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UK vows to arm Ukrainians with advanced weapons after Putin’s hypersonic missile strike on Lviv
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Ukraine has attacked three Russian oil drilling platforms in the Caspian Sea, according to its military.
“Direct hits have been recorded,” it said in a post on Telegram on Sunday, adding: “The extent of the damage is being assessed.”
The infrastructure is said to be owned by Russia’s Lukoil Corporation. Dramatic drone footage shows the overnight attack although Kyiv did not share further details of the operation.
It comes as the Ministry of Defence announced it will develop new tactical ballistic missiles for Ukraine, code-naming the initiative “Project Nightfall”.
Defence secretary John Healey said the UK was determined to arm Ukrainians with advanced weapons to fight back against Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Later on Monday the UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss Russia’s use of its Oreshnik hypersonic missile just 60 miles from the border of Nato member Poland.
Russia has claimed the Oreshnik strike was retaliation for an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on one of Putin’s residences, an allegation Kyiv denies.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war against Ukraine has now outlasted the Soviet Union’s fight with Nazi Germany in the Second World War, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Zelensky said the war in Ukraine entered its 1,418th day on Sunday, surpassing the number of days of fighting between Nazi forces and the Soviet Union. Germany invaded Soviet territory around two years into WW2, in June 1941.
Comparing Russia’s tactics in Ukraine to those of the Nazis, Zelensky accused Moscow of replicating 20th-century fascism.
“Russia’s large-scale war against Ukraine has been going on for as long as Nazi Germany’s war against the Soviet Union,” he said.
“Today marks the 1,418th day of Russia’s war against Ukraine. They wanted to repeat and did repeat the mockery of people – repeated fascism, repeated almost all the worst things that happened in the 20th century.
“The Kremlin has failed to achieve its military goals in Ukraine despite the years-long campaign, he noted.
“But still, the Russians are trying to capture the same Donbas as almost four years ago,” Zelensky said.
The UK says it will develop new tactical ballistic missiles for Kyiv and put “leading-edge weapons into the hands of Ukrainians” for their fight against Russia.
Code-named “Project Nightfall”, the missiles will help boost Ukrainian firepower and be capable of striking targets deep inside Russia, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement late on Sunday.
The Nightfall missiles will carry a 200kg conventional high-explosive warhead and cost a maximum £800,000 per unit, the MoD announced, adding that it plans to produce 10 systems per month.
The announcement came days after Russia attacked Ukraine with its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile, striking a city about 60 miles from the border of Nato member Poland, with European leaders condemning the incident as a “clear escalation” and an attempt to “instil fear”.
Arpan Rai reports:
Sweden’s foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard has said that the pressure on Russia “has to be increased” as she called for tighter sanctions.
“The pressure on Russia has to be increased,” she said on Monday.
She proposed total bans on European companies providing services to Russian shops carrying oil, coal, and gas, and sanctions on the exports of Russian fertiliser (Russia’s third-biggest export to the EU).
“No transport, no reloading of goods between ships, no insurance and no port repairs.”
She added: “And we want to put an end to exports of luxury goods from the EU to Russia.
“It irritates me that rich Russian consumers can wear expensive Italian clothing brands and drink fine French wines.”
As Ukraine is gripped by a bitter cold snap, more than one million people have been left without heating and electricity as Russia ramps up attacks on energy infrastructure.
Elderly residents and those with vulnerable family members told The Independent they are cold and unable to cook proper meals as they face temperatures as low as -15C.
Despondent and fearing death, many are struggling through the winter as blackouts plunge Ukraine’s cities into darkness, lit up only by the bright flash of Russian drone and missile attacks.
“It gives you depression,” 33-year-old Dnipro resident Kyril Tulenev says. “You cannot do anything. You cannot check the news. You cannot properly use your things. Sometimes you cannot call anyone because there is no connection.”
Russia says that the target of its strike with a hypersonic Oreshnik missile last week was a Ukrainian aircraft repair plant.
The attack was condemned by Ukraine and Europe, who accused Russia of attempting to intimidate the West.
It marked the second time Russia had used an intermediate-range ballistic missile during the war.
“This enterprise carried out repairs and maintenance of Ukrainian armed forces aviation equipment, including F-16 and MiG-29 aircraft transferred by Western countries,” Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday.
“The company also produced long- and medium-range attack drones used to strike Russian civilian targets deep within Russian territory.”
A Ukrainian official told Reuters that the missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons, was loaded with inert dummy warheads and was capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Russia said the strike was in response to an alleged attack on Preside Vladimir Putin’s personal residence in Valdai last month.
The number of civilian deaths in Ukraine rose sharply last year, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Conflict-related violence killed 2,514 civilians last year and injured 12,142, marking a 31 per cent rise from 2024.
The vast majority of the attacks occurred in territories controlled by the Ukrainian government, according to the figures.
Estonia has stopped the entry of 261 Russians involved in the war in Ukraine.
The country’s foreign minister Margus Tsahkna wrote in a statement on X/Twitter on Monday: “Estonia imposed entry bans on the first 261 of Russian combatants who took part in the war of aggression against Ukraine – and this is only the beginning.”
He continued: “They have no place in Estonia and in the Schengen area.”
“We will keep working to ensure the door stays closed to Russian ex-combatants, and we call on other countries to do the same,” he said.
Russian authorities are to clamp down on “international enemies”, according to Belgorod’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov in a statement on Monday.
It comes after the region’s energy infrastructure was targeted, leaving over 550,000 residents without power.
Gladkov said that the energy supply situation had become “extremely dire” and that “energy capacity losses are reaching practically a catastrophic scale”.
He called for “monitoring” that would uncover “attempts to provoke the population in order to destabilise an already extremely difficult situation” and “stir up social tensions”, adding that Ukraine had engaged in “information attacks”.
President Donald Trump has lashed out at Nato in a Truth Social post on Monday.
The American leader wrote: “I’m the one who saved Nato!!!”
It comes after ongoing disagreements about the US’s right to takeover Greenland, which Trump has said is necessary for his country’s “national security” and the security of the rest of the world.
European officials have warned that the US purchasing Greenland would mark the end of Nato as an alliance.
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