Ukraine-Russia war – live: Cameron warns blocking funds would be ‘Christmas present’ for Putin and Xi

Ukrainian air defences shot down 14 out of 19 missiles fired by Russia during a morning air strike on Friday, Ukraine’s air force spokesman said.

The missiles were shot down in the region outside Kyiv and the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, the military official, Yuryi Ihnat, said on television.

Ukrainian Ground Forces Command spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Fityo has said that 11,000 Russian soldiers were killed in November.

The troops were presumably killed in the Kupyansk, Lyman, and Bakhmut directions, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

The institute also said Russian forces “may be suffering losses along the entire front in Ukraine at a rate close to the rate at which Russia is currently generating new forces.”

A Russian missile attack killed one civilian and injured four others in Ukraine’s central region of Dnipropetrovsk on Friday, the region’s governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.

“Unfortunately, one person is dead. Preliminarily, four people are wounded. They are all in hospital. Two people are in severe condition,” Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.

Blocking a package of support for Ukraine would be a “Christmas present” for Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, Lord David Cameron has warned after Senate Republicans opposed a multi-billion-dollar aid bill.

The Foreign Secretary urged allies to rally around Kyiv, describing the response to the conflict as “the great test for our generation” as he delivered a speech at the Aspen security conference in Washington DC on Thursday.

The US Congress failed to pass a $110bn (£88bn) package of wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel as well as other national security priorities.

Intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities are worsening humanitarian conditions across the war-torn country, where heavy snow and freezing temperatures have already arrived, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told the UN Security Council that Russia’s continuing daily attacks on Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure have resulted in civilian casualties, and Moscow recently escalated its barrages in populated areas including the capital, Kyiv.

“All attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop immediately,” he said. “They are prohibited under international humanitarian law and are simply unacceptable.”

A few months ago, a Ukrainian official posted a video of a man who had been captured while fighting for Russia. The man was neither trained by Russia nor a resident of that country, and he had no direct stake in the Ukraine war. Yet he had flown over 4,000km to serve in “one of the Russian Airborne Forces brigade”, the video said.

Belonging to the landlocked Himalayan state of Nepal, which has a growing population and rising unemployment, Bibek Khatri admits to joining the Russian forces solely for the money.

He blames his decision on financial woes back home, according to a clip posted by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the minister of internal affairs in Ukraine.

“My family is in trouble. My mother doesn’t work, we need money. So, I went for it (joining the Russian Army),” Khatri says in the video. He says his friends suggested that he join up as a mercenary. “I wanted to return to my mom as a successful man. So, I joined.”

Khatri is not the only one being drawn by lucrative offers from Moscow. Nearly 200 Nepalese nationals are believed to be serving in the Russian army as mercenaries.

Illia Kyva, 46, a former member of Ukraine’s parliament, was shot in a park in Odintsovo region, southwest of Moscow, according to Russian investigators.

A Ukrainian source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the SBU security service was responsible.

Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s GUR, another intelligence agency, said on Ukrainian television Kyva was “finished” but did not say who was behind his death.

Another source with knowledge of the killing told the Financial Times that Kyva had been killed with a “small arms” weapon.

The United States on joined the European Commission on Thursday in urging Slovakia not to rush into plans to scrap a special prosecutor’s office focused on corruption, saying the change and other reforms “require a thorough and sound analysis”.

Slovakia’s new government led by populist Robert Fico approved a plan on Wednesday to end the special prosecutor’s office, using a fast-track procedure that could be completed in weeks.

Fico, who has already battled with some leading media outlets and stopped Slovak military aid to Ukraine, has accused the institution of violating human rights and said it must be disbanded.

“We support the European Commission’s recommendation not to advance the intended amendments nor resort to a fast-track procedure without proper and thorough consultation with stakeholders at the national and European level,” the US embassy said in a statement on its website.

A major project to rebuild Ukraine‘s famous seaside city of Mariupol has made progress one year on.

Tens of thousands of Mariupol residents were killed in the six weeks after the full-scale invasion in February 2022 as a direct consequence of Russian aggression. Hundreds of thousands of Mariupol residents have been displaced.

Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said: “People are our greatest assets. Lost lives are our greatest pain. Mariupol’s struggle will go down in history as an example of extraordinary heroism.

“They deserve the best home to return to and our goal is to create that. We know the government of Ukraine and our military will return Mariupol to Ukrainians. And when that happens, we will be ready to start work on Day One.”

The Fast Recovery Plan will get the city running, prioritizing housing and utilities. Russian forces are alleged to have destroyed 90% of the city’s infrastructure, half the apartment buildings, 15 hospitals, 63 schools and 40,000 houses have been damaged.