UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – American military aid to Ukraine could be drastically cut in the coming weeks due to a lack of a budget agreement with the Republican opposition.
A Russian general was killed in the combat zone in Ukraine, Ukraine says it shot down 18 Russian drones and a missile during the night, the Polish-Ukrainian border was opened, Russian troops continued to intensify their attacks on Avdiivka, according to Ukraine … This Monday, December 4th, Le Figaro takes stock of the situation in Ukraine.
Ending US aid to Ukraine “will allow Putin to win”, warns Washington
A halt to U.S. military aid to Ukraine would result in Russian President Vladimir Putin winning the war, a senior White House official said on Monday, reiterating calls for the U.S. Congress to approve additional funding. “Congress must decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom in Ukraine … or whether to ignore the lessons we have learned from history and let Putin prevail,” said Jake Sullivan, national security adviser Joe Biden, at a press conference.
The United States is “running out of money” to help Ukraine
“We are running out of money and soon out of time”: According to the White House, American military aid to Ukraine could be drastically cut in the coming weeks due to the lack of a budget agreement with the Republican opposition. At stake: an extraordinary amount of more than $100 billion that Democratic President Joe Biden requested from Congress on October 20 to respond to today’s greatest emergencies: to help Israel and Ukraine, China To stand up to and respond to the arrival of migrants at the southern border. “I want to be clear: If Congress does not act, we will run out of resources to deliver more weapons and equipment to Ukraine and material from the American military stockpile by the end of the year,” wrote White House Budget Director Shalanda Young , in a letter to Mike Johnson, the leader of the Republican-majority House of Representatives.
Who have sharply accused social networks of finding a way out of the conflict or of monitoring the use of American tax money. Shalanda Young’s letter was published at a time when Ukraine recognized the failure of its summer counteroffensive and Russia launched repeated attacks, particularly against the city of Avdiivka in the east of the country.
Russian general killed in Ukraine
A high-ranking Russian general in the Northern Fleet was killed in the combat zone in Ukraine, the governor of the Russian region of Voronezh (southwest), where this officer served, said on Monday. “Brigadier General Vladimir Zawadsky, deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps of the Northern Fleet, died at a combat post in the special operations zone in Ukraine,” Governor Alexander Gusev said in Telegram, without giving details of the circumstances of his death.
“18 attack drones and one Kh-59 missile were shot down”
Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense said it shot down a missile and 18 of the 23 drones launched by Russia on the night of Sunday to Monday, December 4. “18 attack drones and one Kh-59 missile were shot down,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in its morning statement. According to the army, the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, as well as Ivanov-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky and Lviv (west), were attacked.
According to the Ukrainian army, drones managed to attack the Kherson and Beryslav districts (south) on the banks of the Dnieper River, damaging a cultural center and a hardware store. Russia launches drone and missile attacks against Ukraine almost every night. Kiev accuses the Kremlin of terrorizing civilians and destroying its energy infrastructure in order to plunge the population into darkness and cold like last winter.
A first step towards opening the Polish-Ukrainian border
The first trucks crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border unloaded on Monday morning, Ukrainian border guards said, a first step toward de-escalation after a month-long blockade of the border by Polish truck drivers. The Ougryniw-Dolhobyczow border crossing was opened to heavy trucks at 1 a.m. local time (11 p.m. GMT) and thirty empty trucks were allowed to enter Poland from Ukraine, Ukrainian border guards said this morning.
At the beginning of November, Polish transport companies blocked first three, then all four border crossings for the passage of heavy goods vehicles between Ukraine and Poland to protest against Ukrainian truck drivers whose competition they consider “unfair”. The blockade has led to endless queues at the border and poses a major economic problem for Kiev, which relies heavily on the route for its goods exports and imports.
According to Ukraine, Russian troops continue to intensify their attacks on Avdiivka
Russian troops have further stepped up their attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, attacking from two additional directions to encircle the city, local authorities reported on Monday. The Russian army has been trying to take this fortified industrial city in Donbass for almost two months, so much so that Avdiivka has become the main flashpoint on the front line since the failure of Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive. According to its mayor, Vitaly Barabakh, there have been “much more frequent” Russian attacks and artillery shelling in the last two days. “The third wave of enemy attacks differs from the previous two in that it is launched from two new directions,” the Ukrainian official explained.
According to him, these attacks are aimed at “diverting the attention of Ukrainian soldiers as much as possible,” while in parallel Russian forces continue their attempts to encircle Avdiivka from the south and north. “It is very likely that they are waiting for more favorable weather conditions to deploy military equipment in these areas,” he said. “The introduction of new directions proves that the enemy has received orders to take the city at any cost,” he estimated, indicating that 1,295 civilians were still in the city. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank that relies on geolocated imagery, Russian troops have made “confirmed progress” in the Avdiivka area in recent days. The Telegram channel DeepState, which is close to the Ukrainian army, reported on Sunday evening about a “tense” situation at the front and “partial successes” by the Russian army near Stepove, a village northeast of Avdiivka. The Ukrainian army, for its part, claims that it can repel Russian attacks and inflict heavy losses on the enemy.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: New Russian attack on Avdiivka, attack “from all sides”
Six Nepalis were killed fighting for Russia and one was captured in Ukraine
Nepal said on Monday (December 4) that six Nepalese mercenaries fighting for the Russian army had been killed and another captured in Ukraine. Kathmandu called on Moscow to stop using Nepalese mercenaries and send all serving men home. Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said it had received reports of the deaths of “six Nepalese citizens while serving in the Russian army” and mentioned another citizen who was “detained in Ukraine after being recruited into the Russian army.”
The ministry did not provide any information about the circumstances under which the six mercenaries were killed or those involving the detainee. The statement follows a warning issued by Kathmandu in August urging citizens not to participate in security-related contracts in war-torn countries. “The Nepalese government has requested the Russian government to repatriate the victims’ bodies to Nepal and compensate the victims’ families,” the ministry said. “Nepal has asked the Russian government not to recruit Nepali citizens and, if recruited, to return them as soon as possible.”
Economic losses from the war are estimated at “more than 400 million euros”.
After less than three weeks of lockdown, Ukrainian employers representing 8,000 companies already estimated economic losses at “more than 400 million euros.” Kiev announced on Sunday that it had reached an initial agreement with Warsaw to open the Ougryniw border crossing, which has not previously been used for the passage of heavy trucks. This decision only affects empty vehicles arriving in Poland from Ukraine. At least two rounds of talks between Kiev, Warsaw and Polish truck drivers had previously failed. Polish protesters say their income has fallen, pointing in particular to the abolition of a permit system that governed the entry of Ukrainian transport companies into the European Union.
The EU abandoned this system to support Kiev after the Russian invasion began in February 2022. The agreement to liberalize the transport of goods between Ukraine and the EU, initially signed in June 2022 for one year, was then extended until June 2024. Transport is particularly important for Ukraine as its imports and exports by sea in the Black Sea are affected by the Russian invasion be hindered. At the end of November, EU Transport Commissioner Adina Valean denounced the “lack of involvement” of the Polish authorities in finding a solution to the blockade and threatened to launch “infringement proceedings” against Warsaw.
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