Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine reinforces Bakhmut defences amid relentless assault; two Britons missing in Donetsk | Ukraine

Dan Sabbagh

Britain is considering supplying a handful of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, the first time a western country has indicated it may supply its homemade heavy armour to Kyiv in the war against Russia.

No final decision by Downing Street has been made, British sources added, but Ukraine is hoping a positive move by the UK could help persuade Germany to follow suit later this month with its Leopard 2 battle tanks.

Ukraine has been asking for British tanks “since summer”, a second source said. But the reality is that the UK, with a total fleet of 227, has a small supply compared with the number made by Germany and the US.

An initial report from Sky News suggested the UK was considering supplying about 10 Challenger 2s, only a fraction of the 300 Kyiv wants as it tries to build up a mechanised force in pursuit of victory after more than 10 months of war.

There are about 2,000 Leopard 2s in service in Europe with 13 different countries, but because they were originally made in Germany, the approval of Berlin would be required if any are to be re-exported to Ukraine.

Western countries have already announced a step-up in their military aid to Ukraine this year. Last week, the US and Germany said they would provide 50 Bradley and 40 Marder fighting vehicles respectively.

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It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Ukraine is reinforcing its positions around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region, after days of relentless assaults by Russian forces spearheaded by the Wagner mercenary group. Bakhmut and the neighbouring town of Soledar have been the focus of intense efforts by Moscow to make progress in an area where Russian forces have been trying desperately to advance since early summer.

• Russian attacks in recent days have focused on Soledar in an apparent effort to cut off the town. The capture of Soledar, which lies to the north-east of Bakhmut, would put Ukrainian forces in the area in danger of being encircled and offer Russia a potential avenue of approach against that city.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction after months of attacks. “Our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance,” Ukraine’s president said in nightly video remarks on Sunday. In Soledar “things are very difficult”, he added.

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• Two women have been killed and six people injured, including a 10-year-old girl, after a Russian missile attack on a market in a village in eastern Ukraine on Monday morning, officials said. A 60-year-old was among two women killed after the missile slammed into the village market in Shevchenkove, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of the city of Kharkiv, regional prosecutors said.

• Strong doubts have emerged over Russian claims to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in barracks in Kramatorsk. Journalists visiting the city were unable to find evidence of large-scale casualties. However, the Kremlin said it was confident its defence ministry was correct when it said 600 Ukrainian service personnel had been “destroyed” in the attack.

• The Kremlin has rejected a Ukrainian assertion that a senior Russian official has been floating the idea of a potential peace deal over Ukraine with European officials. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, told the country’s public broadcaster on Thursday that Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, had been holding meetings with European officials in an attempt to force Kyiv to sign what he characterised as an unfavourable peace deal.

• The UK is reportedly considering supplying Ukraine with British battle tanks for the first time to help its army fight Russia. Discussions have been taking place “for a few weeks” about delivering a number of the British army’s Challenger 2 main battle tanks, Sky News reported, citing a western source with knowledge of the conversations.

• Germany has no plans to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, a government spokesperson has said. Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister, said on Sunday that Berlin could not rule out the delivery of Leopard tanks – which are heavier fighting vehicles than the Marders – to support Ukrainian military forces in the future.

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• Italy will not make a decision on supplying new arms to Ukraine until next month, according to a report. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni faces resistance to the approval of a decree to send arms to Ukraine from her allies Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, la Repubblica reported, as well as issues over cost considerations and military shortages.

• Two British volunteers, Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, were reported missing by police who have said they have lost contact. The pair were last known to have been travelling from Kramatorsk to Soledar on 6 January, reports Sky News. Officers in Donetsk have said they are carrying out investigative and operational measures to establish their location.

• Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said he spent New Year’s Eve in a punishment cell after being transferred there for washing his face too early. In a message posted on Twitter via his lawyer, Navalny said he had been sent back to the cell for the 10th time in the last year because a “surveillance operator noticed that you washed your face at 5:24 in the morning, while according to the schedule you wake up at 5:00 and wash at 6:00”.

• A cargo vessel carrying Ukrainian grain briefly ran aground in the Suez canal before being refloated and towed away, according to the Egyptian authority running the vital waterway. The incident, involving the 225-metre Marshall Islands-registered M/V Glory, had sparked fears of a repeat of a blockage in 2021, when the large container ship Ever Given became diagonally wedged in the canal.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you today with all the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Two British volunteers, Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, were reported missing by police who have said they have lost contact. The pair were last known to have been travelling from Kramatorsk to Soledar on 6 January, reports Sky News.

Officers in Donetsk have said they are carrying out investigative and operational measures to establish their location.

Ukraine is reinforcing its positions around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region after days of relentless assaults by Russian forces spearheaded by the Wagner mercenary group.

Bakhmut and the neighbouring town of Soledar have been the focus of intense efforts by Moscow to make progress in an area where Russian forces have been trying desperately to advance since early summer.

In recent days, Russian attacks have focused on Soledar in an apparent effort to cut off the town. “The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites into battle,” Ukraine’s military said on Monday, echoing comments made by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Sunday.

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Officials at a college in an eastern Ukrainian city have dismissed claims by the Russian defence ministry that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed in a missile strike there.

The Russian ministry claimed its missiles struck two college dormitories in Kramatorsk, north-west of Bakhmut, temporarily housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in the city, killing 600 of them, late on Saturday.

But officials at the college said a rocket merely blew out windows and damaged classrooms.

Reporters at Associated Press who visited the scene on Monday saw a four-storey concrete building with most of its windows blown out, as well as a largely undamaged separate, six-storey college building. There were no signs of a Ukrainian military presence or any casualties.

Yana Pristupa, the college’s deputy director, told the news agency:

Nobody saw a single spot of blood anywhere. Everyone saw yesterday that no one carried out any bodies. It’s just people cleaning up.

The school had more than 300 students prewar, she said, most of them studying mechanical engineering, with most lessons moving online after Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

A Reuters team also visited the scene and reported that neither dormitory appeared to have been directly hit or seriously damaged. There were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living there and no sign of bodies or traces of blood.

Despite the absence of any evidence that hundreds of Ukrainian troops died in the strike, the Kremlin stood firm on its claims.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters today:

The defence ministry is the main, legitimate and comprehensive source of information about the course of the special military operation.