Britain will provide Ukraine with around £2. 3 billion in military assistance next year, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Thursday.
The additional investment will help the Ukrainian government buy the weapons needed to fight Russian forces, Wallace said at a meeting with army officials at Manchester Airport.
“We recently donated thousands of anti-aircraft missiles so we can shoot down those drones,” Wallace said, according to The Independent. He said the UK is “contributing its wisdom and experience to ensure that we better coordinate air defence on the ground” and “also ensure” that Ukrainian troops “will win on the ground” as they fight the Russian occupiers.
Wallace said Russia is “violating foreign law” and cited allegations that arose from the Russian war of war crimes. Ukraine’s National Police said on Thursday it was investigating more than 5,300 alleged war crimes in the unoccupied spaces of 4 Ukrainian oblasts.
Wallace said that unless Russia “stops doing what it is doing now, there will be long-term consequences,” to The Guardian.
Ukraine says the missile introduced into Belarus may only be a “deliberate provocation” through Russia and is in a position to conduct its own investigation into the incident.
On Thursday, Belarus’ Defense Ministry said it shot down an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile introduced into Belarus’ Ivanovo district.
“Today, around 10 a. m. , an air target pierced the air defense forces,” the ministry said in a statement. “Its fragments were discovered in an agricultural box near the village of Gorbakha, Ivanovo district, Brest region. “
During the “verification activities”, Belarus preliminarily established that the destroyed missile originated in Ukraine.
Belarus summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to the Foreign Ministry in Minsk to record an official protest.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the Kremlin had “desperate and persistent aspirations” to involve Belarus in its war against Ukraine and noted that the incident occurred when Russia launched a missile attack on Ukraine.
“In this regard, the Ukrainian aspect excludes a planned provocation through the terrorist state of Russia, which has charted such a direction for its cruise missiles in order to galvanize their interception in the airspace over the territory of Belarus,” the Defense Ministry said. Ukraine’s said in a statement.
Ukraine said it was in a position to conduct its own investigation into the incident in Belarus, which it said was “the result of the repulsion of a major missile attack through the Russian Federation. “Ukraine stated that it was in a position to invite authorized external experts from States not directly involved in the confrontation to participate in such an investigation.
The Defense Ministry also highlighted the “barbaric” missile attack introduced into Ukrainian cities via Russia on Thursday and said Ukraine will continue to protect itself against “Russian barbarism and aggression,” in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.
“The foreign network will have to take more powerful measures to deprive Russia of the ability to pursue barbarism and missile terror against civilians and civilian targets of Ukraine, and Ukraine’s defense, air and missile capabilities,” Ukraine said.
Aid agencies continued to help civilians on Thursday, as several parts of Ukraine fell under the new wave of Russian missile strikes.
Civilian casualties have been reported in the most recent attacks, which targeted key civilian infrastructure. Human rights advocates have criticized Russia for attacking critical infrastructure, such as systems of forces and hospitals.
UNICEF officials in Ukraine said Thursday they have supplied turbines to remote spaces in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where others live on the front lines of the war. The aid will be used to provide clean water to others in need, UNICEF Ukraine said.
UNICEF and the European Commission’s humanitarian aid and civil coverage organization also visited the Mykolaiv and Odessa regions this week to assess 10 schools in need of rehabilitation. medicine.
The Ukrainian Red Cross also carried out work on Thursday in the Mykolaiv and Khmelnytskyi regions. In Monykolaiv, the Red Cross said officials supervised a pumping station to help supply clean water to others in the area, while officials supplied food, hygiene kits and utensils to about 500 displaced others in Khmelnytskyi. The Ukrainian Red Cross said Wednesday it has helped about 10 million more people since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last February.
In Poland, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shared on Twitter a list of things Ukrainian refugees want most in Poland, from cash assistance and food or clothing to housing or employment. The HRC estimates that more than 1. 5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland since the war began.
Reacting to Thursday’s Russian missile strikes, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said officials were “alarmed” by the destruction caused by the attacks.
“We reiterate our call for the coverage of civilians,” the OHCHR said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called the measures “inexcusable” and said they were “wreaking havoc” on the Ukrainian people.
“These unforgivable moves in the middle of winter, and the holiday season, leave millions more without more electricity, heat and water,” OCHA said.
A spokesperson for OCHA Ukraine reiterated OCHA’s message in a tweet on Thursday.
“The other people of #Ucrania want a respite from this terrible war,” the spokesman said. “International humanitarian law is clear: civilians and civilian infrastructure are not #PasUneCible. “
A town on the front lines of Ukraine’s war has almost been evacuated as shelling continues.
Nearly 90% of residents, or more than 70,000 people, left the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region in a “difficult security situation,” Mayor Oleksii Reva wrote in a Facebook post.
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Reva said evacuations continue while some 8,700 citizens remain in Bahkmut and “live constant shelling. “
“It is very complicated to live far from home, but today there is no work in Bakhmut,” he said.
The mandatory evacuation of people will be redirected from the Ternopil region to the Cherkasy region from January 2,” Reva said. People will then get humanitarian assistance at municipal facilities.
The Kremlin said Ukraine is “not in a position to dialogue” regarding peace talks to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began in February.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian media that the Ukrainians “could not negotiate”, calling them “purely Russophobic”.
“It is evident that Kyiv is not in a position of dialogue,” he said. “[Volodymyr] Zelensky launches all kinds of concepts and formulas for peace, with the specter of achieving, with the help of the West, to obtain the withdrawal of our troops from Russian territories in the Donbass, Crimea, Zaporizhizhia and Kherson regions, making Russia pay reparations, voluntarily to foreign courts. “
A Kremlin spokesman recently said that any peace talks will have to come with the popularity of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson oblasts. Ukraine and its Western allies have called the referendums a “sham” used to illegally capture Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky presented his peace plan at the G20 summit last month. It included the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the removal of all prisoners, and compromises on issues such as nuclear and food safety.
Lavrov said that Russia would not communicate with the situations established through Ukraine.
“It is difficult to say that there are still sane politicians in the territories controlled by the Kyiv regime, especially given the widespread practice of suppressing any dissent and extrajudicial reprisals with them. Can a moderate political figure emerge later in Kyiv?Only time will tell,” he said.
Lavrov also claimed that Zelensky had a “total lack of independence” in making a vital decision, suggesting that Ukraine is acting in the direction of the West.
More than 1,100 dead civilians were discovered in the unoccupied spaces of Ukraine’s 4 oblasts, according to the Ukrainian National Police.
Oleksiy Sergeev, who heads the operational reaction and organizational analytical branch of the national police, provided the account at a press conference on Thursday about the unemployment efforts in the provinces of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv.
Sergeev said 1,116 civilian bodies have been recovered in those four oblasts since Ukrainian troops recaptured the spaces from Russian forces. Thirty-one young men were among the dead, Sergeev said. Three civilian bodies were also discovered in Kherson on Wednesday, he added.
Investigators in the unoccupied spaces of those 4 oblasts are also investigating 5,398 alleged war crimes, most of which were reported in Kharkiv.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), at least 6,884 civilian deaths have been recorded in Ukraine since the war began until 26 December. Another 10,847 civilians have been injured in the past 10 months.
The OHCHR said UN officials believed the number of civilian deaths was likely to be “considerably higher” in part because of delays in reporting attributed to continued fighting. .
About 11,000 Russian troops are on Belarusian territory as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, Ukrainian defense officials said Thursday.
In a briefing Thursday on the state of the war, Brigadier General Alexei Gromov of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russia “continues to build its education point through education in Belarus’ landfills” and estimated “up to 11,000″ Russian troops were concerned about education. These troops were accompanied by more than 400 sets of Russian weapons and military equipment,” Gromov said.
Belarus remained Russia’s best friend during the war. Gromov said the scenario along the Ukraine-Belarus border “remains controlled and stable,” though Belarusian defense officials reported Thursday that a missile introduced from inside Ukraine exploded after crossing Belarusian airspace. The Ukrainian ambassador to Belarus was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry to discuss the reported landing of the missile.
At this level of the war, Belarusian troops have not been directly involved in the fighting, however, Belarus has provided Russia with an area of education and another bureaucracy of assistance since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began last February. Serhii Deineko of the State Border Guard Service said earlier this week that Russian troops amassed in Belarus would not be enough to carry out another attack on Ukraine.
Gromov said in his update Thursday that the number of Russian troops in Belarus, along with newly founded Russian troops in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions, is “double” than the force that attacked the Ukrainian capital at the beginning of the invasion. However, even if Belarus’ special operations and floor forces were involved, the number of troops assembled would be “less than what was involved in the large-scale invasion,” Gromov said.
A statue of Russian Empress Catherine the Great got rid of the Ukrainian city of Odessa on Thursday morning.
The empress, which is the southern port city, is synonymous with Russian imperialism.
His statue was unraveled after the regional council approved a “derussification” solution to dismantle Russian monuments.
Other Russian monuments were demolished in Odessa. Se will be moved to the Odessa Museum of Art.
The monument to Catherine II was later replaced by the flag of Ukraine.
A missile allegedly fired from Ukraine landed on Belarusian territory on Thursday.
Belarus’ Defense Ministry told the state-run Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) that Belarusian troops fired the missile, later known as the Soviet-era S-300, from the sky once it crossed the Ukraine-Belarus border.
Belarusian defense officials said the missile was allegedly introduced into Zabolotye and was seen near Belarusian airspace around 10 a. m. local time. Belarusian defense officials shot down the missile near Gorbakha in Belarus’ Ivanovo district.
A Gorbakha resident told BelTA he felt “a sound wave and a surprise wave” as the missile approached. Another local resident described hearing a “massive noise” and said he “thought it was a war. “
There have been no initial reports of injuries similar to the missile’s landing reported Thursday. BelTA reported that officials from the country’s research branch filmed the landing of the missile to further assess the situation.
Later on Thursday, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to discuss the reported incident. The ministry shared a photo of the missile in question on social media.
“We have called on Ukraine to conduct a thorough investigation, find the culprits guilty and take comprehensive measures to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future, as they may have catastrophic consequences for everyone,” spokesman Anatoly Glaz said in a tweet from the ministry.
A woman who lives near where the missile landed said Belarusian police ordered her to stay and begged her to detonate the equipment.
“Certainly, I blame Ukraine,” the resident who lives near the missile’s landing site told BelTA. “Zelensky says he can do anything. Killing people? about people
Belarus remained Russia’s best friend during the war. Ukrainian defense officials recently reported that around 11,000 Russian troops are educating in Belarus as fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues.
The missile landing reported Thursday in Belarus came about six weeks after a missile landed in Poland, killing two people. and Polish intelligence officials said they believed the missile was also fired from inside Ukraine.
A Russian airbase attacked this week, marking the time within a month, according to UK army intelligence.
Russian media reported that the unmanned aerial cars (UAVs) were for the attack on the Engels Air Base, one of the main bases of operations of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.
“Russia has long placed a very important priority on maintaining complex floor air defenses, but it is transparent that it is suffering to counter air threats inside Russia,” the British Defense Ministry said Thursday.
One of Russia’s most demanding situations is likely to be the main demand in its fleet for modern medium-range air defense systems that are expected to counter drones, the UK reports. of the war in Ukraine.
This comes as the UK continues to run an educational programme for Ukrainian troops as they prepare to protect against additional attacks from Russia.
The British Army’s reserve infantry provides Ukrainian infantrymen with instructions on weapons handling, offensive and defensive tactics, battlefield medical awareness and cybersecurity.
Technology officials in Ukraine said the country plans to expand the number of drones capable of engaging in air-to-air combat.
The progression of this generation of the army may see Ukrainian troops battle Russian missile attacks, many of which have targeted civilian infrastructure in recent months and cut off force materials amid freezing winter temperatures.
Ukraine has already purchased about 1,400 drones, most commonly for intelligence purposes, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, told The Associated Press. Ukraine plans to adapt the drones so that they can be used for air combat, as situations “will change drastically. “”until February or March,” Fedorov added.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation is relatively new to Ukraine and has been led by Fedorov since its launch in 2019. During the last 10 months of the war, Fedorov was one of the officials who pushed the expansion of the service through Starlink, the Internet Operation satellite. Fedorov regarded the ongoing war as the first major confrontation of its kind to take a position on the widespread availability of the Internet.
While Ukraine gained access to drones used for intelligence-gathering purposes during the war, Fedorov said the “next step” in the progression of the Ukrainian army generation will be the progression of attack drones.
“These are explosive drones and drones that fly between 3 and 10 kilometers and hit targets,” Fedorov said. Officials are already making progress on this technological goal, he added.
Ukraine has battled common Russian missile strikes in recent months, and Thursday’s most recent attacks on key civilian infrastructure. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said troops shot down 54 of the 69 missiles Russia introduced into Ukraine on Thursday.
The fighting between Ukraine and Russia is at an impasse as neither is advancing, according to the head of Ukraine’s army intelligence agency.
Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC that “the stage is just blocked” and “is moving”.
After Ukrainian forces made significant progress in retaking the city of Kherson, the war front hit the town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region. According to recent intelligence, Russia appears to be strengthening its defenses as the winter season slows down ground offensives.
Budanov said Russia “is now absolutely at an impasse” and suffers significant losses. He said the Kremlin could announce another mobilization of recruits to bolster troops on the battlefield.
Ukrainian forces, however, still lack some of the apparatus to advance in many areas, he added.
“Nor can we defeat them in all instructions globally,” Budanov said. “We look forward to new weapons materials and the arrival of more complex weapons. “
The Russian ruble hit an eight-month low on Thursday when the West enacted new economic sanctions on the Kremlin.
The ruble hovers around 72 per dollar, down 18% from the beginning of the month. This is the weakest currency since April.
The value of Russia’s biggest import, oil, has fallen about a third since its peak in June.
“The ruble will continue to weaken because there is no call for it,” Vladimir Milov, a Russian opposition politician, told the New York Times on Monday.
This comes as G7 countries limit the costs of Russian oil and the European Union banned imports of Russian crude earlier this month, as part of the latest sanctions aimed at punishing Russia financially over its war in Ukraine.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters this week that sanctions were restricting Russia’s export earnings and could boost Moscow’s budget deficit more than expected next year.
Siluanov also told Russian media that Moscow will set the price of its oil based on market values and that inflation in Russia will reach around 12% until the end of the year.
Russia on Thursday introduced a new missile attack on Ukraine, adding that it opposes the capital of Kiev. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry called the attack “the largest missiles” since the invasion began in February.
The attack cut power to Lviv and nearly part of Kyiv in sub-zero temperatures, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian defenses shot down 54 of the air, sea and anti-aircraft guided missiles that Russia fired at Ukrainian infrastructure, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The attack hit civilian assets and Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said the country’s power generation facilities and power grid were “damaged” by the latest attack. He said the regions of Kyiv and southern Odessa will be the hardest hit.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said 40 percent of consumers in the capital were electric power after the attack as electrical engineers worked to repair the power supply.
Klitschko said Ukrainian forces shot down 16 Russian missiles, but the rubble wounded at least three other people and destroyed several homes in the capital.
About 90% of Lviv without power as a result of the strike, Mayor Andriy Sadovy said on Telegram. There have also been disruptions in the water supply.
Missile movements also hit the Kharkiv region, killing at least two other people and wounding another, according to Kharkiv State Regional Administration Oleg Synegubov.
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