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

Poland-based Belarusian news agency Nexta is reporting that the Estonian government has allocated more than €900,000 to dismantle and relocate military monuments remaining from the Soviet era.

Ukraine’s deputy minister of foreign affairs has tweeted photos of the aftermath of an attack on Kurakhove in the Donetsk region.

She said the Russian forces had shelled residential buildings and a private house.

It’s nearly 4pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• A unilateral 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine, declared by Vladimir Putin, has come into force. “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. 14 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”.

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

• 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.

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”.

She said:

There is information that the Russians are preparing terrorist attacks in churches in the temporarily occupied territories for Orthodox Christmas.

It is not possible to verify these claims.

A Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OSINT) group also reported receiving tip-offs about attacks on Orthodox churches in Donetsk and other occupied territories, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has dismissed Russia’s unilateral ceasefire as a “primitive and cynical deception”.

His tweet came after air raid alerts sounded across several regions in Ukraine earlier today, although there were no immediate reports of airstrikes after the temporary truce came into force.

One rescue worker was killed and four others injured after Russian forces shelled a fire department in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the regional governor said.

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.

Hebestreit said:

These 40 vehicles should be ready in the first quarter already so that they can be handed over to Ukraine.

Training on the Marder vehicles will take place in Germany and last about eight weeks, he added.

6 Jan 202307.39 EST

Harry Davies

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 Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The sweeping reorganisation of Abramovich’s financial affairs commenced just days after governments threatened to impose sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the event of an invasion.

The leaked documents raise questions about whether the changes to trusts were made in an attempt to shield the oligarch’s vast fortune from the threat of asset freezes.

Analysis suggests the amendments made Abramovich’s seven children, the youngest of whom is nine years old, beneficiaries of trusts holding assets worth at least $4bn, though the total value could be much higher.

The changes appear to have made the children the ultimate beneficial owners of trophy assets long-linked to their father, including luxury properties and a fleet of superyachts, helicopters and private jets.

Sanctions experts said the sweeping reorganisation of the trusts could complicate efforts to enforce sanctions against the oligarch and potentially frustrate attempts to freeze assets previously believed to belong to the metals tycoon.

The revelations are likely to raise questions about whether Abramovich’s children should also be subject to asset freezes. Unlike family members of some of Putin’s closest advisers, many families of oligarchs subject to sanctions have avoided restrictions.

Read the full story here:

Hours before a unilateral temporary ceasefire declared by Vladimir Putin 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.

Russian troops “hit the city with rockets twice”, Tymoshenko wrote in an update on social media. A residential building had been hit but there were no victims, he added.

Kramatorsk mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko warned the city was “under fire” and urged residents to stay in shelters. Some 14 homes were damaged after rockets hit the residential building, he said.

Residents described several explosions to Reuters. Oleksnadr, 36, told the news agency:

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.

View image in fullscreen

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 from AFP news agency and CNN reported hearing both outgoing and incoming shelling around the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has welcomed recent announcements by Germany, France and the US to step up military support for Kyiv.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the US president, Joe Biden, agreed on Thursday to send infantry fighting vehicles to help Ukraine fight Russia, a day after France said it would supply its own armoured vehicles to Kyiv.

The US will supply Ukraine with Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and Germany will provide Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles, the White House said in a statement on Thursday.

Germany will also supply Ukraine with a Patriot air defence system, in addition to one promised by the US last month, it added.

France said on Wednesday it was upping its military aid to Kyiv by supplying an unspecified number of AMX-10 RC light armoured vehicles capable, experts said, of scouting roles and supporting main battle tanks.

Writing on Twitter today, Podolyak said the Patriot system would help with strengthening Ukraine’s air defence system and with “closing the sky”.

He added that he was “expecting” German-made Leopard battle tanks, which Kyiv has sought to obtain so far unsuccessfully.

Russia’s defence ministry has accused Ukrainian troops of shelling its military positions in the occupied Donetsk region, just as a temporary ceasefire declared by Moscow came into effect.

State-run news agency Tass reports 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”.

It went on to claim that Ukrainian troops shelled the region three times with heavy artillery before the ceasefire. Reports by Russian state media cannot be verified.

The ceasefire began at noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) “along the entire line of contact” in the conflict, according to Russia’s Channel 1 state television. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Moscow of announcing a temporary truce “to continue the war with renewed vigour”.