Ukraine-Russia war – live: Kyiv children’s hospital damaged and dozens injured in ballistic missile strike

Pre-war Russian forces have been devastated by the war in Ukraine, a war monitoring think-tank has said.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), citing a declassified US intelligence document, said Putin’s army has lost 87 per cent of their pre-war active-duty ground troops.

The intelligence assessment reportedly stated that Russian forces lost 315,000 out the 360,000 military personnel on their inventory before February 24 2022.

Russia has reportedly also lost two-thirds of the tanks in its pre-war inventory and over a quarter of their stockpiles of military equipment as of November 2023.

The ISW says that Russia has managed to partially offset these losses and continues to prepare for a long war.

Intelligence suggests 420,000 Russian personnel are currently in occupied Ukraine, although they “likely have lower combat capabilities” than those they replaced.

Russia’s military command is also pursuing a “long-term restructuring and expansion” to prepare for a potential future conflict against NATO, ISW reported.

Russia brought a new launch site into use on Tuesday in an effort to “complicate Ukrainian air defence efforts”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.

In their latest defence intelligence update, the MoD said Russia launched at least 15 Shahed One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA UAV) from the Balaklava district of Crimea.

This is now the fifth confirmed OWA UAV launch site being used in Russian operations against Ukraine alongside the sites at Cape Chauda, Yeysk, Primorsko, and Kursk.

The Ministry of Defence said: “Russia is highly likely dispersing its OWA UAV launch capabilities across several locations as both a force protection measure and to complicate Ukrainian air defence efforts.

“Russia will likely use additional launch sites in response to Ukrainian attacks, forcing Ukraine to adapt to new transit corridors of these systems.”

The European Union’s chief executive urged the bloc on Wednesday to continue supporting Ukraine for “as long as it takes”.

Ukraine is looking to a key European leaders’ summit on Thursday for a positive signal on its future in the European Union.

“As the war drags on, we must prove what it means to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament ahead of the leaders’ summit.

Her Commission has proposed that the summit takes a decision this week to start EU membership talks with Ukraine once it meets the four outstanding conditions set out previously to advance Kyiv’s EU hopes.

The Brussels EU executive suggested that could happen in March.

Hungary is opposed to granting Ukraine more financial aid and has threatened to veto plans to advance Kyiv’s EU membership.

Hungary has stuck to its opposition stance on Ukraine’s membership talks with the EU.

Prime minister Viktor Orban said Ukraine should aim for a strategic partnership instead in an interview with local news broadcasters this morning.

“The EU is preparing to make a terrible mistake and we must prevent that even if 26 (members) want to make the mistake,” Mr Orban said in the interview.

“If we want to give support to Ukraine, a geostrategic signal, then we should, but this is not membership.”

The Hungarian PM was seen engaging in a heated discussion with Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Zelensky in Argentina over the weekend.

Mr Orban has repeatedly opposed Ukraine’s EU membership and boasts about his ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s autumn offensive operations were primarily aimed at weakening Western support, US intelligence reportedly assessed.

War monitoring think-tank The Insititute for the Study of War (ISW) cited the intelligence that said the operational objectives of Putin’s offenses were considered secondary aims.

US intelligence reportedly concluded that offensives have only resulted in heavy Russian losses and no operationally significant Russian battlefield gains.

US National Security Council Spokesperson Andrienne Watson reportedly stated that Russian forces have suffered more than 13,000 casualties and lost 220 combat vehicles along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis since launching offensive operations in October 2023, ISW said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said the effectiveness of Western weapons should not be doubted, in light of last night’s attack.

The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 10 Russia-launched ballistic missiles overnight.

“The effectiveness of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers cannot be doubted,” Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak said on the Telegram messaging app.

“But there are victims as a result of falling fragments of Russian missiles, houses were burned. Kyiv is being hit with ballistic (missiles).”

Over 50 civilians, including a five-year-old child, were injured as a result of debris from intercepting missiles during the attack.

At least 51 people, including six children, were injured in a Russian missile attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday.

Loud explosions rocked Kyiv at 3am as the city’s air defences started intercepting Russian missiles headed for the peaceful capital for the second time this week.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that the debris from intercepted missiles damaged an apartment building, a private house, and set several cars ablaze. It also shattered the windows and entrances of a nearby children’s hospital.

All missiles targeting the capital were downed by Ukraine’s air defence systems, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration said.

On the morning of 24 February 2022 – a date etched in every Ukrainian’s mind – Andriy Shevchenko was woken by a phone call from his mother. She told him through tears that Russia was invading. Shevchenko was in London, where he lives with his wife and four sons; his mother and wider family were in Ukraine, under attack.

Read the full voices piece by Lawrence Ostlere here

In December of last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington as a hero, delivering a joint address to Congress. The select committee investigating the January 6 riot postponed the release of its final report as Congress rolled out the red carpet for the leader of the country pushing back against aggression from Russia.

But the warm welcome underlined the fact that Democrats, who at the time controlled the majority in the House, knew that passing aid to Ukraine would be much harder come January when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.

And indeed, on Tuesday 12 December, despite arriving in the US Senate in his trademark fatigues flanked by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, most Republicans remained wholly unmoved in their opposition to assisting Ukraine.

There is truly no way around it: Congress is wholly at an impasse when it comes to passing aid to Ukraine, and no dramatic plea from Zelensky can change it.