Ukraine-Russia war latest: Two dead after Putin launches New Year’s Day drone attack on Kyiv
Drone attack comes as third anniversary of the war approaches
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Your support makes all the difference.Russia has launched a major drone attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on New Year’s Day that has killed two people and injured at least six others.
More than 100 drones targeted the city in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the rest of the world was celebrating the arrival of 2025.
At least six people including a pregnant woman were among the injured, city officials said.
In his New Year’s message, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had no doubt incoming US president Donald Trump was capable of achieving peace.
The president-elect has boasted that he would be able to end the war “within 24 hours” of returning to office after his victory in the US elections in November.
Mr Zelensky thanked the current US administration for providing a wide array of critical military equipment, including 39 multiple-launch rocket systems, 301 Howitzer artillery weapons and over 300 million units of ammunition, as he recalled conversations with outgoing president Joe Biden and “everyone who supports us in the United States”.
Ukraine halts Russian gas supplies to Europe after transit deal expires
Putin has ruled Russia for 25 years – but what has he really got to show for it?
Putin apologises for ‘tragic’ Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash but does not take responsibility
Russia claims it foiled several Ukrainian plots to kill senior officers with disguised bombs
Russian man arrested for running LGBTQ+ travel agency found dead
A Russian man arrested for allegedly running a travel agency for gay customers was found dead in custody in Moscow, rights group OVD-Info reported Sunday, amid a crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in Russia.
According to OVD-Info, which tracks political arrests, Andrei Kotov — director of the “Men Travel” agency — faced charges of “organizing extremist activity and participating in it.”
OVD-Info said an investigator told Kotov’s lawyer that her client had died by suicide early Sunday while in pretrial detention and was found dead in his cell.
Prior to Kotov’s death, independent media outlet Mediazona reported earlier this month that Kotov had rejected the charges and said in court that law enforcement officers beat him and administered electric shocks during the arrest, even though he didn’t resist.
Read the full report:
Russian man arrested for running LGBTQ+ travel agency found dead
Andrei Kotov, director of the ‘Men Travel’ agency, faced charges of ‘organizing extremist activity and participating in it’
Ukraine downs six out of 21 Russian drones
Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday it had downed six out of 21 Russia-launched missiles overnight.
Russia attacked the country with 40 drones, 16 of which were shot down, the air force said on Telegram.
The remaining drones failed to reach their targets, it added.
Russia will ‘move forward’, Putin says in New Year address
In a New Year’s address to the Russian people, president Vladimir Putin said Russia will “move forward” in 2025.
The seasonal message is being broadcast at midnight in each of the 11 time zones across Russia.
Russia has strengthened its unity in the first quarter of the 21st century, Putin said, achieving significant goals.
"And now, on the threshold of the new year, we are thinking about the future. We are confident that everything will be fine, we will only move forward. We know for sure that the absolute value for us was, is and will be the fate of Russia, the well-being of its citizens," he said.
Putin described Russian soldiers fighting in the war in Ukraine as “true heroes”, but did not make specific predictions for the battlefield situation in 2025.
Report: Hundreds of soldiers freed in the latest prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates, officials said Monday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 150 Russian soldiers were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people.
The reason for the discrepancy in numbers wasn’t immediately clear.
Read the full report:
Hundreds of soldiers freed in the latest prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that released hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates
‘We can help restore Syria’, says Zelensky
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked his delegation for visiting the Syrian capital of Damascus, and calls for the countries to “renew our economic cooperation”.
He said in a post on X: “We can help restore stability in Syria after years of Russian interference, and this will undoubtedly help us restore peace for ourselves as well. It would be the right step to re-establish our diplomatic relations with Syria and renew our economic cooperation.
“We are counting on post-Assad Syria to respect international law in a way that Assad neither could nor wanted to. He was neither independent nor sovereign and simply failed to understand what it means to respect his own people and the international community.”
ICYMI: Biden announces almost $6bn in military and budget aid for Ukraine
The Biden administration has announced almost $6bn in military and budget aid for Ukraine before president-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.
“I’ve directed my administration to continue surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Mr Biden said in a statement.
“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office.”
This includes $2.5bn more in weapons and $3.4bn in economic assistance to help pay for other government services.
Comment | Putin has ruled Russia for 25 years – but what has he really got to show for it?
When Boris Yeltsin suddenly resigned as Russia’s first post-communist president on New Year’s Eve, 1999, his country seemed to be spiralling downhill into economic and political disintegration. Few gave his largely unknown successor as acting president much chance of reversing the economic implosion or remaining in office for long.
The then prime minister Vladimir Putin’s media operation had already begun to portray the ex-KGB operative in stark contrast to the moribund Yeltsin as an action man. That same year the second Chechen war on the country’s southern border raged. Twenty-five years later, Vladimir Putin is still in the Kremlin but Russia is again in the grip of war on its post-Soviet periphery after last week’s downing of an airliner over Chechen airspace.
Mark Almond writes:
What 25 years of Putin has done to the world, in a presidency bookended by war
Crisis has aided the Russian strongman’s regime stability far more than any index of economic success, writes Mark Almond
In pictures: Ukrainians reunite with family in prisoner swap
Ukrainian drone attack causes oil spill and fire in Russia, region says
A Ukrainian drone attack has caused a fuel spill and fire at an oil depot in Russia’s western Smolensk region, local governor Vasily Anokhin said.
Russian air defences shot down 10 Ukrainian drones but the wreckage of one of them fell on the oil facility, Anokhin wrote on Telegram according to Reuters.
The situation is now “under control”, he added, but no further details were issued.
China and Russia have moved ‘hand in hand’ on right path, says Xi
China and Russia have always moved “hand in hand” on the right path, Chinese president Xi jinping said according to the Xinhua news agency.
It comes months after the two countries struck together a “new era strategic partnership” on several issues, including Taiwan, Ukraine and rivalling the United States.
Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported Moscow’s ambassador to Beijing as saying that Mr Xi will visit Russia in 2025.
Mr Xi expressed his desire to maintain close ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin in an exchange of New Year greetings.
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