Dec 17 The Saturday Edition
Day 297: what's happening in Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the US- A&Ps- Avdeeva Halushka UKDefence Battistini Kobzar EUCouncil BusinessUAMag NATO BBCWeather Zubrin DidiKirstenTatlow
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
Russia launches 7th mass missile attack on Ukraine's energy system. Russia unleashed the seventh large-scale missile barrage on Ukraine on the morning of Dec. 16, targeting energy infrastructure across the country. Explosions were reported in Kyiv, and multiple other Ukrainian cities after the air raid alert went off in all regions but occupied Crimea and Luhansk Oblast. The Ukrainian Air Force reports that it shot down 60 out of the 76 missiles from Russia.
Electricity has been restored in Kharkiv, and the region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said, a day after Russia’s latest wave of missile attacks targeted the country’s power grid.
Zelensky: The sooner Putin ends the war, the longer he will live. President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Economist that he is against freezing the Russia-Ukraine war. According to him, Ukraine shouldn't stop until it liberates all of its territories occupied by Russia.
Ukrenergo: Energy deficit in Ukraine worsens ‘significantly’ due to Dec. 16 missile attacks. Russia's latest missile attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure specifically targeted railway networks and power generation facilities, state grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Dec. 16.
Ukrainian partisans conducted a sabotage attack on a power transformer substation in Berdyansk, Zaporizhia Oblast. ISW has assessed that Russian occupation forces have been unable to neutralize Ukraine’s organized partisan movement and are unlikely to do so in the future.
Zaluzhnyi: Ukraine preparing new major military operation. The upcoming operation "is not visible yet," Chief Commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in an interview with the Economist. The commander-in-chief also added that the Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops. “I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv,” he said during the interview.
Ukraine’s Intelligence: Russia fortifies coastline in occupied Crimea. According to Ukraine’s Intelligence Directorate, Russia is “fearing the landing of Ukrainian troops” there.
The Russian State Duma conducted the first reading of a law that will eliminate criminal liability for crimes in occupied territories if they were committed in the interests of the Russian Federation.
SBU: 15 Russian-led militants sentenced to 15 years in prison for state treason. According to Ukraine’s Security Service, 15 residents of Russian-occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts “voluntarily joined” Russian troops after Feb. 24 as snipers and grenade launchers.
Stefania Battistini is a war reporter from Italy. She is currently in the Donbas region, and she briefly spoke from Donbas yesterday at the LUISS Labs/Italian Federation of Human Rights conference on her experience there. She put out this tweet last night- the sounds of Donbas during the night.
The Ukrainian government has signed a deal with the International Energy Agency (IEA) to rebuild and develop Ukraine’s energy system. The two-year deal will focus on energy security, transition to clean energy, energy saving and the reconstruction of the energy sector.
Moldova has reached a short-term energy deal that would help wean one of Europe’s poorest countries off its dependence on Russian natural gas, a senior official said on Saturday. Deputy PM Andrei Spinu said state gas firm Moldovagaz would buy 100 million cubic metres of gas from domestic supplier Energocom this month. It would be the first time that Moldova has not consumed any of the gas it has bought from Russia, he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Moldova has temporarily banned six television channels as “political censorship”. Moldova has accused the channels of airing “incorrect information” about the country and Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
US Senate passes defense bill with $800 million in aid to Ukraine. The U.S. Senate passed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDDA), which authorizes a record $858 billion in military spending, including an additional $800 million in security assistance for Ukraine.
US to expand its training program for Ukrainian military in Germany. U.S. instructors will be able to train a battalion of Ukrainian soldiers (600-800 people) every month starting early next year, the New York Times reported, citing two unnamed American officials.
CIA director: 'Russians not serious about a real negotiation.' CIA director Bill Burns told PBS's Judy Woodruff in an interview on Dec. 16 that the agency does not currently see the seriousness on the part of the Russians required to end the war.
EU- Russian attacks against Ukraine intensify EU support. Following Russia's latest mass missile strike on Ukraine on Dec. 16, EU foreign policy chief Borrell said the EU and its partners are intensifying their efforts to provide the emergency support that Ukraine needs to restore and maintain power and heating this winter.
EU leaders agree on 18 billion euros aid package to Ukraine for next year. The European Council said on Dec. 15 that it agreed on the allocation of 18 billion euros of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in 2023.
Stoltenberg (NATO): "Putin is trying to break the Ukrainian people to undermine their support for self-defense. But history teaches us that these brutal attacks on civilians only serve to strengthen the determination to fight".
FIFA rejects Zelensky's request to offer 'message of peace' at World Cup final. The International Association of Football Federations (FIFA) has rejected President Volodymyr Zelensky's request to deliver a "message of peace" during the World Cup final in Qatar, CNN reported on Dec. 16, citing an unnamed source.
Zelensky, people of Ukraine to receive Charlemagne Prize. “The Ukrainian people deserve the greatest recognition for the way they are defending freedom, democracy, and self-determination,” they tweeted. "We underscore the fact that Ukraine is part of Europe and that its population and its government representatives support and defend European values.”
EUvsDisinfo: The EU adopted today 9th sanctions package in response to Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine. Parts of Russian propaganda machinery were among those sanctioned today. There is no space in Europe for the Kremlin's instruments of deception.
The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, is considering asking the Justice Department to pursue multiple charges against former President Donald Trump, according to a source familiar with the matter. The charges being considered include obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government. The recommendations match allegations the select committee made against Trump and his elections attorney John Eastman in a previous court proceeding seeking Eastman’s emails.
Memo to Macron from Business Ukraine Mag on French foreign policy
Ukraine’s defiance goes beyond the battlefield- New Eastern European
Poetry may not have the power to stop Russian missile strikes but Ukraine’s literary festival season, which carried on in spite of the horrors of war, became a testament to the importance of defending culture during the invasion. After all, the Russians have been very clear that they do not recognise the Ukrainian identity.
In Chernivtsi, a small Western Ukrainian city located on the border with Romania, September begins with poetry. Artists from throughout Ukraine and all over the world have been gathering there for the past 13 years during the annual Meridian Czernowitz Festival. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s festival was different, and, in the words of Meridian’s chief editor Evgenia Lopata, “a small miracle”.
Robert Zubrin, Why the Fusion Breakthrough Matters- The Bulwark
We have entered a new world
On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that the National Ignition Facility (NIF), part of the Department of Energy–funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, had achieved a milestone in fusion energy research. According to Granholm, on December 5, NIF had focused an array of 192 lasers into a cylinder holding a pea-sized pellet of deuterium-tritium fusion fuel and produced a thermonuclear reaction generating more energy than that used to drive it. The announcement was quick to set off headlines welcoming the advent of a vast new carbon-free energy resource for humankind, which were quickly followed by rebuttals from killjoys pointing out the vast distance between NIF’s accomplishment and a practical commercial fusion reactor.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Xi Jinping Ramps Up China's Surveillance, Harassment Deep in America- Newsweek
How Xi Jinping's Chinese Spies are Striking Fear in U.S. and Beyond
A Chinese man strikes at a banner saying "Chinese Communist Party Step Down!" in New York City. He is challenged briefly, then disappears in the crowd at a Columbia University protest against China's "Zero COVID" policy.
Another man pummels a female student after she shouts that Chinese authorities must be held accountable for the deaths of 10 people in a fire in an apartment complex under lockdown in Urumqi, sparking a rare wave of demonstrations in China. In Berkeley, California, a suspected Communist Party supporter sets ablaze a memorial placed by protesters mourning the dead in Urumqi.
In Flushing, Queens, home to a flourishing Chinese community, a lawyer who fled corruption in China holds a sign on a street calling for the end of the party. But the party is watching, his family in China are promptly harassed by the police, and he begs friends who posted the image on American social media to remove it.