Russia-Ukraine war live: mayor reports at least one dead in Kyiv … – msnNOW

• Ukrainian air defences shot down 47 of the 55 missiles Russian forced fired at Ukraine, the country’s top general said on Thursday. Reuters reported that Moscow used the Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, among other models, general Valery Zaluzhny said on his Telegram channel. Twenty of the incoming missiles were shot down around the area of the capital Kyiv, he added.

• Russia’s finance ministry has proposed scrapping liquidity restrictions for spending on “anti-crisis” investments from its national wealth fund (NWF), citing the need to support key sectors amid challenging geopolitical conditions.

• The UK hopes the Challenger 2 tanks it is supplying to Ukraine will arrive in the country at the end of March, defence department minister Alex Chalk said on Thursday.

• Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation” on Thursday, effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists.

• The Ukrainian central bank’s foreign currency reserves will stand at about $30bn at the end of January, Yuri Heletiy, the deputy governor told reporters on Thursday, according to Reuters.

• Russia’s finance ministry on Thursday proposed scrapping liquidity restrictions for spending on “anti-crisis” investments from its National Wealth Fund (NWF), citing the need to support key sectors amid challenging geopolitical conditions.

• The arrest of a high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence agent accused of spying for Russia has highlighted the urgent need for a cleanout of the country’s key security service, a former deputy head of the agency has said.

• Canada has confirmed that it will be sending 4 Leopard tanks to Ukrainian forces, the AFP reports.

The French have not ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine but on condition it does not lead to an escalation of war, undermine national or European security and that it is of use to Ukrainians, an influential MP and close ally of president Emmanuel Macron has said.

“We must study requests on a case by case basis and leave all the doors open” Thomas Gassilloud, chair of the National Assembly’s national defence and armed forces committee told reporters in London.

Gassiloud, who was in London to meet British MPs, added: “We will see in the coming weeks what happens next as things are moving fast”.

Ukraine’s present Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to the west to supply fighter plans as he vowed to use a new deliver of tanks from Germany and the US as the “fist of freedom” against Russia.

Denmark and other countries closer to Ukraine are now thinking about air force but others are concerned that it would signal an escalation in war to Putin.

Gassilloud said France was unlikely to sent tanks from its Leclerc battle fleet because they did not fit in with the supply from America and Germany announced last night.

“They are not the best asset we can provide to Ukraine, notably because it will costly and complicated for the Ukrainians to deal with different types of tanks. We are thinking for instance about ground-air capacities,” he said.

He pointed out that both tanks and aircraft need time consuming specialist training with up to 10 ground staff needed for every pilot.

• This post has been corrected to correct the number of ground staff required for every pilot

Russia has declared the news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation”, in effect outlawing one of the country’s best-known sources of independent reporting on the Kremlin and war in Ukraine.

Meduza, founded by Russian journalists in Riga, Latvia, in 2014, was declared an undesirable organisation by the general prosecutor’s office on Thursday for “posing a threat to the foundations of the Russian Federation’s constitutional order and national security”.

The ruling is meant to obstruct the outlet’s continued reporting on Russia, by threatening its correspondents, sources and donors with fines or criminal prosecution for continuing to produce journalism from the country.

“An especially serious limitation for journalists who must speak to sources to report the news,” Meduza said in a report on Thursday. Meduza described its work as “in [Russia], our homeland, completely prohibited”. The restrictions are so severe that even sharing links to the outlet’s reporting can be considered a crime.

Related: Russia outlaws Meduza in attempt to stamp out independent news

Canada has confirmed that it will be sending 4 Leopard tanks to Ukrainian forces, the AFP reports.

Anita Anand, the defence minister, confirmed on Thursday that Canada will soon transfer four Leopard 2 A4 tanks to Ukraine and will send Canadian troops to Europe to help train the Ukrainian military.

On Wednesday, the Globe and Mail reported that Canada faced pressure to send the tanks, and that they may be the A4 variant of the tank — the oldest in the Canadian military’s inventory.

The announcement comes after Joe Biden, the US president, announced that 31 Abrams M1 tanks will be sent to Kyiv.

The Ukrainian armed forces have published drone footage showing fire and smoke rising from a residential building in Bakhmut, on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting is taking place between Ukrainian troops and Russia’s Wagner mercenaries centred on Bakhmut and neighbouring towns.

Moscow has intensified its efforts to make progress in the area to advance on eastern Ukraine. The US has recently designated the Russian mercenary group Wagner as a ‘significant transnational criminal organisation’, imposing further sanctions on the military contractor that has been aiding Russian troops since the invasion of Ukraine.

The arrest of a high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence agent accused of spying for Russia has highlighted the urgent need for a cleanout of the country’s key security service, a former deputy head of the agency has said.

The Ukrainian security service (SBU) reported on Thursday that they arrested a lieutenant colonel in their ranks on suspicion of “high treason” and published a photograph of bundles of cash found in his home.

The unnamed man is said to have used his mobile phone to photograph documents detailing the location of military checkpoints in Zaporizhzhia, a frontline region in the south-east of the country, and sending the information via an email account registered on a Russian domain.

A photo issued alongside the official statement showed sim cards issued by Russian mobile carriers, bundles of foreign currency, a knuckle duster, two knives and a Russian language guide to learning English.

“Evidence of permanent connections with representatives of law enforcement and state bodies of the Russian Federation was also established,” the statement said. “In particular, close relatives of the traitor are among them.”

You can read the full report here:

Related: Ukrainian security service ‘needs cleanout’ after arrest of accused spy

The US has designated the Russian mercenary group Wagner as a “significant transnational criminal organisation”, imposing further sanctions on the military contractor which has been aiding Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine, according to the US Department of the Treasury.

Last week, the White House National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, announced on Friday that the treasury will apply the new designation in the coming days, putting it in the same category as Italian mafia groups and Japanese and Russian organised crime.

The designation will allow the wider application of sanctions on the group’s sprawling global network, which includes mercenary operations as well as businesses in Africa and elsewhere.

Wagner “is a criminal organisation that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses,” Kirby said.

“We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner,” he said.

Related: US to designate Russia’s Wagner Group as ‘transnational criminal organization’

Russia’s finance ministry on Thursday proposed scrapping liquidity restrictions for spending on “anti-crisis” investments from its National Wealth Fund (NWF), citing the need to support key sectors amid challenging geopolitical conditions.

Reuters reports:

Russia’s fiscally conservative authorities have tended to be cautious in their use of NWF funds.

Thursday’s move suggests they want to be more creative in the way they maintain Russia’s economic health, as Moscow ramps up spending on what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The ministry also said it would seek to reduce the threshold at which investments in other financial assets from the rainy day fund can be made to 7% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 10% currently, according to draft proposals.

“Introducing amendments to article 9611 of the budget code is aimed at making it possible to finance high-priority, self-sustaining infrastructure projects using the National Wealth Fund and to make anti-crisis investments regardless of the size of the (fund’s) liquid assets,” the ministry said in an explanatory note.

The ministry proposed that the total volume of such investments not exceed 4.25 trillion roubles ($61.24 billion).

“These changes will ensure reliable support for key sectors of the Russian economy in the current challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions,” the ministry said.

The NWF is Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, built up through years of profits on the country’s oil and gas exports.

As of Jan. 1, the fund stood at $148.4 billion, equivalent to 7.8% of GDP, having dropped by $38.1 billion in December, as the government took out cash to plug its budget deficit.

But only $87.2 billion, or 4.6% of GDP, was in liquid assets, and the ministry has warned that could fall to as low as 1.4% of GDP by 2024, which the Accounts Chamber has said would be the lowest ratio for 20 years.

As of Feb. 1 last year, three weeks before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, the total fund stood at $174.9 billion, or 10.2% of projected GDP. ($1 = 69.3955 roubles) (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Sharon Singleton)

11 people have been killed and 11 others wounded in a wave of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine the day after the US and Germany agreed to deliver tanks to Kyiv.

While the country’s top general claimed that Ukrainian air defences shot down 47 of the 55 missiles Russian forced fired at Ukraine, the state emergency service’s spokesperson Oleksandr Khorunzhyi gave the casualty figures on national TV. The Kyiv Independent quotes him saying that this figure represents the total number of casualties in the missile and drone attacks that happened overnight and in the morning.

In Kyiv one 55-year-old man was believed to have been killed, while authorities in Zaporizhzhia said that three people had been killed there.

Commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that 20 missiles had been shot down over Kyiv. The mayor of Vinnytsia, Serhiy Morgunov, published a photo of the debris of rockets that fell within the city limits claiming this was the result of successful work of the air defence forces.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office has posted to Telegram to say that three people were killed in an overnight attack in Zaporizhzhia. It writes:

26 January at 3.40am, the Russian military from the S-300 air defence system launched a missile attack on a critical infrastructure facility in the Zaporizhzhia district. Three people died, seven more were injured. Technical property and buildings were destroyed. After the explosion, a fire broke out on the territory of the enterprise, which has now been extinguished.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation” on Thursday, effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists.

The designation is the latest in a long campaign by the Kremlin to curb independent media and stop their reporting from reaching ordinary Russians in a crackdown that has escalated since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

In a statement announcing the decision, Russia’s general prosecutor said the Latvia-based news outlet “poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system and the security of the Russian Federation”.

There was no immediate response from Meduza, one of Russia’s most widely read independent news sites, though it did publish a news story on its website, including details about what the designation could mean.

“Undesirable organisations are banned from operating on Russian territory under threat of felony prosecution,” the article, published in Russian and English, said. “Anyone who ‘participates or cooperates’ with such groups can face felony prosecution – an especially serious limitation for journalists who must speak to sources to report the news,” it added.

Reuters reports those prosecuted for cooperating with an undesirable organisation can face heavy fines or even multi-year jail terms.

More than 50 organisations are currently on the “undesirable” list, including Russian investigative news outlets iStories and Proekt and Dutch-based Bellingcat.

Ukrainian air defences shot down 47 of the 55 missiles Russian forced fired at Ukraine, the country’s top general said on Thursday.

Reuters reports that Moscow used the Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, among other models, general Valery Zaluzhny said on his Telegram channel. Twenty of the incoming missiles were shot down around the area of the capital Kyiv, he added.

“The goal of the Russians remains unchanged: psychological pressure on Ukrainians and the destruction of critical infrastructure,” he wrote. “But we cannot be broken!”

The Ukrainian central bank’s foreign currency reserves will stand at about $30bn at the end of January, Yuri Heletiy, the deputy governor told reporters on Thursday, according to Reuters.

The official said the situation on the foreign exchange market was under control. Reserves had grown to about $28.5bn by the end of last year, he told an online briefing.

Reuters reports that the UK hopes the Challenger 2 tanks it is supplying to Ukraine will arrive in the country at the end of March, defence department minister Alex Chalk said on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the UK said it would send 14 of its main battle tanks along with additional artillery support to Ukraine.

“The intention is that it will be at the end of March,” he told parliament in response to a question asking when the tanks would arrive in Ukraine.

Russia’s finance ministry has proposed scrapping liquidity restrictions for spending on “anti-crisis” investments from its national wealth fund (NWF), citing the need to support key sectors amid challenging geopolitical conditions.

Reuters reports:

Russia’s fiscally conservative authorities have tended to be cautious in their use of NWF funds.

Thursday’s move suggests they want to be more creative in the way they maintain Russia’s economic health, as Moscow ramps up spending on what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The ministry also said it would seek to reduce the threshold at which investments in other financial assets from the rainy day fund can be made to 7% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 10% currently, according to draft proposals.

“Introducing amendments to article 9611 of the budget code is aimed at making it possible to finance high-priority, self-sustaining infrastructure projects using the national wealth fund and to make anti-crisis investments regardless of the size of the (fund’s) liquid assets,” the ministry said in an explanatory note.

“These changes will ensure reliable support for key sectors of the Russian economy in the current challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions,” the ministry said.

The NWF is Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, built up through years of profits on the country’s oil and gas exports. As of Jan. 1, the fund stood at $148.4bn, equivalent to 7.8% of GDP, having dropped by $38.1bn in December, as the government took out cash to plug its budget deficit.

Germany’s recently appointed defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Thursday he would kick off talks with the defence industry as early as next week to speed up arms procurement and ramp up ammunitions supplies.

“My primary task now is to enter into talks with the defence industry with the aim of significantly shortening procurement times,” Reuters report he told journalists on the sidelines of a military exercise in Altengrabow in eastern Germany.

“If you look at ammunition, there is also the issue of quantity. This is another topic that I will raise in my talks with the defence industry, likely as early as next week if the schedule permits it,” he added.

• Huge explosions shook Kyiv and sirens sounded across Ukraine on Thursday morning during a mass missile attack, 24 hours after commitments were made by the US and Germany to send advanced battle tanks. There were reports of at least one person killed. A total of 30 missiles were said to be heading towards targets after Ukraine’s air defences shot down 24 Iranian-made Shahad “kamikaze” drones overnight.

• “We expect more than 30 missiles, which have already started to appear in various territories,” said Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian military spokesperson. “Air defence systems are working”. Another spokesperson later claimed that Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to Kyiv.

• Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on Telegram that there had been explosions in the city. He wrote: “As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosiiv district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.”

• Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa. No injuries were reported, but there were power blackouts and some residents reported an interruption to the water supply. There were also reports of explosions in Vinnytsia and Kherson.

• The attacks came the day after Joe Biden approved sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Germany also confirmed on Wednesday it will make 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Ukraine’s war effort. The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also said his government plans to send further military support to Ukraine beyond the tanks. Ukraine’s president , Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the decision and said he was “sincerely grateful” to Scholz.

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow viewed sending tanks to Ukraine as “direct involvement in the conflict”. He told reporters: “There are constant statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine in no way means the involvement of these countries or Nato in the hostilities that are taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree. In Moscow, everything that both the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that it is growing”.

• The secretary of Russia’s security council, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, said the US and Nato were parties to the conflict in Ukraine and seeking to drag out the fighting.

• Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv, has confirmed that the region has been affected by a hack of the authority’s IT systems.

• A German citizen was arrested at Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly passing intelligence to Russia, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later.

In Odesa, Suspilne reports that the utility company DTEK says “due to damage to the energy infrastructure, emergency power outages may last for several days until the objects damaged by shelling are restored”.

Tumaini Carayol and Nino Bucci report that Srdjan Djokovic, the father of Novak Djokovic, has been pictured posing for photos with Vladimir Putin supporters at the Australian Open on Wednesday night.

Four men had been evicted from Melbourne Park by Victoria police on Wednesday after chanting pro-Russian and pro-Vladimir Putin slogans on the steps of Rod Laver Arena while brandishing numerous Russian flags, including one with the face of Putin on it.

Before the eviction of the four pro-Kremlin supporters, Srdjan Djokovic met fans outside Rod Laver Arena and took photos with a spectator wearing a “Z” symbol shirt while brandishing a Russian flag with a large picture of Putin’s face.

In the video, posted by Aussie Cossack on to YouTube, Srdjan Djokovic appears to say “zivjeli Russiyani” or “long live Russian citizens” before he leaves. “Zivjeli” means “cheers” in Serbian and Croatian, used during a toast, and Russiyani means citizens of Russia.

You can read the full report here:

Related: Novak Djokovic’s father seen posing with pro-Putin group at Australian Open

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko has posted to Telegram to say that at least one person has been killed as a result of this morning’s attacks. He writes:

As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.

Reuters reports that the secretary of Russia’s security council has also said on Thursday that the US and Nato were parties to the conflict in Ukraine and were seeking to drag out the fighting.

Speaking a day after Germany and the US agreed to send dozens of tanks to Kyiv, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, is quoted by Tass as saying what was happening in Ukraine today was the result of a years-long “hybrid war” being waged by the west against Russia.

The air alarm is gradually ending across Ukraine’s regions at the moment. Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv are among the places to have sounded the all clear.

The US ambassador to Ukraine has described this morning’s actions by Russian forces as “another cruel attack” and a “strategic failure”. Bridget Brink has posted to Twitter to say:

Another cruel attack, same strategic failure. Waves of Russian drones and missiles can’t stop Ukraine’s heroic defenders, its brave people or our determined, unified support.

Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that one person has been killed and four wounded after Russia shelled Kochubeivka, which is a settlement in the north of the Kherson oblast. Suspilne reports that the administrative building was hit.

Kherson is one of the partially-occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, despite not having territorial control of the whole area, having retreated to behind the south bank of the Dnieper River.

Maksym Marchenko, regional head of Odesa, has given more details of the damage caused by Russian attacks there this morning. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports him saying:

Due to damage to several energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa and other regions of Ukraine, there are significant problems with electricity supply. Energy workers have already started repair work, but it will take some time to repair the damage. Currently, Russian planes are in the air.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has today said that Moscow views sending tanks to Ukraine as “direct involvement in the conflict”.

Speaking on his regular daily press call, the BBC reports Peskov told journalists:

There are constant statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine in no way means the involvement of these countries or Nato in the hostilities that are taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree. In Moscow, everything that both the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that it is growing.

Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv, has confirmed that the region has been affected by a hack of its IT systems. He has posted to Telegram to say:

A large-scale virus attack was carried out on the authority servers yesterday. For the purpose of protection, part of the systems was disabled. The regional authority site and local authority sites are temporarily down. Specialists are working on restoring the system. This is not the first attack, there have been dozens of such attacks over the past year.

IT specialists say that this virus attack was well planned, the virus program entered the system in advance. And now it has been activated. Fortunately, we have enough means of communication and information exchange. Such attacks do not have any effect on our work, except that it takes a little more time to exchange information.

There are new reports of explosions in Kherson being carried by Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.

A wave of Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa on Thursday, the Odesa district military administration said on Telegram. Reuters reports that no injuries were cited by the authority.

A German citizen was arrested at Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly passing intelligence onto Russia, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.

Reuters reports that the man, identified only as Arthur E, was arrested on Sunday upon arriving in Germany from the United States, the prosecutor said in a statement. He is said to be an associate of Carsten L, an employee of the German foreign intelligence service (BND) who was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia.

Daniel Boffey reports for the Guardian from Kyiv:

Huge explosions shook Kyiv and raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Thursday morning during a mass missile attack 24 hours after commitments were made by the US and Germany to send advanced battle tanks.

A total of 30 missiles were said to be heading towards targets in the war-torn country, after Ukraine’s air defences shot down 24 Iranian-made Shahad “kamikaze” drones overnight.

“We expect more than 30 missiles, which have already started to appear in various territories,” said Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian military spokesperson. “Air defence systems are working.”

Another spokesperson later claimed that Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to Kyiv.

In the capital, the calm of a cold and snowy morning was broken at 10.06am local time by the sound of large explosions close to the main railway station. Further information was not readily available.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on Telegram that there had been explosions in the city.

As people rushed to cellars and bunkers for protection, local authorities sought to reassure the population that they had the means to take some of the missiles down.

The Ukrainian air force said it had successfully stopped a drone attack overnight. “Attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) were launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. According to preliminary information, the enemy used 24 Shaheds. All 24 were destroyed,” the air force said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, said on Telegram: “The first Russian missiles have been shot down.”

In the UK, on Sky News, opposition party defence spokesperson John Healey has urged the British government to publish a longer-term plan for offering support to Ukraine. He told viewers:

What is crucial now is that the western countries willing to support Ukraine – and there are more than 40 countries who are supporting Ukraine in this battle –remain united and continue their supplies for the long term.

So I’ve argued for many months now that the government needs to move beyond ad hoc announcements of military support to Ukraine – which have our full support – but move beyond those ad hoc announcements to a full plan for 2023 and beyond for the military, economic and humanitarian assistance we will provide to Ukraine. In part because that will give Ukraine greater confidence and reassurance that British support will be maintained, but also it will signal to Putin that things will get worse not better for Russia.

Asked about the significance of Germany’s decision this week to send tanks to Ukraine, Healey said:

This is a really important move by Germany. And what’s important here is not just the tanks, but also the artillery, the armoured vehicles, the ammunition.

It confronts one of the biggest miscalculations that Putin made by his brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine last year, which was he miscalculated on the determination and resolution of the western countries to stand together, to stand with Ukraine and to remain united.

And that decision by the Germans now about Leopard tanks allows other countries to move together to support Ukraine in this battle, to see off the Russian aggression, and reclaim their own country.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has reported on Telegram that there have been explosions in the city.

The Kyiv city authority has reported that 15 cruise missiles heading in the direction of Ukraine’s capital were shot down by air defences, according to Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.

It has also reported that some residents in Odesa are saying that they have lost water supply.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, quotes an air force spokesperson saying:

In total, more than 30 missiles are expected, which are already being launched in several areas. He added that in the morning about six Tu-95 planes took off and fired missiles.

Reuters reports that one of its journalists heard the sound of a missile flying overhead at a low altitude, about 30 kms from the capital Kyiv.

Its latest update reports that two missiles were spotted over the territory of the Mykolaiv region, its governor, Vitaly Kim, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Missiles are flying inside the territory of Ukraine. At least two northwest through Mykolaiv region,” he said.

An air raid alert sound across the country as people were heading to work. In the capital, people sheltered in a metro station, with some sitting on blankets and small plastic chairs.

“The first Russian missiles have been shot down,” Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s office said.

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has urged residents to take shelter and cautioned them about publishing information about the latest air alert on the internet. In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Kozytskyi writes:

Rockets in the neighboring region. They are moving in our direction. Stay in shelter. Do not film or post anything on the internet. If you see a suspicious aircraft, report it to the air defence forces using the “Something is Flying” telegram chatbot.

Further to the south there are images emerging from Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne which appears to show smoke rising over the region of Odesa.

The Kyiv Independent writes that “At least six explosions sounded in the central-western city of Vinnytsia, according to the Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground.”

Reports say that a second set of explosions has been heard in Vinnytsia. Additionally, there are power outages in 35 settlements in the Kherson region, according to Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne.

State broadcaster Suspilne has reported that the mayor of Vinnytsia, Serhiy Morgunov, has said “the work of anti-aircraft fire could be heard”. It also quotes Serhiy Borzov, the head of the Ukrainian air force, saying “There is an air battle going on. The air force of the armed forces of Ukraine controls the airspace over Vinnytsia.”

The city is in the west of Ukraine, some considerable distance from the frontline.

Ukraine state broadcaster Suspilne has posted on its official Telegram channel that explosions have been heard by its correspondents in Vinnytsia, and that air defence is activated in Kyiv.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, has posted to say that the air alert is in effect across all of Ukraine.

The Kyiv Independent has reported that emergency power shut-downs have begun in some areas of Ukraine due to the threat of the attack. Electricity and energy infrastructure has frequently been struck during Russian missile attacks, despite the Russian Federation repeatedly asserting that it does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure.

• This is Martin Belam in London with the blog for the next few hours.

“Some rockets fly through Kharkiv oblast, some through Vinnytsia in a western direction. Stay in shelters,” Ukraine’s defence force has just posted on Telegram.

The Ukrainian defence force has just posted this warning to Telegram:

“Rockets in the direction of Vinnytsia and Kyiv region. Can change the trajectory. Stay in shelters. We believe in air defense.”

Meanwhile the new US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy has arrived in Moscow, the US embassy said on Thursday.

“Welcome back to Russia, Ambassador Tracy!” the embassy said on Twitter.

The United Nations’ cultural agency, Unesco, has added the historic centre of Ukraine’s city of Odesa to its World Heritage List, describing it as “the duty of all humanity” to protect it.

The status, awarded by a Unesco panel meeting in Paris on Wednesday, is designed to help protect the port city’s cultural heritage, which has been under threat since Russia’s invasion.

“As the war continues, this inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always risen from the heartbreak of the world, is preserved from further destruction,” Unesco director-general Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.

The world heritage committee’s 21 member states approved the designation with six votes in favour, one against and 14 abstentions.

Russia repeatedly tried to delay the vote and denounced the eventual decision, saying the only threat to Odesa came from the “nationalist regime in Ukraine”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who requested the listing in October to shield the city from Russian bombardment, welcomed the decision:

Related: Ukraine’s Odesa, the ‘pearl of the Black Sea’, added to Unesco World Heritage list

Ukraine has now declared an air raid alert over most of the country with regional authorities warned of a possible missile attack.

The DTEK electricity company says it is performing emergency shutdowns of electro power in the capital Kyiv, the rest of the Kyiv region, and also the regions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk due to a danger of missile attack.

The Kyiv City Military Administration says that “about 15 enemy UAVs were shot down in the airspace” over Kyiv overnight.

The Ukrainian military says that Russian forces launched an unsuccessful overnight drone attack on Ukraine in the very early hours of Thursday morning, mainly targeting central regions and the capital.

Kyiv residents have also been urged to head to shelters amid air raid alarms, according to presidential advisor Anton Gerashchenko.

The Zhytomyr governor, Vitaliy Bunechko, has also posted an air raid warning on Telegram. It is currently just before 8am in Ukraine.

He said:

WARNING! There is a threat of a missile attack! Now it is necessary to reduce the load on the energy system of the region and the country as much as possible. This will allow energy companies to better prepare for emergency situations. Turn off all unnecessary electrical appliances! Be prepared for emergency power outages! Do not use elevators. ‼️ Do not ignore the air alarm signals. Take care of yourself and your loved ones, stay in shelters. We believe in our air defense and Victory!”

The governor of Mykolaiv region has just posted an air raid warning on Telegram.

“!!! Air alarm !!! The whole area”, he wrote a few minutes ago.

The United States and Germany have announced plans to arm Ukraine with dozens of battle tanks in its fight against Russia, which denounced the decisions as an “extremely dangerous” step.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the commitments and urged allies to provide large quantities of tanks quickly.

In his nightly address, Zelenskiy said:

Today is a day of extremely good news for Ukraine. There is a tank coalition. There is a decision to launch the supply of tanks for our defense – modern tanks.

I thank all of our allies for their willingness to provide us with modern and much-needed tanks.

All this proves the most important fact for the world right now – the fact that freedom is only getting stronger. And the way we are all working together to strengthen freedom, to defend Ukraine and Europe, is a historic achievement of the leaders who are working now.

The key thing now is speed and volume. The speed of training of our military, the speed of supplying tanks to Ukraine and the volume of tank support.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments for the next few hours.

Our top story this morning: Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, hailed the promise of modern tanks for Ukraine “extremely good news for the country” in his nightly address, but added that, “The key thing now is speed and volume. The speed of training of our military, the speed of supplying tanks to Ukraine and the volume of tank support.”

Here are the other key recent developments.

• Joe Biden has approved sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The US had resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks, citing maintenance and logistical challenges with the hi-tech vehicles. Earlier, the US president had spoken by phone with leaders Emmanuel Macron of France, Olaf Scholz of Germany, Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Rishi Sunak of Britain. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked Biden for the “powerful decision” and described it as “an important step on the path to victory”.

• Germany has confirmed it will make 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Ukraine’s war effort. The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also said his government plans to send further military support to Ukraine beyond the tanks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine welcomed the decision, and said he was “sincerely grateful” to Scholz.

• The key to providing tanks for Ukraine’s defence against Russia was speed and sufficient numbers, Zelenskiy said on Wednesday. “The key now is speed and volumes. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. The numbers in tank support,” he said in his nightly video address.

• By agreeing to send the Abrams, the US is able to meet Scholz’s demand for an American commitment but without having to send the tanks immediately. In public statements, Washington and Berlin had denied any connection between their respective decisions, although media reports said German officials had made clear in private that the Leopards were conditional on the US making a similar commitment.

• Germany will also approve other European countries supplying German-made Leopard 2 tanks from their own stock. Finland, Spain and the Netherlands will contribute the same model, according to German media reports. A second battalion will be made up of Leopard 2A4 tanks from Poland and Norway.

• Germany’s offer has prompted calls for more heavy armour by Ukraine’s government. Zelenskiy and his ministers are also seeking to break a “taboo” on the provision of jets such as US-made F16s. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he had spoken to Poland’s foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau, about further military aid, including fighter jets, a request that has been repeatedly put to Nato allies without success.

• The Russian embassy in Germany has accused Berlin of taking the conflict in Ukraine “to a new level of confrontation”. The decision to approve the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine means the “final refusal” of the German government “to recognise its “historical responsibility” to Moscow, ambassador Sergei Nechayev said in a statement.

• The Kremlin has downplayed the impact that western tanks will have, saying that the military aid to Ukraine would “burn like all the rest”. In remarks to reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the expected transfer of Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks to the Ukrainian army a “failed plan”.

• Ukraine’s military spokesperson, Serhiy Cherevatyi, has said Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the eastern town of Soledar in the Donetsk region, according to the country’s state broadcaster Suspilne. The withdrawal of forces was made “in order to preserve the lives of service personnel”, he said. His comments are the first Ukrainian confirmation of Soledar’s capture by Russian forces.

• One person was killed in Kherson oblast due to Russian shelling, six others were injured, 10 others were wounded in Donetsk oblast, according to Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne. It said over the past 24 hours, the Russian Federation carried out four missile and 26 airstrikes, as well as more than 100 shellings from multiple launch rocket systems in Ukraine.

• In Ukraine, 15 senior officials have left their posts since Saturday, six of whom have had corruption allegations levelled at them by journalists and Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities. On Wednesday prosecutor general Andriy Kostin signed orders on the voluntary dismissal of the heads of the Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Sumy, and Chernihiv regional prosecutor’s offices. Oleksiy Kuleba, who was removed as governor of Kyiv on Tuesday, has been appointed deputy head of the president’s office as part of the reshuffle.