Russian attack causes toxic gas leak at Ukraine factory
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A Russian attack in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson has caused an ammonia leak at a factory, according to local authorities.
The Kyiv Independent cited officials as saying the leak was minor and under control. Ammonia is a toxic gas.
Roman Mrochko, the head of Kherson’s city military administration, said there was no threat to the region’s residents.
A separate Russian attack in the wider Kherson region on Thursday wounded four local residents, its governor said. The attack targeted the town of Tiahynka, on the Dnipro River, about 27 miles northwest of Kherson city.
The regional capital was liberated by Ukrainian forces in late 2022, who pushed invading Russian troops to the east of the Dnipro River. Moscow’s forces have repeatedly targeted the industrial city and other liberated territories since.
03:17 PM GMT
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02:40 PM GMT
Japan pledges $4.5 billion in aid to Ukraine
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged $4.5 billion to Ukraine, including $1 billion in humanitarian aid to help support the war-torn country’s recovery effort in an online summit of leading industrial nations.
Kishida made the announcement late Wednesday in Tokyo while hosting his last Group of Seven summit as this year’s chairperson.
The $1 billion humanitarian and recovery aid includes funding for generators and other power supplies for the Ukrainian people to survive the winter, as well as measures to clear mines planted by Russia, the Foreign Ministry said. The remaining $3.5 billion includes funding for credit guarantees for World Bank loans to Ukraine.
02:29 PM GMT
War in pictures
02:05 PM GMT
Kyiv signs agreement with US to move arms production to Ukraine
Kyiv announced Thursday that it had signed an agreement with the United States to help move production of arms to Ukraine, as doubts hang over Western support for its conflict with Russia.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has depended on Western weapons and ammunition to hold out against Russian forces.
But after nearly two years of conflict there are signs of growing weariness in Europe and the United States to provide more financial and military aid.
01:42 PM GMT
Putin's presidential challenger has sentence extended
Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who had said he wanted to challenge Vladimir Putin in a presidential election in March, had his pre-trial detention extended for six months on Thursday, a Moscow court said.
Girkin is accused of “public calls to commit extremist activity”.
01:27 PM GMT
Russia is ready to cooperate with China in any area, says Putin
Russia is ready to cooperate with China in any area, including military technology, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
“As we think about the future, the future world order, about ensuring our security, we’re letting go of the traditional ‘buy and sell’ relations, we’re thinking about the future, thinking about technology,” Putin, who has developed close ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping, told an investment conference.
01:13 PM GMT
Putin: Western financial system is obsolete
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described the Western financial system as obsolete and said Russia, hit by Western sanctions such as disconnection from the SWIFT payments system, has proved it can overcome any challenges.
Speaking at a financial conference, Putin said “the monopoly of large Western banks” would come to an end in the coming years because of a technological revolution.
Putin added that he hoped Russia’ gross domestic product (GDP) would grow 3.5 per cent this year, as the economy rebounds from a 2.1 per cent contraction in 2022.
12:42 PM GMT
Kremlin hopes US lawmakers will continue to block Ukraine funding
The Kremlin said Thursday it hoped US lawmakers would continue to block White House requests for emergency aid for Ukraine amid an internal feud in Washington over immigration reforms.
Republican senators earlier blocked $106 billion in emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel as conservatives balked at the exclusion of immigration reforms they had demanded as part of the package.
“It is to be hoped that there remain enough people with sober minds among American congressmen,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
12:28 PM GMT
Britain summons Russian ambassador over cyber spies
The British government has summoned the Russian ambassador and sanctioned two people for what it said was a sustained but failed attempt to interfere in politics by Russian cyber spies.
A hacking group dubbed “Cold River” by cybersecurity researchers, working on behalf of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), targeted British politicians, journalists, and non-profit groups over a period of several years, the foreign office said in a statement.
“I can confirm today that the Russian Federal Security Services, the FSB, is behind a sustained effort to interfere in our democratic processes,” junior foreign minister Leo Docherty said in a statement to lawmakers.
“They have been targeting high profile individuals and entities with a clear intent, using information they obtained to meddle in British politics.”
12:16 PM GMT
Russia arrests Belarusian man for planting explosives
Russia on Thursday arrested a Belarusian man for allegedly placing explosives on two trains on a key part of a Siberian railway near the Chinese border, on Ukraine’s orders.
The arrest came around a week after authorities reported traffic complications in a tunnel on the Baikal-Amur mainline, some 5,500 kilometres (3,400 miles) east of Moscow.
Ukrainian sources told AFP last week that Kyiv’s SBU was behind the sabotage.
“On the territory of the Omsk region, a citizen of Belarus born in 1971 was arrested, for being behind explosions on November 29 and 30 on two trains carrying oil products travelling ... along the routes of the Baikal-Amur railway line in the Buryatia region,” Russia’s FSB security service said.
11:59 AM GMT
Putin and Prince Mohammed bin Salman call for oil output cuts
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called on Thursday for all OPEC+ members to join an agreement on oil output cuts, saying they were for the good of producers and the broader global economy.
Putin held a hastily-arranged meeting in Riyadh with the Saudi crown prince on Wednesday after a pledge by OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, to further cut output.
Hours after Putin’s face-to-face talks with the Saudi crown prince, known as MbS, the Kremlin released a joint statement detailing wide-ranging talks between them on oil, OPEC+, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and even Iran’s nuclear programme.
11:46 AM GMT
Ukraine assassinates 'traitor' ex-MP in Russia
Illya Kyva, a former Ukrainian MP, has been assassinated in Russia by Ukraine’s SBU security service, law enforcement sources told BBC Ukraine.
“The criminal was liquidated by using small arms,” the sources said.
Russian investigators said Kyva was shot dead in the village of Suponevo, to the west of Moscow, where his body was found yesterday.
Earlier this year, Kyva was handed a 14-year prison sentence for high treason after calling for Russia to occupy Ukraine. He fled to Russia one month before Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022 and was tried in absentia.
The 46-year-old politician had campaigned unsuccessfully for Ukraine’s presidency in 2019.
Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Ukrainian TV: “Yes, we can confirm Kyva is no more. This fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine and puppets of Putin’s regime”.
11:30 AM GMT
UAE defends lavish welcome for Vladimir Putin
The UAE has defended its lavish welcome for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over his illegal war in Ukraine, writes James Crisp.
The oil-rich Gulf state said that Wednesday’s state visit would boost the chances of peace in both Ukraine and Israel through “communication and dialogue”.
But analysts said the pomp and circumstance of Putin’s visit, when he was greeted with an elaborate ceremony at the presidential palace, was a propaganda coup for the Russian leader.
Read the full piece here.
11:18 AM GMT
Listen: Ukraine The Latest
11:02 AM GMT
Putin discusses OPEC+ cooperation with Saudi leader
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed OPEC+ cooperation on oil markets and the Middle East situation, the Kremlin said, during three hours of surprise talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday.
Mystery still surrounds the Kremlin chief’s hastily arranged trip to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, on which he was escorted by four Russian fighter jets, and it was not immediately clear what issue was so important for Putin to make a rare overseas trip.
Putin’s meeting with the Saudi crown prince, who is known as MbS, came after oil prices fell despite a pledge by OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, to further cut output.
10:42 AM GMT
Kyiv: Russian helicopter destroyed using an US-made Himars missile
Ukrainian forces have said that they destroyed a Russian helicopter using an American-made HIMARS missile.
The footage purports to show the moment a Russian helicopter is shot out of the sky with the American missile.
The images were obtained from the Office of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Wednesday, 6th December, along with a statement saying: “Today, UAV pilots of the Defence Forces adjusted the operation of the HIMARS of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
10:19 AM GMT
Russian oil firm sues German government
Rosneft has filed a case at Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court against the government’s trusteeship of its local subsidiaries, the Russian oil company’s lawyers said on Thursday.
In March, the Federal Administrative Court threw out a case brought by Rosneft against the decision by the German government to take control of the subsidiaries.
The government had at the time said it had taken over the subsidiaries out of concern that disruptions in the supply of Russian oil could prevent them from providing sufficient supplies to Berlin’s main refinery.
The government has renewed the trusteeship twice since then, and the court has ruled that is within its mandate.
09:46 AM GMT
Cold weather strains Ukraine's power supply
Ukraine’s power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Thursday that cold weather had pushed power usage 2.7% per cent above forecast levels, causing a deficit in the power system which was being filled by imports from Poland, Slovakia and Romania.
Ukrenergo said in a statement on the Telegram app that 700 MW of power would flow into Ukraine from neighbouring countries from 11:00 to 19:00 local time (0900 to 1700 GMT) on Thursday.
09:26 AM GMT
Pictured: Ukrainian mother stands by monument to executed son
09:18 AM GMT
China-Russia trade hit £173 billion this year
China-Russia trade hit £173.6 billion during January-November, Chinese customs data showed on Thursday, achieving the goal that had been set by the two countries in 2019 a year ahead of schedule.
The two-way trade value in the first 11 months also surpassed the total for all of 2022, according to the data by China’s General Administration of Customs, securing 2023 a year to witness new record high of bilateral trade.
In 2019, China and Russia agreed to increase trade to £159 billion by 2024 from £85 billion in 2018.
The world’s second-largest economy has emerged as a major economic lifeline for Russia which is under Western sanctions amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
09:01 AM GMT
Kyiv: Russia launched swarm of attack drones overnight
Ukraine said Thursday that Russia had launched a swarm of Iranian-designed attack drones overnight that damaged port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region and left one civilian dead.
Officials in Kyiv say Russian forces have been stockpiling drones and missiles for attacks on Ukraine’s struggling energy grid over winter months and key infrastructure.
“A total of 18 Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs were launched,” the Ukrainian air force said, adding that they had destroyed 15 of the unmanned aerial vehicles.
The head of the Black Sea region of Odesa, Oleg Kiper, said separately that for several hours drones attacked the Izmail port district, which has been key to exporting Ukrainian grain in recent months.
08:40 AM GMT
Russian teenager shoots classmate near Ukraine border
A Russian teenager on Thursday shot dead a classmate and injured five others before killing herself in a school in Bryansk near the Ukrainian border, investigators said.
School shootings are relatively rare in Russia, which has strict gun laws, but have become more common in recent years.
“A 14-year-old girl brought a pump-action shotgun to school, which she used to shoot her classmates. As a result, two died - one of them the shooter - and there are five wounded,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Authorities did not name the shooter, but said the victim was a female classmate in the secondary school in the Bryansk suburb.
08:29 AM GMT
Russian presidential election set for March 2024
Russian lawmakers on Thursday set the date of the 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin closer to a fifth term in office.
Putin, 71, hasn’t yet announced his intention to run again, but he is widely expected to do so in the coming days now that the date has been set.
Under constitutional reforms he orchestrated, he is eligible to seek two more six-year terms after his current one expires next year.
Having established tight control over Russia’s political system, Putin’s victory is all but assured. Prominent critics who could challenge him on the ballot are either in jail or living abroad, and most independent media have been banned.
08:15 AM GMT
Russian investigators search area where Illya Kyva was killed
07:52 AM GMT
Russian drone attack damages Ukrainian grain infrastructure
A driver was killed and grain infrastructure damaged by a Russian drone attack on Ukrainian grain infrastructure near the Danube River, the governor of Odesa region said on Thursday.
The governor said the drones attacked over two hours overnight, and that while most were shot down, some got through, damaging a storage building, an elevator and trucks.
Ukraine’s Danube ports have become a key artery for the country’s huge export volumes of grain as Russia blockades the Black Sea since invading its neighbour in February 2022.
Moscow hit Danube port infrastructure with waves of drone attacks in August and September, but the latest overnight attack came after a lull in such strikes.
