Germany cleared the way on Wednesday for Europe to send scores of battle tanks to Ukraine, and Washington was poised make a similar announcement - moves hailed by Kyiv as a potential turning point in the war and condemned by Moscow as escalation.

Germany yesterday said it would decide “shortly” whether to authorise the export of powerful German-made Leopard battle tanks long sought by Kyiv and encouraged allies to start training Ukrainian forces to use them.

Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) yesterday accused Ukraine of storing Western-supplied arms at nuclear power stations across the country.

Germany yesterday faced a strong backlash from allies over its refusal to supply Ukraine with its vaunted Leopard tanks to bolster its fighting capacity in the nearly year-long war with Russia.

Fighting has “sharply increased” in the southern Ukraine region of Zaporizhzhia, where the front has been largely stagnant for months, a senior Moscow-installed official in the area said yesterday.

The Kremlin yesterday warned of escalation in Ukraine if the West gives the pro-Western country more weapons capable of striking Russia, as Kyiv intensified pressure on Western allies to provide heavier weapons to step up fight against Moscow.

Ukraine’s interior minister and 13 others were killed in a helicopter crash near a kindergarten outside Kyiv yesterday, in a blow to the war-battered nation’s government.

Over 9,000 civilians, including 453 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last February, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide said yesterday.

The Kremlin said yesterday that tanks Britain plans to send to Ukraine “will burn”, warning the West that supplying a new round of more advanced weapons to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war.

Ukraine said there was little hope of pulling any more survivors from the rubble of an apartment block in the city of Dnipro yesterday, a day after the building was hit during a major Russian missile attack, with dozens of people expected to have died.

Russia unleashed a new wave of major attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, hitting energy infrastructure across the country and killing at least 12 people in a missile strike on a nine-storey apartment building in the city of Dnipro, officials said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday pledged to provide Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, making it the first Western country to supply the heavy tanks Kyiv has been calling for.

Russia yesterday said its forces had taken control of the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, in what would be a rare success for Moscow after months of battlefield reverses, but Kyiv said its troops were still fighting in the town.

Ukraine said yesterday its forces were fighting to retain control of Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region but cautioned it was coming up against “difficult” resistance from Russian troops.

Russian and Ukrainian forces were engaged in intense fighting yesterday over the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine -- a stepping stone in Moscow’s push to capture the entire Donbas region -- with the Russians appearing to have the upper hand.

Ukrainian forces are facing waves of assaults by Russian forces on the small salt-mining town of Soledar, Kyiv officials said yesterday, as Moscow strives to make its first breakthrough in the east in months.

Russia’s bombing of regions in eastern Ukraine killed at least two people overnight, local officials said yesterday, after Moscow ended a self-declared Christmas ceasefire and vowed to push on with combat until it reaches a victory over its neighbour.

Russia's overnight bombing of regions in eastern Ukraine killed at least one, local officials said on Sunday, after Moscow ended a self-declared Christmas ceasefire and vowed to push on with combat until it reaches a victory over its neighbour.

Ukrainians and Russians yesterday marked Orthodox Christmas under the shadow of war, as fighting persisted despite Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin unilaterally ordering his forces to pause attacks.

Artillery fire could be heard from the front line in Ukraine yesterday, even after the official start of a unilateral ceasefire declared by Moscow and rejected by Kyiv.