Closing summary
It’s coming up to 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue attacking Ukrainian energy systems despite global criticism of strikes that have left millions without electricity and water at the start of winter. The Russian leader presented the strikes as a response to a blast on Moscow’s bridge to annexed Crimea and other attacks, accusing Kyiv of blowing up power lines from the Kursk nuclear power plant and not supplying water to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Russia is still set on seizing parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that Putin claimed as his own, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. He added that the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine, which Russia annexed in 2014, was vulnerable to attacks by Ukrainian forces, after officials there said they had shot down a drone near a key naval base.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said his government was working with the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency to create a safety zone around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Kyiv remained “in close contact” with Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said at a joint press conference with his Slovak counterpart, Rastislav Káčer, in Kyiv.
Russia has claimed that its proposed safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is to “stop Ukrainian shelling”. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, also said the US’s withdrawal from a treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear missiles was a “destructive” act that created a vacuum and stoked additional security risks.
Russian shelling of a town in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine has left one person dead and two injured, according to the region’s governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko. At least 12 houses were destroyed by the shelling in the town of Toretsk, he said in a Telegram post.
About 10,000 Ukrainian service personnel and roughly the same number of Ukrainian civilians are believed to be being held in Russian detention facilities, according to a Ukrainian official. Oleksandr Kononenko, who oversees human rights in the security and defence sector on behalf of Ukraine’s parliament, said the civilians were being detained illegally as prisoners of war because of their alleged association with the Ukrainian army or state.
Explosions have been reported at Berdiansk airbase in the Zaporizhzhia region. Three large explosions were heard, as well as smaller ones, near the city on the coast of the Sea of Azov.
Russian forces have fired more than 1,000 rockets and missiles at Ukraine’s power grid, which is still working despite taking major damage, a senior official said. Volodymyr Kudrytsky, the chief executive of the grid operator Ukrenergo, also told a meeting arranged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that his officials were scouring the world for the complex equipment needed for repairs.
Ukraine has introduced new emergency power cuts as it tried to repair energy infrastructure damaged in Russian airstrikes, which the national grid operator said had caused significant supply shortages. The grid operator Ukrenergo said the situation was complicated by the weather, with western regions facing frost, rain, snow and strong winds that were causing wires to ice over, but the most difficult situation was in eastern areas, where fighting has been fiercest.
Russian troops are reportedly taking part in tactical exercises in Belarus, according to the Russian defence ministry. Video clips posted by the ministry showed Russian soldiers in snow gear training near tanks in a winter landscape, firing weapons including artillery.
Russia freed the jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a high-level prisoner exchange for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had been held in a US prison for 12 years. Joe Biden, who had made Griner’s release a top priority after she spent almost 10 months in jail on drugs charges, said in an address from the White House that he had spoken with Griner and found her “in good spirits”.
The mother of Viktor Bout has thanked Vladimir Putin for her son’s release as part of a swap with the US. Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death”, is a former Soviet lieutenant colonel whom the US justice department once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers. Russian state media reported that he had arrived back in the country.
Biden expressed regret that the deal did not include Paul Whelan, an American jailed since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government say are baseless. An anonymous US official told CNN that leaving Whelan out of the deal had been “a difficult decision” but “it was a choice to get Brittney or nothing”.
The EU plans to tighten up sanctions on Russia’s military and industrial complex, pro-Kremlin media and Russian nationalist groups fighting in Ukraine, according to leaked papers. A total of eight individuals are facing personal sanctions, including Russian officials said to be involved in the illegal transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia, as well as the leaders of rightwing nationalist groups.
Pope Francis broke down and wept as he prayed for peace in Ukraine during a traditional Christmas visit to the Spanish Steps in Rome. Reuters reports that Francis had to stop speaking and was unable to continue for about 30 seconds, and his head trembled. He later tweeted that “peace is possible; disarmament is possible”.
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Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine, including of the village of Posad-Pokrovske, in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.
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