Live blog: Ukraine, Britain sign security agreement in Kiev

Friday, January 12, 2024

1405 GMT — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed a security accord between the two countries in Kiev.

Zelenskyy said it would remain in effect until Ukraine joined NATO, describing it as an "unprecedented security agreement". He also hailed $3.2 billion in new military aid earmarked for 2024.

"I am glad that we concluded the first agreement with the United Kingdom... This is the basis for working with other partners," the Ukrainian leader said.

He added that Ukraine, which is fighting an almost two-year-old Russian offensive, and Britain would be able to strike additional, sector-specific agreements if necessary.

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1551 GMT — Switzerland to send dozens of trams to Ukraine

Switzerland as a neutral country will not send arms to Ukraine, but its government said Friday that dozens of retired trams from Bern and Zurich would be sent to the war-torn country.

Eleven trams will be sent to the major western city of Lviv, which has seen its population swell with people fleeing the conflict zones in the south and east, the government said in a statement.

"The vehicles are in good condition and will still be able to circulate for 10 to 12 years in Ukraine," the statement said, adding that the first trams would be delivered in the third quarter of this year.

Switzerland is covering the cost of getting the trams to Lviv and training workers for maintaining them, plus the construction of a new tram line to a hospital.

1434 GMT — Four killed as Russia, Ukraine trade attacks

Russian shelling killed two people in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, while a drone attack by Kiev in the Moscow-controlled east killed another two, officials said.

The head of the Kherson region Oleksandr Prokudin said the Russian army used artillery, striking a street.

"A woman died on the spot. A burnt body was also found in a car," he said.

A Ukrainian drone killed two people and wounded six during an evacuation of injured people near the Russian-controlled city of Gorlivka, Russian-backed mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.

The drone hit an ambulance transporting energy workers wounded in previous shelling, killing a paramedic and an energy worker in the nearby village of Gomivskyi, Prikhodko said.

1434 GMT — Ukraine army spy chief pledges more attacks on Crimea

Ukraine's military spy chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview published Friday that Kiev's attacks in Russian-annexed Crimea were set to intensify, adding that Moscow's economy was proving surprisingly resilient despite sanctions.

"In 2023, the first Ukrainian incursions took place in temporarily occupied Crimea," Budanov, 38, told French daily Le Monde. "And this is just the beginning."

Ukraine has also repeatedly targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet, based in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula.

"The Russians have had to move everything in a hurry to the southeast," Budanov said, adding that Moscow was now trying to set up a naval base on the Black Sea coast of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

He acknowledged that the front lines were largely frozen in Ukraine.

"On both sides, the very intensive use of attack drones has made both Russian and Ukrainian offensives impossible," he said. "Another factor has been the density of minefields, unprecedented since World War II."

He said that the resilience of the Russian economy surprised him, and that the current Western sanctions were not enough to force the Kremlin to change its behaviour.

1249 GMT — UK troop deployment to Ukraine would be a declaration of war: Russia

A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would regard any move by Britain to deploy a military contingent to Ukraine as a declaration of war against Russia.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the comments in response to a visit by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to Kiev to announce an increase in military funding to help Ukraine purchase new military drones.

"I hope that our eternal enemies - the arrogant British - understand that deploying an official military contingent to Ukraine would be a declaration of war against our country," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Medvedev, whose frequent and harsh public statements diplomats say give an indication of hawkish thinking at the top of the Kremlin, also asked how the Western public would feel if Sunak's delegation came under fire from cluster munitions in the centre of Kiev, something he said had recently happened to Russian civilians in the city of Belgorod.

Belgorod, in southern Russia, is located close to the Ukrainian border and has been targeted by Ukrainian rockets and drones in recent months.

0949 GMT — Ukraine's ambulance strike kills two in separatist region: mayor

Ukrainian drone has killed two people and wounded six during an evacuation of injured people near the city of Gorlivka, held by "pro-Russia separatists" since 2014, the mayor said.

Ivan Prikhodko said the drone hit an ambulance evacuating energy workers wounded in previous shelling, killing a paramedic and an energy worker in the village of Gomivskyi on Friday.

"Six more residents of Gorlivka were wounded with varying degrees of severity," Prikhodko said.

He posted a photograph of the yellow ambulance with its door blown off. Deadly attacks have intensified on both sides of the conflict, which has dragged on for nearly two years, since late December.

0938 GMT —Russia may launch naval base in Georgian breakaway region in 2024

A Russian naval base in Abkhazia, a breakaway territory internationally recognised as part of Georgia, may become operational in 2024, Russian state news agency RIA quoted Abkhazia's security council as saying.

Russian and Abkhazian authorities agreed in October that Russia could open a permanent naval base in the town of Ochamchire. RIA quoted the secretary of Abkhazia's security council, Sergei Shamba, as saying on Friday that construction of the base had not yet begun, but that "its operation may begin this year".

A base in Ochamchire, a town of 5,000 near Abkhazia's closed frontier with Georgia, would provide a new, more secure harbour for Russia's Black Sea Fleet after its bases in Crimea came under repeated, damaging attack by Ukraine since Russia's offensive against that country.

0932 GMT — Russia calls US idea to confiscate Russian assets '21st-century piracy'

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called US proposals to confiscate up to $300B in frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine a "21st-century piracy" and said Moscow would retaliate harshly if it happened.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Russia believed the United States was attempting to create "legal cover" for what she said amounted to theft.

0652 GMT — UK PM Sunak arrives in Kiev to announce 'major' new support

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has arrived in Kiev to launch "a major new package of support" for Ukraine and increase military funding for this financial year to $3.2 billion, his office said.

The figure is an increase of $255 million over the last two years and will ensure the "largest ever commitment of drones," a statement said, adding that he was also due to sign a "historic" security cooperation pact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"The Ministry of Defence will work with international partners to significantly scale up the number of drones provided for Ukraine's defence," the government statement said.

Britain said the agreement "formalises a range of support the UK has been and will continue to provide for Ukraine's security, including intelligence sharing, cyber security, medical and military training, and defence industrial cooperation".

Sunak said Ukraine had been fighting for the principles of freedom and democracy for two years.

"I am here today with one message: the UK will also not falter," Sunak said in a statement.

2338 GMT — Former Russian president warns of nuclear retaliation

Russian former President Dmitry Medvedev warned of the use of nuclear weapons should Ukraine attack his country’s missile launch sites.

Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said some Ukrainian officials have argued for striking his country’s missile launchers using long-range missiles provided by Western countries.

Noting that these officials, which he did not specify, underscored this to be the “best method to fight Russia,” Medvedev said that this would risk triggering Paragraph 19 of the country’s state policy in the area of nuclear deterrence.

Paragraph 19 of the nuclear doctrine, which was adopted in 2020 by presidential decree, outlines the possible conditions in which Russia can use nuclear weapons.

2251 GMT — Ukraine: New version of draft mobilisation law already prepared

Ukraine’s defence minister said that his team has already prepared a new version of a draft mobilisation law after a previous version was withdrawn by the country’s Cabinet of Ministers earlier in the day.

“Our team has already prepared a new version of the draft law, taking into account all the proposals agreed in the working order with the members of parliament at the meetings of the committee on national security, defence and intelligence,” Rustem Umerov said in a statement on Facebook.

Stressing that Ukrainian soldiers need “rotations and vacations” as well as an opportunity to recover from the ongoing conflict with Russia, Umerov said the draft law plans to establish a "clear term of military service."

“This law is necessary for the defense of our state and every soldier who is currently at the front. It needs to be approved as soon as possible,” he added.

For our live updates from Thursday, January 11, click here.