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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
9:37 p.m.: Poland's top policeman said that an explosion in his office was caused by a grenade launcher, telling private broadcaster RMF FM that he had received two of the weapons as a gift from Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Poland's interior ministry and prosecutor's office had not previously confirmed media reports that the explosion on Wednesday, at police headquarters in Warsaw, was caused by a grenade launcher.
Prosecutors said they were investigating the blast, which resulted in Police Commander in Chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk being taken to hospital.
"When I was moving the used grenade launchers, which were gifts from the Ukrainians, there was an explosion," Szymczyk told RMF FM.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm this version of events. Ukrainian police and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Polish police spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
9:05 p.m.:
8:12 p.m.: In recent years, the eastern Siberian city of Chita has marked the New Year's holiday with ice-sculpting competitions, with craftsmen from across the Zabaikalye region transforming blocks of ice into images of Ded Moroz, his comely sidekick Snegurochka, and other symbols of the most beloved holiday on the Russian calendar, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
"Every year, I make a New Year's fairy tale," said one sculptor who asked to be identified only as Vladimir for fear of repercussions for speaking out. "This year, I'm making a military one."
"There were no competitions this year," Vladimir added. "They just summoned us and told us what to do."
The result was a tableau of 24 ice and plastic sculptures of Russian soldiers in full combat regalia, together with ice slides and other amusements festooned in symbols of Russia's war against neighboring Ukraine.
7:50 p.m.:
7:05 p.m.: President Vladimir Putin has held extensive meetings with the military top brass overseeing Russia's campaign in Ukraine, where Moscow has stepped up bombardments, the Kremlin said Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse.
"On Friday, the president spent the whole day at the army staff involved in the special military operation in Ukraine," a statement said.
He held a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and held "separate discussions with commanders" from different defense branches, it said.
Nearly 10 months ago, Putin ordered a "special military operation" aimed at the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic but an independent nation since 1991. The United States and Western allies have condemned the invasion and provided substantial military and other aid to Kyiv.
6:22 p.m.:
5:30 p.m.:
4:30 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video address Saturday that power has been restored to almost 6 million Ukrainians, one day after Russia’s massive airstrikes on Ukraine. However, he added, crews work nonstop to stabilize the energy grid and restore heat and water supply.
The most difficult situation, he said, is in the city of Kyiv and the region, Vinnytsia and the region, Lviv and the region. Large-scale power outages are snarling regions such as Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk, Volyn, Zhytomyr region, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, the city of Odesa and the region, Poltava region, Ternopil region, Chernihiv region.
Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine Friday, in one of its biggest attacks since the start of the war, knocking out power in the second-biggest city, Kharkiv, and forcing Kyiv to implement emergency blackouts nationwide, Ukrainian officials said.
The Ukrainian president said that, so far, “Russia’s large-scale investment in terror, is already, imagine, more than 4000 missiles.”
Zelenskyy thanked the EU and the United States for decisions to provide defense, energy and financial support to Ukraine in the coming year. But he added there is more to be done and urged for “a reliable air defense shield,” that will protect the Ukrainian people from “the main form of Russian terror – missile terror.”
3:30 p.m.: Authorities in Moldova say six television channels in the eastern European country have had their broadcast licenses suspended over accusations of misinformation, inaccurate coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine and “attempts to manipulate public opinion," The Associated Press reported.
The decision to revoke the licenses was announced late Friday by Moldova’s Commission for Exceptional Situations. The commission says the suspensions were made after a review by Moldova’s Audiovisual Council, which found a “lack of correct information in the coverage of national events, but also of the war in Ukraine.”
The banned Russian broadcasters, the EU's Council said, are under the “direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation and have been used by (the) latter for its continuous and concerted disinformation and war propaganda actions.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the move “a cynical infringement of the rights of national minorities.” She said Moldova “deliberately deprives millions of Russian-speaking residents of the last sources in the country of news content in their preferred language,” and called for international organizations to investigate.
2:30 p.m.: Andriy Yernak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, met with U.S. veterans who have offered military and humanitarian support to the Ukraine military. The military units and units of the Khortytsia operational-strategic military group received vehicles, generators, chainsaws, welding machines, sleeping bags, wood-burning stoves, tablets, batteries, inverters, flashlights, individual first-aid kits from U.S. veterans. Vehicles also were transferred to military units and units of the Tavria operational-strategic group of troops.
"I know you really inspire a lot of people. By your example, your life, but also by today's actions," he said. "We see that you came not only to support us, but also brought things that are so necessary for our heroes today."
Yernak said he believes U.S. veterans have a lot in common with Ukrainians, and they understand “our people like no one else, and especially Ukrainian soldiers.”
"After all," he said,"Ukraine today defends not only itself, but also the entire free world."
2 p.m.: Russia is trying to occupy areas in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. According to RFE/RL, Russian forces reportedly are sending small reconnaissance units to ascertain any weaknesses in Ukraine’s defenses. Despite being outgunned, Ukrainian troops are fending off enemy attacks.
1:05 p.m.: European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell issued a statement condemning Russia’s massive attacks Friday.
“Today’s massive missiles attacks by Russia across Ukraine, in addition to the ongoing daily shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure, are yet another example of the Kremlin’s indiscriminate terror.” Borrell called the bombings “war crimes” and “barbaric.”
12:30 p.m.: Ukraine is preparing for another possible Russian attack from the north, Major General Andrii Kovalchuk, head of Southern Operational Command, told Sky News, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Kovalchuk said Ukraine’s forces would need more military support to be ready to combat Russians, adding that the heaviest fighting might still be ahead.
"We are considering a possible offensive from Belarus at the end of February, maybe later," Major General Kovalchuk said. "It will no longer be the case that they will simply walk in, as was the case on Feb. 24," he said.
12:05 p.m.: The Christmas tree in Mykolaiv this year in Ukraine has been coined “tree of resilience”
11:30 a.m.: The leaders of Hungary, Romania, Georgia and Azerbaijan have finalized an agreement on an undersea electricity connector that could become a new power source for the European Union amid a crunch on energy supplies caused by the war in Ukraine, The Associated Press reports.
The agreement involves a cable running beneath the Black Sea that would link Azerbaijan to Hungary via Georgia and Romania. Saturday's deal comes as Hungary, which has lobbied heavily against EU sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine, is seeking additional sources for fossil fuels to reduce its heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas.
11:15 a.m.: Germany managed to build its first floating gas terminal at breakneck speed. The new 26-kilometer pipeline linking the new terminal to existing grids was laid down in just five months. It replaces lost supplies of Russian gas and should serve as a model for a new, pacier German economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the terminal's opening.
The 90-kiloton Hoegh Esperanza, a shipborne regasification terminal, will in future be able to supply enough gas for 50,000 households for a year. More floating liquid natural gas terminals will follow.
"Many said it would be impossible to get it built this year," Scholz said. "When we work together, we can do things at great speed: that's Germany's new tempo."
Germany hopes to have 30 billion cubic meters of import capacity by the end of next year.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February left Germany, which for decades prospered from plentiful piped Russian gas, looking for alternative sources of energy once it had decided it did not wish to help finance Moscow's war, Reuters reports.
10:30 a.m.: Every year, Santa Claus Post Office in Finnish Lapland receives around half a million letters from children who write to Santa Claus with their Christmas wish lists every year, according to The Associated Press.
Children from around the world are writing their Christmas wishes. And though most children ask for toys, some kids from Ukraine and neighboring Finland are writing to him about their fears of the war in Ukraine.
Katja, an "elf" who works at the post office, has been monitoring their correspondence.
A child from Ukraine writes "Good afternoon, Santa Claus. My name is Petro, and I have a sister. Her name is Stefania. I am six years old, and my sister is two and a half. We used to live in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. But now because of war, we live in western Ukraine," he writes.
"Please give peace to Ukraine. We love our country very much."
In neighboring Finland, Putin's invasion of Ukraine has played heavily on the minds of Finnish children, says Katya, worrying their country might also be drawn into the conflict.
10:05 a.m.: Emergency crews recovered the body of a 1 1/2-year-old boy from the rubble in a pre-dawn search Saturday for survivors of a Russian missile strike that destroyed an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Reuters reported.
In all, four people were killed in the strike, and 13 injured — four of them children — authorities said. Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko of the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Kryvyi Rih is located said.
Russian forces continued striking overnight, damaging power lines and houses in the cities and towns of Nikopol, Marhanets and Chervonohryhorivka, which are across the Dnieper River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
9:30 a.m.: The European Central Bank's interest rate hike is hurting Europe's economy and helping Russia erode Western solidarity for Ukraine, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said, according to Reuters.
As it was widely expected, the ECB raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points on Thursday, warning of further increases in the months ahead.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, a senior figure in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, told Reuters that the threat of further rate hikes was driving up borrowing costs and hurting an already weak economy.
"We are creating a situation from an economic and social point of view that is Russia's best ally right now," he said. "That is why it is even more absurd what (ECB President Christine) Lagarde did," he added.
Crosetto said Russia was hoping to take advantage of the continent's economic crisis and put pressure on Europe to stop supporting Ukraine, bring the war to a rapid end and ease the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion.
"The Russian war is also a psychological war that is being fought in the squares of Europe besides in Ukraine. They have the advantage, from their viewpoint, of dealing with democracies," he added.
ECB officials have defended the bank's decision, saying tough action was needed to bring euro zone inflation, currently at 10%, back to the ECB's 2% target.
But Crosetto said the ECB was failing to see the bigger picture and was just following economic theory. He urged Lagarde to address the concerns of businesses hit by her policies.
"You have to justify this politically to your European citizens. You are not a Martian," he was quoted by Reuters, adding that the economic landscape for Europe was worse now that it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
8:30 a.m.: Private businesses in Ukraine are in line to receive $2 billion in financing arranged by the International Finance Corp. to help rebuild the country’s agriculture and fuel import industries and other ventures, which have faced extensive losses because of the war, The Associated Press reported.
The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and provides private sector financing to developing countries. Since Russia invaded in February, at least 5 million jobs have been lost, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy. The National Bank of Ukraine estimates that 11% of businesses had closed as of September and more than half were operating below capacity.
War time countries are not easy to secure loans from private entities since they pose such high risk to investors.
With a war raging, Rogoff said, “how do you make a loan with any kind of investment knowing you may not be paid back.” He said that, for now, lenders “can make a loan for humanitarian reasons or we need to give them money.”
Ukraine’s projected real GDP is expected to decline by 35% due in large part to the Russian invasion, according to IMF data.
7:30 a.m.: Ukrainian refugees in Germany are struggling to find long term accommodation amidst the country’s housing crisis, the Deutsche Well reports.
5:30 a.m.: Water has returned to Kyiv on Saturday, after Russian strikes had cut it off during a rain of missiles on Friday, according to multiple reports.
The Washington Post reports that the city's mayor said one third of the residents in the capital city are still without power.
4:53 a.m.: A toddler was found dead in the rubble left after a Russian attack on a building in Kryvyi Rih, a government official said on Saturday, according to Reuters.
The strike, said Valentyn Reznichenko via Telegram, killed four people.
The strike coincided with a wave of missile attacks that was one of the largest since Russia invaded on February, said the report.
3:45 a.m.: A day after Russian missile strikes sent Ukrainians running for cover, warning sirens went off again on Saturday, according to a report by Reuters.
"Please go to the shelters!" Kyiv city's military administration said on Telegram., according to the report.
2:50 a.m.:
1:45 a.m.: Russia President Vladimir Putin spent Friday meeting with the military leaders overseeing Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, said the Kremlin, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.
Putin met with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, among others, said the AFP report.
"I would like to hear your proposals on our actions in the short- and medium-term," Putin was shown as saying in the meeting by Russia's state television, according to the AFP report.
12:05 a.m.: According to The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine's Suspilne News reports via Telegram that explosions were heard in the Ukrainian city of Odesa early on Saturday. No more details were reported.
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse.
