Residents walk by flashlight during a blackout following Russian strikes on Kyiv, Ukraine, December 17, 2022 (Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP)
Monday’s Coverage: Another Drone Strike on a Russian Airbase
Source: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 1125 GMT:
A scene from Russia….
In Russia, an elderly woman was kicked out (literally) from the bus for criticising the war Russia wages against Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tm6JZeqs9p
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) December 26, 2022
UPDATE 1020 GMT:
Vladimir Putin held discussions with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Monday night and Tuesday morning in St. Petersburg.
Lukashenko issued a holding statement with no details about the talks.
Yesterday we discussed a lot of issues not only over tea but also late at night when returning home. Sometimes it takes years for some states to discuss so many things over such a short period of time. Meanwhile we put many dots over the “i” in the evening, continuing our Minsk dialogue, since it was mainly about the economy. I thank you for the fact that many issues were finalised yesterday.
Putin also issued an anodyne press release, “Although we keep in touch all the time, some issues emerge every now and then, so we need to deal with them and take the necessary decisions to address them in a more efficient way.”
Putin visited Lukashenko in Minsk last week, amid reports that Russia — with its invasion in trouble — is pressing Belarus to put in air and ground forces. The Belarusian leader has resisted, citing “sovereignty” and the need for his forces to remain in the country because of the purported threat of invasion by NATO.
UPDATE 0930 GMT:
Russian authorities have sentenced Vladimir Rumyantsev to three years in a penal colony for posting and broadcasting news from his apartment about the invasion of Ukraine.
Rumyantsev, who lives in Vologda about 310 miles north of Moscow, began his one-man service just after the February 24 invasion because Russians needed independent information “to evaluate the actions of the authorities.”
A court convicted him of “deliberately false information about the Russian Armed Forces” under the Kremlin’s law, passed soon after the invasion, which authorizes sentences of up to 15 years for commentary about the war.
His “crime” was to post six videos between March 18 and June 22 on his VKontakte page stating that “members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine rob, kill, and rape civilians and destroy hospitals, maternity hospitals, schools, and kindergartens”.
UPDATE 0818 GMT:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has buried Vladimir Putin’s statement Russia “is ready to negotiate with all parties”, only a day after the Russian leader made his declaration.
Speaking with Russian outlet TASS, Lavrov gave Ukraine an ultimatum on Monday: give up the Russian-occupied areas or Moscow will crush Kyiv with its military.
Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy.
The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.
UPDATE 0726 GMT: Four Ukrainian soldiers have been killed on a reconnaissance mission inside Russia.
The soldiers — Yuriy Horovets, 34, Maksym Mykhaylov, 32, Taras Karpyuk, 38, and Bohdan Lyahov, 19 — died in the Bryansk region on Ukraine’s northern border.
Russia’s State security service FSB first reported the deaths. They were then confirmed by Ukrainian soldier Yevhen Karas on Telegram.
Karas believes, based on photos published by the FSB, that the soldiers were killed by landmines.
Ukraine has carried out a series of strikes and sabotage missions on Russian military positions, supply, and logistics such as oil installations in Bryansk.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that 9 million Ukrainians — about 20% of the pre-invasion population — remain without power because of waves of Russian missile and drone strikes.
State energy provider Ukrenergo posted on Monday, after three Russian barrages between December 15 and 19, that “repair work is ongoing at generating facilities”. However, it continued that, “due to the scale and complexity of the damage” and with people “exceeding consumption limits”, emergency shutdowns had been introduced in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Kyiv regions, and in the city of Kyiv.
Zelenskiy said in his nightly address:
Shortages remain. Outages are continuing. As of this evening, about 9 million people in various regions of Ukraine are cut off from electricity. But the number and duration of outages is still gradually decreasing. I am thankful to each and every one who made this result possible.
He said he held a special meeting with Government officials on Monday over energy and other infrastructure: “We are preparing for the next year – and not only for the winter months. There are threats that we have to eliminate. There are steps that need to be taken. And the state will definitely take them.”
“Difficult” and “Acute” Situation in East
The President also spoke about the frontlines in eastern Ukraine.
Bakhmut, Kreminna and other areas in Donbas, which now require maximum strength and concentration.
The situation there is difficult, acute. The occupiers are using all the resources available to them – and these are significant resources – to squeeze out at least some advance.
Russian forces are persisting with their seven-month attempt to overrun Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, despite the decline in the city’s significance after Ukraine’s capture of the neighboring Kharkiv region and parts of Donetsk in the autumn.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Monday that more than 60% of Bakhmut’s infrastructure is partially or fully destroyed: “The enemy is keeping on scorched earth tactics.”
Eastern Command spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty reported 225 artillery and tank shellings in the Bakhmut area on Monday.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are trying to expand a foothold in the Luhansk region — all of which was occupied by Russia in July — with the liberation of the town of Kreminna.
Some Ukrainian sources and military observers are reporting an advance near the town and the withdrawal of some Russian forces.
But Ukraine’s Luhansk Governor Sergey Haidai said:
The Russian occupation troops managed to build a very powerful defense in a month, even a little more. They are bringing there a huge amount of reserves and equipment. They are constantly renewing their forces.
Haidai summarized the stakes for Russia: “They understand that if they lose Kreminna, in principle, the entire line of defence will crumble”.
