As we enter the 679th day of the war, these are the most important developments.

Here is the situation as of Wednesday, January 3, 2024.

Battle

• Russia has targeted Ukraine’s largest cities with an attack Barrage of drones, rockets and missilesAt least four people were killed in Kiev and one in Kharkiv. According to the state emergency service, 119 people were injured. The bombing, which also knocked out water and electricity supplies, came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would step up attacks on Ukraine.
• Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military, said air defenses shot down all 10 planes Kinzhal hypersonic missiles fired by Russia at Ukraine. The consequences if the weapons hit their targets would have been “catastrophic,” he added.
• Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov accused Russia of “deliberately attacking critical infrastructure and residential areas” in his report. attacks on Tuesday. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the raids hit Ukrainian military-industrial facilities as well as weapons storage facilities. “The strike goal has been achieved, all targets have been hit,” it said.
• Poland mobilized two pairs of F-16 fighter jets and an air tanker to protect its airspace during Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Polish military authorities said last week a Russian rocket briefly flew through the country’s airspace, causing concern.

• Moscow said its air defenses destroyed 17 Ukrainian Olkha missiles over Russia’s Belgorod, not far from the Ukrainian border. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Belgorod regional governor, said one person was killed and five were injured in the raids.
• Russia launched an investigation after one of its missiles accidentally hit the Russian border village of Petropavlovka, 40 km (87 miles) from northeastern Ukraine, damaging several houses. Nobody was injured.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Russian attacks sparked condemnation across Europe. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, reiterated the European Union’s support for Ukraine and said the Russian airstrikes showed Moscow was not interested in peace talks. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, meanwhile, described the attacks as “Russian terrorism” and called on the West to provide more aid to Ukraine. Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged Berlin’s continued support and said recent attacks showed Moscow wanted to “destroy” Ukraine.
• United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk called for an immediate de-escalation of fighting, measures to protect civilians and respect for international law following the recent “alarming escalation of hostilities.”
• Ukraine’s foreign minister called on Western allies to tighten sanctions against Russia and supply more advanced weapons, including air defense systems and ammunition, combat drones and long-range missiles. In the US, a planned $60 billion aid package for Kiev is being held up by Republicans in Congress, while Hungary has blocked $55 billion in EU aid to Ukraine.
• Mariana Katzarova, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Russian Federation, called on Moscow to immediately release two poets imprisoned for reading works criticizing the war in Ukraine. A Moscow court last week sentenced Artyom Kamardin to seven years in prison and Yegor Shtovba to five and a half years after they took part in a public poetry reading in Moscow in September 2022.

weapons

• Turkey said it would block two Royal Navy minehunters promised to Ukraine from passing through its waters en route to the Black Sea because doing so would violate an international pact that regulates maritime traffic through the straits that join the Mediterranean connect to the Black Sea.
• Norway said it would allow the direct sale of weapons to Ukraine. “In the extraordinary security situation resulting from Russia’s war of aggression, it is crucial that we continue to support Ukraine,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a press statement.