Live blog: Ukraine's lawmakers rebuff military mobilisation bill

Thursday, January 11, 2024

1853 GMT — Ukraine's parliament refused to debate a controversial bill aimed at drafting more soldiers, amid fierce criticism from lawmakers and the public.

The bill, introduced by the government in December, would toughen penalties for draft dodgers and lower the age of military service from 27 to 25.

While it would also cut compulsory wartime service from an unlimited period to 36 months, the changes have been deeply divisive in a nation exhausted by fighting.

"Some provisions directly violate human rights, some are not optimally formulated," ruling party leader David Arakhamia said after a closed-door meeting with Ukraine's military leaders.

"We understand the request of the military command and are ready to meet it. But not all the rules can be supported," he said, adding that the bill had been returned to the government.

"In short, there will be no developments under the law on mobilisation. Neither today nor tomorrow. Nor in the near future," said Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an opposition MP from the pro-EU liberal Holos party.

Ukraine's defence minister said in the evening that his team had "already prepared a new version of the draft law" taking into account suggestions from other MPs.

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1801 GMT — Zelenskyy urges 'new European arsenal' as he seeks fresh support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more European weapons production and warned that any pause in the conflict would only benefit Russia.

"This year, Ukraine will make every effort to create a new European arsenal to prevent Russian aggression against Europe," Zelenskyy said in Riga.

He made the statement during a press conference in Riga, following visits to Lithuania and Estonia as part of his first trip abroad in 2024.

Earlier on Thursday in Estonia's capital Tallinn he warned that any "pauses" in Ukraine's defence against the Russian offensive would only help Moscow to re-arm and allow it to "run us over".

Zelenskyy's trip comes as he seeks to bolster wavering support among other Western backers, with decisions on fresh aid packages to Kiev stalled in the US and the European Union. Karis called for "no limits on providing Ukraine with arms".

1455 GMT — Ukraine to hold fourth peace formula talks at Davos

Ukraine and Switzerland will host around 120 national security advisors in the Swiss resort town of Davos, Switzerland's foreign affairs department said, the latest in a series of meetings to rally support for Ukraine's peace plan.

Officials had hoped the meeting in Malta would lead to the setting of a date for a global peace summit to build a coalition of support for Ukraine's 10-point peace plan, drafted by President Zelenskyy in December 2022.

However, co-chairs limited themselves at the time to a joint statement referring to the participants' commitment to just and lasting peace.

A top Kiev official told Reuters in November that a summit to begin implementing the plan "might" take place in February 2024, with Ukraine fearing the war in Gaza is making it harder to win over diplomatic support for its blueprint for peace.

Zelenskyy's plan includes calls for the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, protection of food and energy supplies, nuclear safety and the release of all prisoners.

1446 GMT — Russia warns of risk of nuclear response if Ukraine hits missile launch sites

A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin warned that any Ukrainian attacks on missile launch sites inside Russia with arms supplied by the United States and its allies would risk a nuclear response from Moscow.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that some Ukrainian military commanders were considering hitting missile launch sites inside Russia with Western-supplied long-range missiles.

He did not name the commanders or disclose more details of the alleged plan and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to his threat.

"What does this mean? It means only one thing – they risk running into the action of paragraph 19 of the fundamentals of Russia's state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"This should be remembered," Medvedev said.

Paragraph nineteen of Russia's 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of conventional weapons against Russia "when the very existence of the state is put under threat."

0945 GMT — Ceasefire would only benefit Russia: Ukraine's Zelenskyy

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that a ceasefire in the Russian-Ukrainian war would not lead to political dialogue, and would only benefit Russia as this would allow Moscow to boost its supply of munitions.

Zelenskyy said Russia was negotiating missile purchases from Iran and that Russian forces had received more than one million rounds of ammunition from North Korea.

The Ukrainian president spoke during a visit to Estonia as part of a wider tour of the Baltic region.

0731 GMT — More than a dozen injured in Russian strike on hotel in Ukraine

Two Russian missiles struck a hotel in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, injuring 13 people including foreign journalists, local authorities have said.

The strikes on Wednesday evening came as both Moscow and Kiev accused each other of inflicting dozens of civilian casualties in a sharp escalation of attacks.

"Two missiles hit a hotel in the centre of Kharkiv. There were no military personnel there. Instead, there were 30 civilians," Mayor Igor Terekhov posted on Telegram.

One of the wounded is in "very serious condition", he said, adding that "Turkish journalists are among the victims".

Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said S-300 missiles were fired from the Russian frontier region of Belgorod, adding that a 35-year-old man was hospitalised in serious condition".

2307 GMT —Ukraine builds barricades, digs trenches as focus shifts to defence

Rows of white concrete barricades and coils of razor wire stretch across an open field for more than a kilometre.

Trenches with rudimentary living quarters are being dug under cover of darkness. Artillery rumbles not far away. New defensive lines visited by Reuters near the northeastern city of Kupiansk on Dec. 28 show how Ukraine has stepped up construction of fortifications in recent months as it shifts its military operations against Russia to a more defensive footing.

The defences, which bear some similarities to those rolled out in the Russian-occupied south and east, aim to help Ukraine weather assaults while regenerating its forces as Moscow takes the battlefield initiative, military analysts said.

"As soon as the troops are moving, traversing fields, you can do without fortifications. But when the troops stop, you need t o immediately dig into the ground," a Ukrainian army engineer with the call sign Lynx told Reuters near Kupiansk.

2300 GMT — Ukraine's Zelenskyy says Russia can be stopped but Kiev needs more air defence systems

Ukraine has shown the world that Russia's military can be stopped, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said as he began a visit to the Baltic nations in search of more help for his country against the Kremlin's larger and better-supplied forces in the 22-month-old incursion.

Speaking in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on wednesday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine still must bolster its air defences against Russia’s intensified missile and drone onslaughts and replenish its ammunition supplies as long-range strikes become the main feature of this winter's fighting.

“We have proven that Russia can be stopped, that deterrence is possible,” he said after talks with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on his first foreign trip of the year.

The massive Russian barrages — more than 500 drones and missiles were fired between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2, according to officials in Kiev — are using up Ukraine’s weapons stockpiles, however.

2300 GMT — Ukraine says Russia struck Kharkiv hotel; Anadolu staff unhurt

Two Russian missiles have struck a hotel in the centre of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, wounding 10 people, one of them seriously, the regional governor said.

Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on Telegram, claimed the strike involved an S-300 missile in the city's Kiev district.

"One person is in critical condition, another has injuries and is in stable condition, while the rest have minor injuries," Synehubov wrote.

Oleksandr Filchakov, head of the Kharkiv prosecutor's office, said one missile hit a building near the hotel complex, and the second one hit near the building's entrance.

Filchakov, in a video posted on Telegram, said 23 guests and eight staff were in the hotel at the time.

2251 GMT — Missiles hit hotel housing Anadolu war correspondents

A hotel where Anadolu Agency journalists were staying during their covering of war in eastern Ukraine was targeted by missiles.

The attacks were carried out around 11:30 pm local time [2130GMT] in the city of Kharkiv near the border with Russia.

Two missiles hit the Park Hotel, where Anadolu correspondents covering the Russia-Ukraine war on the front lines had been staying.

The upper floors of the hotel were destroyed by the impact of the explosions and the building was engulfed in flames.

Anadolu reporter Davit Kachkachishvili and photojournalist Ozge Elif Kizil managed to escape the strikes. Kachkachishvili suffered minor cuts to his hands.

Kizil and Kachkachishvili, both in good health, were transported to a hospital by ambulance for further checks.

The vehicle used by the team was also damaged in the attack and rendered unusable, like many other vehicles near the hotel.

2146 GMT — South Korea says North Korea may sell new missiles to Russia

North Korea may be poised to provide a new type of missile to Russia, and may conduct further weapons tests to escalate tensions ahead of South Korean and US elections, South Korea's defence chief told the Yonhap news agency.

"North Korea, which needs money, is actively selling new weapons that Russia wants," Defence Minister Shin Won-sik told Yonhap.

Shin cited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit this week to munitions factories, where he inspected what may be recently developed close-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons.

North Korea, which had previously said it would deploy these missiles to frontline troops, may sell at least some of them to Russia given its suspected sales of short-range ballistic missiles recently, Shin said.

2137 GMT — Russia summons Moldovan envoy, denounces 'unfriendly actions'

Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Moldovan ambassador and issued a protest against "unfriendly acts" in the latest of a series of jabs exchanged between the Kremlin and the ex-Soviet state's pro-European authorities.

A ministry statement denounced the "systematic character" of Moldovan actions it said were directed against Russian citizens.

These, it said, included "politically motivated persecution" of Russian and Russian-language journalists.

"Moldova's leadership continues to make aggressive anti-Russian declarations," the statement said that the Moldovan Ambassador Lilian Darie was told.

Since taking power in 2020, President Maia Sandu has moved to abandon the Soviet legacy of the country lying between Ukraine and Romania and move it into the European mainstream.

She has denounced Russia's assault on Ukraine and accused Moscow of trying to interfere in last November's local elections in Moldova and of trying to foment a coup to remove her.

For our live updates from Wednesday, January 10, click here.