Ukraine-Russia war latest news: Kremlin ‘extremely sensitive’ about war questions hijacking Putin event, says UK

The Russia-installed administrator in Donetsk has said that Moscow’s troops are facing a difficult situation amid counterattacks from Ukrainian forces.

“The situation remains difficult, the enemy is trying to counterattack, but our units are now holding all positions. It is not always possible to move forward,” Denis Pushilin said.

In another pocket witnessing heavy fighting, Russia has surrounded Maryinka town with a fierce battle seen taking place in its streets, another Moscow-backed official in the region said, reported TASS news agency.

Russia has most likely cancelled Vladimir Putin’s traditional end-of-year press conference over fears that the event would be hijacked by uncomfortable questions about the invasion of Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence says.

“This will be the first time in 10 years that Putin has not held the annual event, while the usual public phone-in also did not take place this year,” the MoD noted.

It added: “Kremlin officials are almost certainly extremely sensitive about the possibility that any event attended by Putin could be hijacked by unsanctioned discussion about the ‘special military operation’.”

The press conference, cancelled by the Kremlin yesterday, has become a “significant fixture in Putin’s calendar of public engagement and has frequently been used as an opportunity to demonstrate the supposed integrity of Putin,” the ministry said.

“Although questions are almost certainly usually vetted in advance, the cancellation is likely due to increasing concerns about the prevalence of anti-war feeling in Russia,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

A woman and her dog were struck by Russian shrapnel yesterday in a shelling incident in recently liberated Kherson city.

The shell targeted a building of the centre for reintegration of homeless and released persons, reported The Kyiv Independent.

The pain inflicted by his torturers was so severe that Volodymyr Zhemchugov tried to bite through the drip keeping him alive in order to blow bubbles of air into his veins and kill himself.

The Soviet-era soldier turned Ukrainian partisan was being held in a prison hospital by Russian-backed proxies. It was 2015 in the eastern city of Luhansk.

He says the Russian intelligence officers holding him had threatened to electrocute the mutilated stumps of his arms daily to obtain information.

Vladimir Putin had recently illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula, war was raging between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists in Donbas. And in the middle of this, 52-year-old Zhemchugov had been captured after accidentally crawling over a mine while trying to sabotage a power line to a Russian-backed camp. Both his hands had been blown off and he had been blinded.

Read Bel Trew’s dispatch from Kharkiv, Balakiya and Izyum

Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Ukrainian civilians to up their guard against Russian attacks after a lull in attacks in recent days, suggesting that the Kremlin could launch a new offensive “at any time”.

“We should all be aware that Russia has not given up its terror tactics. The absence of massive missile strikes only means that the enemy is preparing for them and can strike at any time,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

He added that although it is obvious that “even without light we know well where to shoot and what to liberate, Russia still hopes for blackouts. This is the last hope of terrorists…”.

“So as long as they have missiles – and Russia still has them – please take seriously all warnings from the Ukrainian military command, from our air force and air alarms. At all levels, we must be prepared for any hostile intentions. And we will do everything to get through this winter,” Mr Zelensky warned the war-hit country’s population.

The US has shipped the first tranche of power equipment aid worth about $13m (£10m) to Ukraine, US officials said last night.

Two more planeloads of equipment will leave from the US this week, two sources aware of the matter said.

The first tranche is part of the $53m (£43.2m) aid announced last month, after Ukraine said it needed transformers and generators as well as air defence systems.

Russia is “deliberately trying to freeze Ukrainians to death as we enter winter”, a senior US official said, adding that Washington’s strategy “right now first is to help Ukraine protect itself against these deliberate attacks on civilian energy infrastructure because it could be a humanitarian catastrophe”.

The Ukrainian president joined a call with Mr Sunak and other G7 leaders including Joe Biden to demand more weaponry to help his country stand up to Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Downing Street has indicated that the UK, like the US, is not planning to deliver long-range missiles that could be used by Kyiv to strike back at Russia.

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A little more than 50 per cent of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine has slipped under Russia’s control, a Moscow-backed official claimed today.

Russian-installed administrator Denis Pushilin said: “A little more than 50 per cent of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic [the name used for the separatist-controlled region by Russia] has been liberated.”

Officials in Kyiv have not confirmed the extent of the seizure of land by Russian forces.

Donetsk has been witnessing constant attacks and shelling, making it unclear which parts are still fully under Ukraine’s control.

“Near Bakhmut, the occupiers rained mortar and artillery fire on nearly 20 settlements,” Ukraine’s top command said in its daily evening battlefield update yesterday

Volodymyr Zelensky had confirmed brutal shelling on the front line in Donetsk, saying it was completely destroying Bakhmut and damaging Avdiivka city.

Nine settlements came under shelling near Avdiivka, the military said.