Russian troops leave Lyman, Ukraine – The latest counter offensive against the Kremlin in the country’s northern hemisphere
KYIV, Ukraine — After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled troops out Saturday from an eastern Ukrainian city that it had been using as a front-line hub. It was the latest victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has humiliated and angered the Kremlin.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have inflicted damage on Ukrainian forces in battling to hold Lyman, but said outnumbered Russian troops were withdrawn to more favorable positions. The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff posted photos of the flag being raised on the town’s outskirts, and the Kyiv air force said it moved into Lyman.
Monday’s attacks, and further strikes throughout the week, were evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin lashing out after a series of setbacks in the war that have put him under pressure domestically.
Russia has been bombarding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a variety of missiles and Iranian drones. While the damage has been significant, the government of the Ukraine claims that it has taken out approximately half of the missiles that were fired and expects that success rate to improve as new air defenses arrive.
Ramzan Kadyrov blamed a retreat on a general being covered up by higher-up leaders in the General Staff. He was calling for more drastic measures.
On the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, a governor of a city made an emergency announcement about an airfield. The resort was lit up by huge billows of smoke, which could be seen from a distance. According to authorities, the plane caught fire after rolling off the runway at the Belbek airfield.
Russia rained hell on Ukrainian civilians with missiles and cannon on Thursday and Friday as it lost ground in the country.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his military have vowed to keep fighting to liberate the regions Putin claimed to have annexed Friday, and other Russian-occupied areas.
Ukraine’s territorial annexation by Russian forces ended Friday with the seized Ihor Murashov director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
Yanushevych said Sunday that a total of 16 people had been killed in 71 Russian attacks across the wider Kherson region on Saturday, including three state emergency workers who were killed during demining operations. Another 64 people received injuries of varying severity, he said.
The Security Service of Ukraine, the secret police force known by the acronym SBU, posted photographs of the attacked convoy. The truck that appeared to have been blown up had the bodies of dead people in its bed. Another vehicle at the front of the convoy also had been ablaze. Bodies lay on the side of the road or still inside vehicles, which appeared pockmarked with bullet holes.
The airfields in the heart of Russia have not been damaged by the Ukrainian long-range attacks. Three servicemen were killed on Monday after Russia’s air defense shot down a Ukrainian drone near the city of Saratov.
In other developments, in an apparent attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, on Friday, according to the Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom.
Russia did not publicly comment on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Russia told it that “the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to answer questions.”
The power plant repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Russian troops seized the power station, and its last reactor was shut down as a precautionary measure because of ongoing shelling nearby.
After Friday’s land grab, Russia now claims sovereignty over 15% of Ukraine, in what NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called “the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the Second World War.”
Bridge Repair Work in Ukraine: A “Terrorist Attack” by a Russian Prime Minister and an Operational Meeting of the Security Council
In Washington, President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday that provides another infusion — more than $12.3 billion — in military and economic aid linked to the war Ukraine.
The barrage continued on a day when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to human rights activists in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, an implicit rebuke to Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his invasion of Ukraine.
Overnight nearly 40 Russian rockets hit Nikopol, on the Dnipro River, damaging at least 10 homes, several apartment blocks and other infrastructure, according to the head of the regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko. He said that the man who died was killed by further shelling on Friday evening.
A day after he called the explosions on the bridge a “terrorist attack”, Putin held an operational meeting of his Security Council.
After a month of setbacks in the Russian military, the meeting is at a strategic crossroads where the Kremlin will have to make a series of unenviable choices.
Road and train traffic has been resumed on the bridge. On Saturday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said repair works on the bridge would be carried out around the clock, with a damage survey to be completed within a day and divers scheduled to check all the supports of the bridge.
The first passenger services resumed travel across the bridge on Saturday, traveling from the Crimean Peninsula to Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement.
The deputy prime Minister of Russia said on Sunday that the bridge has two lanes for cars. “Traffic has already been launched along two lanes on the Crimean bridge,” he wrote in a Telegram post, adding that earlier, one lane was being used for cars traveling in alternate directions, slowing down traffic. Heavy trucks, vans and buses have traveled by ferry since the blast.
To add to Putin’s sense of humiliation, the bridge explosion came amid a surging Ukrainian counteroffensive that has seized key pockets of Russian-controlled territory, including in regions Putin recently annexed.
Millions of Ukrainian civilians have been left without essential services in the winter due to persistent attacks on the energy grid by Russia. According to experts, the repeated missile and drone attacks have been part of a plan by the Russian government to scare Ukrainians and is in violation of the laws of war.
RIA Novosti reported that the Kremlin spokesman termed the idea of Russia using nuclear weapons in reprisal for the bridge explosion as “nonsense”.
The Luhansk neighborhood of Ukraine: The first day since the Cuban missile crisis and the threat of a nuclear weapon, as warned by President Barakorov
Some pictures of Ukrainian troops outside the village of Luhansk were acknowledged by Hayday.
“First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use (of a) nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” Biden warned during remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in New York on Friday.
A new volley of Russian missile attacks across the country on Friday morning put the whole of Ukraine under air-raid alert and knocked out power as people fled for their lives.
The operator said there is still a significant deficit in the power system caused by months of strikes. Ukrainian authorities are engaged in the delicate work of trying to balance the national power grid, leaving many households without electricity.
The US and NATO countries have been grappling in recent months with how to help Ukraine defend itself against relentless Russian strikes, which have, according to Ukrainian officials, destroyed about half of the country’s energy infrastructure.
Until more arrive, there is the risk – all too familiar to the government and people of Ukraine – that the Russian mix of missiles will wreak much greater havoc among the civilian population, especially if the Russians persist with the tactic of using swarms of missiles, inundating air defenses.
Monday’s explosions reverberated across central and western Ukraine, far away from the battlefields in the northeast, east and south where a powerful Ukrainian counter-offensive has liberated towns and pushed Russian troops back in recent weeks.
A portion of the subway system was shut down for several hours on Monday. But the air raid alert in the city was lifted at midday, as rescue workers sought to pull people from the rubble caused by the strikes.
Is the enemy willing to die? Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the air: Shmygal, Rutte and Zelensky
As of 11 a.m. Monday, Shmygal said that a total of 11 critical infrastructure facilities had been damaged.
Sergey Aksyonov, who was appointed by the Russians to be the head of annexed Crimea, said Monday that he had good news.
He said that if actions to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure were taken every day, they would have defeated the regime in May.
The air raid sirens and attacks of the Russians shattered the relative calm in Ukrainian cities far away from the fighting in the country.
The EU Foreign policy chief said that more military support from the EU is on its way.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Putin was killing innocent civilians in other cities. These heinous acts are denounced by The Netherlands. Putin seems to think that the will of the Ukrainian people is not valid.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the attacks “another unacceptable escalation of the war and, as always, civilians are paying the highest price.”
The office of the Chancellor of Germany confirmed to CNN that an emergency meeting of the G7 will take place via video conference, and Zelensky said on his micro cap that he would address the meeting.
Terrorist attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure: President Zelenskyy’s video of February 24 protests in Kyiv and Dnipro
President Zelenskyy said in a video posted to social media that the strikes disproportionately targeted civilian infrastructure in 11 of Ukraine’s 25 regions, including power plants and water heating facilities.
“It’s a tough morning when you’re dealing with terrorists,” said Zelenskyy in the video, which recalled the selfie he took the night Russia invaded in February. “They’re choosing targets to hurt as many people as possible.”
In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A nearby strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal, delaying trains during this morning’s rush hour, according to Ukraine’s National Railway.
Explosions rocked civilian areas of Dnipro, a major southern city. There is a bus stop between high rise apartment buildings. A missile slammed just a few feet in front of a bus on its morning route to pick up commuters, destroying the bus and blowing out the windows in the nearby apartments.
“This happened at rush hour, as lots of public transport was operating in the city,” said Ihor Makovtsev, the head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council, as he stood by the wreckage. He said the driver and four passengers had been hospitalized with serious injuries.
Makovtsev’s balcony window was shattered by a bomb in a Soviet Union prisoner’s room
“It’s difficult for me to understand the logic of their work because we only do civilian transportation, not military work,” Makovtsev said.
The windows on the first floor balcony that was once occupied by Viktor Shevchenko were taken down a while ago. There was shattered glass on the ground. He said he had been watering the plants on his balcony just minutes before the blast, but went to his kitchen to make breakfast.
“The explosion blew open all of my cabinets, and nearly knocked me to the ground,” he said. “Only five minutes before, and I would have been on the balcony, full of glass.”
The impact of the Kerch Straw on Ukrainian business and government expectations after the weekend attack of the first Ukrainian missile attack in a country that is not ruled by Kremlin
Missile strikes are seen as a means of intimidation by our enemy. They are not. They are war crimes. People are dying and getting injured. The missile terrorists need the support of the civilized world to be brought to justice. And will do it. https://t.co/xXYn3okZOw
“We warned Zelenskyy that Russia hadn’t really started yet,” wrote Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a loyalist to Putin who repeatedly has attacked Russia’s Defense Ministry for incompetence in carrying out the military campaign.
Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst. He worked as a spokeswoman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. You can read more opinions at CNN.
Fears of an attack from the Kremlin were not far away after the explosion that hit the highly strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend.
Unverified video on social media showed hits near the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and close to Maidan Square, just a short stroll from the Presidential Office Building. Five people were killed as a result of strikes on the capital, according to Ukrainian officials.
As of midday local time, the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet in between air raid sirens, with reports that five drones and three missiles were shot down. At this time of day, nearby restaurants would be filled with customers, and people were talking about upcoming weddings and parties.
When the war began, some stations in the city temporarily relocated their operations to underground bomb shelters. Many people took cover in a metro station that served as a shelter as a small group sang patriotic Ukrainian songs.
At the insistence of officials, businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible, while millions of people in cities will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters.
Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.
Russia’s response to the Ukraine attack on September 17, 2014: an acute warning from the Kremlin, Moscow and the United States of Ukraine to be prepared
It seems that dictators prefer hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record breaking infrastructure projects. The bridge, which is Europe’s longest, was personally opened by Putin. When China reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong, one of the things it did was to connect them with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The road bridge took two years to open.
The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Text messages are used to share jubilation.
Facing increasing criticism at home – including on state-controlled television – has placed Putin on thin ice.
Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.
There is a chance that Washington and other allies may be able to use urgent phone diplomacy to persuade China and India not to use even more deadly weapons.
Critical energy infrastructure around the country need high tech defense systems. The need to protect heating systems is urgent, with winter just around the corner.
The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.
Anything short of these measures will only allow Putin to continue his senseless violence and further exacerbate a humanitarian crisis that will reverberate throughout Europe. The weak reaction will be seen as a sign that the Kremlin can weaponize energy, migration and food.
Over the last few days, the Russians have been using some of their missile stocks. The majority were air-launched cruise missiles, some delivered by bombers based near the Caspian Sea. But they also deployed ship-launched Kalibrs from the Black Sea, ground-launched Iskander cruise missiles and dozens of attack drones.
As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.
Last Monday, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, claimed that Russia had nearly exhausted its arsenal of high-precision weapons, but that it still had enough supplies to inflict harm. John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council said that Iran has not delivered a missile to Russia.
The Pentagon’s view at the time was that of its weapons stocks, Russia was “running the lowest on cruise missiles, particularly air-launched cruise missiles,” but that Moscow still had more than 50% of its pre-war inventory.
The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. Their speed makes it difficult to intercept them, like they did in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. But they are hardly accurate.
He told CNN that this was the first time since the war started that Russia has targeted energy infrastructure.
A senior Defense Department official added that work was continuing on improving Ukrainian air defenses, including “finding Soviet-era capabilities to make sure that countries were ready (and) could donate them and help move those capabilities.”
Last month, the US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, Sasha Baker, said the US had seen “some evidence already” that the Iranian drones “have already experienced numerous failures.”
Missiles for their existing systems, a transition to Western-origin layered air defense system, as well as early warning capabilities were all included in the wish-list that Ukraine submitted to the meeting.
Speaking after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, he said such a system would not “control all the airspace over Ukraine, but they are designed to control priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect. There are short-range low altitude systems, medium-range medium altitude systems, and long-range and high altitude systems.
Western systems are beginning to trickle in. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Tuesday that a “new era of air defense has begun” with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany, and two units of the US National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAM) expected soon.
“This is only the beginning. There is an item on today’s agenda that includes strengtheningUkraine’s air defense. I feel optimistic.
Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States, Bronk said.
The War in Ukraine: What’s happening at the Kremlin Collider, and what will it teach us in the next few months?
Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.
He said Poland gave the Ukranian a system to destroy drones. Last month there were reports that the Polish government had bought advanced Israeli equipment (Israel has a policy of not selling “advanced defensive technology” to Kyiv) and was then transferring it to Ukraine.
Not for the first time, the war is teetering towards an unpredictable new phase. Keir Giles said, “This is the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we have been observing.”
The next weeks of fighting are expected to be vital, as both sides attempt to strike another blow, and as the cold months bring a reduction in ground combat.
Giles said the prospect of a victory for the Ukranians is now much more plausible. “The response from Russia is likely to escalate further.”
Last week, Oleksii Hromov, senior Ukrainian military official, said that some 120 settlements had been regained by his forces in the last couple of months. On Wednesday, Ukraine claimed to have liberated more settlements in Kherson.
During the summer, there was a suggestion made that Ukraine did not have the ability to seize ground, and this counter-offensive has since changed that.
“The Russians are playing for the whistle -hoping to avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” said a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”
Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.
“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”
Russia is struggling on the ground and has failed to achieve supremacy in the air, but on Monday the attackers may have achieved what they wanted, sending a signal of strength towards Putin’s critics.
The supplies and weapons of the Russian military are about to run out according to Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief.
The I SW thinks that Putin could be denied options to disrupt the counter-offensives by the Ukrainians because of Russia’s limited supply of precision weapons.
Justin Bronk, a military expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed with that assessment, telling CNN that, “Ukrainian interception success rates against Russian cruise missiles have risen significantly since the start of the invasion in February.”
The impact of such an intervention in terms of pure manpower would be limited; Belarus has around 45,000 active duty troops, which would not significantly bolster Russia’s reserves. But it would threaten another assault on Ukraine’s northern flank below the Belarusian border.
Giles said the reopening of a northern front would be a new challenge for Ukraine. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.
One of the main objectives of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was to show the Western allies that their military aid can help win the war.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
Russian Air Forces in Syria: Victor Sergey Surovikin, the commander of the Russian forces in Syria, and the prospects for the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Experts suggest that the coming weeks are crucial for both the battlefield and Europe. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. The failure of Western countries to confront and deter Russia shapes its attitude.
The commander of the Russian troops in Syria, Colonel General Sergey Davidikin, gave a speech at a defense ministry briefing in Moscow.
Notably, he previously played an instrumental role in Russia’s operations in Syria – during which Russian combat aircraft caused widespread devastation in rebel-held areas – as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
When it came to the plan that he executed, he said that it was always executed as the government wanted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Russian Armed Forces service personnel who took part in operations in Syria, including Sergey Surovikin, at the Kremlin on December 28, 2017.
Surovikin personally signed Irisov’s resignation papers from the air force, he says. With him in charge of operations in the war in Ukraine, what impact will he have or will not have yet is not known.
“Everything changed” on February 24, 2022, when Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began and TASS received orders from the FSB security service and defense ministry “that everyone will be prosecuted if they don’t execute the propaganda scheme,” Irisov said.
From the beginning, it was obvious to me. “I tried to explain to people this war will lead to the collapse of Russia… it will be a great tragedy not only for Ukrainians but also for Russia.”
The “butcher of Aleppo” — Vladimir Putin’s role in the role of the commander of the Aerospace Forces in Syria
He worked at the air base in Syria as an air traffic controller and aviation safety officer. He says he saw Surovikin several times during some missions and spoke to high-ranking officers under him.
He made a lot of people angry and disliked them for how he used his infantry experience to get into the air force.
Irisov says he understands Surovikin had strong connections with Kremlin-approved private military company the Wagner group, which has operated in Syria.
The Russian media said that he berated a subordinate so badly that he took his own life.
According to a book by a think tank in Washington, DC, soldiers under his command killed three protesters after the failed coup attempt against Gorbachev.
He was named as someone who may bear command responsibility for several air and ground attacks on civilian objects in violation of the rules of war by Human Rights Watch. The attacks caused the displacement of around one million people, according to HRW, which cites UN figures.
Vladimir Putin (left) toasts with then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev next to Sergey Surovikin after a ceremony to bestow state awards on military personnel who fought in Syria, on December 28, 2017.
At the beginning of February, the European Union slapped sanctions on the head of theAerospace Forces for activities that threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine as well as the stability or security of the country.
Clark reasons that “from what we’ve seen, it’s highly probable that Putin is involved in decision-making down to a very tactical level and in some cases bypassing the senior Russian military officers to interact directly on the battlefield.”
His appointment earned widespread praise from various Russian military bloggers as well as Yevgeny, who is the financier of theWagner Group, said Clark.
He believes what’s happening now is a reflection of what happened in April, when another commander, Alexander Dvornikov, was appointed overall commander of the operations in Ukraine.
“Similarly, he before then was a commander of one of the groupings of Russian forces and had sort of a master reputation in Syria much like Surovikin for brutality, earning this sort of name of the ‘butcher of Aleppo,’” Clark said.
Clark said there isn’t a good option if Putin decides that he’s not up to the task or if the other person doesn’t perform. There aren’t many other senior Russian officers and it’s just going to lead to a further degradation of the Russian war effort.”
That’s not to say mobilized forces will be of no use. If used in support roles, like drivers or refuelers, they might ease the burden on the remaining parts of Russia’s exhausted professional army. They could also fill out depleted units along the line of contact, cordon some areas and man checkpoints in the rear. They are, however, unlikely to become a capable fighting force. Already there are signs of discipline problems among mobilized soldiers in Russian garrisons.
In that case Mr. Putin could use harsher language against Ukranians. The attacks of the past week — particularly striking critical civilian infrastructure — could be expanded across Ukraine if missile supplies hold out, while Russia could directly target the Ukrainian leadership with strikes or special operations.
The “Geran-2” shrapnel for the Iranian drones, and a proposal from the European Union’s top diplomat
Klitschko’s office says several residential buildings were damaged. He added that rescuers pulled 18 people from the rubble of one building and are looking for two more. The city’s central streets are closed to traffic when there’s an emergency.
The lines were operating normally despite the reports of attacks on infrastructure near the city’s main rail station.
The enemy can hurt us but it will not break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff called on the west to give Ukraine more air defense systems. “We have no time for slow actions,” he said online.
Klitshchko posted a photo of shrapnel labeled “Geran-2,” Russian’s designation for the Iranian drones, but he removed the picture after commenters criticized him for confirming a Russian strike.
Foreign ministers of the European Union are meeting in Luxembourg. The bloc would look into “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement, said Josep Borrh, the EU’s top diplomat.
The State of Ukraine: Latest News from NATO, NATO, and the International Institute for the Study of War (ISO), and an Analysis of the Ukranian Operation Against Russian Infantry
NATO is holding nuclear deterrence exercises on Monday. NATO has warned Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine but says the “Steadfast Noon” drills are a routine, annual training activity.
Russian agents detained eight people on Oct. 12 suspected of carrying out a large explosion on a bridge to Crimea, including Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens.
The UN General Assembly condemns Russia’s move to annex four regions of Ukraine. Four countries voted with Russia and the others did not, but 141 voted in favor of the Ukrainian resolution and 35 abstained.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in October that two men shot at Russian troops preparing to deploy to Ukraine, killing 11 people and wounding 15 before being killed themselves.
Past recaps can be found here. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find more of NPR’s coverage here. You can listen to the State of Ukraine podcast to get the most recent updates.
The scale of Russian losses in these infantry advances is uncertain. The institute said the gains were an attack on well- dug-in defensive positions of Ukraine. A rising toll of Russian casualties is seen by the Ukrainian military as inflated, but the relative increase in reported numbers suggest this is not true. On Friday, the Ukrainian military said more than 800 Russian soldiers had been wounded or killed over the previous 24 hours.
Russian forces are staging up to 80 assaults per day, General Zaluzhnyi said in the statement, which described a telephone conversation with an American general, Christopher G. Cavoli, the supreme allied commander in Europe.
“If someone attacks you, you fight back,” said a former Ukranian defense minister who now advises the president in an interview earlier this month.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based analytical group said that the increase in infantry in the east did not lead to new ground being gained by Russia.
“Russian forces would likely have had more success in such offensive operations if they had waited until enough mobilized personnel had arrived to amass a force large enough to overcome Ukrainian defenses,” the institute said in a statement on Thursday.
In the south where Ukrainian troops are moving towards Kherson, the military of the country reported that it had fired more than 160 times at Russian forces over the past 24 hours, but it also reported that Russian return fire into Ukrainian positions.
With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently preparing for battle in Kherson, and conflicting signals over what may be coming, the remaining residents of the city have been stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat.
The U.S. Department of Warfare and Security, a Critique of Vladimir Putin, the First Missile, and Other Recent Developments
Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He worked at The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
The first missile to land in Poland, which is a NATO member, may have come from a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that was shot down a short distance from one of the largest cities in Ukraine. The missile was not Ukrainian, in fact, said President Zelensky.
Whatever the exact circumstances of the missile, one thing is clear. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.
Beyond these most recent missile attacks lies a laundry list of other horrors that Putin has launched that only seems to have driven his nation further from the pack of civilized powers that he once sought to join.
He has sown mines in large areas of Kherson from which they have recently withdrawn, like the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in the 70s. The Cambodian de-mining experts have been called in to help with what will be a very complicated task for Ukranians in 2022. Russian armies have also left evidence of torture, that’s similar to that of the Khmer Rouge.
A group of Russian soldiers have refused to fight and rebelled against their orders. Amid plummeting morale, the UK’s Defense Ministry believes Russian troops may be prepared to shoot retreating or deserting soldiers.
Indeed a hotline and Telegram channel, launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project called “I want to live,” designed to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect, has taken off, reportedly booking some 3,500 calls in its first two months of activity.
Kim Jong-Un has used black market networks to get what he needs to fuel his war machine in North Korea, much as Putin tried to do. The United States has uncovered shadow companies and individuals in countries like Taiwan, Armenia, Switzerland,Germany, Spain, France, and Luxembourg, to source high-tech goods for Russia, which is collapsing military-industrial complex.
Diplomatically, Putin finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage. Zelensky dubbed the G20 the “G19.” The head of state was the only one not to attend. It seems like a distant dream for Putin to rejoin the G7 but he once wanted to do so. Russia’s sudden ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering the country only made the comparison with North Korea more striking.
More than half of the best and most accomplished in virtually every field have left Russia. This includes writers, artists and journalists as well as some of the most creative technologists, scientists and engineers.
Last week, I spoke with the Russian journalist who left his homeland and settled in Berlin, he said that he is prepared to accept the reality and that he may never return to his homeland.
Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, and his “resolution of the conflict” in the West, as outlined by the European Commission
The western world is attempting to prevent the country of material resources to pursue this war by scuttling off Russian oil and natural gas. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.
Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.
The final analysis seems to show that Putin still doesn’t know that revenge isn’t the best way to act on or off the battlefield and that it’s most likely to weaken Russia.
He continues to hold that attempts to rewrite and remake world history are becoming increasingly aggressive, and that they are trying to divide us and weaken Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than he expected but that it has succeeded in seizing new territory.
Speaking in a televised meeting in Russia with members of his Human Rights Council, Putin described the land gains as “a significant result for Russia,” noting that the Sea of Azov “has become Russia’s internal sea.” He said that the great Peter the Great tried to get access to that body of water in his reference to a Russian leader he admires.
In response to an increasing influx of advanced Western weapons, economic, political and humanitarian aid to Kyiv and what he saw as Western leaders’ inflammatory statements, Putin has periodically hinted at his potential use of nuclear weapons. When a member of the Human Rights Council asked him Wednesday to pledge that Russia would not be the first to use such weapons, Putin demurred. He said Russia would not be able to use nuclear weapons if it agreed not to use them first and then have a nuclear strike.
“If it doesn’t use it first under any circumstances, it means that it won’t be the second to use it, either, because the possibility of using it in case of a nuclear strike on our territory will be sharply limited,” he said.
“We haven’t gone mad. Putin said that they are fully aware of what nuclear weapons are. He did not elaborate, but he said that they are more advanced and state-of-the-art than any other nuclear power has.
In his televised remarks, the Russian leader didn’t address Russia’s battlefield setbacks or its attempts to cement control over the seized regions but acknowledged problems with supplies, treatment of wounded soldiers and limited desertions.
The “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank barriers, which were posted on the governor’s Facebook page, were found in open fields. On Tuesday, the governor had said a fire broke out at an airport in the region after a drone strike. In Belgorod workers were expanding anti-tank barriers and officials were organizing self-defense units. Belgorod has seen numerous fires and explosions, apparently from cross-border attacks, and its governor reported Wednesday that Russia’s air defenses have shot down incoming rockets.
Moscow responded with strikes by artillery, multiple rocket launchers, missiles, tanks and mortars at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, worsening damage to the power grid. Private Ukrainian power utility Ukrenergo said temperatures in eastern areas where it was making repairs had dropped to as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius (near zero Fahrenheit).
In September, Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reserve troops to bolster the forces in Ukraine. He said that only about 150,000 have been deployed so far and the rest are still training. There is no reason for the Defense Ministry or the country to do that, Putin said.
The Ukrainians were blamed for a series of events. Someone blew up the power lines.
The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no comment on recent explosions, including in Kursk, which are deep within Russia. The targets are far away from the country’s declared drones.
Putin’s silence on Donetsk is “complete silence”: condemnation of attacks on Ukraine by the Ukrenergo government and their relations with Russia
He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. “No one has said a word about it anywhere. At all! Complete silence,” he said.
Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.
While clutching a glass of champagne, President Putin made rare public comments about the Russian military’s attacks onUkrainian energy infrastructure.
After being shown the repairs on the Bridge, Putin drove his car across the structure he himself opened last year.
He continued to say in his Kremlin appearance that someone is not supplying water to the city of Donetsk. Not supplying water to a city of million is an act of genocide.”
The Russian president compared the response to attacks on Russia and attacks on Ukraine, saying they should sound a noise for the whole universe.
After his speech, he drank from his champagne glass and raised a toast to the soldiers that were listening.
In a statement in November, Ukrenergo acknowledged that the race to restore power to homes is being hampered by “strong winds, rain and sub-zero temperatures.”
A top Ukrainian official said the attacks on the country’s energy grid amount to genocide. Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin made the comments while speaking to the BBC last month.
Ukrainian authorities have been stepping up raids on churches accused of links with Moscow, and many are watching to see if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy follows through on his threat of a ban on the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
A weekly recap and look-ahead at russias war dec 12: The British basketball star Brittney Griner returned to the U.S.
The French president will host the European Commission President, and the Norwegian Prime Minister, for a dinner in Paris on Monday.
A videoaddress by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to be broadcast in France on Tuesday, as part of a conference in support of Ukrainians through the winter.
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was freed Dec. 8 after nearly 10 months in Russian detention and following months of negotiations. Her release came in exchange for the U.S. handing over convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner is back in the U.S. and reunited with her wife. Bout joined an ultranationalist party after returning to Russia.
New measures targeting Russian oil revenue took effect Dec. 5. There is a European Union embargo on most Russian oil imports and a Russian oil price cap.
Russian forces turned the city of Bakhmut into burned ruins, Zelenskyy said. Russia is trying to advance in the city of the eastern Donbas region.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/12/1141827823/latest-on-ukraine-a-weekly-recap-and-look-ahead-at-russias-war-dec-12
Ukraine is struggling to keep up with Russia, as the United States prepares to send an air defense system to the new country, according to Ukrenergo
President Zelenskyy had a phone call with President Biden on Dec. 11, as well as with the leaders of France and Turkey.
“They have set a goal to leave Ukrainians without light, water and heat,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting, adding that 60 of the 76 missiles fired at Ukraine were intercepted by its air defense forces.
Ukrainian energy operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that more than 50% of the country’s energy capacity was lost due to Russian strikes on thermal and hydroelectric power plants and substations, activating “emergency mode.”
Four people were dead when the southern city of Kherson was bombarded with shells and rockets in November, the head of the region’s military administration said. Shelling also set a multi-storey apartment building ablaze, and the body of a man was found in one apartment, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said. The city is still struggling to restore basic services.
The Engels air base, which is home to Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, was targeted in a drone attack in early December, according to the Kremlin, slightly damaging two planes. The attack has not been claimed by Kyiv.
An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. It wasn’t clear from their statement whether a Kinzal was used in the attacks.
Kirby said that Russia’s defense industrial base is being taxed. “We know they’re having trouble keeping up with that pace. We know that Russian President Putin has trouble with replenishment of precision guided munitions.
The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot, the US’ most advanced ground-based air defense system, to Ukraine, according to two US officials and a senior administration official. Ukraine’s government has long requested the system to help it defend against repeated Russian missile and drone attacks. It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for members of the North Atlantic Treaty and America (NATO) in eastern Europe.
He declined to announce any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but said that there “will be another one” and that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.
More than a Billion dollars was pledged by 70 countries and international organizations on Tuesday to help repair the infrastructure of Ukraine. Last week, the Pentagon announced that an additional $275 million in security assistance for Ukraine had been approved, including weapons, artillery rounds and equipment to help Ukraine boost its air defense. The US announced a $53 million package to repair the power system in Ukraine in November.
Kiev urged to act fast in the face of the winter storms. A defiant Christmas message for Ukrainians in the run-up to Christmas
The Iranian-made, self-detonating Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones were launched from the “eastern coast of the Sea of Azov,” the Air Force said in a statement on Facebook.
The most damaged areas were in the west and central part of the city. A road was damaged and fragments of a drone landed in Shevchenki vskui district.
“I thank everyone who carries out these repair works in any weather and around the clock,” Zelensky said. It is not easy but I am sure that we will pull through and Russia will fail.
The Ukrainians far from the ground fighting in the east and south want some semblance of normal in the run-up to Christmas.
The mayor of the city of Kyiv said on Telegram that an artificial Christmas tree was put up over the weekend in the center of the city and will be illuminated with energy-saving garlands.
Sophia Square will have a tree filled with a number of blue and yellow balls and white doves. Flags of countries that are supporting Ukraine will be placed at the bottom.
“Ukrainian children in their letters to St. Nicholas are asking for air defense, for weapons, for victory – a victory for them, a victory for all Ukrainians,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainians to have “patience and faith” in a defiant Christmas address after a deadly wave of Russian strikes pounded the southern city of Kherson.
He urged the nation to stand firm in the face of a grim winter of energy blackouts, the absence of loved ones and the ever-present threat of Russian attacks.
“There may be empty chairs around it. It’s not possible for houses and streets to be so bright. And Christmas bells can ring not so loudly and inspiringly. Through air raid sirens, or even worse – gunshots and explosions.”
He said that Ukraine had been resisting evil forces for three hundred days and eight years, and that they currently have another powerful and effective weapon. The hammer and sword are symbols of the spirit and consciousness. God’s wisdom. Courage and bravery. There are virtues that incline us to do good.
The country would sing carols louder than a generator if communication services are down, and the people would hear their loved ones’ greetings even in the dark, he said.
“And even in total darkness – we will find each other – to hug each other tightly. If there is no heat, we will give each other a hug.
Zelensky concluded: “We will celebrate our holidays! As always. We are going to be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will do what we can without waiting for a miracle. We create it ourselves.
One branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church announced last month that it would allow its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25. Many younger Ukrainians are abandoning Russia to move to the Western world in order to observe the holiday on December 25.
The problem of launching missiles in the region of the Crimean peninsula is no military facility: Comment on a journalist’s frustration with the Ukrainian military
“These are not military facilities,” he wrote on Telegram Saturday. According to the rules, this isn’t a war. It is a form of intimidation and pleasure.
Since some cruise missiles are launched from the airfields hit in the attacks, strikes could destroy the missiles on the ground before they can be deployed.
The man said he did not speak for the government and could not confirm the strikes, and that the person was going to attack him. There is absolutely no strategic reason not to try to do this.”
Serhiy Hrabskiy, a retired colonel and commentator on the war for Ukrainian news media, said that the Ukraine’s military had not shied away from hitting legitimate military targets. The war has moved closer to Russia and the area has become a well-known spot for targeting.
The United States and Ukraine have agreed that they won’t attack Russians with American-supplied weaponry. The Biden administration does not want the US involved in a confrontation with Russia. The officials clarified that they will not object to Ukraine striking back with its own weaponry.
The Kinzhal, which is the most sophisticated missile in Russia’s arsenal, is only available in shorter supply, according to Mr. Budanov.
Fighting in Kyiv: Symmetry Breaking, Water Loss, and the Death of a New Year in Kiev, as Informed by the Ukraine’s Defense Ministry
Several residential buildings in the capital Kyiv were destroyed, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the lead for disaster response in the Ukrainian presidential office.
An explosion near a playground rattled the windows of nearby homes. In case of water shortages, the mayor asked residents to charge their devices and fill containers.
Maksym Marchenko, the regional administrator for that region along the Black Sea, said that Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 21 cruise missiles near Odesa. But successful missile strikes left the city without electricity or water.
Strikes of the scale like the one launched Thursday’s have become less frequent since they began Oct. 10. Earlier this week Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said that’s because Russia is running low on its stock of cruise missiles.
In comments to Russian media, Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would continue to pursue its objectives.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said on its website that Russians had been saving one of the largest missile attacks since the beginning of the invasion. “They dream that Ukrainians will celebrate the New Year in darkness and cold. They are unable to defeat the Ukrainian people.
When Anastasiia Hryn, a 34-year-old Kyiv resident, woke up to the sound of air raid sirens followed by an explosion, she and her son descended to the basement shelter beneath their building. They didn’t let it affect their spirits.
After the sirens gave the all clear, life in the capital went back to normal, Hryn said: “In the elevator I met my neighbors with their child who were in hurry to get to the cinema for the new Avatar movie on time.” People went to work while parents took their children to school in defiance of holiday plans.
Moscow will not negotiate with Kyiv on the basis of Zelensky’s 10-point peace formula: Defense Ministry Sergey Lavrov
As the war looks set to stretch into another year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow will not negotiate with Kyiv on the basis of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposed 10-point peace formula, which includes Russia’s withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory, a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty with Moscow.
Still, he stressed Russia was open for diplomatic solutions, echoing comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent days that he wanted an end to the war. Putin’s claim that he is open to negotiating was roundly dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a ruse.
Emergency power cuts were instituted in Odesa because of the missile attacks. “They are introduced due to the threat of missile attacks to avoid significant damage if the enemy manages to hit energy facilities,” DTEK, a utility company, said in a statement.
“All the assigned targets have been neutralised. The attack has resulted in stopping the production and maintenance of military hardware and ordnance, as well as in terminating the redeployment of reserve forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from western regions of Ukraine,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
Russian and Ukrainian forces are suffering losses, according to the Ukrainian officials. CNN was unable to confirm Russia’s claims.
Even though Russia boasted of victory on the battlefield, it didn’t claim territorial advances against Ukrainian forces, adding credibility to reports that the two sides are locked in a stalemate.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, said his air defenses successfully intercepted a total of 12 incoming attacks, six of which were in Kyiv. A number of incoming attacks was not clear.
The four-star hotel in the entertainment district was hit by missiles, according to a top emergency adviser to the Ukrainian president. The power grid operator said that it preventatively shut off electricity to a few areas of the capital region, but that they did not damage their infrastructure.
The defense ministry of Russia said they hadNegotiations withritories under the control of the Ukrainian regime, which resulted in the return of 82 Russian prisoners.