Desperate Putin is turning to North Korea for arms, but the war is far from over

Both sides have lost about 100,000 personnel Russia will be pushed to raise anew jorce for a spring offensive

- Robert Fox

WITH deliberate and crude timing, Russian forces fired roughly 100 missiles, drones and rockets, causing the biggest single strike on Ukrainian cities and districts.

Roughly seven million citizens lost essential electricity, heat and water. In Poland, two people were killed - perhaps, it seems, by a Ukrainian missile shot at a Russian one.

The barrage was fired within hours and minutes of President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing the G20 summit in Bali by video. Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister leading Russia's delegation, was already heading for the airport.

The attack and Ukraine's air force claimed to have shot down nearly 70 missiles and drones - underlined at a stroke why the Ukraine war is no local feud between Kyiv and Moscow, and is of ever-deepening global significance.

It came as summit delegates were framing condemnation of Russia's aggression. Some had been havering.

China, interestingly, has once again distanced itself from Russia on the war.

It is a challenge for the allies directly supporting Ukraine, not just the US, Nato and the EU but partners such as Australia and Japan. They now have to provide immediate support for Ukraine and make up for the weakness in air defences for the cities.