Russia Ukraine war live: ‘Two dead’ in Kherson shelling as Putin marks Orthodox Christmas

The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was subjected Sunday to numerous shelling attacks from Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region, across the Dnieper River, local officials said.

The head of the Kherson city administration, Roman Mrochko, said two people died in the shelling attacks and several others were wounded.

Meanwhile, Russian military personnel marked Orthodox Christmas on Sunday.

In Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region, a man was killed and two other civilians wounded in Russian shelling of the Kupiansk district Sunday, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office. A child was among the wounded.

Air defenses shot down 21 of 28 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday. Russia also launched three anti-aircraft missiles against Ukraine.

Russian soldiers celebrated Orthodox Christmas on the frontline with military priests leading prayer services both on Sunday and on Christmas Eve night, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was joined by families of military personnel who died in the war in Ukraine at Christmas Eve services at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, in the western suburbs of Moscow.

“Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, are warriors of Russia even now, during the holiday — with arms in hand, they defend the interests of our country,” he said to the attending families, according to the Kremlin’s press service.

In his annual Christmas interview, carried by Russian state news agency TASS, Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, made reference to the war in Ukraine.

“The trials that befall us today … are not capable of crushing our worldview, which directly includes love for the Motherland and readiness to defend it,” he said, when asked how to reassure Russians in the midst of military and civilian deaths.

Homes in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv escaped being hit by a fresh Russian missile attack on Sunday, the mayor said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

“It landed near private residential houses in one of the city’s districts. Preliminary information indicates no damage or casualties,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

It was unclear if he was referring to a single missile or to an attack in general. He wrote in an earlier post that Kharkiv was under missile attack and several explosions had been heard.

Oleh Syniehubov, the Kharkiv regional governor, said on Telegram that Russian S-300 missiles had hit Kharkiv city twice, and that strikes were also recorded in nearby Vovchansk, but so far no casualties had been reported.

Kharkiv and Vovchansk lie close to the border near Belgorod in Russia. Russia has promised to retaliate for recent Ukrainian missile attacks on the city.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv on Sunday, pledged millions of dollars to NATO to help Ukraine avert Russian drone strikes and announced donations of generators and transformers.

“Russia has continued threats and attacks with missiles and drones in various locations, even on New Year’s Day,” Kamikawa said through an interpreter, after her news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was moved underground.

“Japan is determined to continue to support Ukraine so that peace can return,” said Kamikawa, whose stop in Kyiv, announced the same day, was not part of an announcement last month of her Jan. 5 trip to Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada and Germany.

Kamikawa said Japan would allocate $37 million to a NATO Trust Fund that supports equipment such as a drone detection system.

She also announced donations of five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers. Russian air strikes caused frequent power cuts across Ukraine last winter, and its two main cities experienced cuts due to a major attack on 2 January.

Ireland would be prepared to join other European countries in providing financial support to Ukraine on an inter-governmental basis if the package is blocked at EU level, the Taoiseach has indicated.

A proposed 50 billion euro EU support package for Kyiv was vetoed by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban at the last European Council meeting in December.

Leo Varadkar said one option open to European nations would be to circumvent the EU structures and join together to provide funding that was not formally approved by the bloc as a whole.

“That’s an option,” he told RTE. “I hope we don’t have to use that option. I’d prefer to just do it within the context of the European Union budget.

“We made a really important decision just before Christmas to begin negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on those countries joining the European Union.

“I would like to see us agree at the (council) meeting in February to give Ukraine a financial package, and that’s really important for Ukraine because Ukraine cannot win this war on its own.”

Mr Varadkar added: “We want to put in place a financial package of 50 billion euro in loans and grants which says to the Kremlin, which says to Russia, that we’re going to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes. And that’s what we want to achieve.

“If we can’t do that as a European Union, well then probably it will be the case, or may well be the case, that Ireland is one of 25 or 26 countries that does that on an inter-governmental basis.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered authorities to increase production of mobile launch vehicles for missiles because the country faces a looming military showdown with its enemies, state media reported Friday, as it pushes to make its launches harder to detect.

The report on Kim’s order came hours after the White House said US intelligence has determined that North Korea has supplied ballistic missile launchers to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

The US and its allies have previously accused North Korea of sending artillery and ammunition to Russia in return for Russian technologies to enhance its own military programs.

The UK is to launch a £300 million drive to push Vladimir Putin further out of the global energy market though an investment in high-tech nuclear fuel.

Ministers will vow to end what they say is Russia’s reign as the only commercial producer of a type of enriched uranium needed for the next generation of reactors.

A Russian missile strike in eastern Ukraine has killed 11 people, including five children, according to Ukrainian officials.

The eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk and nearby villages in Donetsk Oblast were hit with a barrage of S-300 missiles, destroying at least six houses, the head of Ukraine’s military administration for the region Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

His photograph of a green beetle resting on an acorn beat out 60,000 entries to win the Wiki Loves Earth prize this year. Sophie Holloway speaks to Miroshnyk about his fascination with tiny treasures, the war in Ukraine, and summers spent at ‘dachas’ in the forest.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers have defected from Vladimir Putin’s army using an “I want to live” hotline set up by Ukraine, military intelligence officials in Kyiv have revealed.

Created just days before Russia’s partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September 2022, the hotline has reportedly received tens of thousands of calls and has led to 220 soldiers defecting to Ukraine.

Kyiv’s military intelligence unit (GUR), which launched the initiative, said a website that accompanies the hotline has been visited more than 48 million times in 15 months.

Despite Russian forces appearing to have seized the initiative on the frontline as the conflict moves into its third calendar year, the drastic figures reflect a persisting suggestion that morale among Putin’s forces remains low.