Russia-Ukraine war live: two more Russian missiles hit Kramatorsk; Kyiv warns Putin planning new February offensive | Ukraine

At least eight people have died after a fire broke out in a dormitory for construction workers in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Russian officials said.

The fire broke out in temporary accommodation for workers building the Tavrida highway, a new road linking the cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol, according to the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev.

Russia’s emergencies ministry said eight people had died and two were injured.

Local law enforcement agencies said the fire was the result of an electrical appliance short-circuiting, the Russian state-run Tass news agency reported.

Two Russian missiles have struck Kramatorsk today, after an apartment block in the eastern Ukrainian city was hit last night, killing three people and injuring 20 others.

The latest strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, said the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, but it is not clear how many.

Posting to Telegram, Kyrylenko wrote:

The Russians launched two more missile strikes, again in the centre of the city, in residential buildings.

The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Honcharenko, confirmed there had been a strike and urged residents to stay in bomb shelters.

According to Ukraine’s internal affairs ministerial adviser, Anton Gerashchenko, Wednesday’s Russian missile attack destroyed an apartment building and damaged several more.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the live blog from Geneva Abdul to bring you the latest news from Ukraine. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.

Norway will increase the spending from its sovereign wealth fund in the coming years to fund military and civilian aid to Ukraine, the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, told parliament on Thursday.

The prime minister did not specify how much money Norway would spend on Ukraine aid, but said it would be a multi-year commitment, Reuters reports.

Støre said: “This will lead to a temporary increase in spending from the sovereign wealth fund.”

The Nordic country’s $1.3tn wealth fund (£1tn), one of the world’s largest investors, has seen a sharp rise in revenue inflows as the price of Norwegian oil and gas exports soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement comes after Norwegian academics, rights campaigners, bestselling authors and a former minister urged Oslo to increase its support for Ukraine, saying the government must do more to help after earning billions in extra oil and gas revenue from Russia’s war.

Read more on Norwegian campaigners and luminaries campaigning Oslo to do more after earning billions in extra oil and gas revenue:

Welcome to those joining our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Geneva Abdul and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next hour.

On Wednesday night in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, about 55 km (34 miles) north-west of Bakhmut, a Russian missile destroyed an apartment building, killing at least three people and injuring 20, police said.

The situation on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine “has become tougher” as Russian forces push for gains that they could show on the first anniversary of their invasion, on 24 February, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his late-night address.

It’s 12pm in Ukraine. Here are the other key recent developments:

• In an interview on Russia’s state TV on Thursday, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said everybody wanted the conflict in Ukraine to end, but that the west’s support for Kyiv was playing an important role in how Russia approaches the campaign. Lavrov also said that Moscow had plans to overshadow pro-Ukrainian events arranged by Western and allied countries around the world to mark the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

• Austria has declared four Russian diplomats personae non gratae for behaving in a manner inconsistent with international agreements, the foreign ministry said on Thursday without giving many specifics.

• A UK Ministry of Defence update said Russia’s role as a “reliable arms exporter” is “highly likely” being undermined by its invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions. The MoD said prior to the invasion Russia’s share of the international arms market was declining.

• Shell’s annual profits have more than doubled to a record of nearly $40bn (£32.3bn) after a surge in wholesale gas prices linked to the war in Ukraine boosted its performance, as consumers struggled to pay huge energy bills.

• More than a dozen top EU officials, including the head of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived in Kyiv on Thursday with promises of more military, financial and political aid. It’s a symbolic trip meant to highlight support for Ukraine as the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion nears.

• Fierce fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are trying to gain ground near the strategic logistics hub of Lyman, deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said on Wednesday evening.

• A former commander of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway told Reuters he wanted to apologise for fighting in Ukraine and was speaking out to bring the perpetrators of atrocities in the conflict to justice.

• Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said he does not think it is the right approach “for now” to send UK fighter jets to Ukraine. He said it was “not a solid decision”, adding: “I’ve learned two things: never rule anything in and never rule anything out.” Meanwhile, Downing Street has continued to rule out providing Kyiv with British jets, saying it was not practical given the complexity of the jets.

• Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he had a “frank and productive” conversation with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, regarding his country’s “urgent operational needs for self-defence”.

• The US is readying more than $2bn worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters. The Kremlin said longer-range rockets reportedly included in the upcoming package of military aid would escalate the conflict but not change its course.

• Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said Russia and China’s growing relationship poses a threat not only to Asia but also to Europe. In a speech to Keio University in Tokyo, the Nato chief underlined the importance of stronger cooperation and more “friends” for Nato in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the war in Ukraine had demonstrated “how security is interconnected”.

• A UK Ministry of Defence intelligence update said recent days have seen “some of the most intense shelling of the conflict” along the Dnipro River. “This has included continued shelling of Kherson city,” the ministry notes, adding that outside the Donbas, Kherson is the city most consistently shelled in the conflict.

• The woman leading the Kyiv tax authority has been accused of a multimillion-dollar fraud after a raid on one of her four homes. Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation (SBI) said in a statement that the acting head of the inspectorate, who has not been named, had abused her “power and official position” along with other members of the authority.

In a wide-ranging interview with state TV, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that Moscow had plans to overshadow pro-Ukrainian events arranged by western and allied countries around the world to mark the anniversary of Russia sending its armed forces into Ukraine on 24 February.

In the interview on Thursday, Lavrov said Russian diplomats were working on something to ensure western-led events in New York and elsewhere were “not the only ones to gain the world’s attention”, without providing details, Reuters reports.

Earlier we reported on a Russian missile striking the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday night, destroying an apartment building and damaging several more.

Three people have died, two were rescued from the debris, and 18 were wounded of which 8 have been hospitalised, according to Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s internal affairs ministerial adviser.

Local authorities initially said Russia had fired a rocket but the police force later said an Iskander-K tactical missile had struck at 9:45 pm local time (19:45 GMT).

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said the country’s forces would respond to the delivery of longer-range western weapons to Kyiv by trying to push Ukrainian forces further away from its borders to create a safe buffer zone, Reuters reports.

In an interview on Russia’s state TV on Thursday, Lavrov said everybody wanted the conflict in Ukraine – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – to end, but that the west’s support for Kyiv was playing an important role in how Russia approaches the campaign.

Lavrov also said Russia does not need help from its ex-Soviet allies for its military campaign, and that they had everything needed for the conflict. Lavrov said they had not asked members of the

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow does not any need help from its ex-Soviet allies for its military campaign in Ukraine.

Lavrov said Russia had everything it needed for the conflict and had not asked members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) – a Moscow-led alliance that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – to provide material support.

Austria has declared four Russian diplomats personae non gratae for behaving in a manner inconsistent with international agreements, a reason often invoked in spying cases, the foreign ministry said on Thursday without giving many specifics.

According to Reuters, two of the four diplomats are at the permanent mission to the United Nations in Vienna, and acted in a way “incompatible” with the agreement between the UN and Austria. The other two are Russian embassy staff who acted in a way “incompatible” with their diplomatic status.