Ukraine-Russia latest: US pledges $500m in weapons and ammunition for Kyiv to fight Putin’s forces
Nearly £3.25bn in US funds earmarked by the Joe Biden administration for Ukraine may not be delivered before Donal Trump returns to the White House
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Your support makes all the difference.The US will send half a billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the country’s top diplomat has announced.
Speaking during the 25th and possibly final meeting of Ukraine’s western backers at the Ramstein air base in Germany, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington would supply one more trove of military support.
The $500m (£406m) package includes air defence missiles, air-to-ground munitions and support equipment for F-16 fighter jets. The US has sent roughly £50 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion nearly three years ago.
The announcement, however, suggests that the remaining $3.8bn of the funds set aside for Ukraine by the Joe Biden administration will remain unused ahead of Mr Trump’s return, despite previous commitments to use all the money.
Meanwhile, Russia launched dozens of glide bombs across Ukraine over the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s military reported in its latest update, as the casualty toll from an attack on civilian-populated Zaporizhzhia reached 126.
The Ukrainian general staff said Russia had launched 62 glide bomb attacks on Wednesday. The munitions, nicknamed “building-destroyers”, can carry warheads weighing up to 3 tonnes and blow holes deeper than bomb shelters.
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Footage shows aftermath of fire in Russian region
Footage published this morning has shown the aftermath of what local Russian officials are claiming is a Ukrainian drone attack on an oil facility in the city of Engels.
Russian media outlets have claimed the oil facility was used to fuel Russian bomber planes. The city is host to a major military base.
Ukraine stages drone attack on Russia's Saratov region, causing big fire
Ukrainian drones struck deep inside Russia overnight and attacked the Saratov region, causing a major fire in the city of Engels, the local governor said on Wednesday.
The region hosts a major air base for strategic bomber planes that form part of Russia’s nuclear forces. Ukraine has attacked the base with drones before, but there was no word on whether it had been targeted on this occasion.
Russian news reports said the fire was at an oil facility. Unverified videos and photos published on social media showed a large fire burning with orange flames, sending thick clouds of smoke into the night sky.
Regional governor Roman Busargin said the cities of Saratov and Engels, on opposite sides of the Volga river, had been subject to a “mass drone attack” and there was a fire at an industrial site, but that there were no known casualties.
“There are sufficient forces and resources to localise the fire,” he posted on Telegram.
Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that 11 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed overnight over the Saratov region, and 21 over other parts of Russia and the Azov Sea. It did not mention any damage.
The Engels air base is located about 450 miles southeast of Moscow and hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border. In December 2022, three Russian air force personnel were killed when a drone was shot down there.
Independent news outlet Astra said the oil depot where the fire was burning provided fuel for the air base. The Independent was not immediately able to confirm that.
Ukraine Kursk offensive: What Kyiv stands to gain and lose in surprise counterattack on Russian soil
Ukraine has launched a fresh counterattack in the Russian border region of Kursk as it looks to gain the most territory it can ahead of possible peace negotiations – with US president-elect Donald Trump saying he wants to end the war as soon as possible.
The attack started over the weekend, with unverified footage circulated by Russian military bloggers showing a column of Ukrainian tanks and armoured personnel carriers heading towards the village of Berdin, a small area outside of what Ukraine currently controls in Kursk.
Kyiv’s military has not officially acknowledged a fresh offensive, months after an initial incursion that caught Russia off guard and allowed Ukraine to capture a swathe of Russian territory in the region. The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said: “Kursk region, good news, Russia is getting what it deserves.”
What Kyiv stands to gain and lose in surprise counter-attack on Russian soil
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Ukrainian refugee family learns that son is alive after almost three years of captivity in Russia
A Ukrainian refugee family have received the heartwarming news that their son is alive – nearly three years after he was captured by Russian forces while battling the invading forces in his homeland.
Valeriia and Roman Biletskiy fled to Washington state at the start of the brutal war in February 2022 along with seven of their children. Their other child, Roman Jr., instead remained, and enlisted to defend Ukraine. However, three months later, he was captured by Russian forces and later, presumed dead.
But on Monday 30 December, the couple saw a picture shared by Ukraine’s media that showed their son Roman Biletskiy Jr., 25, alive, and sitting at the back of a bus with a group of men who had just been freed from a Russian prison.
Ukrainian family learns son is alive after nearly three years of captivity in Russia
The 25-year-old soldier was captured by Russian forces in May 2022 ‘while defending civilians in Mariupol’ said family
Biden set to announce ‘substantial’ final weapons package for Ukraine
The Biden administration is set to announce a massive, final weapons aid package for Ukraine as part of defence secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Germany tomorrow to meet with representatives of about 50 partner nations who have come to Ukraine’s defence since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, two senior defence officials said.
The officials did not provide an exact dollar amount but said the package was expected to be “substantial,” although it would not include all of the roughly $4bn left in the congressionally authorised funding for Ukraine.
There likely would be “more than a couple of billion dollars” remaining for the incoming Trump defence team to provide to Ukraine if it chooses to do so, the officials said yesterday in briefing reporters traveling with Mr Austin.
Mr Biden’s defence officials working on Ukraine have been in contact with Trump’s transition team to discuss “all the issues that we believe are important,” one of the officials said.
Ukraine is in the midst of launching a second offensive in Russia’s Kursk region and is facing a barrage of long-range missiles and ongoing advances from Russia as both sides seek to put themselves in the strongest negotiating position possible before president-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 January.
Trump sympathises with Russia’s opposition to Ukraine’s Nato bid
President-elect Donald Trump said he sympathised with the Russian position that Ukraine should not be part of Nato, and he lamented that he will not meet Russian president Vladimir Putin before his inauguration.
“A big part of the problem is, Russia - for many, many years, long before Putin - said, ‘You could never have Nato involved with Ukraine.’ Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone,” Mr Trump said, speaking at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
He also blamed outgoing Democratic president Joe Biden for allegedly changing the US position on Nato membership for Ukraine.
“And somewhere along the line Biden said, ‘No. They should be able to join Nato’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”
Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have officially expressed support for Ukraine‘s eventual membership since the Bucharest Summit of 2008, and the Biden administration continues to support Ukraine‘s eventual Nato accession, though Ukraine has never been extended an invitation.
Why is Ukraine fighting to keep a piece of Kursk?
Over the weekend, Ukraine began a new offensive inside Russia to extend its incursion within Kursk oblast, an attack Kyiv has not yet acknowledged.
In a brief remark alluding to the events in Kursk, a senior Ukrainian official said Russia was “getting what it deserves” there.
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had established a buffer zone and inflicted heavy losses in Kursk, preventing Moscow from deploying its troops in key areas of the eastern front.
Ukraine’s main achievement in the past five months of fighting has been its capture of territory inside Russia’s Kursk region, something it hopes could prove a bargaining chip in possible peace talks.
Independent military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady said Ukraine was trying to hold its pocket of Kursk for as long as possible, even as Russia continued to push deeper into eastern Ukraine.
“There’s a likelihood that we haven’t seen the main thrust of this Ukrainian offensive operation just yet,” he told Reuters. “We are essentially talking about platoon-sized, company-sized assaults with fairly limited gains thus far.” It remained to be seen if Kyiv’s forces could open up another axis of advance, Mr Gady added.
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