TOP HEADLINES

· Air raid sirens wailed in Kyiv and across all Ukrainian regions but no new Russian attacks were reported, officials said. Unconfirmed Ukrainian social media reports suggested the sirens may have been triggered after Russian jets took to the skies in Belarus and that the all-clear was sounded after the planes returned to their bases. 

· President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine but that Kyiv and its Western backers had refused to engage in talks. READ MORE BELOW

· Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Russian "terror" after shelling left 10 dead and 55 injured in Kherson city, urging his compatriots to persevere as they observed a Christmas Eve defined by the conflict.READ MORE BELOW

· President Putin blasted the West for trying to "tear apart" Russia, in a television interview. "At the core of it all is the policy of our geopolitical opponents, aiming to tear apart Russia, the historical Russia," Putin said. "They have always tried to 'divide and conquer'... Our goal is something else -- to unite the Russian people."

· Putin said he was "100 percent" confident that his forces would destroy the Pentagon's most advanced air defense system that U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to send to Ukraine. "Of course we will destroy it, 100 percent!" Putin said, referring to the Patriot missile battery.

· Türkiye conceded that Russia's offensive in Ukraine "will not end easily," despite Ankara's repeated efforts to arrange peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.

· Pope Francis led the world's Catholics into Christmas, saying in an apparent reference to the conflict in Ukraine and other conflicts that the level of greed and hunger for power was such that some wanted to "consume even their neighbors."

· Ukrainians will create their own Christmas miracle by showing they remain unbowed despite Russian attacks that have plunged millions into darkness, Zelenskyy said in a defiant message.

· The lower house of Russia's parliament is preparing to raise taxes on people who have left the country, as many have since the start of the offensive in February, said the speaker of the chamber, Vyacheslav Volodin.

IN DETAIL

Putin: 'We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved'

Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview.

The Kremlin says it will fight until all its aims are achieved while Kyiv says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from all of its territory, including Crimea which Russia absorbed in 2014.

"We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them - we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are," Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in an interview aired.

Putin said Russia was acting in the "right direction" in Ukraine because the West, led by the U.S., was trying to cleave Russia apart. Washington denies it is plotting Russia's collapse.

"I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens," Putin said.

Kherson: 'It is the real life of Ukraine'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Russian "terror" after shelling left 10 dead and 55 injured in Kherson city, urging his compatriots to persevere as they observed a Christmas Eve defined by the conflict. 

On the day marking 10 months since the start of the Russian offensive, shells rained around a busy market and started a fire in the southern port city which Kyiv's forces recaptured in November.

AFP journalists at the scene saw several bodies lying on the street, including a man killed in his car. Severely injured residents lay on the ground, medics tending to them.

Zelenskyy on Telegram called the attack "terror... killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure."

"It is the real life of Ukraine... The world must see and understand what absolute evil we are fighting against," he said.

The Russian-installed head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram that the shelling was "a disgusting provocation" by Ukraine used to blame Russia. Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych reported in a Telegram post that 1of the 55 who were wounded in the attack, 18 are in a serious condition.

And in a residential area of the city, 66 cars caught fired due to the shelling, the emergency services said. The fires were put out after 40 minutes but the number of dead and injured was still being "established," they said on Telegram.