Ukraine-Russia latest: Moscow strikes Kyiv’s energy infrastructure after downing fighter jet
It comes after the latest Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed a prominent scientist couple and left six people injured
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Your support makes all the difference.Russia has said it had attacked energy facilities in Ukraine that support Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that over the last 24 hours, it had used its air force, drones, missiles and artillery to target energy facilities, military airfields and Ukrainian military personnel across multiple locations.
The Independent could not confirm the extent of the attacks or the damage they inflicted.
Russia regularly reports such strikes, describing recent ones as retaliation for Kyiv’s use of Western-supplied missiles to strike deep into Russian territory
The ministry also reported that Russian troops had downed a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet, 97 drones and six US-supplied HIMARS missiles overnight.
It comes after the latest Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed a prominent scientist couple and left six people injured, education and scientist minister Oksen Lisovyi said.
The minister identified the couple as prominent neurobiologist Ihor Zyma and doctor of biological sciences Olesia Sokur.“The family devoted almost their entire lives to science,” Mr Lisovyi said.
More than 100 drones targeted the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Wednesday as the rest of the world was celebrating the arrival of 2025.
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The Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed a prominent scientist couple, education and scientist minister Oksen Lisovyi said.
Prominent neurobiologist Ihor Zyma and doctor of biological sciences Olesia Sokur were killed in the attack, the minister said.
“The family devoted almost their entire lives to science,” Lisovyi said.
The minister said Zyma was a senior researcher and associate professor at the Institute for Biology and Medicine at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, while Sokur worked at the Institute as a deputy director of scientific work and a member of the Academic Council.
“My deepest sympathies to the relatives and loved ones of those killed, as well as to all those who suffer from today’s terrorist terror. Russia – absolutely evil, bringing death and destruction. The world must react harshly and principledly,” the minister said on Facebook.
Ukraine navy says it destroyed over 37,000 Russian drones last year
Ukraine’s navy has destroyed more than 37,000 Russian drones in the year 2024, it reported yesterday.
The downed platforms include Russian strike drones, operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, first-person-view drones, and Shahed-type attack drones, the navy said in a Facebook post. Ukrainian naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft, it added.
Russia’s drone losses included 35,670 destroyed FPV drones and 1,140 strike drones, the navy said. Ukraine’s naval units also eliminated 192 operational and tactical drones and another 164 Shahed-136/131 drones.
Watch: Russia and Ukraine swap 150 prisoners in tearful exchange
War in Ukraine: A snapshot of 2024 military warfare
Russian forces in 2024 advanced in Ukraine at the fastest rate since 2022, the war’s first year, and control about a fifth of the country. But the gains have come at the cost of heavy, though undisclosed, losses in men and equipment.
In 2024, Russia was invaded for the first time since the Second World War as Ukraine grabbed a slice of its western Kursk region in a surprise counter-attack on 6 August.
Russia has yet to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk despite bringing in more than 10,000 troops from its ally North Korea, according to Ukrainian, South Korean and US assessments. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
“To sustain even the very slow advance in Ukraine, Russia has been forced to ignore the months-long occupation of part of its own territory by Ukrainian forces,” British security expert Ruth Deyermond said.
“Taking a ‘nothing to see here’ attitude to the loss of its own land is not what great powers do, particularly one so preoccupied with the idea of state sovereignty.”
Deyermond, in a long thread posted on X, suggested Putin’s efforts to portray Russia as a leading world power were also undermined by the toppling of its chief Middle East ally, former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and its increasing dependence on China.
Mr Putin, the longest-serving ruler of Russia since Josef Stalin, said on 19 December that under his leadership the country had moved back from “the edge of the abyss” and rebuffed threats to its sovereignty.
With hindsight, he said, he should not have waited until February 2022 before launching his “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term he still uses for the full-scale invasion of Russia’s neighbour.
What is ATACMS? The US missiles being used inside Russia
There are several variants of Army Tactical Missile Systems, a long-range missile system that often carries varying amounts of cluster bomblets.
Ukrainian forces used the US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for the first time in October 2023, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying the weapons had “proven themselves.”
Ukraine likely has what are known as M39A1 Block IA ATACMS that are guided in part by Global Positioning System and have a range of 40 to 190 miles. They can carry a payload of 300 bomblets. The M39 Block IA were used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Army documents, and were added to the US arsenal in 1997.
Families in tears as Ukrainian soldiers return home after Russia prisoner of war swap
Families in tears as Ukrainian soldiers return home after Russia prisoner of war swap
Ukrainian families sobbed as they reunited with loved ones in a prisoner of war (POW) swap with Russia on Monday, 30 December. Among them were soldiers captured by Russia from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Snake island and other parts of the front line, as well as two civilians. Volodymyr Zelensky said the two countries exchanged 189 prisoners of war each in an exchange mediated by the United Arab Emirates. It was the 59th POW swap since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. Mariupol defender Oleksandr Hlyshenko was in captivity for more than two years. He waited for his release "every minute" and called the day of the exchange his "second birthday."
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Comment: Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
Editorial: Almost three years after Putin’s invasion, it almost beggars belief that cheap energy from Russia was still being piped across war-ravaged Ukraine into Europe. Stopping it has triggered another global price spiral, and may yet have dire political consequences – but EU leaders cannot afford to maintain this habit
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