Live blog: Russia exploiting UN Security Council seat — US, allies

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

1741 GMT –– The US and seven allies accused Russia of exploiting its role as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to shield itself from the repercussions of its use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine.

They were referring to North Korea by its formal acronym.

"Each violation makes the world a much more dangerous place. And a permanent Security Council member that willingly engages in these violations demonstrates a clear exploitation of its position," the nations said in reference to Russia.

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1739 GMT –– Russia claims it downed 2 Ukrainian drones over Saratov, Voronezh regions

Russia claimed that it downed two Ukrainian drones over the country’s Saratov and Voronezh regions, as both Moscow and Kiev continue to accuse each other of carrying out airstrikes that have intensified since Dec. 29.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that it thwarted an attempt by Ukraine to carry out an attack on the country’s territory using an aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicle.

"Air defence systems destroyed a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle over the territory of the Saratov region," the statement said.


In another statement, the ministry said that Ukraine attempted to conduct a similar attack at around 2:30 pm Moscow time (1130GMT), during which air defence systems destroyed a drone over the Voronezh region.


Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the claims.

1708 GMT –– NATO allies pledge continued aid to Ukraine

NATO allies in a meeting with Ukraine have made it clear they will continue to provide the country with major military, economic and humanitarian aid, NATO said in a statement.

It added that NATO allies outlined plans to provide "billions of euros of further capabilities" in 2024 to Ukraine.

1656 GMT –– US seems to spread 'wrong' view that Russia uses North Korea missiles: Russian envoy

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said the United States seemed to be spreading "wrong" information that Moscow was firing North Korean missiles at Ukraine but he stopped short of an outright denial.

"Today, Western members of the Security Council repeated the 'fact' that the Russian military is using missiles from the DPRK in its special military operation in Ukraine," Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the Security Council, saying a Ukrainian Air Force representative had denied there was any evidence "of this 'fact.' So the US seems to be spreading information that is wrong without going through the trouble of checking this beforehand."

1648 GMT –– Ukraine adds US-based sandwich chain to list of 'international sponsors of war'

Ukraine’s corruption prevention agency announced that it added the US-based multinational sandwich chain Subway to its list of “international sponsors of war.”

A statement by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) said that more than 500 Subway restaurants continue to work in the Russian market, and are paying “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in taxes.

"Subway actively advertises its activities through sanctioned Russian social networks and delivers food through Yandex services, which cooperate with the state and law enforcement agencies of the aggressor country," the statement said.

"The company claims to be concerned about the health of consumers, but continues to work in Russia, financing the murders of Ukrainians," it said, adding that the company has not diminished its operation in the country since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.

It went on to say that Subway's management made no attempts to condemn Russia.

1613 GMT –– UN to seek $3.1B in aid for Ukraine in 2024

United Nations agencies will next week ask for $3.1 billion to finance aid to Ukraine this year, a senior humanitarian official told the UN Security Council.

The comment - made by Edem Wosorno, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) - comes as OCHA and the UN refugee agency prepare to launch their response plans for Ukraine on Jan. 15.

OCHA has said that more than 14.6 million people, or 40 percent of Ukraine's population, will require humanitarian assistance this year due to Russia's full-scale offensive.

The conflict has also forced some 6.3 million people to flee abroad.

1526 GMT –– Ukraine launches chatbot service for relatives of missing Russian troops

Ukraine is setting up an online chatbot service which will allow Russians with missing soldier relatives in Ukraine to check if they have been confirmed killed or are being held as POWs, officials announced.

Kiev hopes the move will put pressure on Moscow 22 months into a full-scale military campaign in Ukraine, as more and more Russians at home seek answers about the fate of missing soldiers.

The chatbot, whose name means "I want to find" in Russian, will operate on the Telegram app, which is extremely popular in both Russia and Ukraine.

"Russian citizens can officially apply to this (project) to get objective information about their relatives ... which is being hidden from them by the governing regime in the Russian Federation," said Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, which deals with prisoner swap negotiations.

The project will collect information about the missing soldiers from those who use the chatbot and check it against Ukrainian databases of killed, captured and missing Russian soldiers.

1519 GMT –– Belarus sends children from occupied Ukraine for training with Belarusian army

Belarus state television reported that authorities sent a recently arrived group of Ukrainian children from occupied Ukraine to train with the Belarusian military to learn how to evacuate in the event of a fire.

Ukraine and the Belarusian opposition allege that Russian ally Belarus is engaging in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus on a mass scale, which critics say is a campaign to indoctrinate the children as pro-Russian.

Wednesday’s report referred to 35 children from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Antratsyt in eastern Ukraine that Belarusian authorities said were sent to the eastern Belarusian city of Mogilev.

The Belarus1 state television channel said the children are being housed in a sanatorium and are being cared for by employees from the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The military is “teaching the children how to behave in extreme situations,” the state television channel said.

More than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6 to 17 have been brought to Belarus from four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russian troops, a recent Yale University study found.

The Belarusian opposition has called on the International Criminal Court to bring Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and officials in his government to justice for their involvement in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus.

State television footage released on Wednesday showed the Ukrainian children wearing the Russian flag sewn onto their sleeves. The state television program said the Belarusian military is conducting “emergency survival training” for the children.

During the report, screams were heard in a smoke-filled room while the program showed the children learning to leave during a fire while holding onto the wall.

"This is not just dry theory, but our classes are conducted in a playful format and are aimed at children," said Evgeniy Sokolov, inspector of the Mogilev military training centre for the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

1456 GMT –– Ukraine risks becoming 'forgotten war', Pope Francis says

Pope Francis is concerned that international attention is shifting away from the nearly two-year-old Russian war against Ukraine, the Ukrainian eastern-rite Catholic Church said.

In a letter to the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Francis said he was sorry that "in an increasingly tragic international situation, the war in Ukraine risks becoming a forgotten one," the church said in a statement.

It quoted the pope as replying to a letter from Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk that raised similar concerns about the war, and informed him on Dec. 29 of Russian air strikes, the biggest since the start of the conflict.

The pope has pleaded for peace constantly, with numerous appeals for "martyred Ukraine", but has faced criticism in some Ukrainian quarters for appearing reluctant to openly criticise Russia, especially at the start of the war.

Francis has also sent a special peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to Kiev, Moscow, Washington and Beijing, and tasked him with helping repatriate Ukrainian children from Russia and Russian-occupied territories.

1349 GMT –– Western hesitation on aid to Ukraine helps Putin: Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that any delays in Western aid to Kiev emboldened the Kremlin, almost two years into Russia's offensive.

Zelenskyy was in Lithuania's capital Vilnius as part of a surprise visit to one of Kiev's staunchest allies.

"He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) is not going to stop," he said at a news conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda. "He wants to occupy us completely.

"And sometimes, the insecurity of partners regarding financial and military aid to Ukraine only increases Russia's courage and strength," he added.

He was speaking as other Western countries are wavering over continued support for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy warned that Putin would not stop at Ukraine but would attack other neighbours unless allies joined forces to stop him.

"He (Putin) won't finish this (war), until we all finish him together," the Ukrainian leader said.

"We must understand that Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova may be next if we (Ukraine) do not withstand (Russia)," he added.

His comments came as Ukraine is facing renewed aerial assaults from Russia, prompting pleas for more support to Kiev, which is "sorely lacking" modern air-defence systems.

"In recent days, Russia hit Ukraine with a total of 500 devices: we destroyed 70 percent of them," Zelenskyy said.

"Air-defence systems are (the) number one (thing) that we lack," he added.

1225 GMT –– Russia evacuates dozens of children from Belgorod

Dozens of schoolchildren were evacuated from the Russian border city of Belgorod following a spate of deadly Ukrainian shelling attacks, the region's governor said.

Some 300 residents had already left Belgorod, the biggest evacuation from a major Russian city since Moscow launched hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022.

1113 GMT –– Time for diplomacy in Ukraine, Italy's defence minister says

The time has come for diplomacy to pave the way for peace between Russia and Ukraine, Italy's defence minister said, adding that firm Western support for Kiev was crucial to ensure serious negotiations.

Guido Crosetto told parliament the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive had not produced the desired result and the military situation had to be viewed with realism.

"From this perspective ... it would seem that the time has come for incisive diplomacy, alongside military support, because there are a number of important signals coming from both sides," Crosetto said.

Russia is progressively showing a willingness to negotiate and safeguard its economy, while Ukraine's stance appears less uncompromising than before, he said.

"All of this must be taken into consideration on the path towards negotiations to stop the conflict and the subsequent process of normalisation of relations, not only of Russia with Ukraine, but also with Western countries," he said.

Russia has said it is ready for peace talks if Ukraine takes account of "new realities", suggesting an acknowledgement that Russia controls about 17.5 percent of Ukrainian territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected any notion that Moscow is interested in talks, telling the Economist magazine this month that Russia would only agree to a pause in fighting if it needed a break to replenish its army.

"In Ukraine, the domestic front appears to be no longer as united as in the past in supporting President Zelenskyy's policy, highlighting some divergences in the political discourse," Crosetto said.

1022 GMT –– Ukraine grain pushes Romanian Constanta port to record volumes in 2023

Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta recorded its highest grain exports in 2023 thanks to a surge in shipments from Ukraine and ongoing European Union-funded infrastructure projects, the port authority told Reuters news agency.

The port shipped 36 million metric tonnes of grain last year, it said, up 50 percent from the previous year.

Ukrainian grain accounted for roughly 40 percent of the total, or 14 million tonnes, up from 13.0 million at the end of November and from 8.6 million in the whole of 2022.

0919 GMT — Zelenskyy on Baltic tour, seeks security and EU support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the Lithuanian capital for an unannounced visit to the Baltic states, staunch allies of the war-torn country.

The three Baltic states - all former Soviet republics which are now EU and NATO members — are among Ukraine's staunchest allies.

"Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are our reliable friends and principled partners. Today, I arrived in Vilnius before going to Tallinn and Riga," Zelenskyy said on social media platform X.

"Security, EU and NATO integration, cooperation on electronic warfare and drones, and further coordination of European support are all on the agenda," he said.

The Baltic tour marks Zelenskyy's first official trip abroad this year.

In Lithuania, a key donor to Ukraine, Zelenskyy said he will hold talks with the president, prime minister and the speaker of parliament, and meet with the Ukrainian community.

1022 GMT — Ukraine grain pushes Romanian Constanta port to record volumes in 2023

Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta recorded its highest grain exports in 2023 thanks to a surge in shipments from Ukraine and ongoing European Union-funded infrastructure projects, the port authority said.

The port shipped 36 million metric tons of grain last year, it said, up 50 percent from the previous year.

Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain exporters, and Constanta has become Kiev's largest alternative export route since Russia's military attack in February 2022, with grains arriving by road, rail and barge across the Danube.

0711 GMT — Weapons planned to be given to Ukraine sent to Israel: envoy

Israel's war on Gaza have affected arms aid by Western countries to Ukraine and perceptions on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, said Ukraine's Ambassador to Türkiye Vasyl Bodnar.

"International media has turned its attention to this direction, so there are those who think that the war in Ukraine has ended," Bodnar said.

The ambassador said the weapons planned to be given to Ukraine were sent to Israel, and the internal political dynamics in Western countries are a factor affecting aid.

0657 GMT — Putin visits Chukotka region in Russia's Far East

President Vladimir Putin has arrived for his first-ever presidential visit to Chukotka in Russia's Far East, Russian state media reported.

Putin has arrived in Anadyr, the local capital of the Chukotka region.

Chukotka is the easternmost region of Russia, with a maritime border on the Bering Strait with the US state of Alaska.

0601 GMT — Russia gears up for Drel glide bomb production amid Ukraine war

Russia plans to start serial production of its new glide Drel bomb this year, the state TASS news agency has cited a representative of the Rostec state defence conglomerate as saying in remarks published.

The bombs, some of Russia's newest weapons, are capable of flying independently using a gliding flight path onto a target at a greater distance and opening above it at "the right moment," TASS reported.

"To date, the product has passed all types of tests," TASS cited an unnamed representative at Rostec as saying.

"The production of the first batch of the Drel aerial bomb is planned for 2024."

2154 GMT — West slams Russia's use of North Korean missiles against Ukraine

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited arms factories this week, state media outlet KCNA reported, as the United States and its partners condemned the country's arms transfers with Russia in a joint statement.

Kim highlighted recent "shortcomings" in the organisation of munitions production and called for readjustment while emphasising the "strategic importance of the production of major weapons", state media said.

KCNA photos of Kim's visit to a munitions factory showed him inspecting mobile short-range missile launch vehicles.

His visit comes as nearly 50 countries condemned Russia's procurement and use of North Korean ballistic missiles against Ukraine.

"Russia's use of DPRK ballistic missiles in Ukraine also provides valuable technical and military insights to the DPRK," the joint statement said, using the initials of North Korea's official name.

For our live updates from Tuesday, January 9, click here.