TOP HEADLINES

· Ukraine's General Staff said its forces had repelled Russian assaults on four areas in the eastern Donetsk region and on eight villages in the adjacent Luhansk region.

· Russia kept up its attacks on Bakhmut, which is now largely in ruins, and launched two missile strikes against civilian infrastructure in Kostyantynivka.

· European Union foreign ministers will meet on Monday to try to agree further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an extra €2 billion ($2.11 billion) for arms deliveries to Ukraine.

· Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, the governor said. READ MORE BELOW

· An international team of legal advisors has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine's recaptured city of Kherson. They have started looking for evidence of alleged sex crimes by Russian forces as part of a full-scale investigation. READ MORE BELOW

· A senior official said Ukrainian forces had attacked a hotel in the town of Kadiivka where members of Russia's private Wagner military group were based, killing many of them.

· President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the leaders of the U.S., Türkiye and France ahead of planned online talks with the Group of Seven (G7). 

· U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated Washington's strong support for the war-torn Ukraine and welcoming his counterpart's "openness to a just peace," the White House said. Biden underscored "ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine's defense as Russia continues its assaults on Ukraine's critical infrastructure."

· Russia does not yet see a "constructive" approach from the U.S. on the Ukraine conflict, RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying. The two countries have held a series of talks in Türkiye.

· Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed the Black Sea grain export agreement with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, who are both seeking to boost their exports.

· UN aid chief Martin Griffiths arrived in Ukraine to see the new challenges that have arisen due to fresh infrastructure damage at a time of freezing temperatures, his office said.

· Russia says it was forced to attack Ukraine because its concerns around peace accords between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists were ignored, Russian news agencies quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying.

IN DETAIL

'Residential quarters of Kherson' attacked

Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to the local governor. The city of Kherson was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November during a Kyiv counter-offensive. 

"The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson," Governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on messaging app Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings. "Last night, two people were killed due to Russian shelling," Yanushevich continued, adding that five others had been wounded.

He said the region was attacked with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars. 

Before their retreat in November, Russian forces destroyed the city's utilities infrastructure and have since repeatedly shelled Kherson.

International probe into alleged sexual crimes by Russian forces in Kherson

An international team of legal advisors has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine's recaptured city of Kherson in recent days as they began gathering evidence of alleged sex crimes by Russian forces. The visit by a team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, is part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.

Moscow has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians, and the Kremlin denies allegations of sexual violence by the Russian military in Ukraine. The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to questions.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 9 that a UN Human Rights report about Russian attacks on civilians was based on "rumours and gossip," and Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of brutal reprisals against civilians who cooperated with Russian forces.

The scale of the Ukrainian prosecution's task is daunting, with the number of alleged international crimes running into tens of thousands and war in the east and south of the country makes already complex work more difficult and dangerous.

"We've come down here for a three-day mission to support the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG), and specifically the team investigating conflict-related sexual violence," said Julian Elderfield, one of the legal advisors who took part in the Kherson visit.

"(It's about) asking the right questions, pursuing unique or different lines of investigation that might otherwise not have been pursued by local investigators," he said.