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Right here is extra from the Russian defence ministry on its assault on Ukraine.
In an announcement it mentioned:
This morning the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched an enormous strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones in opposition to essential amenities of Ukraine’s power infrastructure that help the work of the military-industrial complicated.
The purpose of the strike was achieved. All amenities have been hit.
Key occasions
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a name with the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday.
Throughout the name, the Ukrainian chief thanked the Japanese authorities for its choice to switch a further $3bn secured by frozen Russian property.
A readout of the decision by Zelenskyy’s workplace states that he thanked Japan for the $12bn in humanitarian and monetary support supplied to Ukraine.
An announcement by Zelenskyy reads:
I’m grateful for the Japanese authorities’s choice to switch one other $3bn to Ukraine, secured by frozen Russian property, and for extra help for power tools and the development of shelters. We agreed to fulfill to proceed the dialogue.
Russia’s overseas ministry has accused Nato of attempting to show Moldova right into a logistical centre to produce the Ukrainian military.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian ministry of overseas affairs, cited what she mentioned was a big switch of weapons to Moldova in latest months, Reuters reported.
She additionally accused the western alliance of in search of to carry its navy infrastructure nearer to Russia.
Afternoon abstract
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Russia carried out a large-scale assault on Ukraine power system and cities in its jap area with cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukrainian officers mentioned.
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President Zelenskyy condemned the assaults: “Right this moment, Putin intentionally selected Christmas for an assault. What could possibly be extra inhuman? Over 70 missiles, together with ballistic ones, and greater than 100 assault drones. The targets are our power infrastructure.”
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After the assault, Reuters reported that half 1,000,000 folks in Kharkiv area have been left with out heating on Christmas Day, in temperatures only a few levels Celsius above zero. In the meantime there have been blackouts within the capital Kyiv and elsewhere.
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The Russian defence ministry confirmed it was chargeable for the assaults. In an announcement it mentioned: “The Russian Federation launched an enormous strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones in opposition to essential amenities of Ukraine’s power infrastructure that help the work of the military-industrial complicated”. It added: “The purpose of the strike was achieved. All amenities have been hit.”
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Ukraine’s air drive mentioned the strikes included 78 air, floor, and sea-launched missiles in addition to 106 Shaheds and different kinds of drones. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 extra drones being jammed.
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Ukraine’s power minister German Galushchenko mentioned on Fb that Russia “is massively attacking the ability sector” and that the transmission system operator had imposed restrictions on electrical energy provide to minimise the affect.
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Ukraine’s largest non-public power firm, DTEK, whose tools was severely broken within the assault, mentioned on the Telegram messaging app: “This 12 months, it’s the thirteenth huge assault on the Ukrainian power sector and the tenth huge assault on the corporate’s power amenities.”
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the assaults and paid tribute to the “resilience of the Ukrainian folks, and the management of president Zelenskyy, within the face of additional drone and missile assaults from Putin’s bloody and brutal battle machine, with no respite, even at Christmas”.
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US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, mentioned: “Russia’s Christmas reward to Ukraine: greater than 70 missiles and 100 drones, directed at Ukrainian households celebrating of their properties and the power infrastructure that retains them. For the third vacation season, Russia weaponizes winter.”
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Not less than 4 civilians have been killed by latest Russian assaults in Ukraine, the BBC has reported. Citing native officers and the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, one individual was killed in Dnipropetrovsk in a shelling assault (yesterday) with the opposite fatalaties reported at present in Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv.
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The Russian defence ministry mentioned that Russian forces have taken management of the settlement of Vidrodzhennia in jap Ukraine.
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One girl was killed after falling particles from a Ukrainian drone that was shot down precipitated an explosion and a deadly hearth in a purchasing centre within the metropolis of Vladikavkaz in Russia’s North Ossetia area, the native governor mentioned.
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Moldova’s president Maia Sandu mentioned a Russian missile “violated” Moldova’s airspace. Posting on X, she mentioned: “Whereas our nations rejoice Christmas, Kremlin chooses destruction – concentrating on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and violating Moldova’s airspace with a missile, actions that clearly violate worldwide legislation. Moldova condemns these acts and stands in full solidarity with Ukraine.”
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4 folks have been killed and 5 folks have been injured within the city of Lgov in Russia’s Kursk area after Ukrainian shelling, the area’s appearing governor mentioned on Wednesday.
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Russia has misplaced 779,320 troops in Ukraine for the reason that starting of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, together with 1,600 casualties Russian forces suffered over the previous day, the Common Employees of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on 25 December.
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A Russian cargo ship which sank within the Mediterranean Sea this week was the sufferer of “an act of terrorism,” state information company RIA has reported citing Oboronlogistika, the ship’s final proprietor.
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Pope Francis has referred to as for an finish to the battle in Ukraine in his conventional Christmas Day tackle in Rome saying: “Could the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine. Could there be the boldness wanted to open the door to negotiation and to gestures of dialogue and encounter, with the intention to obtain a simply and lasting peace.”
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Moscow is trying into reviews that the Russian military could have captured an Australian citizen preventing with Ukrainian forces. Oscar Jenkins was reportedly captured by Russian troopers whereas preventing alongside Ukrainian forces within the Donbas area.
Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who was launched in a prisoner swap by Moscow in August, has been positioned on Russia’s “needed” checklist, based on an inside ministry database seen by AFP.
“Needed beneath a legal code article,” reads the web site, together with {a photograph} of Yashin and his date and homeland.
The previous Moscow councillor can be labelled as a “overseas agent”, a designation sometimes utilized to opponents of president Vladimir Putin.
Yashin, 41, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail on the finish of 2022 for denouncing “the homicide of civilians” within the Ukrainian metropolis of Bucha.
The liberal sat on Moscow’s metropolis council on the time and had fought alongside opposition figures like Alexei Navalny, who died in detention in February 2024, and Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015.
Yashin was launched on 1 August as a part of a historic prisoner alternate between Russia and the West, alongside different Russian opposition figures and American journalist Evan Gershkovich, a former AFP Moscow correspondent.
Since then, he has been concerned within the Russian opposition motion in exile, collaborating in a protest in opposition to the battle in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin in Berlin in November.
Russia’s needed individuals checklist is in depth and contains each Russian and overseas personalities, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia’s ministry of overseas affairs mentioned that Australia had contacted Moscow in regards to the attainable seize by the Russian military of an Australian citizen preventing with Ukrainian forces.
Oscar Jenkins was reportedly captured by Russian troopers whereas preventing alongside Ukrainian forces within the Donbas area.
Throughout a weekly information briefing in Moscow on Wednesday, Russia’s ministry of overseas affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed Australian diplomats had been in touch in regards to the attainable seize.
“Efforts are at the moment underway to confirm reviews of the captured Australian citizen,” she mentioned, based on Russian information company Tass.
“We’re monitoring the state of affairs alongside the related businesses.”
Professional-Russian Telegram channels final week posted an unverified video allegedly displaying the interrogation of the captured Australian by Russian forces.
Russian cargo ship which sank off Spanish coast was sufferer of ‘terrorism’ – RIA
A Russian cargo ship which sank within the Mediterranean Sea was the sufferer of “an act of terrorism,” state information company RIA has reported.
The ship, referred to as Ursa Main, sank between Spain and Algeria after an explosion ripped via its engine room leaving two of its 16 crew lacking, Russia’s Overseas Ministry mentioned on Tuesday.
RIA cited Oboronlogistika, the ship’s final proprietor and an organization that’s a part of the Russian Defence Ministry’s navy development operations, as saying the vessel had been focused in “a terrorist act.”
Oboronlogistika had beforehand mentioned that the ship had been en path to the Russian far jap port of Vladivostok with two big port cranes lashed to its deck.
Not less than 4 civilians have been killed by latest Russian assaults in Ukraine, the BBC has reported.
Citing native officers and the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, one individual was killed in Dnipropetrovsk in a shelling assault (yesterday) with the opposite fatalaties reported at present in Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv.
Russia has misplaced 779,320 troops in Ukraine for the reason that starting of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, together with 1,600 casualties Russian forces suffered over the previous day, the Common Employees of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on 25 December.
In line with the report, Russia has additionally misplaced:
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9,628 tanks
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19,923 armoured preventing autos
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32,117 autos and gas tanks
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21,333 artillery techniques
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1,256 a number of launch rocket techniques
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1,030 air defence techniques
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369 plane
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329 helicopters
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20,908 drones
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28 ships and boats
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1 submarine
Keir Starmer condems Russia’s strikes on Ukraine
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has condemned Russia’s strikes on Ukraine:
I pay tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian folks, and the management of president Zelenskyy, within the face of additional drone and missile assaults from Putin’s bloody and brutal battle machine, with no respite, even at Christmas.
He added:
As we go into the New 12 months, it stays important that we redouble our resolve to position Ukraine within the strongest attainable place to finish Russia’s unlawful aggression in opposition to the Ukrainian folks.
Moldova says Russian missile ‘violated’ its airspace
Moldova’s president Maia Sandu mentioned a Russian missile was detected in its airspace.
Posting on X, she mentioned:
Whereas our nations rejoice Christmas, Kremlin chooses destruction—concentrating on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and violating Moldova’s airspace with a missile, actions that clearly violate worldwide legislation. Moldova condemns these acts and stands in full solidarity with Ukraine.
In the meantime, Nato member Romania mentioned it had not detected any Russian missile passing via its airspace to focus on Ukraine as claimed by Kyiv.
Listed below are some extra particulars on Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s power system.
The strikes included 78 air, floor, and sea-launched missiles in addition to 106 Shaheds and different kinds of drones, Ukraine’s air drive mentioned.
It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 extra drones being jammed.
Pope requires finish to the battle in Ukraine
Pope Francis has referred to as for an finish to the battle in Ukraine in his conventional Christmas Day tackle in Rome.
He mentioned:
Could the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine. Could there be the boldness wanted to open the door to negotiation and to gestures of dialogue and encounter, with the intention to obtain a simply and lasting peace.
Listed below are some photographs coming to us over the wires from Ukraine.
One girl was killed after falling particles from a Ukrainian drone that was shot down precipitated an explosion and a deadly hearth in a purchasing centre within the metropolis of Vladikavkaz in Russia’s North Ossetia area, the native governor mentioned on Wednesday.
Sergei Menyailo, the regional governor, wrote on his official Telegram account that air defence techniques had shot down the drone at 0828 Moscow time (0528 GMT), Reuters reviews.
Right here is extra from the Russian defence ministry on its assault on Ukraine.
In an announcement it mentioned:
This morning the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched an enormous strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones in opposition to essential amenities of Ukraine’s power infrastructure that help the work of the military-industrial complicated.
The purpose of the strike was achieved. All amenities have been hit.