Closing summary
British former defence secretary Ben Wallace warned his successor, Grant Shapps, that the UK was at risk of “falling behind” in its military support for Ukraine because ministers had yet to announce a military aid budget for 2024-5.
A section of railroad near the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Urals region was hit by a “bang”, Tass and RBC news agencies reported. Baza, a Russian media outlet, said the blast on the railway took place near the station of San-Donato, near an oil depot.
The Swedish prime minister announced that Sweden will send troops to Latvia next year as part of a Canadian-led force to deter Russia from attack – despite not yet being a full member of Nato.
In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the region’s Moscow-appointed government, said. He reportedly said the bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries.
Pope Francis was quoted as saying in a speech referencing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine that “indiscriminately striking” civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law.
Russia sent dozens of missiles across Ukraine early on Monday, killing at least four civilians, Ukrainian authorities said. Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region, local officials said. In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was reported to have been killed. Elsewhere, the governor of the Kharkiv region said a 63-year-old woman was killed in a strike on a town south of Kharkiv. Ukrainian forces destroyed 18 out of 51 missiles launched during the wave of Russian air strikes on Monday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said that Russia has “left people homeless” through its attacks on Ukraine, a reality of war she says “can only be changed by weapons”. “Russian shelling damaged homes and infrastructure in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytsky regions. There are dead and injured, including children,” she wrote on X.
Russia evacuated about 300 residents of Belgorod, a city near the Ukrainian border, because of strikes by Kyiv, the governor of the region said. The evacuation from Belgorod is the largest of a major Russian city since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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Former British defence secretary warns UK at risk of 'falling behind' in Ukraine military support
British former defence secretary Ben Wallace warned his successor, Grant Shapps, that the UK was at risk of “falling behind” in its military support for Ukraine because ministers had yet to announce a military aid budget for 2024-5.
The former minister told parliament he had formally asked for between £2.3bn – the current annual level – and £2.6bn of funding for Ukraine in June before he left the government, but no announcement had been made since then.
“Planners in the department of the Ministry of Defence need time, as do the Ukrainians, to get used to it. If we don’t start making the announcement soon we will fall behind many of our European colleagues who have already overtaken us with our support,” Wallace told MPs present for defence questions.
In reply, Shapps praised the work of his predecessor but declined to offer a figure. Instead he said that Wallace “won’t be disappointed and he won’t need to wait for too long”.
Labour’s shadow defence secretary, John Healey, also pressed on the issue, warning that “current UK military aid funding runs out in a matter of weeks”. He said that he had asked in public for a fresh funding commitment in November.
Britain has given £2.3bn of military aid to Ukraine for two successive years, but while this year’s funding was announced six months in advance, next year’s budget has yet to be confirmed with less than three months on clock. Shapps, however, emphasised the existing commitment to Kyiv runs until April, and was not in danger of running out.
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Russia maintains a force of 19,000 soldiers on the borders with Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions, according to the spokesperson of Ukraine’s northern forces, Yurii Povkh.
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Russian forces invaded the two northern oblasts at the onset of the full-scale invasion in 2022 but were pushed back behind the borders in April of that year.
“This number has not changed for several months, so there is no need to discuss signs of the enemy forming any strike groups,” Povkh said on television.
The spokesperson added that a contingent of this size could be used to secure the border but not to break through Ukrainian lines.
While not under the threat of a major offensive, the two regions regularly experience cross-border raids by Russian sabotage groups and shelling.
“Currently, we can say that the enemy is carrying out its harassing fire to a greater extent,” Povkh said.
Japan’s foreign minister, Yōko Kamikawa, has with top officials in Poland to strengthen ties with the Nato country, which borders Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.
Kamikawa met her Polish counterpart, Radek Sikorski, in Warsaw and was scheduled to meet the country’s president, Andrzej Duda.
She began her visit to Poland on Saturday but interrupted it to make an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday, where she pledged Japan’s continued support for the country.
Japan announced during her visit that it would contribute $37m (£29m) to the Nato trust fund to provide Ukraine with drone detection systems.
In Warsaw, Kamikawa told reporters during a short news briefing that she went to Ukraine to show Japan’s solidarity with the country and that Japan was working with Poland to support Kyiv.
She and Sikorski said that Japan and Poland are strong strategic partners who intend to strengthen their ties further.
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Section of railroad in Russia's Urals region hit by a 'bang' - reports
A section of railroad near the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Urals region was hit by a “bang”, Tass and RBC news agencies reported on Monday, citing the transport prosecutor’s office.
Russian mainstream media frequently uses the term “bang” as a euphemism for an explosion.
Baza, a Russian media outlet, said the blast on the railway took place near the station of San-Donato, near an oil depot.
Last month, a Ukrainian source told Reuters that Ukraine’s domestic spy agency had detonated explosives on a Russian railway line deep in Siberia.
The Russian news agencies said on Monday no one was injured and there was no damage from the latest incident.
RBC, citing the Russian Railways, said traffic in the area was “restricted” and some trains might run behind schedule, Reuters reports.
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Footage released by Ukrainian emergency services in Kharkiv showed authorities rescuing residents from homes turned to rubble.
You can watch the video here:
Sweden will send troops to Latvia next year despite not yet being Nato member
Miranda Bryant reports for the Guardian from Stockholm:
The Swedish prime minister has announced that Sweden will send troops to Latvia next year as part of a Canadian-led force to deter Russia from attack – despite not yet being a full member of Nato.
Warning that Russia is “trying to destabilise all of Europe” with threats, disinformation and cyber-attacks, Ulf Kristersson said “Sweden’s natural place is in Nato” and that he would “waste no time waiting for the final ratifications”.
Sweden is still waiting for Turkey and Hungary to approve its Nato application, which it submitted in May 2022, at the same time as Finland, which became a Nato member in April last year.
Kristersson told the Folk and Försvars Riskonferens (people and defence national conference) in Sälen, western Sweden, on Monday:
We and our neighbours live in the immediate shadow of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. But Russia’s threats, disinformation and cyber-attacks are trying to destabilise all of Europe.
That leads me to some central conclusions.
Firstly: persistence in Sweden’s, the EU’s and the US support for Ukraine. Continued American support presupposes strong European support. Criticism against a lack of American involvement rings false if we ourselves do not stand up for our own continent.
He added that he saw Sweden’s “natural place” as in Nato, stating that “Sweden has unique military capabilities – in the air and underwater; with intelligence capacity and winter-seasoned soldiers.”
Sweden, he said, would “contribute to Nato’s defence and deterrence” and is “ready to contribute ground combat units in the defence of the Baltic states”.
“Today, I can say that the government’s direction is for Sweden to participate with a reduced battalion to the Canadian-led forces in Latvia,” he added.
Ukraine, he said, had demonstrated that “a country’s most important resource in war is the common will to defend”, which is why, he said, on 19 January, Sweden will be reintroducing civil duty.
The Civil defence minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said civil duty would deploy appropriately trained civilians with the emergency services, bolstering their capabilities to respond to a state of emergency or an attack.
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In Russia, Tass reports that eight residential buildings, outbuildings and three cars were damaged during shelling by Ukrainian armed forces on the Bryansk region.
It cited regional governor Alexander Bogomaz, who claimed on his Telegram channel that “more than ten shells were fired at civilian targets”.
He said that street lighting was partially damaged and that emergency crews were working at the spot. There were no reports of any casualties.
In a message posted to social media, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Kuwait for “supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as key UN general assembly resolutions, and for providing timely energy aid and generators for the winter period”.
Ukraine’s president said he had spoken to Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who became emir of Kuwait last month after the death of Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
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The governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region has announced that five people have been wounded, one seriously, in Russian strikes on Monday.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, cites Yuriy Malashko saying: “As of this hour, five people are known to have been wounded as a result of the shelling. One man is in a serious condition, after an amputation.”
The head of the region said that Russia had utilised Iskander and S-400 missiles during the morning attack.
Zaporizhzhia is one of the Ukrainian regions that the Russian Federation has unilaterally claimed to have annexed.
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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that an animal rescue centre in Kharkiv was damaged by Russian strikes today which blew out the windows. A worker at the site, Yaryna Vintonyuk, told Suspilne that four dogs who ran from the centre in fright had been recaptured. “There is nowhere to relocate them, so today we plan to seal the windows to keep the heat in,” Vintoniuk told the news organisation.
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Russia accidentally drops bomb on Russian-occupied Luhansk region - official
In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the region’s Moscow-appointed government, said.
He said the bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries, the Associated Press reports.
The incident comes only six days after Russia accidentally dropped munitions over the village of Petropavlovka in the Belgorod region.
Russia has occupied parts of the Luhansk region since 2014. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow’s troops seized the majority of the region, including Rubizhne, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
Pope Francis was quoted as saying in a speech referencing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine that “indiscriminately striking” civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law.
Russia sent dozens of missiles across Ukraine early on Monday, killing at least four civilians, Ukrainian authorities said. Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region, local officials said. In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was reported to have been killed. Elsewhere, the governor of the Kharkiv region said a 63-year-old woman was killed in a strike on a town south of Kharkiv. Ukrainian forces destroyed 18 out of 51 missiles launched during the wave of Russian air strikes on Monday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said that Russia has “left people homeless” through its attacks on Ukraine, a reality of war she says “can only be changed by weapons”. “Russian shelling damaged homes and infrastructure in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytsky regions. There are dead and injured, including children,” she wrote on X.
Russia evacuated about 300 residents of Belgorod, a city near the Ukrainian border, because of strikes by Kyiv, the governor of the region said. The evacuation from Belgorod is the largest of a major Russian city since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Updated
Ukraine has exported 15m metric tonnes of cargo through its Black Sea shipping corridor, including 10m tonnes of agricultural goods, the country’s deputy prime minister for restoration, Oleksandr Kubrakov, has said.
Ukraine launched the corridor hugging the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria last August shortly after Russia withdrew from a 2022 UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal and threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets.
“Over the five months of the corridor’s operation, 469 new vessels have called at our Ukrainian ports for loading,” Kubrakov said in a statement.
He said that 39 ships were being loaded in the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, while another 83 vessels had confirmed their readiness to call at the ports and export 2.4m tonnes of various cargoes, Reuters reports.
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Pope Francis: Indiscriminately striking civilians is a war crime
Pope Francis has said in a speech referencing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine that “indiscriminately striking” civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law, Reuters reports.
The 87-year-old pontiff made his comments in a 45-minute address to Vatican-accredited envoys that is sometimes called his “state of the world” speech.
There is no conflict that does not end up in some way “indiscriminately striking” the civilian population, he said.
He continued:
The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear proof of this. We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes, and that it is not sufficient to point them out, but also necessary to prevent them.
There is a need for greater effort on the part of the international community to defend and implement humanitarian law, which seems to be the only way to ensure the defence of human dignity in situations of warfare.
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According to the Associated Press, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces have used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called “facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex”.
Four civilians killed after Russian air strikes on Ukraine, officials say
Russia sent dozens of missiles across Ukraine early on Monday, killing at least four civilians, Ukrainian authorities said.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said a 63-year-old woman was killed in a strike on a town south of Kharkiv.
As we mentioned earlier, local officials reported that two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region, where critical infrastructure had also been struck.
In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was killed and a shopping centre and scores of private homes and apartment buildings damaged after nine Russian missiles hit the south central city, Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor, said.
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An oligarch who has supplied building materials to the Russian military machine and for construction in occupied areas of Ukraine is being assisted by Morgan Stanley and Allen & Overy in his attempt to gain control of a huge Russian oil asset, the Guardian can reveal.
Sergey Kolesnikov, originally from Russia but now a Maltese citizen under its “golden passport” scheme, is estimated to be worth $1.2bn (£940m) as a result of the building materials business he co-founded.
Only Poland has imposed sanctions on the 51-year-old but Ukraine has included him on its list of people against whom it wants the EU to use sanctions.
Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, and Allen & Overy, one of the elite “magic circle” law firms headquartered in London, have been helping Kolesnikov as he attempts to take ownership of the Verbluzhye oilfield, said to contain 100m barrels of oil, in Astrakhan in southern Russia.
You can read the full story here:
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Ukrainian forces destroyed 18 out of 51 missiles launched during a wave of Russian air strikes on Monday, Ukraine’s air force said.
It said Russia had launched 32 cruise missiles overnight as well as eight “Shahed” drones, and that all the drones had been downed.
“Critical infrastructure facilities, industrial civilian and military facilities were attacked,” the air force said, according to Reuters.
In the eastern region of Kharkiv, an elderly woman who was pulled from the rubble of her house in the city of Zmiiv has died, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.
Ukrainian reality of war 'can only be changed by weapons', Olena Zelenska says
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said that Russia has “left people homeless” through its attacks on Ukraine, a reality of war she says “can only be changed by weapons”.
“Russian shelling damaged homes and infrastructure in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytsky regions. There are dead and injured, including children,” she wrote on X.
On the coldest winter morning, enemy left people homeless. Russian shelling damaged homes and infrastructure in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs'k, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytsky regions. There are dead and injured, including children. This is 🇺🇦 reality that can only be changed by weapons.
— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) January 8, 2024
US Congress last month failed to approve $50bn (£39bn) in security aid for Ukraine as negotiators fell short of a deal.
Ukraine is separately waiting to receive a €50bn (£43.5bn) package from the EU, delivery of which has looked uncertain after Hungary blocked the EU from approving the aid.
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Here are some of the latest images coming out of Ukraine:
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A Russian missile strike on Monday killed two people and hit critical infrastructure in the western Ukrainian region of Khmelnytskyi, regional officials said.
The Ukrainian military has said Russian forces made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the past day in several areas, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
These claims are yet to be independently verified.
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Over the past 24 hours, Russia fired 16 shells at the city of Kherson, killing two people and injuring five others, according to the governor, Oleksandr Prokudin.
He said the Russian military targeted the residential quarters of the populated areas of the region.
Russian forces struck Kryvyi Rih and Novomoskovsk in the Dnipropetrovsk region early on Monday, killing one person and injuring 24 others, including five children, the regional governor, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
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Russia says 300 residents evacuated from Belgorod over Ukraine strikes
Russia has evacuated about 300 residents of Belgorod, a city near the Ukrainian border, because of strikes by Kyiv, the governor of the region said on Monday.
“Some 300 residents of Belgorod, who decided to temporarily evacuate, are at the moment being housed in temporary shelter centres in Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district” which are further from the border, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, said.
The evacuation from Belgorod is the largest of a major Russian city since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Belgorod is just over half an hour’s drive from the border with Ukraine, making it a vital stop in Russian supply lines. The city has come under extensive shelling and drone attacks for months.
Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod on 30 December killed 25 people, local officials said.
Russia launches large-scale missile attack across Ukraine, officials say
Russia launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine on Monday, officials said.
Ukraine’s air force said the country was under several waves of cruise missile threat and in some regions ballistic missiles, Reuters reports.
“The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities,” Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, wrote on Telegram.
Anatoliy Kurtiev, the secretary of the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia city council, said on Telegram that a missile attack on the city resulted in injuries.
Elsewhere, at least one woman was injured in an attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, wrote on Telegram. He said industrial facilities were hit, resulting in a fire.
Five explosions were heard in the city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Yuriy Malashko said, and at least two people were injured.
Ukraine’s military officials in other cities, including Dnipropetrovsk and Khmelnytskyi have also said their cities were under a “massive missile attack” by Russia.
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Summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine. It has been 683 days since Vladimir Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion, making this day 684. Here are the main developments:
Homes in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv escaped being hit by a Russian missile attack on Sunday, said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov. “It landed near private residential houses in one of the city’s districts. Preliminary information indicates no damage or casualties.”
Russian S-300 missiles hit Kharkiv city twice, said Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, and strikes were also recorded in nearby Vovchansk, but so far no casualties had been reported. Kharkiv and Vovchansk lie close to the border near Belgorod in Russia.
The Japanese foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv on Sunday, pledged $37m to a Nato fund that supports equipment such as a drone detection system. She also announced donations of five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers, to help with power cuts caused by Russian attacks.
In an intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Rosgvardia, the Russian National Guard, was having to bolster its resources and personnel because of upheavals in Russia’s internal security scene from the war in Ukraine.
Five children were among the 11 people killed by a Russian missile strike that hit in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Saturday, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region said. According to Reuters, Vadym Filashkin told Ukrainian television that Russian forces engaged in “mass shelling” of Pokrovsk around 3pm.
The primary task of Sweden’s foreign policy in the coming years will be to support Ukraine, Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, told a defence conference.
The UK said it planned to spend £300m on a programme to produce advanced nuclear fuel suitable for the next generation of power-generating reactors, with the secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Claire Coutinho, warning that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, won’t hold the UK “to ransom on nuclear fuel”. Ministers vowed to end Russia’s monopoly on producing advanced reactor fuel.
In Russia, more than 100 residents of the Russian border city of Belgorod had evacuated to an area farther from Ukraine, local officials said. Belgorod is just over half an hour’s drive from the border with Ukraine, making it a vital stop in the supply lines of Russia’s invasion forces. The city has come under extensive shelling and drone attacks.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told a conference in Sweden via video link: “Even Russia can be brought back within the framework of international law. Its aggression can be defeated.”
Charles Michel has announced he will step down early as European Council president after running in the European parliament elections set for June. The surprise move means EU leaders will have to swiftly agree on a successor to take up his vacated council post, and could pave the way for Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to exert more influence over EU policymaking.
