirmed that a US citizen has been released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, but did not release additional details, citing privacy concerns.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, earlier identified the American as Suedi Murekezi.
Ukraine’s state-run energy agency, Energoatom, said it will offer higher bonuses to staff at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant who remain loyal to Kyiv.
The nuclear station in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest, has been occupied since the early days of the war but is still being operated by its Ukrainian staff.
Energoatom said Russian forces have told Ukrainian workers at the plant that they will not be paid in the new year unless they sign contracts with Russia’s nuclear energy company, Rosatom.
Statements by these Russian forces are “another shameless lie”, Energoatom said in a statement. It added:
Energoatom continues to guarantee the payment of wages and all compensations provided for in the collective agreement to ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) employees. In addition, from January 1, Energoatom is also increasing from 20% to 50% the bonus for ZNPP personnel who stay loyal to Ukraine.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.
The new head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said she intends to go to Moscow to discuss access to prisoners of war “when the moment is there”.
Mirjana Spoljaric, who took over as ICRC head in October, told reporters in Geneva she had personally been “speaking with Russian counterparts”.
Speaking just days after returning from Ukraine, she said the ICRC was intent on gaining access to POWs taken by both sides since Russia’s troops invaded Ukraine in February. She said:
We are in daily conversations at different levels, because access to prisoners of war is an ongoing engagement.
The ICRC was “determined to access all prisoners, no matter where they are”, she said, adding, “We also want to access civilians detained”.
The Russian MP and deputy head of “A Just Russia” party, Oleg Nilov, was filmed joking that a Ukrainian child “dreams of rockets” at a charity event in Russia.
In the video, Nilov pick’s a child’s wish under a charity Christmas tree and says:
Vova, a boy from Kyiv dreams of rockets. Vova, you’ll get rockets - just wait.
He adds “that’s a joke of course”.
From my colleague Isobel Koshiw:
A Russian MP picks a child’s wish from under a charity tree “Vova, a boy from Kyiv dreams of rockets. Vova, you’ll get rockets - just wait” Before adding - “That’s a joke of course.” https://t.co/BccEl1vkOR
— Isobel Koshiw (@IKoshiw) December 14, 2022
Russian oil revenues fell last month, despite a boost in production, to just below levels before the invasion of Ukraine, the International Energy Agency has said, in a sign that western efforts to choke off the Kremlin’s income are working.
The IEA estimated that Russia earned about $15.8bn (£12.8bn) from oil sales in November, the second lowest this year after $14.7bn in September.
The revenue fall came despite a rise in Russia’s exports of crude oil and products to 8.1m barrels a day, the highest level since April, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
It is a positive signal for western countries hoping to curb the Kremlin’s funding from energy exports, which represent Russia’s largest source of revenues.
The EU and G7 introduced a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil on 5 December as governments tried to strike a balance between cutting the Kremlin’s revenues and keep control of fuel price inflation. The price of non-Russian oil was about $81 a barrel on Wednesday.
Industry watchers have questioned how effective the cap will be because Russian oil is already trading below $60 a barrel. The IEA said the country’s export crude blend, Urals, slid to about $43 a barrel as of early December.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The Ukrainian military has said it shot down 13 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv and the surrounding region following Russia’s first major drone attack on the capital in weeks. Authorities described the assault early on Wednesday as a continuation of Russia’s “energy terror” against the country. There were no victims, the spokesperson for Kyiv’s rescue services, Svitlana Vodolaga, told Ukraine’s Suspilne news.
Wednesday’s Russian drone strikes damaged five buildings in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv – though air defences thwarted many more, authorities said. The attacks underline how Ukraine’s biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks which have devastated infrastructure and other population centres, mostly in the country’s east and south in recent weeks.
One unofficial Telegram channel has posted a picture of what appears to be a piece of a downed drone with the words “For Ryazan!!!” written on it in Russian. On 5 December, a Russian military airbase in the city of Ryazan in western Russia was attacked. A Russian Tu-95 bomber plane, which has been used to attack Ukraine, was damaged and three soldiers at the base were fatally wounded, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
Russian forces firing multiple rocket launchers hit the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to a senior Ukrainian official. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said two floors of the building on the central square of the recently liberated city had been damaged, but that no one was reported hurt. An unconfirmed video circulating on social media showed a huge plume of smoke pouring up from the top of the administration building.
Russian drone strikes on Kyiv and the region around the Ukrainian capital, on Wednesday, did not damage any energy facilities, national power grid operator Ukrenergo said. “Thanks to the brilliant work of the air defence forces, the energy infrastructure facilities were not damaged (on Wednesday) – all 13 drones were shot down,” Ukrenergo said on Telegram.
The Russian assault on Wednesday morning came as the US was expected to decide whether to supply Ukraine with its advanced Patriot air defence system. US officials told CNN that the missiles could be delivered in a matter of days after the repeated Russian barrages against Ukrainian cities. The Patriot, which would be the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the west has provided to Ukraine, is usually in short supply, with US allies around the world vying for it.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia has not received any proposals about a “Christmas ceasefire” in Ukraine, adding that the topic was “not on the agenda”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, earlier this week called on G7 leaders to back a peace solution that would start with Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine, beginning this Christmas.
Peskov insisted at Tuesday’s briefing that Kyiv needed to accept new territorial “realities” that included Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions as its “new subjects” – annexations that most UN countries have condemned as illegal. Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Wednesday that it was Peskov and President Vladimir Putin who had to accept the “new reality” that “there are no stolen Ukrainian territories within the [Russian Federation] ‘forever’”.
Nearly seven million children in Ukraine, or almost every child in the country, have been put at “desperate risk” as a result of continued attacks on Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure, the UN’s children agency has warned. Without sustained access to electricity, children in Ukraine are “facing a bleak winter huddled in the cold and the dark” with temperatures of below -20C, Unicef said. Many schools in the country have been destroyed or damaged by missile attacks, leaving children unable to continue the online learning opportunities which, for many, is their only access to education, it said.
Ukrainian investigators have uncovered a “torture chamber“ in Kherson city where children were allegedly detained and abused by Russian occupying forces, Ukraine’s human rights chief said. Russian security services kept the children in what they called “the children’s cell” where they were given little water and almost no food, Dmytro Lubinets said, citing local residents’ testimonies.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Europe to support a war tribunal to try senior Russian officials as he accepted the EU’s top human rights award. The EU and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have lent support for the creation of a special tribunal to try senior Russian officials – potentially including Vladimir Putin – for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
The European Union is united in its support for Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German parliament, adding, with apparent reference to Hungary, that attempts to undermine the bloc’s values by blocking foreign policy measures would fail. Support for Ukraine, including sanctions against Russia, would be maintained and intensified for as long as President Vladimir Putin keeps up his war against Kyiv, Scholz added.
A US national who was arrested by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine in the summer has now been released as part of a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said. Suedi Murekezi, 35, was released by Russia along with 64 Ukrainian soldiers and the bodies of four fallen soldiers, Yermark said. Murekezi told the Guardian earlier this month that he felt “trapped” after he was released in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk without his papers.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has said she sees the possibility of a major prisoner of war swap deal in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. “On an all-for-all exchange, it has happened in the past, it is a known practice, and it can happen,” Mirjana Spoljaric Egger told reporters.
Russian oil revenues fell last month despite a boost in production to just below levels before the invasion of Ukraine, the International Energy Agency has said. The IEA estimated that Russia earned about $15.8bn (£12.8bn) from oil sales in November, the second lowest this year after $14.7bn in September, a sign that western efforts to choke off the Kremlin’s income are working.
Pope Francis urged people to spend less on Christmas celebrations and gifts this year and send the difference to Ukrainians to help them get through the hunger and cold of winter. The pope, who has been making appeals for Ukraine at nearly every public event since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, made the unscripted plea at the end of his weekly general audience.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong, here to bring you all the latest developments from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Alleged Russian ‘children’s torture chamber’ discovered in liberated Kherson
Ukrainian investigators have uncovered a “torture chamber“ in Kherson city where children were allegedly detained and abused by Russian occupying forces, Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, said.
Russian security services kept the children in what they called “the children’s cell” where they were given little water and almost no food, Lubinets said, citing local residents’ testimonies.
According to the testimonies, the children were subjected to psychological abuse at the hands of their Russian captors, who told them that their parents had abandoned them and that they would never return home.
One 14-year-old boy was arrested and later tortured just for taking a picture of broken Russian equipment, Lubinets said.
The Ukrainian ombudsman said:
We recorded the torture of children for the first time. I thought that the bottom could not be broken after Buchi, Irpin... but we really reached the bottom in Kherson.
It has not been possible to independently verify these claims. The Guardian has visited a separate “torture room” in Kherson city where Ukraine says dozens of men were detained, electrocuted, beaten and some of them killed by Russian soldiers.
A US national who was arrested by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine in the summer has now been released as part of a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said.
Suedi Murekezi, 35, was released by Russia along with 64 Ukrainian soldiers and the bodies of four fallen soldiers, Yermark said.
My colleague Pjotr Sauer spoke earlier this month with Murekezi, who said he felt “trapped” after he was released by Russian forces in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk without his papers.
Murekezi was detained on 10 June by Russian proxy forces in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, where he had been living for more than three years.
After spending more than four months in different prisons and basements in Russian-occupied Ukraine, he said he had been released by the Moscow-backed Donetsk separatists on 28 October.
Murekezi and his close friends and relatives said he did not participate in any fighting in Ukraine, to where he moved about four years ago, eventually settling in Kherson.
Updated
The German parliament’s budget committee approved a 10 bn euro purchase of F-35 fighter jets produced by US defence giant Lockheed Martin, two members of the committee told Reuters.
It is one of the first major defence projects where Berlin will tap money from a 100 billion euro special fund that Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in a major policy shift days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
The money is meant to bring the Bundeswehr’s weapons and equipment back up to standard after decades of attrition after the end of the cold war.
Germany aims to buy 35 F-35 stealth fighter jets in total, including missiles and other weapons and equipment, with the first eight aircraft to be delivered in 2026.
Updated
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday she saw the possibility of a major prisoner of war swap deal in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
“On an all-for-all exchange, it has happened in the past, it is a known practice, and it can happen in the Russia-Ukraine international conflict as well,” Mirjana Spoljaric Egger told reporters.
“So this possibility is certainly one that can be taken by the parties.”
She declined to give further details, Reuters reported.
Updated
The Moscow-installed head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces will “liberate” the Ukrainian cities of Chernihiv and Odesa.
The so-called DPR is one of four regions in Ukraine that Moscow proclaimed as its own in September in a move that Ukraine and its allies have condemned as illegal.
Pushilin told the Russian state-owned news agency Ria yesterday that more than half of Donetsk was under Russian control. It is not possible to independently verify his claim.
In this video, shared by the BBC’s Francis Scarr, Pushilin said Moscow was currently focused on “liberating” the entire Donetsk region.
Russia still only controls about 50% of the "Donetsk People's Republic", but Denis Pushilin isn't deterred
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) December 14, 2022
He insists that Chernihiv and Odesa must be "liberated". Only he says it would be "incorrect" to suggest a timeframe for this pic.twitter.com/UTwdsSBQx5
The UK’s defence ministry has said Russia is still likely to be planning deeper advances within Donetsk, but has said it is “highly unlikely” that they will be able to do so.
Updated
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Europe to support a war tribunal to try senior Russian officials as he accepted the EU’s top human rights award on behalf of the “brave people of Ukraine”.
In a video address to the European parliament, Zelenskiy said the tribunal must start working and called on lawmakers to help set it up. He added:
It is necessary to make it a reality as soon as possible.
The Ukrainian leader made the appeal as he received the EU’s annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
The award was for “those Ukrainians fighting on the ground, for those who have been forced to flee, for those who have lost relatives and friends, for all those who stand up and fight for who and what they believe in”, the European parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, said when the announcement was first made.
They are standing up for what they believe in.
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) October 19, 2022
Fighting for our values.
Protecting democracy, freedom & rule of law.
Risking their lives for us.
And today proud winners of @Europarl_EN #SakharovPrize.
No one is more deserving.
Congratulations to the brave people of Ukraine! pic.twitter.com/SORmU2DSbA
Zelenskiy’s address to the EU parliament continued:
The cities and villages destroyed by Russia, destroyed lives should be reflected in the sentences not only for those who directly committed all this but also for those who organised and started this aggression.
He insisted his country will win “so that there will be no attempts to apply, again, the genocidal policy against our people, both in Ukraine and throughout Europe”.
The European Union and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have lent support for the creation of a special tribunal to try senior Russian officials – potentially including Vladimir Putin – for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Kyiv, after a series of explosions hit the capital in what authorities described as a continuation of Russia’s “energy terror” against the country.
Updated
Attacks on energy infrastructure put ‘almost every child in Ukraine at desperate risk’, says Unicef
Nearly seven million children in Ukraine, or almost every child in the country, have been put at “desperate risk” as continued attacks on Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure cause widespread blackouts and disruption of heating and water, the UN’s children agency has warned.
Without sustained access to electricity, children in Ukraine are “facing a bleak winter huddled in the cold and the dark” with temperatures of below -20C, Unicef said.
Many schools in the country have been destroyed or damaged by missile attacks, leaving children unable to continue the online learning opportunities which, for many, is their only access to education, it said.
Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said:
Beyond the immediate threats the freezing conditions bring, children are also deprived of the ability to learn or stay connected with friends and family, putting both their physical and their mental health at desperate risk.
An estimated 1.5 million children are at risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders and other mental conditions this winter, the agency said.
The harsh winter, combined with the war’s impact on families’ livelihoods and incomes as well as the energy and socioeconomic crisis triggered by the war, will be particularly hard for the 6.5 million people, including 1.2 million children, who are currently displaced within Ukraine, it said.
Russell called on Unicef and humanitarian colleagues to be given “rapid and unimpeded” access to children and families in need of humanitarian assistance no matter where they are. She added:
The rules of war are clear – children and the essential civilian infrastructure they rely on to survive must be protected.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, has hit back at the Kremlin’s comments that Kyiv must take into account the new territorial “realities” that include Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov yesterday rejected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s three-step proposal for peace in which Russia would begin to withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine this Christmas.
Peskov insisted Ukraine needed to accept new territorial “realities”, including that the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of Ukraine were Russia’s “new subjects”. Most UN member countries have condemned Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian regions as illegal.
In response, Podolyak said it was Peskov and President Vladimir Putin to accept the “new reality” that “there are no stolen Ukrainian territories within the [Russian Federation] ‘forever’”.
It is essential for Russia (especially for Putin and Peskov) to accept "new reality". There are no stolen 🇺🇦 territories within RF "forever". There is only the loss of reputation as a monster-country, Russian military defeats, destroyed army, sanctions and disdain even from CSTO.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) December 14, 2022
Updated
Ukraine: 64 Ukrainians and an American released in prisoner swap with Russia
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said Ukraine had secured the release of 64 Ukrainian members of the military as well as a US citizen in its latest prisoner swap with Russian forces.
The American was 35-year-old Suedi Murekezi.
Yermak said:
Sixty-four soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who fought in Donetsk and Lugansk - in particular participated in the defence of the city of Bakhmut - are going home.
Murekezi had been “helping our people” before ending up in Russian custody, he added.
Updated
Russian rocket launchers hit administration building in Kherson
Russian forces firing multiple rocket launchers hit the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to a senior Ukrainian official.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said two floors of the building on the central square of the recently liberated city had been damaged, but that no one was reported hurt.
Russia has been shelling Kherson city from the opposite side of the Dnieper River since leaving the city and withdrawing from the western bank of the river.
An unconfirmed video circulating on social media showed a huge plume of smoke pouring up from the top of the administration building.
📹 If you can't have something, destroy it -- that's the proper Russian way.
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) December 14, 2022
The Russians shelled the Kherson Regional State Administration.
Video: Tsaplienko TG pic.twitter.com/XMQ57L5PcZ
Updated
The jailed Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, said he was transferred to a solitary punishment cell for 12 days for having used the word “fuck” in a conversation with a cellmate.
In a series of tweets, Navalny said he was released from the punishment cell on Monday only to be locked up again a day later.
1/8 My latest break from the punishment cell didn't last long - exactly one day. I was released on Monday, and then locked up again yesterday. This time I got 12 days for "using the word 'fuck' (sorry) in a conversation with a cellmate".
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) December 14, 2022
It is the ninth occasion he has been transferred to solitary confinement, also called a “punishment cell”, since he was relocated to a penal colony more than 250km (150 miles) east of Moscow six months ago, he said.
3/8 This detention is not the most lawless in the sense that they are all lawless, but it is certainly the most cynical. Picture this: a commission of 10 burly cops, each of whom not just use foul language, but basically talk in it.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) December 14, 2022
Navalny, the most prominent face of Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin, is serving prison terms totalling 11 and a half years on a range of charges, including for fraud, all of which he rejects as trumped-up charges.
7/8 I returned to my cell, and my former cellmate looked at me with wild eyes: "Why are you here again? You just got out". I told him I got 12 days more for saying the word "fuck" to him.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) December 14, 2022
8/8 The dude looked at me for a few seconds, not understanding whether I was joking or not, and when he saw that I wasn't, he said indignantly: "Fuck me, this just can't be."
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) December 14, 2022
Russia says Christmas ceasefire ‘not on the agenda’
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia has not received any proposals about a “Christmas ceasefire” in Ukraine, adding that the topic was “not on the agenda”.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, earlier this week called on G7 leaders to back a peace solution that would start with Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine, beginning this Christmas.
Asked whether Moscow had seen any proposals for a ceasefire at Christmas, Peskov told reporters:
No, no such offers have been received from anybody. This topic is not on the agenda.
Peskov insisted at yesterday’s briefing that Kyiv needed to accept new territorial “realities” that included Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions as its “new subjects” – annexations that most UN countries have condemned as illegal.
There could be “no question” of Russia starting to pull out its troops by the end of the year, he added on Tuesday.
He also spoke about reports that the US is finalising plans to send the Patriot missile defence system to Ukraine. Peskov said Patriots would “definitely” be a target for Russia, but that he would not comment on unconfirmed media reports.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Summary
The time in Kyiv is almost 1pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s top news stories so far:
Russian drone strikes have damaged five buildings in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv – though air defences thwarted many more, authorities said. No casualties have been reported, according to the Associated Press. The attacks underline how Ukraine’s biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks which have devastated infrastructure and other population centres, mostly in the country’s east and south in recent weeks.
Ukraine says it shot down all the Iranian-supplied drones launched early Wednesday morning at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a video on Telegram, which thanked Ukraine’s air defence forces for shooting down 13 out of the 13 attack drones.
One unofficial Telegram channel has posted a picture of what appears to be a piece of a downed drone with the words “For Ryazan!!!” written on it in Russian. On 5 December, a Russian military airbase in the city of Ryazan in western Russia was attacked. A Russian Tu-95 bomber plane, which has been used to attack Ukraine, was damaged and three soldiers at the base were fatally wounded, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
Russian drone strikes on Kyiv and the region around the Ukrainian capital, on Wednesday, did not damage any energy facilities, national power grid operator Ukrenergo said. Since October, Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with big waves of missile and drone strikes.
The United States is finalising plans to send its sophisticated Patriot air defence system to Ukraine in a potentially pivotal move. Washington could announce a decision as soon as Thursday on providing the Patriot, two officials told Reuters, on Tuesday. The Patriot is considered one of the most advanced US air defence systems and is usually in short supply, with allies around the world vying for it.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it had not received any proposals about a “Christmas ceasefire” in Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called earlier this week on Russia to start withdrawing its troops from his country by Christmas as the first step towards a peace deal in the conflict, which has been raging for almost 10 months.
Zelenskiy delivered an address to New Zealand’s parliament on Wednesday, becoming the second foreign leader to do so. Zelenskiy began by thanking New Zealand and its government for the opportunity to speak.
The European Union is united in its support for Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German parliament, adding, with apparent reference to Hungary, that attempts to undermine the bloc’s values by blocking foreign policy measures would fail. “Anyone who thinks he can undermine the values of the EU, to which every member state has committed itself, by blocking its foreign and security policies, will fail,” he told legislators on Wednesday.
Holcim, the world’s largest cement maker, said on Wednesday it would exit the country, adding that the business there would then operate independently under a different brand. Holcim sold its Russian unit to the local management team, it added.
Pope Francis urged people to spend less on Christmas celebrations and gifts this year and send the difference to Ukrainians to help them get through the hunger and cold of winter. The pope, who has been making appeals for Ukraine at nearly every public event since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, made the unscripted plea at the end of his weekly general audience.
A suspected officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service was among seven people accused by US federal prosecutors of helping Russia illegally obtain sensitive electronic components from US companies. Prosecutors claimed the seven worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to acquire electronic components in the US that have civilian uses, but can also be used to help make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.
The United States, one of the architects of the G7’s price cap on Russian oil, is so far happy with the way the mechanism is functioning, Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s energy envoy said on Tuesday.
Generators are as important as armour in helping Ukraine survive Vladimir Putin’s energy terrorism this winter, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Ukraine needed an additional €800m (£686m) to survive the winter and €1.5bn to restore the long-term damage to the energy grid, its president told an emergency conference in Paris that convened to coordinate infrastructure and humanitarian aid over the next four months.
More than €1bn was raised to support Ukraine this winter at the aid conference in Paris, France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said. The money, pledged by 46 countries and 24 international organisations, would be split between restoring Ukraine’s depleted energy network, the food sector, water supply, health and transportation.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for the moment. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Updated
German chancellor says Balkan states' EU membership in Europe's interests
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday it was in the interest of Germany and Europe for the remaining Balkan states to become EU member states, and welcomed the decision to grant Bosnia candidate status.
“It is in our German and our European interest for the rest of the Balkans to become part of the European Union,” Scholz told MPs in an address at the Bundestag in Berlin.
Diplomats in Brussels on Tuesday agreed to accept Bosnia as a candidate for membership, a decision expected to be endorsed by EU heads of government at Thursday’s summit in Brussels.
In the queue for membership Bosnia joins four other western Balkan countries – Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania – as well as Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine.
Supporters of the European Union’s eastward expansion argue that the bloc’s engagement with the western Balkans is vital for protecting European security in the face of Russian aggression.
Moldova’s and Ukraine’s candidacy were confirmed in June, shortly after Russia’s invasion of the latter, though the process of joining can take decades. Croatia is currently the only western Balkan state that has secured EU membership.
Updated
The Kremlin said, on Wednesday, it had not received any proposals about a “Christmas ceasefire” in Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called earlier this week on Russia to start withdrawing its troops from his country by Christmas as the first step towards a peace deal in the conflict, which has been raging for almost 10 months.
Updated
Pope Francis urged people to spend less on Christmas celebrations and gifts this year and send the difference to Ukrainians to help them get through the hunger and cold of winter.
The pope, who has been making appeals for Ukraine at nearly every public event since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, made the unscripted plea at the end of his weekly general audience.
“Brothers and sisters, I tell you, there is so much suffering in Ukraine, so much, so much,” he said, adding that he wanted to draw attention to the particular problems Ukrainians will bear in the coming months.
“It is beautiful to celebrate Christmas, but let us lower the level of Christmas spending. Let’s have a more humble Christmas, with more humble gifts, and send what we save to the Ukrainian people, who need it,” he said, prompting several rounds of applause in the audience hall.
“They are suffering so much, they are going hungry, they feel the cold and many are dying because there are not enough doctors and nurses available,” he said.
He spoke as millions of civilians enduring Europe’s biggest conflict since the second world war have had to contend with cuts to power, heat and water caused by Russian attacks on infrastructure as sub-zero temperatures take hold.
“Let’s not forget. Christmas, yes. In peace with the Lord, yes. But with Ukrainians in our hearts. Let’s make this concrete gesture for them,” he said.
Russian drone strikes on Kyiv and the region around the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday did not damage any energy facilities, national power grid operator Ukrenergo said.
Since October, Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with big waves of missile and drone strikes.
“Thanks to the brilliant work of the air defence forces, the energy infrastructure facilities were not damaged (on Wednesday) – all 13 drones were shot down,” Ukrenergo said on the Telegram messaging app.
Updated
The European Union is united in its support for Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German parliament, adding, with apparent reference to Hungary, that attempts to undermine the bloc’s values by blocking foreign policy measures would fail.
“Anyone who thinks he can undermine the values of the EU, to which every member state has committed itself, by blocking its foreign and security policies, will fail,” he told legislators on Wednesday.
Budapest earlier this week dropped its objections to an EU loan to Kyiv after the partial unfreezing of financial support for Hungary, Reuters reported. The EU had blocked the funds over rule of law concerns.
Support for Ukraine, including sanctions against Russia, would be maintained and intensified for as long as President Vladimir Putin keeps up his war against Kyiv, Scholz added.
“Nobody is suffering as much from Russia’s war as the Ukrainians - and we stand firmly by their side,” he said.
Updated
Russian drone strikes have damaged five buildings in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv – though air defences thwarted many more, authorities said.
No casualties have been reported, according to the Associated Press.
The attacks underline how Ukraine’s biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks which have devastated infrastructure and other population centres, mostly in the country’s east and south in recent weeks.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a brief video statement, said the “terrorists” fired 13 Iranian-made drones and all were intercepted.
Such drones have been part of Russia’s firepower along with mortar, artillery and rocket strikes across Ukraine in recent weeks.
The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, wrote on Telegram that the strikes came in two waves, and shrapnel from the intercepted drones damaged one administrative building, while four residential buildings sustained minor damage.
Updated
Ukraine claims to have shot down all Iranian-supplied drones launched at Kyiv
Ukraine says it shot down all the Iranian-supplied drones launched early Wednesday morning at Kyiv and the surrounding region.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a video on Telegram where thanked Ukraine’s air defence forces for shooting down 13 out of the 13 attack drones.
“This morning the terrorists launched 13 Shahed [drones]… all 13 were shot down by our air defence forces. Well done guys. I’m proud!” he said, adding: “Don’t ignore the air raid alerts.”
In recent weeks, Ukraine has been increasingly successful at catching Russian air attacks on its energy infrastructure. During the last major attack on 5 December – which was aimed at targets across Ukraine as well as Kyiv – it said it shot down 60 out of 70 rockets fired by Russia.
Updated
Rescuers and police experts examine the remains of a drone after a strike on an administrative building in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Updated
One unofficial Telegram channel has posted a picture of what appears to be a piece of a downed drone with the words “For Ryazan!!!” written on it in Russian.
On 5 December, a Russian military airbase in the city of Ryazan in western Russia was attacked. A Russian Tu-95 bomber plane, which has been used to attack Ukraine, was damaged and three soldiers at the base were fatally wounded, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
Russia said the attack was carried out by a drone.
Ukraine did not take responsibility for the attack but Ukraine’s air defence forces posted pictures of the aftermath with the caption. “Ryazan. Rest in Peace.”
Svitlana Vodolaga, a spokesperson for Kyiv’s rescue services, told Ukraine’s Hromadske on Wednesday morning that one of the drones had “For Ryazan” written on it.
Updated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered an address to New Zealand’s parliament on Wednesday, becoming the second foreign leader to do so.
Zelenskiy began by thanking New Zealand and its government for the opportunity to speak.
“This year has shown the whole world how much can be done, with enough determination and knowledge of what needs to be done.”
The president called on New Zealand to push for peace and to unite around the 10-point plan he had laid out at the G19 summit. He urged New Zealand in particular to contribute to the eighth point – protection of the environment.
Zelenskiy said the environmental harm from Russia’s war would affect millions of people for years. Russian attacks have contaminated the country’s oceans and 7.4 million acres of forest, he said.
“There’s no true peace where ecocide has taken place and its consequences have not been neutralised.”
After the address, the government pledged a further NZ$3m of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as fresh sanctions on Iranian individuals and an entity involved in the manufacture and supply of drones to Russia.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern thanked the Ukrainian leader for taking the time to speak to New Zealand, when he was leading his people through a crisis and said she hoped the Pacific nation had made its support for Ukraine clear.
“Our support for Ukraine was not determined by geography, it was not determined by history or by diplomatic ties or relationships – our judgment was a simple one: we asked ourselves the question ‘what if it was us?’.”
Zelenskiy has previously spoken to other parliaments including in the UK, US, European Union, and Australia.
The only other leader of a foreign government to address New Zealand’s parliament was Australia’s Julia Gillard in 2011.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for this morning. My colleague Tom Ambrose will take you through the rest of the day’s developments from Ukraine.
13 drones shot down over Kyiv in morning attacks
Kyiv’s city administration has said on Telegram that the number of drones shot down this morning has risen to 13.
In news from Russia, Holcim, the world’s largest cement maker, said on Wednesday it would exit the country, adding that the business there would then operate independently under a different brand.
Holcim sold its Russian unit to the local management team, it added.
The sale will have no significant impact on the company as the unit generated less than 1% of the group’s net sales in 2021, it further said.
The group first de-consolidated its Russian unit and announced it would leave the country in March, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company initially kept its operations running, saying it was supplying essential building materials.
“Holcim’s board of directors expresses its heartfelt concern about the tragic human suffering in the region” the firm said in a statement on Wednesday.
Updated
Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, has recounted her experience of the blasts, saying in a post on Twitter, “Kyiv startled awake by explosions early this morning. I sat in the windowless hallway repeating verbs of motion slowly. I hated learning them at the time. Who knew what a useful decompression exercise they could be.”
Kyiv startled awake by explosions early this morning. I sat in the windowless hallway repeating 🇺🇦 verbs of motion slowly. I hated learning them at the time. Who knew what a useful decompression exercise they could be.
— Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) December 14, 2022
No victims reported in Wendesday morning's attacks on Kyiv
There were no victims from the drone debris that damaged two city administrative buildings, the spokesperson for Kyiv’s rescue services, Svitlana Vodolaga, has told Ukraine’s Suspline news.
Another Shahed drone shot down in Kyiv
The Kyiv city administration says another drone has been shot down, bringing the total number of Shahed drones downed in this morning’s attacks to 11.
In a post on Telegram, the administration said that air alerts were still in place.
Updated
Two administrative buildings damaged by drone debris - Kyiv city administration
Two Kyiv city administrative buildings in the central Shevchenkivskyi district have been damaged by “debris from a drone”, Kyiv’s city administration has said in a post on Telegram.
News organisation Nexta has posted this video taken near where the damage occurred. It has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
A fragment from a drone damaged 2 administrative buildings in Shevchenko district of Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/6dUkzEDMVL
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 14, 2022
Updated
News organisation Euromaidan has posted this video with sound from one of this morning’s blasts:
Sound of one of the explosions that Kyivans heard earlier this morning.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) December 14, 2022
📹https://t.co/8Ob8AleEBd pic.twitter.com/Pquc7HpwWR
The Guardian has not been able to verify the footage independently.
Kyiv regionional head warns residents to remain in shelters
The head of Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said that Russia was continuing its “energy terror” against Ukraine after Russian drones attacked the capital. He said that most of Wednesday morning’s drones had been shot down by Ukraine’s air defence forces.
Kuleba warned that the air raid alert had not come to an end and advised residents to take safety precautions.
“The danger remains. Stay in shelters,” Kuleba wrote on Telegram.
“Russia continues the energy terror of the country. But we are getting stronger every day.”
Head of neighbouring region warns there may be second wave of drone attacks
Vitaliy Bunechko, the head of Zhytomyr region, which is next to Kyiv, has warned on Telegram that there may be a second wave of drone attacks, following this morning’s attacks on Kyiv.
Bunechko advised people to remain in bomb shelters.
Updated
Ten Shahed drones shot down in Kyiv region
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has posted on Telegram saying that ten Shahed drones were shot down in the Kyiv region this morning.
Iran supplied the drones to Russia, which has been using them to target infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine.
US finalising plans to deliver Patriot air defence system
The United States is finalising plans to send its sophisticated Patriot air defence system to Ukraine in a potentially pivotal move
Washington could announce a decision as soon as Thursday on providing the Patriot, two officials told Reuters on Tuesday. The Patriot is considered one of the most advanced US air defence systems and is usually in short supply, with allies around the world vying for it.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned NATO against equipping Kyiv with Patriot missile defences, and it is likely the Kremlin will view the move as an escalation.
With the war in its tenth month, the Patriot system would help Ukraine defend against waves of Russian missile and drone attacks that have pounded the country’s energy infrastructure.
Millions of civilians who are enduring Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two have had to contend with cuts to electricity, heat and water as harsh winter conditions take hold.
Gaining Patriot air defence capability would be “very, very significant” for the Kyiv government, said Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and onetime leader of Ukraine policy at the White House.
“These are going to be quite capable of dealing with a lot of different challenges the Ukrainians have, especially if the Russians bring in short-range ballistic missiles” from Iran.
The Pentagon declined comment. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.
Updated
It is currently 7.10am in Kyiv.
Isobel Koshiw, one of the Guardian’s correspondents in Ukraine, is in Kyiv, where she says that, “The air raid sirens sounded at 05.57 but the first explosion – which could have been anti-aircraft – was reported to one Ukrainian Telegram channel at 0608. So 11 mins. Recently there’s been at least a 30 min gap between a warning and an explosion.”
She posted this video taken in central Kyiv, on which one of the blasts can be heard:
Several this morning in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district. It’s not clear what’s been hit. The sound of a drone can be heard in one video posted to Trukha Kyiv. Kyiv’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko says emergency services are on the scene pic.twitter.com/eU8ervdvDq
— Isobel Koshiw (@IKoshiw) December 14, 2022
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko says that three blasts were heard in Kyiv this morning:
At 6:30, three explosions were already heard in Kyiv.
— Oleksiy Goncharenko (@GoncharenkoUa) December 14, 2022
Ukrainians wake up not from alarm clocks, but from explosions. Thanks to neighboring Russia! Good morning!
Blasts hit Kyiv city centre - mayor
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko says that blasts hit the Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district early on Wednesday. “Emergency services dispatched,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. “Details later.”
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, said that air defence systems were at work.
The UK’s ambassador said she was “Staying away from windows and hearing explosions outside.”
Staying away from windows and hearing explosions outside. It’s an early start today for 🇷🇺 attacks on #Kyiv
— Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) December 14, 2022
Emergency services’ maps showed the capital and the region surrounding it had been under air raid siren alerts for about 20 minutes before the blasts.
Welcome and Summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news for the next few hours.
Breaking: On Wednesday morning, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that strikes had hit Kyiv’s city centre and emergency services were being dispatched.
Explosions were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv, two Reuters witnesses said. The emergency services’ maps showed the capital and the region surrounding it have been under air raid siren alerts for about 20 minutes before the blasts.
Meanwhile the United States is finalising plans to send its sophisticated Patriot air defence system to Ukraine in a potentially pivotal move while allies pledged just over €1bn ($1.05bn) to help Ukrainians survive the freezing winter.
We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
A suspected officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service was among seven people accused by US federal prosecutors of helping Russia illegally obtain sensitive electronic components from US companies. Prosecutors claimed the seven worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to acquire electronic components in the US that have civilian uses, but can also be used to help make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.
The United States, one of the architects of the G7’s price cap on Russian oil, is so far happy with the way the mechanism is functioning, Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s energy envoy said on Tuesday.
Generators are as important as armour in helping Ukraine survive Vladimir Putin’s energy terrorism this winter, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Ukraine needed an additional €800m (£686m) to survive the winter and €1.5bn to restore the long-term damage to the energy grid, its president told an emergency conference in Paris convened to coordinate infrastructure and humanitarian aid over the next four months.
More than €1bn was raised to support Ukraine this winter at the aid conference in Paris, France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said. The money, pledged by 46 countries and 24 international organisations, would be split between restoring Ukraine’s depleted energy network, the food sector, water supply, health and transportation.
Ukrainian forces have reportedly damaged a key bridge outside the southern city of Melitopol, a key objective for Kyiv in the region. Video posted online showed that two supports of the bridge had been damaged during the attack, just days after Ukraine hit a Russian barracks situated in a resort in the city, with Himars rockets causing substantial damage and casualties.
Ukrainian officials gave the all clear on Tuesday after air raid sirens blared across the country following warnings that Russia may carry out a new wave of missile strikes. Ukrainian media said the alerts may have been triggered by MiG fighter jets that took off from Ryazan, near Russia’s border with Ukraine, and flew towards Belarus.
Russia and Ukraine pounded each other’s forces in heavy fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk on Tuesday. Moscow is battling to take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, two of four territories the Kremlin claims to have annexed in votes rejected by most countries as illegal.
Ukraine must take into account the new territorial “realities” that include Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, the Kremlin has said. Ukraine’s president said on Monday that Russia could begin to withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine to show they are capable of abandoning their aggression. In response, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there could be “no question” of Moscow beginning to pull out its troops by the end of the year.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, will hold talks to discuss the events of 2022 in late December, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported. Dmitry Peskov told the newspaper that the date and the agenda of the meeting are already known, but an official announcement will come later. The talks will unlikely be face-to-face, the paper said.
The Belarusian ministry of defence has announced a “sudden combat readiness check” of its troops. The exercises are mostly taking place in the north-west of the country, not close to Ukraine’s border. This is one in a string of announcements by Belarus since mid-October which Kyiv say is designed to stoke fear in Ukrainians.
Germany will approve another €50m in winter aid for Kyiv following Russia’s missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said. She said Berlin was working to deliver generators, blankets and heating fuel to Ukraine over Christmas.
The UK Foreign Office announced it was imposing sanctions on 12 Russian commanders for their role in attacks on Ukrainian cities. They include Maj Gen Robert Baranov, identified by Bellingcat as the commander of programming and targeting Russian cruise missiles, as well as four Iranians, including the co-owner and managing director of MADO, an Iranian drone engine manufacturer.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Tuesday that there was an agreement on removing heavy weapons from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants. Talks were under way, he said, adding: “We managed to protect Chornobyl and our goal is to protect Zaporizhzhia. The coming weeks will be crucial.”
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