Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
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 amid growing concern that attacks by Russia on its electricity grid could prompt a new wave of refugees from the wartorn country.
The head of the Norwehgian Refugee Council said he expected 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 exiled mayor of Melitopol occupying Russian troops are “redeploying” and are “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 proving any 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 attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties. According to witnesses 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties.
The strike on Melitopol was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian-occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol. Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a fire caused by the strike engulfed the recreation centre.
The strike came as all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power. Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people cut off from electricity. “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
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.
Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian military planners are likely still aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk, the latest British intelligence report reads, adding that Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives.
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.
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are reportedly unhappy with the military top brass and President Vladimir Putin, an influential nationalist Russian blogger has said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, said there was some discontent with the top brass because of the poor execution of the war.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said its embassy in Greece has received an anonymous “bloody package”. As of Monday, Nikolenko said there had been a total of 33 cases of “threats” targeting Ukrainian diplomatic missions in 17 countries, including 28 bloody packages, two bomb threats, and an “attempted terrorist attack”, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
The EU has agreed an extra €2bn for a fund that has been used to supply Ukraine with weapons. The €2bn top up was approved on Monday, despite concerns about Hungary’s “blackmail diplomacy”, after Budapest blocked an €18bn financial aid package for Ukraine last week. Hungary has previously signed off on the EU weapons fund for Ukraine, although it does not allow arms to pass through its territory.
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said he would be “open minded” about supplying Ukraine with longer-range weapons systems 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.
President Joe Biden has pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defence during a call to to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday. Biden also welcomed Zelenskiy’s “stated openness to a just peace based on fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” according to a readout from the White House.
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. If Russia cuts the small share of gas it still delivers to Europe, after slashing gas deliveries this year, and China’s gas demand rebounds from lockdown-induced lows, the EU could face a gas shortfall of 27bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2023, the IEA said.
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 as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
The 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. Griner is currently undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.
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 official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
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.
Updated
Zelenskiy urges G7 to supply Ukraine with natural gas, long-range weapons
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has appealed to the G7 nations to help obtain an additional two billion cubic metres of natural gas and to supply it with modern tanks, artillery units and shells as well as long-range weapons.
In a video address to the Group of Seven nations, Zelenskiy also called on Russia to make a “substantive” step towards a diplomatic resolution of the war in Ukraine.
He said:
If Russia conducts a withdrawal of its forces from Ukraine, then it will also ensure a reliable end of hostilities.
I see no reason why Russia should not do this now - in time for Christmas.
The Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who returned home last week in a prisoner exchange for the American basketball star Brittney Griner, has joined the pro-Kremlin far-right Liberal Democratic party (LDPR), in a move that could see him seek a seat in the Russian parliament.
In a video posted on telegram, LDPR’s leader, Leonid Slutsky, who was standing next to Bout, said:
I want to thank Viktor Anatolievich [Bout] for the decision he has made and welcome him into the ranks of the best political party in today’s Russia.
Despite its name, the Liberal Democratic party has, since its foundation in 1991, propagandised an ultranationalist and xenophobic ideology, urging Russia to invade the countries of the former Soviet Union.
The party has also served as a springboard for unsavoury characters into Russian politics. In 2007, Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent who is accused by Britain of murdering the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, gained a seat in the Russian Duma for the party.
Bout, whose release has been presented as a major PR win by Moscow, on Monday told Russian media that he had no immediate plans to participate in “any elections”.
‘Unliveable’ winter to force hundreds of thousands more refugees from Ukraine to Europe
The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council has 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.
Speaking to Reuters, Jan Egeland said:
Nobody knows how many, but there will be hundreds of thousands more (leaving Ukraine) as the horrific and unlawful bombing of civilian infrastructure makes life unliveable in too many places.
He said he was concerned the crisis in Europe would “deepen and that will overshadow equality crises in other places of the world”.
Around 18 million people, or 40% of the country’s population, is depending on aid, according to the UN.
Another 7.8 million have left Ukraine for other parts of Europe.
Updated
EU countries have not yet agreed on a ninth package of sanctions on Russia, the bloc’s foreign chief, Josep Borrell, said.
Speaking after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels, Borrell said:
An agreement was not been reached by the ministers but I hope it will be agreed this week.
The exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said occupying Russian troops in the southern Ukrainian city are “redeploying” and are “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”, Fedorov said, without proving any evidence.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has met with her French counterpart, Brigitte Macron, during her visit to France.
In a statement on Telegram, Zelenska described Emmanuel Macron’s wife as “a great friend of Ukraine” and thanked France for their support and aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
She said:
I think that the French, who have always valued human rights (and the most indisputable of them – the right to life), will not stay aside here either. After all, human rights have no borders.
My visit to France began with a meeting with First Lady Brigitte Macron – not only my colleague, but a real friend of mine and of all 🇺🇦. Thanked for her contribution in supporting our people’s fight, and sincere care and attention to Ukrainians who escaped to 🇫🇷 because of war. pic.twitter.com/2xh105gc2P
— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) December 12, 2022
EU agrees on extra €2bn for military support for Ukraine
The EU has agreed an extra €2bn for a fund that has been used to supply Ukraine with weapons.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday signed off the money for the “European Peace Facility”, a fund that has been largely used to reimburse member states for supplying Ukraine with weapons and non-lethal military kit.
“This decision sends a clear political signal of the EU’s enduring commitment to military support for Ukraine and other partners alike,” the EU Council of Ministers said in a statement.
The €5bn fund was established last year with the aim of boosting security, but was rapidly becoming depleted following successive donations to Ukraine, raising concerns about whether the EU could maintain the flow of weapons and assist other states.
The €2bn top up was approved on Monday, despite concerns about Hungary’s “blackmail diplomacy”, after Budapest blocked an €18bn financial aid package for Ukraine last week. Hungary has previously signed off on the EU weapons fund for Ukraine, although it does not allow arms to pass through its territory.
Commenting on Budapest’s position on Ukraine, one senior diplomat said:
It’s a type of blackmail diplomacy that we would rather not see, but it is what it is, so we will have to deal with it.
Separately EU ministers also issued a statement condemning Iran for supplying Russia with weapons that have been used “indiscriminately by Russia” against Ukraine’s civilian population. It also warned Iran against any new deliveries of weapons to Russia including short-range ballistic missiles, which it said would “constitute a serious escalation”.
The EU is discussing its ninth round of sanctions against Russia, which include bans on the sale of drones and parts. Officials are concerned that Iranian weapons used in Ukraine, including drones, are being manufactured in Europe.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
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 attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties. According to witnesses 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties.
The strike on Melitopol was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian-occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol. Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a fire caused by the strike engulfed the recreation centre.
The strike came as all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power. Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people cut off from electricity. “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
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.
Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian military planners are likely still aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk, the latest British intelligence report reads, adding that Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives.
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.
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are reportedly unhappy with the military top brass and President Vladimir Putin, an influential nationalist Russian blogger has said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, said there was some discontent with the top brass because of the poor execution of the war.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said its embassy in Greece has received an anonymous “bloody package”. As of Monday, Nikolenko said there had been a total of 33 cases of “threats” targeting Ukrainian diplomatic missions in 17 countries, including 28 bloody packages, two bomb threats, and an “attempted terrorist attack”, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said he would be “open minded” about supplying Ukraine with longer-range weapons systems 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.
President Joe Biden has pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defence during a call to to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday. Biden also welcomed Zelenskiy’s “stated openness to a just peace based on fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” according to a readout from the White House.
European Union foreign ministers and G7 leaders will meet today to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2bn ($2.11bn) for arms deliveries to Ukraine. It remains unclear whether Hungary will block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest.
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. If Russia cuts the small share of gas it still delivers to Europe, after slashing gas deliveries this year, and China’s gas demand rebounds from lockdown-induced lows, the EU could face a gas shortfall of 27bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2023, the IEA said.
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 as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
The 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. Griner is currently undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.
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 official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
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.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
UK ‘open minded’ about sending longer-range weapons to Ukraine
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said he would be “open minded” about supplying Ukraine with longer-range weapons systems if Russia continued to target civilian areas.
Asked in parliament by the former prime minister, Boris Johnson, about the possible supply of longer-range missile systems to Kyiv to destroy or damage drone launch sites, Wallace replied:
I constantly review the weapons systems we could provide. We too have in our armour potential weapons systems that are longer and should the Russians continue to target civilian areas and try and break those Geneva conventions, then I will be open minded to see what we do next.
Russia has missiles ‘for another three to five waves of strikes’ on Ukraine, says Ukrainian general
Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence has claimed that Russia is using old Ukrainian missiles against Kyiv, and warned that Moscow’s forces have enough missiles to launch another three to five waves of strikes on the country.
The missiles, built in a Ukrainian weapons factory and handed over to Russia in the 1990s under an agreement aimed at assuring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, have shown up in the rubble of the large wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine in October, according to Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence.
While Russia’s stockpiles of modern, precision missiles are believed to be running low, he said Russian arms factories had been able to build 240 precision Kh-101 cruise missiles and about 120 of the sea-based Kalibr cruise missiles since the start of the war. This would work out to be about 40 new missiles since the start of the war.
In an interview with the New York Times, Skibitsky offered a detailed assessment of current Russian capabilities and Ukraine’s ability to counter the threat.
He said:
According to our calculations, they have missiles for another three to five waves of attacks. This is if there are 80 to 90 rockets in one wave.
He also outlined the four general directions from which Russia is launching missiles into Ukraine - from the Black Sea in the south, from the area around the Caspian Sea to the southeast, from Russia in the east and from Belarus to the north.
Kyiv pic.twitter.com/qaKqGCh4nX
— petersbeaumont (@petersbeaumont1) December 12, 2022
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.
The marathon press conferences are traditionally an occasion for the Russian president to burnish his image, a campy spectacle that allows Putin to play the populist on national television each December.
On Monday, the Kremlin announced it would not be holding the press conference this year. 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.
In previous years, Putin has dedicated much of the event to answering softball questions from adoring local journalists, including some dressed in costume, while batting away any awkward questions from foreign media, allowing his administration to boast about its transparency.
Putin has become far more remote since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and now the destructive war against Ukraine, which has led the Kremlin into international isolation and brought a near-total crackdown on dissenting voices at home.
Putin has disappeared from public for days at a time, sometimes leading to jokes that the Russian leader is hiding in a “bunker”. And his administration is facing tough questions about its strategy for the war, military retreats, mass mobilisation, and reported mistreatment of Russian recruits both on the frontline and in training.
Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the R Politik political analysis firm, wrote that Putin was likely to regard the event as a waste of time this year.
“I don’t think Putin has nothing to say, especially as he’s said so much recently,” she said. “More likely he has a psychological unwillingness to ‘explain himself’, to answer boring and routine questions, to waste time on preparations, play the role of the kind father and so forth.
“For the foreign audience, he can say everything he deems necessary, he’ll find an occasion,” she continued. “As to the domestic audience, he doesn’t see the point. Let his subordinates handle it.”
Updated
Two civilians killed and 10 injured after Russian rocket attack in Donetsk region
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.
The prosecutor general’s office said via Telegram: “According to the investigation data, on the morning of 12 December, the troops of the Russian Federation struck the town of Hirnyk, Kurakhove community, with cluster munitions and Uragan MLRS [multilaunch rocket systems].
“The shells hit the central part of the town. As a result of the shelling, two citizens were killed and ten more received injuries of varying degrees of severity. The injured were evacuated to the hospital in Selydove town, they are given qualified medical care.”
Hirnyk is a small city in the oblast to the east of Ukraine, with a population of about 10,000, according to a report published in early 2022.
Reports have said that paramedics are at the scene and an investigation has been opened into potential war crimes.
Updated
Germany has said Hungary should support the joint loan to Ukraine and global minimum corporate tax because of the importance of the EU’s “democratic values”.
Talks between ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states will resume at 5pm as Hungary continues to veto the €18bn (£15.5bn) joint loan to Ukraine. The EU has withheld €5.8bn from Hungary over “poor judicial independence”, Reuters reports, and another €7.5bn over corruption.
Other states have claimed the government in Budapest is trying to “blackmail” the bloc over the funds.
Hungary says it opposes joint EU borrowing to support Ukraine but that it would extend bilateral aid to Kyiv instead, and added that the OECD plan is against Hungary’s national interests.
EU rules say 70% of €5.8bn would be lost unless the bloc approves by the end of the year handing it over to Budapest.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said: “The rule of law is the backbone of the European Union.
“This is why Germany supports the excellent proposals by the European Commission to make clear that this is about our values, about the rule of law in the entire European Union.”
Updated
Poland and Germany should ask the EU for more help in dealing with an expected increase in Ukrainian refugees during the winter, the Polish president has said.
Millions have already fled Ukraine since the invasion began on 24 February. There are fears more could leave their homes during colder months as Russia continues to attack key infrastructure.
“I believe that we should turn to the European community so that there is financial support for our countries, which bear a particular burden in connection with taking in refugees from Ukraine,” Andrzej Duda said during a press conference in Berlin on Monday, Reuters reports.
Updated
Ukraine’s prime minister is the latest politician to repeat a plea for Patriot missile batteries and other hi-tech air defence systems to stop Russian rockets and air attacks, after more shelling was reported on Monday.
Denys Shmyhal told the French broadcaster LCI that Russia could cause a new wave of refugees by continuing to target crucial infrastructure like energy and water during the winter.
If the defence systems were supplied, it would represent another chapter in the war and a sign of further support for Ukraine, as no country has yet supplied them, Reuters reports.
Ukraine needs large quantities of shells to respond like-for-like against Russian artillery, Shmyhal said. Russia fires 50,000 to 70,000 shells a day at Ukrainian targets, and “we need at least one-third of that quantity every day”, he added.
Updated
EU ‘could face gas shortage next year’
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.
If Russia cuts the small share of gas it still delivers to Europe, after slashing gas deliveries this year, and China’s gas demand rebounds from lockdown-induced lows, the EU could face a gas shortfall of 27bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2023, the IEA said.
Total EU gas consumption was 412 bcm in 2021, according to EU data.
Speaking at a press conference, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the bloc’s gas supply was “safe for this winter” and the EU was preparing for the next one.
We have worked hard to be safe for this winter.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 12, 2022
We are now turning our focus to preparing 2023, and the next winter.@fbirol from the @IAE and I have discussed the energy outlook and how to avoid gas shortages in 2023 ↓
https://t.co/oGR2ey6Tgo
The energy watchdog said the potential shortage could be averted by expanding subsidies and policies to save energy by renovating draughty homes and replacing fossil fuel-based heating with heat pumps.
It has also called for better campaigns to encourage consumers to use less energy.
Updated
Putin cancels annual press conference for first time in 10 years
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said President Vladimir Putin will not be holding his annual end-of-year press conference this year.
He told reporters:
There will not be [a press conference] before the new year.
Dmitry #Peskov declared that #Putin won't hold a big press conference this year. pic.twitter.com/4ImOGhg8e4
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 12, 2022
Peskov did not give a reason for the break with tradition, but said the Russian president regularly spoke to the press, including on foreign visits.
It will be the first time Putin has not held the marathon press gathering in a decade, last year, he spoke for more than four hours, ABC News’ Patrick Reevell writes.
Putin won't hold his giant end of year press conference this year, the Kremlin says.
— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) December 12, 2022
First time in a decade at least he's skipping it.
Wonder why he might not want to sit in front of 1500 journalists this year.... pic.twitter.com/tG4whWKboJ
Updated
Ukrainian embassy in Greece receives 'bloody package', says Kyiv
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said its embassy in Greece has received an anonymous “bloody package” in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
Greek police have opened an investigation after the package arrived at the Ukrainian embassy in Athens, Nikolenko wrote in a statement on Facebook.
He added:
The sender’s address is the same as on the rest of the envelopes that had been previously received at Ukrainian embassies and consulates: Tesla car showroom in the German town of Sindelfingen.
Ukraine says a number of its European embassies have received “bloody” packages, some containing animal eyes and soaked in a liquid with a distinctive colour and smell.
A Ukrainian embassy employee in Madrid was injured last month by a letter bomb, which was addressed to Ukraine’s ambassador to Spain.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said earlier this month that the packages sent to his country’s diplomatic missions all had the same sender address – a Tesla dealership in Germany.
As of Monday, Nikolenko said there had been a total of 33 cases of “threats” targeting Ukrainian diplomatic missions in 17 countries, including 28 bloody packages, two bomb threats, and an “attempted terrorist attack”.
He added:
As Dmytro Kuleba said, no matter how the enemies try to intimidate Ukrainian diplomacy, they will not succeed. Working towards the win.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 1pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine has attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties. According to witnesses 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties.
The strike on Melitopol was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian-occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol. Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a fire caused by the strike engulfed the recreation centre.
Russian forces pounded targets in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine with missiles, drones and artillery, Ukraine’s general staff said. Attacks continued from Russian forces on the energy system in Kherson and Ukrainian troops, it said in an update on Monday.
The strike came as all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power. Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people cut off from electricity. “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
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.
Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian military planners are likely still aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk, the latest British intelligence report reads, adding that Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives.
A fire has broken out at a shopping centre in Balashikha near Moscow, according to local media reports. Building materials reportedly caught fire in an open area, spreading to the first floor of the building, according to the press service of the Moscow Region Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
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. “Last night, two people were killed due to Russian shelling,” Yanushevich said, adding that five others had been wounded.
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are reportedly unhappy with the military top brass and President Vladimir Putin, an influential nationalist Russian blogger has said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, said there was some discontent with the top brass because of the poor execution of the war.
President Joe Biden has pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defence during a call to to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday. Biden also welcomed Zelenskiy’s “stated openness to a just peace based on fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” according to a readout from the White House.
European Union foreign ministers and G7 leaders will meet today to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2bn ($2.11bn) for arms deliveries to Ukraine. It remains unclear whether Hungary will block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest.
The EU is reportedly set to appoint a “sanctions envoy” to push for more rigorous enforcement of its restrictions on countries, including Russia. The Financial Times reports that David O’Sullivan, a former EU ambassador to the US, has been asked to start the job in the new year.
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 as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
The 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. Griner is currently undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.
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 official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
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.
Hello everyone. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong, I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
The Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was released from US detention in a high-profile prisoner swap last week, has joined the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), its leader said.
In a video posted on Telegram, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky is seen speaking on stage beside Bout. He said:
I want to thank Viktor Anatolievich (Bout) for the decision he has made and welcome him into the ranks of the best political party in today’s Russia.
The LDPR, founded by the late far-right politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, espoused a hardline, ultranationalist ideology, demanding Russia reconquer the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death”, was freed after 14 years in US custody in a swap with the American basketball star Brittney Griner.
Once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers, Bout was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that US officials said were to be used against Americans.
As he landed in Moscow last week, he was met by a delegation of family members and officials bearing flowers, all of it broadcast live on TV. And in some of his first remarks, he echoed an opinion commonly held in the Kremlin: that the US is seeking Russia’s total collapse.
He said:
They think they can destroy us again and divide Russia into many parts.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.
Ukraine claims strike on Wagner headquarters in Luhansk
Here’s a dispatch from the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth, who is in the Russian capital.
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.
“They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located,” Haidai said, according to a Reuters translation of his remarks.
“A huge number of those who were there have died,” he said.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify that Wagner was headquartered at the site of the attack or that the strike led to a large number of casualties.
But there are a number of indications that the mercenary group was hit.
Russian state media have confirmed that a hotel complex in the town of Kadiivka, which Russians called Stakhanov, was hit by artillery fire on Sunday.
Photographs and video posted to social media showed that the Zhdanov guest house in the town had largely been reduced to rubble.
The first photos from the scene were published by a pro-war Russian military blogger who has previously reported on Wagner and posted photos of the group’s fighters.
“The strike was done by Himars,” wrote Alexander Simonov, the blogger who runs the Brussels Messenger channel on Telegram. “There were members of the Wagner PMC in the building.”
That complex had previously been rumoured to house Russian officers fighting in the region.
It is not clear how many people were injured in the strike.
Video uploaded from the scene showed that at least several men had been injured inside the building and were awaiting medical help.
And in another video, a number of men in camouflage stand around a rocket tail recovered from the site and discuss the attack, indicating that the strike was aimed at those fighting for Russia.
In another twist, an old photo at the hotel may show the son of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in full camouflage holding a rifle.
Pavel Prigozhin has previously been reported to be fighting for Wagner.
I did a mini-thread-within-a-thread here about a new data point in Ukraine's HIMARS attack on a reported Wagner base in Kadiivka - Pavel Prigozhin (Yevgeny's son) was reportedly photographed at the site. I haven't seen any news about him still being there when the attack happened https://t.co/on1stIL0Cw
— Aric Toler (@AricToler) December 12, 2022
In a statement, Prigozhin denied that his son had been injured in the strike.
“Don’t worry. Everything is fine with my son,” he said in a remark carried on a Telegram channel associated with the Wagner founder.
Prigozhin did not say whether or not the mercenary group had been headquartered at the site.
Updated
Russia 'pounding targets in Donetsk and Luhansk', says Ukraine's general staff
Russian forces pounded targets in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine with missiles, drones and artillery, Ukraine’s general staff said on Monday.
Attacks continued from Russian forces on the energy system in Kherson and Ukrainian troops.
The general staff said that Russia continues to use civilians as human shields. The update said that troops in the village of Troitske in occupied-Luhansk, they were setting up equipment and firing positions near residential buildings.
Updated
Russia has claimed that the US is not being constructive in talks in Istanbul between the two countries.
Diplomats met in Turkey on Friday to discuss a number of areas in their relationship against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, although a US embassy spokesperson said that Ukraine was not discussed.
Areas that were tabled to be talked about were visas, embassy staffing levels and the work of their institutions and agencies abroad.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin told the Russian RIA Novosti news agency: “I can say that any contacts are useful, but, unfortunately, we do not see a constructive approach from the American side aimed at concrete results,” Reuters reports.
The EU is reportedly set to appoint a “sanctions envoy” to push for more rigorous enforcement of its restrictions on countries, including Russia, as it looks to stop people getting around its measures against Russia.
The Financial Times reports that David O’Sullivan, a former EU ambassador to the US, has been asked to start the job in the new year.
A senior EU official told the newspaper that the EU Commission will confirm the appointment on Tuesday. It hopes to ensure that countries, including Turkey, follow the line of penalties taken against those close to Putin and Russia’s war machine.
Another 620 Russian military personnel have been killed by Ukrainian forces.
It brings the total number of losses on the Russian side since they invaded Ukraine to 94,760. The figures published by the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine have not been verified by the Guardian, and differ from those released by Russia.
The bulletin said that a further 24 tanks were taken out on Sunday, as well as four more drones.
Russia wants to adjust the Black Sea grain initiative to ensure more food supplies go to the world’s poorest countries in Africa and Asia, the Russian TASS news agency quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin as saying on Monday.
Grain has been exported from Ukraine and Russia through the Black Sea since the deal was struck in July. It was briefly suspended in October, but it has been renewed since.
It was signed to enable Ukraine to start to export grain again, after ships had stopped because of fears they would be targeted by the Russian navy. Russia is also able to export grain and fertiliser.
Ukraine is one of the world leaders in producing wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil, and is known as the “breadbasket of Europe”.
A dispatch here from reporters working for Agence France-Presse in Bulgaria, as Russians in the seaside resort of Varna help Ukrainian refugees.
When Ukrainian Elena Bondarenko fled to Bulgaria after Russia invaded, she never imagined she would be taken in by a Russian there.
But that is exactly what happened to the bank clerk from Zaporizhzhia, one of many refugees fleeing the war who have been quietly sheltered by members of the country’s 17,500-strong Russian community.
Bondarenko and her mother and two small children were welcomed by a Russian who runs a children’s holiday camp near the Black Sea city of Burgas.
At first “it was a shock”, Bondarenko, 36, admitted. But “I am happy that not all Russians are aggressors.”
“When you are without a roof, and you need to save your children, it does not matter who helps you,” said another refugee, 34-year-old Anaida Petrushenko, who fled from Pavlohrad in eastern Ukraine with her three children.
“I never hid the fact that I am Russian because people saw that I wanted to help,” said the camp’s co-owner, who did not want to be named.
He has taken in about 160 Ukrainian refugees, some of whom were shown the door at nearby hotels when the tourist season started.
While a number of Russians in Bulgaria are helping refugees, a large swathe of the Balkan nation remains resolutely pro-Russian. And the Bulgarian government has often been less than welcoming when it comes to providing accommodation and support, forcing many Ukrainians to leave.
Of the 932,000, who fled to Bulgaria since the invasion, only 51,000 remain with less than 10,000 put up by the state, according to official data.
Indeed, the Russian who runs the holiday camp only gets a daily allowance of €7.50 ($7.90) per refugee from the Bulgarian government, and even these meagre payments are often delayed.
With 60 children and 50 elderly people to look after, the Russian and his Bulgarian partner are having to cover the extra costs themselves.
While they lambast the Bulgarian government for failing to provide language courses or help the refugees find work, with winter closing in they say they cannot close the camp.
Another Russian in Varna, Viktor Bakurevich, told AFP that he had “decided to take some responsibility for these people who have suffered from the war”.
“I do not believe in collective guilt but I do believe in collective responsibility,” said the father of three, who moved to Bulgaria 14 years ago and founded his Russian grocery chain Berezka.
This is Harry Taylor signing in from London, we’ll be bringing you more updates throughout the morning.
Updated
Ukraine’s top security officials have ordered punitive measures against seven senior clerics, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, part of a crackdown on a branch of the Orthodox church with longstanding ties to Moscow.
The clerics are among Orthodox leaders known to have been sympathetic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskiy announced the measure in his nightly video address:
We are doing everything to ensure that no strings are available to be pulled by the aggressor state that could make Ukrainian society suffer.”
Under an order issued by Ukraine’s security council, all seven have had their assets seized and are subject to a ban on a range of economic and legal activities as well as a de facto travel ban.
A majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and competition has been fierce between the branch of the church historically linked to Moscow and an independent church proclaimed after independence from Soviet rule in 1991.
The Moscow-linked church severed ties with the Russian Orthodox church after the February invasion, but many Ukrainians remain deeply suspicious of its motives. The Russian church wholeheartedly backs the invasion.
The security council last month ordered an investigation into the activities of the church and legislation is under consideration to limit its activities.
Ukraine’s SBU security service has been staging a series of raids of property owned by the Moscow-linked church and last week accused a senior cleric of engaging in anti-Ukrainian activity by supporting Russian policies in social media posts.
Russian soldiers unhappy with top brass, pro-Krelim blogger claims
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are reportedly unhappy with the military top brass and president, Vladimir Putin, because of the poor execution of the war, an influential nationalist Russian blogger has said after visiting the conflict zone.
Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, said there was some discontent with the top brass.
In a scathing 90-minute video analysing Russia’s execution of the war, Girkin said the “fish’s head is completely rotten” and that the Russian military needed reform and an intake of competent people who could lead a successful military campaign.
Terrorist, murdered and Russian military "expert" Strelkov/Girkin criticizes Wagner lines (defense lines put up at 🇺🇦 occupied territories and some Russian territories).
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 9, 2022
"They are for money laundering and corruption but they are no use from a military perspective" pic.twitter.com/AJAo7ltqum
Some at the mid-levels of the military, Girkin said, were open about their dissatisfaction with defence minister, Sergei Shoigu and even Putin.
It is not just me ... people are not blind and deaf at all: people at the mid-level there do not even hide their views which, how do I put it, are not fully complimentary about the president or the defence minister.”
Girkin has repeatedly criticised Shoigu, a close Putin ally, for the battlefield defeats Russia has suffered in the war.
Updated
A senior Ukrainian presidential advisor has provided this quick update on the situation unfolding in Odesa after Russian forces hit two energy plants in the southern port city over the weekend, knocking out power to about 1.5 million people.
Anton Gerashchenko uploaded a short clip purportedly from a supermarket in Odesa.
“Many people still are without electricity after yesterday’s Russian attacks. The situation remains very difficult,” he tweeted.
Zelenskiy said in a Sunday night video address that the city was undergoing frequent power outages but supplies had been partially restored.
Supermarket in Odesa.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 12, 2022
Many people still are without electricity after yesterday's Russian attacks.
The situation remains very difficult. pic.twitter.com/fxqnqvknsk
Updated
A fire has broken out at a shopping centre in Balashikha near Moscow, according to local media reports.
“There is a fire building materials in the shopping centre ‘Stroypark’ in the Savvino district,” a spokesperson for emergency services told RIA Novosti.
Building materials reportedly caught fire in an open area, spreading to the first floor of the building, according to the press service of the Moscow Region Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The Stroypark shopping center in #Balashikha, #Moscow region is on fire. pic.twitter.com/H2o8rQKIg7
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 12, 2022
Russia unlikely to extend control over Donetsk: UK MoD
Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions with Russian military planners likely still aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
However, Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives, the ministry suggests. The latest British intelligence report reads:
It is highly unlikely that the Russian military is currently able to generate an effective striking force capable of retaking these areas.
Russian ground forces are unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 12 December 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) December 12, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/ngW6tfLdtw
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/E2XThQO2GD
Europe lacks critical defence capabilities, foreign policy chief says
The EU foreign policy chief has called for more work on European security and defence, urging the region to “spend better and cooperate more”.
In a statement published late on Sunday, Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, said:
This war has also been a wake-up call for all of us about our military capabilities. We have given weapons to Ukraine, but in so doing, we realised that our military stockpiles have been depleted.
With conventional war returning to the heart of Europe, we also realised that we are lacking critical defence capabilities, to be able to protect ourselves from a higher level of threats on the European continent itself.”
Data from @EUDefenceAgency show Europeans are spending more on defence. Now we must also spend better and cooperate more. To support Ukraine, address urgent needs, and prepare for the future. My new blog post on #EUDefence: https://t.co/kzMSxTwM9r pic.twitter.com/7EHcn5pf7B
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) December 11, 2022
Borrell also cited data from the EU defence agency showing Europeans are spending more on defence.
Europeans are clearly increasing their defence spending and capabilities … This is very much needed.
As we to keep supporting Ukraine, we must invest more together to prepare European armies [to] face a more dangerous world.
In a seperate statement, Borrell added:
Implementation has been advancing but now we need to accelerate mobilisation of our resources as Team Europe.
2023 will be a credibility test for the EU as a global power. Let’s deliver on it, together.”
“Now we must also spend better and cooperate more,” he added. “The threats we face are real, close-by and likely to get worse.”
EU foreign ministers to agree on €2bn arms deliveries to Ukraine
European Union foreign ministers and G7 leaders will meet today to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2bn ($2.11bn) for arms deliveries to Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold the online meeting. Zelenskiy also confirmed the talks would go ahead.
The G7 meeting will be held today - Ukraine will participate and now we have coordinated our positions with America,” he said.
However, it remains unclear whether Hungary will block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest.
“There is agreement, in principle, but there’s also the big elephant in the room,” a senior EU diplomat told reporters, referring to Budapest’s use of its veto power. “It’s a type of blackmail diplomacy that we would rather not see but it is what it is.”
Foreign ministers will discuss a ninth package of Russia sanctions that is set to place almost 200 more individuals and entities on the EU sanctions list.
They will also aim to top up by €2bn a fund member states have used to finance arms purchases for Kyiv, but which has been largely depleted over almost 10 months of the war in Ukraine.
Biden pledges to boost Ukraine’s air defences
Joe Biden has pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defence during a call to to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.
Biden also welcomed Zelenskiy’s “stated openness to a just peace based on fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” according to a readout from the White House.
The US is prioritising efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence through our security assistance, including the 9 December announcement of $275m in additional ammunition and equipment that included systems to counter the Russian use of unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Biden also highlighted the 29 November announcement of $53m to support energy infrastructure to strengthen the stability of Ukraine’s energy grid in the wake of Russia’s targeted attacks.
A fruitful conversation with @POTUS. I expressed gratitude for another security package. We discussed further defense cooperation, protection and maintenance of our energy sector. Coordinated positions on the eve of the #G7 online summit. America's leadership remains steadfast!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 11, 2022
Zelenskiy in turn thanked Biden for his “unprecedented defence and financial assistance”.
I thanked for the unprecedented defence and financial assistance that the USA provides to Ukraine.
This not only contributes to success on the battlefield, but also supports the stability of the Ukrainian economy.
We also appreciate the help that the USA is providing to restore Ukraine‘s energy system.”
Zelenskiy added that Russian missile strikes have led to the destruction of about 50% of Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
🇺🇦🇺🇸📞=🚀🌎💪
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) December 11, 2022
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
European Union foreign ministers and G7 leaders will meet today to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2bn ($2.11bn) for arms deliveries to Ukraine.
The news comes after Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, spoke over the phone on Sunday. The US president pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defences.
For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.
If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
Ukraine attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol over the weekend, with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties. According to witnesses, 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties. The strike on the south-eastern city – reportedly with Himars rockets – was one of several on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported early on Sunday in the Russian occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol.
Emergency crews were working to ease power shortages in many parts of Ukraine after Russian attacks. Russian forces used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy plants in Odesa on Saturday, knocking out power to about 1.5 million customers. Zelenskiy said the port city was undergoing frequent power outages and Kyiv was still experiencing “very difficult” conditions with power supplies. “At this time, it has become possible to partially restore supplies in Odesa and other cities and districts in the region,” Zelenskiy said in a Sunday night video address.
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. “Last night, two people were killed due to Russian shelling,” Yanushevich said, adding that five others had been wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked his US counterpart Joe Biden for his “unprecedented defence and financial assistance” during a phone call on Sunday. “It helps not only to succeed on the battlefield, but also to maintain the stability of our nation’s economy,” he said. Zelenskiy added that Russian missile strikes have led to the destruction of about 50% of Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
An official in eastern Ukraine has claimed Ukrainian forces attacked a hotel where members of Russia’s private Wagner military group were based, killing many of them. Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, gave a television interview on Sunday, alleging forces launched a strike on Saturday on a hotel in the town of Kadiivka, west of the region’s main centre of Luhansk. “They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located. A huge number of those who were there died,” he said. Photos posted on Telegram channels showed a building largely reduced to rubble. The claims have not been able to verified.
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are unhappy with the military top brass and president Vladimir Putin because of the poor execution of the war, an influential nationalist Russian blogger said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, recorded a scathing 90-minute video analysing Russia’s execution of the war. Girkin said the “fish’s head is completely rotten” and that the Russian military needed reform. “It is not just me … people are not blind and deaf at all: people at the mid-level there do not even hide their views which, how do I put it, are not fully complimentary about the president or the defence minister,” he added.
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 as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
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 official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has said the country is ramping up production of new-generation weapons to protect itself from enemies in Europe, the United States and Australia, Reuters reports.
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.
Brittney Griner is undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US. The American basketball star was released from almost 10 months of detention in Russia in a prisoner swap with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.
• This post was amended on 12 December 2022. Serhiy Gaidai is not a “Russian-installed” official as an earlier version said.
Updated
