Ukraine news – live: Russian economy ‘feeling the pinch’ as Putin’s exports shrink
Russia’s economy is beginning to “feel the pinch” after the G7 and other countries imposed a price cap on the country’s oil exports, an expert has said.
Nicholas Farr, emerging Europe economist at Capital Economics, said it was “too early” to fully assess the impact of the sanctions but the “initial signs” suggested that they had negatively impacted oil exports.
“High-frequency data show that Russian oil exports have fallen since the sanctions were introduced and the spread between Brent crude oil prices over Urals oil prices widened to a six-month high [last] week,” he said.
In December the G7 countries, the European Union and Australia agreed to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil because of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian forces fired some 33 rockets at civilian targets in Kherson as fighting in the strategically important city intensifies, Ukraine’s military said earlier. The Kremlin has also deployed more tanks and armoured vehicles to the front line, it added.
Key Points
Russia’s oil exports decline
Russia fires rockets at ‘civilian targets’ in Kherson - Ukraine
Ukraine war will witness ‘ crucial year’ as forces gear up for spring
Russia’s mobilised troops will be allow to freeze their sperm for free - report
War slow burns in east as Russia tries to break defence lines
Russia’s economy ‘feeling the pinch’ as sanctions bite
12:14 , Matt Mathers
Russia’s economy is beginning to “feel the pinch” after the G7 imposed a price cap on the country’s oil exports, an expert has said.
Nicholas Farr, emerging Europe economist at Capital Economics, said it was “too early” to fully assess the impact of the sanctions but the “initial signs” did not look good for the Kremlin.
“High-frequency data show that Russian oil exports have fallen since the sanctions were introduced and the spread between Brent crude oil prices over Urals oil prices widened to a six-month high [last] week,” he said.
France’s defence minister visits Ukraine to boost support
11:48 , Matt Mathers
France’s defense minister arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss further military support for Ukraine, insisting the French government’s backing is unflagging while efforts are made to reach an eventual negotiated end to Russia’s invasion.
French minister for the armed forces Sebastien Lecornu traveled to Ukraine’s capital after a trip to Poland, where he announced a deal Tuesday to sell Poland two French-made military satellites.
In Kyiv, Mr Lecornu laid a wreath at a heroes’ monument to pay homage to Ukrainians who have died defending their country against Russia’s invasion. He was scheduled to meet with president Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov and army officials.
While France has been less vocal about its military support for Ukraine than the United States and Britain, the country has sent a steady supply of weapons to Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.
ICYMI: Russian soldiers surrender to Ukrainian troops circling them in trenches
11:25 , Matt Mathers
Footage appears to show the moment Russian troops surrendered to Ukraine’s 10th Mountain Assault Brigade.
Video shows a number of soldiers emerging from a trench with their hands up, before being marched away from the area.
“After the onslaught of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, Russian invaders made the only correct decision - to surrender,” Ukraine’s official Ministry of Defence account tweeted.
“That’s how it should be.”
Volodymyr Zelensky also thanked his country’s 10th separate mountain assault brigade for capturing Russian troops in Donetsk during his nightly address.
Moment Russian soldiers surrender to Ukrainian troops circling them
Kremlin says Ukraine peace plans must accept annexation of four Ukrainian regions
10:52 , Matt Mathers
The Kremlin on Wednesday said that peace proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine must take into account what it called "the new reality" of four Ukrainian regions it has annexed.
Russia declared Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia part of its territory in September after referendums condemned by Ukraine and Western countries. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful."
President Zelensky has been promoting his 10-point peace plan, which he first announced in November, discussing it with US president, Joe Biden among others, and urging world leaders to hold a Global Peace Summit based on it.
Russia did not consult OPEC+ over oil cap response - Kremlin
10:35 , Matt Mathers
Russia did not consult with OPEC+ on its response to a Western price cap on Russian oil, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, stating that it was Russia’s sovereign right to respond as it sees fit to such "illegal measures".
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered Russia’s long-awaited response to the cap, signing a decree that bans the supply of crude oil and oil products from 1 February for five months to nations that abide by it.
Mr Peskov said contacts between Russia and the OPEC+ group of leading global oil producers, which includes Russia, were ongoing on other issues.
Ukraine issues air raid alerts in regions across the country
10:16 , Matt Mathers
Air raid sirens sounded across all Ukraine’s regions on Wednesday, officials said.
Ukrainian social media reports said the nationwide alert may have been declared after Russian jets stationed in Belarus took off.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify that information.
Ukraine aiming to develop air-to-air combat drones
09:38 , Matt Mathers
Ukraine has bought some 1,400 drones, mostly for reconnaissance, and plans to develop combat models that can attack the exploding drones Russia has used during its invasion of the country, according to the Ukrainian government minister in charge of technology.
Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov described Russia’s war in Ukraine as the first major war of the internet age.
He credited drones and satellite internet systems such as Elon Musk’s Starlink with having transformed the conflict.
Ukraine has purchased drones like the Fly Eye, a small drone used for intelligence, battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance.
"And the next stage, now that we are more or less equipped with reconnaissance drones, is strike drones," Mr Federov said. "These are both exploding drones and drones that fly up to three to 10 kilometers and hit targets."
He predicted "more missions with strike drones" in the future, but would not elaborate. "We are talking there about drones, UAVs, UAVs that we are developing in Ukraine. It will be the next step in the development of technologies," he said.
Top Putin aide visits Ukraine's Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
09:15 , Matt Mathers
One of president Vladimir Putin’s most powerful Kremlin aides has visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in a part of southern Ukraine Russia says it has annexed, a Moscow-installed official in the region said.
Sergei Kiriyenko, a Kremlin official responsible for overseeing Russia’s domestic politics and a former head of the country’s state nuclear corporation, discussed the safety of the plant, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed local official.
"Sergei Kiriyenko visited the nuclear power plant. He checked the safety of the facility and the working conditions of Rosatom employees," Mr Rogov said on Telegram.
In a picture published by Mr Rogov, Mr Kiriyenko was shown outside the plant, which lies just 500 km (300 miles) from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.
Aeroflot boss calls for ‘state protectionism’ to defend Russian aviation
08:54 , Matt Mathers
The head of Russia’s state-controlled airline Aeroflot called on the Russian government to "balance the interests" of Russian and foreign airlines in order to support the domestic aviation sector, in an interview with Russian news site RBC published on Wednesday.
In the interview, Aeroflot CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky said it is "important that the state balances the interests of Russian and international carriers. Because it is obvious that foreign carriers now have much more opportunities and advantages in these conditions".
Russian airlines stopped flying to most overseas destinations after Western countries imposed unprecedented sanctions, including bans on Russian carriers, after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on 24 February. Routes to Turkey and Middle Eastern countries popular with Russian tourists have been preserved.
Alexandrovsky said that competitors, including Turkish Airlines and Emirates, had benefitted most from the situation, and called for a degree of what he called "state protectionism" to safeguard domestic aviation.
Italy minister cautious on supplying air defence systems to Ukraine
08:35 , Matt Mathers
Italy’s defence minister struck a cautious tone on whether Italy would be able to supply Ukraine with air defence systems, as requested by president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The systems would be provided "if possible", Guido Crosetto told Il Messaggero newspaper in an article published on Wednesday.
However, "if we give air defence missiles to Ukraine, we must take them from our stocks and we have to do that without depleting them, and being sure about the quality," he added.
Crosetto told Reuters this month that the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defence system was among the military aid that Kyiv had requested from Rome.
His remarks to Il Messaggero follow a Tuesday call between Mr Zelensky and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, after which Zelensky tweeted that Rome was considering supplying air defences.
‘I want peace’: Ukraine and a Christmas at war
08:16 , Matt Mathers
From an eight-year-old girl whose hair has started to turn grey to a nine-year girl who has put peace at the top of her Christmas wish list, a powerful new photo series has documented the lives of children and their families living in Ukraine, Romania and the UK as they approached Christmas living in a war zone or as refugees in Europe.
Simon Edmunds reports.
Russian tycoon who appeared to criticise Ukraine war dies in fall from hotel window
07:50 , Matt Mathers
A Russian businessman and rumoured critic of president Vladimir Putin has died after falling from a third-floor window of an Indian hotel just days after a friend died on the same trip.
Pavel Antov was visiting Odisha, an eastern state on the Bay of Bengal, and had just celebrated his 65th birthday at the hotel. His friend Vladimir Budanov died of a heart attack during the celebrations.
My colleague Emily Atkinson reports:
Russian tycoon who appeared to criticise Ukraine war dies in fall from hotel window
ICYMI: Zelensky counting on India’s participation in implementation of peace plan
07:33 , Matt Mathers
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky told India’s prime minister Narendra Modi he wanted New Delhi to more actively support the implementation of his “peace formula” but also took an apparent dig at the country’s “fruitful” G20 presidency.
Mr Zelensky’s telephone call with Mr Modi marked their fourth exchange since the war began and occured less than a fortnight after the Indian leader spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
My colleague Shweta Sharma reports:
Zelensky says he counts on Indian PM Modi’s help on Ukraine peace plan
Russia to halt oil sales to countries that impose cap
07:15 , Matt Mathers
Russia retaliated on Tuesday against a price cap on its oil imposed by Western countries, while its forces were involved in heavy fighting around the bombed-out ghost town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Despite an intensification in the fighting the frontline in eastern Ukraine remains little changed, with neither side making any major advances, Britain’s Ministry of Defence and Ukraine military analysts said.
Moscow will ban oil sales to countries that abide by the price cap that was imposed on 5 Dec, President Vladimir Putin decreed.
The price cap, unseen even in the times of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, is aimed at crippling Moscow’s military efforts in Ukraine - without upsetting markets by actually blocking Russian supply.
Under the cap, oil traders who want to retain access to Western financing for such crucial aspects of global shipping as insurance must promise not to pay above $60 per barrel for Russian seaborne oil.
That is close to the current price for Russian oil, but far below the prices at which Russia was able to sell it for much of the past year, when windfall energy profits helped Moscow offset the impact of financial sanctions.
‘I want peace’: Ukraine and a Christmas at war
07:54 , Matt Mathers
From an eight-year-old girl whose hair has started to turn grey to a nine-year girl who has put peace at the top of her Christmas wish list, a powerful new photo series has documented the lives of children and their families living in Ukraine, Romania and the UK as they approached Christmas living in a war zone or as refugees in Europe.
Simon Edmunds reports:
‘I want peace’: Ukraine and a Christmas at War
Russia shoots rockets inside Kherson amid counterattack
06:44 , Arpan Rai
Russian forces have fired at least 33 rockets targeting civilian regions in Kherson in the past 24 hours till early today, Ukraine‘s military said, as fighting intensified with Russia deploying more tanks and armoured vehicles on front lines.
In counterattack elsewhere in the war, Ukrainian rockets and artillery targeted two ammunition depots, one control point and seven areas of concentration of Russian troops in the past 24 hours, reported The Kyiv Independent.
War slow burns in east as Russia tries to break defence lines
06:26 , Arpan Rai
Russian forces have continued to shell and bomb towns in eastern Ukraine with war slowly entering a grinding phase due to the harsh weather and low visibility.
Fires were reported from Bakhmut this week where indiscriminate shelling from Russian forces has targeted residential buildings despite Moscow inaccurately alleging that it is not targeting civilian areas in the war.
"Our building is destroyed. There was a shop in our building, now it’s not there anymore," said Oleksandr, 85, adding he was the only remaining resident there.
Nearby, 73-year-old Pilaheia said she had long got used to the "constant explosions".
Before the war targeted Bakhmut, the region had a population of more than 70,000 people.
Russia war on Ukraine has killed more than 6,800 civilians - UN
06:00 , Arpan Rai
At least 6,884 civilians have been killed so far in the war in Ukraine, the United Nations human rights agency has said. The war, which entered its 11th month on Christmas eve, has also injured at least 10,947 so far, the UN said.
The top human rights body has said that most of the civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes.
Ukraine and a Christmas at war: ‘I want peace'
05:44 , Arpan Rai
From an eight-year-old girl whose hair has started to turn grey to a nine-year girl who has put peace at the top of her Christmas wish list, a powerful new photo series has documented the lives of children and their families living in Ukraine, Romania and the UK as they approached Christmas living in a war zone or as refugees in Europe.
Renowned Ukrainian photographers Anastasiaâ¯Vlasova, Alina Smutko and Nina Sologubenko have captured children’s daily lives, and their hopes and dreams, as they face the end of the year in their new reality.
Read the full story here:
‘I want peace’: Ukraine and a Christmas at War
Ukraine war will witness ‘ crucial year’ as forces gear up for spring
05:32 , Arpan Rai
Volodymyr Zelensky has said his forces are preparing for next year’s war which will be a crucial stage.
“I held a meeting of the staff today - the 44th of this year already. The topic is clear. First of all, it is Bakhmut, Kremina and Donbas in general. Possible actions of the enemy in the eastern direction and our actions,” he said in his nightly address.
Mr Zelensky added: “We listened to the commanders, decided on steps for the near future. We continue to prepare the defense and security forces of Ukraine for the next year. It must be a crucial year.”
“We understand the risks in the winter, we understand what we have to do in the spring, and therefore we understand what results the entire defense and security sector must demonstrate,” he said.
Russia’s mobilised troops will be allow to freeze their sperm for free - report
04:57 , Arpan Rai
Russia is allowing its conscripted forces sent to Ukraine to freeze their sperm for free in cryobanks, its state agency TASS reported today.
The Russian health ministry "determined the possibility of financial support from the federal budget for free conservation and storage of germ cells (spermatozoa) for citizens mobilised to participate in the special military operation for 2022-2024", Igor Trunov, president of the Russian union of lawyers said.
He confirmed that the Russian health ministry has responded to his appeal for budgetary assistance with the plans to help mobilised troops freeze their sperms.
Families can also use the stored biomaterial free of charge if their compulsory medical insurance indicates they can do so, the report added.
More than 300,000 reservists were called up by Vladimir Putin in September in a mobilisation drive against Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Russia bans supply of oil to nations participating in Western price cap
04:35 , Arpan Rai
Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decree banning the supply of oil and oil products to nations participating in the Western price cap for five months from the start of February.
As part of an international campaign to curb Russia’s ability to wage war, the G7 nations and Australia announced earlier this month that the $60 (€57; £48) per barrel price cap would come into effect on 5 December or “very soon thereafter”. It aims to reduce Moscow’s income from selling oil while tempering the potential for any spike in global prices as the Ukraine war enters its tenth month.
In response, Russia announced a ban on oil products to people observing the price cap will begin on 1 February and last until 1 July.
Read the full story here:
Russia bans supply of oil to nations participating in Western price cap
Russian tycoon who appeared to criticise Ukraine war dies in fall from hotel window
04:04 , Arpan Rai
A Russian businessman and rumoured critic of president Vladimir Putin has died after falling from a third-floor window of an Indian hotel just days after a friend died on the same trip.
Pavel Antov was visiting Odisha, an eastern state on the Bay of Bengal, and had just celebrated his 65th birthday at the hotel. His friend Vladimir Budanov died of a heart attack during the celebrations.
The millionaire and local politician was a member of the Russian parliament’s United Russia party, which was formerly headed by Mr Putin.
Read the full story here:
Russian tycoon who appeared to criticise Ukraine war dies in fall from hotel window
03:28 , Arpan Rai
Good morning, welcome to our coverage of the Ukraine war on Wednesday, 28 December.
