19 Mins Ago
Two-month old baby killed in Russian strike on Kharkiv hotel
A two-month old baby has died in a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, a regional official said Tuesday.
Oleh Synehubov, the head of the Kharkiv military administration, said Russian forces had attacked the village of Zolochiv in the Kharkiv region, hitting a three-story hotel.
“Rescuers removed the body of a two-month-old boy, who was born on December 4, 2023, from under the rubble,” Synehubov said on Telegram.
Three women, aged 21, 28 and 39, were hospitalized with blast injuries and shrapnel wounds, including the mother of the dead child, he added.
Synehubov said Russian forces had hit the hotel during the night using two S-300 missiles. CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information in the post.
— Holly Ellyatt
An Hour Ago
Ukraine’s leadership shake-up will not hit relations with allies, minister says
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that a military and political shake-up that is expected soon will have no impact on Kyiv’s relations with its Western allies.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is considering a “reset” to replace several senior officials that will go beyond the military sphere. There is intense speculation that Ukraine’s army chief will be fired.
“I do not think that any changes in the government can influence our relations with our partners,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a joint news briefing in Kyiv alongside his Portuguese counterpart.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shakes the hand of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhny during the official celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day in August, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Alexey Furman | Getty Images News | Getty Images
He said it was the constitutional right of Zelenskyy to be able to dismiss the head of the army if he saw fit. Any shake-up would not be a sign of divisions in Ukraine’s war effort, he added.
“We can have discussions about tactics inside of the team but we are all united around our strategic goal which is the defeat of Russia in Ukraine and restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. And there are no discussions whatsoever on this strategic goal,” he said.
Speculation has gripped Ukraine for weeks over suggestions that the president was about to dismiss the highly popular army commander, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi. The two have been at odds over the conduct of the nearly two-year Russian invasion of Ukraine.
— Reuters
An Hour Ago
Russia claims it is now occupying ‘advantageous’ positions in Donetsk
Russian armed forces are occupying more advantageous positions in the Donetsk direction, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday.
“In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern Group of Forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions,” the ministry said on Telegram, according to a Google translation.
It added that its units had “also repelled seven enemy attacks and defeated the manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Kleshcheevka , Andreevka, Kurdyumovka, Novgorodskoe, Georgievka and Katerynivka of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” referring to the self-proclaimed “republic” declared by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow has since pronounced that the alleged “republic” and three other partially-occupied Ukrainian regions are a part of Russia. Russian authorities use Soviet-era spellings of Ukrainian place names in their statements.
Donetsk has been a hotspot for fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists since 2014, and Russian forces have attempted to further consolidate their territorial hold on the area since the 2022 invasion. They currently occupy around 57% of the region, Reuters says.
Ukrainian tank crews T64 battle tank fires on the Russian troops position on January 9, 2024 in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Roman Chop | Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images
Ukraine’s armed forces said…
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