+++ 00:16 Ukraine: Offensive on Melitopol continues +++

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian armed forces are continuing to carry out an offensive operation in the direction of Russian-occupied Melitopol. This was announced by the commander of the Tavria Group, General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, on Telegram. The operation is causing losses to the occupying forces in terms of manpower and equipment.

+++ 22:18 Russia fires kamikaze drones at southern Ukraine +++Russianforces have fired a group of kamikaze drones at southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian sources. These are the Iranian Shahed drones, the Ukrainian air force announced on Telegram. There is an air alert in at least three regions of the country: in the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad oblasts.

+++ 21:16 Zelensky condemns "pure terrorist attacks" in Kherson +++Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemns the recent Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson as "pure terrorist attacks". "In total, there were more than 20 Russian attacks in the Kherson region on this day alone," said Zelenskyi in his evening video address. "Brutal strikes, all over the city - houses, streets, hospitals." According to official reports, at least two people were killed and seven others seriously injured in the artillery attacks on Kherson. Fighting was also reported from other sections of the front. "Fierce fighting continues in dozens of places along the entire front line," says Selenskyj. "The most difficult areas are Mariinka, Avdiivka and Bakhmut."

+++ 20:32 Estonia is considering closing the border with Russia +++Estoniacould close border crossings with Russia. This was announced by the EU country's police and border protection authority. In a corresponding warning, it states that Russia has "knowingly sent groups of foreigners who have no legal right to enter the EU to the Estonian border" in recent weeks. Travelers are warned that checkpoints may be closed for this reason. "If such activities continue, we will be forced to close border checkpoints for reasons of national security and public order, as Finland has already done due to migration pressure," the Police and Border Guard Board announced.

+++ 19:44 Governor: Ukraine attacks villages in Belgorod region +++Thegovernor of the Russian border region of Belgorod accuses Ukraine of attacking several villages. According to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, the villages were attacked by drones and artillery. However, no people were injured and there was no major damage to property. The information cannot be independently verified.

+++ 19:03 Ukraine: Russian shelling of Avdiivka subsides +++According to the mayor, thefierce fighting around the town of Avdiivka, which has been going on for two months, is subsiding. There have been fewer attacks by Russian ground troops in the past 24 hours, says Mayor Vitaly Barabash on Ukrainian television. Mayor Barabash explains what he sees as a decline in fighting around Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine with "heavy losses" on the part of Russian troops and adverse weather conditions. Although Russian forces continued to attack the coking plant located in the city "almost around the clock", the Russian troops were "running out of breath", says Barabash.

+++ 18:21 Attack on apartment block in Kherson: death toll rises +++ Afterthe Russian artillery attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the death toll has risen to at least two. Seven other residents of an apartment building that was hit and badly damaged were seriously injured, reports the Unian agency, citing military administrator Roman Mrochko. The attack on the city center targeted two hospitals, which only sustained minor damage. Mrotschko publishes a video of the damaged residential building.

+++ 17:38 Ukraine and Poland open border crossing for empty trucks after blockades +++After weeks of blockades by Polish truck drivers, Poland and Ukraine will open a border crossing for empty trucks from Monday. The opening of the Dolhobyczow-Uhryniw crossing for trucks entering Poland from Ukraine without cargo is "the first of a series of measures that will be implemented to open the border, reduce queues and increase the capacity of the Ukrainian-Polish border", explains the Ukrainian border authority. Polish transport companies have been blocking several important border crossings with Ukraine since the beginning of November. Polish truck drivers are complaining about what they see as "unfair competition" with their Ukrainian colleagues and are demanding the reintroduction of permits for Ukrainian trucks to enter the European Union.

+++ 16:48 Kherson under heavy shelling - dead and injured +++Thecity of Kherson in southern Ukraine is under heavy shelling, according to the head of the city's military administration, Roman Mrochko. One person was killed and three injured in the attack on a multi-storey building in the center of the city, Mrotschko wrote on Telegram. He published a photo showing a woman who is presumed dead. The head of the regional administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, added on Telegram that Russian troops had hit two hospitals in Kherson. According to him, the buildings were damaged, but no one was injured. Earlier, the Russian military had attacked the village of Sadove near Kherson, killing a 78-year-old resident.

+++ 15:53 ntv reporter on the ground: This is what it looks like in Kherson now +++ Ofthe 300,000 inhabitants of Kherson, around 30,000 remain in the city on the Dnipro. The schools are closed because there are no more children here. ntv reporter Jürgen Weichert talks to local people about their motivation to stay in the city despite the daily shelling.

+++ 15:11 Estonia calls for tribunal against Russian leaders +++Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas calls for an international tribunal to punish those responsible for the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. "For war crimes there is the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes these acts. But there must also be a tribunal for the crime of war of aggression," said Kallas in Hamburg when accepting the Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Understanding and Reconciliation. The war of aggression is "the mother of all crimes". The top politicians responsible must be held accountable.

+++ 14:28 Ukraine: Russians who shot two prisoners of war are dead +++TheRussian soldiers who allegedly shot two surrendering Ukrainian soldiers have been "liquidated", says the head of the military administration of the city of Avdiivka, Vitaly Barabash, on Ukrainian television. "As far as I know, our people stormed this position a little later, and all those who were there were understandably liquidated," he said. Earlier, a video appeared on the internet showing a soldier coming out of a shelter with his hands up and then lying down on the ground. This is followed by a second soldier who also lies down. The Russian soldiers apparently open fire and the video breaks off.

+++ 13:42 Around 900 villages in Ukraine without electricity +++TheUkrainian Ministry of Energy reports power outages in dozens of regions in Ukraine, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. More than 500 settlements have been affected by weather-related power outages, with a further 400 outages caused by Russian attacks and equipment faults, the ministry said. Repair work is underway. The Lviv region has been particularly badly affected, with 41,000 households there reportedly without electricity.

+++ 13:09 Left Party calls for reception program for queer people from Russia +++Followingthe new "extremism" decree against homosexuals in Russia, the Left Party is calling for a German emergency reception program. The threat situation for queer people in Russia is rapidly worsening, warn Left Party politicians Klaus Lederer and Daniel Bache as well as politicians Kathrin Vogler and Maja Tegeler. On Thursday, the Russian Supreme Court classified the "movement" for the rights of sexual minorities and people of different gender identities as "extremist" at the request of the Ministry of Justice. This "marks the next stage of escalation in the Russian government's anti-queer policy", according to the left-wing statement. "The ideological warfare against queer communities in Russia is increasingly escalating into concrete violence and persecution."

+++ 12:13 Klitschko sharply attacks Zelensky +++Kiev'smayor Vitali Klitschko accuses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of "mistakes" in an unusually clear manner. "People are wondering why we weren't better prepared for this war. Why Zelenskyi denied until the end that it would come to this," Klitschko tells the Swiss news portal "20 Minuten". "There was too much information that didn't match reality," says the former boxing world champion, who is calling for more honesty with regard to Ukraine's true situation in its fight against Russia's war of aggression. "Zelensky is paying for the mistakes he made," says Klitschko. "Of course we can euphorically lie to our people and our partners. But you can't do that forever," Klitschko continues.

+++ 11:36 ntv reporter: "Vehicles from Germany are very important" +++Germanyhas agreed a new aid package for Ukraine. ntv reporter Jürgen Weichert talks about the new supplies, explains why Ukraine wants to protect its monuments to a special degree and assesses how the weather will affect the war in the future.

+++ 11:06 Ukraine: Russian soldiers have killed prisoners of war +++According tothe Ukrainian armed forces, Russian troops have killed two Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region who had surrendered as prisoners of war. A video had previously been circulated on Telegram showing a group of soldiers appearing to kill two other soldiers. One of them had his hands behind his head. This was reported by "Kyiv Independent". According to the report, the Donetsk public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation. The killing of prisoners of war is a war crime under the Geneva Convention. "Russia has once again proven that it is a terrorist country for which there are no laws and norms of international law," writes Ruslan Stefanchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian parliament, on X.

+++ 10:13 Joschka Fischer calls for "nuclear deterrence" against Russia +++FormerGerman Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer calls on Europe to arm itself with its own nuclear weapons. The EU needs "its own nuclear deterrent", says Fischer in an interview with "Die Zeit". "The world has changed", says Fischer, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is "also working with nuclear blackmail". The arsenals of the Western European nuclear powers of France and Great Britain are not sufficient "as a response to the changed situation". Fischer's party, the Greens, has been closely associated with resistance to nuclear armament since its foundation.

+++ 09:41 Russian singer remanded in custody for "rehabilitating Nazism" +++According to a media report, Russian singer Eduard Sharlot has been remanded in custody until 24 January for burning his ID card as a sign against the war and uploading a video of it to Instagram. A district court in the city of Samara accused the musician of "rehabilitating Nazism" and "insulting the feelings of believers", as reported by the Russian exile medium Meduza . In another video, Sharlot nailed his military ID and a photo of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill to a crucifix. Sharlot has admitted to the accusations and shown remorse, reports the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. In court, he is said to have recited a poem he had written during his administrative arrest in St. Petersburg, which contained the line: "Russia, I was rude to you from the beginning - I apologize to the Russian people." The singer was arrested on his arrival at St. Petersburg airport at the end of November.

+++ 09:13 Lukashenko and Xi meet +++Accordingto his office, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko is in China today and tomorrow for talks with Chinese head of state Xi Jinping. Lukashenko will meet Xi on Monday for talks on "trade, economy, investment and international cooperation", his presidential office also announced. Whether Lukashenko, a close ally of Moscow, has already arrived in China was left open.

+++ 08:47 Report: Russia and Ukraine want to visit prisoners of war +++Accordingto a media report, Russiaand Ukraine are planning visits to prisoners of war on the other side. "Russian military personnel will be visited on the Ukrainian side. Ukrainian military personnel will be visited on the Russian side," said Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, according to the Russian news agency RIA. There will be several such visits. Together with the Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, she already has a schedule for this.

+++ 08:24 ISW: Russia will probably continue to use "crypto-mobilization" +++TheRussian Ministry of Defence reacts to President Vladimir Putin's decree to increase the size of the military. The plan will be implemented gradually "based on citizens who have expressed a desire to perform military service under a contract", the Ministry of Defense announced. The US think tank Institute for the Study of War suspects that this wording refers to volunteers "whom the Ministry of Defense has courted through a widespread crypto-mobilization campaign in Russia". Russia has been trying to simplify and informalize the enlistment of new soldiers for some time. The statement by the Ministry of Defense suggests that Moscow "could use volunteer recruitment to bolster its troops in the long term", the US experts write in their latest report. Putin had previously announced plans to increase the Russian army by 170,000 soldiers.

+++ 07:49 Ukraine: Ten Russian drones intercepted +++According tothe Ukrainian air force, there were also Russian drone attacks on the northwest of the country during the night. However, most of the drones were shot down over the south of Ukraine near Mykolaiv, according to the military. According to the report, Russia launched a total of twelve drones, ten of which were destroyed before reaching their targets. Russia also attacked Ukraine with a cruise missile, which also failed to reach its target. It is unclear what happened to the two drones that were not destroyed and the cruise missile. There are no reports of damage. Russia is not commenting on the account for the time being. According to the Ukrainian air force, the drones are Iranian-made Shahed missiles.

+++ 07:20 Ukraine reports heavy shelling of border village +++According to Ukrainian reports, theRussian armed forces have attacked the Sumy region in the north-east of the country. In the past 24 hours, 22 strikes have been recorded, the local military administration announced on Telegram. In the village of Junakivka near the Russian border alone, there have been 50 explosions caused by artillery and mortar attacks. There are no reports of casualties.

+++ 06:47 Explosions reported in western Ukraine +++Explosions were apparently heard during the night in the western Ukrainian region of Khmelnytskyi. This was reported by "Kyiv Independent" with reference to several Telegram channels. The air defense was active, the deputy head of the region's military administration, Serhiy Tyurin, announced on Facebook. He called on residents to get to safety and referred to ongoing drone attacks. There is no information about casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure.

+++ 06:20 USA wants to halve Russian oil revenues +++TheUnited States wants to halve Russian oil and gas revenues by 2030, according to US official Geoffrey Pyatt. "The goal of these sanctions is to change Russia's behavior and make sure that when some peace is achieved, Putin doesn't need three to four years to rearm his army and prepare for a third phase of the invasion of Ukraine," Pyatt tells the Financial Times. Russia continues to export considerable quantities of oil, especially to China and India.

+++ 05:40 Germany supplies Kiev with almost 4,000 pieces of artillery ammunition +++Germanyhands over 3,840 155-millimeter calibre artillery shells to Ukraine in its latest military aid package. According to the German government, five drone detection systems, five sniper rifles, several semi-trailers, trucks, minibuses, off-road vehicles and other military equipment were also delivered.

+++ 04:55 250 endangered Ukrainian monuments already documented +++Scientistsfrom Marburg and Hanover, together with Ukrainian photographers, have already documented 250 monuments threatened or damaged by the Russian war of aggression. Since the start of the project in October 2022, the photographers have taken a total of around 3,700 exterior and interior photographs of historically and culturally significant buildings in cities such as Kiev, Odessa, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia, says Christian Bracht, Director of the German Documentation Center for Art History (DDK) - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.

+++ 03:23 Because of high losses? Russia has halved its attacks on Avdiivka +++Russiahas halved its attacks on Avdiivka in the past 24 hours, says Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Stupun on state television. This was due to high losses. However, fierce fighting continues outside the city center in the so-called industrial zone. Russian war bloggers report that the area is now under Russian control. Reuters was initially unable to verify any of the statements. It remains unclear who controls the city of Marinka.

+++ 02:06 Intelligence service HUR: Strike against occupiers in Melitopol +++Ukrainianresistance fighters have carried out a successful attack against Russian invasion troops in Russian-occupied Melitopol. This was reported by the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR . Several occupiers were killed and military equipment destroyed. The attack took place during a smoking break. The occupation administration of Melitopol is trying to conceal the damage for fear of the Kremlin.

+++++ 00:45 Ukrainian General Staff: Fierce fighting around Bakhmut and Avdiivka +++According to the Ukrainian military, most of the recent fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops has taken place ineastern Ukraine. On the front near Avdiivka, 20 Russian attacks have been repelled in the last 24 hours. According to the Ukrainian General Staff's frontline report, the Russians are said to have attacked 15 times around Bakhmut. In the contested southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, however, the Ukrainian forces continue to hold their new positions on the south side of the Dnipro.

+++ 22:09 Ukrainian air force warns of Russian drones +++TheUkrainian air force warns of a wave of Russian drone attacks on its Telegram channel. This was reported by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. According to the message, a Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle from the Kherson region is moving towards the Mykolaiv region.

You canread all previous developmentshere.