Live blog: Moscow claims control over Maryinka in east Ukraine, Kiev denies

Monday, December 25, 2023

1727 GMT — Russia said its forces now fully controlled the town of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin hailed as a "success" that would mean less shelling on the nearby Russian-held city of Donetsk.

"Our assault units have today completely liberated the settlement of Maryinka," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin in a meeting shown on state television.

Piles of rubble and gutted apartment buildings over a wide area could be seen in drone images shown on Russian television that were said to be of Maryinka.

"I want to congratulate you," Putin told Shoigu. "This is a success" which gives Russian troops "the opportunity to move into a wider operational area".

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military denied Russia's claims that its forces had seized the regional centre Maryinka. "It's not correct to talk about seizing Maryinka," Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun told Ukrainian national television.

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1607 GMT — Ukraine seeks to terminate free trade deal with Belarus

Ukraine's government has proposed to parliament terminating a free trade agreement with Belarus, which supports Russia's military action in Ukraine that began in February 2022, cabinet minister Taras Melnychuk said.

The move to cancel the agreement was taken "in connection with a fundamental change of circumstances... involvement of the Republic of Belarus in the illegal use of force against Ukraine," he said on the Telegram messaging app.

The government proposes terminating the free trade agreement of December 1992 and two protocols related to the treaty.

1405 GMT — Ukraine says it received $1.34B under World Bank project

Ukraine said it has received a total of $1.34 billion under a World Bank project to support the war-stricken country.

"The funds will be used to partially compensate for non-security and defence-related expenditures of the Ukrainian State Budget, including old-age social payments and payments to employees of the State Emergency Service," said a statement by the Ukrainian Finance Ministry.

It quoted Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko as saying that international financial assistance is a "significant contribution to maintaining Ukraine's financial and economic stability and allows us to provide priority social expenditures during the war."

1225 GMT — Putin approves Rosbank's purchase of Russian companies from Societe Generale

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved Rosbank's stake purchases in leading Russian companies owned by French bank Societe Generale that ceased operations in the country due to sanctions arising from the Russia-Ukraine war.

"Now, Rosbank will be able to buy back shares in a number of energy companies from its former owner, including Rosseti, RusHydro, Inter RAO, Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Rosneft and Tatneft, Transneft and Unipro," reported Russian news agency TASS on Sunday.

Also among the Russian companies are VTB Bank, Rostelecom, and Aeroflot; diamond mining company Alrosa; and steel and mining company Severstal, the agency reported.

0953 GMT — Kiev claims destroying 28 out of 31 Russian-launched drones

Russia launched 31 drones and 2 missiles at Ukraine overnight, mostly targeting the south of the country, with air defences destroying 28 drones and both missiles, the Ukrainian military said.

"As a result of air combat, the Ukrainian Air Force and defence forces destroyed 28 Shahed attack drones in Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Khmelnytskyi regions," Ukraine's Air Forces said on the Telegram messaging app. The drones were launched from Russian-annexed Crimea, it said.

The military said debris from the downed drones damaged technical facilities in the Odessa port as well as "an inoperable administrative building and a warehouse."

0800 GMT — Russian says it has the upper hand in arms race with the West

Russia has the upper hand in weapons production over the West and intends to keep the rate of growth high, a top Russian minister said after both the West and Russia ramped up arms production for the Ukraine war.

"I don't want to boast, but I can say that we began to gain and picked up the pace of production earlier than Western countries," Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister who oversees arms production, told the RIA news agency.

Ukraine and its Western backers ramped up arms production in an attempt to defeat Russian forces on the battlefields of Ukraine. Russia also hiked production but says the West is to blame for the war which Moscow dates to 2014.

For our live updates from Sunday (December 24), click here.