Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv confirms Russian gains around Pokrovsk

US suspects Moscow preparing another Oreshnik ballistic missile attack; Zelenskyy hails strike on Russian airfield and fuel works. What we know on day 1,023

Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk, Kyiv’s military said on Wednesday. Moscow’s forces lay as close as 3km (1.9 miles) from the southern outskirts of the city, according to Ukraine’s DeepState, which maps the frontlines using open sources. Ukraine’s military spokesperson for the eastern front, Nazar Voloshyn, said in televised comments: “As a result of prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed, one was lost. Currently, measures are being taken to restore positions.”

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he had visited a marine unit in the Pokrovsk sector and noted the conditions servicemen faced against “an enemy superior, primarily, in terms of manpower. Unconventional decisions must be made to enhance the resilience of our defence and ensure more effective destruction of the occupiers. The battles are exceptionally fierce. The Russian occupiers are throwing all available forces forward, attempting to break through our troops’ defences.”

Zelenskyy hailed “tangible blows against Russian targets”, saying Ukraine had hit “military facilities on the territory of Russia, as well as facilities of the fuel and energy complex, which is working for aggression against our state and people”. Russia said it would retaliate, claiming that Kyiv fired six Atacms missiles at a military airfield in the port city of Taganrog in its southern Rostov region. Ukraine’s general staff earlier claimed it had hit an oil depot in Russia’s Bryansk border region, also in an overnight strike. Videos purportedly taken in the Bryansk region showed a fireball illuminating the night sky over an urban area, while air raid sirens could be heard in footage from the southern Rostov region.

A US official on Wednesday said that Russia might soon target Ukraine with another of its new Oreshnik missiles. Russia fired the nuclear-capable missile at the city of Dnipro last month in a major escalation. The US warning was “based on an intelligence assessment that it’s possible that Russia could use this Oreshnik missile in the coming days”, said Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary.

Russia claimed its troops had recaptured two villages in its western Kursk region, which has been partly occupied by Ukraine since a surprise cross-border offensive in August. There was no independent confirmation.

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday said that the death toll from a Russian missile strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia a day earlier had climbed to nine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, for undermining western unity by calling Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. “No one should boost [their] personal image at the expense of unity,” Zelenskyy wrote online after the Orban-Putin call, appearing to mock the Hungarian’s self-styled attempts to launch a peace mission to end the war. “We all hope that Orban at least won’t call Assad in Moscow to listen to his hour-long lectures as well,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russia’s harbouring of the overthrown Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Orban responded online, claiming that Budapest had “proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange”, and that Zelenskyy had “rejected and ruled this out”. The Ukrainian presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said there had been no advance warning or communication from Hungary before Orban called Putin, and no talk of a Christmas ceasefire.

Syrian fighters received about 150 drones as well as other covert support from Ukrainian intelligence operatives ahead of the rebels’ advance that toppled Bashar al-Assad, according to the Washington Post, which cited unnamed sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities. It said Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 drone operators and about 150 first-person-view drones about four to five weeks ago to aid Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Russia’s foreign ministry had earlier said, without evidence, that the rebels had received drones from Ukraine and training in how to operate them, an accusation that Ukraine’s foreign ministry at the time said it “categorically” rejected.

Russia has complained of “banal theft” and “robbery” after the US disbursed a $20bn loan to Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets as part of a $50bn G7 support package. Moscow’s foreign ministry said Russia had “sufficient capacity and leverage to retaliate by seizing western assets under its jurisdiction”.

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