What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis | Ukraine

Every week we wrap up essential coverage of the war in Ukraine, from news and features to analysis, opinion and more.

Dozens killed as Putin vows to intensify strikes on Ukraine

Moscow launched a wave of deadly drone and missile attacks on Ukraine this week, as President Vladimir Putin vowed to intensify Russia’s assault on Ukraine, Artem Mazhulin and Pjotr Sauer reported.

“We’re going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said on Monday during a visit to a military hospital.

Russia escalated its attacks on Ukraine last Friday, launching its largest single attack on the country since the war started, in which at least 41 civilians were killed.

The following day, the shelling of Belgorod – which Russian officials blamed on Ukraine – killed more than two dozen people, including five children. Russia has struck back repeatedly.

The scale of the attacks confirms what many in Ukraine have dreaded for months – that Moscow has been preserving its missile stocks for intense strikes in the winter, Pjotr Sauer wrote in a separate analysis.

The end goal of the barrage, observers say, appears to be to force Ukraine to exhaust its valuable western Patriot and Nasams air defence missiles at a time when the US and EU have halted their military aid, leading to a scenario where Ukraine could find itself without air protection.

Putin will use election ‘to legitimise his decision to go to war’

In news that likely shocked no one, Vladimir Putin last month announced that he would seek a fifth presidential term in the coming March elections.

In a country where Putin, 71, has come to dominate Russia’s political system and the media over the past two decades, the outcome will probably leave little room for imagination, Pjotr Sauer wrote in an analysis.

But while the election appears to be a formality, it will be held in a growingly conservative country that has been fundamentally changed by war, where all dissent has been criminalised and with prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, behind bars.

The elections will be different in terms of the ground they cover too, with voting taking place in what Russia calls its new territories – parts of Ukraine now occupied by Russian forces.

“These elections are a means for Putin to legitimise his decision to go the war in Ukraine,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, based in Moscow.

Ukraine and Russia in largest prisoner swap since start of war

Ukraine and Russia announced the largest exchange of prisoners since the start of the war, involving the return of more than 200 soldiers from each side in a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates, Pjotr Sauer reported.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Wednesday in a message on social media, along with images of some of the freed PoWs: “230 of our people. Today, 213 soldiers and sergeants, 11 officers and six civilians returned home.”

Zelenskiy said some of the returned soldiers had “fought in Mariupol and Azovstal”, referring to the siege of the Azovstal steel plant during the Ukrainian defence of Mariupol, a southern Ukrainian port city now occupied by Russia.

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that 248 Russian prisoners of war had been returned from Ukraine as a result of “complex” negotiations involving “humanitarian mediation” by the United Arab Emirates.

The Ukrainians finding new families in UK

Not all blended families get through the festive period in perfect harmony. But a number of extended units whose members did not even know each other two years ago were very happy to bring in the new year together.

These blended families are composed of Ukrainians who escaped the war in their home country and Britons who have given them shelter in their homes, Diane Taylor reported.

Olha Korol says the British woman who hosted her from May 2022 until January 2023, Anne Paul, has become part of her family. Paul, who has a background in childcare, was keen to be matched with a family that would complement her own. A grandmother, one of Paul’s grandchildren, Cecilia, is the same age as Korol’s five-year-old daughter Anna, who went on to attend the same nursery as Cecilia.

“Olha and Anna fitted in beautifully. I consider them to be family now. I’m fairly certain that Anna and Cecilia will remain friends as they grow up,” Paul said.

“Both of them were very traumatised when they arrived,” she added. “Anna would wake up screaming.”

Russia ‘attacked Ukraine with North Korea-supplied ballistic missiles’

Russia has started using ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea to attack Ukraine, the White House has said.

Julian Borger writes that Washington also alleged Russia was in talks with Iran to buy short-range ballistic missiles. The US intelligence assessment is that Iranian missiles have not yet arrived in Russia, but that the deal will eventually be done.

The US’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Thursday that Russia fired a North Korean ballistic missile into Ukraine on 30 December, but it landed in an open field. However, Kirby said Russian forces had launched more such missiles as part of a large salvo on 2 January, and their impact had yet to be assessed.

Kirby said the range of the North Korean missiles was 900km (560 miles) and that in return for the weapons, Russia was expected to supply fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armoured vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment and other advanced technologies.

“This would have concerning security implications for the Korean peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.