Russia Ukraine war – live: Putin attends Christmas service alone as attacks continue despite ‘ceasefire’

Ukrainian refugees in the UK are being housed in hotels and temporary accommodation, with a “growing number” made homeless, say councils.

Our colleague Holly Bancroft reports that nearly 3,000 Ukrainian households have been registered as homeless to English councils since the end of February 2022.

Opora, a charity helping Ukrainian refugees settle in the UK, has also warned the numbers could be much higher.

Executive director of charity Refugees at Home, Lauren Scott MBE, said: “People opened their doors under Homes for Ukraine in 2022 as an alternative to housing refugees in hotels. But with no proper move-on strategy in place that’s exactly where many Ukrainians may end up in 2023.”

A government spokesperson said: “Homes for Ukraine has seen 109,000 Ukrainians welcomed to the UK, thanks to the generosity of sponsors, with most settling in well.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday attended an Orthodox Church Christmas service alone, inside a Kremlin cathedral, rather than joining other worshippers in public celebrations.

Russia’s RIA news agency said it was the first time in years the president had celebrated Christmas in Moscow rather than in events held around the capital.

State television showed live footage of Putin inside the gilded Cathedral of the Annunciation as Orthodox priests conducted the midnight service, known as the Divine Liturgy.

Putin celebrated Easter last year at the cathedral with thousands of others, but attended Christmas by himself last year in his official residence outside Moscow.

The Russian Orthodox Church backs the war in Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on Thursday appealed for both sides to observe a 36-hour Christmas truce that Putin had subsequently announced.

The Russian-installed governor of the Crimean city of Sevastopol has said that local air defences had shot down a drone in what he suggested was the latest Ukrainian attack on a port where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-backed governor of the city, made the allegation on Telegram, alleging that the incident had occurred in the early hours of Saturday, falling within Orthodox Christmas.

There has been no immediate comment on the allegation from Ukraine, which has previously not confirmed similar alleged incidents in the past.

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s proposed temporary truce to coincide with Orthodox Christmas has been rejected by Kyiv as a cynical ruse to buy time for Russian forces to rest and regroup.

The deputy head of the President Zelensky’s office also told reporters of Russian forces attacking a fire station in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in an attack which cause several casualties.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko said in response to the Kherson attack, “They talk about a ceasefire. This is who we are at war with.”

Russia’s defence ministry has maintained it was respecting its unilateral ceasefire and accused Ukraine’s forces of continued shelling.

Russian forces withdrew from the port city in November, following brutal fighting and artillery shelling, which sparked celebrations across the country.

Our colleagues Inna Varenytsia and Jamey Keaten reported on the aftermath of Kherson’s liberation in December.

Fumio Kishida, prime minster of Japan, is considering a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, says cabinet secretary.

Any decision to visit Kyiv would be weighed on “various circumstances”, as stated by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.

The head of President Zelensky’s presidential office extended an invitation to prime minister Kishida via the country’s ambassador to Japan.

Kishida also held a phone call with president Zelensky on Friday, reaffirming Japan’s support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.

In a statement to reporters, Kishida said “I strongly condemned Russia’s continued aggression, and stated that Japan would do its utmost to provide assistance, including to get through the winter, in order to protect the lives of the Ukrainian people.”

Fighting in Ukraine is continuing to take place over the Orthodox Christmas period, the MoD has reported in its daily intelligence report.

Major fighting is said to be centring on the town of Kremina, in Luhansk Oblast.

The MoD has suggested that Russian generals will ‘highly likely’ consider this fighting around Kremina as a “threat to the right flank of their Bakhmut sector, which they see as key for enabling any future advance to occupy the remainder of Donetsk Oblast.”

Intelligence has also suggested that combat has resorted to “dismounted infantry fighting, often at short range” due to “coniferous woodland providing some cover from air observation even in winter.”

“Both sides are highly likely struggling to accurately adjust artillery fire,” says the minister update.

The Ukrainian government has taken the main cathedral of the revered historic monastery from the church previously affiliated with Moscow‘s patriarchate and allowed its Ukrainian rival to use it for Orthodox Christmas services.

The move comes as the long-running tensions between the two churches exacerbated amid Russia‘s war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian minister of culture Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Thursday that the Dormition Cathedral and the Refectory Church of the nearly 1,000-year-old Pechersk Lavra — also known as Monastery of the Caves — in the Ukrainian capital have been taken over by the state after the lease of them held by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) expired on 31 December.

President Vladimir Putin’s aim of seizing Ukrainian territory has not changed, but Russian forces continue to suffer from military weaknesses including the amount of troops they have, the Pentagon said yesterday, as Washington hopes the latest record weapons package for Kyiv will help Ukraine retake territory occupied by Russia.

“Putin has not given up his aims of dominating Ukraine and continuing to acquire Ukraine’s territory,” said Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense focusing on Russia and Ukraine.

“But the reality of Russian weaknesses, the Russian armed forces weaknesses has collided with those aims,” Ms Cooper said, adding that Russian troops also suffer from low morale.

Worshippers in the eastern occupied Ukrainian town of Volnovakha yesterday marked the Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve in a makeshift chapel that was set up in a home after their church suffered shelling damage.

Vera Barda, 74, said the congregation had initially met in a tent after the church was hit during what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

“I offered the priest (my place) saying there was a stove and electricity, so it was warmer than in a tent … he agreed at once and in three weeks we restored everything,” she said.

During the service, carried out in a converted cramped room decked out in icons, an Orthodox priest dressed in a ceremonial white robe burned incense while the mainly elderly congregation made the sign of the cross.