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Ukraine, Kyiv on December 29: People sit with a dog in a subway station used as a bunker during a missile attack
Photo: Efrem Lukatsky / dpa
This article will be continuously updated.
Putin exchanges general according to British information
8:43 a.m.:
Lieutenant General Yevgeny Nikiforov is likely to assume command of Russian forces in western Ukraine.
This is reported by the British Foreign Office, citing secret service circles via Twitter.
He would be the formation's fourth commander since the invasion, they said, replacing Colonel-General Sergey Kuzovlev, who was appointed just three months ago.
As Chief of Staff of the Eastern Group of Russian Armed Forces, he was instrumental in planning the attack on Kyiv in the first weeks of the invasion.
Now it is his job to hold Russia's right flank, i.e. the area in the Luhansk region around Kremina and Svatove.
Both sides could soon try an offensive here.
The British Foreign Office sees the takeover of Nikiforov as a sign of internal disagreements in the Russian Ministry of Defense over the future conduct of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine fends off overnight wave of drone strikes
8.17 a.m .:
According to its own statements, the Ukrainian army repelled nightly Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.
On Friday night, "the enemy attacked Ukraine with Iranian-made kamikaze drones," the Ukrainian air force said in the online networks.
A total of 16 drones were shot down from the south-east and north and all of them were destroyed by the Ukrainian air defenses.
The capital Kyiv was also the target of the attack.
Local authorities issued an air alert at 2:12 a.m. local time (1:12 a.m. BST) that lasted just over two hours.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko later stated that the capital had been attacked with seven drones - two of which were shot down "on approach" and five over the city.
An administration building was partially destroyed and the windows of a residential building were damaged.
There were no reports of dead or injured.
"For the second night in a row, our sky protectors eliminated all five enemy 'Shahed' (drones) that were over the area," said the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region around the city of Dnipro, Valentyn Resnichenko, on his Telegram channel.
Accordingly, there were attacks in three different counties.
According to the Ukrainian Army's Task Force East, all attacking drones were also destroyed in the neighboring Zaporizhia region.
Reading tip: Vitali Klitschko's annual report - »In life, nothing comes for free.
You have to fight«
8.13 a.m .:
As mayor, he has been guiding Kiev through the war for ten months.
Vitali Klitschko on the real heroes during the siege of his city, Zelensky's weakness in leadership and the Ukrainians' commitment to freedom in Europe.
Read the interview with Vitali Klitschko here.
Zelenskyy complains about massive power outages, confusion about rockets in Belarus
8.04 a.m .:
According to the Ukrainian President, there is no electricity in large parts of the country.
Belarus wants an explanation for missile fragments on its territory.
And: Great Britain sends metal detectors.
The most important developments.
Read the current developments until the morning here.
mgo/AFP/dpa/Reuters