Russia’s military on Tuesday said it would retaliate against Ukraine after Kyiv attacked Russian regions by firing six US-made Atacms ballistic missiles and six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles and launching one of the biggest drone attacks to date.
The European Commission intends to propose a ban on imports of Russian primary aluminium in its 16th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, said European Union diplomats on Tuesday.
The leader of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transdniestria has travelled to Moscow for talks to resolve an energy crisis following the suspension of Russian gas deliveries, Transdniestria’s news agency reported on Tuesday.
Ukraine fires US, British missiles into Russia, launches massive drone attack
Russia’s military on Tuesday said it would retaliate against Ukraine after Kyiv attacked Russian regions by firing six US-made Atacms ballistic missiles and six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and launching one of its biggest drone attacks to date.
After Ukraine first launched Atacms and British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia last year, Moscow responded on 21 November by launching a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik, or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down all of the Western missiles fired by Ukraine at the Bryansk region, as well as 146 drones outside the war zone. It said two more Storm Shadows had been shot down over the Black Sea.
“The actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by its Western curators, will not go unanswered,” said the defence ministry.
The Ukrainian General Staff said it had struck as deep as 1,100km inside Russia, targeting oil storage, refinery, chemical and ammunition plants in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula and Tatarstan regions.
The drone attack on Russia was one of the biggest to date.
Roman Busargin, governor of the Saratov region about 720km southeast of Moscow, said the cities of Saratov and Engels, on opposite banks of the Volga River, had been subjected to a mass drone attack and there was damage to two industrial sites. Schools had shifted to remote learning, he said.
Ukraine attacked the same region last week and claimed to have struck an oil depot serving an airbase for Russian nuclear bomber planes, causing a huge fire that took five days to put out.
The Ukrainian General Staff said it had hit the Kristall Plant oil storage facility in Engels, part of an operation run by Ukrainian drone units and military intelligence.
The General Staff also said it had struck the Bryansk Chemical Plant, which it said produced ammunition for artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, aviation, engineering ammunition and components for cruise missiles.
The drone attack struck a munitions storage facility holding guided bombs and missiles at the Engels airbase in Russia’s Saratov region as well as other targets, said a source in the Security Service of Ukraine on Tuesday.
The General Staff said attacks on the Saratov Oil Refinery and the Kazanorgsintez plant triggered fires.
EU to propose ban on Russian aluminium imports
The European Commission intends to propose a ban on imports of Russian primary aluminium in its 16th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, said European Union (EU) diplomats on Tuesday.
EU countries hope to pass a 16th package of restrictions in February to mark the third anniversary of the war.
The commission held informal meetings with EU countries on Tuesday to discuss details of the forthcoming package, said the sources. One source added that the ban would be phased in.
In a letter late last year, 10 EU countries proposed further sanctions on Russian trade, including its output of metals such as aluminium.
So far the 27-member bloc has banned aluminium products including wire, tubes and foil.
The US and Britain banned the import of metals produced in Russia in 2024, but the EU declined to follow suit owing to opposition from some member states.
Leader of Moldova’s separatist region travels to Moscow for gas crisis talks
The leader of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transdniestria has travelled to Moscow for talks to resolve an energy crisis following the suspension of Russian gas deliveries, Transdniestria’s news agency reported on Tuesday.
Transdniestria has suffered widespread power cuts since 1 January when Russia’s Gazprom suspended gas exports to the region, citing an unpaid Moldovan debt of $709-million that Moldova does not recognise as valid.
Moscow blames the suspension of gas supplies on Moldova and Ukraine, which refused to extend a five-year gas transit deal that expired on 31 December on the grounds that the proceeds help fund Russia’s invasion.
Moldova says Moscow could use an alternative route to continue supplying Transdniestria, which was receiving gas via Ukraine.
Transdniestria’s separatist leader Vadim Krasnoselsky held negotiations to overcome the energy crisis, his press secretary Denis Podgorny was quoted as saying by Novosti Pridnestovya agency.
Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu said she was aware of the visit, adding: “We want the people in the Transdniestrian region ... to have electricity, heat, and water as soon as possible.
“Tiraspol’s refusal to accept help from Moldova is not its [refusal] but the Kremlin’s,” Sandu said, reiterating Chisinau’s view that Transdniestria acts only on Moscow’s orders. Tiraspol is the separatist region’s capital.
Slovakia’s PM rejects offer to discuss gas transit in Kyiv
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has rejected a Ukrainian invitation to visit Kyiv this week to discuss gas transit deals, Russia’s Tass news agency said on Tuesday, citing a Slovak legislator, amid a spat over the end of Russian gas deliveries.
Russia’s gas flows to Europe ended at the start of the year after the expiration of a transit agreement between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukraine refused to extend the deal, seeking to stop energy revenue going to Moscow to fund its nearly three-year invasion. Fico says the move has damaged Slovakia’s economy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday extended an offer to Fico to visit Kyiv to try and resolve their spat.
The Kyiv visit “is not possible”, legislator Tibor Gaspar, part of a Slovak delegation currently visiting Moscow, told Tass. “I don’t think it will happen,” he added, without elaborating.
Fico says the end of the transit deal has hurt Slovakia by pushing up gas prices and also terminating transit fees it had earned in sending the Russian gas further into Europe.
He has tried to restore the flows, and travelled to Moscow last month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, a move which angered Ukraine.
Fico previously said a deal was close that would have seen gas deliveries via Ukraine continue by having it change ownership beforehand. But he claims Zelensky rejected extending any gas flows through Ukraine at an EU summit in December.
The Slovak leader has threatened to cut emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine and reduce aid for Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia, among other measures, if the gas transit issue is not resolved.
Czech Republic’s need for Russian oil ended by pipeline upgrade
Upgrades to boost the capacity for oil deliveries to the Czech Republic via the TAL pipeline were complete, ending the country’s need to import Russian crude, said Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Tuesday.
The Czech Republic has worked to wean itself off Russian oil and gas since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Already the country had no direct contracts with Russian gas suppliers. Now the TAL pipeline has the capacity to meet all of its oil demand, it need no longer rely on the Druzhba pipeline from the east, which previously delivered half of its supplies.
“This is a crucial moment for the Czech Republic because Russia can no longer blackmail us with [energy supplies],” said Fiala.
The upgrades to the Trans-Alpine (TAL) pipeline, running from Italy to Germany before feeding into a connector, double the capacity available for the Czech Republic to eight million metric tons a year, enough for its annual needs.
German defence minister arrives in Ukraine to send message of support
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday on a visit intended to send a clear signal of Europe’s support ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has pushed for swift talks to end the Ukraine war.
“The first and most important thing is to make it very clear psychologically and politically that we will continue to stand by Ukraine,” said Pistorius upon arriving in Kyiv.
He will meet the Ukrainian government to discuss further aid and will assess the military situation.
Pistorius’ visit, which is also intended to signal Berlin’s backing for Kyiv heading into next month’s German elections, comes less than a week before Trump is set to be sworn in for a second term as US president on 20 January.
Trump says he will quickly solve the war in Ukraine and has criticised the scale of US support for Kyiv.
Slovak opposition to call no-confidence vote against PM Fico’s government
Slovakia’s opposition parties will call a no-confidence vote against the government, said a party chief on Tuesday, accusing Prime Minister Robert Fico of dragging foreign policy closer to Russia while failing to tackle problems at home.
Fico’s ruling leftist-nationalist coalition has become shakier in recent months, with its majority shrinking to 76 out of 150 seats in parliament. Fico is facing dissent from some junior party legislators and also disputes among his partners.
It was not immediately clear when the vote would take place. The opposition would need a majority to win it, an outcome that would compel Slovakia’s president to appoint a new government.
The parliament could also agree to hold an early election, though such a move would require support from both the opposition and government camps.
The government is facing significant domestic problems including a high budget deficit, problems in the healthcare system, and a halt to Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine that Fico says has damaged Slovakia’s economy.
North Korea’s suicide soldiers pose new challenge for Ukraine
After a battle in Russia’s snowy western region of Kursk this week, Ukrainian special forces scoured the bodies of more than a dozen slain North Korean enemy soldiers.
Among them, they found one still alive. But as they approached, he detonated a grenade, blowing himself up, according to a description of the fighting posted on social media by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces on Monday.
The forces said their soldiers escaped the blast uninjured. Reuters could not verify the incident.
But it is among mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia’s three-year war with Ukraine.
“Self-detonation and suicides: that’s the reality about North Korea,” said Kim, a 32-year-old former North Korean soldier who defected to the South in 2022, requesting he only be identified by his surname due to fears of reprisals against his family left in the North.
“These soldiers who left home for a fight there have been brainwashed and are truly ready to sacrifice themselves for Kim Jong-un,” he added, referring to the reclusive North Korean leader.
Ukrainian and Western assessments say Pyongyang has deployed some 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, which Ukraine seized in a surprise incursion last year. More than 3,000 have been killed or injured, according to Kyiv.
North Korea’s leader Kim has previously hailed his army as “the strongest in the world”, according to state media. Propaganda videos released by the regime in 2023 showed bare-chested soldiers running across snowy fields, jumping into frozen lakes and punching blocks of ice for winter training.
But a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country’s spy agency on Monday said that the numbers of North Korean soldiers wounded and killed on the battlefield suggests they are unprepared for modern warfare, such as drone attacks, and may be being used as “cannon fodder” by Russia.
More worryingly there were signs these troops have been instructed to commit suicide, he said.
“Recently, it has been confirmed that a North Korean soldier was in danger of being captured by the Ukrainian military, so he shouted for General Kim Jong-un and pulled out a grenade to try to blow himself up, but was killed,” said Lee Seong-kweun, who sits on the South Korean parliament’s intelligence committee.
Russia sees shift from Trump towards recognising ‘realities’ in Ukraine
Russia says it has detected a shift from Trump and his team towards recognising the “realities” on the ground in Ukraine, and sees this as a welcome sign as it prepares to study his plan for ending the war.
The Kremlin says it is open to a meeting between Putin and Trump, which the Republican said on Monday would take place “very quickly”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was ready to study Trump’s ideas for ending the conflict in Ukraine once he takes office on 20 January.
Lavrov told a press conference that Russia welcomed the fact that the incoming administration had “started to mention the realities on the ground” more often. He referred to comments by both Trump and incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Waltz told ABC on Sunday that it was clear the war must end somehow by diplomatic means.
Trump last week acknowledged Moscow’s longstanding opposition to Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato, something he said would mean that “Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that.”
Ukraine steelmaker suspends coal operations at key mine
Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest has suspended operations at Ukraine’s only coking coal mine in the eastern part of the country, it said on Tuesday, citing a deteriorating security situation.
Reuters reported on Monday that Ukraine had stopped production at its Pokrovsk mine, which feeds the country’s steel industry, because of the proximity of advancing Russian forces.
The plant in the embattled city of Pokrovsk is the only Ukrainian mine producing coking coal needed for the country’s steelmaking industry, which has withered since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Russia has long been closing in on the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk. DeepState, a Ukrainian military analytical blog based on open-source intelligence, said Moscow’s troops were less than 2km from one of the mine shafts.
“As of the date of this announcement, Metinvest’s operations at Pokrovsk Coal have been suspended due to the evolving frontline conditions, power supply shortages and the deteriorating security situation,” said a Metinvest statement. DM