Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a decision has yet to be taken on repairs to the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which sustained damage in September.

“It has not yet come down to repairs, no decisions have been made on this matter,” he said, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

The twin undersea Nord Stream pipelines transport critical natural gas resources from Russia to Germany. Russian state gas company Gazprom intermittently suspended the gas flows to Germany from late August, citing maintenance issues, though the move was widely believed to be in response to EU sanctions on Russia.

After explosions hit the pipelines in late September — a clandestine act for which no one has taken responsibility — Gazprom said it was closing Nord Stream indefinitely. Gas prices in Europe, which were already multiples higher than at the same time one year prior, soared further as a result.

Moscow previously accused the British navy of blowing up the infrastructure in September, which London has rejected. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg labeled damage to the pipelines as sabotage.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights warned of dramatically worse conditions to come in Ukraine if Russia continues attacking the country’s infrastructure.

“Additional strikes could lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement,” Volker Turk, the high commissioner, said to the organization’s human rights council after a visit to Ukraine. Russia’s attacks on key energy facilities and other vital civilian infrastructure were putting millions of people through “extreme hardship,” he said.

Huge swathes of Ukraine are facing regular and often prolonged blackouts as authorities race to repair them after each attack. Geopolitical analysts say the aim of the Russian strikes is to make large parts of the country unlivable as the cold winter sets in, threatening starvation and death.

Rights groups say that deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime. The Kremlin has argued that its strikes are in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian facilities like its Crimean bridge, which was damaged in an explosion on Oct. 8. Russia has been attacking Ukraine since Feb. 24.

— Natasha Turak

Members of the Ukrainian military relax in a makeshift sauna built by members of the brigade in an underground bunker while on a day off from being stationed in Bakhmut at a position on the outskirts of Donetsk, Ukraine.

— Chris McGrath | Getty Images

The deputy chief of Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces has ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire while Russian invaders remain on Ukrainian soil.

Moscow on Dec. 14 similarly said that a potential suspension of hostilities for Christmas was not on the cards, after 10 months of war in Ukraine.

“I believe that there will be a complete ceasefire from our side only when not a single occupier remains on our land,” Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform quoted Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov as saying today, according to a Google translation. His comment came in response to a question over a prospective suspension of hostilities for New Year celebrations.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Russian shelling in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Kherson killed two people, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, wrote on Telegram.

The individuals were killed in the city’s center, about 100 meters away from the regional administration building, Tymoshenko said. Kherson was recaptured by Ukrainian forces and liberated from its Russian occupiers in early November, but since then has faced near-constant shelling by Russia forces, many of whom remain on the other side of the Dnipro River.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in late September declared Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions as annexed by Russia, a move that is illegal under international law, and has vowed to keep them as Russian territory.

— Natasha Turak

EU member states failed to reach consensus on a new sanctions package for Russia, which would be the bloc’s ninth since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in late February.

Progress on the sanctions stalled due to disagreement over whether the EU should ease the process of Russian fertilizers being transported through European ports. Poland and the Baltic states objected, saying a relaxation of restrictions could be used by Russian oligarchs who own fertilizer businesses to evade sanctions, according to EU officials cited by Reuters.

Those in favor of the easing say that the current restrictions threaten food security, particularly in developing nations. Russia is the world’s top exporter of fertilizer. Some states want the UN’s World Food Programme to become involved in authorizing fertilizer exports to parts of the world that rely on them.

— Natasha Turak

Russia has warned the U.S. that if it sends Patriot missile systems to Ukraine it will consider the move a provocation that could lead to “unpredictable consequences.”

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send a Patriot missile system to Ukraine, three Defense officials told NBC News earlier this week. The surface-to-air defense system would help Ukraine repel Russian aerial attacks and President Zelenskyy has long called for such weaponry to help Ukraine defend itself against repeated missile attacks.

The Russian embassy in Washington warned in a statement on Telegram Wednesday that sending the Patriot missile system would be considered “provocative.”

“An information campaign has been launched in the United States on a possible future shipment of modern air defense systems to Kiev. It is said that President Biden may soon take such a decision.” the statement from the Russian embassy noted.

“If this is confirmed, we will witness yet another provocative step by the administration, which can lead to unpredictable consequences.”

The embassy claimed that, even without delivery of the Patriot systems, “the United States is increasingly drawn into the conflict in the post-Soviet republic, saying that the “weapons flow” to Ukraine was increasing and that the U.S. was helping Ukraine in terms of intelligence and military training.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that it would consider Patriot missile defense systems as a legitimate target for Russian strikes if they are sent to Ukraine.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces are destroying “everything in front of them.”

“There is no calm on the front line. There is nothing easy and simple. Every day and every meter is fought for extremely hard,” Zelenskyy said in a nightly address on his Telegram channel.

“Russia is destroying city after city in Donbas – like Mariupol, like Volnovakha, like Bakhmut,” he added..

Zelenskyy also thanked Ukrainian forces for “repelling another attack by Iranian drones this morning.”

— Amanda Macias

Moscow said no “Christmas ceasefire” was on the cards after nearly 10 months of war in Ukraine, where the first major drone attack on the capital Kyiv in weeks damaged two buildings but was largely repelled by air defenses.

The two sides are not currently engaged in talks to end the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more and turned cities to rubble since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week Russia should start withdrawing from his country by Christmas as a step to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two. Moscow rejected the proposal outright, saying Ukraine must accept the loss of territory to Russia before any progress can be made.

— Reuters

The U.N. warned that nearly 7 million children in Ukraine are don’t have regular access to electricity, heat or water, raising their risks as temperatures drop.

“Millions of children are facing a bleak winter huddled in the cold and the dark, with little idea of how or when respite may arrive,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

In addition to the freezing temperatures, the lack of adequate electricity interrupts their education with schools damaged or destroyed and so many children relying on remote learning, UNICEF said.

“Beyond the immediate threats the freezing conditions bring, children are also deprived of the ability to learn or stay connected with friends and family, putting both their physical and their mental health at desperate risk,” she added.

In October, Russian forces intensified attacks on energy infrastructure and were successful in destroying nearly half of Ukraine’s power production.

— Amanda Macias