To help us improve GOV.UK, we’d like to know more about your visit today. Don’t worry we won’t send you spam or share your email address with anyone. The UK government is providing a range of economic, humanitarian and defensive military assistance to Ukraine, and is imposing additional sanctions on Russia and Belarus. Further east in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, the BBC's Eastern European Correspondent Sarah Rainsford said people did not expect such a full-on assault. Much of the fighting appears to be centred around the east of the country. But clashes have also been taking place around Kyiv and the Black Sea port cities of Odesa and Mariupol.
Washington has suggested that force could rise to 175,000 by the end of January. Despite warnings from the US and its Nato allies that any invasion by Russia of Ukraine would have "severe economic consequences," Moscow's military build-up on the border continues. If war broke out in Ukraine and Russian forces occupied large swathes of the country, many civilians might flee. Since its illegal and unprovoked attack, over 300,000 Russian personnel have been killed or wounded.
...and a potential migration crisis
An 89-year-old woman was injured today in a Russian attack in the Kherson oblast, the regional military administration said. Since July 2023, there have been 113 incidents – a doubling of arson attacks on enlistment offices over the past six months. Meanwhile, Indian thinktank Observer Research Foundation's Russia expert, Nandan Unnikrishnan, said India was unlikely to sign "any major military deal" with Russia because it would cross a red line with the US. Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak. Peter Szijjarto has arrived in Ukraine for talks with senior officials today.
At the outset of the conflict, the company said it was stopping investment in Russia, where it has a large worker base, and was ending exports from its Russian factory to other parts of the world. However, research by the BBC has discovered the company is still recruiting new sales agents in Russia, with recruits offered prizes, cash bonuses and even holidays for hitting targets, the broadcaster reports. Mr Zelenskyy has called for public officials to disclose their incomes to increase transparency and eliminate corruption as Ukraine tries to meet the stringent requirements for its bid to join the European Union. If the US abandons the military alliance, it will fall to European countries to ensure a Ukrainian victory, Mr OBrien says. European countries have largely outsourced much of their military capacity and thinking on strategy and security to the States through NATO.
Russia invades Ukraine: How will the UK help in fight against Vladimir Putin?
A victorious Russian army at the end of the Ukraine war, the ISW says, would be combat experienced and considerably larger than its pre-2022 forces. They say that Ukraine - with Western support - has destroyed nearly 90% of the Russian army that invaded in February 2022, according to US intelligence sources. A nuclear strike on any UK city would kill everyone within a 1.2-mile radius instantly. Anyone exposed within a 6.8-mile radius of the impact would almost certainly suffer third-degree burns, while hundreds of thousands would be likely to die due to radiation fallout.
Russia wants Nato to make a legally binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member. It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries. The memorandum is not a treaty and lawyers dispute whether it is legally enforceable.
The arms supplied by North Korea to Russia as UK sends satellite images to UN
Western countries have condemned the threat and are likely to impose sanctions on Moscow this week. And they have made clear that they will not send combat troops to Ukraine. True Russian cyberwarfare capabilities have proved something of a damp squib in Ukraine.
- Many analysts fear war in Ukraine could potentially spill over into other European countries.
- A Conservative MP has warned that Vladimir Putin may be planning ways to attack the UK and Nato allies, following reports that a fleet of spy ships is mapping wind farms and communication cables in the North Sea.
- Pictures posted on social media showed emergency crews battling a blaze.
- Russia's ambitions, he said, were not just about seizing territory but "about defeating our system and way of life politically, psychologically and symbolically".
Media organisations have been shut down, and many journalists are now in Russian prisons. Russian air defence shot down a Ukrainian drone over the Bryansk oblast today, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram. In Kyiv, relatives of Ukrainian service personnel are calling on the government to set a time limit on how their loved ones should serve in the military. Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed four of eight Russia-launched drones overnight, the air force said.
