For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
11 p.m.: A pro-Ukrainian human chain protest took place outside NATO headquarters in Brussels on Sunday, The Associated Press said.
This comes amid the reconvening of NATO on Tuesday at the Palace of Parliament in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.
Jana Brovdiy, a protester and member of the Promote Ukraine Association, said she wanted to thank NATO members for the assistance already given to Ukraine but pushed the need for more air defense systems.
"Ukrainians have shown that they are able to destroy a lot of these missiles, but we still don't have enough this air defense systems," Brovdiy said.
10:15 p.m.: The Ukrainian security forces call the village of Kamianka officially wiped off the face of the earth, The Associated Press reported.
Not a single house or building in the village is intact. The fiercest battles were fought here for several months — just like during the Second World War, because of its location 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) from Izyum, close to the front line.
There is still no exact number of dead inhabitants — people are found in blocked cellars, buried in vegetable gardens. Locals speak of several dozen confirmed deaths so far.
Before the full-scale Russian invasion, about 1,300 people lived in Kamianka. Most of them managed to get out under shelling — some left on foot along the Seversky Donets River, some were escorted out by the Ukrainian military with a tank, and some by a military chaplain.
About 40 people were taken out by a military truck — to then-occupied Izyum by the Russian military.
9:32 p.m.:
8:59 p.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank that has been closely monitoring developments in Ukraine, said reporting from both sides indicated that heavy rain and mud have had an impact — along with wider freezing expected along the front lines in the coming days, The Associated Press reported
“It is unclear if either side is actively planning or preparing to resume major offensive or counter-offensive operations at that time, but the meteorological factors that have been hindering such operations will begin lifting,” it said in a note published Saturday.
ISW said Russian forces were digging in further east of the city of Kherson, from which Ukrainian forces expelled them more than two weeks ago and continued “routine artillery fire” across the Dnieper River.
The think tank also cited reports that Russian forces were moving multiple launch rocket and ground-to-air missile systems into positions closer to the city as part of a possible plan to step up “the tempo of rocket and anti-air missile strikes against ground targets north of the Dnieper River in the coming days.”
8:28 p.m.: Russian forces struck eastern and southern Ukraine early Sunday as utility crews scrambled to restore power, water and heating with the onset of snow and frigid temperatures, while civilians continued to leave the southern city of Kherson because of the devastation wreaked by recent attacks and their fears of more ahead, The Associated Press reported.
With persistent snowfall blanketing the capital, Kyiv, Sunday, analysts predicted that wintry weather — bringing with it frozen terrain and grueling fighting conditions — could have an increasing impact on the conflict that has raged since Russian forces invaded Ukraine more than nine months ago.
Both sides were already bogged down by heavy rain and muddy battlefield conditions, experts said.
7:45 p.m.:
7:02 p.m.: Cafe Kyiv: Keeping Ukrainians Caffeinated When the Lights go out: How do you keep a cafe running when Russian rocket attacks keep cutting your power supply? Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report.
6:18 p.m.:
5:25 p.m.: In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for unity and mutual assistance against Russian terror and the harsh winter.
He thanked everyone who has been working around the clock to restore light, water, heat and communication.
“Ukrainian unity again and again demonstrates its strength, demonstrates our effectiveness,” he said.
He warned the people of new rounds of Russian strikes. “The situation at the front remains very difficult. And most of all - in the Donetsk region, as in previous weeks,” Zelenskyy added.
He said Ukrainian leadership will do everything possible to strengthen “our defense.” “We are doing and will do everything to hold Russia accountable for this war, for this terror,” he said.
4:25 p.m.: Elders in the remote Siberian village of Bukachacha tell visiting RFE/RL reporters that all the men, who were helping the community especially the elderly population there, have been drafted to the war in Ukraine leaving the isolated population unable to fend for themselves from baking bread, to cleaning icy roads to carrying buckets of water in the cold.
“Because of the coal mining in our area, the place is, shall we say, not for living. We're already dying like flies without war," Andrei, a local, says. "And soon we will have to bury the young — the ones that will be brought from Ukraine.”
He points to the snow-covered cemetery grounds.
“Look, they've already prepared a plot of land for new burials.
4:20 p.m.: Twenty-five Ukrainian soldiers and an Estonian soldier were hospitalized after their bus collided with a truck in Latvia, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Sunday.
Reuters reports, the coach heading to Riga from Tallinn was chartered by the Estonian army, and its driver was killed in the crash, caused by hazardous weather conditions of ice and snow, Saturday evening. It is not clear why the Ukrainian soldiers were in Latvia.
3:50 p.m.: The mayor of Kyiv, former professional boxer Vitali Klitschko, responded Sunday to criticism by Ukraine's president last week that more needed to be done to help residents withstand power cuts, describing disputes as "senseless" amid Russia's military campaign.
According to Reuters, Klitschko said 430 "warming centers" were helping residents cope with the effects of Russian attacks on the city’s power infrastructure and more than 100 more were planned in case of extreme weather conditions. In a video posted on Telegram, Klitschko responded to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s criticism last week "I do not want to become involved in political battles, particularly in the current situation," Klitschko said. "That is senseless. I have things to do in the city."
Klitschko, who had been bogged in several disputes with Zelenskyy before the invasion, said the president's allies had engaged in "manipulation" about the city's efforts, including "incomprehensible photos" posted online.
"To put it mildly, this is not nice. Not for Ukrainians or for our foreign partners," Klitschko said. "Today, like never before, everyone must unite and work together.”
2:40 p.m.: “We know what we are fighting for,” Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska said in an interview with the BBC, brief highlights of which were published on the website of the Ukrainian President's Office.
Zelenska said that the massive power outages affecting the Ukrainian population after Russian massive airstrikes, are not the worst thing the country has endured.
“We have learned to live without postponing anything for tomorrow, to do what is necessary here and now," she said.
"I really believe in what psychologists call post-traumatic growth, when we come out of ordeals stronger. We have definitely changed and hardened. Ukrainians hold on in the most difficult times. Because we know what we are fighting for," the first lady added.
2:15 p.m.:
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says over six million households in the country are affected by power cuts, three days after targeted Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Agence France-Presse reported.
2:10 p.m.: As the Russian offensive against Ukraine enters its 277th day, Al Jazeera's LiveTracker pinpoints where battles are taking place and measures the human cost of war.
1:45 p.m.: The Kyiv Independent's Iryna Matviyishyn explains how pro-Kremlin propagandists have encouraged attacks and incited genocide against Ukrainians.
Watch report:
1:30 p.m.: Astronaut Scott Kelly arrived in Ukraine, Sunday. In a tweet he said he arrived in Kyiv to see for himself the atrocities committed by Russia. Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy Captain is the ambassador of UNITED 24, a Ukrainian state fundraising platform for the defense of Ukraine.
1:20 p.m.: Russian command is preparing to redeploy separate units from Belarus to the occupied territories of Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian General Staff report on Sunday.
The Kyiv Independent is citing the Ukrainian military’s National Resistance Center that up to 12,000 mobilized Russian recruits are stationed in Belarus.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russian forces expect to reinforce the troops operating in the occupied territories of Ukraine once the units acquire combat capabilities, while Belarusian special operations force units are reinforcing the border with Ukraine.
Russian forces are redeploying military personnel and equipment to replenish the units that suffered losses, according to the report.
Russia has lost 87,310 troops in Ukraine since February 24, Ukraine’s General Staff reported Sunday.
In the same report, the General Staff said that Russian forces hit four civilian sites in Rozumivka village in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and in the Kryvyi Rih suburb of Musiivka in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The threat of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure remains, the General Staff said.
Using mortars and artillery, Russian forces shelled settlements in Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts.
1:15 p.m.: Officials say shelling by Russian forces has hit several areas in eastern and southern Ukraine overnight as utility crews are scrambling to restore power, water and heating from widespread strikes.
Analysts have predicted that wintry weather in Ukraine could have an increasing impact on the direction of the conflict that has been raging since Russian forces invaded the country more than nine months ago, The Associated Press reported.
1:05 p.m.: There are signs that the Russian troops may be preparing to leave Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant said the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin. The Kyiv Independent reported.
“It is too early to say that the Russian troops are leaving the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, but we can say that they are preparing,” Kotin said Sunday. He cited Russian media publications that the control over the plant could be given to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Russian forces brought to the site military equipment, personnel, and trucks, “probably with weapons and explosives," and mined the territory of the plant, Kotin said.
12:55 p.m.: The Kherson Fine Arts Museum once hosted one of the richest collections in all of Ukraine. Now, due to the lack of heat and electricity it is standing cold and dark and bereft of its priceless art collections.
Of the over 14,000 works in its collection, barely anything remains after an organized campaign of theft by the withdrawing Russian forces.
The Kyiv Independent reported all that remains of the once flourishing museum is the building itself, and inside it, the two last staff members who refused to collaborate with Russia.
12:30 p.m.: Nine months into the war in Ukraine NATO’s stockpiles of artillery, ammunition and air defenses are diminishing.
Even the powerful United States has only limited stocks of the weapons the Ukrainians want and need, and Washington is unwilling to divert key weapons from regions like Taiwan and Korea, where China and North Korea are constantly testing the limits.
According to The New York Times, The West’s fundamental unpreparedness has set off a mad scramble to supply Ukraine with what it needs while also replenishing NATO stockpiles. As both sides burn through weaponry and ammunition at a pace not seen since World War II, the competition to keep arsenals flush has become a critical front that could prove decisive to Ukraine’s effort.
10:20 a.m.: House Republicans, who will hold a slim majority in the next Congress, have warned the Biden administration of a far-tougher oversight of the extensive military assistance it has provided Ukraine, The Washington Post reported.
The Biden administration has worked in recent weeks to publicize its efforts to track weapons shipments.
Both the State Department and the Pentagon have outlined plans including more inspections and training for the Ukrainians, meant to prevent U.S. arms from falling into the wrong hands — initiatives that have failed thus far to quell Republican skeptics calling for audits and other accountability measures of Biden’s almost $20 billion military commitment to Ukraine.
Most in Washington agree the push for more oversight is a good thing. But experts caution there are credible limitations to ensuring an airtight account of all weapons given to Ukraine that are likely to leave Biden’s harshest critics unsatisfied.
9:55 a.m.: In a tweet posted by Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrainian soldiers thank the allies for the military support in a musical kind of way.
9:40 a.m.: “Ukraine has already won in the war with Russia” said former commander of the Estonian Defense Forces Riho Terras in an interview with RFE/RL.
Teras said that Ukraine fighters have proven their skill and effectiveness against Russian forces. He added Russia’s airstrikes against civilians have bolstered Ukrainian resolve not to succumb to Russia.
“The war for independence, Ukraine has already won,” he said. “Now the question is whether we can make Russia lose, and that's another step we need to take. Europeans need to understand that one or three degrees less heat in their offices or at home will save Ukrainian lives,” he added.
9:10 a.m.: Russia will bar foreigners from using Russian surrogate mothers, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament said on Sunday, the nation's Mother's Day, Reuters reported.
Paid surrogacy is legal in Russia, but the practice has been criticized by religious groups as commercializing the birth of children.
"Everything must be done to protect children by prohibiting foreigners from using the surrogacy service," Volodin said on the Telegram messaging app. "We will make this decision at the beginning of December."
He said some 45,000 babies born by surrogate mothers have been taken abroad in the past few years. "Child trafficking is unacceptable," he added.
Russian lawmakers passed the bill nearly unanimously in its first reading in May. If passed in the final third reading, it will be reviewed by the upper house of parliament and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
8:40 a.m.: Millions in and around the Ukrainian capital struggled with disruptions to electricity supply and central heating as snow fell in Kyiv and temperatures hovered around freezing on Sunday.
Moscow has targeted vital infrastructure in recent weeks through waves of air strikes that have sparked widespread power outages and killed civilians. Fresh strikes Wednesday caused the worst damage so far in the nine-month conflict, Reuters reports.
The cold weather is gradually pushing up the energy needs of consumers even as repair workers race to fix wrecked power facilities, grid operator Ukrenergo said.
"The consumption restriction regime is still in place due to a capacity deficit, which currently stands at around 20%," Ukrenergo said on Telegram.
David Arakhamiya, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's party, predicted Russia would carry out new infrastructure attacks this coming week and said the week could be "really difficult."
In his nightly video address Saturday, Zelenskyy said that there were restrictions on the use of electricity in 14 out of Ukraine's 27 regions.
"If consumption increases in the evening, the number of outages may increase," he said.
He appealed to citizens to save power.
Weather forecasters expected continued snowfall in Kyiv, a city that had 2.8 million residents before the war, until midweek while temperatures are forecast to stay below freezing but Ukraine remains defiant against Russia.
5:14 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest Ukraine assessment that Russian forces continued defensive operations against ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive operations along the Svatove-Kreminna line.
Russian forces also continued offensive operations in the directions of Bakhmut and Avdiivka and continued establishing fortifications in eastern Kherson Oblast.
4:22 a.m.: NATO forces took part in drills in northern Poland, an area of crucial significance to the security of the alliance's eastern flank, Reuters reported Friday.
The Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated area of Polish territory lying between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, is of strategic importance because its takeover by Russia would isolate the Baltic states from the rest of NATO.
Poland has been beefing up its armed forces in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and plans to raise defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP).
The TUMAK- 22 exercises involve 2,000 soldiers from land and air forces, the Polish Ministry of Defense said. They also involved more than 1,000 pieces of combat and logistical support equipment.
On the snowy day, drills included practicing crossing water and landing. Explosions rang out at Lake Kepno near the village of Klusy as a simulated attack began.
3:09 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said the area around the towns of Pavlivka and Vuhledar in south-central Donetsk Oblast has been the scene of intense combat over the last two weeks, though little territory has changed hands.
This area remains heavily contested, the update said, likely partially because Russia assesses the area has potential as a launch point for a future major advance north to capture the remainder of Ukrainian-held Donetsk Oblast. However, Russia is unlikely to be able to concentrate sufficient quality forces to achieve an operational breakthrough.
2:11 a.m.: The price for Russian seaborne oil should be capped at between $30 and $40 per barrel, lower than the level that Group of Seven nations have proposed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, Reuters reported.
European Union governments, seeking to curb Moscow's ability to fund its war on Ukraine without causing an oil supply shock, are split over a G-7 push that the cap be set at $65 to $70 per barrel. It is to take effect December 5.
"The limit that is being considered today - about $60 - I think this is an artificial limit," said Zelenskyy, who has consistently pushed allies to impose tougher sanctions of all types against Russia.
"We would like the sanctions to be very effective in this fight, so that the limit is at the level of $30-$40, so Russia feels them (the sanctions)," he told a news conference.
The idea of the cap is to prohibit shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is sold for less than the price set by the G-7 and its allies.
1:23 a.m.:
12:02 a.m.: The Kherson Fine Arts Museum has been emptied of all its works by Russian officials, The Kyiv Independent reports. Of the over 14,000 works in its collection, barely anything remains, except the last two staff members who refused to collaborate with Russia.
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters.
