Ukraine suffered its third large-scale aerial barrage of the new year, with the escalation of attacks from Kremlin forces coming at a time when harsh weather leaves millions vulnerable to power outages.

Russia launched the latest strikes hours after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a surprise visit to Kyiv to announce a new security commitment and a pledge of £2.5-billion of military aid next year.

Ukraine holds Davos peace plan talks in bid for visibility

Ukraine aims to leverage the annual gathering of political and business leaders in Davos this week to rekindle support and attention for its fight against Russia’s invasion.

Before the official start of the World Economic Forum, dozens of national security advisers met on Sunday in an attempt to build backing for Ukraine’s peace blueprint among countries from the Global South, many of which have been reluctant to support Kyiv since Russia’s invasion almost two years ago.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who was co-chairing the meeting, said the gathering had clarified points to be up for discussion at some stage, but that neither Ukraine nor Russia — which wasn’t invited to the gathering — was prepared to make territorial concessions.

Representatives of more than 80 countries and international organisations were present at Sunday’s meeting, the fourth in a series dating back to June, said co-chair Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine’s president. China, a key ally of Russia, didn’t attend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend part of the Davos forum this week for bilateral meetings and a high-profile address, and the country will host roundtables with investors and CEOs, focused on post-war reconstruction and the use of frozen Russian assets.

The outreach comes as the approval of more than $100-billion in vital aid for the war effort has stalled in Washington and Brussels, and after Ukraine’s months-long counteroffensive failed to deliver a battlefield breakthrough. Further distracting the global elite’s minds are the Israel-Hamas conflict and Iran-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea that have upended global trade, not to mention the potential reelection of Donald Trump later this year.

Amid multiplying global crises, Zelensky continues to portray Ukraine’s 10-point peace formula, first laid out in late 2022, as the basis for any talks with Russia. 

North Korea test-fires its first ballistic missile of 2024 

North Korea fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday for its first such launch of 2024, amid a pledge by leader Kim Jong-un to boost the country’s nuclear-strike capabilities. 

Sunday’s missile launch came just ahead of an announcement by North Korea that it will send Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui on a trip to Russia from Monday to Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov travelled to Pyongyang in October in his first such trip in about five years. His visit was thought to possibly facilitate one by President Vladimir Putin after he accepted an invitation from Kim to make the journey to the isolated Asian state when the two met for a summit in Russia in September. 

The US and South Korea have for months accused Kim of providing arms and ammunition to aid Putin’s war in Ukraine, including sending shells and ballistic missiles. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the charges.  

The missile launched on Sunday was fired from an area near Pyongyang toward waters off the east coast and travelled about 1,000km, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.  

An intermediate-range ballistic missile is designed to fly far enough to hit all of Japan and US military facilities in Guam, where the Pentagon says it keeps one of the US’s largest munitions depots in the world.  

Ukraine faces Russian missile barrage as temperatures fall

Ukraine suffered its third large-scale aerial barrage of the new year, with the escalation of attacks from Kremlin forces coming at a time when harsh weather leaves millions vulnerable to power outages. 

Russian military jets fired Kinzhal ballistic missiles and cruise missiles at targets across the country early on Saturday, Ukrainian Air Force command said on Telegram.

Forty missiles and drones of various types were launched nationwide and air defence said it shot down eight missiles. Another 20 or more “failed to achieve their targets due to active work of jamming”, Ukraine said.

Explosions were heard in the northern region of Chernihiv, the western areas of Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne, and in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions in central Ukraine as air defence was working, according to local authorities. 

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that it had targeted Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex” with “major” hypersonic missiles and drone strikes, but offered no additional details. 

After months of relatively few air strikes, Russia ramped up its bombardment campaign just before the new year. Since then it has fired hundreds of missiles at cities across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, killing more than 45 and wounding dozens of civilians and damaging houses. 

The air campaign coincides with the arrival of much colder weather, leaving millions of Ukrainians at risk from the loss of heat and electricity if power infrastructure is damaged. Temperatures were around -13°C  in central Ukraine and as low as -18°C in the east on Saturday morning. 

Ukraine’s western neighbour Poland and allies scrambled jets as Moscow launched Saturday’s attack because debris from Russia’s missiles and drones had fallen on the European Union states’ territory on several occasions.  

Separately, Kyiv said preliminary evidence showed Moscow’s forces probably used missiles provided by North Korea in the 2 January attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.   

Sunak gives Ukraine timely boost of support with Kyiv visit

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak showed the UK’s continued commitment to Ukraine with a surprise visit to Kyiv hours after joining US-led strikes on Yemen that risk drawing further attention from the struggling war effort in Europe. 

Sunak brought with him a new security commitment and a pledge of £2.5-billion of military aid next year, gestures intended to bolster Ukraine amid stalled talks over additional support in Brussels and Washington. Britain is the first country to follow through on last year’s Group of Seven pledge to pursue bilateral security agreements with Kyiv as it seeks to repel Russian forces who invaded almost two years ago.

The funding represents a £200-million increase over the £2.3-billion the UK provided in each of the past two years, although Sunak stopped short of promising a longer-term package as some had sought.  

The trip to Kyiv was all the more dramatic coming the morning after Sunak authorised British forces to join US President Joe Biden’s air strikes on Yemen. The move — designed to prevent attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial shipping and foreign warships off the Yemeni coast — nevertheless escalates a crisis that has drawn international attention away from Ukraine over the past three months. 

Sunak said that new security guarantees with Ukraine would see Britain provide “swift and sustained” support for the country, if it is attacked by Russia again. The increased UK funding would go toward long-range missiles, air defence, artillery ammunition and maritime security, with at least £200-million earmarked for drones to provide surveillance, long-range strike and marine capabilities. DM