Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Ukraine shoots down 39 drones overnight as power cut in regions across Ukraine
Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Russia has suffered its deadliest day of the Ukraine war, Kyiv has claimed, alleging that Vladimir Putin’s forces suffered record daily high of 1,770 losses as they continue their offensive in the east.
While Moscow is making significant gains in the Donbas region, the UK’s armed forces chief Admiral Anthony Radakin also said on Sunday that Russian casualties averaged 1,500 every day last month.
Meanwhile, air raid alerts were issued across Ukraine as it braces for an anticipated wave of mass Russian cruise missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure.
Power cuts were introduced in the Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions as a preventive measure, Ukrainian energy provider DTEK said, as the Ukrainian air force reported shooting down 39 of 74 drones launched by Russia overnight.
Five people were killed in the Mykolaiv region and one was killed in the Zaporizhzhia region, where a residential building was destroyed, regional governors said, with five children among at least 21 injured.
It came a day after both countries accused the other of launching their largest drone attacks yet.
The Kremlin has claimed that reports Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin in recent days are “pure fiction”.
The Washington Post first reported that the call had taken place, citing unidentified sources close to the matter, and that Mr Trump had told Mr Putin that he should not escalate the Ukraine war. Reuters also reported on the call, citing an unidentified source.
“This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed. “There was no conversation.”
“This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,” Mr Peskov said.
Asked whether Mr Putin had plans for any contacts with Mr Trump, he said: “There are no concrete plans yet.”
A British family has paid tribute to their “brave” son who has been killed while fighting in Ukraine.
Callum Tindal-Draper, 22, from Gunnislake, Cornwall, was killed in action while serving with the foreign volunteer platoon in the country’s struggle against Russia. In an interview with the BBC, his father Steven Draper said he begged his son not to travel to Ukraine, but he told him he was “not frightened of bullies”.
“We begged and begged and begged him not to go,” his father said. “But Callum said ‘dad, I’m not frightened of bullies and what’s going on in Ukraine is awful and someone needs to stand up for these people’.”
In a tribute, his mother Caroline Tindal wrote: “He fought till he could no longer hold them off any more and his platoon are calling him a ‘hero’ and ‘As brave as they come’. 22 is a young age. But you lived and died following your heart, soul and morals.”
Callum Tindal-Draper was killed in action while serving with the foreign volunteer platoon
Britain should move past the “special relationship” with the US, the frontrunner to become the UK’s next ambassador in Washington has said – amid fears over the impact of Donald Trump’s second presidency on the US’s relationship with Europe, Nato and Ukraine.
Peter Mandelson is a favourite to replace Dame Karen Pierce, who is overseeing the transition to Donald Trump’s second administration.
The Labour grandee, a key architect of Tony Blair’s New Labour, said it is time for a “new relationship” with the US.
Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:
Peter Mandelson is a favourite to replace Dame Karen Pierce as the UK’s ambassador to the US
Russia has suffered its deadliest day of the Ukraine war, Kyiv has claimed, alleging that Vladimir Putin’s forces suffered record daily high of 1,770 losses as they continue their offensive in the east.
While Moscow is making significant gains in the Donbas region, the UK’s armed forces chief Admiral Anthony Radakin also said on Sunday that Russian casualties averaged 1,500 every day last month.
“Russia is about to suffer 700,000 people killed or wounded – the enormous pain and suffering that the Russian nation is having to bear because of Putin’s ambition,” he told the BBC on Sunday.
He said that while Russia was making gains and putting pressure on Ukraine, the losses were “for tiny increments of land”, adding that the cost of the war – which he put at more than 40 per cent of public expenditure on defence and security – is also “an enormous drain” on Russia.
Ukraine’s Kurakhove is surrounded on three sides, with Russian forces just under two miles from the devastated city centre.
Yet between 700 and 1,000 local residents remain, most of them living in the basements of apartment buildings, without running water, heating or electricity. The only place to charge phones is in the basement of the building now housing the city administration.
The exact number of people is impossible to determine because, since mid-October, no humanitarian volunteers have come to Kurakhove.
Under attack from artillery, multiple rocket launchers, aerial bombs and drones, Kurakhove has become the new Bakhmut, as Russia continues its drive westward to capture all of the Donbas region. On Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky called the situation in Kurakhove, as well as the key city of Pokrovsk, “the most challenging”.
Anton Shtuka and Evgeniy Maloletka report:
The road to Kurakhove, which is lined with burned-out civilian vehicles, is nicknamed the ‘road of death’
The UK’s defence secretary John Healey has rejected reported comments by Ukrainian officials suggesting Kyiv is unhappy with the Labour government’s level of support.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that it is “simply not correct” to say the situation is not the same as it was under Rishi Sunak and has worsened under the new administration, after The Guardian reported officials in Kyiv as having said relations have deteriorated since Labour took office, voicing frustration over the failure to provide additional long-range weapons.
Asked about the reported remarks, Mr Healey said: “That is simply not correct. We’ve stepped up with more military support. We’ve speeded up deliveries. We’re now spending more on military aid for Ukraine than ever before as a UK government, and I spoke at length to the defence minister in Ukraine yesterday.
“He certainly doesn’t see the UK support weakening, and he said the Ukrainians are confident in Britain’s continuing and steadfast support for their country.”
The world will have to “wait and see” what Donald Trump “really proposes” over Ukraine, the UK’s defence secretary has said.
John Healey told BBC Breakfast: “We’ll have to wait and see what President Trump really proposes … but if the reports of his call with Putin last week are right then President Trump is exactly right to warn Putin against escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
“And our task as a nation supporting Ukraine, one of its leading supporters, alongside allies like France, is to step up our support to reinforce the position that Ukraine has at this period where it’s under great pressure from Russia.”
Images from photojournalists have shown the impact of Russian drone attacks on the southern Mykolaiv region, where at least five people have been killed in overnight attacks.
It is “Ukraine that gets to call when the talking starts”, Britain’s defence secretary has said, after a Trump ally appeared to suggest that the war could end if Kyiv was open to ceding land to Russia.
John Healey told BBC Breakfast: “Because of the strength of bipartisan support in the US and a recognition that it’s in no one’s interest to let an aggressor like Putin redraw international boundaries by force, I expect the US to remain steadfast alongside countries like the UK.
“We can do more to support Ukraine. We’re doing that at the moment, and that will be part of the discussion that Prime Minister Starmer has with President Macron this morning in Paris.”
Asked what the UK’s reaction to the suggestion that the war could come to a conclusion if there was support within Ukraine to give away land to Russia, he said: “It’s Ukraine that gets to call when the talking starts. Our job is to support Ukraine, stand by them when they fight, stand by them if they decide to talk.
“This could be ended today if Putin withdrew following his illegal invasion … that’s the way this conflict could be ended, and the importance for us for Europe and for the United States is that Putin in the long run does not prevail, because if he does prevail, he will not stop at Ukraine, and the cost to us all will be much greater in the future.”
Defence secretary John Healey has denied that Donald Trump’s incoming administration turning away from Nato would leave the UK in a “weak position”.
Asked whether the loss of US backing would put us in “a very weak and exposed position”, Mr Healey told Sky News: “No, we wouldn’t be in a weak position. I don’t expect the US to turn away from Nato. They recognise the importance of the alliance. They recognise the importance of avoiding further conflict in Europe.”
The US support for Nato “goes back decades, and that has remained, including through the previous President Trump administration”, Mr Healey said, adding: “He pushed, rightly, he pushed European nations to do more, to front Nato better.”
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Log in
New to The Independent?
Or if you would prefer:
Hi {{indy.fullName}}