Ukraine-Russia war live: 20 dead in Russian border city Belgorod after Kyiv launches retaliatory strikes

Russia pounded the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missiles and drones in the hours leading into New Year’s Eve, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out a deadly air assault just across the border on nearby Belgorod.

In the first waves of Russia’s attacks, at least six missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s National Police said on Sunday, injuring at least 22 people and hitting 12 apartment buildings, 13 residential houses and a kindergarten.

Earlier, Ukrainian officials said that among those injured in Kharkiv were two boys aged 14 and 16 and a security adviser for a team of German journalists.

Closer to midnight, as part of a wider bombardment of Ukraine that also targeted Kyiv, several waves of Russian drones hit residential buildings in Kharkiv’s centre, spouting fires, the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, said.

“On the eve of the New Year, the Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared – we are unbreakable and invincible!” the mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said.

During Russia’s huge attack on Ukraine earlier this week, Poland, a NATO member, claimed an unknown object travelled 24 miles into the country’s airspace.

The head of the Polish armed forces, Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, said “everything indicates” it was a Russian missile.

Since the claim, Russia’s charge d’affaires in Warsaw, Andrei Ordash, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Saturday that Poland’s claims were “unsubstantiated.”

“We will not give any explanations until we are presented with concrete evidence, because these accusations are unsubstantiated,” Ordash told RIA Novosti.

Some 500 Polish Territorial Defense troops were combing an area between the city of Zamosc and the border with Ukraine for any traces of the object.

The nation has traditionally used the Julian calendar, also used by Russia, where Christmas falls next month.

Many Ukrainians have embraced this year’s change with enthusiasm, viewing it as a positive step that will further strengthen their cultural separation from Moscow.

Worrying news for Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky as US officials announced on Wednesday that funding, worth up to $250 million, could be the final package unless Congress approves new legislation that is stalled.

The weapons, worth up to $250 million, include an array of air munitions and other missiles, artillery, anti-armor systems, ammunition, demolition and medical equipment and parts.

In a statement, Lt. Col. Garron Garn, a Pentagon spokesman said there is no more funding to replace the weapons taken from department stocks. And the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides long-term funding for future weapons contracts, is also out of money.

As a result, Garn said Wednesday, “Without the supplemental funding, there will be a shortfall in replenishing U.S. military stocks, affecting American military readiness.”

President Joe Biden is urging Congress to pass a $110 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs.

Thousands of UK soldiers will go on standby from next year as a first response unit against threats to members of Nato.

Germany had been leading the reaction force but will hand over to the UK on 1 January 2024. The role is rotated every year among Nato members. The UK’s 7th Light Mechanised Brigade, known as the Desert Rats, will be at the core of this 6,000-person responsive unit.

It’s a worrying time for Ukraine and president Volodymyr Zelensky with funding stalling on both the European and US fronts. But what will this current “lack” of funding mean to the war in 2024.

Well, British writer Keir Giles, who is an expert on the Russian military, says it is likely to mean Ukraine will remain on the defensive with the construction of fortifications along Russian’s main lines of advance.

Ukrainian troops and political leaders are ending the year with disappointment on the battlefield, an increasingly sombre mood among troops and anxiety about the future of Western aid for the war effort.

Read the full report here:

Fourteen people died in the Ukrainian attack on the Russian provincial capital of Belgorod on Saturday.

The assault was believed to be in responses to the huge assault from Moscow the day before.

Here’s some of the pictures showing damage caused by the attack on Belgorod by Ukraine forces.

A skating rink on the central Cathedral Square, a shopping centre and residential buildings were among the targets of the Ukraine attack on the Russian provincial capital of Belgorod on Saturday which left 14 people dead.

Ukrainian news outlet RBC- Ukraine quoted unnamed sources as saying Ukrainian forces had directed fire at military targets in Belgorod in response to the massive Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities the previous day.

Newspaper Kommersant cited a source close to the Russian Investigative Committee as saying missiles fired from a multiple rocket launcher in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region had hit a skating rink on the central Cathedral Square, a shopping centre and residential buildings.

Ukraine’s series of retaliatory attacks on Russian territory saw forces use missiles, drones and shelling.

And although no comment had yet been made by Kyiv, Russian officials have confirmed 14 people, including two children, were killed in the border citty of Belgorod.

Ukrainian media, which said more than 70 drones were used in attacks, said one target was an electronic factory in the Bryansk region used to make Russian military equipment like long-range missiles and anti-aircraft systems.

Here’s more on the 24-hour attack from Chris Stevenson