The Ukrainian Air Force said Friday it could not confirm, at this stage, information from the White House according to which Russia used North Korean missiles in Ukraine. Follow the latest developments in the war in Ukraine hour by hour.
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11:33 a.m.: Ukraine says it shot down 21 of 29 Russian drones launched in night attack
Ukraine said Friday it had shot down 21 of the 29 explosive drones launched by Russia overnight, without reporting major damage.
“The anti-aircraft defense downed 21 of the 29 attack drones launched against the Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Cherkasy, Kirovograd and Khmelnytsky regions” in the south and center of the country, the Air Force said on Telegram, specifying that these devices were, as always, devices of Iranian Shahed design.
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10:24 a.m.: Moscow invokes “security” to limit IAEA access to Zaporizhia power plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not recently have access to the reactor rooms of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine, for “security” reasons, said Friday Moscow, which has occupied the site for almost two years.
In the hands of Moscow’s forces since March 2022, the power plant, the largest in Europe, has been hit several times by power outages linked to the fighting and the Russian army regularly accuses Ukraine of threatening it. This precarious situation raises fears of a major nuclear accident, despite the presence of IAEA experts on site.
Tensions between Moscow and kyiv on the subject are recurrent, and the IAEA acts as mediator, while ensuring the security of the site alongside the Russians. But on Wednesday, the UN agency deplored that its experts had seen their access refused to several parts of the plant.
An official at the Russian atomic agency Rosenergoatom, Renat Kartchaa, justified such a decision on Friday, citing “security” measures. “When a reactor compartment is sealed and confined, plant personnel can only be present in emergency situations or to carry out routine work,” he said, quoted by the Russian daily RBK .
“A containment enclosure, and in particular a sealed enclosure, is not a museum or a free walking area,” he said.
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10:02 a.m.: Ukraine does not confirm Russia’s use of North Korean missiles
Ukraine’s air force said Friday it could not confirm at this stage Russia’s use of North Korean missiles after the United States said Moscow had used such a weapon to attack Ukraine.
“At this stage we have no information on the use of such missiles. The United States has made a statement to this effect, so experts will study the (missile) wreckage and we will be able to say then whether it is the case or not. I cannot confirm yet,” air force spokesperson Yuri Ignat told Ukrainian television.
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1:16 a.m.: Moscow says it has foiled a new Ukrainian attack in Crimea
Russia said on Friday January 5 that it had repelled a new Ukrainian drone attack against the annexed Crimean peninsula, in a context of an increase in strikes on both sides.
“Air defense systems in service destroyed and intercepted 36 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” annexed by Moscow in 2014, the Russian Defense Ministry communicated on Telegram, claiming to have “foiled” the attack.
Another drone ordered by kyiv was also destroyed in the Krasnodar region (West), according to the same source.
Missiles supplied by North Korea to Russia were used to attack Ukraine, the White House said Thursday, denouncing a “significant and worrying escalation” of Pyongyang’s support for Moscow.
The Russian city of Belgorod was the target of a new series of Ukrainian bombings late Thursday.
Two people died in Russian strikes on Donetsk Oblast on Thursday, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday according to which “foreign citizens who have concluded a contract for military service in (the Russian army) or in military formations during a special operation have the right to apply for citizenship.”
With AFP