Russia’s overnight missile strike on Kyiv caused “material damage” to the Portuguese embassy. Moscow fired a salvo of missiles at the Ukrainian capital early in the morning, targeting missile production plants and a Ukrainian military command post, according to the Russian defense ministry.
“The Portuguese government vehemently condemns the attacks in Kyiv this morning, which caused material damage to several diplomatic missions, including the Portuguese Embassy,” Lisbon said in a statement posted to X.
Six diplomatic missions suffered damaged in the attack on the center of the Ukrainian capital, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
The ministry said that the Albanian, Argentine, North Macedonian, Palestinian, Portuguese and Montenegrin missions were damaged.
Kyiv said that the assault involved ballistic missiles and several dozen drones, most of which they intercepted.
Moscow claimed that the attack was retaliation for a strike by Ukraine on a chemical plant in Russia on the previous day.
EU leaders condemn Kyiv embassy damage as ‘barbaric’ and ‘heinous’
The EU’s top brass have reacted to news that the Portuguese embassy was damaged in the Russian missile assault on Kyiv this morning.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, described the missile salvo as “another heinous Russian attack against Kyiv… Putin’s disregard for international law reaches new heights.”
Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said the incident was “another barbaric attack by Russia on civilian targets that shows no willingness for peace.”
Russian ballistic missiles target Kyiv
Russia fired a volley of ballistic missiles at Kyiv early on Friday morning, with projectiles hitting several districts of the Ukrainian capital.
Residents of Kyiv were woken by air raid sirens at 6.40 am local time after the Russian army fired several missiles believed to be of the Iskander-M variety and the North Korean KN-23 model.
Local authorities said that office buildings, a gasp pipeline and several cars were damaged in the attack, with one person reported dead and several more injured.
The Kyiv Post reported that eight loud blasts were heard in the city as the missiles struck at around 7am.
Orban holding up EU sanctions approval ‘until after Trump inauguration’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to stall an extension to EU sanctions on Russia until after Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to a report in Bloomberg.
EU leaders met from a summit in Brussels on Thursday and the extension of the sanctions was supposed to be “routine,” according to the report.
The measures need to be extended by a unanimous vote by EU leaders every six months, with the current round of sanctions set to run out at the end of January.
“I suggest to Europeans to have strategic patience,” Mr Orban told reporters on Thursday. “We should not do anything that would go against this future transatlantic relationship.”
Europe needs US help to secure Ukraine peace, saysfor Ukraine.”Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that “European guarantees won’t be sufficient
After speaking with EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, Mr Zelensky said that was supportive of an initiative mooted by French President Emmanuel Macron to potentially deploy Western troops – but added that it needed to be fleshed out.
“If we are talking about a contingent, we need to be specific – how many, what they will do if there is aggression from Russia,” he said.
“The main thing is that this is not some artificial story, we need effective mechanisms.”
Ukraine hit by ‘largest cyber attack in recent times’
Russia carried out a mass cyberattack on Ukraine’s state registries, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said late on Thursday, resulting in a temporary suspension of services.
The registries contain vital information about Ukrainian citizens such as births, deaths, marriages and property ownership.
“Today the largest external cyberattack in recent times occurred with Ukraine’s state registries,” Stefanishyna wrote on Facebook.
She added that the attack was “carried out by the Russians to disrupt the work of the country’s critically important infrastructure” and said it would take two weeks to retire the offices’ capabilities.
Ukraine confirms Russian advances in Donetsk region
Ukraine’s military confirmed on Friday that its forces had pulled back from the area around Uspenivka and Trudove villages in the eastern region of Donetsk to avoid being encircled by advancing Russian troops.
“The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has decided to withdraw the units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces from the area in question to avoid encirclement,” Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces said on Telegram.
Military units had avoided being surrounded and would continue to operations in the Kurakhove-Konstantinopolske area, the statement read.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported 18 battles on the Kurakhove front in the past day with Russian forces attempting to advance to the north of the town.
Earlier on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had taken control of Uspenivka and Novopustynka.
Contributed by Telegraph
