One killed as Rusisan missile strikes hit Ukraine capital

"According to preliminary reports, one person was killed," the head of the city's military administration, Sergiy Popko, said on Telegram.

Popko said Russian forces had used Kinzhal and Iskander missiles in the strike at around 7:00 am (0500 GMT).

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that, "as a result of the enemy attack", two people were hospitalised and debris fell in four areas, setting cars and buildings alight.

"Emergency services are working everywhere," he said on Telegram.

The blasts came after the Ukrainian air force warned of an impending ballistic missile attack.

"Ballistic missile from the north!" the air force said on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference on Thursday suggested a "hi-tech duel" over Kyiv to test his claims that Russia's new hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik, is impervious to air defences.

Ukrainian authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson, where one person was killed and six injured, as well as several other Ukrainian cities and towns.

Ukraine says three killed by Russian missile in Kharkiv region
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) Dec 19, 2024 - A Russian missile strike on Thursday killed three people in the village of Shevchenkove in the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian troops were advancing, police said.

"A civilian woman died. Another woman died while being transported to a medical facility, and a civilian man was fatally wounded," the police said.

Russia struck at 1300 GMT with an Iskander missile, according to preliminary data from the police.

The attack wounded three others, and damaged several houses, police said.

Moscow's forces are advancing in the region that borders Russia and are aiming to recapture the town of Kupiansk, which was occupied in the first year of the war.

Ukraine recaptured it in September 2022 as part of a lightning offensive that saw its forces regain large swathes of the Kharkiv region.

Outmanned Ukrainian troops are on the back foot across the front line in the Kharkiv and Donetsk region further south, ceding ground to better-equipped Russian troops.

Russian jailed for 20 years for trying to poison troops
Moscow (AFP) Dec 18, 2024 - A Russian military tribunal has sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for having tried to poison troops in support of Ukraine, the FSB security service said on Wednesday.

The tribunal found the man, a resident of the city of Barnaul in the Altai region of Siberia, guilty of "attempted assault" and "attempted high treason" and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the RIA Novosti state news agency quoted the FSB as saying in a statement.

"This Russian citizen, born in 1981, entered into contact with Ukrainian special services via social media" and expressed his "desire to support Ukrainian armed forces", the statement said.

"As an employee of a canteen, he tried to poison the soldiers who were part of a mobilised contingent in the Altai", filming the process for the Ukrainian special forces, it said.

Analyses showed that the substance that he put in the food could have caused acute poisoning and could have been fatal, it said.

The case is the latest in a long line of Russians handed heavy prison sentences for allegedly supporting Ukraine after Moscow sent troops into its neighbour in February 2022.

Since then, thousands of people in Russia have been sanctioned for their opposition to the conflict.