Generators are as important as armour in helping Ukraine survive Vladimir Putin’s energy terror 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 to the country 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, Colonna said.
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 two supports of the bridge had been damaged during the attack, just two days after Ukraine hit a Russian barracks sited 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.
The town of Klintsy in Russia’s southern Bryansk region was shelled overnight by Ukraine, the regional governor claimed, adding that there were no casualties or damage. “As a result of the work of the air defence systems of the Russian Armed Forces, the missile was destroyed, some parts hit the territory of an industrial zone,” governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.
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, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there could be “no question” of Moscow beginning to pull out its troops by the end of the year.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will hold talks to discuss the events of 2022 in late December, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, 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 and disinform Ukraine’s army.
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 sanctioning 12 Russian commanders for their role in attacks on Ukrainian cities. Those sanctioned 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.
Arms shipments to Ukraine will end as soon as peace talks to end the Russian invasion begin, Italy’s defence minister told parliament. “I am aware that military aid will have to end sooner or later, and will end when we will have the peace talks that we are all hoping for,” said the defence minister, Guido Crosetto, while addressing the upper-house Senate.
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 underway, he said, adding: “We managed to protect Chornobyl and our goal is to protect Zaporizhzhia. The coming weeks will be crucial.”
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said he did not expect to have contacts with the US regarding further prisoner exchanges, Russian media reported. The White House said on Monday that senior US officials plan to hold talks this week with Russian counterparts to discuss the case of the detained American, Paul Whelan. Ryabkov was quoted as saying that he didn’t know what the Americans “have in mind”.
Ukraine has called for the west to supply Patriot missiles batteries and other modern air defence systems. The country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, appealed to western allies on Monday amid growing concerns that attacks by Russia on its electricity grid could create a new wave of refugees.
The United States has shipped the first part of its power equipment aid to Ukraine, US officials said on Monday, as Washington works to support the country’s energy infrastructure against intensifying attacks from Russia. The first tranche was power equipment worth about $13m, one of the officials said. Another source familiar with the matter said two more planeloads of equipment would leave from the United States this week.
The head of Norway’s refugee council said he expects another wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine to go to Europe over the winter because of “unliveable” conditions. Millions of people in Ukraine have been left without heat, clean water or power amid plummeting temperatures, following Russian missile strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.
The European Union reached a deal in principle to send an €18bn ($18.93bn) financial aid package to Ukraine and approve a minimum tax on major corporations in a big move that narrowed a rift between the bloc and recalcitrant member Hungary.
European Union governments on Monday struck a deal with Hungary that sorts out financial aid for Ukraine in 2023 and gains Budapest’s approval for a global minimum corporate tax, all in exchange for EU flexibility about funds paid to Hungary. The complex deal came after months of wrangling between EU institutions, member countries and Hungary and was spelled out on Monday by the council that represents EU member governments and by diplomats speaking anonymously.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged leaders of the Group of Seven nations on Monday to support his idea of convening a special global peace summit in winter dedicated to bringing peace to his country. Zelenskiy also appealed to the G7 nations for an additional 2bn cubic metres of natural gas as well as long-range weapons, modern tanks, artillery units and shells.
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has joined the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic party (LDPR), its leader said. Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death”, was freed last week after 14 years in US custody in a high-profile swap with the American basketball star Brittney Griner. The move could see Bout seek a seat in the Russian parliament.
The exiled mayor of Melitopol claims Russian troops are “redeploying” and “panicking” following Ukrainian attacks on the Russian-occupied city over the weekend. Russian forces “are busy moving their military groups to other places to try to hide them”, Ivan Fedorov said without providing evidence.
Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence has warned that Russia has enough missiles to launch another three to five waves of strikes on the country. Vadym Skibitsky also claimed Russia is using old Ukrainian missiles against Kyiv and outlined the four general directions from which Russia is launching missiles into Ukraine.
Two civilians have been killed and 10 more injured after Russian rocket attacks on the town of Hirnyk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces struck the centre of the town “with cluster munitions and Uragan MLRS [multilaunch rocket systems]”, the prosecutor general’s office said.
Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to local authorities. “The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson,” governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday.
Ukraine has claimed to have struck a headquarters used by the paramilitary Wagner group in the occupied territories of the Luhansk region. Serhiy Haidai, the exiled governor of the Luhansk region, told Ukrainian television that a strike in the town of Kadiivka had led to a “huge number” of deaths among the mercenary group that has been accused of torture and other war crimes.
Vladimir Putin will not hold a year-end press conference for the first time in at least a decade, in what Kremlin watchers view as a break with protocol due to his war in Ukraine. There would also be no New Year reception at the Kremlin, officials said, possibly a decision influenced by the reluctance to celebrate because Russia’s war in Ukraine has not gone to plan.
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said he would be “open minded” about supplying Ukraine with longer-range weapons if Russia continued to target civilian areas. Wallace said he “constantly” reviewed the weapons systems the UK sends to Ukraine, and that he “will be open minded to see what we do next” if Moscow tries to “break those Geneva conventions”, referring to agreed basic humanitarian principles during war.
The EU has secured enough gas for this winter but could face a gas shortage next year if Russia further cuts supplies, the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have warned.
An international team of legal advisers has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine’s recaptured city of Kherson to gather evidence of alleged sexual crimes by Russian forces. A team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, are conducting a full-scale investigation part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities.
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.
The body of a 23-year-old Zambian student who died while fighting for the Russian army in the war in Ukraine has been returned home. Zambia’s government has requested that Russian authorities give details of Lemekani’s demise, foreign affairs minister Stanley Kakubo said.
