Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky greets US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, Kyiv, December 21, 2024

Saturday’s Coverage: IMF Approves $1.1 Billion for Kyiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1750 GMT:

Russian troops reportedly executed five Ukrainian troops in their latest mass killing of prisoners of war.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said, “The video shows how Russian soldiers shot five captured Ukrainian defenders,” referring to drone footage released by the 110th Mechanized Brigade.

He said he would report “another crime” to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to seek justice.

A press officers of the 110th Brigade, Ivan Sekach, said Russian troops shot four encircled Ukrainian soldiers dead. Two others were killed by shelling earlier in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is pressing a 14-month offensive.

Ukrainian officials have documented more than 100 POWs executed by the Russians.

UPDATE 1439 GMT:

One civilian was killed and 10 wounded by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

The fatality and six injuries, including a child, were from Russian glide bombs, artillery, and a missile strike in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

Three people, including a 16-year-old boy, were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine. One person was wounded in the Donetsk region in the east.

Air defenses downed 52 attack drones launched by Russia overnight on 12 Ukrainian regions.

UPDATE 1138 GMT:

Debris from Russian drones struck a residential high-rise building in Brovary in the Kyiv region, setting a fire on the roof.

Residents were evacuated and the blaze was extinguished within an hour.

UPDATE 0854 GMT:

Vladimir Putin has approved a network of “military-sports camps” to promote enlistment in Russia’s armed forces among young people.

The orders also expand the Kremlin’s “Roads of Victory” program to “foster patriotic feelings in modern children and youth”, with free excursions to Russian cultural and historical sites of “military glory”.

An online platform will organize military-patriotic education.

UPDATE 0805 GMT:

Ukrainian drones have struck an oil depot in the suburbs of Oryol, around 230 miles south of Moscow, for the second time in eight days.

Multiple explosions, recorded on video, were reported around 12:30 p.m. Oryol Governor Andrey Klychkov acknowledged a fire at the depot.

Last week, drones set the depot ablaze, with the complex burning for several days.

Earlier on Friday, five drones struck residential buildings in Kazan, around 1,000 km (620 miles) east of the Ukrainian border.

Four of the eight drones crashed into two high-rise buildings and one into a low-rise building.

Some residents were evacuated, and all major public events in the area were cancelled. Flights were temporarily suspended at Kazan’s international airport.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has met the outgoing director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, in Kyiv.

Zelensky posted on social media:

Throughout this war, we’ve had many meetings, and I am deeply grateful for his assistance.

Usually, such meetings are not made public. All our meetings, whether in Ukraine, other European countries, the United States, or other parts of the world, were held without official announcements. However, after his final visit, it is worth speaking openly.

The President did not give details of the final encounter — “We don’t disclose secrets, but we keep in touch” — but noted: “We will likely meet again, and we will surely see how this war ends with a real and lasting peace — a peace we are working toward together.”

Burns, a career diplomat, has been held of the CIA since March 2021. He is leaving in January with the departure of the Biden Administration.

Donald Trump has nominated political loyalist John Ratcliffe to head the Agency, and has picked the pro-Kremlin, anti-NATO politician Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

Russia’s “Act of Cruelty” v. Cancer Patients

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky spoke of Russia’s latest attacks, including the bombing of an oncology center in Kherson city in southern Ukraine.

The Russians could not have been unaware that this was a medical facility, vital to the people of Kherson. This deliberate strike is nothing less than an act of cruelty against humanity.

The center, with the only capacity for radiotherapy treatments, was heavily damaged. There were no casualties, as patients and medical staff were in the facility’s shelter.

The Russians also struck Kharkiv in the northeast, the neighboring Donetsk region, and Nikopol in south-central Ukraine.

Zelensky noted:

This is pure terror, inflicted deliberately and systematically. Yet, those responsible within the Russian aviation forces are even rewarded for these atrocities. But they will inevitably be held accountable — there will come a time.