Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv children’s hospital damaged as missile strike hits city

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.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said the effectiveness of Western weapons should not be doubted, in light of last night’s attack.

The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 10 Russia-launched ballistic missiles overnight.

“The effectiveness of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers cannot be doubted,” Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak said on the Telegram messaging app.

“But there are victims as a result of falling fragments of Russian missiles, houses were burned. Kyiv is being hit with ballistic (missiles).”

Over 50 civilians, including a five-year-old child, were injured as a result of debris from intercepting missiles during the attack.

At least 51 people, including six children, were injured in a Russian missile attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday.

Loud explosions rocked Kyiv at 3am as the city’s air defences started intercepting Russian missiles headed for the peaceful capital for the second time this week.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that the debris from intercepted missiles damaged an apartment building, a private house, and set several cars ablaze. It also shattered the windows and entrances of a nearby children’s hospital.

All missiles targeting the capital were downed by Ukraine’s air defence systems, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration said.

On the morning of 24 February 2022 – a date etched in every Ukrainian’s mind – Andriy Shevchenko was woken by a phone call from his mother. She told him through tears that Russia was invading. Shevchenko was in London, where he lives with his wife and four sons; his mother and wider family were in Ukraine, under attack.

Read the full voices piece by Lawrence Ostlere here

In December of last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington as a hero, delivering a joint address to Congress. The select committee investigating the January 6 riot postponed the release of its final report as Congress rolled out the red carpet for the leader of the country pushing back against aggression from Russia.

But the warm welcome underlined the fact that Democrats, who at the time controlled the majority in the House, knew that passing aid to Ukraine would be much harder come January when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.

And indeed, on Tuesday 12 December, despite arriving in the US Senate in his trademark fatigues flanked by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, most Republicans remained wholly unmoved in their opposition to assisting Ukraine.

There is truly no way around it: Congress is wholly at an impasse when it comes to passing aid to Ukraine, and no dramatic plea from Zelensky can change it.

Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O’Gorman has said that he does not expect homelessness to rise in Ireland amid plans to pare back state supports being offered to arriving Ukrainians.

The Government has agreed to cut financial support for Ukrainians who are given state accommodation from the end of January, and will also provide state accommodation only for a maximum of 90 days.

During that period, arrivals will be paid a 38.80 euro subsistence allowance and an additional 29.80 per child per week “in recognition of the fact that accommodation has been provided”, according to the Taoiseach.

Arrivals had been entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance of 220 euro per week.

Mr O’Gorman said that the proposal is similar to one proposed at Cabinet several weeks ago, but with a “significant change” in the form of the social welfare reduction.

He also said that a number of properties around the country are to be set up solely for use as reception centres, alongside vacancies in hotel and guesthouse properties.

Meals and laundry services, integration support and access to education for children will be provided in those reception centres.

U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday it would be “practically impossible” for Congress to pass a supplemental funding package including aid for Ukraine before Christmas.

McConnell told reporters that a deal will not happen until President Joe Biden and Republicans reach agreement with Republicans, who want to link funding for Ukraine to new border security measures.

US concern over the condition of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is unacceptable meddling in Russia’s domestic affairs, the Kremlin said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of the whereabouts of Navalny, who has been moved from his penal colony to an undisclosed location.

It comes after the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby called for the immediate release of Navalny, saying “he should never have been jailed in the first place”.