Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv steps up drone and missile strikes on Crimea and Russian border city

Residents of a Russia region neighbouring Ukraine have reportedly woken up to drone and missile strikes for the third night in five days, a local governor has claimed .

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine fired 12 missiles and drones in the early hours of Wednesday on Belgorod.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod Oblast, said the situation continues to remain tense in the area after an attack last Saturday that Russia claims killed 25 people.

There was another attack on Tuesday that reportedly killed one person and injured 11 more. No casualty list has been released for Wednesday’s attack.

In Ukraine, many of those away from the frontlines experienced their first night without major air raid alerts.

Nonetheless, the recent uptick in long-range Russian missile assaults has underscored the pressing need for additional Western military support to replenish and bolster air defences.

Russia has fired hundreds of missiles, including hypersonic weapons, and dozens of drones in the past week.

Poland’s newly-elected foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said this morning that the latest attacks on Ukraine were further evidence that the West should improve its military support of Kyiv.

In the wake of yesterday’s attacks, which was one of the largest since the war began last February, Ukrainian president Volodymy Zelensky met with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak to discuss further support. Mr Zelensky’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, met with the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to discuss the same issue.

On the frontline, General Alexander Tarvansky, who led Ukraine’s counteroffensive operations last year in the south, said Russian forces had launched considerable airstrikes for the second day in a row.

“The Russian occupiers have somewhat reduced the number of infantry attacks,” he said. “But for the second day in a row, they are actively conducting airstrikes and shelling on our positions.”

This year, Russian forces have made confirmed advances along the Svatove-Kreminna line in Luhansk Oblast, far east Ukraine, as well around Avdiivka and Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank that tracks frontline developments.

Analysis by Ukraine Deep State, a war analyst, suggested Ukraine liberated 395 square kilometres in 2023 but Russia occupied 683 km.

In their end of year review, they added: “A difficult year awaits us in 2024. The enemy has corrected a lot of mistakes this year.”

Russia has launched a massive, three-pronged aerial assault across Ukraine, killing at least five people and injuring more than a hundred more.

The attack, which targeted the capital of Kyiv and the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the east, was one of the deadliest campaigns since the war began in February 2022.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday evening that the attack killed five civilians and injured 127 as air defences downed Russian Kinzhal missiles that can fly at 10 times the speed of sound.

Norway will send two F-16 fighter jets to Denmark to contribute to the training of Ukrainian pilots on the use of the U.S.-made airplane, the Norwegian defence minister said on Wednesday.

F-16s have been on Ukraine‘s wish list as the country seeks to boost its air force in the war with Russia, and Norway last year said it would join Denmark, the Netherlands and others in donating aircraft.

Norway has already sent 10 instructors to Denmark to aid the education of Ukrainian pilots, Defence Minister Bjoern Arild Gram said in a statement.

The Norwegian air force has replaced its own F-16s with the successor model F-35.

The European Union has added Russia’s biggest diamond producer Alrosa as well as its CEO to its sanctions list, it said on Wednesday.

“In line with the diamond ban we have introduced with the 12th package of sanctions, the EU today lists Alrosa, the largest diamond-mining company in the world and its CEO,” EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on social media platform X.

Footage published online has appeared to show several Ukrianian strikes on Russian terriroty overnight in the latest round of missile exchanges.

Russia claimed Ukraine fired a dozen rockets at the Belgorod region.

The Russian region of Kursk has been attacked by Ukraine, the area’s governor has said.

Roman Starovoyt said an electricity substation in Zheleznogorsk, a large town, was hit this morning in an unspecified “air attack”.

There were no reports of casualties.

Britain had announced the transfer of two Royal Navy minehunter ships to the Ukrainian Navy in support of Ukraine’s Black Sea defences against the Russian invasion.

Russia’s air defence systems destroyed a total of 12 Ukraine-launched launched missiles over the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app.

Belgorod, close to the Ukraine border, has been hit by several strikes in recent days in attacks Moscow says were carried out by Kyiv’s forces.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has condemned “barbaric” Russian airstrikes on Ukraine over the Christmas period.

Mr Sunak spoke with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, with the pair discussing developments in the conflict.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “Prime minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky today [Tuesday].

“He offered his condolences to all those Ukrainians killed and injured in barbaric Russian airstrikes over the Christmas period.

“The prime minister said the UK would continue to stand steadfastly by Ukraine as they fight aggression and occupation, throughout 2024 and into the future.

“The leaders discussed recent developments in the conflict, including progress in the Black Sea and the success of the Ukrainian air defence, bolstered by UK-supplied ground-to-air missiles.

“The prime minister set out ongoing UK work to provide military and diplomatic support to Ukraine, including through further deliveries of lethal aid, support for President Zelensky’s peace plan and a long-term security framework.”

The West should tighten sanctions against Russia and provide Kyiv with long-range missiles in response to Moscow’s latest shelling of Ukraine, Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Wednesday.

Russia pounded Ukraine’s two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance.

“We should respond to the latest onslaught on Ukraine in language that Putin understands: by tightening sanctions so that he cannot make new weapons with smuggled components and by giving Kyiv long range missiles that will enable it to take out launch sites and command centers,” Sikorski wrote on social media platform X.