TOP HEADLINES

· The toll from the Ukrainian New Year strike on Makiivka has risen to 89, according to Russian authorities. Russia said more bodies had been found under the rubble in the town of Makiivka in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk. 

• Russia's defense ministry declared the Makiivka strike had taken place because Russian troops had used cell phones, giving away their location to Ukrainian forces. READ MORE BELOW

· President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to ensure by February the screening in cinemas of documentary films dedicated to his offensive in Ukraine and the fight against "neo-Nazi" ideology. The Kremlin said in a statement that the culture ministry had until February 1 to implement the order.

· Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on February 3 to discuss financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said, but the bloc would not confirm the location.

· A Russian missile attack destroyed an ice arena in the town of Druzhkivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Ukraine's ice hockey federation said, following earlier reports of a missile hitting the town and injuring two people.

· Protesters in Germany are calling on Berlin to reconsider its support for Ukraine, tapping into deep connections from the legacy of Soviet ties to Communist east Germany and decades of German dependency on Russian gas.

· French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that Ukraine "needs our support more than ever". UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also said Ukraine can count on long-term support.

· Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

IN DETAIL

Mass use of mobile phones by Russian soldiers 'led to Makiivka attack'

Russia's defense ministry blamed mobile phone use by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll from 63.

The New Year's Eve strike, the deadliest single incident Moscow has acknowledged since the start of the conflict, has angered pro-war Russian commentators, increasingly vocal about what they see as a half-hearted and incompetent campaign in Ukraine.

Criticism has been directed at military commanders rather than Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has not commented publicly on the attack, which has dealt a further blow after major battlefield retreats in recent months.

The Russian defense ministry said four Ukrainian rockets hit a temporary Russian barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Although a probe has been launched, the Russian ministry said the main reason for the attack was the mass use of mobile phones by servicemen, which it described as illegal.

"This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers' location for a missile strike," it said in a statement.