Ukraine attacks Russian city of Belgorod and occupied Crimea overnight as retaliatory strikes intensify

Russia and Ukraine said on Wednesday that prisoners of war had been exchanged between the countries.

Over 200 "warriors and civilians" had been returned, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

That includes "soldiers, sergeants, and officers. Armed Forces, National Guard, Navy, and Border Guards. Some of the defenders fought in Mariupol and Azovstal," he said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said in a post on Telegram, according to a Google translation, that 248 Russian military personnel had been released after "a complex negotiation process."

The exchange was aided by the United Arab Emirates who provided "humanitarian mediation," the ministry added.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Two children have reportedly been killed, with at least a further 15 injured in recent attacks on Ukraine, Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF representative to Ukraine, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Children, their families, and infrastructure they rely on and need, such as schools and healthcare facilities, had come under attack across Ukraine in recent attacks, he said. They have also meant that children were forced to shelter from bombings and in some cases have lost their homes or access to electricity and heating, Mammadzade added.

CNBC was unable to independently verify the reports.

"Killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and health care facilities are grave violations of children's rights and they must stop. The laws of war must be abided by," UNICEF's Mammadzade said.

"Above all else, children need peace. Children need the chance to be children."

— Sophie Kiderlin

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense said it was "grateful" to Norway for supplying F-16 fighter jets to help train Ukrainian pilots.

"Norway is presenting two F-16 fighter jets that will train and educate Ukrainian personnel in Denmark," the ministry wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"We are grateful to our Norwegian friends for their unwavering support!"

Norway's Defense Minister confirmed earlier on Wednesday that the fighter jets would be donated for training purposes.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Polish farmers will resume their blockade at the Medyka border crossing with Ukraine from Thursday as they say they have not received a signed assurance from the prime minister that their demands will be met, state-run news agency PAP reported.

The Polish farmers suspended their protest, which aims to secure government subsidies for corn and prevent tax hikes, on Dec. 24.

Polish truck drivers, however, have continued to block several crossings with Ukraine since Nov. 6, to press their demand that the European Union reinstate a system that requires Ukrainian companies to obtain permits to operate in the bloc. The same would apply to European truckers seeking to enter Ukraine.

"We have not received written confirmation that our demands will be met, so we are continuing the protest," farmers leader Roman Kondrow told PAP.

Although Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski had provided a note telling the farmers their demands would be met, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has not given a signed declaration, Kondrow said.

He added they would only allow one truck per hour pass through the crossing. Tusk said in December that he believed Poland was close to being able to end the truckers' protest.

— Reuters

The latest missile attacks on Ukraine indicate that Russia is targeting Ukraine's defense industry rather than energy infrastructure, as seen last year.

"Since 29 December 2023, Russia has increased the intensity of its long-range strike operations against Ukraine," the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence said Wednesday.

It noted that Russian forces had committed a "significant proportion" of the stock of air-launched cruise missiles and ballistic missiles that they had built up in recent months to strikes on targets across Ukraine in the last week.

"The recent strikes likely primarily targeted Ukraine's defense industry. This contrasts with its major attacks last winter which prioritised striking Ukraine's energy infrastructure," the ministry noted in an intelligence update on X, formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday.

"These new operations suggest at least a temporary change in approach in Russia's use of long-range strikes. Russian planners almost certainly realise the importance of relative defence industrial capacity as they prepare for a long war."

— Holly Ellyatt

The West should tighten sanctions against Russia and provide Kyiv with long-range missiles in response to Moscow's latest shelling of Ukraine, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Wednesday.

Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance.

"We should respond to the latest onslaught on Ukraine in language that Putin understands: by tightening sanctions so that he cannot make new weapons with smuggled components and by giving Kyiv long range missiles that will enable it to take out launch sites and command centers," Sikorski wrote on social media platform X.

— Reuters

A year ago there were high hopes that a much-vaunted Ukrainian counteroffensive — at that time expected to be launched in the spring — would change the dial in the war against Russia.

It didn't, and the prospect of a breakthrough in 2024 is also unlikely, military experts and defense analysts told CNBC.

Read more here: With hopes of victory fading, Ukraine's war against Russia could get even harder in 2024

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it has recorded 90 civilian deaths in Ukraine within the last six days alone following a series of large Russian assaults that began last Friday.

"Since the onset of a wave of attacks by the Russian Federation across the country that began on December 29 until today, the MMPLU has recorded 90 cases of civilian deaths, including 2 children, and 421 cases of civilian injuries in 12 regions," the UN said on Facebook.

"This includes shelling and rocket attacks that reportedly killed 8 civilians and injured 29 in areas of [the] Donetsk region occupied by the Russian Federation." Each civilian death will be independently verified by the monitoring mission, it said.

The monitoring mission found that there had been 421 civilians injured in 12 regions "since the Russians launched barrages of missiles and drones at Ukraine on December 29," it said in the update posted on Facebook.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that Russia had used nearly 300 missiles and over 200 Iranian-made "Shahed" drones to attack Ukraine since Dec. 29.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia attacked the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv into the night on Tuesday, the regional governor said.

Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, said on Telegram Wednesday that Russian forces shelled the city of Kharkiv with S-300 missiles late the previous evening, partially destroying a school. There were no casualties.

Kharkiv was attacked multiple times on Tuesday, with strikes leaving one woman dead and 62 others injured, Sinegubov said. As well as Kharkiv city, more than 15 settlements of the Kharkiv region were hit by Russian artillery and mortar attacks

— Holly Ellyatt

Norway will send two F-16 fighter jets to Denmark to contribute to the training of Ukrainian pilots on the use of the U.S.-made airplane, the Norwegian defence minister said on Wednesday.

F-16s have been on Ukraine's wish list as the country seeks to boost its air force in the war with Russia, and Norway last year said it would join Denmark, the Netherlands and others in donating aircraft.

Norway has already sent 10 instructors to Denmark to aid the education of Ukrainian pilots, Defence Minister Bjoern Arild Gram said in a statement.

The Norwegian air force has replaced its own F-16s with the successor model F-35.

— Reuters

The European Union has added Russia's biggest diamond producer to its sanctions list, an EU official said Wednesday.

"In line with the diamond ban we have introduced with the 12th package of sanctions, the EU today lists Alrosa, the largest diamond-mining company in the world and its CEO," the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Borrell added that the latest addition was part of a coordinated effort by the Group of Seven industrialized nations, which includes the EU, "to deprive Russia of this important revenue source."

The Council of the EU said in a statement it had introduced restrictive measures against Alrosa and its CEO Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev as they were deemed to be "responsible for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."

"PJSC Alrosa is the largest diamond-mining company in the world, owned by the Russian state and accounts for over 90% of all Russian diamond production, and the company constitutes an important part of an economic sector that is providing substantial revenue to the government of the Russian Federation."

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukraine used 12 missiles to target the Russian border region of Belgorod overnight.

"This morning, the Russian Armed Forces have foiled another attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using Olkha and Tochka-U tactical missiles against facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation," the ministry posted on Telegram.

"Six Olkha and six Tochka-U missiles were destroyed by alerted air defence systems on duty over the territory of Belgorod region," it added.

The Russian governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Russia downed more Ukrainian missiles approaching the city and wider Belgorod region and reported some damage to houses and power supplies. He said this morning that "the situation in Belgorod continues to remain tense."

Ukraine rarely comments on attacks against Russia itself and has not publicly commented on the latest strike. On Saturday, it launched a large attack against Belgorod that left 25 dead, including five children, and over 100 injured.

Moscow and Kyiv both deny any deliberate targeting of civilians in the war, although at least 10,000 civilians in Ukraine have died, the United Nations says. The true number of casualties is believed to be far higher.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian officials said Ukraine attacked the Russian city of Belgorod overnight, as well as the port city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Russian Governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Russia downed more Ukrainian missiles approaching the city and wider Belgorod region and reported some damage to houses and power supplies. Belgorod is across the Russian border from Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.

"The situation in Belgorod continues to remain tense. There were two shellings in the morning," Gladkov said on Telegram. 

"The air defenses worked. As soon as it dawns, we will conduct door-to-door inspections to look at the damage to rooves, windows, facades and [we will] begin restoration work," he said.

In Crimea, the Russian-installed Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev also said a missile was downed there Tuesday night, although no damage to infrastructure was recorded. CNBC was unable to immediately verify the claims made by the officials.

The latest attacks, which have not been confirmed by Ukraine, continue a recent intensification of aerial warfare around the new year, and a series of "tit-for-tat" strikes by Russia and Ukraine over the last few days.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that Russia had used nearly 300 missiles and over 200 Iranian-made "Shahed" drones against Ukraine since Dec. 29.

"No other state has ever repelled such attacks, combined ones: both drones and missiles, including air-launched ballistic missiles. Ten "Kinzhal" missiles [hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles] have been shot down today alone," Zelenskyy said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Pictures show destruction in Ukraine's capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the northeast of the country following Russian strikes on the cities.

— Sophie Kiderlin

The death toll has risen to five following Russian strikes on the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

As it stands, two people were killed 49 injured in strikes on Kyiv. Two others died and 16 were injured in the wider Kyiv region. In Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, one person was killed and 47 were injured. Zelenskyy said Russia would be held "responsible for every life taken."

He said almost 100 missiles of various types had been used in the strikes with 70 of them downed by Ukraine's air defense systems. "'Patriots', 'Iris', 'NASAMS' — each such system has already saved at least hundreds of lives," Zelenskyy said.

— Holly Ellyatt

The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod said Tuesday that Ukraine attempted to strike the city of the same name again.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Russian air defenses downed five Ukrainian missiles as they approached the city. "Operational services are clarifying information about the consequences on the ground," he said on Telegram.

"According to preliminary data, there is one victim - a woman has a torn wound to her left hand. She was examined by emergency physicians and refused hospitalization," Gladkov said. He added that a retail space and several cars were damaged by shrapnel. In the Belgorod region, one passenger car was damaged by shrapnel in the village of Belovskoye. 

CNBC was unable to verify the information. If accurate, the latest attempt to hit Belgorod would continue an intensification of assaults between Ukraine and Russia around the new year.

Ukraine targeted Belgorod on Saturday in retaliation for a massive missile and drone attack that was carried out by Russia on Ukraine last Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Monday to intensify attacks on Ukraine after the Belgorod attack, in which 25 people died, including five children, and over 100 were injured. Ukraine has not publicly commented on the attack and both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians.

On Tuesday, Ukraine's largest cities Kyiv and Kharkiv were attacked with drones and missiles by Russia, leaving four people dead and dozens injured.

— Holly Ellyatt

Poland said planes protecting its airspace following the latest Russian strikes on Ukraine had returned to base.

Poland deployed two pairs of F-16 fighter jets and an allied tanker following the latest assault on Ukraine in which Kyiv and Kharkiv were targeted.

The Polish army's operational command said the planes had now returned to base "due to the reduced level of threat."

"The operations of Polish and allied aircraft on duty in our airspace have been ended. The resources released returned to their bases and standard operating activities," the operational command said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Poland has been on higher alert since last Friday after a Russian missile entered Polish airspace for almost three minutes before it turned back into Ukrainian airspace. Poland said Tuesday that it is monitoring the situation in Ukraine on an ongoing basis "and remains on constant readiness to ensure the safety of Polish airspace."

— Reuters

Ukraine's foreign minister urged faster supplies of air defence systems, combat drones, and long-range missiles, the ministry said on Tuesday.

It said in a statement that Dmytro Kuleba called on Ukraine's Western partners to respond to a new Russian strike on Ukraine by "accelerating the supply of additional air defence systems, combat drones of all types, long-range missiles with a range of 300+ km."

It also said he had called on partners to make "a decision to transfer frozen Russian assets for the needs of Ukraine and terminating contacts with Russian diplomats in the relevant capitals and international organizations."

— Reuters

Moscow launches missile attacks on Ukraine after Putin vows revenge for strikes on Russia