A senior Whitehall source told The Times that the UK and European countries were keen to get more weapons and ammunition to the Kyiv frontline, ahead of any change in power in the White House.

The source said 2024 would be about “stretching Putin into 2025 and beyond — effectively calling his bluff and testing his resolve”.

The Archbishop of Canterbury called on people to “stand with those suffering because of war and to seek to make peace” as he prayed for a peaceful 2024 in his New Year message.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said “wars seem everywhere at the moment” as he delivered his annual start-of-the-year address.

Speaking from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, he said: “Wars seem everywhere at the moment. Wars we know about, wars forgotten.

“I’ve seen for myself the ongoing human cost of war.

“In Ukraine I went to Bucha where evidence of atrocities was found.

“I’ve met Ukrainian refugees, most recently in Georgia and Romania: families having to start again in a new country...

“Jesus Christ tells us to stand with those suffering because of war, and to seek to make peace.”

In Russia, the country’s military actions in Ukraine overshadowed end-of-year celebrations, with the usual fireworks and concert on Moscow’s Red Square cancelled, as they were last year.

Even without the festivities, people gathered in the square, and some cheered and pointed their phones at a clock counting down the year’s final seconds.

In the early hours of 2024, Ukraine has reportedly shelled the city of Donetsk, killing three people, according to a Russian official based in the region.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials have said Russia has launched another air attack on some of its regions.

Seven people were also injured in “heavy shelling” by Ukrainian forces of the centre of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the broader Donetsk region of which the Donetsk city is the administrative centre, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine‘s air force said that Russia launched a new overnight air attack, targeting Mykolaiv, Odesa and Dnipro regions.

In his New Year address, president Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had become stronger in overcoming serious difficulties as the war against Russia moves toward its second year.

But his slick 20-minute video message, delivered from his Kyiv office, made almost no direct reference to the situation on the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line or the limited success of a counteroffensive launched in June.

Nor did he refer to the political and diplomatic difficulties in securing continued military and other aid from both the US Congress and the European Union.

Zelensky said the war had taught Ukrainians to withstand Russian attacks and adapt to hardships, including blackouts, the operation of industry and threats to shipping its exports.

“The major result of the year, its main achievement: Ukraine has become stronger. Ukrainians have become stronger,” he said in the address.

“When, at the beginning of 2023 ... we surmounted, without exaggeration, the most difficult winter in history. When we proved that Ukrainians are tougher than cold and darkness. Stronger than power outages and blackout threats.

“Ukrainians are stronger than any blockades and vetoes, disbelief or skepticism,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made only passing reference in his New Year address on Sunday to his war in Ukraine, hailing his soldiers as heroes but mostly emphasising unity and shared determination.

The pre-recorded address, being aired just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones, was in sharp contrast to last year, when he stood behind grim-looking soldiers to make a stern call for sacrifice in what he cast as a fight for survival.

“To everyone who is at a combat post, at the forefront of the fight for truth and justice: You are our heroes, our hearts are with you. We are proud of you, we admire your courage,” Putin said, this time with the more traditional backdrop of the Kremlin walls.

Ukraine was not mentioned by name, nor the “special military operation”, Putin’s term for the war he unleashed in February 2022 by sending Russia’s armed forces into Ukraine.

Germany‘s chancellor used his New Year’s speech to call on his country’s citizens not to lose confidence in the future as they adapt to a world experiencing multiple crises and changing at an ever-faster pace.

“So much suffering; so much bloodshed. Our world has become a more unsettled and harsher place. It’s changing at an almost breathtaking speed,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the prerecorded speech to be broadcast Sunday.

Scholz was referring to Russia‘s war on Ukraine, a resulting rise in energy prices, the suffering during the coronavirus pandemic, and the attack by Hamas that triggered Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

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As we approach the second anniversary of the launch of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February, Western commentary on the war in Ukraine has become increasingly gloomy.

After the failure of the initial invasion, the friends of the Ukrainian people and the supporters of their right to defend themselves against Mr Putin’s aggression assumed that it would be possible for the Ukrainians to recover their stolen territory reasonably quickly and declare the war over. Ukrainian morale was so high and the condition of the Russian military so poor that such optimism seemed justified.

All through 2023, hopes were invested in the Ukrainian counteroffensive, but they have not been realised. The war has settled into a defensive battle over entrenched front lines that can be moved, slowly, only at great cost in lives and materiel.

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