Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv drone attack causes huge fire after hitting oil facility – live

Below are some of the latest photos from the fire resulting from a drone explosion in a Russian town near the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine’s hard-won economic stability is under threat again as the government faces a large budget hole and its two biggest allies and sponsors — the United States and the European Union — have so far failed to decide on extending more aid.

Without pledges of support by the start of February — when EU leaders meet to decide on aid — and if no money arrives by March, that could risk the progress Ukraine has made against inflation. It has helped ordinary people keep paying rent, put food on the table and resist Russia‘s efforts to break their society’s spirit.

Ukraine is locked in an existential battle for its survival almost two years into its war with Russia and Western armies and political leaders must drastically change the way they help it fend off invading forces, a top NATO military officer said on Wednesday.

At a meeting of the 31-nation alliance’s top brass, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Bob Bauer, also said that behind President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for the war is a fear of democracy, in a year marked by elections around the world.

The Kremlin has said there is no prospect of reviving the Black Sea grain deal and that alternative routes for shipping Ukrainian grain carried huge risks.

The original deal, which facilitated safe grain exports from Ukraine via the Black Sea, expired last year after Moscow refused to renew it, saying its own interests had been ignored.

Rob Bauer, a Dutch admiral, warned that a large number of civilians will have to be mobilised if a wider war breaks out in Europe and the process of recruiting much larger reserve forces should be put in place by governments now.

Adm Bauer chairs the alliance’s committee of national armed forces chiefs, and was speaking after a meeting of the committee in Brussels.

Russia’s top diplomat dismissed the United States proposal to resume a dialogue on nuclear arms control, saying Thursday that it’s impossible while Washington offers military support to Ukraine.

Speaking at an annual news conference, Sergey Lavrov accused the West of fueling global security risks by encouraging Ukraine to ramp up strikes on the Russian territory and warned that Moscow will achieve its goals in the conflict regardless of Western support for Kyiv.

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, plans to formally ask France’s National Assembly if it is aware that French mercenaries have been fighting on Ukraine‘s side, Vyacheslav Volodin, the Duma’s chairman, said on Friday.

Volodin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, made the statement after the Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had killed more than 60 foreign mercenaries, mostly French citizens, in a strike on a building in Kharkiv. It did not provide evidence to back the assertion.

France rejected the allegations, saying it was helping Ukraine defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity but had no mercenaries in Ukraine “unlike certain others”.

“In France, the mercenary trade is forbidden by law,” Volodin wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“It is important for us to know whether they (French lawmakers) are aware that someone, violating the law, is sending fighters to fight in Ukraine.”

The Duma would consider its address to the French parliament at the next meeting of the lower chamber of parliament which is scheduled for 23 January, he said.

Russia announced on Thursday it had summoned the French ambassador to the Foreign Ministry over the mercenary allegations.

Vladimir Putin is planning to wage information warfare to turn opinion in Europe against Ukraine this year as many European countries gear up for elections, a top US official said.

“Russia is hoping that the number of elections in Europe this year could change what has been a remarkable coalition and disciplined opposition to its war,” said Jamie Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the Global Engagement Center (GEC).

The GEC is an agency of the State Department whose mission is to counter foreign state propaganda, as well as coordinating the US government’s public communications around counter-terrorism.

North Korea’s foreign minister returned from Russia on Friday after a rare official visit and meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of closer cooperation that Washington said could drastically change the security threat posed by Pyongyang.

Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and a government delegation returned home on Friday, official news agency KCNA said without elaborating on her meetings in Moscow.

Earlier this week, KCNA said Choe and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed strengthening the “strategic and tactical cooperation” and implementing the agreement between their leaders to forge closer ties when they met in September.

Choe’s visit was the latest in a series of high-level exchanges since last year amid growing criticism of Pyongyang’s role in the Ukraine war by allegedly shipping artillery and missiles to Russia.

Both North Korea and Russia deny the accusation and also the charge that Pyongyang was receiving advanced technology for developing strategic military capability from Moscow in return.

Recent exchange between North Korea and Russia is “an unprecedented level of cooperation in the military sphere,” White House senior director for arms control Pranay Vaddi said on Thursday.

“I think the nature of North Korea as a threat in the region could drastically change over the coming decade as a result of this cooperation,” Mr Vaddi said.