Ukraine-Russia war latest: Three killed in cross-border attacks as 1,700 of Kyiv’s troops desert army
Around 1,700 soldiers of a high-profile unit have reportedly deserted the army before deployment
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Your support makes all the difference.At least three people have been killed on both sides of the Russia-Ukrainian border on Friday, local officials said, as the grinding war nears its third anniversary.
One person was killed in an attack on a residential building in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, which injured five others.
A man was killed while walking down a road in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine has controlled since a mass incursion in August, the regional governor said.
The governor of Russia's western Bryansk region said one person had been killed in mortar fire on a village near the border.
It comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched 300 attack drones and nearly 20 missiles on Ukrainian targets in the first three days of 2025. Most of the drones and missiles had been downed or intercepted, Mr Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, around 1,700 soldiers from the 155th Mechanised Brigade have reportedly deserted the army before the unit’s first deployment in eastern Ukraine, the Telegraph reported.
The brigade was part of a high-profile initiative by Mr Zelensky and French president Emmanual Macron, aimed to showcase western support. It has reportedly suffered from equipment shortages and inadequate training.
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Zelensky says Trump can be decisive in helping stop Putin
President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Mr Zelensky, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Mr Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.
The Ukrainian president also said a priority was to stabilise the frontline early in the new year. Mr Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.
“He’s very strong and unpredictable, and I would really like to see President Trump’s unpredictability apply to Russia. I believe he really wants to end the war,” he said. “Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” he said in a televised interview.
“His qualities are indeed there,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Trump. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.”
Russia has recruited up to 180,000 convicts for war against Ukraine - reports
Russia has enlisted between 140,000 and 180,000 prison inmates to fight in the war against Ukraine, Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) said, according to the Kyiv Independent.
There were about 300,000-350,000 prisoners in Russian prisons in 2024, which is half as many as in 2014, according to the Ukrainian intelligence agency.
Russia launches new barrage of drones at Ukraine, killing one, Kyiv says
Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Friday, killing one civilian and injuring four others in the Kyiv region, the military and regional officials said.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 60 out of 93 Russian drones, the air force said. It also said that 26 drones were “lost”, in reference to Ukraine‘s use of electronic warfare to redirect Russian drones.
One Russian drone was still in the air, the air force added.
Mykola Kalashnyk, acting governor for the Kyiv region, said that a truck driver was killed by drone debris. The debris also damaged several private houses, injuring four people, including a 16-year-old boy, he said.
Pictured: Wounded Ukrainian soldiers find solace in Greek monasteries
Ukraine ends Russian gas pipeline to Europe – but how much will it cost Moscow?
Russian gas is no longer flowing to EU states through Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an energy route that has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the move means Russia can no longer “earn billions on our blood”.
His energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security”.
“This is a historic event,” he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. “Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses.”
Alicja Hagopian, our Data correspondent explains:
Ukraine ends Russian gas pipeline to Europe – but how much will it cost Moscow?
Russia will no longer transport gas to Europe via Ukraine’s pipelines, further limiting its ability to raise capital
ICYMI: Zelensky says Ukraine is preparing to resume diplomatic ties with Syria
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus.
Zelensky spoke after a visit to Syria by his Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and by Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval who said earlier Ukraine had already sent a shipment of food aid.
“We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Syria in June 2022 after the then government in Damascus said it recognised the “independence” of the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Since rebels overthrew Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad last month, Ukraine has been moving to build ties with the new Islamist rulers there. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, was a staunch ally of Assad and has given him political asylum.
Moscow has also said it is in contact with the new administration in Damascus, including over the fate of Russian military facilities in Syria.
Kremlin supporters tout Trump takeover threats as aiding Putin’s expansionist goals
President-elect Donald Trump has boasted on social media about taking over Greenland, making Canada the 51st state, and wresting control of the Panama Canal.
His expansionist rhetoric has worried allies but elated enemies, with Russians viewing the statements as evidence that Trump isn’t opposed to foreign wars of conquest, as is the Kremlin, despite what he has otherwise stated.
To Russian president Vladimir Putin’s top propagandists, Trump’s statements have revealed that he would blithely invade a country unable to fight back, according to Julia Davis, an observer of Russian media and columnist at The Daily Beast.
Kremlin supporters tout Trump takeover threats as aiding Putin’s expansionist goals
By talking of making Canada the 51st state, “Trump is basically saying, ‘Russians, you can take the Baltics,’” said TV host
Russia lost 420,000 soldiers to gain 4,168sq km in Ukraine and Kursk last year, ISW says
Russian forces gained 4,168sq km of land, largely fields and small settlements in Ukraine and the Kursk region, in 2024 but suffered over 420,000 casualties in the process, an American think tank monitoring the war has claimed.
The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi’s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.
“ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that the Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized,” it said in an assessment released on Wednesday.
Russian forces made 56.5 per cent of their 2024 territorial gains between September and November period, it added.
Zelensky says Ukraine is preparing to resume diplomatic ties with Syria
Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria.
“We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,” Mr Zelensky said after hearing the report from Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha’s visit to Syria on Monday.
Photos: Family gathers for the funeral of Ukrainian serviceman ‘Harvey'
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