Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces launch 100-drone attack as Germany’s Scholz makes surprise Kyiv trip
Zelensky says any invitation to join Nato must apply to all of Ukraine’s territory
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Your support makes all the difference.Russian forces launched 110 drones towards Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s airforce has said, while airstrikes continue to destroy Kyiv’s energy infrastructure.
The air force said it shot down 52 drones while another 50 were ‘lost’, likely due to electronic warfare.
A drone hit a residential building in the western city of Ternopil, killing at least one person and injuring several others, officials said.
On the frontlines, Moscow's troops have been capturing village after village in Ukraine's east, part of a drive to fully seize the industrial Donbas region, while Russian airstrikes continue to target a hobbled Ukrainian energy grid as winter sets in.
It comes as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an unexpected visit to Kyiv on Monday, promising military aid worth 650 million euros (£538mn).
Scholz will hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is set to push NATO to invite Ukraine to join the military alliance at a meeting in Brussels this week.
Ukraine and Russia exchange drone fire as four killed in Dnipro strike
Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s forces have exchanged heavy drone attacks once again overnight on Saturday.
Kyiv’s military said it had shot down shot down 32 of 78 Iranian-made Shahed and dummy drones fired overnight by Russia at Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy and Poltava, with a further 45 “lost” over various areas, likely due to being electronically jammed.
Moscow said it had shot down 29 Ukrainian drones in four regions of western Russia, while a child was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Bryansk region, governor Alexander Bogomaz alleged.
UN aid workers were among those providing emergency aid as four people were killed in a missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, with 24 people injured.
A further three people died and seven more were injured when a Russian drone struck a minibus in the southern city of Kherson on Sunday morning, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
UK minister says he ‘can’t predict’ whether Ukraine will become part of Nato
A British government minister has said he “can’t predict” whether Ukraine will become part of Nato, but added that Kyiv has “got to be free to make its choices”.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said the UK does not want to see “Ukraine coerced into accepting a deal” it does not want after Russia’s invasion.
Mr McFadden told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I don’t know whether Ukraine will be part of Nato or not in the future, I can’t predict that. What I do know is that I want the country to be free to make decisions about its own future.”
He added that any application would “have to be considered properly by Nato in the future”.
Asked if the UK would back a deal that would see Russia keeping control of areas such as Crimea if the Ukrainians agreed, Mr McFadden said: “The principle that we would approach anything around that would be that Ukraine’s got to be free to make its choices.
“We don’t want to see Ukraine coerced into accepting a deal that it doesn’t want, and we want them to be free to make their own choices.
“And that’s the stance we’ve taken all the way through because we understand the stakes here. If President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is rewarded with the country being totally under his thumb in the future, what signal does that send out to the other countries in eastern Europe?”
Child killed in Ukrainian drone attack on Bryansk, Russian governor alleges
A child was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Bryansk region, governor Alexander Bogomaz has alleged.
Russia’s defence ministry said 29 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia – 20 over the Bryansk region, seven over the Kaluga region, and one each over the Smolensk and Kursk regions.
Russia suffers 1,730 losses in 24 hours, Ukraine says
Russia has suffered another day of heavy losses, with 1,730 casualties in the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s military has claimed.
As Moscow continues its push for territory in Ukraine’s east, where its troops are making some of the fastest gains of the war so far, albiet at great cost, the general staff Ukraine’s armed forces said it had recorded nearly 225 combat clashes along the front line on Saturday.
It comes after Ukraine said Russia had inflicted a similar number of casualties – which does not distinguish between those killed and inured – on Saturday, and more than 2,000 on Thursday, which would mark the worst single day Russia has suffered in its 33-month invasion.
Russian losses have for weeks been consistently among the highest of the war so far, with around 1,500 casualties each day, Ukrainian and Western military chiefs have said.
Seven dead in Russian drone and missile strikes on Dnipro and Kherson, Ukraine says
Three people have died and seven more were injured when a Russian drone struck a minibus in the southern city of Kherson on Sunday morning, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin has said.
Meanwhile, the number of people injured in a missile strike in Dnipro in central Ukraine on Saturday rose to 24, with seven in a serious condition, governor Serhiy Lysak said. Four people were killed in the attack.
Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 32 of 78 drones fired overnight by Russia, with a further 45 “lost” over various areas, likely due to being electronically jammed.
Putin raises Russian military spending in 2025 to record levels
Vladimir Putin has approved plans which raise 2025 military spending to record levels, with 13.5trn roubles £99.5bn) – nearly a third of the budget posted on a government website – allocated for national defence.
Politicians in both houses of the Russian parliament have already approved the plans over the past 10 days.
The increase in military spending – from a reported 28.3 to 32.5 per cent of Russia’s budget – comes despite discussions over US president-elect Donald Trump’s desire to bring the war to a rapid end.
Top EU officials visit Ukraine in show of solidarity
European Council president Antonio Costa and Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, have arrived in Kyiv, using the first day in their new roles to send a message of support for Ukraine.
“From day one of the war, the EU has stood by the side of Ukraine,” Mr Costa posted on X alongside an image of himself, Kallas and EU enlargement chief Marta Kos arriving via train.
“From day one of our mandate, we are reaffirming our unwavering support to the Ukrainian people.”
“In my first visit since taking up office, my message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war,” Kallas wrote on X. “We will do whatever it takes for that.”
As prime minister of Estonia, which borders Russia, Ms Kallas emerged as one of the fiercest critics of Russia, and Moscow has since put her on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.
Mr Costa, a former prime minister of Portugal, said at a ceremony in Brussels on Friday that everyone, “especially the embattled and heroic Ukrainian people”, is yearning for peace after more than 1,000 days of the Ukraine-Russia war, but said: “Peace cannot mean capitulation. Peace must not reward the aggressor.”
More than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers charged with desertion, prosecutors say
More than 100,000 soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army, Ukraine’s prosecutor general has said, starving Kyiv of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia.
Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials have told the Associated Press.
Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, military commanders and soldiers said. Some take medical leave and find themselves unable to bring themselves to return. Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights.
Nearly half of the 100,000 peope charged have deserted in the last year alone, after Kyiv launched an aggressive mobilisation drive that government officials and military commanders concede has largely failed.
There were an estimated 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers engaged in combat before the mobilisation drive began. One politician with knowledge of military matters estimated the actual number of deserters could be as high as 200,000.
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