At least 6 people have been killed by Russian missiles in Ukrainian cities

The Kremlin and Moscow are “completely failures” on the battlefield: Russia’s foreign minister, the prime minister, Donald Tusk, and Vladimir Lavrov

While waiting for Congress to act on a budget, the U.S. will be looking for allies to bridge the gap.

Ukraine’s allies have recently sought to reassure the country that they are committed to its long-term defense amid concerns that Western support could be flagging. In the new year, the British Prime Minister and France’s new foreign minister traveled to Kyiv.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday was the latest foreign leader to visit Ukraine and announce a new aid package that includes a loan to buy larger weapons and a commitment to find ways to manufacture them together.

The attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv came two days after Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine claimed that Ukrainian shelling killed 27 people on the outskirts of Russian-occupied Donetsk. The spokesman for the Kremlin said it was a “monstrous terrorist act”.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat, claimed that Ukrainian forces have been “a complete failure” on the battlefield and are “incapable” of defeating Russia.

There appeared to be scant chance of an end to the war any time soon. Russia’s foreign minister defied the United States and other Ukraine supporters at a U.N. meeting Monday, ruling out any peace plan they support.

The front line has barely budged and the attacks keep Ukrainians on edge. Both sides’ inability to deliver a knockout punch on the battlefield has pushed the fighting toward trench and artillery warfare. Analysts say the Kremlin’s military forces built up missiles at the end of last year to push a winter campaign of bombardment.

Russia’s winter campaign of strikes on civilian areas has made up a large part of the situation in the city of Kharkiv.

In Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, the onslaught injured 42 people as the missiles damaged around 30 residential buildings and shattered nearly a thousand apartment windows in icy weather, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

MOSCOW — Russia accused Ukraine of intentionally shooting down a military transport plane on Wednesday — killing all 74 people on board, the majority of whom were Ukrainian POWs en route to a negotiated prisoner swap between Moscow and Kyiv.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry the plane crashed near the Ukrainian border after carrying Ukrainian prisoners to a prisoner exchange.

Some Ukrainian authorities, including Dmytro Lubinets, the ombudsman for human rights, who is involved in prisoner exchanges, suggested the Russian reports were propaganda aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian society.

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Russian state RT news service and a key Kremlin propagandist, later published a list of Ukrainian prisoners she insisted had been killed in the crash. The authenticity of the list could not be confirmed independently.

The prisoner exchange that was supposed to take place on Wednesday is not taking place at the moment, according to a representative from the main intelligence department of Ukraine.

The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet in Ukraine initially reported that Ukrainian military sources confirmed downing a Russian military transport using Soviet-era S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. The newspaper said that the shootdown had not been confirmed by other sources.

The video was posted to a pro-Kremlin social media channel and shows the aircraft descending towards the earth before exploding in a massive fireball.

“By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leadership has shown its true face — and disregarded the lives of its own citizens,” the ministry said.

“The Ukrainian leadership perfectly knew that, according to established practices, Ukrainian servicemen would be transported by military transport aircraft to the Belgorod airfield for an exchange,” said the ministry in a statement.