Ukraine war briefing: Russia must give clearer explanation of Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, Zelenskyy says

Moscow has confirmed its air defences were repelling Ukrainian drones at the time of plane’s flight but has not admitted it shot it down. What we know on day 1,040

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has called on Russia to provide a clearer explanation of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash as he expressed condolences to his Azeri counterpart. “The key priority now is a thorough investigation to provide answers to all questions about what really happened. Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation,” Zelenskyy said on X after the call with Ilham Aliyev. On Friday, the White House spokesperson John Kirby said the US had seen “early indications” that Russia might have been responsible for the crash that killed 38 people. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan’s leader for what the Kremlin called a “tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace”. Although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, it said Russian air defence systems were active at the time, repelling Ukrainian drone attacks.

A Ukrainian strike on a depot for long-range Shahed drones in Russia’s Oryol region has “significantly reduced” Moscow’s ability to launch mass drone attacks, Kyiv has said. Ukraine military’s general staff said in a statement on Telegram on Saturday its air force carried out the attack on Thursday. “As a result of the strike, a depot for storage, maintenance and repair of Shahed kamikaze drones, made of several protected concrete structures, was destroyed. This military operation has significantly reduced the enemy’s potential in terms of conducting air raids of strike drones on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure,” it said. Ukraine’s air force said earlier on Saturday it had downed 15 out of 16 drones launched by Russia overnight, with the other one disappearing from radars.

Russia’s Gazprom announced on Saturday it will halt gas supplies to Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova from 1 January over a debt dispute. The cessation of gas will stop supplies to the Kuciurgan power plant in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region, a sliver of land between Moldova and Ukraine. The plant powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The country’s prime minister, Dorin Recean, accused Russia of using “energy as a political weapon”. He said his government does not recognise the debt cited by Gazprom, which has been “invalidated by an international audit”. Earlier this month, Moldova’s parliament voted in favour of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the country without sufficient energy this winter. Several eastern European countries are bracing for an end to Russian gas supplies, as Kyiv will block the flow of Russian gas via its territory in several days.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it had responded to a new package of EU sanctions by significantly expanding a list of EU and EU member state officials banned from entering Russia. The EU on Monday imposed a 15th package of sanctions against Russia, including tougher measures against Chinese entities and more vessels from Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet. Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement it had responded by adding more unnamed “representatives of security agencies, state and commercial organisations of EU countries, and citizens of EU member states responsible for providing military aid to Kyiv” to its stop list.

Finnish police on Saturday moved a ship connected to Russia held over suspicions it sabotaged an undersea power cable between Finland and Estonia to help with their investigations. Since Thursday, Finnish authorities have been investigating the Eagle S tanker, which was carrying Russian oil, as part of an investigation into the “aggravated sabotage” of the Estlink 2 submarine cable in the Baltic Sea. That cable’s disconnection on Christmas Day was the latest in a spate of incidents western officials believe are acts of sabotage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finnish police said the Cook Islands-flagged tanker was moved under escort on Saturday from the coast to an inner anchorage 40km east of Helsinki because “the new location offers a better option for carrying out investigative measures”.

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Ukraine war briefing: Russia must give clearer explanation of Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, Zelenskyy says

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