Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to key eventsSkip to navigation

US $3bn aid package to Ukraine to include dozens of Bradley fighting vehicles – as it happened

This article is more than 1 year old

Largest assistance package Washington has provided marks Biden’s latest effort to help Ukraine beat back Russian forces. This live blog is now closed

 Updated 
Fri 6 Jan 2023 14.01 ESTFirst published on Fri 6 Jan 2023 00.37 EST
War will end ‘when your soldiers leave’: Zelenskiy dismisses Russian ceasefire – video

Live feed

From

US $3bn aid package to Ukraine to include dozens of Bradleys

A new US weapons aid package for Ukraine worth more than $3bn will include for the first time several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles, the White House has announced.

The latest US aid – totalling about $2.85bn and about 50 Bradleys – is the largest assistance package to date that Washington has provided to Ukraine and marks the Biden’s administration’s latest step to help Ukraine beat back Russian forces.

The package includes a $2.85bn drawdown from the Pentagon’s stocks that will be sent directly to Ukraine and $225m in foreign military financing to build the long-term capacity and support the modernisation of Ukraine’s military, the White House said.

Announcing the aid, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:

The war is at a critical point and we must do everything we can to help the Ukrainians resist Russian aggression.

The aid includes 50 Bradleys as well as 500 anti-tank missiles and 250,000 rounds of ammunition for the carriers.

The US will also send 100 M113 armoured personnel carriers, 55 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPS), and 138 HUMVEES, as well as ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and air defence systems and other weapons, according to officials.

The Bradley fighting vehicle is an armoured carrier that has been used regularly by the US army to transport troops to combat since the mid-1980s. The Bradley’s armour and its main weapon, a 25mm chain gun paired with a lighter machine gun and a pair of TOW anti-tank missiles, make it a highly capable modern fighting vehicle.

Share
Updated at 
Key events

Closing summary

It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • The US will provide a new weapons aid package for Ukraine and its neighbours worth more than $3.75bn (£3.1bn), the White House has announced, including for the first time several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles. The package includes a $2.85bn drawdown from the Pentagon’s stocks that will be sent directly to Ukraine and $225m in foreign military financing to build the long-term capacity and support the modernisation of Ukraine’s military, the White House said.

  • A unilateral 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine, declared by Vladimir Putin, came into effect today. “At noon today, the ceasefire regime came into force on the entire contact line. It will continue until the end of 7 January,” Russia’s state first TV channel reported on Friday. Putin’s order came after Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox church in Russia, called for a ceasefire and a Christmas truce in Ukraine to enable Orthodox people to attend services.

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, rejected Russia’s ceasefire proposal, which many observers have speculated is aimed is to allow Russian soldiers to rest. Zelenskiy claimed the goal was to halt the progress of Ukraine’s forces in Donetsk and the wider eastern Donbas region and bring in more of Moscow’s forces. US president Joe Biden said Putin was “trying to find some oxygen” by floating the ceasefire, noting that the Russian leader did not implement the break during the 25th, which many Orthodox Ukrainians celebrate, or on new year. Putin’s announcement was likely an information operation intended to damage Ukraine’s reputation, according to the Institute for the Study of War in the US.

  • Air raid alerts sounded across Ukraine just hours after Russia called a ceasefire. There were no immediate reports of attacks on Ukraine, and the alert was allegedly triggered by the launch in Belarus of a MiG-31K fighter jet.

  • Hours before the Moscow-declared truce came into effect, Russian forces continued to launch fresh strikes on Ukrainian cities. Russian shells hit the city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Friday morning, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the office of Ukraine’s president. Kramatorsk mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko warned the city was “under fire” and urged residents to stay in shelters. Fourteen homes were damaged after rockets hit the residential building, he said.

  • In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Russian forces shelled a fire department on Friday morning before the ceasefire came into effect, the regional governor said. One rescue worker was killed and four others were injured, he said. Journalists also reported hearing both outgoing and incoming shelling around the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

  • In the occupied Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukrainian troops of shelling its military positions just as a temporary ceasefire declared by Moscow came into effect. State-run news agency Tass reported that Moscow-installed officials in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) wrote in a Telegram channel that “six shells of 155 mm calibre were fired” from “155 mm Nato artillery guns”.

  • Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, has warned residents in occupied territories not to attend church services for Orthodox Christmas. Russia is planning to launch “terrorist attacks” in churches, Vereshchuk said, without providing evidence, as she urged citizens to “be careful and if possible refrain from visiting places with large crowds”.

  • Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed that Russia is set to order the mobilisation of as many as 500,000 conscripts in January in addition to the 300,000 it called up in October. Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, said Ukraine believed the conscripts would be part of a string of Russian offensives over the spring and summer in the east and south of the country.

  • Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko visited a military base where Russian troops are stationed, the defence ministry said. During the meeting, Lukashenko and an unnamed representative from the Russian army discussed the two countries’ joint military drills, it said. It came as reports emerged that a train carrying troops and equipment from Russia has arrived in Belarus.

  • Germany plans to send about 40 Marder armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine before the end of this year’s first quarter, according to government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit. A Patriot anti-aircraft missile system from army stocks will also be delivered to Ukraine in the first quarter, he told reporters in Berlin on Friday.

  • Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told Zelenskiy that he will consider an invitation to visit Kyiv depending on “various circumstances”. Kishida, who has just taken on the rotating chairman role of the G7 leading economies, reaffirmed Tokyo’s full support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

  • Ukraine will need at least $1.79bn (£1.48bn) to restore its telecommunications sector to prewar levels, according to a UN report. Russia has “destroyed completely or seized” networks in parts of Ukraine, and communications infrastructure in more than 10 out of the country’s 24 regions have been considerably damaged and destroyed, the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union said.

  • Trusts holding billions of dollars of assets for Roman Abramovich were amended to transfer beneficial ownership to his children shortly before sanctions were imposed on the Russian oligarch. Leaked files seen by the Guardian suggest 10 secretive offshore trusts established to benefit Abramovich were rapidly reorganised in early February 2022, three weeks before the start of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Share
Updated at 

US $3bn aid package to Ukraine to include dozens of Bradleys

A new US weapons aid package for Ukraine worth more than $3bn will include for the first time several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles, the White House has announced.

The latest US aid – totalling about $2.85bn and about 50 Bradleys – is the largest assistance package to date that Washington has provided to Ukraine and marks the Biden’s administration’s latest step to help Ukraine beat back Russian forces.

The package includes a $2.85bn drawdown from the Pentagon’s stocks that will be sent directly to Ukraine and $225m in foreign military financing to build the long-term capacity and support the modernisation of Ukraine’s military, the White House said.

Announcing the aid, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:

The war is at a critical point and we must do everything we can to help the Ukrainians resist Russian aggression.

The aid includes 50 Bradleys as well as 500 anti-tank missiles and 250,000 rounds of ammunition for the carriers.

The US will also send 100 M113 armoured personnel carriers, 55 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPS), and 138 HUMVEES, as well as ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and air defence systems and other weapons, according to officials.

The Bradley fighting vehicle is an armoured carrier that has been used regularly by the US army to transport troops to combat since the mid-1980s. The Bradley’s armour and its main weapon, a 25mm chain gun paired with a lighter machine gun and a pair of TOW anti-tank missiles, make it a highly capable modern fighting vehicle.

Share
Updated at 

Ukraine will need at least $1.79bn (£1.48bn) to restore its telecommunications sector to prewar levels, according to a UN report.

Russia has “destroyed completely or seized” networks in parts of Ukraine, and communications infrastructure in more than 10 out of the country’s 24 regions has been considerably damaged and destroyed, the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union said.

The report, which covers the first six months of the war, said:

Since the beginning of military attacks, with the purpose of using the facilities in its interests and for its own needs, the aggressor either destroyed completely or seized the regular operation of public and private terrestrial telecommunication and critical infrastructure in the temporarily occupied and war-affected territories of Ukraine.

The report goes on to allege that Moscow unilaterally switched Ukrainian dialling codes, fixed by the UN agency, to Russian ones, and that there had been 1,123 cyber-attacks against Ukraine.

Russia has regularly targeted Ukraine with cyber-attacks since its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Share
Updated at 

Russia preparing to mobilise extra 500,000 conscripts, claims Ukraine

Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed that Russia is set to order the mobilisation of as many as 500,000 conscripts in January in addition to the 300,000 it called up in October, in another apparent sign that Vladimir Putin has no intention of ending the war.

Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, said Ukraine believed the conscripts would be part of a string of Russian offensives over the spring and summer in the east and south of the country.

Russia has denied it is preparing a second wave of mobilisation, with Putin saying last month it was “pointless” to talk about a new call-up, claiming that only half of those already mobilised had been sent to Ukraine.

Russian officials, including Putin, previously denied plans to order a mobilisation before eventually declaring a “partial mobilisation” in September.

Read the full story here:

US to provide $3 billion in military aid for Ukraine

The US will provide a new weapons aid package for Ukraine worth more than $3bn (£2.48bn), the White House has announced.

From my colleague David Smith, who is in Washington:

At White House briefing. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on latest Ukraine aid package: “As the president said yesterday, the war is at a critical point and we must do everything we can to help Ukrainians resist Russian aggression.” pic.twitter.com/mwS5QCeSdl

— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 6, 2023
Share
Updated at 

Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine, where many are preparing to celebrate Orthodox Christmas tomorrow.

Soldiers from the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade celebrate with a toast over Orthodox Christmas at dinner from the frontline region of Kreminna, Ukraine. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
An Orthodox priest offers the holy communion to a woman during Christmas church service in Kostyantynivka, Ukraine. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Ukrainian servicemen attend a special service for Ukrainian Armed Forces at Mikhailovsky Zlatoverkhy Cathedral (St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral) in central Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
An Orthodox priest during a religious ceremony to mark the Orthodox Christmas in Kherson, Ukraine. Photograph: Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Russia ‘opened fire 14 times’ during first three hours of Putin’s ‘ceasefire’, says Luhansk governor

Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Russian troops opened fire 14 times in the Ukrainian region during the first three hours of a unilateral ceasefire announced by Vladimir Putin to mark Orthodox Christmas.

Russian forces also tried to storm one of the liberated villages in Luhansk oblast during the “Chstrimas truce”, Haidai wrote on Telegram.

He said:

Briefly on the three hours of Putin’s ‘Christmas truce’ in Luhansk region. From 12:00 to 15:00. The Ruscists fired artillery 14 times and stormed one of our settlements three times. People in de-occupied villages shelter in basements all day. Orthodox murderers greet you on Christmas.

It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.

US targets Iranian drone firms over ties to Russia in new sanctions

The US has issued new sanctions targeting suppliers of Iranian drones that Washington said have been used to target civilian infrastructure in the war in Ukraine.

Sanctions have been imposed on six executives and board members of Qods Aviation Industries (QAI), also known as Light Airplanes Design and Manufacturing Industries, according to a statement by the US treasury department. It described QAI as a key Iranian defence manufacturer responsible for the design and production of drones.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement:

We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to deny Putin the weapons that he is using to wage his barbaric and unprovoked war on Ukraine.

She added:

The Kremlin’s reliance on suppliers of last resort like Iran shows their desperation in the face of brave Ukrainian resistance and the success of our global coalition in disrupting Russian military supply chains and denying them the inputs they need to replace weapons lost on the battlefield.

The US has previously imposed sanctions on companies and people it accused of producing or transferring Iranian drones that Russia has used to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says he has spoken with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, a day after Berlin announced it would provide Kyiv with Marder infantry fighting vehicles and a Patriot air defence system.

Zelenskiy says he thanked Scholz for the “powerful” defence package, and that the pair discussed “further cooperation to strengthen the Ukrainian army”.

I had a phone talk with 🇩🇪 Chancellor @OlafScholz. I thanked for the powerful defense package, including several dozen Marder vehicles and the Patriot system. We discussed further cooperation to strengthen the Ukrainian army.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 6, 2023

Putin’s Christmas ceasefire order ‘not credible’, says Borrell

The EU’s top diplomat has described an announcement by Vladimir Putin of a 36-hour ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas as “not credible”, adding that the Russian president’s order appeared to be an attempt by Moscow to “buy time to regroup its troops”.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was speaking during a visit to Morocco, AFP reports.

He said:

The Kremlin totally lacks credibility and this declaration of a unilateral ceasefire is not credible.

He added:

It was Russia that launched this illegitimate aggression. When the aggressor talks of a ceasefire, I think the response that comes to us all is scepticism in the face of such hypocrisy.

He called for “concrete actions on the ground”, including “a complete halt of military attacks” and Moscow’s withdrawal of troops and military equipment from Ukrainian territory.

He added:

In the absence of such concrete actions, a unilateral ceasefire seems to be an attempt by Russia to buy time to regroup its troops and try to repair its damaged international reputation.

The Ukrainian government has reclaimed the main cathedral of a Russian-backed monastery in Kyiv and allowed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to use it for Orthodox Christmas services.

The 1,000-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – was the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church (UOC) that falls under the Moscow patriarchate. The monastery is also a Ukrainian cultural treasure and a Unesco world heritage site.

Uspenskyi (Holy Dormition) Cathedral and the Trapezna church at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

According to Ukraine’s ministry of culture, the Pechersk Lavra’s Dormition Cathedral and the Refectory Church were taken over by the Ukrainian government after the UOC’s lease expired at the end of 2022.

⚡️Успенський собор та Трапезна церква «Києво-Печерської Лаври» повернулися до держави з користування УПЦ

Деталі: https://t.co/LYD52tl60j pic.twitter.com/uTbAL485XF

— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MCIPUkraine) January 5, 2023

Ukraine’s minister of culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, said the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) asked for and was granted permission to conduct an Orthodox Christmas service at the cathedral on Saturday.

The war has sharpened the split between Ukraine and Russia’s Orthodox churches and intensified a feud over religious allegiance. In 2019, Ukraine was given permission by the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide to form a church independent of Moscow, largely ending centuries of religious ties between the two countries.

Peter Beaumont
Peter Beaumont

On the roads leading to Ukraine’s frontlines, a striking change has become visible in recent months.

Where once the armoured vehicles being ferried in were familiar from the Soviet era – T-model tanks, BMPs and post-Soviet Ukrainian-built BTRs – they have in recent months been joined by a growing array of western-supplied vehicles.

Bushmasters from Australia can be seen alongside Polish Dziks and British-made Spartans, soon to be joined by scores of even more impressive vehicles: US Bradley and German Marder infantry fighting vehicles and French AMX-10 tank destroyers.

French troops on an AMX-10 during a training exercise in France. Ukraine’s military have successfully emphasised speed and mobility – not least in its successful counteroffensives in both the east and south against Russian forces. Photograph: Gouhier Nicolas/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

While Kyiv has been pushing hard for its allies to supply main battle banks, such as the US M1 Abrams and the German Leopard II, demands so far resisted, the armoured vehicles now pouring into Ukraine are in many ways a better fit for the kind of war and tactics that the Ukrainian military has been using against Russia.

Faced with a shortage of armour at the beginning of the war, and – on paper, at least – heavily outgunned, Ukraine’s armed forces rapidly turned those shortcomings into advantages.

Confronted with a lumbering Russian military approach that concentrated its heavy tanks and had a large reliance on recently upgraded Ukraine’s road system, Ukraine’s lighter forces have successfully emphasised speed and mobility – not least in Kyiv’s successful counteroffensives in both the east and south against Russian forces.

Read the full story here:

Share
Updated at 

A Russian hacking team known as Cold River targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, Reuters reports.

Between August and September, as President Vladimir Putin indicated Russia would be willing to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory, Cold River targeted the Brookhaven (BNL), Argonne (ANL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL), according to internet records that showed the hackers creating fake login pages for each institution and emailing nuclear scientists in a bid to make them reveal their passwords.

Reuters was unable to determine why the labs were targeted or if any attempted intrusion was successful.

Cold River has escalated its hacking campaign against Kyiv’s allies since the invasion of Ukraine, according to cybersecurity researchers and western government officials.

The digital blitz against the US labs occurred as UN experts entered Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory to inspect Europe’s biggest atomic power plant and assess the risk of what both sides said could be a devastating radiation disaster amid heavy shelling nearby.

Reuters has updated its reporting on the situation in Ukraine. Here are the latest lines:

Artillery fire could be heard from the front line in Ukraine on Friday, even after the official start of a unilateral ceasefire declared by Moscow and rejected by Kyiv.

Russia’s defence ministry said its troops began observing the ceasefire from noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) “along the entire line of contact” in the conflict, but said Ukraine kept up shelling populated areas and military positions.

Reuters could not immediately verify whether the intensity of fighting slowed following the start of the truce. One witness in the Russian-occupied regional capital Donetsk, close to the front, described outgoing artillery fired from pro-Russian positions on the city’s outskirts after the truce was meant to take effect.

In the hours prior, rockets slammed into a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk close to the eastern frontline, damaging 14 homes but with no casualties, the mayor said. Residents described several explosions.

“It’s bad, very bad. We need to pressure them, get them to leave, maybe more air defence systems would help. This happens often, not only on festive occasions. Every other day,” said Oleksnadr, 36, outside a supermarket at the time of the attack.

One rescue worker was killed and four others injured after Russian forces shelled a fire department in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson before the deadline early on Friday, the regional governor said. Reuters could not immediately verify this.

Shortly after the ceasefire was supposed to come into effect, Russian-backed officials accused Ukraine of shelling Donetsk with artillery, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency said.

Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed leader in Donetsk, said on Thursday that Putin’s order only covered offensive operations and his forces would hit back if fired upon.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed administrator of Ukraine’s Kherson region, described the ceasefire as “a gesture of goodwill,” but said the situation on the front lines would not change because of it.

Despite air raid warnings sounding in several regions, no major air strikes were reported by Ukrainian officials after the ceasefire starting time.

The town of Bakhmut, 12 miles (20 km) southeast of Kramatorsk, has for months been the most intense battleground, still in Ukrainian hands despite dug-in trench warfare and months of battering by Russian forces that have left much of it in ruins.

“I tell people we should pray for the guys holding Bakhmut. If Bakhmut is given up, Kramatorsk will suffer heavily,” said Yehven, 32, also at the supermarket.

Share
Updated at 

The BBC has a report on how fighting is continuing despite Russia declaring a unilateral ceasefire today:

Air alerts were reported across Ukraine shortly after the purported truce began, and then the governor of Kherson region said a strike on a fire station left rescuer dead and four other people wounded in the main city, liberated in November by Ukrainian forces.

The eastern city of Kramatorsk also came under attack and more than a dozen buildings were damaged, Ukrainian officials said.

Luhansk regional leader Serhiy Haidai warned that Russia’s Christmas truce was “a lie and a trap”, advising residents not to attend Orthodox Church services or gather in crowded places as the Russians could plan “terrorist attacks”.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko warned that overnight temperatures in the capital would drop to -11C and called for electricity to be carefully used.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the truce was an attempt to stop his country’s military advances in the east of the country, and bring in more men and equipment.

Artillery fire could be heard on both sides of the front line in the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower in an attempt to push east towards Kramatorsk.

Although Russian officials insisted the truce remained intact, there was no indication of any significant lull in fighting.

Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun told the BBC:

We are two and a half hours into this proclaimed ceasefire, and actually the whole territory of Ukraine is under air raid alert. So I think that speaks for itself.

Basically the ceasefire, the Russians are making it up.

Share
Updated at 

Most viewed

Most viewed