Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Russia’s Christmas Day bombardment of Ukraine, saying the hail of missiles and drones was “bloody and brutal”.

The prime minister lamented that there was “no respite even at Christmas” for Ukrainians, who spent the morning sheltering in metro stations as bombs rained down on their cities.

Russia’s defence ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” on energy facilities that it claimed supported Kyiv’s military.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also condemned the attack, saying Russia was seeking to plunge his people into darkness.

“Putin deliberately chose Christmas,” he said on Wednesday. “What could be more inhumane?”

In the east, Kremlin forces claim to have captured the settlement of Vidrodzhennia as they continue to make territorial gains.

‘Christmas gift to Ukraine’

Regions across the country reported missile and drone strikes as Ukrainians spend another holiday season facing attacks on their power infrastructure.

Kyiv’s military said it downed 59 Russian missiles and 54 drones, but others made it through their air defences.

Strikes in Kharkiv wounded six people and left half a million in the region without heating, as temperatures hovered just a few degrees above zero.

“Kharkiv is under massive missile fire. A series of explosions rang out in the city and there are still ballistic missiles flying in the direction of the city. Stay in safe places,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

In the capital, residents faced blackouts while in Dnipro region one person was killed.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysa said the Russian army is trying to destroy the region’s power system.

Ukrainians, marking their second Christmas since changing to celebrate on the same day as the West, sheltered in underground metro stations as the deadly salvo of missiles soared towards them.

“Russia’s Christmas gift to Ukraine: more than 70 missiles and 100 drones,” US ambassador Bridget Brink said. “For the third holiday season, Russia weaponises winter.”

Read more:
Putin: Russia should have invaded ‘earlier’
Protests in Slovakia after PM meets with Putin

Four dead in Kursk region

In the east, Ukrainian soldiers celebrated Christmas by candlelight as they ate together near the frontline.

Fighting continues to be tough in Donbas, as Russian forces push forward and make steady gains.

On Wednesday, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken the settlement of Vidrodzhennia.

Across the border, in Russia’s Kursk region, four people were killed and five injured in the town of Lgov after Ukrainian shelling, the region’s acting governor said.

“A five-storey residential building, two single-storey residential buildings and a single-storey beauty salon were seriously damaged,” Alexander Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.

Pope calls for peace talks

In the Vatican, Pope Francis mentioned the war in Ukraine directly during his Christmas Day message, calling for “the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation”.

Speaking to thousands of people from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, he said: “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine!”

He also called for “gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace”.

The sense of hollowness of the Church of the Nativity is deeper than absent tourists.

The chants and prayers are pain-stricken and desperate.

Down in the manger by the enshrined spot where baby Jesus was said to be born, a priest solemnly swings incense into the corners.

There is no beautifully-lit tree in the square outside for the second year in a row. Even in their homes, the Palestinian Christian community in Bethlehem is struggling to celebrate.

The empty spaces and lack of tourism are the shadow of 14 months of war in Gaza and a daily reminder of the ongoing devastation.

And around their family homes, Israeli settlements in the West Bank – illegal under international law – are inching closer.

‘Our country is shrinking’

“Normally we spend Christmas in Bethlehem and Jerusalem but this year there are no celebrations because of what is happening with the war. It is not nice to celebrate while people are dying,” says Alice Kisiya.

Alice is from Beit Jala, Bethlehem. For five years, her family have waged legal battles with settlers over their generational home.

“Each Christmas we had demolition because each time they come and demolish. Last year, we were celebrating Christmas there and they came and demolished our small tent,” says Alice.

She and her family are waiting for a Supreme Court ruling in January on whether they can return.

“Our country is shrinking. As Palestinian Christians, we cannot really have our freedom to move freely and it’s getting worse.”

Her words resonate as we drive along the West Bank wall on the edges of Bethlehem.

A stark reminder of the political divide that is tearing through the Holy Land.

‘It seems destiny of Holy Land is to stay divided’

On the other side of the wall from the sacred site where Jesus was born is where he was crucified in Jerusalem.

We hear that the procession of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is soon arriving through a checkpoint inside the wall into Bethlehem to the Church of Nativity.

A crowd of eager Catholics are waiting for him by Rachel’s Tomb, a sacred site for Orthodox Jews.

School children visiting the tomb are ushered off the street by elders aware of the arriving procession.

They start to sing defiantly as older students are forcefully removed from the road by Israeli police.

There is a hushed sense of anticipation and awe from those waiting for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa to arrive from the Church of Holy Sepulchre – where Jesus was crucified – to the Church of the Nativity, where he was born in refuge.

“This is an important more than a thousand-year-old tradition,” says Tony Marcos, Dean of the Catholic Action Foundation.

As a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, Tony is not permitted to make the procession between the two holy sites.

“It seems the destiny of this Holy Land is to stay divided and these are difficult times we are living in,” he adds.

“Christmas is the season of love and the season of hope. There is big pain and there is instability – a lot of sacrifices and a lot of blood,” he says.

‘We want next year to be full of light’

The anxiety seems to dissipate as Cardinal Pizzaballa arrives.

He shakes hands with a queue of people eager to get close to the leader of the Church they cannot visit.

“This Christmas, we want people not to lose hope. It is possible to break down the hatred, the division, the contempt and the lack of justice and dignity we are experiencing here,” says Cardinal Pizzaballa.

“The prayer is to raise our gaze and to look forward, not backwards. We want the next year to be full of light – lighted in the darkness.”

Read more from Sky News:
How child’s phone call started Christmas tradition
Fighting continues in northern Syria despite deal

This year, the thousand-year-old tradition is more powerful than ever.

“The meaning [of this crossing] is that it is possible. Even when there are enormous and difficult walls, it is possible to pass them.”

Syria’s de facto leader has reached an agreement with the heads of rebel factions to dissolve their groups and work under the country’s defence ministry, his new administration says.

Ahmed al Sharaa, the head of the Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) group which toppled Bashar al Assad‘s regime earlier this month, met with the leaders of several of the rival factions that have been vying for influence in the country for years in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Those in attendance said their groups would dissolve, according to a statement from the new government.

The statement did not make clear which groups attended, but Syria has factions made up of Muslim Kurds and Shi’ites, as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.

However, one major group, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), did not join the meeting in Damascus and has not agreed to dissolve.

It comes as Al Sharaa attempts to end years of civil strife and armed conflict – with the leader telling Western officials that his new government will not seek revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.

Read more – Syria situation explained:
Who are the Syrian rebels – and what are their plans?
The territories different groups control

SDF launches fresh counter-offensive as fighting continues

Despite many groups agreeing to dissolve, fighting continues in the north of Syria.

The SDF, which in 2021 was estimated to have some 100,000 members, is not one of the groups set to dissolve and fall under the Syrian defence ministry.

On Tuesday it announced it had instead launched a fresh counter-offensive against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) to take back areas it previously controlled near Syria’s northern border.

Clashes between the SDF and the SNA have intensified since the fall of the Assad regime at the start of the month, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says dozens from both sides have been killed.

Inside Syria:
West has nothing to fear, new leader tells Sky News
The drug factories which bankrolled Assad’s regime
Photos and documents inside Assad’s home

The SDF is one of the US’s key allies in the country, and is frequently used by Washington to counter a resurgence of the so-called Islamic State in Syria.

The SNA, which helped topple the Assad regime, capitalised on the fall of the previous government by quickly launching an offensive and capturing the key city of Manbij and the areas surrounding it.

Since Monday and following overnight fighting, the SDF has recaptured some villages and is just seven miles from the centre of Manbij, according to reports from commanders and rights groups.