US president condemns ‘outrageous’ Christmas Day attack
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The Ukrainian military said it had thwarted a Russian attack on Boxing Day, as it shot shot down 20 drones launched overnight.
Kyiv said a further 11 ‘imitator-drones’ were launched but did not reach their targets due to active engagement from the Ukrainian military.
The attack came as half a million people have been left without heating in Kharkiv after Putin’s forces launched an “inhumane” attack on Christmas Day.
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.
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
Moscow has claimed that civillian targets in Russia have been hit by missiles.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine launched western-made missiles and drones in the attack on Thursday and vowed retaliation.
Four people were killed and five people were injured in the town of Lgov in Russia’s Kursk region after Ukrainian shelling, the region’s acting governor said on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s postage stamps have become symbols of resistance and resilience during the war, using bold and sometimes provocative designs to boost morale and fund essential causes, the BBC reported.
Notable examples include a stamp featuring a soldier flipping off a Russian warship, which became iconic after the ship’s sinking, and others depicting a Ukrainian tractor towing a Russian tank or the mine-sniffing dog Patron.
Oscar Young from the UK-based stamp dealers and auctioneers Stanley Gibbons describes Ukraine’s war-focused approach to stamp design as highly unconventional.
“Generally stamps are artistic and polite, but to go out your way and be quite rude, placing profanity and being very gesturous on stampsthat is quite unique to these particular issues,” he told the BBC.
For the world, 2024 was riven by conflict on two fronts
Ukraine said it has shot down a barrage of drones launched by Russia overnight.
On Boxing Day morning, the military said it had shot down 20 out of 31 drones launched by Moscow. A further 11 ‘imitator-drones’ did not reach their targets due to active engagement from the Ukrainian military, it added.
Falling debris from a Ukrainian drone that was shot down caused an explosion and a fatal fire in a shopping centre in the city of Vladikavkaz in Russia’s North Ossetia region, the local governor has said.
Sergei Menyailo, the regional governor, alleged that air defence systems shot down the drone at 8:3am Moscow time.
One woman was reported to have been killed inside the shopping centre. The governor’s assertion could not be immediately verified.
Russia’s defence ministry said 119 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed in the last 24 hours.
Oleksii Bezpaltsev, a celebrated 34-year-old Ukrainian poet and prose writer from Kharkiv, was killed during a combat mission in Kharkiv Oblast, The Kyiv Independent reported.
Known for his modernist style and underground literary influence, Bezpaltsev published two collections of short stories and participated in literary slams, the outlet said.
PEN International reports that at least 102 cultural contributors, including writers and artists, have been killed since the war began.
Prior to his service in Kharkiv, Bezpaltsev had fought on the Pokrovsk front.
The Kremlin has sought to dismiss reports that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s wife is seeking a divorce, after the couple were forced to flee to Russia.
Reports claim Syrian dictator’s British-born wife is severely ill with leukaemia and wishes to return to UK
A Russian cargo ship that sank after an explosion ripped through its engine room was a victim of an “act of terrorism”, the vessel’s owner has said.
The Ursa Major cargo ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain on Tuesday, leaving two of its 16-person crew missing, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.
The vessel, built in 2009, had been placed under sanction by the United States for its ties to Russia’s military after the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian state news agency RIA reported that Oboronlogistika, the company which owns the cargo ship, said in a statement that the vessel had been targeted in “a terrorist act”.
The company, which is part of the Russian defence ministry‘s military construction operations, said the 14 crew members located had reported consecutive explosions on the ship at 10.50am.
Read more here:
Three explosions ripped through the engine room of Ursa Major before it sank off the Spanish coast, says the owner which is linked to Russia’s defence ministry
Russia’s “bloody and brutal war machine” has shown no respite even at Christmas, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said, as he condemned strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid.
Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports on the international reaction to yesterday’s attacks:
Moscow has launched a massive missile barrage on Christmas Day, with the aim of crippling energy infrastructure sites across Ukraine
In his Christmas Day address, Pope Francis called for a dialogue to end the Ukraine-Russia war and urged a ceasefire in Gaza, alongside appeals for peace in other conflict zones like Lebanon and Syria.
The Pope condemned the ongoing violence in Ukraine following a massive Russian missile and drone attack, reiterating his plea for a “just and lasting peace”. He also highlighted the humanitarian crises in Gaza, where hostages remain, and the plight of Christian minorities in Syria after rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
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