Ukraine war live: Kyiv missile attack injures dozens as Russian losses revealed

Debris from intercepted Russian missiles devasted Ukraine’s capital overnight.

Over 50 were injured in the attack, including six children.

Ukraine’s biggest mobile network, Kyivstar, is hoping to restore some of its services today following an “unprecedented cyber attack”.

The country’s security service is investigating the possibility that Russia may have been behind the attack on Tuesday, which saw 24.3 million mobile subscribers knocked out of services.

The attack – thought to be the largest attack since the war began – even damaged IT infrastructure and air raid alert systems in some regions.

“We expected that we would be able to return some services in the first half of the day today. We see that this will not happen, but we are moving towards starting to restore some services in the second half of the day,” the company’s CEO Oleksandr Komarov said in televised comments.

In a separate statement on Facebook, Kyivstar reiterated that personal client data was safe, and systems storing it were not damaged.

Moscow has not given an immediate comment.

A North Korean minister met with a Russian governor to discuss economic cooperation, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.

The talks were between North Korea’s External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho and Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of the Russian far eastern region of Primorsky, which borders the country.

Discussions focused on “elevating economic cooperation to a higher level,” KCNA said.

“This is the first visit after a long break caused by the pandemic,” Kozhemyako said on his Telegram channel. “Our delegation’s program includes many meetings to develop humanitarian ties between Primorye and the DPRK. First of all, in the field of culture, tourism and sports.”

In November, Kozhemyako told the Russian TASS state news agency that Primorye was ready to consider the possibility of providing part of its agricultural land for farming by North Korean farmers.

Kozhemyako’s visit marks the latest in a flurry of bilateral visits since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia in September and met President Vladimir Putin to discuss deepening military cooperation.

Russian investigators have opened a criminal case against a Russian-American journalist for spreading misinformation about the army, a state-affiliated media outlet reported on Tuesday.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been detained since October 18 after being briefly detained in June while trying to fly out of Russia after visiting her mother.

Her employer said she was being unfairly and cruelly persecuted.

According to Tatar-Inform a state-affiliated media outlet she has been formally accused of deliberately gathering military information that could be used against Russia.

They said the case centred on a book she promoted by a Prague-based journalist which told stories of Russians who opposed the war in Ukraine.

Her promotion of the book was reportedly seen by state investigators as deliberately distributing false information about the Russian army out of political hatred.

There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities on the Tatar-Inform report.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Norway to discuss further military and financial aid.

Mr Zelensky is meeting with Nordic leaders ahead of the European Union summit this week where a decision on whether Ukrainian membership talks is expected.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said the summit would not be easy but he insisted that Kyiv had fulfilled all demands.

Pre-war Russian forces have been devastated by the war in Ukraine, a war monitoring think-tank has said.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), citing a declassified US intelligence document, said Putin’s army has lost 87 per cent of their pre-war active-duty ground troops.

The intelligence assessment reportedly stated that Russian forces lost 315,000 out the 360,000 military personnel on their inventory before February 24 2022.

Russia has reportedly also lost two-thirds of the tanks in its pre-war inventory and over a quarter of their stockpiles of military equipment as of November 2023.

The ISW says that Russia has managed to partially offset these losses and continues to prepare for a long war.

Intelligence suggests 420,000 Russian personnel are currently in occupied Ukraine, although they “likely have lower combat capabilities” than those they replaced.

Russia’s military command is also pursuing a “long-term restructuring and expansion” to prepare for a potential future conflict against NATO, ISW reported.

Russia brought a new launch site into use on Tuesday in an effort to “complicate Ukrainian air defence efforts”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.

In their latest defence intelligence update, the MoD said Russia launched at least 15 Shahed One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA UAV) from the Balaklava district of Crimea.

This is now the fifth confirmed OWA UAV launch site being used in Russian operations against Ukraine alongside the sites at Cape Chauda, Yeysk, Primorsko, and Kursk.

The Ministry of Defence said: “Russia is highly likely dispersing its OWA UAV launch capabilities across several locations as both a force protection measure and to complicate Ukrainian air defence efforts.

“Russia will likely use additional launch sites in response to Ukrainian attacks, forcing Ukraine to adapt to new transit corridors of these systems.”

The European Union’s chief executive urged the bloc on Wednesday to continue supporting Ukraine for “as long as it takes”.

Ukraine is looking to a key European leaders’ summit on Thursday for a positive signal on its future in the European Union.

“As the war drags on, we must prove what it means to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament ahead of the leaders’ summit.

Her Commission has proposed that the summit takes a decision this week to start EU membership talks with Ukraine once it meets the four outstanding conditions set out previously to advance Kyiv’s EU hopes.

The Brussels EU executive suggested that could happen in March.

Hungary is opposed to granting Ukraine more financial aid and has threatened to veto plans to advance Kyiv’s EU membership.

Hungary has stuck to its opposition stance on Ukraine’s membership talks with the EU.

Prime minister Viktor Orban said Ukraine should aim for a strategic partnership instead in an interview with local news broadcasters this morning.

“The EU is preparing to make a terrible mistake and we must prevent that even if 26 (members) want to make the mistake,” Mr Orban said in the interview.

“If we want to give support to Ukraine, a geostrategic signal, then we should, but this is not membership.”

The Hungarian PM was seen engaging in a heated discussion with Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Zelensky in Argentina over the weekend.

Mr Orban has repeatedly opposed Ukraine’s EU membership and boasts about his ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s autumn offensive operations were primarily aimed at weakening Western support, US intelligence reportedly assessed.

War monitoring think-tank The Insititute for the Study of War (ISW) cited the intelligence that said the operational objectives of Putin’s offenses were considered secondary aims.

US intelligence reportedly concluded that offensives have only resulted in heavy Russian losses and no operationally significant Russian battlefield gains.

US National Security Council Spokesperson Andrienne Watson reportedly stated that Russian forces have suffered more than 13,000 casualties and lost 220 combat vehicles along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis since launching offensive operations in October 2023, ISW said.