Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 311 of the invasion - The Guardian

Ukrainian forces are holding their positions against Russian troops successful the eastbound Donbas portion and making tiny advances successful immoderate areas, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. The Ukrainian president added successful his nightly video address that Kyiv had strengthened its anti-aircraft capableness and would further fortify it successful the caller twelvemonth to support itself and the full European continent. It was not imaginable to verify his claims.

Nato’s caput general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Vladimir Putin had not fixed up his plans to “control Ukraine” and warned everyone to “prepare for the agelong haul”. Stoltenberg told the dpa quality bureau that Russia had mobilised “many caller troops” and “demonstrated a willingness to endure achy losses”. “This is not over,” helium said. “We should not underestimate Russia.”

Vladimir Putin has invited his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to marque a authorities sojourn to Moscow adjacent bluish spring, arsenic Russia seeks to deepen its ties with China amid increasing planetary isolation implicit the warfare successful Ukraine. Speaking to Xi via a videoconference, Putin said Russia’s ties with China were the “best successful history” and expressed his privation to widen subject collaboration.

The telephone betwixt the 2 leaders came hours aft Ukraine was again attacked by Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones. The Ukrainian subject said it changeable down each 16 drones, which it said were sent from the south-east and north. Vitali Klitschko, the politician of Kyiv, said determination were nary casualties from the strikes.

Belarus has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador, saying it changeable down a Ukrainian aerial defence rocket successful Belarusian territory. Alexander Volfovich, the caput of the Belarus information council, has accused Ukraine of trying to “provoke a determination conflict”, claiming it was “unlikely” that the Ukrainian aerial defence rocket downed connected Thursday had entered Belarusian airspace by accident. A Ukrainian subject spokesperson said the incidental was “the effect of aerial defence”.

Zelenskiy repeated his earlier warnings that Moscow could beryllium readying to plunge Ukraine into acheronian earlier the New Year’s Eve holiday. The latest drone onslaught comes astatine the extremity of a week successful which Russian forces launched a bid of deadly bombardments of the precocious liberated metropolis of Kherson.

Moscow’s exiled main rabbi says Jews should permission Russia portion they inactive can, earlier they are made scapegoats for the hardship caused by the warfare successful Ukraine. Pinchas Goldschmidt told the Guardian: “When we look backmost implicit Russian history, whenever the governmental strategy was successful information you saw the authorities trying to redirect the choler and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish assemblage … We’re seeing rising antisemitism portion Russia is going backmost to a caller benignant of Soviet Union.” Goldschmidt resigned from his station and near Russia successful July aft refusing to backmost Putin’s war.

The self-proclaimed republics successful Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR), some of which are occupied areas of Ukraine that Russia claims to person annexed, person adopted caller “constitutions”, the Russian state-owned Tass quality bureau reported. Denis Pushilin, who is styled arsenic the acting person of the DPR, was quoted arsenic hailing “the instrumentality of Donbas to the bosom of the Russian taste and humanities tradition”.

The richest Russian oligarchs person mislaid astir $95bn this twelvemonth amid sanctions imposed by occidental nations implicit the Ukraine warfare – shedding $330m a day since the Kremlin launched its invasion. Roman Abramovich, the erstwhile Chelsea FC owner, was the biggest loser, with his luck falling by 57% to $7.8bn this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Britain says it has fixed Ukraine much than 1,000 metallic detectors and 100 kits to deactivate bombs to assistance wide minefields successful the latest lawsuit of subject support. “This latest bundle of UK enactment volition assistance Ukraine safely wide onshore and buildings arsenic it reclaims its rightful territory,” the British defence minister, Ben Wallace, said successful a statement.

Vladimir Putin “warmly congratulated” Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, connected the coming caller year, adding that “mutually beneficial relations” betwixt the 2 countries were processing “very dynamically”, the Kremlin said. Putin would not privation a blessed caller twelvemonth to Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron oregon leaders of different “unfriendly countries”, it added.

The main of Eurovision, Martin Österdahl, has told BBC vigor that Russia’s ongoing prohibition from the planetary opus contention has been hard but the lawsuit should basal for “the basal and eventual values of democracy”.