Russia launches wave of 'spoiling attacks' ahead of new offensive
Russia has begun carrying out "spoiling attacks" across the frontline as a diversionary tactic ahead of a new offensive, analysts have warned.
Ukrainian officials say the attacks are carried out by Russian squads of 10 to 15 men to disperse Ukrainian defensive lines.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think-tank, said: “The size and nature of these attacks suggest that they are more likely spoiling attacks that seek to distract and pin Ukrainian forces against discrete areas of the front, than a concerted effort to relaunch offensive operations to gain ground in the central Zaporizhia and western Donetsk directions."
Russia's latest widespread barrage of drone and missile attacks have killed 11 people and wounded 11 more, emergency officials in Ukraine said.
The spokesperson for Ukraine's State Emergency Service, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, announced the casualty toll in comments to Ukrainian television on Thursday. He said the attacks hit 11 Ukrainian regions.
The mayor of Kyiv said earlier that one person was killed in the capital, the city's first attack-related death of the year.
03:04 PM
What we learned today
British tanks will arrive in Ukraine in time for an expected Russian spring offensive, the Ministry of Defence said, joining German-made Leopards being sent to Kyiv within weeks.
Emergency officials in Ukraine said that Russia's latest widespread barrage of drone and missile attacks have killed 11 people and wounded 11 more.
The mayor of Kyiv said that one person was killed in the capital, the city's first attack-related death of the year.
German authorities arrested a man who they said acted as a courier for a double agent and handed secret intelligence to Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky declined to say whether Boris Johnson should get an official role representing the UK on Ukraine.
02:56 PM
Eleven people killed in Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine
A total of 11 people were killed during Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine throughout the course of Thursday, a spokesperson for the State Emergency Service said.
Another 11 people were wounded in the attacks, which spanned 11 regions and also damaged 35 buildings, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi told Ukrainian television.
02:52 PM
Putin’s Arctic bombers launch wave of missiles at Ukraine
Vladimir Putin ordered his bombers to take off from bases in Russia’s arctic far north to launch a cruise missile attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian military has said.
Several Russian Tu-95 bombers took off from a base in Murmansk, north of the Arctic circle, on Thursday, firing more than 30 missiles at targets across Ukraine, Ukrainian military spokesman Yuriy Ignat told local media.
At least one person was killed and two others were injured in Kyiv, where explosions and gunfire were heard as air defences rushed into action.
Earlier, Ukraine's air force said it had shot down a cluster of 24 Iranian-made attack drones launched by Russian forces from the Sea of Azov in the south of the country.
02:36 PM
Ukraine in pictures:
02:12 PM
British tanks to arrive in Ukraine in time for spring offensives
British tanks will arrive in Ukraine in time for an expected Russian spring offensive, the Ministry of Defence said, joining German-made Leopards being sent to Kyiv within weeks.
“The intention is that it will be at the end of March,” Alex Chalk, a defence minister, said.
Poland said on Thursday morning that its Leopard 2 tanks would arrive within a few weeks, amid a rush to arm Kyiv before fresh attacks when the mud dries.
Read more from Joe Barnes and Jorg Luyken here
02:02 PM
Russia outlaws Meduza news site in latest media crackdown
Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an "undesirable organisation" on Thursday, effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists.
The designation is the latest in a years-long campaign by the Kremlin to curb independent media and stop their reporting from reaching ordinary Russians in a crackdown that has escalated since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
In a statement announcing the decision, Russia's General Prosecutor said the Latvia-based news outlet "poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system and the security of the Russian Federation".
There was no immediate response from Meduza, one of Russia's most widely read independent news sites, though it did publish a news story on its website, including details about what the designation could mean.
01:43 PM
France: Neither France nor allies at war with Russia
Neither France nor its allies are fighting a war against Russia, the French foreign ministry said today, following a Western decision to send heavy tanks to Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion.
"We are not at war with Russia and none of our partners are," ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said, after comments from German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock that "we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other".
01:30 PM
Aftermath of a Kyiv rocket attack
01:12 PM
UK will begin training Ukrainian soldiers next week
The UK will begin training Ukrainian soldiers next week in how to use and fix the contingent of tanks being sent to the war-torn country.
Defence minister Alex Chalk told the Commons: "On the issue of training, I am pleased to say that is expected to start next week on Monday."
On when Challenger 2 tanks would arrive in Ukraine, he added: "The intention is that it will be at the end of March, and between now and then a really significant programme of training, not just for the tank crews who are to operate this vehicle, but also for those who will be charged with maintaining it."
Mr Chalk earlier told MPs: "Equipping Ukraine to push Russia out of its territory is as important as equipping them to defend what they already have. Together we will continue supporting Ukraine to move from resisting Russian forces to expelling them from Ukrainian soil."
The minister also welcomed announcements by the German and US governments that they would send tanks to Ukraine, adding: "Our united resolve can and will prove decisive. In 2023 we are more determined than ever. We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes."
12:48 PM
Pictured: The graves of Russian Wagner mercenary group fighters
12:44 PM
British Challenger tanks will be in Ukraine by end of March
Britain hopes its Challenger tanks will arrive in Ukraine at the end of March, Alex Chalk, the defence department minister, said in a statement to parliament on Thursday.
"The intention is that it will be at the end of March," he said in response to a question asking when the tanks would arrive.
12:42 PM
New US ambassador arrives in Moscow amid high tension
Lynne Tracy, the United States' new ambassador to Russia, has arrived in Moscow, the US embassy said Thursday.
Tracy most recently was the ambassador to Armenia and served as the deputy chief of mission in Moscow in 2014-17. She replaces John Sullivan, who resigned in September.
It was not immediately clear when Tracy would present her credentials.
Her arrival comes amid high tension between Russia and the United States, most recently sharpened by President Joe Biden's decision Wednesday to supply advanced Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine.
12:26 PM
German double agent’s ‘courier’ arrested for ‘passing information to Russia’
German authorities have arrested a man who they said acted as a courier for a double agent and handed secret intelligence to Russia.
The suspect, identified only as Arthur E in line with Germany’s strict privacy laws, was arrested at Munich Airport last Sunday after he arrived on a flight from the US.
German prosecutors said that he brought documents to Russia which had been given to him by Carsten L, the alleged double agent whose arrest last December marked the beginning of one of Germany’s most high-profile spy scandals in decades.
Read the full story from Jorg Luyken in Berlin here
12:10 PM
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11:44 AM
French foreign minister arrives in Odesa to assess Ukraine's needs
The French foreign minister on Thursday arrived in Odesa, the strategic port city on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, as part of France's efforts to boost its relationship with Ukraine and discuss its needs in the coming months.
UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, on Wednesday designated the city's historic centre a "World Heritage in Danger" site.
The visit by Catherine Colonna aims to send a message to Moscow amid Western fears that Russia, almost a year after invading Ukraine, may still want to launch an attack on the city to deprive Ukraine of its key maritime outlet for grain products.
"If Russia's objective is really to deprive Ukraine of all access to the sea, one day it will have to go as far as Odesa, knowing that Odesa, moreover, is the gateway to destabilise even more Moldova, Romania, and the European territory as a whole," a French diplomatic source told reporters ahead of the visit.
11:32 AM
Watch: 'Major danger' as Ukraine shoots down Russian drones
11:25 AM
Ukraine claims to have shot down dozens of missiles
Ukraine's air defence forces were able to shoot down 47 out of 55 Russian missiles launched at the country this morning, the country's top general has said.
Moscow used the Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, among other models, General Valery Zaluzhny said on his Telegram channel. Twenty of the incoming missiles were shot down around Kyiv, he added.
"The goal of the Russians remains unchanged: psychological pressure on Ukrainians and the destruction of critical infrastructure," he wrote. "But we cannot be broken!"
Russian bombers operating out of an air base in Russia's far north took off to launch the strikes, the military said.
Russia has been forced to station its strategic bombers at bases further from Ukraine, after a series of drone attacks blamed on Kyiv destroyed and damaged several aircraft.
11:05 AM
Billionaire friend of Putin’s daughter defied sanctions to import fine wines into Russia
A friend of Vladimir Putin's daughter managed to import bottles of the world's most expensive wines into Russia last year despite Western sanctions, according to public filings.
Pharmaceutical billionaire Alexey Repik's company Ryatiko brought in ten bottles of Henri Jayer wine, which fetched £184,000 a bottle at a Christie’s auction in 2020.
Ryatiko also imported 200 varieties of Burgundy, Bordeaux and Piedmont’s rarest wines, each costing over £12,000 a bottle.
Read more from Nataliya Vasilyeva, our Russia Correspondent, here.
10:39 AM
German Leopard tanks 'to arrive in Ukraine in March'
Leopard 2 tanks pledged by Germany to help Ukraine repel Russia's invasion will arrive in "late March, early April", Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has said.
Training of Ukrainian troops on German Marder infantry fighting vehicles will start in the next few days, he added, "and for the Ukrainian soldiers who will be trained on the Leopard it will be a little later".
Germany will provide 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its Bundeswehr supplies. It is also granting approval for other European countries to send the German-made tanks from their own stocks to Ukraine, with the aim of quickly assembling two tank battalions equipped with the vehicles.
The Leopard 2 is seen as one of the best-performing tank models worldwide and is widely used across Europe, meaning spare parts and ammunition can be easily obtained.
10:21 AM
Russians can take part in Asian Games, Olympic chiefs say
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to compete in this year's Asian Games despite the invasion of Ukraine, the Olympic Council of Asia has said.
The offer comes after the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday that a return for Russians at the 2024 Paris Games should be "further explored" despite calls from Ukraine for them to be banned.
Russia and Belarus have been sidelined from most Olympic sports for nearly a year following the invasion of Ukraine.
"All athletes, regardless of their nationality or the passport they hold, should be able to compete in sports competitions," the OCA said in a statement.
The IOC pledged solidarity with Ukraine but said it was seeking a "pathway" for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Games in Paris.
The move from Asia offers a potential way for Russian athletes to compete in events which serve as qualifiers for the Paris Olympics. Qualifying in some sports is already underway.
09:57 AM
Germany to urge defence industry to speed up procurement
Boris Pistorius, the German Defence Minister, has said he will kick off talks with the defence industry as early as next week to speed up arms procurement and ramp up ammunitions supplies.
"My primary task now is to enter into talks with the defence industry with the aim of significantly shortening procurement times," he told reporters on the sidelines of a military exercise in Altengrabow in eastern Germany.
"If you look at ammunition, there is also the issue of quantity. This is another topic that I will raise in my talks with the defence industry, likely as early as next week if the schedule permits it," he added.
09:47 AM
Nato’s support for Kyiv is shakier than it seems
To judge by Moscow’s hysterical reaction to the West’s decision to supply Ukraine with battle tanks, the move could ultimately prove to be a game changer for the eventual outcome of the conflict.
One of the less convincing aspects of Russia’s campaign has been the constant stream of threats emanating from the Kremlin, whether it concerns dire warnings that Europe’s economy will grind to a halt without Russian energy supplies or that the world faces a nuclear Armageddon.
And yet, for all Vladimir Putin’s bluster, none of these apocalyptic threats materialised.
Read more from Con Coughlin here
09:39 AM
Power cuts in Ukraine after Russian strikes
Ukraine on Thursday enforced emergency power cuts in Kyiv and several other regions to relieve pressure on the electricity grid following Russian strikes, an operator said.
"Due to the threat of a missile attack in Kyiv and the regions of Kyiv, Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk emergency blackouts have been introduced," said DTEK, Ukraine's largest private power producer.
Ukrainian authorities earlier on Thursday reported Russian hits on energy facilities.
09:35 AM
Pictured: People gather in a subway station being used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv
09:21 AM
Explosions in Kyiv as Russian missiles hit capital
One person has died and two others were injured in Kyiv after Russia launched more than a dozen missiles at Ukraine on Thursday morning.
Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv's mayor, said: "As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosiiv district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded."
Ukraine's military earlier warned of "major danger", with air raid alerts across the country.
Missile strikes also damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa, the Odesa District Military Administration said on Telegram.
09:16 AM
German arrested for allegedly passing on intelligence to Russia
A German citizen was arrested at the Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly colluding with an intelligence service employee to pass on intelligence to Russia, the prosecutor general's office said on Thursday.
The man, identified as Arthur E., was arrested on Sunday upon arriving in Germany from the United States, the prosecutor said in a statement. He is said to be an associate of Carsten L., an employee of the German foreign intelligence service (BND) who was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia.
Arthur E., who is not a German intelligence employee, is believed to have passed on to the Russian intelligence service information he had obtained from Carten L., according to the prosecutor's statement.
An arrest warrant had already been issued for Arthur E., who was brought before a judge of Germany's top criminal court on Monday and remanded in custody, the statement added.
09:00 AM
Breaking: two energy facilities in Odessa hit by Russian missiles
Authorities in Ukraine's southern region of Odessa said that two energy facilities were hit by Russian missiles, in the latest attack by Moscow's forces against critical infrastructure.
"There is already information about damage done to two critical energy infrastructure facilities in Odessa. There are no injured. Air Defence Forces are working over the Odessa region," the head of the region's military administration, Yuriy Kruk, said on social media.
08:46 AM
Nato: Battle tanks are going to make a big difference
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has said sending tanks to Ukraine will make a "big difference" to the country's ability to win the war.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "Battle tanks are going to make a big difference.
"This will help them repel Russian offensives, to help them to be able to retake territory, liberate more Ukrainian lands and to win this war to prevail as a sovereign independent nation. We will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes."
But he would not explicitly say he is pressing for Nato countries to give Ukraine the 300 tanks it says will help win the war.
08:40 AM
Latest MoD update
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 26 January 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/BSk9mPZcWF
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/nfcCV7CXk6— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 26, 2023
08:20 AM
Ukraine shoots down more than 15 Russian missiles headed for Kyiv
Ukrainian air defences downed more than 15 Russian missiles fired toward the capital Kyiv during Moscow's latest round of air strikes, city officials said on Thursday.
"The enemy launched more than 15 cruise missiles in the direction of Kyiv. Thanks to the outstanding work of our air defences all the targets were destroyed," the Kyiv City Military Administration quoted its head, Serhiy Popko, as saying on Telegram.
"Despite this, the danger of air strikes has not passed," he added. "Remain in shelters until the end of the air-raid alert."
08:19 AM
Western countries have 'no clear indication' of how many tanks will be given to Ukraine
Western countries have made "no clear indication" of how many tanks will be given to Ukraine, an advisor to the country's defence minister has said.
Yuriy Sak told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We need 300 to 400 tanks for this to be a game changer.
"This tank coalition consisting of different countries, we have no clear indication of how many tanks each country will provide. We have communicated to our partners that this is the number that we need.
"If you want missile terror to stop you need to receive the weapons that will allow us to defeat the enemy on the battlefield.
"The sooner we defeat Russia on the battlefield using Western weapons the sooner we will be able to stop this missile terror and restore peace."
08:11 AM
Russia launches rush hour missile attacks on Ukraine
Russian warplanes launched a wave of missiles at Ukraine during rush hour on Thursday morning and Ukrainians took cover in shelters as air defence forces shot down incoming salvos, officials said.
An air raid alert wailed across the country as people were heading to work. In the capital Kyiv, crowds of people sheltered in underground metro stations, with some sitting on blankets or small plastic chairs.
Russia has targeted the power grid with missile and drone strikes since October, causing sweeping blackouts and other outages during winter. The latest missile strikes came hours after an overnight drone attack.
A Reuters reporter heard the sound of a missile flying overhead at a low altitude, about 30 km from Kyiv.
08:09 AM
Ukraine-Russia in pictures
07:48 AM
Zelensky declines to say whether Boris Johnson should have a role in Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky declined to say whether Boris Johnson should get an official role representing the UK on Ukraine.
He laughed at the suggestion on Sky News, appearing to indicate that Mr Johnson might not be ready for such a role.
"He is good guy," he said. "Who knows? With pleasure, with pleasure, really."
Asked if he would support another bid by Mr Johnson to become PM, Mr Zelensky said: "I think that is not correct for me to support Johnson to be prime minister.
"We have good relations with Sunak. I think we had more long relations with Johnson, because it was more long-time.
"I saw Johnson in different situations, I saw him not in war and then in full-scale war, that's why we have special relations."
07:44 AM
Zelensky: Putin was a 'nobody'
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, told Sky News that Vladimir Putin was a "nobody", as he praised his "good relations" with Rishi Sunak.
The leader also had warm words for Boris Johnson, who he called a "good guy" and described a "special" relationship forged before and after the Russian invasion began.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Zelensky described the Russian president as a "man who said one thing and then did another".
Asked if it was too late for one-on-one talks with Mr Putin to prove useful in resolving the war, Mr Zelensky spoke in English to say: "Too late, not interesting. Who is he now? After full-scale invasion, for me he is a nobody."
07:42 AM
'Peace in Europe is getting closer'
First the Leopards, now the Abrams. Thank you @POTUS. Peace in Europe is getting closer.
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) January 25, 2023
07:41 AM
Watch: Novak Djokovic's father poses with pro-Putin demonstrators
Tennis Australia has warned Novak Djokovic and his family not to promote political causes after Djokovic’s father Srdjan was seen on video posing with pro-Putin demonstrators at Melbourne Park.
The tournament was disrupted on Wednesday night by pro-Russian demonstrators who chanted “Russia, Serbia, Russia, Serbia” and held up a flag emblazoned with Putin’s face.
A video posted on YouTube shows Srdjan with the ringleader of the group on the steps of Rod Laver Arena, shortly after his son Novak had defeated Russia’s Andrey Rublev in straight sets.
Read more from Simon Briggs here
07:40 AM
Good Morning
Good morning and welcome to today's Ukraine liveblog.
Ukraine has said it expects the West will send long-range missiles capable of striking almost 200 miles behind Russian lines.
A “massive arms factory” must be built in Poland to help Ukraine win the war, the chairman of the defence select committee has said.
Emmanuel Macron is under pressure to send France’s Leclerc heavy tanks to Ukraine after Germany announced its decision to send Leopard IIs on Wednesday.
