Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is 5.30pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s news:
The Russian military is on course to lose 500,000 personnel within the next year, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The MoD added that Russia was averaging 300 military casualties each day throughout 2023. It tweeted: “The average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine has risen by almost 300 during the course of 2023. If the numbers continue at the current rate over the next year, Russia will have lost over half a million personnel in Ukraine.”
The UK’s Ministry of Defence says Russia is continuing to struggle to establish air superiority over Ukraine. Three Russian combat jets were shot down just before Christmas and that affected ground forces’ tactical objectives later in the month, the MoD said. It added that Russia has been increasing its aerial strikes in recent days “but at a lower level than before the shootdowns”.
Russian officials in the southern border city of Belgorod have offered to evacuate worried residents – an unprecedented announcement that follows waves of fatal Ukrainian attacks. Reuters reports that the Kremlin has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy on the home front, but the recent strikes on Belgorod have brought the conflict closer to home for Russians.
Russia says it downed four Ukrainian missiles over Moscow-annexed Crimea overnight, Agence France-Presse reports. The attack came a day after Russia said it repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea, downing 36 drones over the peninsula.
Denmark’s transfer of 19 American-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will take place in the second quarter of 2024, once Ukrainian pilots have completed training, the defence ministry has said. The Danish ministry said in a statement: “Based on the current timetable, the donation should take place in the second quarter of 2024. It’s mainly an issue of finishing the training of Ukrainian personnel who will operate the planes.”
President Joe Biden’s top budget official stressed that there is no avenue to help Ukraine aside from Congress approving additional funding, as negotiations among US politicians remained stalled. Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that while the Pentagon has some limited authority to help Kyiv, without new funding from Capitol Hill “that is not going to get big tranches of equipment into Ukraine”.
Reuters reports that the Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office has provided further evidence that Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea, showcasing the fragments. On Friday, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia hit Ukraine this week with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion.
The government of Nepal banned its citizens from travelling to Russia or Ukraine for employment after 10 young men were killed and dozens more reported missing while fighting, predominately in the Russian military. More than 200 Nepali soldiers are believed to have enlisted in the Russian army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said, and more than 100 of them have gone missing. A smaller number are believed to be fighting in the Ukrainian army.
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