At least seven people have been injured after Russia launched a missile attack on the historic centre of Ukraine’s Black Sea port city Odesa, seriously damaging the Unesco World Heritage Site.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Norwegian diplomats had been among those "who were in the epicentre of the strike" and that the attack underscored the need to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
Vladimir Putin's forces had aimed the attack "directly on the city, on ordinary civilian buildings”, he said.
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump said that his administration was in a “very serious” discussion with Russia about the Ukraine war and suggested he and Mr Putin could take “significant” action towards ending it soon.
"We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that'll be significant,” he said. However, when asked if he spoke directly with his Russian counterpart, Mr Trump said: "I don't want to say that."
Earlier, Ukraine’s military said it had destroyed a Russian command post in the border region of Kursk.
Key Points
- Russian missile attack seriously damages historic centre of Ukraine's Odesa
- Norwegian diplomats were in the area hit by missiles
- Trump says he and Putin could do something 'significant' toward ending Russia's war in Ukraine
- Ukraine says it destroyed a Russian command post in Kursk
- Ukrainian drones attack Russian oil refinery
Norwegian diplomats were in the area hit by missiles
04:05
,
Namita Singh
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Norwegian diplomats had been among those "who were in the epicentre of the strike" in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa.
Online pictures posted by regional governor Oleh Kiper and by Odesa mayor Hennady Trukhanov showed the lobby and other parts of the Hotel Bristol, a luxury landmark built at the end of the 19th century, reduced to rubble.
The Odesa Philharmonic concert hall, opposite the hotel, suffered damage with many of its windows smashed.
Online video showed fragments strewn on a street several hundred metres (yards) away near the opulent opera house from the same era.
Museums in the district also suffered damage.
Mapped: Russia-Ukraine frontline
04:00
,
Tom Watling
Trump says he and Putin could do something 'significant' toward ending Russia's war in Ukraine
03:27
,
Namita Singh
President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration has already had "very serious" discussions with Russia about its war in Ukraine and that he and Russian president Vladimir Putin could soon take "significant" action toward ending the grinding conflict.
"We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that'll be significant," Mr Trump said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office.
"We want to end that war. That war would have not started if I was president."
Mr Trump did not say who from his administration has been in contact with the Russians but insisted the two sides were "already talking".
Asked if he has already spoken directly with Mr Putin, Mr Trump was coy: "I don't want to say that."
Mr Trump has said repeatedly he wouldn't have allowed the conflict to start if he had been in office, even though he was president as fighting grew in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv's forces and separatists backed by Moscow, ahead of Mr Putin sending in tens of thousands of troops in 2022.
Mr Trump since returning to office has criticized Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he should have made a deal with Mr Putin to avoid the conflict.
Deliberate strike on Unesco World Heritage site, says Zelensky
03:07
,
Namita Singh
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was "a deliberate strike" that underscored again the need to strengthen Ukraine's air defences.
He said Norwegian diplomats had been among those "who were in the epicentre of the strike" in the historic district.
Mr Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said the attack was staged "directly on the city, on ordinary civilian buildings”.
"Again and again, air defence is the top priority. We are working with all our partners to provide more protection for our country."
Mr Zelensky said a meeting of Ukraine's command had focused on improving weapons systems and speeding up deliveries.
"We need faster deliveries and greater numbers of systems and weapons which will enable us to save the lives of more of our soldiers, our people," he said.
"More orders for drones. More investments for the development of robotic systems. And more orders for basic weapons."
Mapped: Russia's advance in Donetsk
03:00
,
Tom Watling
Russian missile attack seriously damages historic centre of Ukraine's Odesa
02:56
,
Namita Singh
Russian forces launched missiles on the centre of Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, a Unesco World Heritage site, seriously damaging historic buildings and injuring seven people, local officials said.
Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said seven people were injured and emergency crews remained at the scene.
Online pictures posted by Mr Kiper and by Odesa mayor Hennady Trukhanov showed the lobby and other parts of the Hotel Bristol, a luxury landmark built at the end of the 19th century, reduced to rubble.
Mr Kiper told national television that three explosions had resounded at intervals, which he described as a "well-established practice" by the Russian military of repeated attacks on the same target.
"However, in this case a missile capable of penetrating concrete was used," he said while standing in a street near emergency crews.
"This means it was deliberately aimed at a civilian hotel to destroy the floors and structures inside, causing destruction and, of course killing civilians staying there at the time."
Mapped: Ukraine's advance in Kursk
02:00
,
Tom Watling
Zelensky’s man in DC: Ukraine president’s plan to convince Trump to support the war against Russia
00:00
,
Tom Watling
Europe considers sending troops to Ukraine if there's a ceasefire. But would Russia accept?
Friday 31 January 2025 23:00
,
Tom Watling
Zelensky believes Trump could end Russia’s war but only if Ukraine included in talks
Friday 31 January 2025 22:00
,
Tom Watling
The extraordinary lengths North Korean soldiers will go to avoid capture in Ukraine
Friday 31 January 2025 21:00
,
Tom Watling
Two people injured in missile attack on Odesa
Friday 31 January 2025 20:38
,
Bryony Gooch
Two people have been injured in Russia’s evening missile attack on the historic centre of Odesa.
The city’s mayor, Hennadiy Trukhanov confirmed on the messaging app Telegram that they have been taken to hospital.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said two large explosions had gone off in the city during the early evening.
President Zelensky said in his nightly video address that “strikes directly on the city, on ordinary civilian buildings” underscored the importance of improved air defences.
“Again and again, air defence is the top priority. We are working with all our partners to provide more protection for our country”, he added.
“We need faster deliveries and greater numbers of systems and weapons which will enable us to save the lives of more of our soldiers, our people.
“More orders for drones. More investments for the development of robotic systems. And more orders for basic weapons.”
Desperate Ukrainians using illegal routes to bring children to UK, ministers warned
Friday 31 January 2025 20:00
,
Tom Watling
Russian arrest warrant for UK journalist ‘is desperate rhetoric’, No 10 says
Friday 31 January 2025 19:00
,
Tom Watling
Why peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are not as simple as Trump makes out
Friday 31 January 2025 18:09
,
Tom Watling
In Pictures: Life in Kyiv
Friday 31 January 2025 17:34
,
Tom Watling
North Korea troops partially withdraw from frontline in Russia’s Kursk after weeks of heavy losses
Friday 31 January 2025 17:00
,
Tom Watling
Russian military recruitment posters seen in Putin's hometown
Friday 31 January 2025 16:33
,
Tom Watling
Mapped: Ukraine-Russia frontline
Friday 31 January 2025 16:00
,
Tom Watling
Ukrainian defence minister meets his Dutch counterpart
Friday 31 January 2025 15:27
,
Tom Watling
I met with Dutch @DefensieMin Ruben Brekelmans in The Hague.
— Rustem Umerov (@rustem_umerov) January 31, 2025
The Netherlands is among the leaders in supporting Ukraine, and their assistance has significantly increased in 2024. We have already secured agreements for 2025.
Top priority — the F-16 program. We expect the next… pic.twitter.com/EN5WPJOqfe
Ukraine launches second major drone attack against Russian oil refineries in a week
Friday 31 January 2025 14:58
,
Tom Watling
Freezing aid to Ukraine shows Trump is no ally to the West
Friday 31 January 2025 14:27
,
Tom Watling
Second ship seized in Baltic Sea cable damage investigation
Friday 31 January 2025 14:16
,
Tom Watling
Norwegian police said on Friday they had seized and boarded a Norwegian ship with an all-Russian crew on suspicion of involvement in causing damage to a telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea, the second vessel to be named by investigators in the case.
The Silver Dania cargo ship was seized at the request of Latvian authorities, and with the help of Norway's coast guard, police in the northern Norwegian city of Tromsoe said.
"It is suspected that the ship has been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden," the police said in a statement.
The Silver Dania's owner, the Silver Sea shipping group, denied that the vessel was involved in the undersea fibre optic cable damage, Norwegian broadcaster TV2 reported.
Sweden and Latvia are investigating the suspected sabotage on Sunday of the cable linking the two countries, and Swedish police seized and boarded Maltese-flagged cargo ship Vezhen on suspicion it caused the damage.
Norwegian police said the two ship seizures were related to the same incident.
"The suspicion is that someone on the (Silver Dania) has something to do with the cable incident," police lawyer Ronny Joergensen told a press conference. He declined to provide details.
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the NATO military alliance recently boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
In pictures: Ukrainian forces on the frontline in Toretsk
Friday 31 January 2025 14:00
,
Tom Watling
Mapped: Ukraine's assault in Kursk
Friday 31 January 2025 13:46
,
Tom Watling
Finland announces military package for Ukraine
Friday 31 January 2025 13:24
,
Tom Watling
Why Ukraine-Russia peace talks are not as simple as Trump makes out
Friday 31 January 2025 13:06
,
Tom Watling
Mapped: Russia's attack towards Pokrovsk
Friday 31 January 2025 12:32
,
Tom Watling
Ukraine gas transit row intensifies as Hungary threatens to block EU sanctions renewal
Friday 31 January 2025 12:01
,
Tom Watling
A row over the end of Russian gas flows via Ukraine has intensified as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened to block the next rollover of EU sanctions against Russia unless Brussels helps to achieve a restart of supply.
Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine stopped on 1 January after Ukraine declined to renew a transit agreement with Russia.
Slovakia and Hungary have been pressing the EU to step in to get gas flows restored.
Although Hungary's supply of Russian gas comes via the TurkStream pipeline through Turkey, not via Ukraine, Orban maintains that the Ukraine route is important to Hungary. Orban told state radio on Friday that Ukraine's move to halt Russian gas transit to Central Europe and the resulting rise in energy prices was "unacceptable".
Orban also said that if gas flows did not restart, Hungary would veto the next rollover of the sanctions the European Union has imposed on Russia over the war, due in around six months.
"Among other things, the Commission has promised to sort out the Ukrainians restarting Russian gas transit," Orban said. "If the Commission does not deliver on what we agreed on, then sanctions will be scrapped." The EU on Monday renewed the wide-ranging sanctions, after Hungary stopped holding up the move in return for a declaration on energy security.
The Commission was not immediately available to comment on Orban's remarks. The Commission has said it will continue discussions with Ukraine on gas supplies to Europe, and involve Hungary and Slovakia. It has long maintained that Europe does not need the gas coming via Ukraine.
Ukraine says it destroyed a Russian command post in Kursk
Friday 31 January 2025 11:29
,
Tom Watling
Ukraine’s military says it has destroyed a Russian command post in the border region of Kursk.
In a statement on the Telegram messenger app, they said they had hit a command post in the city of Rylsk, around 25 miles beyond the area of Kursk controlled by Ukraine’s forces.
“This operation is part of a systematic effort to destroy enemy command posts, depriving them of the ability to effectively coordinate combat operations and logistics,” they wrote.
Ukraine military claims strike on Russian oil refinery
Friday 31 January 2025 11:00
,
Tom Watling
Ukraine’s military has claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a Russian oil refinery in the Volgograd region, which caused a fire.
In a statement on the Telegram messenger app, they wrote that drone units, working alongside the country’s intelligence services, had struck the Lukoil refinery in Volgograd, around 250 miles from the Ukrainian border.
They said the refinery, among the largest in Russia in terms of design capacity, “is involved in supplying the Russian army”.
The deserted Ukraine city that could be the most important of the war
Friday 31 January 2025 10:26
,
Tom Watling
Where Russian forces are making gains in eastern Ukraine: Mapped
Friday 31 January 2025 10:00
,
Tom Watling
In pictures: Life in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk
Friday 31 January 2025 09:30
,
Tom Watling
Below, we have some of the latest pictures of civilian life in the besieged Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
As it sits on logistical lines supplying the wider area, it has been the main objective of Russia’s offensive in the eastern Donetsk region for months.
Since the fall of the city of Avdiivka last February, Vladimir Putin’s troops have advanced around 30 miles to the southwestern outskirts of Pokrovsk. The area is heavily fortified.
Only 7,000 of the 60,000 civilians who lived there before the war remain.
Russian drone attack blows hole in apartment - picture
Friday 31 January 2025 09:09
,
Tom Watling
A Russian drone attack in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy has blown a hole in a high-rise apartment block.
Ukraine’s state emergency service posted a picture of the damaged building on social media.
“Rescuers extinguished a fire in a high-rise building caused by falling debris from a Russian UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle),” they wrote.
“A balcony in one of the apartments was damaged. Fortunately, there were no injuries.”
#Черкаси: рятувальники ліквідували пожежу в багатоповерхівці, яка виникла внаслідок падіння уламків російського БпЛА
— DSNS.GOV.UA (@SESU_UA) January 31, 2025
Пошкоджено балкон в одній із квартир. На щастя, обійшлося без постраждалих. pic.twitter.com/0IZomMau7O
Russian drone attack injures four
Friday 31 January 2025 08:49
,
Tom Watling
Russian drones launched overnight caused damage in the northeastern Sumy region, the Odesa region in the south and the central Cherkasy region, local officials have said.
Oleh Kiper, the Odesa regional governor, said that four civilians, including a doctor, were injured in drone attacks targeting the city of Chornomorsk.
The strikes also partially disrupted electricity supplies in the city and damaged the city's hospital, an administrative building, a grain warehouse, a residential house, and several trucks, he said on the Telegram app.
Regional officials in the central Cherkasy region said that drone debris damaged an apartment building.
Russian arrest warrant for UK journalist ‘is desperate rhetoric’, No 10 says
Friday 31 January 2025 08:26
,
Tom Watling
Ukraine downs 59 of 102 Russian drones, air force says
Friday 31 January 2025 08:09
,
Tom Watling
Ukraine's air defences shot down 59 of 102 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Friday, the air force said.
It said that 37 drones were "lost", referring to the use of electronic warfare to redirect them. Russian drones caused damage in the northeastern Sumy region, the Odesa region in the south and the central Cherkasy region, the air force said, without providing further details.
Desperate Ukrainians using illegal routes to bring children to UK, ministers warned
Friday 31 January 2025 15:53
,
Tom Watling
Father of ex-British soldier captured by Russia fears son will be tortured after fighting for Ukraine
Friday 31 January 2025 07:49
,
Arpan Rai
The father of a former British soldier allegedly captured by Russian troops fighting for Ukraine expressed fear that his son might be tortured in prison.
James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was taken prisoner in the Kursk area of Russia, state news agency RIA reported, citing a security source.
In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied behind his back, says in English that he formerly served in the British army.
Why does Russia want to capture Pokrovsk?
Friday 31 January 2025 07:33
,
Arpan Rai
Russian forces are starting to encircle the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south, and Ukraine has halted production at its only coking coal mine nearby.
Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Most people have fled and only around 7,000 residents remain, according to a Ukrainian police statement in late January.
It lies on a key road used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts, including the towns of Chasiv Yar, which is consumed by heavy fighting, and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.
Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and sees taking control of Pokrovsk as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia.
Kyiv and the West reject Russia's territorial claims as illegal and accuse Moscow of prosecuting a war of colonial conquest.
Control of the city, which the Russian media call "the gateway to Donetsk", would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area.
Fire doused at Russian oil refinery in Volgograd region
Friday 31 January 2025 07:19
,
Arpan Rai
An oil refinery in Russia's southern Volgograd region caught fire after an overnight Ukrainian drone attack, but the blaze has now been put out, the regional governor said today.
Andrei Bocharov, the governor, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that Russian air defences had repelled an attack on his region by eight drones.
"As a result of falling debris from one of the drones, a fire broke out on the territory of an oil refinery, which was promptly extinguished. One injured refinery worker was hospitalised," he said.
Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that 49 Ukrainian drones had been downed over the country overnight, including 25 drones in the southern Rostov region and eight in the Volgograd region.
Drones had also been detected and destroyed in the Kursk, Yaroslavl, Belgorod, Voronezh, and Krasnodar regions, it said.
A Russian drone strikes an apartment building in Ukraine, killing at least 4
Friday 31 January 2025 05:00
,
Arpan Rai
A Russian drone blasted a hole in an apartment building in northeastern Ukraine during a nighttime attack, killing at least four people and injuring nine others, officials said yesterday.
The Shahed drone blew out a wall and surrounding windows in the apartment block in Sumy, a major city, just after 1am, the Sumy regional administration said. A child was among the injured, it said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called it “a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime.”
The war between Russia and Ukraine, which enters its fourth year next month and shows no signs of ending, has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Where Russian forces are making gains in eastern Ukraine: Mapped
Friday 31 January 2025 04:00
,
Tom Watling
What Trump's intel chief pick Tulsi Gabbard thinks of Ukraine and Russia
Friday 31 January 2025 03:30
,
Arpan Rai
Over the past nearly four years, US’s incoming director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has repeated Russia's arguments about its invasion of Ukraine.
She has suggested Moscow had justification to send troops into the neighboring country. She also endorsed Russian claims that the US and Ukraine were involved in dangerous biological research before the war in unfounded claims.
She has criticised the government of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as a "corrupt autocracy" and has expressed sympathy for Russia's position, given Ukraine's desire to join Nato, the Western military alliance.
"This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/Nato had simply acknowledged Russia's legitimate security concerns," she posted on Twitter at the start of Russia's invasion in 2022.
Russia says air defences down 17 Ukrainian drones
Friday 31 January 2025 02:52
,
Arpan Rai
Russia's defence ministry said late last night that air defence units had downed 17 Ukrainian drones in four southern regions in a period of just over two hours.
A ministry statement said 11 of the 17 drones were downed between 7.50pm and 10pm Moscow time (1650 GMT and 1900 GMT) over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold a chunk of territory since staging a cross-border incursion last August.
The ministry's post on Telegram said other drones had been downed in Belgorod and Voronezh regions and in the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The ministry made no mention of damage or casualties on the ground.
The governor of Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said "several" drones had been downed over his region on the Ukrainian border. Gusev said there had been no injuries or damage
In ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka,’ Oscar winner takes viewers back to Ukraine’s frontlines
Friday 31 January 2025 01:00
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Tom Watling
Trump claims he secured peace in Gaza – can he do the same in Ukraine?
Friday 31 January
