• New: Putin signals that he is open to a ceasefire
• Russia bans pacifist candidates from 2024 elections
• Kiev: 352,390 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war
2:56 p.m. – Kiev: 4 dead and 9 injured in Kherson from Russian bombing
A Russian bomb attack killed four people and injured nine in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson within 24 hours. Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin announced this and specified that the city center, residential areas, schools and hospitals as well as “important infrastructure” were affected.
1:55 p.m. – Polish farmers end the blockade of the border crossing with Ukraine
Polish farmers have ended the blockade of one of the border crossings between Ukraine and Poland and truck traffic has been fully restored, the Ukrainian Border Service reported: “Truck traffic has been restored: Farmers Poles stopped at the blockade in front of the border crossing.” “Medyka- Shehyni crossing – wrote the report on Telegram – the registration and crossing of trucks entering Ukraine is carried out as usual,” he added. Polish farmers said yesterday that they were ready to call off the protest from today but that truck drivers would continue to block three more crossings over the Christmas period. Drivers have blocked several border crossings into Ukraine since November 6, demanding that the European Union reintroduce a system whereby Ukrainian companies require authorization to operate in Ukraine, and the same applies to European trucking companies. Drivers trying to enter Ukraine. They were later joined by farmers who demanded government subsidies for corn and no tax increases.
9:54 a.m. – “Russia uses chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers”
A Russian marine brigade confirmed in a message on Telegram the ongoing use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers in Krynky, a village 30 kilometers northeast of Kherson. According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian unit, the 810th Marine Infantry Brigade, detailed the “radical change in tactics,” claiming it was dropping K-51 grenades from drones on Ukrainian positions. K-51 grenades are filled with CS combat gas, a tear gas canister used for crowd control. Chemical counterinsurgency agents cannot be used in warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a party.
8:20 a.m. – New Russian drone attack foiled in southern Ukraine
Russia launched an attack with 15 drones against Ukraine overnight, mostly in the south of the country, but air defenses destroyed 14 of them, the Kiev army said. “As a result of air battles, the Ukrainian Air and Defense Forces destroyed 14 drones in the Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Khmelnytsky regions,” the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram. The drones were launched from the east coast of the Sea of Azov in Russia. Military and civilian authorities reported no damage or casualties.
3:43 a.m. – Image: Russia could attack the EU next winter
A European intelligence service assumes that Russia could try to attack Europe in the winter of 2024/25. This is what the German newspaper “Bild” writes. The secret service assumes that Russia can attack Europe at precisely the moment when the USA is “leaderless” and can only come to the aid of the European states with a certain delay, writes “Bild”. That would be the period between the current US president leaving office in early November 2024 and his potential successor taking office in January 2025. An intelligence official said senior Russian leaders hope former President Donald Trump takes back the White House because “anything is possible “happen” under him.
3:11 a.m. – Stoltenberg: Help for Kiev is the only way to end the war
“The plan is to continue to help Ukraine because the only way to end the war is to convince President Putin that he cannot win on the ground.” And the only way to convince him is “It's about making sure that Ukraine has ammunition and weapons and everything it needs.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined this in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN. “The front lines have not changed significantly, but the Ukrainians were able to inflict heavy losses on the Russian forces and control the ports on the Black Sea,” Stoltenberg emphasized.
2:25 a.m. – Russia excludes Duntsova from the 2024 elections
Russia's Central Election Commission has rejected pacifist candidate Ekaterina Duntsova's bid to run in next year's presidential election. The commission pointed to “errors in the documents” submitted by Duntsova, a former journalist and city councilor who is leading a campaign for democracy and an end to the offensive in Ukraine, Russian television reported.
1:09 a.m. – News: Putin has signaled he is open to a ceasefire
Russian President Vladimir Putin has “tacitly signaled” that he is open to a ceasefire in Ukraine in recent communications through unofficial channels. As The New York Times reports, citing some sources, Putin has signaled through intermediaries since last September that he is open to a ceasefire that freezes fighting along current lines of conflict, well short of his ambitions to dominate Ukraine. Putin would have signaled the opening of a ceasefire in the fall of 2022, thereby signaling that Russia was satisfied with the conquered territory and ready for a ceasefire. “Putin's repeated interest in a ceasefire is an example of the opportunism and improvisation that have characterized his behind-the-scenes approach to the war,” observes The New York Times, reporting on Putin's maneuvers to reduce risks and options for one to keep an open war for a longer period of time, the duration of which is longer than expected. “Despite boisterous public rhetoric, Putin has privately expressed his desire to declare victory and move on.”
12:45 a.m. – Kiev: 352,390 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war
Russia has lost 352,390 soldiers in Ukraine since the war began on February 24, 2022, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported. This figure includes 1,040 casualties suffered by Russian forces over the past day.