No hope for a source of peace. According to Kyiv, the war in Ukraine will not end before the summer. Because the Russian invasion is “a protracted conflict” that “can last one and a half to two years,” said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych. While the head of Ukraine’s main intelligence directorate, Kyryl Budanov, has explicitly stated that fighting should end by the summer of 2023. Meanwhile, the occupiers show that the war is spreading to Russia again due to the Kiev bombing of Belgorod, that they don’t want to give up an inch. So much so that Defense Minister Shoigu himself traveled to Ukraine to visit the troops deployed at the front and to thank “the personnel for the exemplary conduct of combat missions”. Shoigu’s visit is intended to send a message that the Kremlin supports soldiers on the front lines, among whom there is low morale, which British intelligence services have said represents a “significant vulnerability in much of the Russian armed forces”. As a countermeasure, Moscow will deploy a “creative brigade” made up of musicians and “professional artists who have volunteered for military service.” Russian bombs continued to fall in Kherson and Kharkiv, where a hospital was hit. In Donetsk, pro-Russians have reported Kiev rockets exploding on the city. And according to Ukrainian authorities, the occupiers are preparing for street battles in the temporarily occupied Melitopol, considered a key city for the next war front. Finally, it should be noted that Zelenskyy returns to the controversy with Fifa and posts the video prepared for the World Cup final and not broadcast due to the refusal of world football’s governing body.
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09.50 – On fire power infrastructure in Kyiv
A power infrastructure in Kyiv is on fire this morning after the drone attack launched by Russian forces on the Ukrainian capital last night, reports the Guardian, which publishes a photo of the site showing the fire and a plume of black smoke.
09.14 – Russian attack on the center of Kherson
«Another attack on the center of the city of Kherson». This was announced by the deputy head of the Ukrainian office Kyrylo Timoshenko via telegram. “The Kherson Regional State Administration building was damaged again,” Tymoshenko said.
Ukrainian Mi-24 in action: flying over the battlefield and unloading missiles. The video captures the pilot’s perspective
09.52 – 520 Russian soldiers have been killed in the last 24 hours
520 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine in the last 24 hours. That’s what we read in today’s Bulletin of the General Staff of the Kiev Army, which updates the number of Moscow soldiers who have died since the war began on February 24 to around 98,800.
09.00 – Russian bombs on Dnipropetrovsk, major damage
Russian forces overnight attacked the Dnipropetrovsk region of southern Ukraine using Iranian-made kamikaze drones, heavy artillery and several Grad rocket launchers, damaging several homes and power lines, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on Telegram, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. Breaking the news, Reznichenko stressed that forces of Ukraine’s Eastern Command shot down two drones. The town of Nikopol was hit 60 times, and the attacks also targeted the nearby municipalities of Marhanetska, Chervonohryhorivka and Myrivska. According to Reznichenko, there are no injuries or casualties, but the damage is extensive. In the municipality of Chervonohryhorivka, among other things, 11 houses, a gas line and a power line were damaged. Due to the attack, the central water station was also damaged and several villages are currently without water. More than 20 houses, agricultural structures, three schools, an administrative building and several power lines were affected in Marhanetska Municipality.
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08.50 – Kyiv: “Moscow has missiles for another 3-4 big attacks”
Russia’s current missile stockpile could allow Moscow to launch three or four more major strikes against Ukraine, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said, Ukrinform reports. “If we count the massive attacks that have already taken place, they might have enough (missiles) for up to two or three, maybe four more. But then they would run out of rockets completely, which would be unacceptable to them because they may have a number of other challenges and need to leave at least some caveats. So, in order to understand each other, they have long since crossed the line that they should have left by the standards,” said Danilov. The senior official then recalled that the army had learned to shoot down Iranian kamikaze drones deployed by Russia. “They have the Shahed, but I would like to point out that we have learned to reject them. If we are not talking about force majeure situations, we recently had a case where we shot down 100% (of the drones they launched),” he said.
08.30 – 20 Iranian drones were also used in the Russian attack on Kyiv
Although the capital appeared to be the main target of the latest Russian attack, the Ukrainian military said other locations in the country were also targeted. Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram it was able to destroy 30 of at least 35 self-detonating drones that Russia launched from the east side of the Sea of Azov across the country. The Ukrainian military reports increasing success in launching explosive missiles and drones.
08.25 – 30 of 35 Russian drones shot down in the night
Last night Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 30 of a total of 35 Iranian-made drones fired by Russian forces, the Air Force said on Telegram, the Guardian reported. Kamikaze drones Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 were launched from the east coast of the Sea of Azov.
00.45 – GB, Sunak announces new artillery delivery for 2023
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce a new artillery package for Ukraine today at a summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in Riga, which brings together a dozen Nordic, Baltic and northern European countries. Sunak will attend JEF’s second in-person meeting, where he will urge the group to maintain or increase military aid to Ukraine in 2023, his Downing Street office said in a statement.
00.30 – Kyiv: Kamikaze drones shot down on Mykolaiv
Iranian kamikaze drones were shot down in the Mykolaiv region: This was reported by the head of the Mykolaiv regional state administration Vitaly Kim in the telegram, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda, complaining that no air alert was called.
The Russians bomb Dnipro and the orchestra is left in the dark: the performance is spooky
00.15 – Zelenskyy: We are preparing for any defense scenario, even from Belarus
Ukraine is “preparing for all possible defense scenarios” on the border with Belarus, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said tonight in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he was traveling to Minsk to seek a second war front . «Protecting the borders with Russia and Belarus is a constant priority. We are preparing for all possible defense scenarios. Anyone who bends Minsk to anything will not help him in this war against Ukraine and Ukrainians like any other sick idea,” Zelenskyy said in his usual late-night speech.
00.01 – Filorussi: Kyiv bombs the hospital in Donetsk, one patient is dead
The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said a patient seriously injured in a Ukrainian bombing of Donetsk’s Kalinin hospital had died. Ria Novosti reports it. According to pro-Russian authorities, three hospital buildings were damaged in attacks by Ukrainian troops. “Unfortunately, a patient who suffered serious injuries – craniocerebral and thoracic injuries – died during the shelling of building No. 6 of Kalinin Hospital,” Pushilin wrote in his Telegram channel.
The news and insights from yesterday, December 18th