Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces launch deadly Kyiv ballistic missile and drone attack
Putin says he is open to talks with Donald Trump, saying ‘we will have things to discuss’
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Your support makes all the difference.Russia has launched dozens of missiles and drones against Ukraine as at least one person was killed in the capital of Kyiv in the attack.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 60 drones overnight, though 20 were downed well before they reached their target, and five ballistic missiles at towns and cities across the country.
At least one person was killed after missiles hit Kyiv at around 7am local time this morning, while a high-rise building was badly damaged. The capital’s St Nicholas Church was also damaged.
Five people were also injured in a separate Russian missile strike that damaged a two-storey residence in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih.
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he should have invaded Ukraine earlier as he used an end-of-year press conference to double down on his decision to start the war.
Despite the toll his war has taken on Russia’s finances and the lives of its young men, Putin claimed that sending troops into Ukraine in 2022 has boosted his country’s military and economic power.
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Russia should have sent troops to Ukraine earlier, says Putin
Russia should have invaded Ukraine earlier, said Russian president Vladimir Putin as he claimed the war had strengthened Russia’s military and economic power.
Mr Putin made the comments during his annual press conference, a tightly choreographed event which lasted about four and half hours and spanned everything from consumer prices to military hardware.
A number of questioned covered the invasion of Ukraine, and Mr Putin said that if he could do it over, “such a decision should have been made earlier” and Russia could have “prepared for it in advance and more thoroughly”.
“Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years because it has become a truly sovereign country,” he said. “We are standing firm in terms of economy, we are strengthening our defence potential and our military capability now is the strongest in the world.”
Pictures: Uzbek man charged for Russian Lieutenant General's killing
Russia will remain a threat to Europe even after Ukraine war, Finland says
Russia and countries that support it will remain a danger to Europe even after the war in Ukraine has ended, Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said on Thursday.
“Russia, together with its allies, will remain a dangerous actor in Europe even after the war in Ukraine and we cannot exclude the possibility of threatening European countries with the use of military force,” Hakkanen told a press conference.
Finland on Thursday published its first defence policy review since it last year joined the NATO military alliance in a historic policy shift brought on by neighbouring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow charges Uzbek man for killing of Russian general
An Uzbek citizen accused of acting on behalf of Ukraine has been charged by Russian authorities with this week’s assassination of a senior Russian general and his assistant in a bombing claimed by Ukraine’s security services, state media reported yesterday.
Akhmadzhon Kurbonov was ordered detained by a Moscow court until at least 17 February in Tuesday’s bombing that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the Tass state news agency reported.
Mr Kurbonov was charged with the killings, carrying out a terrorist act and illegally manufacturing explosives, the Russian news agency said.
Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, also was killed.
Five killed in Russian missile attack in Kryvyi Rih
A Russian missile struck and badly damaged a two-storey residence in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, injuring five people, including two pulled alive from under the rubble, officials said.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on Telegram that a man and a teenage girl had been rescued in Kryvyi Rih, president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown. Windows were shattered in a nearby 10-storey apartment building.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration, said three other people were injured. He said rescue operations had been completed.
Russia conducted mass cyberattack on Ukraine’s state registries, deputy PM says
Russia has carried out a mass cyberattack on Ukraine’s state registries leading to a temporary suspension of services, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna said late yesterday.
The registries contain vital information about Ukrainian citizens such as births, deaths, marriages and property ownership.
“Today the largest external cyberattack in recent times occurred with Ukraine’s state registries,” Ms Stefanishyna wrote on Facebook.
“As a result of this targeted attack, the work of the unified and state registries, which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, was temporarily suspended.”
Ms Stefanishyna said it was clear the attack was “carried out by the Russians to disrupt the work of the country’s critically important infrastructure”.
She said work to restore operations would require about two weeks, but offices would be providing some services already on Friday. An initial assessment, she said, showed other state services were unaffected.
“After restoration is completed, a thorough analysis of the attack will be conducted to increase protection against similar attacks in the future,” she wrote.
UK considering sending British troops to Ukraine
Amid reports Britain is considering sending more UK troops to Ukraine to train soldiers in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Downing Street confirmed those already stationed in the country are protecting British diplomats and assisting Ukrainian counterparts.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We have a small number of trainers and British troops in Ukraine that support the armed forces of Ukraine and our diplomatic presence.
“We are clear we stand ready and continue to support Ukrainians with training... but we are very clear we are not sending any British troops to fight alongside Ukrainians.
“Our focus remains putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position going into the winter.”
Putin says Russia-China relations have reached a level never seen before
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that relations between Russia and China had reached a level never seen before, lauding their positive nature.
Russia and China were coordinating their actions on the international stage and would continue to do so, he added.
Kim Jong Un ‘personally overseeing’ North Korean training for Ukraine amid reports of heavy losses
Kim Jong Un ‘personally overseeing’ North Korean training for Ukraine amid losses
Pyongyang claimed on Thursday that its alliance with Russia was ‘normal’ and ‘very effective’, despite international alarm about the deployment of North Korean troops to the war in Ukraine
Putin says Russia is moving closer to achieving goals in Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russian forces were moving towards achieving their primary goals on the battlefield in Ukraine and touted what he said was the invincibility of Russia’s new hypersonic missile.
Fielding questions on state TV during his annual question and answer session with Russians, Putin said Moscow’s forces were advancing along the whole of the battle front.
“I must say that the situation is changing dramatically... There is movement along the entire front line. Every day,” he said.
Western and Russian military analysts say Russia is advancing in eastern Ukraine at the fastest pace since 2022, taking village after village and threatening strategically important cities such as Pokrovsk, a major road and rail hub. Those gains, however, have been measured in just tens of miles worth of advance.
“Our fighters are reclaiming territory by the square kilometre every day,” Putin said.
He said the fighting was complex, so it was “difficult and pointless to guess what lies ahead... (but) we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation.”
“Everyone is fighting, literally heroically. And they are fighting right now. Let us wish them all...good luck, victory and to return home,” he said.
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