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Here are the highlights of events like the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:
New Russian moves in Kyiv
Early this morning, citizens of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, were asked to stop at bomb shelters, a day after Russia introduced its biggest crusade of airstrikes since the war began in February.
In his late-night video speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said missiles and 11 attack drones were shot down yesterday.
Shortly after 2 a. m. de this morning, the Kyiv city government issued a telegram warning and suggested citizens move to shelters. Airstrike sirens sounded in the city.
Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region, announced on the social network that a “drone strike” was taking place, later clarifying that no infrastructure elements had been reached. He noted that the night’s attack was carried out with suicide drones.
“Russia has tried to attack our infrastructure again. Air defense forces repelled the drones. According to the initial data, there were no beatings,” Kuleba said.
“It is conceivable that the Russian occupiers will back the hotel with heavy bombings in the coming days to force Ukrainians to face 2023 in darkness,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his classic belated speech. At the same time, he praised Air Force and Air Defense for their work.
“Tonight there are forced cuts in maximum parts of Ukraine. This is especially serious in the Kyiv region and the capital, in the Lviv region, in the city of Odessa and the Odessa region, in the city of Kherson and the Kherson region, in the Vinnytsia region and in Transcarpathia. But it is incomparable to this, which may have happened without our heroic anti-aircraft guns and missile defenses. With the launch of such missiles, Russia only sinks deeper into a stalemate. They have fewer and fewer missiles left. “
The scenario on the front in Bakhmut, Soledar and the whole line in the Donetsk region remains the maximum difficult, ed. of the Ukrainian president. According to him, the Russians have renounced the “crazy” concept of conquering the Donetsk region before the New Year.
An adviser to the Ukrainian president said about 15,000 infantrymen and civilians were missing after Russian forces invaded Ukraine last February.
Alyona Verbitzka noted that Russia has now shown that it has captured some 3,400 people. Nothing is known about the fate of the remainder, said Verbytska, whose task is to monitor the rights of Ukrainian soldiers, and that this uncertainty is painful for their relatives.
Russia introduced drones, Ukraine shot them all down
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia introduced suicide drones last night and Ukrainian air defenses destroyed them all, Reuters reported, mentioning BTA.
The Kyiv Air Force added that the drones were sent from the southeast and north.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said on Telegram that seven of the drones were in the capital and added that five of them were destroyed over the city and the other two before reaching Kyiv.
An administrative building in the city was partially destroyed, said Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv army administration. According to him, to date no casualties have been reported.
Since mid-October, Russia has carried out a series of drone and missile attacks, severely affecting Ukraine’s force infrastructure. This required planned and emergency power cuts.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry considers as one of the versions of yesterday’s missile incident in the country a provocation by the Ukrainian armed forces, Colonel Kirill Kazantsev, head of Belarus’ anti-aircraft missile forces, was quoted as saying through TASS.
“There are still doubts about this incident and we are two versions: an accidental launch of an anti-aircraft guided missile due to improper preparation of calculations or a planned provocation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said in a video released through the press. service of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus.
The Defense Ministry in Minsk announced that Belarusian air defense shot down a Ukrainian S-300 missile in the morning in one of the largest Russian missile attacks on Ukraine since the war began.
A commander of one of the missile divisions of the air defense of Belarus announced that the Ukrainian missile of the S-300 complex was destroyed after it entered the airspace of Belarus. The Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) reported that debris from the rocket fell near the village of Gorbakha in the Ivanovo district of the Brest region, 66 meters from a residential building.
The government of Belarus summoned the ambassador of Ukraine. ” This is a very serious incident and Belarus takes this factor as seriously as possible,” a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said. “We insist that Ukraine conduct a thorough investigation of all cases related to the missile launch. , bring the culprits to justice and take comprehensive measures to prevent incidents in the future, which can have catastrophic consequences for everyone,” he added.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry came forward to cooperate with the investigation of the case and said Russia’s provocative edition is not ruled out. Russia would possibly have selected such a trajectory for its cruise missiles that would lead to their downing in Belarus, the Ukrainian ministry explained.
Belarus recalled ambassador from Kyiv after Ukrainian missile incident
The Belarusian government summoned the Ukrainian ambassador after reporting that a Ukrainian air defense missile had been shot down over its territory. This was announced on Thursday through the Foreign Ministry in Minsk, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
“This is a very serious incident and Belarus takes this factor as seriously as possible,” a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said. “We demand that Ukraine conduct a thorough investigation of all cases related to the missile launch, bring the culprits to justice and take comprehensive measures to prevent future incidents, which may have catastrophic consequences for everyone. “
Earlier yesterday, the Defense Ministry in Minsk announced that Belarus’ air defenses shot down a Ukrainian S-300 missile in the morning in one of the Russian missile attacks on Ukraine since the war began.
A commander of one of the missile divisions of the Belarusian air defense announced that the Ukrainian missile of the S-300 complex destroyed the Belarusian air defense after entering Belarusian airspace, TASS reported.
The Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) reported that debris from the rocket fell near the village of Gorbakha in the Ivanovo district of the Brest region, 66 meters from a residential house.
BelTA had in the past released a video posted on social networks, in which the army commissioner of the Brest region, Oleg Konovalov, downplayed the case and confided to the population that “surely there is no explanation of why to worry. “”Unfortunately, such things happen,” he added, quoted Reuters as saying.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry came forward to cooperate with the investigation of the case, DPA reported. The ministry issued a statement last night saying it was in a position to participate in an “objective investigation into what happened. “
The Ukrainian ministry also said that Russia’s provocative edition is not ruled out. Russia would possibly have selected such a trajectory for its cruise missiles that would lead to their downing in Belarus, the Ukrainian ministry said in a statement.
ISW: Moscow to break the will of Ukrainians with missile moves is doomed to failure
The mantra “Calibers will never run out,” broadcast by the official channel of the Russian Defense Ministry, is how the Russian military responds to numerous Western evidence that Russia’s arsenal of complex missiles is about to run out.
That’s according to a report released through the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
ISW analysts claim that Russia has largely exhausted its stockpile of high-precision weapons systems, but this will not prevent it from continuing to threaten Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and cause significant suffering to civilians in the short term.
Experts recall how recently through Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of Ukraine, Russia has enough missile reserves for two or three more major attacks.
A day earlier, Secretary of Ukraine’s Defense and National Security Council Oleksiy Danilov said the Russians could produce a large number of precision weapons.
“They are running out of weapons. The only thing they have in sufficient quantity are the S-300 missiles. But they only fly a short distance,” explains Danilov.
The ISW believes that the Russian crusade to break the will of Ukrainians with large-scale missile movements on critical infrastructure will fail.
Analysts say this will happen even if the Russians are able to carry out more raids than the Ukrainian intelligence chief suggests.
Yesterday, Russia rained fire on a giant of Ukrainian territory in two airstrikes. Tu-95MS strategic bombers from Volgodonsk and the northern Caspian Sea were hit by X-101/X-55 cruise missiles.
Putin signed an offer of life imprisonment law for saboteurs
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law providing for life imprisonment for saboteurs, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
Life imprisonment is provided not only for the perpetrators of sabotage, but also for those who finance and plan it, as well as for those who recruit others to carry it out.
After the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, a series of attacks were carried out in Russia opposing recruitment issues and infrastructure sites. These attacks became more common after Putin ordered a partial mobilization. In November, more than 75 public buildings were attacked, the DPA notes.
According to human rights activists, there is a threat that the indiscriminate wording of the new law will be interpreted broadly and used to persecute those who oppose the Kremlin’s policies.
In recent months, many other people opposed to the war have been sentenced to criminal terms for “discrediting the Russian armed forces,” DPA said.
Russian billionaires will lose $600 million in 2022 over Ukraine war
The richest Russians lost about $92. 6 billion in 2022 at events in Ukraine. Bloomberg presented that image.
According to their information, in February, the total wealth of the richest Russians declined to $46. 6 billion. After the arrival of sanctions against Russia in Western countries, they lost $47 billion.
In early December, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, published since 2012 and calculated on the basis of corporate stock price, reported that since the beginning of this year, the wealth of Russia’s richest businessmen has shrunk by about $74. 3 billion. In particular, the shareholder of the mining and metallurgical corporate holding company Evraz Roman Abramovich lost $ 9. 3 billion and his fortune fell to $ 8. 7 billion.
In addition, the shareholder of herbal fuel manufacturer Novatek Gennady Timchenko lost 0. 48 billion and his fortune fell to 0. 9 billion, and the main shareholder of Severstal Alexey Mordashov was impoverished by 0. 79 billion and owns 21 billion dollars.
Tony Blair sought a superior position for Putin on the foreign stage
In Britain, a declassified government file shows that in 2001, Tony Blair pushed for Vladimir Putin to have a prominent position on the foreign stage, despite the considerations of several officials.
It is transparent from the documents that the former British prime minister convinced was very important to inspire the new Russian president at the time to adopt Western values and model.
Tony Blair discussed his vision with the new US vice president. He said that “Putin is a Russian patriot, sensitive to the loss of respect for Russia in the world, and has a similar way of thinking to former French President Charles de Gaulle, the two are not directly comparable. “
As for NATO, Putin told Blair he would try to slow down the bloc’s expansion process.
Behind the scenes, Downing Street officials have been more sceptical of Putin. Many British politicians have questioned the credibility of a former KGB agent.
It also appears from declassified knowledge that Vladimir Putin has proposed building an oil pipeline to the UK.
The Russian president, the first world leader to obtain a pair of silver cufflinks from 10 Downing Street as a birthday present in October 2001.
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