Ukraine says Russia attacked the north-eastern city of Kharkiv with two S-300 missiles late on Tuesday night and Odesa came under drone attacks after midnight, according to regional governors.

The Swiss government on Wednesday denounced an attack on several of its websites, saying Russia-linked hackers had claimed it was retaliation for hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the World Economic Forum.

Russia’s government has tapped almost half of the national wealth fund’s available reserves to shield the economy against the fallout from its almost two-year war in Ukraine, leaving it vulnerable to future shocks.  

Putin meets North Korea’s top envoy as arms flow builds

President Vladimir Putin met the visiting foreign minister from North Korea for talks that could facilitate a trip to Pyongyang for the Russian leader and arms transfers to aid Moscow in its war on Ukraine.

Putin held talks with Choe Son Hui on Tuesday during a visit to Moscow, the Tass news agency reported. Putin and Choe discussed bilateral relations as well as the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, according to Tass. Peskov called North Korea a “very important partner,” and said Russia intends to further develop relations in all spheres, including sensitive ones.

Choe also met counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who expressed appreciation for Pyongyang’s “support within the context of the special military operation in Ukraine,” Tass said, without providing further details.

Choe’s visit comes as arms transfers from North Korea to Russia appear to be increasing, with South Korea and the US accusing Pyongyang of providing more than a million artillery rounds and its latest missiles to the Kremlin for use in its bombardment of Ukraine. North Korea and Russia have repeatedly denied the accusations.

Satellite imagery of North Korea’s Najin port near the Russian border taken from October to December shows a steady stream of ships, including Russian cargo vessels, at the facility. The imagery also suggests hundreds of shipping containers being loaded and unloaded, and rail cars ready to transport goods, which South Korea has said includes weapons bound for Russia.

Russia hits Kharkiv with missiles, Odesa with drones

Ukraine says Russia attacked the north-eastern city of Kharkiv with two S-300 missiles late on Tuesday night and Odesa came under drone attacks after midnight, according to regional governors.

Russia intensified its aerial barrage on Ukrainian cities in late December coinciding with the arrival of cold weather and has aimed missiles and drones at civilian infrastructure including the energy sector. 

Seventeen civilians were injured in a residential district in the central part of Kharkiv as missiles damaged the facades of around 20 apartment buildings, the premises of a medical centre and destroyed 14 private cars, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. The missiles were fired from the direction of Belgorod near Ukraine’s border. 

Three people were injured in Odesa and 130 people were evacuated after a residential building was damaged by the attack, according to regional governor Oleh Kiper. Odesa and the regions in the south were attacked by 20 Shahed drones, 19 of which were intercepted, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram. 

Biden, Johnson meet to break impasse over border, Ukraine

US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson tried during a crucial White House meeting to break a months-long stalemate over US border policies that has delayed funding for Ukraine and Israel.

Wednesday’s sit-down, the first in-person meeting between Biden and congressional leaders in months, came as Republicans demand a crackdown at the US-Mexico border in exchange for supporting the president’s $110-billion emergency spending request. 

The standoff carries high stakes for the US’s global standing, as well as political implications for Biden and Johnson.

Biden has repeatedly said he’ll compromise on border policy but has not specified any concessions. A bipartisan group of legislators has discussed policies making it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the US, which the White House has suggested it could consider. 

Turkish banks tighten screws on Russia over fear of US sanctions

Banks in Turkey have increased scrutiny of transactions linked to Russia to avoid falling foul of US sanctions and put the Nato member more in line with Washington in efforts to undermine Vladimir Putin’s war machine. 

The move has led to longer processing times for money transfers and instances where funds are sent back or delayed for days, bankers familiar with the matter said. They declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak. The Treasury and Finance Ministry declined to comment.

The tightened approach was in response to an executive order from US President Joe Biden that allows Washington to impose secondary sanctions over the war in Ukraine, according to other people involved. The changes were updated on the Office of Foreign Assets Control page in late December and then Turkish banks took action, the people said.  

War in Ukraine drains nearly half of Russia’s liquid assets

Russia’s government has tapped almost half of the national wealth fund’s available reserves to shield the economy against the fallout from its almost two-year war in Ukraine, leaving it vulnerable to future shocks. 

The National Wellbeing Fund’s holdings of cash and investments that can be easily liquidated slumped to five trillion roubles ($56.5-billion) at the end of last year from 8.9 trillion roubles before the war, while total holdings fell almost 12% to 12 trillion roubles, Finance Ministry data showed. The value of the fund’s stakes in Russian companies and in bonds that were issued to finance infrastructure projects has surged by more than 2 trillion roubles, according to Bloomberg calculations. 

“The total size of the NWF seems quite irrelevant now that a big chunk of it has been invested in Russian shares and infrastructure — essentially illiquid investments,” said Tatiana Orlova, an economist at Oxford Economics. “Only liquid investments can be considered as rainy day reserves, the rest is gone.”

The wealth fund, which has taken years to build up its assets, is set to come under further pressure as Russia’s economy continues to be buffeted by sanctions that were imposed by Western nations in response to President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.  

Russian-linked hackers target Switzerland after Zelensky’s Davos visit

The Swiss government on Wednesday denounced an attack on several of its websites, saying Russia-linked hackers had claimed it was retaliation for hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the World Economic Forum.

“An attack of this kind had been expected, and appropriate security measures were in place,” the government said in a statement. 

Distributed denial-of-service attacks, known as DDoS for short, aim to make websites unavailable with a flood of internet traffic, and usually don’t lead to loss or theft of data. “NoName” had already targeted the Swiss government websites in June. 

Zelensky attended the WEF in Davos on Tuesday, where he met several chief executive officers and business leaders in a bid to bring more aid to Ukraine and keep his country’s resistance against Russian invasion at the top of the international agenda. On Monday he visited Bern and met Swiss President Viola Amherd.

Ukraine allies have to outspend Russia to win war, says Estonia 

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Ukraine still has a path to victory and allies can help it defeat Russian forces by contributing a chunk of their economic output to the war effort. 

Every member of the so-called Ramstein group — more than 50 countries including all 31 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation — should channel the equivalent of 0.25% of their gross domestic product to Kyiv annually, Kallas said. That would raise at least €120-billion and swing the conflict in Ukraine’s favour, she said. 

“If we do things right, then there’s no point in those grim predictions,” Kallas said in an interview in Tallinn on Tuesday. The Estonia plan — ambitious for Nato members already falling short of defence-spending targets — would offer a sustainable source of funding for Ukraine, she said. 

Poland’s Duda says he assured Zelensky Kyiv can count on his support

Polish President Andrzej Duda said he and Zelensky had moved past their differences and he had assured the Ukrainian leader that Kyiv can rely on Polish support.  

“I have always highlighted that even in the context of tension, Poland’s attitude toward Ukraine remains unchanged,” Duda said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. 

Duda met with Zelensky in Davos for the first time since a public falling-out late last year. During a United Nations meeting in New York in September, the Polish president compared Ukraine’s reaction to grain restrictions imposed by Warsaw to that of a drowning man — language that irked authorities in Kyiv. 

Russian tycoons make UK appeal to unfreeze private jets and superyacht

A billionaire ally of Roman Abramovich renewed his challenge of the UK’s sanctions regime, saying that the then transport secretary Grant Shapps had pressured the Foreign Office to place restrictions on him.

Eugene Shvidler, who’s been described as Abramovich’s “right hand man,” started his case on Wednesday in London, in the first court appeal of the measures since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He argued he’s faced “serious hardships” after his private jets were impounded by the UK, and pushed back at suggestions he was a close confidant of Putin. He lost an earlier attempt to remove the sanctions against him.

Shvidler argued that the government rushed the sanctions against him as Shapps’ officials worried that they would have to release his aircraft from a private airfield without the formal restrictions. 

The billionaire cited newly uncovered government emails that he says show that in early March 2022 he was not on the Foreign Office’s radar — with officials initially stating that they “don’t know much about him.” 

Meanwhile, Sergei Naumenko, a property developer who isn’t sanctioned, is fighting the 2022 freeze of the 60m superyacht Phi. Naumenko had sued the UK’s Department of Transport saying he never engaged in political activities, has no connections with Putin, and that the boat was detained by the UK just to look tough. DM