Ukraine updates: Kurakhove battles still ongoing, Kyiv says

The Ukrainian military says its forces conducted a precision strike on a military command post of a marine brigade of the Russian armed forces near Belaya, in Russia's western Kursk region.

The general staff on Telegram said that Ukrainian troops are engaged in a new incursions in Kursk, where Kyiv launched an offensive in August.

"The strike and a series of recent operations... were coordinated with the Ukrainian Ground Forces who are currently commencing new offensive operations," it said. 

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine will use all means at its disposal to aggressively pursue and eliminate the formations of the Russian Armed Forces that threaten the security and safety of Ukrainian civilians."

A Scottish man has died while serving on the front line with the Ukrainian army, his family said.

The 26-year-old Jordan Maclachlan from the Scottish Highlands died on Friday while serving as a medic, the family told UK broadcaster the BBC.

"Jordan always believed that he was making a difference and we are all so proud of him helping others," the statement said.

"We are waiting for further information from the Foreign Office as information is very limited.

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson told the broadcaster: "We are supporting the family of a British man who died in Ukraine and are in contact with the local authorities."

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, an enthusiastic backer of the invasion of Ukraine, has celebrated Christmas alongside Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, saying that the Western world despised Russia and its "alternative path of civilized development."

Orthodox Christians in Russia celebrate Christmas on January 7.

Kirill reportedly blessed icons and crosses to be engraved with the president's initials and sent them to soldiers in the 34-month-old war. 

Russia presents a challenge to powerful countries not because of its nuclear capabilities or strength, Kirill said, according to the news agencies.

"They hate us because we are offering a different, alternative path of civilized development," he said at Christ the Savior cathedral.

While the West was in moral collapse, he said, Russia showed the world how to blend science, culture, education and faith.

"Physically, they cannot really smother us, though they try through different types of slander and the creation of blocs of some sort intended to weaken Russia," he said. "Nothing will work because God is with us."

The cathedral was rebuilt on the site of a swimming pool in the 1990s after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had it leveled in the 1930s.

A Ukrainian unit says there is still active fighting in Kurakhove, a strategic town in eastern Ukraine that Russia said it had seized the previous day.

Moscow celebrated the capture of the "important logistics hub," saying it would help Russian forces take over the rest of the eastern Donetsk region "at an accelerated pace."

However, the Ukrainian army on Tuesday reported "active" fighting in the "urban area of Kurakhove" and said it was fending off Russian attacks near the town.

"In the Kurakhove sector, the defense forces are countering the enemy's attempts to use their superiority in manpower and develop an offensive," Ukraine's Khortytsia army unit said on social media.

"The enemy actively conducted assault operations in the urban area of Kurakhove," it said.

"Measures to localize and destroy enemy assault groups that have infiltrated our combat formations are underway."

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday said its central, western and eastern troop groupings had fended off Ukrainian counter-attacks in the last 24 hours and that they had improved their positions.

rc/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)