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”.
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Putin orders Russian government and top bank to develop AI cooperation with China
President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s government and the country’s biggest bank, Sberbank, to build cooperation with China in artificial intelligence.
Putin’s instructions were published on the Kremlin’s website yesterday, three weeks after he announced that Russia would team up with BRICS partners and other countries to develop AI.
He told the government and Sberbank, which is spearheading Russia’s AI efforts, to “ensure further co-operation with the People’s Republic of China in technological research and development in the field of artificial intelligence”.
Western sanctions intended to restrict Moscow’s access to the technologies it needs to sustain its war against Ukraine have resulted in the world’s major producers of microchips halting exports to Russia, severely limiting its AI ambitions.
Sberbank CEO German Gref acknowledged in 2023 that graphics processing units (GPUs), the microchips that underpin AI development, were the trickiest hardware for Russia to replace.
Ukraine-Russia war map: Where are Putin’s forces making gains on the frontline as 2025 begins?
By the time February 2025 arrives, marking three years since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the situation on the front line could look very different.
Currently, Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine’s partial hold of the border region of Kursk.
That the Russians haven’t been more successful is a testament, above all else, to the resilience of Ukraine’s troops on the ground, many of whom have been fighting continuously for years. Dysfunction in the Russian military, with Mr Putin as its de facto commander-in-chief, is another.
Ukraine-Russia war map 2025: Where are Putin’s forces making gains on the frontline?
Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine’s partial hold of the border region of Kursk
Zelensky thanks Ukrainian people in New Year’s address
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the Ukrainian people and soldiers for their steadfastness in a New Year’s address, as the war approaches its fourth year.
He wrote on X: “Today, I address all those who value Ukraine, cherish their state, and lovingly call it ‘Mine’.
“Those who cannot imagine themselves without Ukraine, no matter where they are. All those who have been fighting for it – so steadfastly and so bravely – for more than 1,000 days. This is you – our people. Ukrainians – men and women.
“To all of whom I am grateful to for this year, 2024. Our people who endure all difficulties with dignity. People for whom being citizens of Ukraine is a source of pride.
“For me, it is an honor to be the President of such people – Ukrainians who prove that no cruise missile can defeat a nation that has wings.”
Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
The first day of the new year came with bad tidings for energy consumers, both in Britain and across Europe. Here, the cap set by the regulator, Ofgem, for the price of domestic gas has been raised for the second time this winter. On the other side of Europe, Ukraine ended the transit of Russian gas across its territory, forcing several EU countries to turn to imports of more expensive liquefied natural gas.
Together, these measures mean that for many millions of users the price of gas will be going up – again.
Ukraine’s decision not to renew transit arrangements that have been in place since 1991, effectively brings to an end an era of relatively cheap Russian gas for Europe – and not before time.
Indeed, it almost beggars belief that, nearly three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian gas was still being piped to several EU countries, including Austria and Slovakia, and that – despite all the sanctions imposed by Ukraine’s allies with a view to harming the Russian economy – pre-war contracts were being honoured on all sides as though nothing had happened.
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
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.
Putin praises Russia's soldiers in New Year’s address
Putin has ruled Russia for 25 years – but what has he really got to show for it?
Crisis has aided the Russian strongman’s regime stability far more than any index of economic success, writes Mark Almond
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
'No heating, no light': Moldovans fear looming energy shortage as Russia halts gas supplies
On a frigid morning in Moldova’s capital, 39-year-old postal worker Petru Murzin braces for a difficult winter as he fears a looming energy shortage could leave many Moldovans with “no heating, no light.”
His concerns aren’t unfounded.
On Jan. 1, Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom is set to halt gas supplies to the European Union candidate country over an alleged $709 million debt for past supplies, a figure fiercely disputed by Moldova’s pro-Western government, that has accused Moscow of weaponizing energy as a political tool to destabilize the country.
'No heating, no light': Moldovans fear looming energy shortage as Russia halts gas supplies
Moldovans are bracing for a difficult winter ahead as a looming energy shortage could leave them without enough energy
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.”
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."
Ukraine halts Russian gas supplies to Europe
Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbour, after a pre-war transit deal expired.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the transits to earn “additional billions ... on our blood, on the lives of our citizens”.
But he briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends.
Ukraine‘s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security”.
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