Human wave of North Korea troops ‘sent to death’ amid music speaker bomb plot claim

US officials have claimed that North Korea is suffering mass casualties on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine, being used in costly “human wave” attacks.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that thousands of North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in the last week alone.

“It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby said.

South Korea, Ukraine and the US previously accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia fight off the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk border region.

It comes as Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled a plot by Ukraine to kill a high-ranking Russian officer and a pro-Russian war blogger with a bomb hidden in a portable music speaker.

On the instructions of the Ukrainian intelligence officer, a Russian citizen had retrieved a bomb from a hiding place in Moscow, the FSB said. The bomb, equivalent to 1 1/2 kg of TNT and packed with ball bearings, was concealed in a portable music speaker, the FSB said.

Key points

• North Korea suffering mass casualties on frontline, US says

• US expected to announce $1bn aid package

• Russia warns the United States on possible nuclear testing under Trump

• N. Korean soldier captured in Ukraine dies, South Korea’s spy agency says

• Russian air defence likely behind Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, military experts say

Pokrovsk suffers power outage after repeated Russian attacks

12:36 , Tom Watling

The Ukrainian area of Pokrovsk has been cut off from power after repeated Russian attacks, the local administration has reported.

The city of Pokrovsk is a linchpin of the defence of the wider Donetsk region and its capture has been a primary objective of the advancing Russian forces for months.

Recently, Vladimir Putin’s troops have advanced within a few miles of the city’s outskirts.

The local administration said they do not know when the power supply will be restored. Over the past three days, the city has been repeatedly hit by Russian drones and shells.

NATO to step up Baltic Sea patrols

12:00 , Tom Watling

NATO will step up Baltic Sea patrols as Finland probes the possible sabotage of undersea cables

Ukraine says it has destroyed Russian drone warehouse

11:21 , Tom Watling

Ukraine says it has destroyed a warehouse for the storage, maintenance and repair of “Shaheed” drones in the Russian region of Oryol

Ukraine’s general staff of the military said a Boxing Day operation successfully targeted a warehouse just north of the border region of Kursk.

“The operation significantly reduced the enemy’s potential to conduct airstrikes with strike UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure,” they wrote on Facebook.

The Independent was unable to verify this.

Zelensky urges China to put pressure on North Korea over military aid to Russia

10:44 , Tom Watling

Zelensky urges China to put pressure on North Korea over military aid to Russia

Ukraine says it has recovered diary of killed North Korean soldier

10:09 , Tom Watling

Ukraine’s special operations forces say they have recovered the diary of a North Korean soldier killed while fighting in the Russian region of Kursk.

You can read one of the translated diary entries below.

US to send $1.25 billion in weapons to Ukraine, in push to get aid out before leaving office

09:41 , Tom Watling

US to send $1.25 billion in weapons to Ukraine, in push to get aid out before leaving office

Zelenskyy says North Korean troops suffering ‘many losses’ in Russia’s Kursk region

09:09 , Tom Watling

Footage shows damaged in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv

08:45 , Tom Watling

Footage released by Ukraine’s emergency services shows damage sustained in the southern city of Mykolaiv following a Russian drone attack.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Air Force said they had downed 15 Russian drones overnight, while a sixteenth was lost in the air. They added that Mykolaiv had been hit.

Ukraine shoots down overnight Russian drone attack

08:20 , Tom Watling

Ukraine‘s Air Force says it has shut down more than a dozen drones launched across the country overnight.

In a statement on the Telegram Mesenger app, they wrote: “On the night of December 28, 2024 (from 11:00 p.m. on December 27), the enemy attacked with 16 Shahed attack UAVs and drones of other types (launch areas: Primorsko-Akhtarsk – Russia).”

They said all drones were either downed by electronic warfare or lost in the air. There were no casualties, though a company and apartment building in the city of Mykolaiv were partially damaged.

Russia arrests 4 suspects accused of plotting to kill top military officers on Ukraine’s orders

08:03 , Arpan Rai

Russia’s top security agency has arrested several suspects accused of involvement in an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior military officers, an announcement that follows the killing of a top Russian general last week.

The Federal Security Service, a top KGB successor known under its Russian acronym FSB, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that it had arrested four Russians accused of making preparations to kill senior defence ministry officials.

The FSB said that the suspected organisers of the attacks were planning to kill one of the senior officers using a remotely controlled car bomb.

It added that another top military official was to be assassinated by an explosive device hidden in an envelope. The agency didn’t name the military officers who were targeted in the alleged plot.

Russia arrests 4 suspects accused of plotting to kill top military officers on Ukraine’s orders

Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky

08:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Zelensky said that 500 metric tons of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Ukraine‘s humanitarian “Grain from Ukraine“ initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme.

“The wheat flour is planned to be distributed to 33,250 families or 167,000 people, in the coming weeks,” Zelensky said on X, adding: “Each package weighs 15 kilograms and can feed a family of five for one month.”

After the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, Ukraine has said it wants to restore relations with Syria.

Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria.

Russia claims it thwarted Ukrainian plot to kill officer and a blogger

07:58 , Arpan Rai

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled a plot by Ukraine to kill a high-ranking Russian officer and a pro-Russian war blogger with a bomb hidden in a portable music speaker.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that a Russian citizen had established contact with an officer from Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency through the Telegram messaging platform.

On the instructions of the Ukrainian intelligence officer, the Russian citizen had then retrieved a bomb from a hiding place in Moscow, the FSB said. The bomb, equivalent to one and a half kg of TNT and packed with ball bearings, was concealed in a portable music speaker, the FSB said.

The FSB did not name the officer or the blogger who was the target of the plot. Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency has not issued a comment on Russia’s claims.

Kyiv looks to open over 150 underground schools by fall 2025

07:51 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine is planning to open more than 150 underground educational facilities by September of 2025, deputy education minister Nadiia Kuzmychova said at a briefing yesterday.

Officials in the war-hit country have initiated plans to build 139 underground schools and several dozen underground vocational education institutions, the minister said.

There are currently 79 underground education facilities under active construction and construction is ongoing in frontline regions and areas most affected by Russian shelling, the deputy education minister said.

“We expect the construction of absolutely all facilities to be completed by September 1, 2025,” Ms Kuzmychova said.

Ukraine had to switch to underground schools after the country came under the Russian aerial attacks, which target civilian infrastructure, including education facilities and have claimed thousands of lives so far.

In Focus: As Trump returns to the White House, and Putin’s forces advance – what next for Ukraine in 2025?

07:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukraine is facing an array of issues heading into 2025, underscored by the anxiety of what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for the country’s future. Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what next year could look like

As Trump returns to the White House – what next for Ukraine in 2025?

Bloodied Ukrainian troops risk losing more hard-won land in Kursk to Russia

06:05 , Arpan Rai

Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralised by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all.

Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders can’t evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counterattack, seven frontline soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive operations.

Since being caught unaware by the lightning Ukrainian incursion, Russia has amassed more than 50,000 troops in the region, including some from its ally North Korea. Precise numbers are hard to obtain, but Moscow’s counterattack has killed and wounded thousands and the overstretched Ukrainians have lost more then 40 per cent of the 984 sq km (380 sq miles) of Kursk they seized in August.

Bloodied Ukrainian troops risk losing more hard-won land in Kursk to Russia

Kitten named Peach saves life of Ukrainian man fleeing war

06:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Kitten named Peach saves life of Ukrainian man fleeing war

As Trump returns to the White House, and Putin’s forces advance – what next for Ukraine in 2025?

05:10 , Arpan Rai

After nearly three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the future of the country’s fight against Vladimir Putin’s forces is more uncertain than ever.

Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential race, off the back of promises to end the war in Eastern Europe in 24 hours – seemingly even if that means forcing Kyiv to cede territory to Russia – appears to spell the end of the West’s long-held policy of helping Ukraine to defeat Putin entirely. Negotiations with Russia, after years of silence, are back on the agenda.

This is causing significant stress in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. As Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, puts it: “The world needs to understand how crucial it is not to end the war on any idea of negotiating with Russia.”

As Trump returns to the White House – what next for Ukraine in 2025?

‘I have to be here. My family understands’: Christmas on the frontline with Ukraine’s drone brigade

05:03 , Arpan Rai

In the two years since its formation, Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Brigade – called “Khartiya” – has gained a reputation not only for prowess in battle but also for its culture of respect and innovative approach to technology.

Khartiya helped to halt Russian forces who launched a surprise incursion last May that threatened to overwhelm Kharkiv, from where many of its original members come.

The brigade was deployed to confront the Russian incursion around the village of Lyptsi, north of Ukraine’s second-largest city, last June; the forested area has since been a pivotal battleground.

Christmas on the frontline with Ukraine’s drone brigade

Mapped: Where has Russia made advances on the frontline in Ukraine?

05:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukraine-Russia war map: Where Putin’s forces are making gains in eastern Ukraine

China’s Xi to visit Russia in 2025, Russian ambassador says

04:37 , Arpan Rai

China’s president Xi Jinping will visit Russia in 2025, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency quoted Moscow’s ambassador to Beijing as saying.

“As for concrete bilateral events, I can say that the appropriate plans are actively being drawn up,” Ambassador Igor Morgulov told RIA yesterday.

“What can be said that is no secret, in terms of priority, is that the chairman of the People’s Republic of China is expected in Russia next year.”

At a regular press conference, China’s foreign ministry did not confirm the visit, but reiterated that the two countries maintained close contacts at all levels.

Russian president Vladimir Putin visited China in February 2022, proclaiming a “no limits” partnership days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. He was in Beijing again last May, after his re-election by a landslide, welcoming a “new era” of relations focusing on opposition to US policy.

Russia warns ‘radical’ Donald Trump against resuming nuclear testing

04:27 , Arpan Rai

Russia has warned it “rules out nothing” regarding nuclear testing in response to Donald Trump’s “radical” position on the issue during his first term as president.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees arms control, warned the United States that its nuclear arsenal is intended to “sober up” countries on the “brink of direct armed conflict” with Russia.

Russia, the US and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear weapons just as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) of the Cold War era between the Soviet Union and the US is starting to fall apart.

Russia warns ‘radical’ Donald Trump against resuming nuclear testing

North Korean soldier captured in Ukraine died from injuries, says South Korea

04:16 , Arpan Rai

South Korea’s spy agency said that a North Korean soldier who was captured alive in Ukraine has died from his injuries, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Yonhap earlier reported yesterday that the agency had confirmed that a North Korean soldier dispatched to fight for Russia had been captured by Ukrainian forces.

Russia says it has taken two more east Ukrainian villages

04:01 , Arpan Rai

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken control of two eastern Ukrainian villages, Ivanivka in the Donetsk region, and Zahryzove in the Kharkiv region, the RIA state news agency reported.

The ministry also claimed it had downed four British-made Storm Shadow missiles in the past week.

Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky

03:47 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.

Mr Zelensky said that 500 metric tons of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Ukraine‘s humanitarian “Grain from Ukraine“ initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme.

“The wheat flour is planned to be distributed to 33,250 families or 167,000 people, in the coming weeks,” he said on X, adding: “Each package weighs 15 kilograms and can feed a family of five for one month.”

After the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, Ukraine has said it wants to restore relations with Syria. Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria.

Russia claims it foiled several Ukrainian plots to kill senior officers

03:23 , Arpan Rai

Russia has claimed it has foiled several Ukrainian plots to assassinate senior officers and their families using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.

The country’s Federal Security Service said it had arrested four Russians accused of helping plan the attack, just weeks after a high-ranking officer was killed outside his Moscow apartment by a bomb attached to an electric scooter.

Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service confirmed they were behind the attack on 17 December that killed Lieutenant General Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops.

Russia claims it foiled several plots to kill senior officers with disguised bombs

North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine dies, South Korea says

03:13 , Arpan Rai

An injured North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces has died, according to South Korean media.

The man is thought to be the first North Korean prisoner of war taken into custody since Pyongyang sent troops to aid Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it had confirmed through an “allied intelligence agency” that the soldier had died from “serious injuries”, Yonhap News Agency reported.

North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine dies, South Korea says

Nato to step up Baltic Sea patrols

03:09 , Arpan Rai

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said the military alliance will step up patrols in the Baltic Sea region as Finnish investigators work to establish whether a ship linked to Russia sabotaged undersea cables there this week.

In a post on X, Mr Rutte said that he had spoken to Finland’s president Alexander Stubb “about the ongoing Finnish-led investigation into possible sabotage of undersea cables”. Mr Rutte said that “Nato will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea”.

Asked for details about what might be done and when, Nato headquarters would say only that the 32-country alliance “remains vigilant and is working to provide further support, including by enhancing our military presence” in the region.

Finnish authorities seized control of the ship, the Eagle S, on Thursday as they tried to establish whether it had damaged a power cable linking Finland and Estonia and several data cables. It was the latest in a string of incidents involving the disruption of key infrastructure in the region.

NATO will step up Baltic Sea patrols as Finland probes the possible sabotage of undersea cables

70 per cent of Ukrainians support ‘West German’ model for Nato accession, survey shows

03:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Just over 70 per cent of Ukrainians support gradual Nato accession akin to West Germany’s model, a new survey by the Kyiv-based New Europe Center showed.

This invitation would cover Ukraine, but the alliance’s defensive umbrella would only extend to occupied territories after liberation.

Different Nato accession pathways are gaining traction in both the West and Kyiv as Russia holds a military advantage on the battlefield and the prospect of liberating occupied territories militarily remains slim.

US to send $1.25bn in weapons to Ukraine

02:55 , Arpan Rai

The US is expected to announce that it will send $1.25bn in military assistance to Ukraine, US officials said as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on 20 January.

The large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defence system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds, officials said.

The officials, who said they expect the announcement to be made on Monday, spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.

The new aid comes as Russia has launched a barrage of attacks against Ukraine’s power facilities in recent days, although Ukraine has said it intercepted a significant number of the missiles and drones.

North Korean troops left unprotected by Russia, says Zelensky

02:50 , Arpan Rai

North Korean troops fighting in Russia’s Kursk region are left unprotected by the Russian forces, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, stating that the Korean nation should not lose its people as casualties in Europe.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky said that Russian troops were doing everything to ensure that North Korean soldiers were not taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces.

“…we can see that the Russian military and the North Korean enforcers have no interest in the survival of these Koreans at all. Everything is arranged in a way that makes it impossible for us to capture the Koreans as prisoners – their own people are executing them, there are such cases,” he said.

He said some North Korean soldiers had been captured by Ukrainian forces, but were hurt so badly they could not be saved.

“Today we received reports on several soldiers from North Korea, our warriors managed to capture them. But they were seriously wounded and could not be resuscitated. This is one of the manifestations of the madness dictatorships are capable of,” he said.

What Russia’s invasion has cost Ukraine after more than 1,000 days of war

02:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Devastating human and material losses continue to mount, leaving Ukraine more vulnerable than at any time since the early days of the war.

As of 31 August, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine had documented at least 11,743 civilians killed and 24,614 wounded in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Ukrainian prosecutors have said 589 Ukrainian children had been killed by 15 November.

Western countries believe Russia has suffered far worse casualties than Ukraine, sometimes losing more than 1,000 soldiers killed per day during periods of intense fighting in the east.

But it is Ukraine, with around a third of Russia’s population, that is likely to be facing the more severe manpower shortages arising from battles of attrition.

Russia now occupies and claims to have annexed around a fifth of Ukraine, an area around the size of Greece.

The draft 2025 budget envisages that about 26 per cent of Ukraine’s GDP, or 2.2 trillion hryvnias ($53.3 billion), would go on defence. Ukraine has already received more than $100 billion from its Western partners in financial aid.

What is ATACMS? The US missiles being used inside Russia

01:00 , Jabed Ahmed

There are several variants of Army Tactical Missile Systems, a long-range missile system that often carries varying amounts of cluster bomblets.

Ukrainian forces used the US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for the first time in October 2023, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying the weapons had “proven themselves.”

Ukraine likely has what are known as M39A1 Block IA ATACMS that are guided in part by Global Positioning System and have a range of 40 to 190 miles. They can carry a payload of 300 bomblets. The M39 Block IA were used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Army documents, and were added to the US arsenal in 1997.

Ukraine’s military intelligence claims North Korean troops in Russia suffering heavy battlefield losses

Friday 27 December 2024 23:59 , Jabed Ahmed

North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Kyiv’s military intelligence claimed on Thursday.

The intelligence agency, known by its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops had been killed and wounded in the fighting in Kursk. It marked the first estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent over 10,000 troops to help the Russian war effort.

US expected to announce $1bn aid package

Friday 27 December 2024 23:44 , Athena Stavrou

The United States is expected to announce that it will send $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, US officials said Friday, as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on January 20.

The large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155 mm- and 105 mm artillery rounds, officials said.

The officials, who said they expect the announcement to be made on Monday, spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.

North Korea suffering mass casualties on frontline, US says

Friday 27 December 2024 23:43 , Athena Stavrou

US officials have claimed that North Korea is suffering mass casualties on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that thousands of North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in the last week alone.

“It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby said.

South Korea, Ukraine and the US previously accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia fight off the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk border region.

What is Russia’s ‘Oreshnik’ missile?

Friday 27 December 2024 23:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Vladimir Putin said Russia had struck Ukraine with a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile in response to Kyiv’s use of US and British missiles against Russia.

On 21 November, he said Russia had launched an “Oreshnik”, one of its newest intermediate-range missiles, at a defence enterprise in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Putin said it travelled at 10 times the speed of sound and could not be intercepted. It has a range of around 3,100 miles allowing Russia to strike most of Europe, according to experts.

It appears to have multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles: separate warheads able to hit different targets.

Anatoly Matviychuk, a Russian military expert, said it could carry six to eight conventional or nuclear warheads, and was probably already in service

Putin says he is open to peace talks in Slovakia

Friday 27 December 2024 22:00 , Jabed Ahmed

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he would be open to peace talks with Ukraine in Slovakia “if it comes to that”.

Mr Putin said Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico, who this week visited the Kremlin, had offered his country as a location for negotiations as the war in Ukraine nears the three-year mark.

The Russian president said the Slovakian authorities “would be happy to provide their own country as a platform for negotiations”.

“We are not opposed, if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia takes such a neutral position,” Mr Putin said, adding he was resolved to end the conflict in Ukraine, which started with a land, air and sea invasion of Russia’s smaller neighbour in February 2022.

Russian air defence likely behind Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 people, military experts say

Friday 27 December 2024 21:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Russian air defence likely behind deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, experts say

Russia says Azerbaijan Airlines flight which crashed diverted amid fog and Ukrainian drone alert

Friday 27 December 2024 20:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Russia’s aviation watchdog said that an Azerbaijan Airlines plane which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday had decided to reroute from its original destination in Chechnya amid dense fog and a local alert over Ukrainian drones.

Rosaviatsia, the wathdog, said that the captain of the plane had been offered other airports at which to land, but had chosen Kazakhstan’s Aktau. It said that it would provide comprehensive support to Kazakh and Azerbaijani investigations looking into the crash.

Russia has said it’s important to wait for an investigation to finish its work to understand what happened. Four Azerbaijani sources told Reuters on Thursday the plane had been struck by Russian air defences.

Full report: Russia warns ‘radical’ Donald Trump against resuming nuclear testing

Friday 27 December 2024 19:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Russia warns ‘radical’ Donald Trump against resuming nuclear testing

Watch: Ukrainian soldiers celebrate Christmas on frontline of war

Friday 27 December 2024 18:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky

Friday 27 December 2024 17:14 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.

Zelensky said that 500 metric tons of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Ukraine‘s humanitarian “Grain from Ukraine“ initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme.

“The wheat flour is planned to be distributed to 33,250 families or 167,000 people, in the coming weeks,” Zelensky said on X, adding: “Each package weighs 15 kilograms and can feed a family of five for one month.”

After the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, Ukraine has said it wants to restore relations with Syria.

Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria.

Russia says it has taken two more east Ukrainian villages, RIA reports

Friday 27 December 2024 16:45 , Jabed Ahmed

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of two eastern Ukrainian villages, Ivanivka in the Donetsk region, and Zahryzove in the Kharkiv region, the RIA state news agency reported.

RIA also cited the ministry as saying it had downed four British-made Storm Shadow missiles in the past week.

These claims could not be independently verified.

Azerbaijan Airlines crash: was this another military shoot-down of a civil aircraft?

Friday 27 December 2024 16:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Azerbaijan Airlines crash: another military shoot-down of a civil aircraft?

Kremlin says Finland’s seizure of ship suspected of cable damage is not an issue for it

Friday 27 December 2024 15:14 , Jabed Ahmed

The Kremlin has said that Finland’s boarding of a ship carrying Russian oil on suspicion the vessel caused an outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable was not a matter for it.

Estonia’s armed forces have launched a naval operation to protect the parallel Estlink 1 undersea power cable in the Baltic Sea in response to the damage, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Friday.

When asked about Finland’s actions Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “I can’t say anything precise here, this is a very narrow-profile issue which is hardly the prerogative of the (Russian) presidential administration.”

Estonia’s navy to protect Baltic Sea power link after cable damage

Friday 27 December 2024 14:30 , Jabed Ahmed

Estonia’s armed forces have launched a naval operation to protect the Estlink 1 undersea power cable in the Baltic Sea in response to the damage this week of a parallel electricity line, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has said.

On Thursday, Finland seized a ship carrying Russian oil on suspicion the vessel caused an outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable which, like Estlink 1, connects Finland and Estonia, and that it also damaged four internet lines.

Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for acts of sabotage following a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, although subsea equipment is also subject to technical malfunction and accidents.

Damage to subsea installations in the region has now become so frequent that it is difficult to believe this was caused merely by accident or poor seamanship, Tsahkna said on Thursday.

Finnish investigators believe the seized ship – the Cook Island-registered ship, named as the Eagle S – may have caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed, one of several such incidents in recent years.

In Focus: As Trump returns to the White House, and Putin’s forces advance – what next for Ukraine in 2025?

Friday 27 December 2024 13:45 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukraine is facing an array of issues heading into 2025, underscored by the anxiety of what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for the country’s future. Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what next year could look like

As Trump returns to the White House – what next for Ukraine in 2025?

Pictured: Ukraine fire MLRS towards Russian troops in Zaporizhzhia region

Friday 27 December 2024 13:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Russian air defence likely behind Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 people, military experts say

Friday 27 December 2024 12:44 , Jabed Ahmed

Russian air defence likely behind deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, experts say

Putin’s Christmas Day attacks were designed to show ruthless force – but they may backfire

Friday 27 December 2024 12:14 , Jabed Ahmed

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.

Read our Editorial here:

How Putin’s ‘ruthless’ Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine may backfire

ICYMI: Russian drone attack kills two in Ukraine’s Donetsk region and several injured in Dnipropetrovsk

Friday 27 December 2024 11:31 , Jabed Ahmed

Russian drones struck a multi-storey apartment building in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, Ukraine, killing two people and injuring two.

Chasiv Yar has been under attack by Russian forces for many months in Donetsk region, the focus of Russia’s drive westward to capture the Donbas, which also includes Luhansk region.

The town lies west of Bakhmut, a regional centre which fell to Russian forces in May 2023 after months of heavy fighting.

Regional officials in Dnipropetrovsk region, further west, said a drone strike on the market in the town of Nikopol injured eight people on Thursday morning.

Seven of those injured were treated in hospital after the strike damaged stalls at the market, Dnipropetrovsk governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Nikopol, a frequent target of Russian attacks, lies on the opposite bank of a large reservoir from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Russia warns the United States on possible nuclear testing under Trump

Friday 27 December 2024 10:46 , Jabed Ahmed

Russia’s arms control point man cautioned Donald Trump’s incoming administration that Moscow was considering a whole range of possible steps on nuclear testing due to what it said was Trump’s radical position on the issue.

The Kommersant newspaper quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees arms control, as saying that Trump took a radical position on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) during his first term.

“The international situation is extremely difficult at the moment, the American policy in its various aspects is extremely hostile to us today,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying.

“So the optionality of our actions in the interests of ensuring security and the complex of possible measures and actions to realise this – and to send politically appropriate signals, in addition to what practitioners are considering – does not contain any exceptions.”

Romanian radar detects likely drone breaching territory, ministry says

Friday 27 December 2024 10:01 , Jabed Ahmed

Romania’s radar systems detected a small flying object, likely a drone, breaching national airspace up to 6 km inland in the southeastern county of Tulcea, the defence ministry said.

The European Union and NATO state, which shares a 650 km (400 mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall on its territory repeatedly over the past year and a half as Moscow attacks Ukrainian port infrastructure.

The ministry said the radar first picked up the signal at 1904 GMT, 15 km east of Chilia Veche in Tulcea County.

It alerted the population of the county to take cover and began procedures to scramble fighter jets, but the radar lost the signal at 1909 GMT.

“There is no information about a possible target impact on national territory,” the ministry said.

Ukraine’s air defence downs 13 out of 24 Russian drones, military says

Friday 27 December 2024 09:16 , Jabed Ahmed

Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 out of 24 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, the air force has said.

The air force said the other 11 Russian drones were “lost” without causing damage. Military analysts said that Ukraine has increasingly been using electronic warfare to redirect or spoof Russian drones.