Ukraine news – live: Kyiv denies 600 soldiers killed in Russian missile strike as ‘bloodiest’ battle rages

Officials in Ukraine have rejected Russia’s claim that Kyiv lost 600 of its troops in a single missile strike in a city in Donetsk, stating that there were in fact no fatalities in the incident.

A ground report by Reuters said there were no obvious signs of casualties at the site where Russia claims to have successfully targeted hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers.

It comes as Ukrainian forces were defending towns and cities in eastern Ukraine in the “bloodiest” battle of the war so far, Volodymyr Zelensky said last night, as the conflict entered its 320th day.

Mr Zelensky said: “Bakhmut is holding on despite everything. And even though most of the town has been destroyed by Russian strikes, our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance.”

"Soledar is holding on, even though there is even greater destruction and things are very difficult," he added.

Russia has resumed its offensive efforts after Vladimir Putin called a unilateral truce for Orthodox Christmas over the weekend, though there was little sign of a break in the fighting at the frontline.

Key Points

• Ukraine denies Russia killed 600 soldiers in ‘mass missile strike’

• Russia using most advanced supersonic combat jet in Ukraine war - MoD

• Fighting batters eastern Ukraine: ‘Bloodiest places on frontline’

• Ukraine says its forces repel constant Russian attacks in east

I’ve met terrified Ukrainians who don’t know how they will survive the winter

08:06 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Winter is predictable, but every year it blindsides organisations who are unprepared to support refugees through the coldest months, Josie Naughton writes.

Following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the world’s attention turned to the millions of Ukrainians left behind to face the cold. Ongoing Russian missile strikes have destroyed half of the country’s power grid, leaving at least nine million Ukrainians without electricity to heat their homes.

With snow starting to fall and a severe shortage of coats, shelters and heating fuel, cases of pneumonia, frostbite and influenza are rising. A lack of forward planning by international organisations has intensified these issues, with many now lacking the essentials needed to make it through the winter.

Opinion: I’ve met terrified Ukrainians struggling to survive the winter

Ukraine says its forces repel constant Russian attacks in east

07:36 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Ukrainian forces are repelling constant Russian attacks on Bakhmut and other towns in the eastern region of Donbas, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday, after denying Kremlin claims of 600 soldiers killed in a missile strike.

Russia launched seven missile strikes, 31 air strikes and 73 attacks from salvo rocket launchers in the past day, the general staff of Ukraine‘s armed forces said in a daily report.

Ukrainian forces repelled attacks on 14 settlements, including Bakhmut, it added.

“Bakhmut is holding on despite everything,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in nightly video remarks on Sunday.

“And even though most of the town has been destroyed by Russian strikes, our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance.”

The nearby town of Soledar was holding on, “even though there is even greater destruction and things are very difficult”, he added.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the battlefield reports.

Zelensky made a fresh denunciation of what he called Russia‘s failure to observe a truce it had proclaimed for Orthodox Christmas by staging attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“Russians were shelling Kherson with incendiary ammunition immediately after Christmas,” he said, referring to the southern city abandoned by Russian forces in November.

“Strikes on Kramatorsk and other cities in Donbas - on civilian targets and at the very time when Moscow was reporting a supposed ‘silence’ for its army.”

On Sunday, Russia said a missile attack on Kramatorsk, northwest of Bakhmut, had killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers, but a Reuters reporter at the scene found no obvious signs of casualties.

A Reuters team visited two college dormitories that Moscow said had been temporarily housing Ukrainian personnel and which it had targeted as revenge for a New Year’s attack that killed scores of Russian soldiers and caused outcry in Russia.

But neither dormitory in the eastern city of Kramatorsk appeared to have been directly hit or seriously damaged. There were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living there and no sign of bodies or traces of blood.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson for the eastern region, described the claim of mass casualties as an attempt by the Russian defence ministry to show it had responded forcefully to Ukraine‘s recent strikes on Russian soldiers.

“This is an information operation of the Russian defense ministry,” Cherevatyi told Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne News.

As Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine grinds towards the one-year mark, Russia‘s military is under domestic pressure to deliver battlefield successes.

Hawkish voices have sought an escalation of the war effort after setbacks such as loss of captured territory and high rates of death and injury.

Some prominent Russian military bloggers have criticised the Russian defence ministry claims.

“Let’s talk about fraud” wrote one prominent pro-war military blogger on the Telegram messaging app, who posts under the name of Military Informant and who has more than half a million subscribers.

“It is not clear to us who, and for what reason, decided that 600 Ukrainian soldiers died inside, all at once, if the building was not actually hit (even the light remained on).

“Instead of the real destruction of the enemy personnel, which would have been a worthy response, an exclusively media operation of retaliation was invented.”

The militaries of both Russia and Ukraine militaries have often overstated enemy losses, while minimising their own.

Ukraine’s top military officials said last week some 760 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in two attacks on Moscow-controlled parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. These reports could not be independently verified.

Russia using most advanced supersonic combat jet in Ukraine war - MoD

07:07 , Arpan Rai

The British defence ministry says Russia is almost certainly using its most advanced combat jet in operations against Ukraine while limiting the risks involved.

“Since at least June 2022, Russian Aerospace Forces have almost certainly used Su-57 FELON to conduct missions against Ukraine,” the ministry said, noting that FELON is Russia’s most advanced fifth-generation supersonic combat jet, employing stealth technologies and highly advanced avionics.

These missions have likely been limited to flying over Russian territory, launching long range air-to-surface or air-to-air missiles into Ukraine, the ministry said.

Citing recent commercially available imagery, the ministry said at least five FELON are parked at Akhtubinsk Air Base, which hosts the 929th Flight Test Centre. “As this is the only known FELON base, these aircraft have likely been involved in operations against Ukraine,” the MoD said.

“Russia is highly likely prioritising avoiding the reputational damage, reduced export prospects, and the compromise of sensitive technology which would come from any loss of FELON over Ukraine,” it said, adding that this move is symptomatic of Russia’s continued risk-averse approach to employing its air force in the war.

Russia missile hit empty school, Moscow’s claims false - report

07:06 , Arpan Rai

The claims of a “retaliation operation” from Russia on hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers in Donetsk oblast are false, said the Institute for the Study of War.

Russia has not managed to inflict any damage on the Ukrainian soldiers as claimed by its defence ministry, it added.

“This claim is false — a Finnish reporter visited the site of the strike in Kramatorsk on January 8 and noted that it hit an empty school,” the US-based think-tank said.

It added that several Russian military bloggers “responded negatively to the Russian MoD’s claim”.

The military bloggers tracking Russia in the war have pointed out that the “Russian MoD frequently presents fraudulent claims and criticises Russian military leadership for fabricating a story to ‘retaliate’ for the Makiivka strike instead of holding Russian leadership responsible for the losses accountable.”

Russian forces retreating in Luhansk, says regional governor

06:04 , Arpan Rai

Russian soldiers are slowly retreating in Kriminna city in Luhansk amid heavy fighting, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said.

The regional governor said that the Russian forces have deployed their most combat-ready units and heavy equipment in Kriminna situated in Sievierodonetsk region in Luhansk which remains under Russia’s control.

This indicated that the Russians were slowly retreating in the region, Mr Haidai said.

However, the region could see an escalation in military offensive as the night time temperatures plummet to minus 15-17 Celsius (5-1 Fahrenheit) as hard frosting of the ice will allow the invading soldiers to move their heavy equipment from one place to another, he added.

Russia failed to observe ceasefire, says Zelensky

05:35 , Arpan Rai

Volodymyr Zelensky has yet again denounced Russia’s failure to observe a truce it had proclaimed for Orthodox Christmas by staging attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“Russians were shelling Kherson with incendiary ammunition immediately after Christmas,” Mr Zelensky said, referring to a city in the south abandoned by Russian forces in November.

He added: “Strikes on Kramatorsk and other cities in Donbas - on civilian targets and at the very time when Moscow was reporting a supposed ‘silence’ for its army.”

Fighting batters eastern Ukraine: ‘Bloodiest places on frontline’

05:08 , Arpan Rai

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the hotspots in the war in Luhansk and Donetsk are witnessing heavy fighting with these regions witnessing “one of the bloodiest places on the frontline”.

“The situation on the frontline has not changed significantly in the first week of the year. Heavy fighting continues in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - every hotspot in these areas is well known,” he said.

Mr Zelensky added: “Bakhmut is holding out against all odds. And although most of the city is destroyed by Russian strikes, our warriors repel constant attempts at Russian offensive there.

“Soledar is holding out. Although there is even more destruction there and it is extremely hard,” the war-time president said.

He added: “There is no such piece of land near these two cities, where the occupier would not have given his life for the crazy ideas of the masters of the Russian regime. This is one of the bloodiest places on the frontline.”

I’ve met terrified Ukrainians who don’t know how they will survive the winter

05:06 , Arpan Rai

Following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the world’s attention turned to the millions of Ukrainians left behind to face the cold.

Ongoing Russian missile strikes have destroyed half of the country’s power grid, leaving at least nine million Ukrainians without electricity to heat their homes.

With snow starting to fall and a severe shortage of coats, shelters and heating fuel, cases of pneumonia, frostbite and influenza are rising.

A lack of forward planning by international organisations has intensified these issues, with many now lacking the essentials needed to make it through the winter.

Read the full story here:

Opinion: I’ve met terrified Ukrainians struggling to survive the winter

Ukraine denies Russia’s claim it killed 600 soldiers in ‘mass missile strike’

04:20 , Arpan Rai

Officials in Ukraine have denied the loss of 600 troops in a “mass missile strike” on barracks housing Ukrainian soldiers, as claimed by Russia yesterday.

The strikes on Kramatorsk did not inflict any losses on the Ukrainian armed forces and only targeted civilian infrastructure, said Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces in the east.

Russia’s defence ministry has alleged that missiles had hit two makeshift bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers in the city of Kramatorsk.

But the spokesperson said that the “armed forces of Ukraine weren’t affected.”

Kramatorsk mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said two school buildings and eight apartments were damaged.

Another account from Reuters reported that there are “no obvious signs of casualties” at the scene of the Russian strike.

03:32 , Arpan Rai

Good morning, welcome to our coverage of the Ukraine war on 9 January, Monday.