Russia-Ukraine war updates: Ukraine pummeled by Russian missiles and drones

For more context on the conflict, read our story here on Russia appearing to be set for talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on the future of Ukraine.

Check out our news story here on Russia’s major strikes on Ukraine and its energy infrastructure.

There is also our report on Australia’s threat after a national was reportedly killed by Russian forces while fighting in Ukraine.

This live page will soon be closed. Here’s a recap of today’s events:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the West to use an estimated $250bn of frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons to fight Russia’s invading army.
• Zelenskyy says 25 people are “returning home to Ukraine” – including some who fought at the Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russia in 2022. Russia and Ukraine exchanged 50 prisoners earlier in the day.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Russia of planning “acts of terrorism” in the skies against Poland and other countries. There was no immediate response from Moscow.
• Zelenskyy says he expects the US to keep bolstering Ukraine’s military capabilities in the war against Russia after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
• NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte calls on allies to “shift to a wartime mindset”, adding that “to prevent war we need to prepare for it”.

Inflation in Russia accelerated in 2024 as the costs of Moscow’s war on Ukraine weighed on the domestic economy.

The Kremlin has ramped up spending to record levels to fund its military campaign, a surge that has saved the Russian economy from recession but triggered deep labour shortages and rapid price rises.

Russia’s central bank – tasked with reining in an economy it describes as “overheating” – has been unable to bring inflation down, despite taking interest rates to a two-decade high of 21 percent.

Russia’s Rosstat statistics service said the inflation rate in 2024 was 9.5 percent, up from 7.4 percent a year earlier. It was the fourth consecutive year when inflation has risen above Moscow’s official 4.0-percent target rate.

New US sanctions against the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine will not affect its operations, Russian news agencies report.

“The safe operation of Zaporizhzhia NPP and the work of the personnel will not be affected in any way by the inclusion on the US sanctions lists,” TASS cited the plant’s spokeswoman Evgeniya Yashina as saying.

Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be US secretary of state, says both Russia and Ukraine will need to make concessions to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine.

“This conflict needs to end. It’s going to be hard work,” Rubio said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He said he hoped a ceasefire could be achieved in the conflict, but both sides need to have leverage for that to occur.

The United States issued new Russia-related sanctions targeting multiple individuals, a China-based entity, and a bank in Kyrgyzstan.

“The US Department of the Treasury is moving against Russian efforts to evade US sanctions. This action targets a sanctions evasion scheme established between actors in Russia and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] to facilitate cross-border payments for sensitive goods,” it said on its website.

“Today’s actions frustrate the Kremlin’s ability to circumvent our sanctions and get access to the goods they need to build weapons for their war of choice in Ukraine,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

“Today’s expansion of mandatory secondary sanctions will reduce Russia’s access to revenue and goods.”

On Ukraine, the difference between the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration could not be starker.

After the latest US elections, President Joe Biden gave permission to Ukraine to use American weapons inside Russia as President-elect Trump called for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky tells Bottom Line host Steve Clemons the war is about much more than Ukraine and Russia. He says it is about rising “Russian control over the eastern and central parts of Europe”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the West to use an estimated $250bn of frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons to fight its invading army.

“The strongest support for the Ukrainian army is to allocate the $250 billion. Ukraine will take this money, allocate a large amount for domestic production, and for the import of exactly those types of weapons that Ukraine does not have,” he said during a press conference in Poland.

The United States, Britain, several European Union member states, Japan, and Canada froze about $300bn of assets owned by Russia’s Central Bank after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A Russian official has rejected the notion that Russia may be willing to cede any occupied territory to Ukraine in future peace negotiations.

Presidential aide and former Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev made the comments in an interview with Russian outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda published on Tuesday, saying the idea is “not even up for discussion”.

Disputed referendums in occupied Ukraine in September 2022 legitimised Russia’s claim to the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia , and Kherson regions, Patrushev said.

International recognition of Russia’s illegal occupation and annexation of the four provinces and occupied Crimea is a non-negotiable condition for a future peace agreement, he suggested.

Russia’s war goals in Ukraine remain unchanged and Moscow remains committed to achieving all of them, Patrushev added. President Vladimir Putin identified the “demilitarisation” and “denazification” of Ukraine as key goals in a speech on February 23, 2022.

Russia appears to be readying for talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on the future of Ukraine before his swearing-in on Monday.

A new global survey of public opinion, meanwhile, suggests majorities in India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Brazil see Trump’s election as a good thing for their countries and for peace in the world.

And Ukrainian forces captured their first North Korean prisoner of war in Kursk on Thursday, followed by a second on Saturday, putting beyond doubt the use of North Korean soldiers by the Russian military.

Read the full story here.

We’ve been reporting on a major Russian air attack on Ukraine involving 43 cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as 74 attack drones, that targeted sites mainly in western Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force says defence systems neutralised most of the projectiles, but some struck their targets.

Oleksandra Komuna, an elderly resident of the western Ukrainian village of Sknyliv, was at home during the strikes when lamps and plaster began falling.

“All the doors and windows were blown out, everything was blown out. The car was damaged and the roof was damaged. There were cracks everywhere. It’s such a disaster,” said Komuna.

Advisers to US President-elect Donald Trump now concede the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise – to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House.

Reuters news agency cited two unnamed “Trump associates” who discussed Russia’s war on Ukraine with the president-elect.

While the exact contours of a Trump peace plan are still being mulled, Trump’s advisers generally support taking the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine off the table, and freezing the current battle lines.

Most high-ranking Trump advisers also support giving Ukraine a material security guarantee such as the creation of a demilitarised zone patrolled by European troops, the news report said.

A tanker carrying Russian oil that was secured by German authorities last week in the Baltic Sea remains in German waters and a customs assessment is under way.

“German customs authorities are currently checking whether all the conditions and requirements that need to be met are being fulfilled,” a government spokesperson told reporters, adding the vessel would remain in German waters until the process is complete.

The 274-metre (899-foot) Panama-flagged tanker called Eventin was stopped while adrift and unable to manoeuvre on Friday with 99,000 tonnes of oil on board, according to Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 25 people are “returning home to Ukraine” including some who fought at the Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russia in May 2022.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 50 prisoners earlier in the day. Zelenskyy said some of those freed were “civilians”, though Russia said it released only Ukrainian soldiers.

“Bringing our people home is what Ukraine is constantly working on, and we will not stop until we bring all of our people back,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

He published photos of some of those released, including a man receiving a medical check and one sitting in a vehicle clutching a Ukrainian flag. “Many of them have severe injuries and illnesses,” Zelenskyy said.

We reported earlier on Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accusing Russia of planning “acts of terrorism” in the skies against Poland and other countries.

Tusk didn’t say what acts he was referring to, or elaborate on the contents of the information, saying, “I will not go into details”.

Security officials have said parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger blasts on cargo flights to the United States. The explosions occurred in depots in the UK, Germany, and Poland in July.

Russia denied involvement in the incidents and Tusk did not mention them specifically. Moscow didn’t immediately respond to Tusk’s allegations.

Germany will deliver 60 more IRIS-T anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine to bolster its defence against Russian attacks.

The move follows discussions between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in Kyiv, German media report.

The shipment – valued at 60 million euros ($62m) – will come from the German army’s existing stockpile, signalling Berlin’s commitment to supporting Ukraine during the intensifying war with Russia.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for enhanced military assistance, including drones and air defence systems, to protect Ukrainian territory from continuous attack.

Pistorius, who visited Kyiv on Tuesday, expressed optimism about resolving ongoing negotiations in Germany for an additional 3 billion euros ($3.1bn) in aid for Ukraine. Berlin remains Ukraine’s second-largest military supporter after the United States, providing 28 billion euros ($28.6bn) to date.

This includes advanced weaponry such as Leopard 2 battle tanks, Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, Marder combat vehicles, and Patriot and IRIS-T air defence systems.

Another intense Russian missile and drone barrage hits Ukraine. That’s as Russian forces are winning more ground battles and US President-elect Donald Trump is calling for the war to end.

So, can that happen?

Ukraine’s leader says “much more” help is needed for its war with Russia after the latest large-scale bombardment. The attack forced Ukraine to shut down its energy sector in some areas.

“Thanks to our air defence system and all the units involved, we are maintaining the operation of our energy system. But we constantly need to strengthen the existing capabilities of the Ukrainian air shield,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.

He noted, however, “our partners” in NATO and elsewhere “made promises that have not yet been fully realized”.

“We also talked about licenses for the production of air defense systems … which can become one of the effective security guarantees for Ukraine, and this is also realistic and must be fulfilled.”

Zelenskyy added, “We are grateful to everyone who helps our country. But this is much more than the needs of our country. Right now, the defence of Ukraine is proving whether Europe and the democratic world as a whole can stop wars reliably and for a long time.”