Ukraine war latest: Biden allows Zelensky to use long-range missiles against Russia

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky struck a measured tone in response to the United States’ recent decision to permit the use of long-range missiles.

In his nightly video address, he downplayed public declarations about the development, saying, “Today, much is being said in the media about us receiving permission for the relevant actions. But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.”

The remarks come amid intensified Russian attacks on Ukraine. Earlier, Mr Zelensky revealed that Russia had unleashed 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale assault across the country. The operation included Iranian-made Shahed drones alongside various types of cruise, ballistic, and aircraft-launched missiles.

Ukraine’s air force reported intercepting 144 of the 210 air targets, but significant damage was still inflicted. Mr Zelensky confirmed strikes on energy infrastructure and civilian casualties. “In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children,” he said.

A Russian strike on a nine-story building in the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded dozens, an official said on Sunday, as Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack described by officials as the largest in recent months.

Among the eight killed in Sumy, 40km from the border with Russia, were two children, said Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko.

More than 400 people were evacuated from the building.

The rescuers were checking every apartment looking for people who might be still in the damaged building.“Every life destroyed by Russia is a big tragedy,” said Mr Klymenko.

The drone and missile attack, which targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine’s power generation capacity ahead of the winter.

Mr Trump’s comprehensive victory in the US election, which came off the back of his promises to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, has brought into sharp relief the difficult situation on the frontline for Kyiv.

Russian forces have continued to make gains in the eastern region of Donetsk, advancing along several fronts towards the city of Pokrovsk, a linchpin of the wider area’s defence.

US president Joe Biden urged his Chinese counterpart to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The leaders, with top aides surrounding them, met at a Lima hotel on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Mr Biden wants Mr Xi to step up Chinese engagement to prevent an already dangerous moment with North Korea from further escalating, officials said.

White House officials have expressed frustration with Beijing, which accounts for the vast majority of North Korea’s trade, for not doing more to rein in Pyongyang.

The North Koreans also have provided Russia with artillery and other munitions, according to US and South Korean intelligence officials.

The colonel, who has requested not to be named, says both Ukraine and Russia have to take seriously Trump’s campaign promises to quickly end the war, although the president in waiting has not explained how he plans to bring about a ceasefire.

“What is clear,” says the colonel, “is that the Russians want to take as much Ukrainian territory as possible and clear Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk [Russian border] region we occupied in August before any negotiations begin.”

Askold Krushelnycky reports

Eight people were killed and at least 20 were injured in a Russian missile strike on Sumy on Sunday evening.

A 9-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl were killed in the strikes which led to 20 local residents sought medical help, including three children.

The rocket attack on a densely populated residential neighborhood in the city of Sumy saw at least ten high-rise buildings damaged, as well as vehicles.

Prosecutors in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies are documenting the consequences of the shelling.

Two young Ukrainian refugees who were “scared to talk” when starting school in the UK have said joining their local Scout group has helped them to learn English.

Artem Horchuck and Yehor Kremnov, both six, arrived in Gosport, Hampshire, in 2022 after their families fled Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Since their arrival the pair have started school, joined their local Squirrels group, a younger branch of the Scouts, and are now integrated and thriving in the UK.

“When I started school I was scared to talk as I didn’t know how to talk English,” Artem told the PA news agency.

Artem, who came to Gosport from Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, met Yehor, from Kyiv, at 6th Gosport Squirrels after their families were both referred by their Ukrainian family support worker.

“England is really quiet. It’s safe here,” Yehor told PA.

“We don’t have rockets or shooting here. I can sleep more here.

“I like the Squirrels as I can learn more English, make friends and have fun.”

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seriously underestimate what the other is capable of and that carries far-ranging risks for Ukraine over Russia’s invasion, Britain’s former spy chief and ex-diplomats have told The Independent.

Trump’s US election victory last week has upended Europe’s plan to back Kyiv for “as long as it takes”. His focus is on ending the war quickly, even if that potentially means pushing Kyiv to cede territory currently occupied by Russia.

In a secret factory in central Russia, engineers are manufacturing hundreds of decoy drones meant to overwhelm Ukrainian defences as they try to protect against a horrific new weapon.

The plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone recently started churning out thermobaric drones alongside the decoys, an Associated Press investigation has found. The thermobaric warheads create a vortex of high pressure and heat that can penetrate thick walls. They suck out all the oxygen in their path, and have a fearsome reputation because of the injuries inflicted even outside the initial blast site: Collapsed lungs, crushed eyeballs, brain damage.

Joe Biden witnessed the devastation of drought up close as the first sitting American president to visit the Amazon rainforest.

The massive Amazon region, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change.

But development is rapidly depleting the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and rivers are drying up.Biden said the fight against climate change has been a defining cause of his presidency — he’s pushed for cleaner air, water and energy, including legislation that marked the most substantial federal investment in history to fight global warming.

But he’s about to hand the nation over to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is highly unlikely to prioritize the Amazon or anything related to climate change, which he’s cast as a “hoax.”

Trump has pledged to again pull out of the Paris agreement, a global pact forged to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, and he says he’ll rescind unspent funds in energy efficiency legislation.