First responders fight a fire set by Russian strikes on Ukraine, December 25, 2024

Tuesday’s Coverage: Zelensky — 3,000+ North Korean Troops Killed or Wounded

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1659 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Zelensky thanked the Japanese Government for the transfer of $3 billion secured by frozen Russian assets, and for $12bn in humanitarian and financial aid during Russia’s invasion.

The President said Ishiba condemned North Korea’s involvement in the invasion as a “serious escalation and a threat to Indo-Pacific security”. He expressed Japan’s readiness to increase sanctions on Russia.

UPDATE 1144 GMT:

Ukraine’s military says it struck the command post of the 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade, located in Lgov in the Kursk region in western Russia.

The Russian command post was located in an abandoned civilian building, the military said: “This fire strike is part of a comprehensive campaign to weaken the ability of the Russian Armed Forces to coordinate military operations against the people of Ukraine.”

Kursk Acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed civilian facilities and infrastructure were attacked, killing four people and injuring five others.

UPDATE 1139 GMT:

Ukraine’s air force said air defenses downed 59 missiles and 54 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 52 UAVs were lost to electronic counter-measures.

Moldova President Maia Sandu said a Russian missile was detected in its airspace.

UPDATE 0807 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has commented on this morning’s Russian missile and drone strikes:

Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane? Over 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred attack drones. The targets are our energy infrastructure. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.

Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK, posted, “Denying light and warmth to millions of peace-loving people as they celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be answered.”

DTEK says equipment in its thermal plants had suffered serious damage.

Half a million people in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine are without heating in temperatures a few degrees Celsius above zero. There were blackouts in the capital Kyiv and other cities.

UPDATE 0757 GMT:

With Moldova facing a Russian halt to gas supplies, President Maia Sandu has told the country, “A harsh winter is no secret. But, dear people, we will get through it.”

Sandu said at her inauguration ceremony in the capital Chisinau,
“We’ve been blackmailed with gas and now with darkness — it’s not the first time. But light will prevail; we will prevail.”

Russia is expected to cut off gas supplies from January 1, when the current contract expires. The Moldovan Government declared a state of emergency earlier this month.

Russia spent millions of dollars, backing a sanctioned Moldovan politician in exile in Moscow, trying to defeat Sandu and to get a No vote in a referendum on accession to the European Union.

The referendum narrowly passed and Sandu defeated a former Prosecutor General in a run-off.

UPDATE 0650 GMT:

Ukraine has received $1 billion from the US, backed by profits from frozen Russian assets.

The funds are the first tranche of $20 billion that the US has pledged as part of an initiative by G7 countries.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal also posted about $1 billion received from Japan and the UK through the World Bank’s Growth Foundations Development Policy Loan program.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:

The Ukrainian military says North Korean troops have not yet affected the frontline in the Kursk region in western Russia.

“The involvement of the North Koreans in the fighting has not had a significant impact on the situation. It is not such a significant number of personnel,” said Yevgen Yerin, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military intelligence service.

However, Yerin cautioned, “They are also learning. And we cannot underestimate the enemy. And we can see that they are already taking some things into account in their activities.”

Ukrainian, South Korean, and US intelligence estimate that around 11,000 North Koreans are deployed alongside Russian units. Most are in the Kursk region, part of which has been held by Ukraine since an August 6 cross-border incursion.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that more than 3,000 North Koreans have been killed or wounded. South Korea’s intelligence service put the number at 1,100.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia has launched missile and drone strikes across Ukraine on Christmas Day.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv was among those targeted, coming under “massive rocket fire” from ballistic missiles, with at least three civilians hospitalized by seven strikes. Civilian infrastructure was set on fire and damage.

Explosions were also reported in Dnipro, Kremenchuk, and Kryvyi Rih. Many cities imposed emergency blackouts, as the energy company DTEK reported that equipment of thermal power plants was seriously damaged.

The Ukraine Air Force reported attacks by Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and the launch of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea.

On Christmas Eve, a ballistic missile strike on a four-story apartment building killed one civilian and injured 15 in Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine.

Three residents — a 79-year-old man and women aged 69 and 72 — are in moderately severe condition in hospital.

Zelensky: “We Stand Side by Side”

In his Christmas Eve message to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said:

Today, we stand side by side. And we will not be lost. Whether in person or in our minds, we will greet each other, call our parents, kiss our children, hug our loved ones, and remember those we hold dear. In person, from afar, or in our hearts – Ukrainians are together today. And as long as we do this, evil has no chance.