NATO and Ukraine to hold special meeting on air defence

Ambassadors from NATO and Ukraine will hold a special meeting next week as Kyiv urges faster deliveries of air defences after mounting Russian strikes, the alliance said.

The meeting, due to take place on 10 January, was being convened at Kyiv's request following missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians, cities and towns, a NATO spokesperson said.

Moscow has over the New Year unleashed some of its biggest missile and drone attacks on Ukraine since the early days of the invasion in February 2022.

A Russian missile strike on 29 December killed 32 people in Kyiv, authorities said, with 30 people wounded.

They added that all killed were in a warehouse. Russia says it only targets military infrastructure.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko had said that the strike was "the largest in terms of civilian casualties."

While on Tuesday, Russia bombarded the capital and the second-largest city of Kharkiv, killing five and injuring dozens.

The attacks saw parts of a downed missile set off fires that largely destroyed an apartment block near Kyiv's central rail station.

It came after President Vladimir Putin warned that a Ukrainian airstrike on the Russian city of Belgorod last weekend, which Moscow said killed 25 civilians, would "not go unpunished".

Kyiv says the latest attacks underline the need for Western allies to speed up delivery of air defence equipment, combat drones and long-range missiles.

But the call comes as support from leading NATO power the US is running dry due to stalemate in the US Congress.

NATO spokesman Dylan White said: "NATO allies have already delivered a vast array of air defence systems to Ukraine and they are committed to further bolstering Ukraine's defences."

Read the latest developments in Ukraine

Meanwhile, one civilian was killed and eight wounded this morning in a strike on Kropynmytskyi in central Ukraine, damaging energy company buildings and causing power and water supply cuts, the regional governor said.

Russia likely used an X-59 missile, governor Andriy Raikovych said at a briefing.

"Ordinary working people were injured ... One worker,unfortunately, died. A simple car mechanic," Mr Raikovych said.

He added on the Telegram messaging app that all those hurt had shrapnel wounds.

Damage to power lines resulted in power outages and water supply cuts in several parts of the city though services were restored later, according to Mr Raikovych.

Eleven villages in the eastern Donetsk region, which has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the war, faced multiple attacks yesterday.

"One person was killed and three others were injured as a result," the interior ministry said, adding that residential buildings, cars, a pipeline and power line were damaged.

The ministry also published images of partially burned buildings after five missiles struck the city of Kurakhove.

A senior Ukrainian commander told AFP that Kyiv's mobile air defences have enough ammunition to withstand a few more powerful attacks, but then will need more Western aid.

"The current situation with man-portable air defence systems for mobile air defence groups is that there is enough ammunition to withstand the next few powerful attacks," Sergiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of the armed forces of Ukraine.

"But in the medium and long term, we need help from Western countries to replenish the missile stock," added the lieutenant-general, who oversees mobile air defence units in Kyiv and Ukraine's northern region, which are armed with portable guns rather than larger systems such as Patriots.

"The priority is more ammunition," he said, since the Russians "really want to deplete our air defence system."

"Of course, we would like more missiles for Patriots and the systems themselves," he said, referring to larger US-supplied surface-to-air missile systems that Ukraine says downed 10 Kinzhal ballistic missiles on Tuesday.

Asked whether people in Kyiv can feel safe, Mr Nayev said: "improving the effectiveness of the air defence system is our task, and we are working on it 24/7".

"Every Ukrainian citizen should know that the military leadership is doing everything in its power to ensure their peace of mind".

Cyber attack was 'a big warning'

Russian hackers were inside Ukrainian telecoms giant Kyivstar's system from at least May last year in a cyberattack that should serve as a "big warning" to the West, Ukraine's cyber spy chief told Reuters.

The hack, one of the most dramatic since Russia's full-scale invasion nearly two years ago, knocked out services provided by Ukraine's biggest telecoms operator for some 24 million users for days from 12 December last year.

In an interview, Illia Vitiuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) cybersecurity department, disclosed exclusive details about the hack, which he said caused "disastrous" destruction and aimed to land a psychological blow and gather intelligence.

"This attack is a big message, a big warning, not only to Ukraine, but for the whole Western world to understand that no one is actually untouchable," he said.

He noted Kyivstar was a wealthy, private company that invested a lot in cybersecurity.

It is the biggest of Ukraine's three main telecoms operators and there are some 1.1m Ukrainians who live in small towns and villages where there are no other providers.

The attack wiped "almost everything", including thousands of virtual servers and PCs.

"For now, we can say securely, that they were in the system at least since May 2023," he said.

"I cannot say right now, since what time they had ... full access: probably at least since November."

The SBU assessed the hackers would have been able to steal personal information, understand the locations of phones, intercept SMS-messages and perhaps steal Telegram accounts with the level of access they gained.

A Kyivstar spokesperson said the company was working closely with the SBU to investigate the attack and would take all necessary steps to eliminate future risks, adding: "No facts of leakage of personal and subscriber data have been revealed."

Mr Vitiuk said the SBU helped Kyivstar restore its systems within days and to repel new cyber attacks, of which he said that there were a number of attempts.

He said the attack had no big impact on Ukraine's military, which did not rely on telecoms operators and made use of what he described as "different algorithms and protocols".

Mr Vitiuk said he was "pretty sure" it was carried out by Sandworm, a Russian military intelligence cyberwarfare unit that has been linked to cyberattacks in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Russia's defence ministry did not respond to a written request for comment on Mr Vitiuk's remarks.