Closing summary
Answering media questions at an EU summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that European security guarantees would not be enough for Ukraine, which aspires to join transatlantic military alliance Nato. He stressed the importance of US support. Zelenskyy also said also it was important that discussions about a potential foreign peacekeeping contingent were happening now (he said yesterday that he had held a new discussion with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on the latter’s proposal to deploy troops in Ukraine as a means to help achieve a stable peace).
Vladimir Putin held his annual press conference today in Moscow. In it, the Russian president suggested a missile “duel” with the US that would show how Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile could defeat any American missile defence system. He also said the Russian economy may grow by 4% this year but acknowledged that inflation was a worrying signal. Putin also said that relations between Russia and China had reached a level never seen before, adding that the two countries were coordinating their actions on the international stage and would continue to do so. Putin said he is ready for talks “any time” with US president-elect Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office.
At least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters this morning. Another 1,000 of Pyongyang’s soldiers have been injured, he said.
Ukraine struck Russian territory with at least 13 missiles and 84 drones, triggering a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the southern Rostov region that burned for hours, Russian officials said on Thursday. Ukraine later claimed responsibility for the strike, which the country’s military said caused a fire at the refinery which was used to supply Russian armed forces.
Russian air defences shot down 84 drones over Russian regions, including 36 over Rostov region, according to the Russian defence ministry.
Russian forces have taken control of the villages of Novyi Komar and Zelenivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Interfax news agency reported.
British troops may be sent to Ukraine to train up soldiers in its war against Russia, the UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, has suggested.
This blog is closing now. Thanks for following along. You can read all our Ukraine coverage here.
The press conference is over now.
Russia wanted to 'annihilate' Ukraine's army, Zelenskyy says, as he comments on Istanbul peace talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of agreeing a deal to end hostilities at talks in Istanbul in April 2022, but that Ukraine backed away from it once Russian troops fell back from near Kyiv.
The deal is reported to have included clauses demanding that Ukraine adopt a geopolitically neutral status and not join Nato, limit the size of its armed forces, and grant a special status to eastern Ukraine - all things which Zelenskyy has made clear he opposes.
Referring to the talks in Istanbul, Zelenskyy said:
Ukraine did not agree to the ultimatum of Russian Federation. They tried to have follow up steps to soften their positions in this ultimatum. And you remember, these were the meetings in Belarus and in Turkey. You remember all this, and all these meetings were so-called Istanbul agreements. Ukraine has not signed anything – and these agreements don’t exist. We had just responded to the ultimatum from the Russian side, and that is it…
They wanted to annihilate our army so the army did not exist (40-50,000 only). So he was just suggesting to Ukraine to give up, to freeze the conflict, to change the direction of their future, not Nato, not Europe, but directing itself to Russia to take our independence, to deprive the future. And this person is now telling us that these are agreements. He (Putin) is an old fantasizer. He lives in a different world. He lives in his own aquarium I am afraid.
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Zelenskyy says he doesn’t have enough F-16 fighter jets “in our skies” to protect Ukrainian soldiers. “How can you push forward with the army when the missiles are falling on your head and you are not controlling the skies,” he said. Zelenskyy describes the front as “stable”, despite steady Russian battlefield gains over recent months. The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight fighter aircraft that was initially designed in the 1970s. It first went into service in 1979, and was used heavily by the US air force in both Iraq wars and in Afghanistan. Ukraine had a small air force of Soviet-standard jets at the start of the war, amounting to about 120 combat-capable aircraft, according to the IISS thinktank.
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Zelenskyy says that Ukraine will not continue to transit Russian gas flows to Europe after an existing contract to do so expires at the end of the year. “We would not prolong the transit of Russian gas,” he told the news conference during the EU summit in Brussels.
European security guarantees will be insufficient for Ukraine, Zelenskyy says
He was asked by a reporter if he talked to Nato/European leaders and officials about security guarantees last night. Zelenskyy says he thinks European guarantees will be insufficient, as “real guarantees” are from Nato, which is dependent on decisions taken by European countries and the US. When asked what security guarantee means in practical terms, the Ukrainian president said he cannot discuss any details now, but said that they are necessary as Vladimir Putin is dangerous. “For him, he needs very much to show success for his society. That is why I can’t share some details until decisions are made.”
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Zelenskyy: We are in discussions about peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held a new discussion with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on the latter’s proposal to deploy troops in Ukraine as a means to help achieve a stable peace.
“We share a common vision: reliable guarantees are essential for a peace that can truly be achieved,” said Ukraine’s president, who was in Brussels on Wednesday for meetings with Nato’s chief and European leaders.
Now addressing the EU summit in Brussels, he said Kyiv supports Macron’s initiative but they need more details on the “military contingency”.
He said:
We say that it could be part of the security guarantees. It goes without saying that Nato is the best security guarantee for Ukraine. And of course, until Ukraine is a member of Nato, this aspect could be considered as an alternative.
But the most important is that it is not just an artificial issue blown up. We need to have concrete mechanisms… how many details, what do they will do if Russia is attacking, for example – many, many questions are being raised. We’re discussing them.
He says Nato is the best security guarantee for Ukraine. Ukraine, which has made a concerted push to obtain an invitation to join Nato, has insisted throughout the war that it needs security guarantees to prevent Russia launching another invasion after the current hostilities are halted.
Zelenskyy says that everyone is waiting for Donald Trump to return to the White House in January. He stressed the need for unity between Europe and the US.
You can watch Zelenskyy speaking and answering questions at the EU summit here:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met today with the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during a two-day summit in Brussels.
“As we approach the start of the new year, we really need unity between the United States, the EU, and European countries,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “Only together, the US and Europe can truly stop Putin and save Ukraine,” the Ukrainian leader said, adding that the main focus of discussions was how to best protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has come under intense attack from Russia, as well as increasing domestic defence production.
Zelensky and von der Leyen discussed Kyiv’s accession to the EU and the use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine to help it fight invading Russian forces. Zelenskyy is due to start a press conference any minute now. We will bring you the lines from it once the conference begins.
Putin suggests Russia should have launched full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier than February 2022
Vladimir Putin also suggested during the lengthy press conference that Moscow should have launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier, implying the country was not well-prepared enough for a war that has lasted almost three years.
Referring to his decision to order troops into Ukraine in February 2022, he said:
If it was possible to look at the situation knowing what is happening now, I would think that such a decision that was taken, should have been taken earlier…
We started the events of 2022 without any preparation... If we knew earlier what would happen, there should have been a systemic preparation.
Earlier this month, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that since Russia launched its invasion 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 370,000 injured. He also claimed that 198,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and a further 550,000 injured.
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This is the Associated Press’s summary of Putin’s press conference so far:
President Vladimir Putin has boasted that his military operation in Ukraine has strengthened Russia and denied that the downfall of a key ally in Syria had dented Moscow’s prestige.
The Russian leader sought to project strength and ease. As is typical, he used the tightly choreographed event to reinforce his authority and demonstrate a sweeping command of everything from consumer prices to military hardware.
He claimed that nearly three years of fighting in Ukraine has hardened the Russian economy and the country’s military and hailed his troops’ gains there. Russian troops are making steady, if slow, advances in Ukraine. But the Kremlin has also suffered some embarrassing setbacks.
Putin says he is ready for talks 'any time' with Trump
Vladimir Putin has said he is ready for talks “any time” with US president-elect Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office.
Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has stoked fears in Kyiv that he could force Ukraine to accept peace on terms favourable to Moscow.
Holding his annual end-of-year press conference, the Kremlin leader said his troops held the upper hand across the battlefield, but was forced to admit he does not know when Russia will take back the western Kursk region where Ukrainian troops launched an incursion in August.
Asked about Trump’s overtures regarding a possible peace deal, Putin, 72, said he would welcome a meeting with the incoming Republican.
I don’t know when I’m going to see him. He isn’t saying anything about it. I haven’t talked to him in more than four years. I am ready for it, of course. Any time.
If we ever have a meeting with President-elect Trump, I am sure we’ll have a lot to talk about.
He added that Russia was ready for “negotiations and compromises”.
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Russia will remain a threat to Europe even after Ukraine war, Finland says
Russia and countries that support it will remain a danger to Europe even after the war in Ukraine has ended, Finnish defence minister Antti Hakkanen has said.
Hakkanen told a press conference:
Russia, together with its allies, will remain a dangerous actor in Europe even after the war in Ukraine and we cannot exclude the possibility of threatening European countries with the use of military force.
Earlier today, Finland published its first defence policy review since it joined Nato. The review recommended that Finland should focus on strengthening its national defence, Nato’s deterrence and cooperation with individual allies, especially in regional surveillance and training. “The main allies in our international cooperation are Sweden, Norway, the United States, Britain and Estonia,” Hakkanen said, adding Finland was working with South Korea, Israel and Japan in securing defence materials.
Finland will continue to spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on defence, in line with a minimum target set by Nato, according to the review.
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Here are some of the latest images from Russia and Ukraine:
We’ve got a bit more from Putin’s press conference, where he was asked about the recent assassination of a senior general in Moscow.
Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s chemical weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.
Putin said the killing amounted to a Russian security failure:
Our special services are missing these hits. They missed these hits.
It means we need to improve this work. We must not allow such very serious blunders to happen.
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Summary of the day so far...
Vladimir Putin has been holding his annual press conference today in Moscow. In it, the Russian president suggested a missile “duel” with the US that would show how Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile could defeat any American missile defence system. He also said the Russian economy may grow by 4% this year but acknowledged that inflation was a worrying signal. Putin also said that relations between Russia and China had reached a level never seen before, adding that the two countries were coordinating their actions on the international stage and would continue to do so.
At least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters this morning. Another 1,000 of Pyongyang’s soldiers have been injured, he said.
Ukraine struck Russian territory with at least 13 missiles and 84 drones, triggering a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the southern Rostov region that burned for hours, Russian officials said on Thursday. Ukraine later claimed responsibility for the strike, which the country’s military said caused a fire at the refinery which was used to supply Russian armed forces.
Russian air defences shot down 84 drones over Russian regions, including 36 over Rostov region, according to the Russian defence ministry.
Russian forces have taken control of the villages of Novyi Komar and Zelenivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Interfax news agency reported.
British troops may be sent to Ukraine to train up soldiers in its war against Russia, the UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, has suggested.
There is a summit of EU leaders in Brussels happening today.
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Reuters is carrying some fuller quotes from Vladimir Putin’s press conference in Moscow (see post at 10.06 for more details), concerning the frontline situation in Ukraine. The Russian president said:
I must say that the situation (at the front) is changing dramatically... There is movement along the entire front line. Every day...
And we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation...
Everyone is fighting, literally heroically. And they are fighting right now.
Let us wish them all, both those who are fighting in the Kursk region (of Russia) and those who are fighting along the entire front line, good luck, victory and to return home.
As we mentioned in the opening summary, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told a press briefing this morning that at least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December.
He also said that “several North Korean casualties” had already been attributed to Ukrainian missile and drone attacks and training accidents, with the highest ranking “at least at the level of a general”.
South Korea’s spy agency said the high number of North Korean casualties could be attributed to the “unfamiliar battlefield environment, where North Korean forces are being utilised as expendable frontline assault units, and their lack of capability to counter drone attacks,” said Lee.
North Korea has pledged to support Moscow until it achieves a “great victory” in Ukraine, as my colleagues Luke Harding and Alessio Mamo write in this story about Pyongyang’s involvement in the war.
Along with ammunition and missiles, thousands of North Korean soldiers have been fighting in Russia’s Kursk region to expel Ukrainian forces there, according to the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region in August, but has since lost more than 40% of the territory it had captured as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.
Putin says Russia-China relations have reached a level never seen before
In his press conference, Vladimir Putin said that relations between Russia and China had reached a level never seen before, adding that the two countries were coordinating their actions on the international stage and would continue to do so.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing less than three weeks before his forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The US says China is supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by supplying so-called dual use goods, including microelectronics, that can help it build weapons, a charge Beijing denies.
Poland summoned the chargé d’affaires of Belarus (a diplomat of a lower rank acting in place of an ambassador), Alexei Ponkratiev, on Thursday to protest against what it called “aggressive actions” of the Belarusian KGB spy service towards Polish diplomats accredited in Belarus and other countries.
The Polish foreign ministry did not specify what actions it was accusing the Belarus agency of having taken, but said the continuation of such provocations would be met with a “symmetrical response from the Polish side”.
Warsaw says its role as a hub for supplies to Ukraine has made it a target for spies working for Russia and its ally Belarus, as well as for acts of sabotage. Minsk and Moscow have dismissed accusations that they are behind acts of sabotage.
You can watch Putin’s press conference here:
Putin says Russia is ready for a missile 'duel' with the US
We have some more comments made by Putin at the press conference. According to Reuters, he suggested a missile “duel” with the US that would show how Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile could defeat any American missile defence system. Putin has used the missile, which has nuclear capabilities, as a way of raising the stakes and threatening the west.
Addressing western scepticism about the Oreshnik, the Russian president suggested that both sides select a designated target to be protected by US missiles. “We’re ready for such an experiment,” Putin was quoted as saying.
Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on 21 November, in what Putin cast as a response to Ukraine’s first use of US Atacms ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission. US and UK sources indicated at the time that they believed the missile fired on Dnipro was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US.
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Main takeaways from Putin's annual news conference
Vladimir Putin is speaking at an annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow. Here are some of the notable remarks the Russian president, who has held power for nearly a quarter-century, made during the highly choreographed event:
Putin said he could not say when his army would regain full control of the western Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in August. “We will absolutely kick them out. Absolutely. It can’t be any other way. But the question of a specific date, I’m sorry, I cannot say right now,” he said.
Putin said that Russian forces were moving towards achieving their primary goals in the war, with Russian forces advancing along the front.
Putin said the economy may grow by 4% this year but inflation was a worrying signal. “With the economy as a whole, the situation in Russia is stable, despite external threats,” he said, adding: “Inflation is a worrying signal.” “The thing that is unpleasant and bad is the rise in prices. But I hope that if macroeconomic indicators are maintained, we will be able to cope with it,” Putin said.
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Europe should focus its efforts on supporting Ukraine and not engage in premature calls for peace negotiations, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. “We have to talk how we can support Ukraine more. Any push for negotiations too soon will actually be a bad deal for Ukraine,” Kallas said before a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
Her comments are similar in tone to those made by Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nauseda. Also speaking before the summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Nauseda said it is too early to talk about possible peace negotiations in Ukraine as Russia shows no interest in real peace at the moment. “Russia is showing no willingness to negotiate and I think in this situation we have to do everything what is in our hands to support Ukraine and to make Ukraine strong and only then to proceed and to go to the negotiations table,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, facing manpower shortages and growing territorial losses, has indicated that he may be open to negotiations with Russia, though he has said this has to be from a position of strength, which means security guarantees from the west and more weapons.
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Russia says it has taken control of two villages in Ukraine
Russian forces have taken control of the villages of Novyi Komar and Zelenivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Interfax news agency is reporting, citing the Russian defence ministry. We have not been able to independently verify this information yet.
In total, Russia, which continues to make incremental battlefield gains, has captured and retaken about 2,350 sq km of territory (907 sq miles) in eastern Ukraine and in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a surprise incursion over the summer, according to the BBC.
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Zelenskyy says it is 'very difficult to support Ukraine without US help'
Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said “it is very difficult to support Ukraine without American help”, casting doubt on Europe’s ability to fill the gap if Donald Trump withdraws US military support.
Ukraine’s president also said there needed to be “very much unity between the United States and the EU and countries of Europe” to achieve peace.
He was speaking to journalists as he arrived at a summit in Brussels for talks with European leaders.
Officially, that meeting is likely to focus on issues such as Ukraine’s urgent needs to protect its energy network and increase weapons production, rather than more sensitive questions of long-term security guarantees.
That issue came up on Wednesday night, according to Zelenskyy, when he held talks with a smaller group of European leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, the Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, and the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy.
Zelenskyy was led into the meeting by the European Council president António Costa, who said: “We want to welcome you some day here as a member of the European Union and we will work with you for this and to win a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for striking the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov region overnight. The country’s military said that the attack caused a fire at the refinery which was used to supply Russian armed forces.
The Russian governor of the Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar, had earlier reported a fire at the site after a “massive attack by the enemy, who used more than three dozen drones and three missiles.”
The fire at the refinery - which is 10 kilometres (six miles) from the international border with Ukraine, but 200 kilometres from the nearest Ukrainian positions (125 miles) - lasted for more than six hours, according to posts on his Telegram channel.
Drones have attacked another oil depot in Russia, this time in Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov region. A massive fire has broken out. pic.twitter.com/X8axXqxe7R
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) December 19, 2024
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British troops could be sent to Ukraine to help train the country’s soldiers - defence secretary suggests
British troops may be sent to Ukraine to train up soldiers in its war against Russia, the UK’s defence secretary has suggested.
John Healey, who has been in Kyiv to discuss plans to provide more support to Ukraine, said Britain needs to “make the training a better fit for what the Ukrainians need”. Defence sources have told the BBC that he has not ruled out sending UK troops to Ukraine to help train. But no official decision on this has been announced.
Healey told The Times: “We [need to] make it easier for the Ukrainians to access and we [need to] work with the Ukrainians to help them motivate and mobilise more recruits.”
Asked if this meant extending training of Ukrainian recruits inside Britain to Ukraine itself, he said: “We will look wherever we can to respond to what the Ukrainians want. They are the ones fighting.”
Britain is currently training Ukrainian soldiers in the UK. But, along with other Nato members, Britain has not sent any ground troops to help Ukraine on the frontlines for fear of escalating the conflict and being pulled directly into it. The UK has, however, been providing both lethal and non-lethal weaponry, including tanks, air defence systems and long-range precision strike missiles.
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Zelenskyy says he discussed French troop idea with Macron
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held a new discussion with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on the latter’s proposal to deploy troops in Ukraine as a means to help achieve a stable peace.
“We share a common vision: reliable guarantees are essential for a peace that can truly be achieved,” said Ukraine’s president, who was in Brussels on Wednesday for meetings with Nato’s chief and European leaders.
“We continued working on President Macron’s initiative regarding the presence of forces in Ukraine that could contribute to stabilising the path to peace.”
Macron’s office said France was making reinforced support for Ukraine its “absolute priority” and would continue giving Ukraine “the means to defend itself and to make Russia’s war of aggression fail”.
The French president would maintain a “tight dialogue with Ukraine and its international partners to work for a return to a fair and lasting peace”. Zelenskyy is also due to take part in an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
In February, Macron said he refused to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine, but said no consensus existed on the step. Allies – including the US and European countries such as Germany and Sweden - were quick to rule out sending combat troops to Ukraine.
In other developments:
At least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters on Thursday. Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce the Russian military, including to the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year. “In December, they [North Korean troops] engaged in actual combat, during which at least 100 fatalities occurred,” Lee said, speaking after a briefing by South Korea’s spy agency. “The National Intelligence Service also reported that the number of injured is expected to reach nearly 1,000.” Despite those losses, the agency also said it had detected signs North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was preparing to train a new special operations force to ship westward.
Ukraine struck Russian territory with at least 13 missiles and 84 drones, triggering a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the southern Rostov region that burned for hours, Russian officials said on Thursday. Russian air defences shot down 84 drones over Russian regions, including 36 over Rostov region, according to the defence ministry.
A Russian missile attack damaged residential buildings and infrastructure in Ukraine’s Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the Ukrainian military said this morning. There were no immediate reports of causalities. Russia used two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and a Kh-59/69 guided missile in its attack, the air force said. The attack damaged infrastructure, two apartment buildings, a hospital, and a school in Dnipropetrovsk region, its governor Serhiy Lysak said. A missile attack on the northeastern Sumy region damaged nine private residences, regional authorities said.
Britain has unveiled £225m (US$286m) in new military aid to Ukraine for next year including drones, boats and air defence systems.
The World Bank has approved $2.05bn in funding for Ukraine that includes the first grant from a $20bn US loan fund for Kyiv that is backed by income from frozen Russian sovereign assets.
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