Russia Ukraine war live: ‘Two dead’ in Kherson shelling as Putin marks Orthodox Christmas

A Russian missile strike in eastern Ukraine has killed 11 people, including five children, according to Ukrainian officials.

The eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk and nearby villages in Donetsk Oblast were hit with a barrage of S-300 missiles, destroying at least six houses, the head of Ukraine’s military administration for the region Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Vishwam Sankaran reports:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hosted Japanese Foreign Minister Yōko Kamikawa in Kyiv on Sunday.

The Ukrainian President said: “Japan is a very important and powerful partner of ours. I am grateful for the level of cooperation we achieved – a true strategic partnership.

“I thank Japan for all the valuable assistance to our country, including security assistance, strong leadership within the G7 and in the international arena, and financial, economic, and humanitarian aid. Japan has also provided a large energy assistance package.

“Today, we discussed our further cooperation, including the Ukraine Recovery Conference in February, as well as the next joint security steps, joint work on the Peace Formula, and the strengthening of sanctions against Russia.

“I am confident that this year will be meaningful for our bilateral relations.”

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree that speeds up a path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country’s military amid the 22-month-old war in Ukraine.

The move comes as Moscow is trying to replenish its troops in Ukraine by various methods, including the recruitment of migrants. Russia is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of people from poorer Central Asian countries, and many of them seek citizenship each year.

Putin first allowed fast-track citizenship for foreigners who sign contracts with the Russian army in September 2022, shortly after announcing a partial mobilization to draft 300,000 reservists for Ukraine.

“The UK strongly condemns Russia’s decision to use ballistic missiles sourced from North Korea in recent attacks against Ukraine,” the UK’s foreign office spokesperson said in a statement.

“We urge North Korea to cease its arms supply to Russia,” the statement said.

Ukrainian forces are conducting a multi-day strike campaign against Russian military targets in occupied Crimea, according to a US war think tank.

The Institute for the Study of War said Kyiv has successfully struck several targets throughout the peninsula.

The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was subjected Sunday to numerous shelling attacks from Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region, across the Dnieper River, local officials said.

The head of the Kherson city administration, Roman Mrochko, said two people died in the shelling attacks and several others were wounded.

Meanwhile, Russian military personnel marked Orthodox Christmas on Sunday.

In Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region, a man was killed and two other civilians wounded in Russian shelling of the Kupiansk district Sunday, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office. A child was among the wounded.

Air defenses shot down 21 of 28 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday. Russia also launched three anti-aircraft missiles against Ukraine.

Russian soldiers celebrated Orthodox Christmas on the frontline with military priests leading prayer services both on Sunday and on Christmas Eve night, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was joined by families of military personnel who died in the war in Ukraine at Christmas Eve services at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, in the western suburbs of Moscow.

“Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, are warriors of Russia even now, during the holiday — with arms in hand, they defend the interests of our country,” he said to the attending families, according to the Kremlin’s press service.

In his annual Christmas interview, carried by Russian state news agency TASS, Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, made reference to the war in Ukraine.

“The trials that befall us today … are not capable of crushing our worldview, which directly includes love for the Motherland and readiness to defend it,” he said, when asked how to reassure Russians in the midst of military and civilian deaths.

Homes in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv escaped being hit by a fresh Russian missile attack on Sunday, the mayor said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

“It landed near private residential houses in one of the city’s districts. Preliminary information indicates no damage or casualties,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

It was unclear if he was referring to a single missile or to an attack in general. He wrote in an earlier post that Kharkiv was under missile attack and several explosions had been heard.

Oleh Syniehubov, the Kharkiv regional governor, said on Telegram that Russian S-300 missiles had hit Kharkiv city twice, and that strikes were also recorded in nearby Vovchansk, but so far no casualties had been reported.

Kharkiv and Vovchansk lie close to the border near Belgorod in Russia. Russia has promised to retaliate for recent Ukrainian missile attacks on the city.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv on Sunday, pledged millions of dollars to NATO to help Ukraine avert Russian drone strikes and announced donations of generators and transformers.

“Russia has continued threats and attacks with missiles and drones in various locations, even on New Year’s Day,” Kamikawa said through an interpreter, after her news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was moved underground.

“Japan is determined to continue to support Ukraine so that peace can return,” said Kamikawa, whose stop in Kyiv, announced the same day, was not part of an announcement last month of her Jan. 5 trip to Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada and Germany.

Kamikawa said Japan would allocate $37 million to a NATO Trust Fund that supports equipment such as a drone detection system.

She also announced donations of five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers. Russian air strikes caused frequent power cuts across Ukraine last winter, and its two main cities experienced cuts due to a major attack on 2 January.