Ukraine inflicting significant losses on Putin’s forces around Dnipro River – live

A Russian missile strike killed 11 people on Saturday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region said.

“Eleven dead, including five children – these are the consequences for now of strikes on Pokrovsk district,” Vadym Filashkin wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Pokrovsk lies in Ukrainian-held territory, about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Donetsk, the Russian held centre of the region.

Below are some of the latest pictures coming from Pokrovksy district in eastern Ukraine, where a Russian missile strike has allegedly killed at least 11 people, inlcuding five children.

A Russian rapper who attended an “Almost Naked” party in Moscow wearing just a sock has been detained for an additional 10 days as the Kremlin appears to be doubling down on punishment for those that attended the scandalous party.

Nikolai Vasilyev, a rapper known as Vacio, was originally jailed for 15 days and fined 200,000 roubles (£1,716) for promoting “non-traditional sexual relations” for attending a party at the Mutabor club in Moscow wearing nothing but a sock.

The party on 20 December, organised by TV presenter Anastasia Ivleeva, also known as Nastya Ivleeva, went viral after pictures of the event were put online.

Mr Vasilyev has since been sentenced to 10 further days of administrative arrest, Russian state media outlet Tass has reported, after a hearing at the Lefortovo Court in Moscow.

You can read more about the party below.

Two 9-year-old twins have been taken to hospital after being hit by a Russian shell in southern Ukraine, a local governor has reported.

Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of Kherson Oblast, said the twins had been driving with their parents between two villages when their vehicle was struck.

A 58-year-old man was also injured, according to Mr Prokudin.

Russia appears to be preparing a readied group of forces for an intensified attack on a city in the far east of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has reported.

The city of Kupyansk has been under siege for months after Ukrainian soldiers claimed Russia had massed roughly 100,000 troops along the Svatove-Kreminna line in that area.

Russia has fired more than 450 missiles and drones at Ukrainian civilian areas over the past week, killing more than 60 civilians and injuring hundreds more.

Ukraine has fired dozens of drones and missiles over the Russian border and in Moscow-occupied Crimea in return, as the aerial duel between the two escalates while the frontlines on the ground remain deadlocked.

The Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office provided further evidence on Saturday that Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea, showcasing the fragments.

A senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia hit Ukraine this week with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion.

Dmytro Chubenko, spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, said the missile, one of several that hit the city of Kharkiv on 2 January, was visually and technically different from Russian models.

“The production method is not very modern. There are deviations from standard Iskander missiles, which we previously saw during strikes on Kharkiv. This missile is similar to one of the North Korean missiles,” Mr Chubenko told media as he displayed the remnants.

He said the missile was slightly bigger in diameter than the Russian Iskander missile, while its nozzle, internal electrical windings, and rear parts were also different.

“That is why we are leaning towards the version that this may be a missile which was supplied by North Korea.”

Chubenko declined to give the missile’s exact model name.

Russia attacked Kharkiv with several missiles this week, killing two people and injuring over 60 in one of its biggest missile and drone strikes since the start of the large-scale war in February 2022.

“The UK strongly condemns Russia’s decision to use ballistic missiles sourced from North Korea in recent attacks against Ukraine,” the UK’s foreign office spokesperson said in a statement.

“We urge North Korea to cease its arms supply to Russia,” the statement said.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers have defected from Vladimir Putin’s army using an “I want to live” hotline set up by Ukraine, military intelligence officials in Kyiv have revealed.

Created just days before Russia’s partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September 2022, the hotline has reportedly received tens of thousands of calls and has led to 220 soldiers defecting to Ukraine.

Kyiv’s military intelligence unit (GUR), which launched the initiative, said a website that accompanies the hotline has been visited more than 48 million times in 15 months.

Despite Russian forces appearing to have seized the initiative on the frontline as the conflict moves into its third calendar year, the drastic figures reflect a persisting suggestion that morale among Putin’s forces remains low.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree that speeds up a path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country’s military amid the 22-month-old war in Ukraine.

The move comes as Moscow is trying to replenish its troops in Ukraine by various methods, including the recruitment of migrants. Russia is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of people from poorer Central Asian countries, and many of them seek citizenship each year.

Putin first allowed fast-track citizenship for foreigners who sign contracts with the Russian army in September 2022, shortly after announcing a partial mobilization to draft 300,000 reservists for Ukraine.