Summary
The blog is now closing. Here is a round up of today’s main events.
Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly. Moscow previously said 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the weekend strike on Makiivka. Although an official investigation has been launched, the main reason for the attack was clearly the illegal mass use of mobile phones by servicemen, the ministry said. “This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike,” it said in a statement issued just after 1:00am in Moscow on Wednesday.
The UK Ministry of Defence, in its daily intelligence briefing, said: “Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike creating secondary explosions. The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.”
Denis Pushilin, who acts as the leader of pro-Russian occupiers in Donetsk, has praised the bravery of the soldiers who survived the attack. RIA quotes him saying: “We know, and we know first-hand, what it is to bear losses. And what real heroism is. Based on the information that I have, I can say with confidence that the guys from this regiment had many manifestations of courage and real heroism.”
Further strikes deep in Russian territory should be expected, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, has told the US TV channel ABC. He added that the attacks would come “deeper and deeper” inside Russia, without specifically saying whether Ukraine would be behind them.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that France would send light AMX-10 RC armoured combat vehicles to help in the war against Russia, an Elysee official said after a phone call between the two leaders.
Ukraine’s military general staff said Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 airstrikes and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in the past 24 hours on civilian infrastructure in three cities – Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. “There are casualties among the civilian population,” it said. The reports have not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s efforts to increase exports under the Black Sea grain deal with Russia are focused on securing faster inspections of ships rather than including more ports in the initiative, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday.
In a message posted to Facebook, Ukraine’s navy has claimed Russia has three combat-ready ships in action in the Black Sea and that it continues to “violate the international convention for the protection of human life at sea 1974 (Solas), disabling auto identification systems on civilian vessels in the Azov Sea”.
Vladimir Putin took part in a ceremony by video link while the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov went into combat service equipped with the Zircon hypersonic missile systems. The Russian president said: “I am sure that such powerful weapons will reliably protect Russia from potential external threats and will help ensure the national interests of our country”. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the Gorshkov would sail to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and to the Mediterranean Sea.
Updated
In Russia, calls have mounted to draw conclusions after the Makiivka tragedy. The influential head of state television channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, welcomed the army’s promise that officials “will be held accountable”, AFP reports.
“I hope that the names of these persons” will be announced, she said. “It is time to understand that impunity does not lead to social harmony. Impunity leads to new crimes. And, as a result, to public dissent.”
There have been unconfirmed reports that the servicemen were quartered in an unprotected building that was destroyed because munitions were stored on the premises and detonated in the strike.
Updated
Heavy fighting around the largely ruined, Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, with the outcome uncertain as Russians have made incremental progress, according to a senior US administration official, Reuters reports.
Updated
In a statement posted on Telegram, Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked President Emmanuel Macron for the decision to send the light armoured vehicles, and said the two leaders had “agreed on further cooperation to significantly strengthen our air defence and other defence capabilities”. He did not give further details. France last year supplied several Caesar howitzers to Ukraine. In October, Macron also said Paris would provide air defence weapons as Russia intensified missile strikes on critical infrastructure, Reuters reported.
Updated
More on France sending AMX-10 light armoured vehicles to Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters, the Élysée Palace official did not give any details about the volume or timing of the planned shipments but said the talks between the two countries would continue regarding the potential delivery of other vehicle types.
“This is the first time that western-made armoured vehicles are being delivered in support of the Ukranian army,” the official said.
The French-made AMX-10 is an armed reconnaissance vehicle with high mobility that carries four people, according to the French ministry of the armed forces’ website.
Updated
France to send armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine to aid Zelenskiy
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that France would send light AMX-10 RC armoured combat vehicles to help in the war against Russia, an Élysée Palace official said after a phone call between the two leaders, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters, the official did not give any details about the volume or timing of the planned shipments.
Updated
You can read The Guardian report by Pjotr Sauer on the missile strike that Moscow said claimed 89 lives and which it has blamed on the use of mobile phones, here:
Expect strikes 'deeper and deeper' into Russia, head of Ukraine military intelligence says
Further strikes deep in Russian territory should be expected, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, has told the US TV channel ABC .
He added that the attacks would come “deeper and deeper” inside of Russia, without specifically saying whether Ukraine would be behind them.
Budanov said he would only be able to comment on his country’s responsibility for the attacks after the war was over.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the 26 December attack on Russia’s Engels airbase, which is located more than 800 miles from the Ukrainian border, but Budanov admitted he was “glad to see it.”
Of his visit to Bakhmut along the frontline in the Donetsk region in late December, he told ABC: “Soldiers showed me a section where dead bodies are piled up like something you would see in a movie.
“There are hundreds of dead bodies just rotting away in the open field, in places they are piled on top of other bodies like makeshift walls, when Russian troops attack on that field they use those bodies for cover, like a shield. But it’s not working. There are actual fields of dead bodies there.”
Budanov said he expects fighting to be the “hottest” in March, adding that Ukraine is planning a major push in the spring.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly. Moscow previously said 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the weekend strike on Makiivka. Although an official investigation has been launched, the main reason for the attack was clearly the illegal mass use of mobile phones by servicemen, the ministry said. “This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike,” it said in a statement issued just after 1:00 am in Moscow on Wednesday.
The UK Ministry of Defence, in its daily intelligence briefing, said: “Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike creating secondary explosions. The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.”
Denis Pushilin, who acts as the leader of pro-Russian occupiers in Donetsk, has praised the bravery of the soldiers who survived the attack. RIA quotes him saying: “We know, and we know first-hand, what it is to bear losses. And what real heroism is. Based on the information that I have, I can say with confidence that the guys from this regiment had many manifestations of courage and real heroism.”
About 200 people gathered in the Russian city of Samara on Tuesday to hold a vigil for soldiers from the city killed in the Makiivka attack. Mourners laid wreaths and roses in Samara’s central square, while priests recited prayers for the dead.
Ukraine’s military general staff said Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 airstrikes and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in the past 24 hours on civilian infrastructure in three cities – Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. “There are casualties among the civilian population,” it said. The reports have not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s efforts to increase exports under the Black Sea grain deal with Russia are focused on securing faster inspections of ships rather than including more ports in the initiative, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday.
In a message posted to Facebook, Ukraine’s navy has claimed Russia has three combat-ready ships in action in the Black Sea and that it continues to “violate the international convention for the protection of human life at sea 1974 (Solas), disabling auto identification systems on civilian vessels in the Azov Sea”.
Vladimir Putin took part in a ceremony via video link while the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov went into combat service equipped with the Zircon hypersonic missile systems. The Russian president said: “I am sure that such powerful weapons will reliably protect Russia from potential external threats and will help ensure the national interests of our country”. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu said the Gorshkov would sail to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and to the Mediterranean Sea.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has used his video address on Tuesday to reiterate warnings that Russia is set to launch a major offensive to improve its fortunes. “We have no doubt that current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat,” the Ukrainian president said.
Zelenskiy spoke to his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, on Wednesday, saying: “We agreed on steps to further develop Ukrainian-Romanian cooperation, primarily in the defence sector. I thanked Romania for its solidarity and support in resisting Russian aggression.”
Germany is looking for further ways to help Ukraine protect its people and infrastructure, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Wednesday, stressing that any dip in Europe’s resolve on the issue would serve as a boon to Moscow
Updated
Newly released CCTV footage from the National Palace of Arts of Ukraine showed the moment a Russian missile hit the Alfavit hotel in Kyiv on 31 December, badly damaging it and a residential building.
Updated
The European Union says natural gas storage levels are high despite Russian attempts to choke off supplies to Europe, AP reports.
The 27 EU countries stocked up on gas last year in case of winter shortages. The EU Commission estimated that joint gas storage levels stand at almost 84% as of Wednesday. It said levels in December were 13% higher than the 2016-2018 average.
Tim McPhiem, a Commission spokersperson, said “It’s a fairly good position to be in.” Russian pipeline gas accounted for 40% of all gas Europe imported before Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in February, but has now dropped to about 9%. Energy prices have also tumbled, partly due to mild winter weather in Europe.
Updated
Vladimir Putin sent a frigate to the Atlantic Ocean armed with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles on Wednesday, a signal to the west that Russia will not back down over the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Russia, China and the United States are in a race to develop hypersonic weapons, which are seen as a way to gain an edge over any adversary because of their speeds – more than five times the speed of sound – and manoeuvrability.
In a video conference with Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, and Igor Krokhmal, the commander of the frigate named “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov”, Putin said: “This time the ship is equipped with the latest hypersonic missile system – ‘Zircon’. I am sure that such powerful weapons will reliably protect Russia from potential external threats.”
The weapons, he added, had “no analogues in any country in the world”.
Shoigu said the Gorshkov would sail to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and to the Mediterranean Sea.
Updated
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has welcomed the award today of “honorary best city” of the year by PR agency Resonance Consultancy, in a move which seems designed to allow both parties to generate positive media coverage.
On Telegram earlier today, Klitschko posted:
The experts … noted the significant development of the city’s infrastructure over the past 10 years – the creation of new parks and squares and the improvement of old ones, putting parking in order, updating the rolling stock of municipal transport. Kyiv today is the heart of Europe. Which continues to fight - for life, for development, for the beauty of the city and the comfort of its inhabitants.
In announcing the award, the agency posted an assessment of the city by Anna Babinets, who is editor-in-chief of Slidstvo.Info, an investigative reporting outlet based in Kyiv. Writing about the city, she said:
How different things looked in February, when Russia launched its illegal war against Ukraine. Pundits around the world predicted the city’s imminent fall. Rockets rained on peaceful apartment blocks. Half of the city’s residents left. A column of Russian military vehicles stretched for kilometres on its murderous advance into the city.
Although the Russians intended to capture Ukraine’s capital in three days, they never came close. Facing determined resistance and crippled by their own incompetence, they soon abandoned their ambitious plans. A few months later, most Kyivans returned home. This isn’t the first time Kyiv has sprung back to life. The city’s history is full of wars and revolutions – after each of which it inevitably blooms again in a 1,500-year cycle of devastation and rebirth.
Updated
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has taken part today in a ceremony today – via video link – while the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov went into combat service equipped with the Zircon hypersonic missile systems.
Russian state-owned media agency Tass quoted Putin as saying:
I am sure that such powerful weapons will reliably protect Russia from potential external threats and will help ensure the national interests of our country.
Today we have an important, if not a significant event: the Admiral Gorshkov frigate is starting a long-distance sea voyage. There is nothing unusual here, this is a common thing.
But this time the ship is equipped with the latest Zircon hypersonic missile system, which has no analogues.
During the event Reuters reports that the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the Gorshkov would sail to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and to the Mediterranean Sea.
Updated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has just posted a message on Telegram following a call with Klaus Iohannis, his Romanian counterpart. Zelenskiy says:
Together with Klaus Iohannis we agreed on steps to further develop Ukrainian-Romanian cooperation, primarily in the defence sector. I thanked Romania for its solidarity and support in resisting Russian aggression. We discussed the peace formula and issues of the bilateral agenda.
Updated
Moscow was facing some of its biggest internal criticism of the war over the Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve that killed 89 service personnel, and which it has blamed on soldiers illegally using mobile phones allowing Ukraine to locate the base in Makiivka.
Semyon Pegov, a war correspondent decorated by Putin, said on Telegram the mobile phone explanation “looks like an outright attempt to smear the blame”, and there were other ways Ukraine could have spotted the base, Reuters reports.
Other pro-Russian bloggers have said the strike was worsened because ammunition was stored at the site. Moscow has not confirmed this.
Pegov said the death toll would rise further: “The announced data is most likely for those who were immediately identified. The list of the missing, unfortunately, is noticeably longer.”
Updated
Ukraine claims Russia has targeted civilian infrastructure with strikes in Kramatorsk, Zaparizhzhia and Kherson in last 24 hours
In its daily update on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military general staff said Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 airstrikes and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in the past 24 hours on civilian infrastructure in three cities – Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – Reuters reports.
“There are casualties among the civilian population,” it said. Russia denies targeting civilians.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Updated
About 200 people gathered in the Russian city of Samara on Tuesday to hold a vigil for soldiers killed by a Ukrainian rocket strike in Makiivka, eastern Donetsk, on New Year’s Eve. Mourners laid wreaths and roses in Samara’s central square, while priests recited prayers for the dead.
Putin plans to talk to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Interfax. Turkey acted as mediator alongside the United Nations to establish a deal allowing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
Updated
Ukraine’s efforts to increase exports under the Black Sea grain deal with Russia are currently focused on securing faster inspections of ships rather than including more ports in the initiative, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s grain production and exports have fallen since Russia invaded in February and started blockading its seaports.
Three leading Ukrainian Black Sea ports in the Odesa region were unblocked in July under an initiative between Moscow and Kyiv brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. Under the deal, all ships are inspected by joint teams in the Bosphorus.
Kyiv accuses Russia of carrying out the inspections too slowly, causing weeks of delays for ships and reducing the supply of Ukrainian grain to foreign markets. Russia has denied slowing down the process.
“Ukraine focuses on normalising inspections rather than opening new ports,” the senior Ukrainian official said.
Germany is looking for further ways to help Ukraine protect its people and infrastructure, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Wednesday, stressing that any dip in Europe’s resolve on the issue would serve as a boon to Moscow, Reuters reports.
“And this year, we must protect and further develop the joint European unity that made us strong last year,” Baerbock said during a news conference with her Portuguese counterpart in Lisbon.
Updated
Russia is deploying new military units to the northern part of occupied Crimea, Andrii Cherniak, a representative of the Ukrainian defence ministry’s main intelligence directorate, said, according to a report on the Kyiv Independent website.
Russia is also reportedly fortifying the area and parts of Kherson Oblast, the report adds.
“They (Russia) are losing. That’s why they create defensive structures where they can, realising that they will have to conduct combat operations on these lines,” he said.
Cherniak said that Russian forces are currently making “every effort” to preserve the so-called land corridor to Crimea through occupied Ukrainian territories in the south of the country.
Updated
Ukraine wants the United Nations to send peacekeepers to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant even without a deal with Russia to establish a safety zone there, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company said.
Ukraine has called for UN peacekeepers at the site since September. But the comment was the first time a Ukraine nuclear official has suggested publicly peacekeepers should be deployed in the absence of an agreement to create a safety zone at the plant, which Russia took control of soon after invading the country on 24 February.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Wednesday that the European Union had tried everything to stop the war in Ukraine but that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, had nothing on his mind but to destroy the neighbouring country.
Speaking at a conference in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, Baerbock said Putin’s stance was the reason why it was “important to keep up the delivery of weapons so Ukraine can defend itself and protect people’s lives”.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly. Moscow previously said 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the weekend strike on Makiivka. Although an official investigation has been launched, the main reason for the attack was clearly the illegal mass use of mobile phones by servicemen, the ministry said. “This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike,” it said in a statement issued just after 1:00 am in Moscow on Wednesday.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence, in its daily intelligence briefing, said “Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike creating secondary explosions. The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.”
Denis Pushilin, who acts as the leader of pro-Russian occupiers in Donetsk, has praised the bravery of the soldiers who survived the attack. RIA quotes him saying: “We know, and we know first-hand, what it is to bear losses. And what real heroism is. Based on the information that I have, I can say with confidence that the guys from this regiment had many manifestations of courage and real heroism.”
In a message posted to Facebook, Ukraine’s navy has claimed that Russia has three combat-ready ships in action in the Black Sea, and that it continues to “violate the international convention for the protection of human life at sea 1974 (Solas), disabling auto identification systems on civilian vessels in the Azov Sea.”
There are unconfirmed reports that air defence was activated twice in the Sevastopol region overnight as a result of drone activity by Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, used his video address on Tuesday to reiterate warnings that Russia is set to launch a major offensive to improve its fortunes. “We have no doubt that current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.
Ukraine and the EU will hold a summit in Kyiv on 3 February to discuss financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said, but the bloc on Tuesday would not confirm the location, AFP reports.
The US president, Joe Biden, will hold talks with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, at the White House on 13 January to discuss North Korea, Ukraine, China’s tensions with Taiwan, and a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, the White House said on Tuesday.
Oleksandr Syenkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, has posted to Telegram to say that the air alert is over.
UK's MoD: 'unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate'
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has published its latest situation map of how it assess the war to be going on the ground.
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 4, 2023
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 04 January 2023.
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/fTJrrxpxYE
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/KLz7sHYWag
Earlier the UK issued its latest defence intelligence update. It said of the attack at Makiyivka:
The building was completely destroyed and, as the Russian MoD confirmed, 89 Russian personnel were killed. Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike creating secondary explosions. The building was only 12.5km from the Avdiivka sector of front line, one of the most intensely contested areas of the conflict. The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 04 January 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 4, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/sTvI8nDoqa
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/hxvMq4spju
Updated
This video clip purports to show damage in Kyiv caused by a Russian strike on 31 December which was captured on CCTV.
The arts centre Palace Ukraine published a video from surveillance cameras during a rocket attack on the center of #Kyiv on December 31, which damaged the building pic.twitter.com/XgFxVPcly2
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) January 4, 2023
The clip has not been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s latest message on Telegram has included some recent images of the conflict and the following text from Ukraine’s president:
We are fighting and will continue to fight. For the sake of the main word: “victory.” It will come for sure. We’ve been heading for it for 315 days.
In a message posted to Facebook, Ukraine’s navy has claimed that Russia has three combat-ready ships in action in the Black Sea, and that it continues to “violate the international convention for the protection of human life at sea 1974 (Solas), disabling auto identification systems on civilian vessels in the Azov Sea.”
Updated
Air alerts reported in Mykolaiv and Kyiv
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has posted to Telegram to report that there is an air alert in the region. At the same time Suspilne, Ukraine’s state-owned broadcaster, has reported there is an air alert in effect in Kyiv.
There are unconfirmed reports that air defence was activated twice in the Sevastopol region overnight. Sevastopol is in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Kyiv Independent, citing the Telegram channel of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said that Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, reported that air defence had been activated.
Updated
Suspilne, the state-owned national broadcaster of Ukraine, has reported on Telegram that its correspondents in Kherson have heard explosions.
More details soon …
The city administration in Kyiv has said that 160 million passengers used the city’s subway in 2022, compared with 319 million passengers the previous year. It also said that about 5.200 people used the network for shelter on New Year’s Eve. In a statement posted to Telegram, the city authority said:
On new year’s eve, during the air raid, about 5,200 people, including almost 400 children, used underground stations as shelter. The subway infrastructure operates 24/7 as a shelter and provides the most necessary conditions: drinking water, sanitary facilities and the possibility of recharging gadgets.
The message continued by urging residents to “take care of yourself and use shelters during the air alert”.
Updated
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has also posted to Telegram with the simple message: “Good morning! No power outages.”
Updated
Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has published his regular daily status update to Telegram. He reports that overnight there were no air alarms, and that at present electricity blackouts are not anticipated in his western region of Ukraine.
Even as the officially conceded death toll from the attack on a temporary Russian barracks in a vocational college in occupied Makiivka has been revised upwards, the Russian state-owned news outlet RIA is reporting that Denis Pushilin, who acts as the leader of pro-Russian occupiers in Donetsk, has praised the bravery of the soldiers there. RIA quotes him saying:
We know, and we know first-hand, what it is to bear losses. And what real heroism is. Based on the information that I have, I can say with confidence that the guys from this regiment had many manifestations of courage and real heroism.
Pushilin is the self-styled leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), one of the areas of Ukraine the Russian Federation has claimed to annex. Prior to the annexation claim, only three UN member states – Russia, Syria and North Korea – recognised the DPR as any kind of legitimate authority.
Updated
Ukraine and the EU will hold a summit in Kyiv on 3 February to discuss financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said, but the bloc on Tuesday would not confirm the location, AFP reports.
Zelenskiy discussed details of the high-level meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in his first phone call of the year, the office said in a statement on Monday.
“The parties discussed expected results of the next Ukraine-EU summit to be held on 3 February in Kyiv and agreed to intensify preparatory work,” it said.
A spokesperson for European Council president, Charles Michel, however, could not confirm on Tuesday that the joint summit would take place in the Ukrainian capital.
He said the bloc would be represented at the summit by Michel and Von der Leyen, and not with the various leaders of EU countries. EU officials said there was a standing invitation for Zelenskiy to visit Brussels.
Zelenskiy and Von der Leyen, in their call, also talked about the supply of “appropriate” weapons.
Updated
Biden and Kishida to hold talks at White House
The US president, Joe Biden, will hold talks with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, at the White House on 13 January to discuss North Korea, Ukraine, China’s tensions with Taiwan, and a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, the White House said on Tuesday.
The two leaders will discuss “a range of regional and global issues, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes, Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, and maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said.
The meeting between Washington and its key Asian partner in standing up to China’s increasing might comes as North Korea’s missile tests and calls for a larger nuclear arsenal worry US allies in the region.
Kishida plans to discuss Tokyo’s new security policy, which saw the unveiling in December of Japan’s biggest military buildup since the second world war, Japan’s Yomiuri daily newspaper reported last week, citing multiple unidentified Japanese government sources.
The White House said Biden will reiterate his full support for Japan’s recently released national security strategy.
Updated
A Tokyo Gas unit is in advanced talks to buy US natural gas producer Rockcliff Energy from private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners for about $4.6bn, including debt, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
If consummated, the deal would be the latest move by a Japanese entity to secure gas in jurisdictions perceived as friendly, the importance of which has risen for the import-dependent Asian nation after supply markets for the commodity were roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The all-cash deal with Houston-based TG Natural Resources, which is 70% owned by the Japanese energy firm, is set to be announced this month, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential. Castleton Commodities International owns the rest of TG Natural Resources.
Zelenskiy reiterates warning of new Russian offensive
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, used his video address on Tuesday to reiterate warnings that Russia is set to launch a major offensive to improve its fortunes.
“We have no doubt that current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.
“We have to disrupt this Russian scenario. We are preparing for this. The terrorists must lose. Any attempt at their new offensive must fail,” he continued.
Ukraine’s military has said it launched a strike that resulted in Russian loss of equipment and possibly personnel near Makiivka. But it has given no further details.
Updated
Moscow revises Makiivka death toll to 89
Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly.
Moscow previously said 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the weekend strike. The ministry’s reaction came amid mounting anger among some Russian commentators, who are increasingly vocal about what they see as a half-hearted campaign in Ukraine.
Most of the anger on social media was directed at military commanders rather than Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has not commented publicly on the attack, which was another blow after major battlefield retreats in recent months.
The Russian defence ministry said four Ukrainian missiles hit a temporary Russian barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Although an official investigation has been launched, the main reason for the attack was clearly the illegal mass use of mobile phones by servicemen, the ministry said.
“This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike,” it said in a statement issued just after 1:00 am in Moscow on Wednesday.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news for the next while.
Russia’s defence ministry has acknowledged that 89 servicemen died in a Ukrainian strike on Makiivka in eastern Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, an increase in the previous reported death toll. Military officials have blamed the use of mobile phones by Russian soldiers within “reach of enemy soldiers” for the deadly attack.
Moscow said previously 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the weekend strike.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Tuesday that Russia was set to launch a major offensive, repeating earlier warnings.
“We have no doubt that current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat,” Zelenskiy said.
Here are the other key recent developments:
The Ukrainian strike on Makiivka has generated “significant criticism of Russian military leadership”, according to a report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Several prominent Russian pro-war bloggers and commentators acknowledged the attack, with many suggesting the number of casualties was higher than the figures officially reported.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has said up to 10 units of Russian military equipment of various types in occupied Makiivka were damaged or destroyed. Ukraine rarely announces responsibility for attacks on Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, but its military reported the Makiivka attack as “a strike on Russian manpower and military equipment”.
Satellite images taken by the US-based company Planet Labs that purportedly show the aftermath of the strike on Makiivka have circulated online, showing the building that allegedly housed the Russian troops before and after it was hit. The images, dated 2 January, show a building almost completely razed. Unverified footage posted online of the aftermath of the blast also showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.
The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, reaffirmed support for Ukraine during a call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The two men discussed further defence cooperation, their statements said.
On national television in Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukraine air force, said nearly 500 Russian drones have been downed since September.
It is unlikely Russia will achieve a significant breakthrough near Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region in the coming weeks, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. This is due in part to Russia likely conducting offensive operations in the area at only platoon or section level, it said.
The French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, has said she is more confident over the situation of French energy supplies for the next few weeks. She cited lower consumption and an increase in nuclear power output.
Nato countries will discuss their defence spending targets in the coming months as some of them call for turning a 2% target into a minimum figure, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told the German news agency DPA.
Ukraine and the EU will hold a summit in Kyiv on 3 February to discuss financial and military support, Zelenskiy’s office has said.
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