At least one person killed and six wounded as Putin launches more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Christmas Day
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Half a million people have been left without heating in Kharkiv as Vladimir Putin’s forces launched a barrage of aerial attacks on Ukraine, condemned as “inhumane” by Volodymyr Zelensky.
The strikes wounded at least six people in the city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, local governors said.
Zelensky said more than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones were used to strike Ukraine’s power sources.
US President Joe Biden denounced the "outrageous" attack and said he asked the US Defense Department to push forward with a new surge of military aid to Kyiv.
Mr Biden, who is being replaced by Donald Trump next month, said the purpose of the attack was "to cut off the Ukrainian people's access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid".
Washington has committed $175 billion in aid for Ukraine. It is not certain the flow will continue at that pace under Trump, who has said he wants to bring the war to a quick end.
Key points
A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack targeting Ukraine’s energy system on Christmas Day has been condemned as “inhumane” by president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Half a million people were left without heating in Kharkiv in temperatures just a few degrees above freezing, as blackouts were reported in Kyiv and other regions.
At least one person was killed and six others wounded in the attack, described by one Ukrainian energy chief as Vladimir Putin’s “state-sponsored terrorism”.
The massive attack came as Ukraine officially celebrated Christmas on 25 December for only the second time, in a move to reduce the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, which celebrates on 7 January.
It provoked outrage from outgoing US President Joe Biden who vowed to deliver more weapons to Ukraine after sending hundreds of air defence missiles in recent months. “The Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace and safety,” he said.
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Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Christmas Day
Weapons such as surface-to-air missiles can cost many times more than the drones they are trying to shoot down
US president Joe Biden condemned Russia’s Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and cities, underscoring the US commitment to supporting Ukraine.
“The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid,” Mr Biden said in a statement.
He instructed the defence department to continue accelerating arms shipments to Ukraine.
However, uncertainty looms over future aid as president-elect Donald Trump, who has voiced scepticism about the scale of US involvement in the conflict, prepares to take office.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s pick for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, also criticised Wednesday’s attack.
“Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day,” Kellogg said. “The US is more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.”
A Russian cargo ship that Kyiv says was intended to collect weapons from military bases in Syria has sunk on route in the Mediterranean Sea.
Officials in Moscow said two crew members are missing after an engine room explosion sank the Ursa Major between Spain and Algeria. Fourteen other crew were rescued and taken to Spain.
The vessel left the Russian port city of St Petersburg on 11 December, according to ship tracking data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). It was last seen sending a signal at 10.04pm GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain.
Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed on Monday that the ship had been sent to Syria to remove weapons and military materiel after the fall of Moscow-backed Bashar Al-Assad.
Ukraine’s president Zelensky and South Korean officials have provided different estimates of North Korean troops killed or injured as they fight alongside Russian forces.
Seoul’s top military officials say that around 1,100 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine’s Kursk region. Meanwhile, Zelensky put the figure much higher, at over 3,000.
The Ukrainian president has warned that more North Korean troops will likely join the invading Russian forces, criticising world leaders for doing “almost nothing” to curb collaboration between the two nations.
South Korean military sources have corroborated his claim, saying there is evidence that North Korea is preparing to send more resources to Russia.
Russia’s Gazprom said that it would send 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday, up from 42.1 mcm on Monday.
The slight uptick in distribution comes after Zelensky said he would not allow contracts for gas exports which flow from Russia to Europe through Ukraine to be renewed.
In reaction to the announcement, Slovakia PM Robert Fico met with Putin on Monday for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom’s exports to Europe and beyond decreased sharply following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, dropping by 90 billion cubic metres (bcm) in a single year to 63.8 billion over the year.
This dropped again in 2023 to 28.3 bcm, and is estimated to reach 32 bcm overall for 2024.
However, these figures are all staggeringly low compared to Gazprom’s pre-war exports, with the 2018/19 peak of 180 bmc remaining far out of reach.
Ukraine has successfully mounted its first robot-only assault against Russia, its the military says, as unmanned vehicles pushed back Moscow’s forces over the weekend.
In a display of modern warfare, Kyiv used dozens of remote-controlled vehicles mounted with machine guns, as well as unmanned kamikaze drones, in a raid near the Ukrainian-held town of Lyptsi, the Ukrainian military said.
Volodymyr Dehtiarov, a representative for Ukraine’s Khartiia Brigade, said: “We are talking about dozens of units of robotic and unmanned equipment simultaneously on a small section of the front.”
The assault took place between Russian-held Hlyboke and Ukrainian-held Lyptsi, in the Kharkiv region near Ukraine’s north-western border.
Kyiv has struggled with a shortage of manpower as the fight against invadin Russian troops continues into 2025. Ukranian officials have said the nation’s military consists of around 800,000 while Russia has committed 1.7 million troops to its war so far.
Modern assaults such as Ukraine’s robot only attack may prove to be crucial in the coming year as the officials look to tackle the imbalance of troops.
Editorial: Half a million were left without heating and one person was killed as Russia launched more than 70 missiles at Kharkiv. Yet 2025 will almost certainly be the year when the war ends – and it will not be the unmitigated disaster for Ukraine that seemed likely even a few months ago
Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico has drawn criticism from the European community and Slovakian citizens after he met face-to-face with Vladimir Putin the day before Christmas Eve (23 December).
Mr Fico became only the third European leader to visit the Russian president in Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine was ordered in February 2022.
The pair discussed “the international situation” and the delivery of Russian natural gas, according to the Kremlin.
Mr Fico says his visit was a reaction to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement that he would no longer allow Russian natural gas to flow to other European countries through pipes in Ukrainian soil.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry slammed the “weakness, dependence and short-sightedness” of Mr Fico’s energy policy in a statement, calling it a “threat to the whole of Europe.”
Meanwhile, protests have taken place in Bratislavia, Slovakia’s capital, as citizens show their support for Ukraine and disappointment at Mr Fico’s meeting.
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