Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow confirms large warship hit near Crimea

Charlotte Higgins

The Guardian’s chief culture writer, Charlotte Higgins, has written her moments of hope column about the young women she met in Ukraine.

She writes:

There is Sofia Cheliak, a cultural broadcaster who also runs the programme for Lviv BookForum, a brilliant literary festival where ideas are exchanged vigorously, held in the thick of war.

There is Bohdana Neborak, who is editor-in-chief of the Ukrainians magazine, a podcaster and cultural manager: she is elegant-minded, intellectually rigorous and an energetic ambassador for Ukrainian literature.

There are the talented, generous, very funny photographers with whom I’ve covered stories for the Guardian, Anastasia Vlasova and Julia Kochetova. Julia told me once that her career had been defined by documenting conflict, not out of choice, but because war came to her doorstep: it’s an unlooked-for, tough destiny.

There’s Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Nobel peace prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties, whose work as a human rights lawyer is about strengthening institutions in Ukraine and campaigning for justice for war crimes. She is one of the most poised public speakers I have heard, and uses her quiet, eloquent powers of persuasion relentlessly. I could go on: there are many others.

I don’t like to use the word “hero”. I studied Homer, once: the original heroes, the violent, godlike men of the Iliad and the Odyssey, have nothing to do with these women. In our own times, declaring someone heroic often does that person a disservice, flattening out their human complexity, turning them into untouchable paragons. So I don’t call these women heroic. But when I think of the future of Ukraine in such hands, hope still perches in my soul.

One person was killed, two injured and a large landing ship called Novocherkassk was damaged in an overnight Ukrainian attack on the Crimean port city of Feodosia, Russia’s defence ministry and officials said.

The Interfax news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying that Ukraine had used guided missiles launched by aircraft to attack Feodosia.

Reuters reported that the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on the Telegram messaging app that one person had been killed and two injured as a result of the attack.

There was no immediate report of how badly the ship was damaged, but videos circulating on Ukrainian channels showed an extensive fire in the port area.

Ukraine carried out an air attack on Feodosia in Crimea, the country’s air force commander said on Tuesday, after the Russian-installed governor of the Crimea said the assault sparked a fire in the town’s port area.

Reuters reports that the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Lieut Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, said on Telegram, without providing evidence, that the attack destroyed a major Russian navy vessel, the landing ship Novocherkask.

Oleshchuk said:

And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!

The report could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Russia.

Both Russia and Ukraine have often exaggerated the losses they claim to have inflicted upon each other in the 22-month-long war, while underestimated their own casualty and equipment losses.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said only that the Ukrainian attack resulted in a fire in the town’s port area that was promptly contained.

Aksyonov said on the Telegram:

All relevant emergency services are on site. Residents of several houses will be evacuated.

Footage posted on several Russian news outlets on Telegram showed powerful explosions and fires over a port area.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in a broadly condemned move in 2014.

This marks the continuation of live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine on this 26 December. Here’s an overview of the latest news.

Ukraine carried out an air attack in Crimea and destroyed a major Russian navy vessel, Ukraine’s air force commander has said.

A huge explosion and fireball engulfed part of the Crimean port of Feodosia early on Tuesday morning. An initial fire was followed by a massive secondary explosion.

The commander of Ukraine’s air force, Lieut Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, said on Telegram that the attack destroyed a major Russian Navy vessel, the landing ship Novocherkask.

The Russian-installed governor of Crimea said earlier that the assault sparked a fire in Feodosia.

More on that that story soon. In other developments:

• Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers has submitted to parliament a draft law lowering the age of those who can be mobilised for combat duty to 25 from 27. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, said a week ago that the military had proposed mobilising up to half a million more Ukrainians but it was a “highly sensitive” issue that the military and government would have to discuss.

• The Ukrainian military shot down 28 Russian drones out of 31 launched from the annexed Crimea peninsula, mostly targeting the south of the country, it said on Monday. Air defences also destroyed two missiles, it said.

• Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been located at a penal colony in the Arctic Yamal-Nenets region of northern Russia, his spokesperson has confirmed. Kira Yarmysh was quoted as saying Navalny’s lawyer managed to see him on Monday. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, expressed concern at the weekend about Navalny’s whereabouts as he had been missing in Russia’s prison system for nearly three weeks.

• Russia said emergency workers had put out a fire on a Soviet-era nuclear-powered cargo-icebreaker ship. The state company that runs the vessel said on Monday there were no casualties and no threat to the security of the reactor.

• Russia on Monday accused western countries of stirring up tensions in Moscow-friendly Serbia, which has been rocked by protests over alleged fraud in elections held on 17 December.

• Five Russian UAVs (drones) over the region were “destroyed” by Ukrainian forces late on Sunday evening, said Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

• The Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union’s members have signed a free trade agreement with Iran, Russian news agency Tass has reported.

• The Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, will pay a two-day visit to Russia, after skipping a summit in Kyrgyzstan Putin attended in October.