Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow wants 'hard evidence' that missile in Poland was Russian before making statement – The Guardian

There will again be no fireworks in Moscow on Russia's biggest family holiday this year, but in almost every other way the capital is as bright and bustling as any New Year before Ukraine's war, Portal reports.

Last year, the fallout from what Russia called a “special military operation” that began 10 months earlier and a military conscription dampened Muscovites' appetite for entertainment. This year, only rising prices are marring the celebrations.

“Last year we bought a two-meter-tall fir tree (for New Year) that cost 10,000 rubles ($110),” Viktorina Petrova said during a visit to the Moscow circus. “This year it costs 17,000 rubles. That’s why we decided not to have a real Christmas tree at home this year.”

Bookings for corporate parties and events at Riesling Boyz Bar, which almost stopped last year, have increased again, said co-owner Georgy Karpenko.

Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin said a backdrop of soaring prices – inflation is around 7% – and economic growth fueled by a war with no end in sight are influencing spending .

“That kind of outlook, which suggests that things are reasonably OK at the moment and that nothing good is likely to happen later, naturally encourages spending rather than saving,” she said.

Two children were killed and several people injured in a Ukrainian attack on the center of the Russian provincial capital Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Saturday.

Gladkov said in a post on Telegram that a residential area had been hit.

He said: “Ukrainian forces shelled the center of Belgorod. According to preliminary information, there are two dead children and injured people. There is also a hit in the residential sector. All details later”

Updated at 13:16 GMT

Sharp increase in Russian deaths due to “deterioration” in military quality

According to the British Ministry of Defense, Russia recorded a sharp increase in the number of soldiers killed and wounded in 2023.

In its daily intelligence briefing, the Defense Ministry said said The average daily number of Russian casualties (killed and wounded) has increased by almost 300 per day compared to 2022.

It added:

The increase in daily averages reported by Ukrainian authorities almost certainly reflects the deterioration of the Russian Armed Forces and its transition to a lower quality, high quantity mass army since the “partial mobilization” of reservists in September 2022.

It will likely take five to ten years for Russia to rebuild a cohort of highly trained and experienced military units.

If casualties remain this high next year, by 2025 Russia will have killed and wounded more than half a million people over the course of the three-year war. This is compared to the Soviet Union's 70,000 casualties in the nine-year Soviet-Afghan War.

Updated at 13:04 GMT

Moscow says 32 drones were shot down over Russia

Thirty-two Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia, Moscow officials reported, a day after an 18-hour aerial bombardment in Ukraine killed at least 32 civilians.

On Saturday, drones were spotted in the skies over the Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol and Kursk regions, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement. All drones were destroyed by air defense, it was said.

Russian drone attacks against Ukraine also continued. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down in the Kherson, Khmelnytsky and Mykolaiv regions on Saturday.

Updated at 12.33 GMT

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said yesterday's attack was the deadliest yet for Kiev in terms of civilian casualties.

In a post on Telegram, Klitschko said: “The attack on the capital on December 29th was the largest among the peaceful residents of the capital in terms of the number of victims.”

“At this time, 16 bodies were recovered from the rubble of a warehouse in Shevchenkiv district. The rescuers are continuing to work and will clear the rubble by tomorrow.”

Klitschko said that January 1 would be declared a day of mourning in Kiev.

Updated at 11.58 GMT

On Saturday morning, the governor of Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said a child had been killed in attacks on “civilian objects” in two villages. Alexander Bogomaz did not provide any information about the timing of the attacks.

Bogomaz wrote on Telegram: “Ukrainian terrorists shelled the villages of Kister and Borshchovo in the Pogarsky district.

“More than 10 shells were fired from MLRS at civilian targets. Unfortunately, a child born in 2014 died as a result of a terrorist attack. I express my sincere condolences to the family of the deceased. The family will be provided all necessary support.”

The Russian military also said it destroyed a Ukrainian maritime drone that was heading toward the Crimean peninsula.

Updated at 11.28 GMT

According to AP, 32 people were killed in Moscow's air strike on Ukraine.

The attack, which damaged a maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools, left at least 144 people injured and an unknown number buried under rubble.

Shelling continued throughout the day in eastern and southern Ukraine and in Russia's border regions. A man was killed by a rocket late Friday evening in a private home in Russia's Belgorod region, regional director Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media. Another four people were injured, including a 10-year-old child, he said.

Western officials and analysts recently warned that Russia had limited its cruise missile attacks for months, apparently to stockpile for massive winter strikes in the hope of breaking the Ukrainians' spirit.

Updated at 11.04 GMT

Poland will continue searching for the missile that entered its airspace until this evening.

“The Ukrainian side and its allies initially confirmed our radar recordings that the object left Polish territory,” a spokesman for the country's operational command told Portal.

The search was expected to run until 1900 GMT after being suspended overnight, he added.

Updated at 10.35 GMT

Poland renewed a search operation on Saturday for elements of a suspected Russian missile that was said to have violated the country's airspace on Friday morning, the Polish army said.

“We inform that on December 30th … a ground search will be carried out in the Lublin Voivodeship for possible elements of the object that violated Polish airspace yesterday,” the Polish Army Operations Command wrote on the social media platform X .

“The aim of the search is to conclusively confirm that no element of the object remains on Polish territory.”

Polish military officials said Friday that the object left the country's airspace within three minutes of entering from the direction of the border with Ukraine.

Around 480 soldiers from the Territorial Defense Force were expected to take part in the search near the town of Zamosc in southeastern Poland, the operational command said.

On Friday evening, the Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian chargé d'affaires and demanded an explanation for the violation of its airspace by a guided missile.

Updated at 10.11 GMT

Moscow wants “hard evidence” that the missile in Poland was Russian before issuing a statement

Moscow will not issue an explanation for the missile in Polish airspace until it has “clear evidence” that it was a Russian missile, said Andrei Ordash, Russia's charge d'affaires in Poland, after being summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry.

According to RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-affiliated Russian news channel, Ordash said: “Until there is solid evidence, we will not make any statements as these accusations are unfounded.”

He referred to the incident in November 2022, when a rocket killed two people in a Polish border village.

“At that time there was also an attempt to blame the Russian side for this incident. It later emerged that the missile was fired by the Ukrainian military,” Ordash claimed.

Updated at 10.24 GMT

Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine:

Updated at 09:35 GMT

The air strike alert was activated in all Ukrainian regions and the city of Kyiv at around 10:30 a.m. local time today after reports that a MiG fighter jet capable of carrying Kinzhal missiles had taken off from an air base in Russia, the Kyiv Independent reports.

According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russia has lost 358,270 military personnel since its invasion began, an increase of 750 in the last day.

According to Ukrainian figures, which have not been independently verified, Russia lost 88 cruise missiles, 29 vehicles and fuel tanks, 20 armored fighting vehicles and 15 drones.

It came after a Russian airstrike in which Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired about 110 missiles.

Updated at 08.50 GMT

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov spoke by telephone with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the Russian airstrike on Ukraine and the situation at the front.

Austin said: “I have emphasized that the United States and our coalition of approximately 50 allies and partners continue to support Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression.”

Today I spoke to my 🇺🇦 counterpart @rustem_umerov to discuss the latest on the ground, including Russia's brutal airstrikes. I have emphasized that the support of the 🇺🇸 and our coalition of approximately 50 allies and partners remains for 🇺🇦 in its fight against Russian aggression…

— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) December 30, 2023

Updated at 08.50 GMT

Ukraine attacks the Russian regions of Belgorod and Bryansk

Russia's Defense Ministry said its anti-aircraft units destroyed 13 Ukrainian missiles over the southern Belgorod region on Friday, and the region's governor said one person was killed and four wounded in the incidents.

The governor of the Bryansk region, also in southern Russia, said six Ukrainian drones had been shot down.

Portal reports that a ministry statement said units in the Belgorod region foiled “an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack” and fired 13 rockets.

Vyacheslav GladkovThe governor of the Belgorod region on the Ukrainian border said a man was killed when a house was hit.

Four people were treated for injuries. Ten private houses were damaged and the water supply in the city of Belgorod was interrupted, Gladkov said.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces posted a video on Telegram showing the sky over Belgorod and showing at least one building in flames.

In the Bryansk region, governor Alexander Bogomaz said six drones were shot down in the attack in Ukraine. There were no injuries, he said.

Opening summary

Welcome to our ongoing live coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine. Here you will find an overview of the latest developments.

Ukraine launched airstrikes on the southern Russian regions of Belgorod and Bryansk on Friday. Russian officials said air defenses destroyed nearly 20 missiles and drones.

Belgorod's governor said one person was killed and four wounded in the region, while Russia's Defense Ministry said its anti-aircraft units had destroyed 13 Ukrainian missiles.

The governor of the Bryansk region said six Ukrainian drones were shot down.

On Friday morning, Russia launched a huge wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, in what Ukraine's defense minister described as the largest airstrike of the nearly two-year war. At least 30 civilians were killed and 160 injured.

Stay tuned for more on these stories soon and below, along with a roundup of other news.

• The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 87 cruise missiles and 27 drones out of a total of 158 “aerial targets” fired by Russia. Kiev Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said it was the “largest air strike of this war,” which began in February 2022 and involved 18 strategic bombers. The army chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said infrastructure and industrial and military facilities had been attacked.

• said Volodymyr Zelensky Russia fired about 110 missiles in the attack. “Today Russia has used almost every type of weapon in its arsenal,” the Ukrainian president said on social media. “Russian terror must and will lose.”

• This was announced by the Polish armed forces An unidentified flying object, which they identified as a Russian missile, entered the country's airspace from the direction of Ukraine for less than three minutes. “It was monitored by us via radar and left the airspace,” said Poland’s defense chief General Wiesław Kukuła. The object penetrated about 40 km (25 miles), Poland said, adding that NATO radar also confirmed that the object had left Polish airspace. The Russian chargé d'affaires, summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry, said Warsaw had provided no evidence that a missile had entered its airspace.

• At a hastily convened one At the UN Security Council meeting, most council members – including the US, France and Britain – condemned the attacks. “Tragically, the year 2023 is ending as it began, with devastating violence against the people of Ukraine,” U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said after briefing the council on the attacks.

• Britain will send around 200 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine after the Russian attackssaid the British Defense Secretary on Friday. Grant Shapps posted on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on social media: “These widespread attacks on Ukraine's cities show that Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his goal of eradicating freedom and democracy.”

• One person has died in a Ukrainian attack on a residential building in the Russian city of Belgorodsaid the regional governor late Friday. One person was killed and four others were injured in the attack, Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that the city's water supply system was damaged. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, air defense systems destroyed a total of 13 missiles over the region bordering Ukraine.

• US President Joe Biden called on Congress to “step up” and overcome differences over the delivery of aid to UkraineHe said the massive Russian airstrike showed the Kremlin hoped to “wipe out” the pro-Western country. Biden said in a statement: “Unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue sending the weapons and vital air defense systems Ukraine needs to protect its people.” Congress must act immediately and act.”

• Ukrainian officials called on the country's Western allies to equip the country with more air defense facilities to protect themselves against air strikes like on Friday. Their appeals are a sign that war fatigue is complicating efforts to maintain support.

• Russia has suffered enormous human and material losses in Ukraine and its army will emerge from the conflict weakened, a senior German military official said in an interview published on Friday. Christian Freuding, who heads the Bundeswehr's support for Kiev, said: “The Russian armed forces will emerge from this war weakened both materially and in terms of personnel.”

Updated at 08:49 GMT