Kremlin will do 'everything' to stop strikes on Belgorod
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The Kremlin has vowed to do “everything” it can to stop Ukraine’s increasingly frequent strikes on the border city of Belgorod.
Ukraine’s armed forces have killed and wounded dozens of the city’s inhabitants in repeated missile and drone attacks on the city in recent weeks.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said: “Of course, our military will continue to do everything in order to minimise the danger at first and then eliminate it entirely.”
Vyacheslav Gladkov, regional governor, said a 10-missile salvo on Belgorod, which is just 20 miles inside Russia, on Monday night left three civilians in intensive care.
The most deadly Ukrainian strike on the city came on December 30, when 25 people were killed and more than 100 were injured.
Mr Peskov accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians in the centre of the city using weapons supplied by Western allies.
03:01 PM GMT
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03:00 PM GMT
Today's headlines
Ukraine has uncovered more than £200million ($260million) in defence procurement corruption in the last four months, defence minister Rustem Umerov said
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the European Union and its member states need to step up and increase the amount of aid they are sending to Ukraine
The West is not putting pressure on Kyiv to start ceasefire negotiations with Russia, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said
The Kremlin vowed to do “everything” to stop repeat Ukrainian missile strikes on the border city of Belgorod
Severe snowstorms cut more than 1,000 Ukrainian towns off from the power grid
Dual US-Russian citizen Robert Romanov Woodland was arrested in Moscow on drugs charges
Alexei Navalny joked about the “invigorating” conditions at the Arctic Circle prison colony where he is being held
02:38 PM GMT
Navalny jokes about 'invigorating' Arctic prison
Alexei Navalny has joked about the “invigorating” conditions at the Arctic Circle IK-3 penal colony he was moved to in December.
The jailed Russian opposition leader wrote an update for his supporters on Telegram and shared a picture of the yard he is allowed to walk in – concrete-walled, topped with metal bars, 11 steps long and three steps wide.
“It has not been colder than -32C yet,” he wrote. “Nothing quite invigorates you like a walk in Yamal at 6:30 in the morning.
“Even at this temperature, you can walk for more than half an hour only if you manage to grow a new nose, new ears and new fingers.”
IK-3, nicknamed “Polar Wolf”, is 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle and was founded in the 1960s in the Yamal-Nenets region as a gulag.
02:19 PM GMT
Ukrainian hackers attack Moscow internet provider
A group of Ukrainian hackers who have previously been linked to the SBU spy agency have attacked a Moscow-based internet provider.
Reuters reported that the attack by the Blackjack group was retaliation for a Russian hack on Ukrainian telecoms giant Kyivstar in December.
The hackers deleted 20 terabytes of data at M9 Telecom and left some Moscow residents without internet, a source told the news agency.
01:52 PM GMT
Ukrainian shelling kills Russian woman in border village
A Russian woman has died during the Ukrainian shelling of a Russian border village.
Roman Starovoit, regional governor of Kursk, said the woman was killed by shrapnel in the village of Gornal.
The village is less than one mile from the Ukrainian border.
01:20 PM GMT
In pictures: Lorries queue at Poland-Ukraine border
01:03 PM GMT
Russia arrests US citizen on drugs charges
An American citizen has been arrested in Moscow on drug charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.
Robert Romanov Woodland, 32, was detained on January 6 under charges relating to the possession or acquisition of illegal drugs.
Moscow’s Ostankino District Court said he would remain in custody until March 5.
Mr Woodland told pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020 that he was adopted as an infant by US citizens from an orphanage in Perm, in the Urals, in 1993.
He is reported to have returned to Russia five years ago at the age of 28. Reuters has reported that he appears to have both Russian and American citizenship.
The American embassy in Moscow is yet to comment.
Russia has detained a number of dual Russian-American nationals in recent years, including Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, and Marine veteran Paul Whelan.
12:41 PM GMT
MoD: Russia's air defences 'ineffective'
Russia’s anti-air defences are ineffective, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
In its latest defence intelligence briefing, the MoD said Ukrainian air attacks on occupied Crimea have “highly likely degraded the awareness and coverage of Russian air defences” over the peninsula.
“This once again demonstrates the ineffectiveness of Russian air defences in protecting key locations, despite their enhanced preparedness,” it said.
The MoD added that the scale of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday, in which several cities were targeted, “is likely indicative of the level of success achieved” by the Ukrainian attacks.
12:10 PM GMT
Two drones strike Russian fuel plant 137 miles behind enemy lines
Two Ukrainian drones have struck a Russian fuel plant in the city of Oryol, 137 miles from the border.
Andrey Klychkov, regional governor, said on Telegram that a fire caused by the drone attack is “under full control”.
Mr Klychkov did not disclose if there had been any deaths, injuries or damage in the attack.
The 112 Telegram channel said two people were injured by broken window glass.
11:46 AM GMT
Snowstorms cut 1,000 Ukrainian towns off from power
Severe snowstorms have cut more than 1,000 Ukrainian towns off from the power grid.
Temperatures have plummeted across the country to as low as -15C this week.
Energy grid operator Ukrenergo said winds and ice saw the power supply to 1,025 settlements fail this morning.
It said it had been forced to import electricity from Romania and Slovakia to meet additional demand brought on by the bitterly cold temperatures.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of the southern Mykolaiv region, said the ice on some electricity cables was more than 5cm thick.
11:27 AM GMT
We will do everything to stop Ukraine strikes on Belgorod, says Kremlin
The Kremlin has vowed to do “everything” it can to stop repeat Ukrainian missile strikes on the border city of Belgorod.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Of course, our military will continue to do everything in order to minimise the danger at first and then eliminate it entirely.”
10:54 AM GMT
Pictured: American detained in Russia on drugs charges
10:51 AM GMT
West is not pressuring us to surrender, Kyiv insists
The West is not putting pressure on Kyiv to start ceasefire negotiations with Russia, Ukraine’s foreign minister has said.
Dmytro Kuleba told Spanish newspaper El Pais: “Our allies are not asking us to start talks with Russia in order to freeze the war – neither when we meet [Western] delegations nor at closed meetings.
“Those who suggest a frozen conflict argue that they are acting in the best interests of Ukraine and the world, but in reality they are helping [Vladimir] Putin and ignoring what today’s Russia is.”
Speculation has grown in recent months that Ukraine will be pushed towards the negotiating table as uncertainty grows among its Nato allies about how long they can support the war.
But Kyiv has repeatedly said it does not believe Russia is interested in genuine peace negotiations, a view publicly echoed by its Western allies.
The New York Times reported in December that Mr Putin was supposedly signalling behind closed doors that Russia would be open to a ceasefire along the current front line.
10:48 AM GMT
Ukraine lost 215k soldiers in 2023, claims Russia
Ukraine lost more than 215,000 soldiers and 28,000 weapons in 2023, Russia’s defence minister has claimed.
Sergei Shoigu said: “Groups of Russian troops are methodically reducing the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
He added that Russian soldiers “maintain the strategic initiative along the entire line of combat contact”.
Ukraine does not publish the number of its soldiers who have died or been injured in the war against Russia.
10:21 AM GMT
Pictured: Clean up after Russian missile strike in Donetsk
09:47 AM GMT
Kuleba: Frozen Russian assets would cover 80pc of reconstruction
The £235billion ($300billion) of Russian assets, which have been frozen in Europe since the war in Ukraine began, would cover 80 per cent of the costs of Ukraine’s reconstruction, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Dmytro Kuleba told Spanish newspaper El Pais: “It makes sense that Russia should pay.
“It will happen 100 per cent,” he said. “The question is to what extent it will happen because there are three elements to it: the frozen assets themselves, the revenues on the assets, and taxation on those revenues.
“But it will happen because it makes sense that Russia should pay. And there are enough frozen assets to tackle the reconstruction of Ukraine.
“We estimate that the total amount of frozen assets is equivalent to more than 80 per cent of our reconstruction demand.
“We can rebuild schools, we can rebuild hospitals, we can rebuild infrastructure at the expense of the country that destroyed it.”
Mr Kuleba added that he expects some of the “money proceeding from these frozen assets” to be given to Ukraine before the war is over.
09:32 AM GMT
ISW: Ukraine struggling with artillery shortages
Ukraine is struggling to overcome shortages in artillery shells and insufficient electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.
The US-based think tank cited articles in The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times which reported that Ukrainian soldiers are having to use cheap first-person view (FPV) drones, instead of artillery, and that Russia has an advantage in EW.
FPV drones are not capable of striking Russian field fortifications as effectively as artillery can, the ISW said, while Russia’s EW advantage enables it to disrupt missile and drone attacks better than Ukraine can.
09:10 AM GMT
Poland detains Belarusian accused of spying
Poland has detained a Belarusian woman on suspicion of spying for Minsk.
Warsaw’s internal security agency said she had provided “information about members of the Belarusian diaspora” to Belarus’s KGB.
The woman has been placed in pre-trial detention for three months.
08:40 AM GMT
Scholz: EU must step up and give Ukraine more aid
The European Union and its member states need to step up and increase the amount of aid they are sending to Ukraine, German chancellor Olaf Scholz has said.
“As significant as the German contribution is, it will not be enough to ensure Ukraine’s security in the long run,” he told a Berlin press conference on Monday.
Ukraine’s air force has said it has a deficit of anti-aircraft missiles after an uptick in Russian rocket and drone attacks over recent weeks.
Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, told Ukrainian television: “Ukraine has spent a considerable reserve on those three attacks that took place.”
“It is clear that there is a deficit of anti-aircraft guided missiles.”
08:19 AM GMT
Ukraine has anti-air missile deficit, says air force
Ukraine’s air force has said it has a deficit of anti-aircraft missiles after an uptick in Russian rocket and drone attacks over recent weeks.
Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, told Ukrainian television: “Ukraine has spent a considerable reserve on those three attacks that took place.”
“It is clear that there is a deficit of anti-aircraft guided missiles.”
07:58 AM GMT
Poland accused of obstructing Nord Stream probe
Poland has been accused of obstructing an investigation into the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the Polish government has been hesitant about providing information to investigators and has withheld evidence.
It cited sources in the investigation who also admitted to having no evidence that Poland was involved in the explosions in the Baltic Sea.
Poland is yet to comment.
07:41 AM GMT
Three wounded after Ukraine strikes Belgorod again
Three people were wounded in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod on Monday evening, its regional governor has said.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said three civilians suffered shrapnel injuries and remained in intensive care after 10 missiles were fired on the city.
Mr Gladkov added that four residential buildings, four trucks and three cars were damaged after the attacks.
Belgorod has become a regular target of Ukrainian air strikes in recent weeks.
07:38 AM GMT
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07:33 AM GMT
Ukraine uncovers £200m in defence corruption
Ukraine has uncovered more than £200million ($260million) in defence procurement corruption in the last four months, according to Rustem Umerov, the country’s defence minister.
“One of the priorities of the ministry of defence team is to clean the system from unscrupulous participants – inside the institution and outside,” he wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Monday.
“We are actively working on this in close collaboration with law enforcement agencies: we are eradicating corruption. The system resists, but we will overcome it.”
Mr Umerov added that £71million ($91million) had been saved on “non-lethal” purchases in the last month alone.
Oleksii Reznikov, previous defence minister, was dismissed by President Zelensky in September after two major corruption scandals saw the defence ministry buying food supplies and low-quality winter jackets for inflated prices.
Mr Umerov’s remarks came on the same day that Viacheslav Shapovalov, former deputy defence minister, was charged with embezzlement after the ministry purchased almost £20million ($25million) of unusable body armour.
