Ukraine updates: Russia says it retook 63% of captured Kursk

The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said there was no reason to drop sanctions on Russia, as Hungary is holding off on extending the measures until Donald Trump returns to the White House.

"We definitely need the sanctions. This is our leverage and it would be very strange to give it away," Kallas told journalists.

"Things haven't changed. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin hasn't changed his goals and nothing has changed on the ground. So there is no basis to for lifting the sanctions," she added.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has imposed 15 rounds of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow. 

The next decision to extend the sanctions must be taken unanimously by the EU's 27 member states by January 31. 

A Russian missile strike killed at least four people and partially destroyed an educational facility in the town of Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine, officials said.

The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram that another seven people were injured, four of whom were taken to hospital. 

Two five-story buildings were also damaged and one caught fire, Lysak added.

Several explosions reverberated through the city, witnesses said on social media, after Ukraine's air force warned of the threat of a ballistic missile attack from Russia-occupied Crimea.

A security treaty signed this week between Ukraine and the United Kingdom drew a sharp response from the Kremlin, particularly over a reference to the Sea of Azov.

"That is an internal sea of Russia. There can scarcely be talk of a joint approach there by Ukraine and the United Kingdom," Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.

Russian forces control the entire shoreline of the Sea of Azov, which lies east of the Crimean peninsula, and Moscow has annexed the corresponding Ukrainian regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed on cooperation between their respective navies in a treaty signed Thursday.

The UK is to assist Ukraine in building up its navy to "bolster military collaboration on maritime security through a new framework to strengthen Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Azov Sea security and deter ongoing Russian aggression," the treaty says.
 

Ukraine launched an attack on Russia's Belgorod region with six US-made ATACMS missiles on Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

It said Russia would retaliate, but that all the missiles had been intercepted, causing no casualties or damage.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had launched a missile attack on the western Belgorod region, targeting air defense systems and damaging military radars.

Earlier, Moscow has said it will respond every time Ukraine fires ATACMS or British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia.

Ukraine first used these weapons to strike Russian territory in November, after receiving permission from Washington and London. Russia responded by firing a new medium-range hypersonic missile, the Oreshnik, and has said it may do so again.

At least 12 Indians have died while serving in the Russian armed forces, India's Ministry of External Affairs said.

It added that 18 others are still serving in the army, 16 of whom Russia has classified as "missing."

India said last year that it had uncovered a major human trafficking network that lured young men to Russia with promises of jobs, only to force them to fight in Russia's war in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he does not expect the United States to cut off military aid to Ukraine after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

The German chancellor said he had spoken to Trump twice since the election, and that there was an "intensive" diplomatic dialogue between the two sides.

"We can therefore hope that good cooperation between Europe and the USA will continue to be successful in the future, including on the issue of support for Ukraine," Scholz said. 

"So I don't expect the US to stop supporting Ukraine in its defense," he added.

Ukrainian police said their officers were conducting 200 searches across the country as part of an ongoing investigation into what it called the illegal departure of military-age men from the country.

"The national police force is conducting more than 200 searches regarding cases of illegal border crossings" of Ukrainian men who are eligible for army service, the national police said in a statement.

The raids announced Friday are the latest step in a nationwide investigation launched by law enforcement officials last week, when police searched some 600 homes, offices and other locations.

Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are allowed to leave Ukraine only in exceptional cases. The army currently drafts conscripts over the age of 25. To avoid military service, many men try to buy their way out at the border.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said an ongoing domestic dispute over a proposed aid package for Ukraine has hurt Germany's standing among its European allies.

"Germany as a whole isn't currently seen as a driving force for peace policy in Europe, and honestly that pains me," Baerbock told news website Politico.

A majority of German Bundestag members support more military aid for Ukraine, but there is no consensus on how to pay for a €3 billion ($3.1 billion) package ahead of elections on February 23. Opposition parties say Chancellor Olaf Scholz is exploiting the issue as a campaign tactic.

Scholz's Social Democrats favor suspending Germany's strict constitutional rules on government borrowing to raise the sum, a suggestion opposed by the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and Baerbock's Greens. 

Baerbock said the fight could make allies "worry that Germany won't stand by them."

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 33 of 50 drones launched by Russia overnight, the air force said.

It said 9 drones were "lost," a reference to Ukraine's use of electronic warfare to redirect Russian drones, while one left Ukraine for Romania.

Port infrastructure in the Danube region was attacked, it added.

Meanwhile, Romania's Defense Ministry said the country's national airspace had been breached during a Russian attack on Ukraine overnight, and that the likely impact zone of a drone had been found near the border in the southeastern county of Tulcea.

Russian forces have retaken 63.2% of the territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region of western Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

It added that Russian troops had retaken four settlements in the first two weeks of January.

Ukrainian troops swept across the border in a surprise attack on August 6 last year, capturing a swathe of territory that gives Kyiv a valuable bargaining chip in possible talks to end the war. The offensive started strong but more recently saw Moscow reclaim almost half of the occupied territory, with the help of soldiers from North Korea.

Kyiv then launched a second incursion into the region earlier this month.

dh/rmt (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)