The time is just after 6pm in Kyiv and we are now closing the blog. Here is a summary of events.
Poland’s defence forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile. There was no comment from Russian officials.
18 Ukrainian civilians are known to have died, and another 132 are injured, following a wave of Russian missile attacks. Rescue operations are still ongoing in the cities. In total, the Russian Federation launched 158 aerial targets over Ukraine – air defence forces shot down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Kremlin’s forces used a wide variety of weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles. He posted on X saying that “Russian terror must and will lose” following a night of missile strikes.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Russia “apparently launched everything they have” against targets across Ukraine.
The British prime minister has posted his support for Ukraine on social media following the wave of Russian missile strikes overnight. Rishi Sunak said: “These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”
Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s western allies to provide it with more air defences to protect itself against aerial attacks like Friday’s one. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.
Russia has suffered huge human and material losses in Ukraine and its army will emerge weakened from the conflict, a senior German military figure said in an interview published on Friday. He said: “The Russian armed forces will emerge from this war weakened, both materially and in terms of personnel.”
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Poland says 'everything indicates' a Russian missile briefly entered its airspace on Friday morning
Poland’s defence forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile, AP reports.
It was not immediately clear where the object disappeared from radar or in which direction it had been going. Troops were mobilised to identify and find it. There were no immediate reports of any explosion or casualties.
Poland’s defence chief, Gen Wiesław Kukuła said:
Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies [in Nato].
Poland’s defence forces said the object penetrated about 40km (24 miles) into its airspace and left it after less than three minutes. The defence forces said both its radar and Nato radar confirmed that the object left Polish airspace.
Kukuła said steps were being taken to verify those findings. There was no comment from Russian officials.
The governor of Lublin province in eastern Poland, Krzysztof Komorski, told the Onet news portal that the object appeared on radars near the town of Hrubieszów, where a border crossing with Ukraine is located. Komorski said he had no information to indicate it landed in Lublin province.
Poland’s border with Ukraine is also the European Union and Nato border with Ukraine.
The prime minister, Donald Tusk, convened a meeting with the defence minister, military commanders and heads of national security bodies, followed by a meeting of the National Security Bureau. Tusk was also in contact with president Andrzej Duda, the supreme commander of Poland’s armed forces.
It was not clear whether the object that Poland reported was related to the barrage of missile attacks on Ukraine overnight.
Speaking on national television about the incident, Yuriy Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, said:
As a result of such massive attacks, this can happen. The enemy is attacking our border territories, including in the west. This is another signal for our partners to strengthen the Ukrainian air defence.
This is not the first time an unauthorised object has entered Poland’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion. In November 2022, two men were killed when a missile struck the village of Przewodów, a few kilometres from the border. Western officials said they believed a Ukrainian air defence missile went astray.
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UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the deadly wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine on Friday and urged Moscow to cease the attacks “immediately”.
“I am shocked by yet another full-scale set of coordinated missile and drone attacks by the Russian Federation across Ukraine during the night,” Türk said in a statement.
“International humanitarian law explicitly prohibits attacks deliberately targeting civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate attacks, under any circumstances.
“I call again on the Russian Federation to cease its attacks on Ukraine immediately, and to strictly respect all the rules of international law relating to the conduct of hostilities.”
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An air raid alert has been issued across Ukraine on Friday afternoon as the Ukrainian air force says there is a threat of cruise missiles being launched.
In a post on Telegram, the air force also said missiles were fired from Kursk in Russia towards the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine.
The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, has also posted on Telegram asking residents in the capital to head for shelter.
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It has just gone 3pm in Ukraine. Here are the latest updates from the missile attack overnight.
Currently, 18 civilians are known to have died, and another 132 are injured, the National Police reported. Rescue operations are still ongoing in the cities. In total, the Russian Federation launched 158 aerial targets over Ukraine – air defence forces shot down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles, Suspilne News reports.
In Kyiv, fragments of intercepted rockets fell in the Shevchenkivsky, Podilsky, Svyatoshynsky and Darnytsky districts. Three people died, 28 were injured. Residential buildings, cars were damaged, fires broke out in warehouses and construction sites.
In Dnipro – six people died, 28 were injured, including a one and a half year old child. The rocket hit the shopping centre, residential buildings were damaged by debris. One of the sections of the maternity hospital was damaged – no one was injured there, patients and medical personnel managed to take shelter, the health ministry reported.
The Russian Federation launched10 missile strikes at Zaporizhzhia – five people were killed and 12 were injured. Two private houses were completely destroyed, windows were broken in 19 high-rise buildings, educational institutions and a hospital. Garages, a gas station and a hotel building were also damaged.
Odesa was attacked by drones and rockets at night and in the morning: three people were killed, another 26 were injured, including two children, a pregnant woman and five law enforcement officers. Three rockets hit residential buildings in Odessa. Several dozen buildings were damaged by debris.
In Kharkiv, as a result of Russian missile attacks, three people were also killed and 13 were injured. The regional oncology centre was damaged, as well as warehouses, a transport depot and enterprises.
In Lviv, one person died and another 24 were injured due to a missile attack by the Russian Federation. There are partial destructions in 13 high-rise buildings and educational institutions. Damaged cars.
In Konotop, Sumy oblast, there were five hits: three people were injured, about ten houses were damaged, a service station, and a car burned. Several boiler houses were also damaged, street lighting malfunctioned.
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Denise Brown, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms” Russia’s “heinous wave of attacks on populated areas of Ukraine over the past few hours, which has left a path of destruction, death and human suffering”.
Brown said the strikes had damaged homes, schools, hospitals, a shopping mall, a metro station and energy infrastructure, killing and injuring civilians “in almost every region of the country”.
She continued:
Right now, families and emergency services are trying to pull people out of the debris left by the destruction.
For the Ukrainian people, this is another unacceptable example of the horrifying reality they are faced with, and which made 2023 another year of enormous suffering.
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At least 18 dead after 'massive' Russian attack across Ukraine
The death toll from Russia’s missile attack on Ukraine has risen to 18, according to Ukrainian police.
As of 1pm local time, 18 civilians had been killed and 132 wounded in the Russian strikes, the national police said in a statement on Telegram, in what the Ukrainian air force described as “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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An unknown airborne object entered Poland’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine and subsequently vanished off radars, Poland’s armed forces said on Friday.
The Operational Command of the Armed Forces said on the social media platform X that the unidentified airborne object entered from the side of the border with Ukraine and was observed by radars of the country’s air defence system from the moment it crossed the border until the signal disappeared, AP reports.
It also said troops have been mobilised to identify and find the object.
Local authorities said that the object crossed the border near the town of Hrubieszów.
There were no immediate reports of any explosion or casualties.
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The British prime minister has posted his support for Ukraine on social media following the wave of Russian missile strikes overnight.
Rishi Sunak said: “These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”
These widespread attacks on Ukraine's cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) December 29, 2023
We will not let him win.
We must continue to stand with Ukraine – for as long as it takes. https://t.co/cf6aDNwPjD
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The US ambassador to Ukraine has shared a picture of her phone screen showing a number of critical air raid alert messages.
Bridget Brink said in a post on X:
This is what Ukrainians see on their phones this morning: and as a result, millions of men, women, and children are in bomb shelters as Russia fires missiles across the country.
This is what Ukrainians see on their phones this morning: and as a result, millions of men, women, and children are in bomb shelters as Russia fires missiles across the country. Ukraine needs funding now to continue to fight for freedom from such horror in 2024. pic.twitter.com/0nOW4lR70Q
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) December 29, 2023
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Here are some of the latest images coming out of Ukraine on the news wires.
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Death toll from Russia's missile attack on Ukraine rises to 13
The death toll from Russia’s missile attack on Ukraine has risen to 13, according to the Associated Press.
Scores of people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. The death toll could rise as rescue efforts continue.
Among the buildings reported to be damaged across Ukraine were apartment blocks, schools and a maternity hospital.
Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s western allies to provide it with more air defences to protect itself against aerial attacks like Friday’s one. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.
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My colleague Artem Mazhulin is in Kharkiv and describes what it was like on the ground as Russia launched a wave of missile strikes.
Last night in Kharkiv was like any other. Multiple air raid sirens no-one pays attention to. First explosions were heard from 5am on the 29 December. I was in my apartment in south-east Kharkiv with my post-spinal surgery mother. I was supposed to take a train to Kyiv at 7.21am and she was supposed to have a doctor’s appointment at 8.30am.
Starting from the first few strikes we didn’t hear, when I woke up at 5.30am to get ready for my train, my friends were all awake and the city was already under attack. I ordered a cab, exchanged opinions with the driver on how loud the bangs were and whether they were intercepted judging by the sound of it – since every Kharkivian is an expert now.
Then I arrived at the train station; people were calm. I got on a train, heard a few explosions while waiting for the departure but they were far away. So I didn’t move. The train had left according to the schedule at 7.21am. My mother got to her doctor’s appointment at 8.30am and she told me she heard two loud explosions. “But I was already inside”, she said. “Waiting to get my MRI done in a queue”.
My fellow passengers are talking about buying clothes on their phones, someone spilled a coffee, on a moving train everyone is sick of war. Everyone is used to it.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Russia launched about 110 missiles overnight as well as drones against Ukrainian targets in what appeared to be one of the biggest barrages of the year.
He said most of the incoming missiles and drones were shot down but at least seven civilians were killed and an unknown number of people were buried under rubble. Ukrainian officials said scores were injured.
Zelenskiy said the Kremlin’s forces used a wide variety of weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Russia “apparently launched everything they have” against targets across Ukraine.
If Zelenskiy’s count is confirmed, it would be the largest aerial attack by the Kremlin’s forces since their full-scale invasion in February 2022. According to the Ukrainian air force, the previous biggest assault was in November 2022 when Russia launched 96 missiles against Ukraine.
The bombardment came as fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather and after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000km (620 miles) line of contact.
The roughly 18-hour onslaught that began on Thursday evening and continued through the night hit six cities, including the capital Kyiv, and other areas from east to west Ukraine, according to authorities.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, has posted on X saying that “Russian terror must and will lose” following a night of missile strikes.
Zelenskiy said:
Unfortunately, there have been fatalities and injuries as a result of the strikes. All services are working around the clock and providing the necessary aid. My condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured.
A maternity ward, educational facilities, a shopping mall, multi-story residential buildings and private homes, a commercial storage, and a parking lot. Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and other cities.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 29, 2023
Today, Russia used nearly every type of weapon in its… pic.twitter.com/q5q8Q98Njr
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Russia has suffered huge human and material losses in Ukraine and its army will emerge weakened from the conflict, a senior German military figure said in an interview published on Friday.
The interview came as Kyiv is fighting to maintain western support for its war against Russian forces, which invaded in February 2022, AFP reports.
Christian Freuding, who oversees the German army’s support for Kyiv, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper:
You know that according to western intelligence figures, 300,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or so seriously wounded that they can no longer be mobilised for the war.
Leaked US intelligence earlier this month indicated that 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since the war began.
Freuding, who is also a key adviser to the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said:
The Russian losses of men and material are enormous.
Russia is also believed to have lost thousands of battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, he added.
He said:
The Russian armed forces will emerge from this war weakened, both materially and in terms of personnel.
However, Russia is succeeding in continuing to recruit troops “including the use of prisoners”, Freuding said.
And, of course, we are seeing massive investments in the arms industry.
The German general acknowledged that Russia was demonstrating a greater “resilience” than western allies had expected at the start of the war.
We perhaps did not see, or did not want to see, that they are in a position to continue to be supplied by allies.
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At least two killed and 18 injured in wave of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine, say officials
Russia launched a wave of missile strikes on Friday across Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least two people and wounding 18, officials said.
Several powerful explosions in the early hours of Friday, AFP reports, while thick black smoke was seen billowing from a warehouse.
“We haven’t seen so much red on our monitors for a long time,” said Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, explaining that Russian forces had first launched a wave of suicide drones followed by missiles.
Presidential aide Andriy Yermak said on Telegram:
There are people killed by Russian missiles today that were launched at civilian facilities, civilian buildings.
We are doing everything to strengthen our air shield. But the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terror.
The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the capital’s air defences were working intensively and seven people had been hospitalised.
A metro station, whose platforms were being used as an air raid shelter, was damaged, he said.
Sergiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said a warehouse with an area of about 3,000 sq metres (32,300 sq ft) was burning in the northern Podil district.
He said:
There are many wounded, the number is being clarified.
In other districts of the city, an uninhabited multistorey block of flats also caught fire and a private house was damaged, Popko said.
In the central Shevchenko district, a residential building was damaged and there was also a fire in a warehouse with six believed to be injured, Popko said.
Klitschko wrote on social media that there appeared to be three people still under rubble of the warehouse while three others had been rescued.
The overnight attacks came days after Ukraine struck a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia in a major setback for the Russian navy.
Drones and missiles struck at least five other Ukrainian cities on Friday, including Kharkiv in the northeast, Lviv in the west, Dnipro in the east and Odesa in the south, the cities’ mayors and police said.
Igor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv, said on television:
So far we have counted 22 strikes in different districts of Kharkiv.
There are currently seven injured in hospital. Unfortunately one person has died.
In Lviv, governor Maksym Kozytsky said that “one person was killed and three wounded”.
In Dnipro, the mayor, Borys Filatov, said there were injured and dead. The health ministry said that a maternity hospital in the city had been “severely damaged”.
In the southern port of Odesa, a high-rise building caught fire after being struck by debris from a downed drone, the city’s mayor said.
Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said on social media:
As a result of another enemy attack, one of the high-rise buildings was damaged. The fire was promptly extinguished.
Ukraine’s southern command said 14 attack drones had been destroyed in the south of the country and there were no casualties reported.
The attacks came after Kremlin on Tuesday acknowledged a Ukrainian missile attack had damaged one of its warships.
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Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russia has launched a wave of missile strikes across Ukrainian cities, including the capital, authorities said as they raised a nationwide air alert.
The Kharkiv mayor, Igor Terekhov, described the assault on Kharkiv as “a massive missile attack” while regional police reported 10 explosions and said the city had been hit with S-300 missiles.
Explosions were reported in Kyiv, city mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram, and officials say a residential building and a warehouse were set on fire by falling debris.
Missile attacks were also reported in Lviv in the country’s west and Odesa in the south as well as Sumy and Konotop.
More on that soon. In other developments:
A Panama-flagged bulk carrier that was heading to the River Danube port to load grain hit a Russian mine in the Black Sea, injuring two crew members, Ukrainian officials said. The incident that took place on Wednesday was the latest instance of a civilian vessel hitting an explosive in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the US for releasing the last remaining package of weapons available for Ukraine under existing authorisation, as uncertainty surrounds further aid to Kyiv. “To defend freedom and security not only in Ukraine and Europe but also in the United States, we must continue to respond to ongoing Russian aggression,” he said on social media.
A Moscow court sentenced two men to several years in prison for taking part in the recital of verses against the Ukraine campaign during an anti-mobilisation protest last year. Artyom Kamardin, 33, received a seven-year sentence for reciting a poem, and Yegor Shtovba, 23, was sentenced to five and a half years for attending the protest.
Ukraine’s Airborne Assault Troops said that three servicemen who Ukrainian prosecutors have said were captured and shot dead by Russian forces this month were members of the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade. Russia has yet to comment on the allegation, the second accusation that it has killed prisoners of war levelled against it this month by Ukrainian prosecutors. Footage shared on social media of the alleged incident appears to show three unarmed figures collapsing from a stationary position after being fired upon.
Belarus’s authoritarian president attended a meeting with children brought from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying international outrage over his country’s involvement in Moscow’s deportation of Ukrainian children. Speaking at the event marking the arrival of a new group of Ukrainian children ahead of the New Year holiday, President Alexander Lukashenko vowed to “embrace these children, bring them to our home, keep them warm and make their childhood happier”.
An investigation by the Associated Press newswire found that Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead after the flooding that followed the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in the southern Kherson region in June. Russia said 59 people drowned in the territory it controls. But AP determined the number is at least 200 to 300 in one town alone.
Ukraine and Hungary are preparing a meeting of Zelenskiy and prime minister Viktor Orbán in the near future, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said, amid recent steps by Hungary that have soured ties. Andriy Yermak said on X he had had a “productive phone call” with Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto and that they had also discussed Ukraine’s progress on its path to European integration.
A fire broke out at a multi-story building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa late on Thursday after drones were reported to be headed for the area, authorities said. Oleh Kiper, the regional governor, said in a post on Telegram that information about casualties was being verified and urged townspeople to stay in shelters amid an ongoing drone attack.
Shelling killed two civilians and wounded five others in a village on the banks of the frontline Dnipro river in southern Ukraine, local authorities said. “Russian armed forces carried out artillery shelling of the village of Bilenke of Zaporizhzhia Region,” Ukraine’s general prosecutor said.
Zelenskiy said that Ukraine’s alternative Black Sea export corridor – introduced after Russia withdrew from a UN-brokered deal to guarantee safe shipment of Ukrainian grain in July – had sent out 12m tonnes of cargo so far. He added in his nightly video address that the corridor had produced “particularly significant results for December, and this is felt at the level of our entire economy.”
Zelenskiy said he discussed Ukraine’s peace formula in a call with Pope Francis. “Over 80 countries are already involved in this process at the level of their representatives. And there will be more of them,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
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