#Odesa, #Kharkiv & #Mykolaiv among 🇺🇦 cities hit again overnight but not always with missiles designed for the job. The Kremlin orders more weapons out of "deep storage" and prepares for a #Ukraine counter attack in the south
Here's the🧵
1/2 First to those weapons on the move in #Russia.
It started with this video capturing what's believed to be
2S7 Pion heavy artillery being transported west.
They are Soviet machines, at the time state of the art high powered guns with a range of almost 50km,
2/2 Some excellent sleuthing on the internet found the source - a diminishing supply of stock.
Google Earth images show there were 170 of the Pions stored at this location in #Russia early April, down to 135 at the start of June; last week only 110 remaining.
In #Odesa region the village of #Zatoka has been hit.
This is right on the coast where the bridge was previously targeted by #Russia.
President @ZelenskyyUa released this video this morning of the damage to the market
Meanwhile in #Mykolaiv/#Nikolaev air defence missiles were used on the city early this morning. These were 9 in total fired from occupied #Kherson region.
Again #Ukraine's at pains to point out there are zero military facilities in the area. They say an enterprise, a multi-storey building and a car dealership were damaged. No injuries reported - even the cat survived!
Not so good news in the #Kharkiv region (as opposed to the city)
A woman's body was found under the rubble of a recreation centre in #Chuhuiv (#Chuguev), which was destroyed by a missile attack.
The search for two more people continues, four were rescued.
Puppet Donetsk government says the whole of #Donetsk will be taken before the end of August. That smacks of a desperate message for their own army and people becoming demoralised/fearing defeat.
Meanwhile, less far fetched is #Ukraine's hope to liberate #Kherson by September.
Russians in #Donetsk have released this video which they say is a successful attack on #Ukraine's "Foreign Legion". They claim many fighters, mainly Poles, were killed.
No location or time given. Not possible to verify.
A media darling of the west in the war has been @kiraincongress
The leader of the "Golos" party, Kira's the latest to be caught up in political trouble. It seems she may have had a passport problem at the border. She denies her citizenship was revoked
The travel bans and asset freezes are on many regional governors, but also on the list is former director of @Everton Sarvor Ismailov, nephew of Alisher Usmanov, and Sarvor's brother Sanjar - both of whom have "significant" UK interests
No real surprise, but #Russia has just announced it is withdrawing cooperation with the International Space Station, from 2024.
The country's Cosmology department says it will build its own orbital outpost.
The EU has agreed dramatic cut its use of gas if #Russia halts its stream. However it's a voluntary deal, not obligatory which the Union hoped for.
Not sure if you saw this a little earlier, but in one of his parting measures, Boris Johnson gave the "Churchill" award to #Ukraine's President Zelenskyy.
A petition has been started in #Ukraine to give @BorisJohnson Ukrainian citizenship and also submit his candidacy to become Prime Minister of the country!
The war in Europe continues. This is Day 1445 of Russia's attempt to erase Ukraine from the map & destroy its language and culture.
The genocide continues as I type, with a massive missile attack underway.
For all the news as it happens, keep checking back. This is THE daily🧵
Yesterday started with a supposed assassination attempt on another very senior Russian soldier.
A load of other great stories too, including the start of the overnight attack on Ukraine's remaining energy facilities. Catch up on what you missed here:
Saturday 27 December 2025 is Day 1403 of Russia's war of choice.
The day began with missile attacks on Ukraine shortly after midnight and the terrorism continued with drone strikes, may into residential areas, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of the damage.
Here's THE daily thread
Here's the link to yesterday's thread, which started with Russian murders, missiles on streets in Kharkiv and ended with the missile attack on Kyiv.
But there were also 'direct sanctions' taken by Ukraine on war criminals and military targets:
News is still coming in from Kyiv especially after the awful bombardment. Mayor of the city, @Vitaliy_Klychko has just issued an update saying 28 people have been injured, with 13 hospitalised
Although the city's had the air raid warning lifted, it's still affecting Kyiv region
Christmas Eve is another milestone as we mark the latest 100 days of war
Yes, it's Day 1400 of Ukraine's fight for its existence.
Coming up:
Zelenskyy accepts peace plan but are we really nearer peace?
A twist in Moscow's 2nd car bomb in 24 hours.
And all the news yet to happen
A very late start today - I apologise but it's Christmas time with things to do, places to go and also my body demanding enough sleep to survive!
So we start as usual with the throwback to yesterday for you to catch up, which included car bomb #2..
The seemingly random attack on police officers in Moscow last night, may have been a Ukraine targeted attack.
Two "traffic officers" died overnight on the same street where a Lt Gen was eliminated the day before.
Now it's reported the dead were in Ukraine and tortured civilians
This is the start of Tuesday's daily thread, with all the important news from, and relevant to, Ukraine in one handy place.
It's Day 1385 and I've still never missed a day of fact checking, analysing and reporting every aspect of the defence against Russia's illegal war.
Yesterday a lot of talking behind the scenes, but politicians were broadly tight-lipped on progress.
Russia did make more small gains on the frontline, but we also found a cat with burned whiskers + how Russian pilots' head-tennis went disastrously wrong
Pres Zelenskyy's whirlwind tour continues, arriving in Rome this morning to meet the Pope at Castle Gandolfo.
At Villa Barberini, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was welcomed by the vice-regent of the papal household, Augustinian Father Edward Daniang Daleng.