Russia says Ukraine has fired US long-range missiles

Russia's military has said that Ukraine fired US-supplied long-range missiles at a military facility in the Bryansk border region, in what would be the first attack since the US authorised the use of its weapons.

"At 03.25 am (12.25am Irish time), the enemy struck a site in the Bryansk region with six ballistic missiles. According to confirmed data, US-made ATACMS tactical missiles were used," the defence ministry was quoted as saying in a statement.

Ukraine had for months been demanding that Washington let it use the longer-range ATACMS missiles to hit sites on Russian territory.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to attack Russia's internationally recognised territory would make the United States a direct participant in the conflict and pledged an "appropriate and palpable response".

In its statement, Russia's defence ministry said five missiles were shot down by its air defences, while fragments from a sixth fell onto an unspecified "military facility", causing a small fire.

"There were no casualties or damage," it said.

Ukraine's foreign minister hailed the permission to use the missiles for strikes inside Russia as a potential "game changer" in the nearly three-year old conflict.

Zelensky says 2025 will decide who wins Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that 2025 will be decisive in determining who wins the war, in an address to parliament.

Mr Zelensky, presented a "resilience plan" to Ukraine with the war at a decisive moment.

"In the decisive moments - and they are coming next year - we must not allow anyone in the world to doubt the resilience of our entire state.

"And at this stage, it is being decided who will prevail," Mr Zelensky told Ukrainian MPs.

"This battle is not only about Pokrovsk, Kupiansk or any other city, town or village, not only about this or that region of ours.

"This battle is about the whole of Ukraine, the battle is about the whole of Europe, about order or chaos for the whole world," he said.

On the diplomatic front, talk of a possible peace deal to end the fighting is growing following Donald Trump's election in the US.

Amid uncertainty over US aid, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine should not let anybody else decide the country's future.

"This is a war that decides the fate of the entire nation. And no one should or can decide it for us," he said.

Statements from Mr Trump saying he aimed for a quick deal to end the war have raised fears that the US may force Ukraine into accepting territorial concessions.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine may have to wait for the end of Mr Putin's rule in Russia to reclaim its full internationally recognised territory.

"Perhaps Ukraine will have to outlast someone in Moscow to achieve all its goals... Perhaps to restore the full integrity of the state," he said.

Russia continues Donetsk advance, takes another village

Meanwhile, after months of steady advances, Russia said that it has captured a village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, as its forces also continue their push to reclaim territory in Kursk.

Its defence ministry claimed that, on the 1,000th day of Moscow's war of aggression, troops had taken Novoselydivka.

The Russian army is now rapidly advancing across the Donetsk region and closing in on the strategically important industrial hub of Kurakhove, having taken control of the surrounding territory.

Further north, Russia attacked the Sumy region overnight, gutting a Soviet-era resident building and killing at least 12 people, including a child.

Emergency services said that four people were probably trapped under the rubble.

The attack hit the dormitory in the town of Glukhiv, which had a pre-war population around 30,000 people and lies just 10km from the Kursk region in Russia, where Ukrainian troops captured swathes of territory in a major ground offensive in August.

Since the incursion, Ukrainian forces have been steadily losing ground. They warn that Russia has amassed 50,000 troops, including North Korean forces, to drive them out.

In total, Ukraine said that Russia had launched 87 drones overnight, and that it had shot down 51.

'Never submit'

The head of NATO today warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin must not be allowed to prevail in the war.

"Why is this so crucial that Putin will not get his way? Because you will have an emboldened Russia on our border ... and I'm absolutely convinced it will not stop there," Mark Rutte told reporters, as he joined EU ministers for defence talks in Brussels.

Ukraine's foreign ministry has urged allies to ramp up their military support to bring about a "sustainable" end to the war.

"Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law," it said in a statement.

"We need peace through strength, not appeasement," the ministry added, referring to growing calls for Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the war.

Russia also vowed to defeat Ukraine.

"The military operation against Kyiv continues," its spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, before insisting that it "will be completed."

The comments came as Vladimir Putin loosened restrictions on launching a nuclear attack, in a move seen as a direct threat to the West and Ukraine.

The EU's outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell today pressed member states to align with Washington in allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia using donated long-range missiles. That decision by the US was immediately followed by Putin's revision of his nuclear doctrine.