Dec 23 Buonasera Mag
Day 302: Mariupol 10K Gerasimov NorthK Darchiev crypto RUassets 900 Feb3Summit Italy/NATO BND - A&P- Tokariuk Davis Battistini Avdeeva EuroValues Applebaum Person Afanasyev Nick Nasimi
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…
Russian attacks across 7 Ukrainian oblasts kill 5, injure 14 over past day. Russian strikes on Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts in the east and south killed five people and wounded 14 more, according to local authorities.
General Staff: Ukrainian forces hit 8 Russian personnel concentration areas. Ukraine’s rocket and artillery forces hit three Russian command points, eight personnel concentration areas, and three ammunition depots on Dec. 22, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.
Russia demolishes half of Mariupol theatre. An adviser to Mariupol Mayor Petro Andriushchenko reported on Telegram that Russians are relentlessly tearing down bombed-out buildings: "While Mariupol in exile thinks about cultural de-occupation, the occupants in Mariupol demolished half of the Drama Theatre. So in two days, there will not even be a physical memory of it."
Russia’s chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday that the frontline in Ukraine was stable, and that Russia had concentrated its forces on “completing the liberation” of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Russia has, since its retreat from Kyiv in April, framed its war aims as taking full control of the eastern Donbas region, of which Donetsk region makes up half, alongside neighbouring Luhansk region, Reuters reported.
North Korea denies supplying Russia’s Wagner group with weapons. North Korea’s foreign ministry denied a media report it supplied munitions to Russia, calling it “groundless,” and denounced the United States for providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Friday. Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun reported earlier that North Korea had shipped munitions, including artillery shells, to Russia via train through their border last month and that additional shipments were expected in the coming weeks.
Alexander Darchiev, head of the Russian foreign ministry’s North America department, has said that talks on security guarantees for Russia cannot take place while Nato instructors and “mercenaries” remain in Ukraine, and while western arms supplies to the country continue. Russia typically refers to foreign volunteers fighting with the Ukrainian army as “mercenaries”, and has convicted captured foreign fighters of acting as such, Reuters reports.
Vsevolod: Russia is likely to prepare for a long war with Ukraine. Out of seven military hospitals to be build by RU defence ministry FOUR will be on border with Ukraine. Two others within 400 km from UA border.
Belarusian instructors likely training Russian conscripts due to ‘overstretch’ of Russian military system. Belarus’ military has likely taken on a “significant, but more discreet” role in training Russian conscripts, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Dec. 22.
Associated Press: Russia, China conduct joint naval drills. On Dec. 22, Russian and Chinese naval forces engaged in joint military drills in the East China Sea, the latest in a series of exercises that showcase the deepening defense ties between the two countries.
ISW: Putin tries to absolve himself of responsibility for conducting protracted war in Ukraine. During a press conference on Dec. 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia seeks to end the war as soon as possible while simultaneously noting that Russia will not increase the pace of what it calls a ”special military operation” because it would lead to ”unjustified losses.”
Stefania Battistini: “For us, the war must end with the victory of international law, that is, no one can attack a sovereign country with missiles and bombs. No one may occupy the land of another state." Presidential Advisor, Mikhailo Podolyak.
Estonia to send Ukraine new military aid package. "The package mostly concerns personal equipment because this is what the Ukrainians specifically asked us for," said Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur.
Australia’s financial intelligence agency has warned Russian paramilitary groups are soliciting cryptocurrency donations to buy weapons and that Australians have donated to terrorist organisations overseas.
Bulgaria's state-owned nuclear power plant Kozloduy signed a deal with Westinghouse Electric Sweden on December 22 to supply it with nuclear fuel for its 1,000 megawatt Russian-built Unit 5, a first step to diversify away from Russian supplies.
Japan's Rakuten company to donate 500 generators to Ukraine. CEO of the Japanese Rakuten Group Mickey Mikitani announced on Dec. 22 that the company would donate 500 generators to Ukraine together with Koshin Ltd.
US Senate approves amendment to transfer seized assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. "This amendment would allow the Department of Justice through the Secretary of State to transfer proceeds from seized oligarchs' assets or other sanctioned entities to the people of Ukraine," U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said. "It will be a godsend to the long-suffering people of Ukraine. It will be a relief to the American taxpayer… It will be a bad day for oligarchs."
EU to send 900 generators to Ukraine. Ukraine will receive 900 generators for powering critical infrastructure as well as “millions” of energy-saving bulbs from the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will hold a summit with President Zelensky on 3 February, according to an EU spokesperson. The theme will probably be how the bloc can continue to support Ukraine against Russia, officials said. The Commission and the council of EU leaders will also assess Ukraine’s path to EU membership.
Italy enters NATO’s VC fund: Italy’s government tabled an amendment to the 2023 budget, expected to pass by year’s end, setting aside €8 million to finance the Alliance’s Innovation Fund. The Fund was launched in June, at the Alliance’s Summit in Madrid, and should be fully operational by the July 2023 summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted it “will help bring to life those nascent technologies that have the power to transform our security in the decades to come, strengthening the Alliance’s innovation ecosystem and bolstering the security of our one billion citizens.”
In an open letter to the National Hockey League (NHL), the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), renowned hockey player Dominik Hasek called for all Russian athletes to be suspended from international sports events.
Suspected espionage at the BND- Welt
An employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is suspected of having spied for the Russian secret service. The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe had the man arrested by the Federal Criminal Police Office on Wednesday. On Thursday, the accused was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice. The BND employee is now in custody.
The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe is investigating on suspicion of treason. In addition, the apartment and the workplace of the accused and another person were searched. According to the BND, the searches took place in two properties of the intelligence service.
According to WELT information, other BND employees may have worked for the Russian secret service. So far, however, there have been no further arrests.
Note about Spaces on Twitter…
I’ve been doing some research for some time and should be finished with it in January. This means Scott and I will be back with EuroFile spaces in January 2023.
A note of caution: there are a lot of soft-Russian propaganda spaces on Twitter at the moment. You can tell when the hosts will include “Ukraine” in the title but never end up talking about Ukraine or Ukrainians. “Ukraine” is the bait. They will focus the discussion almost totally on Russia, and occasionally throw in Belarus and China. The Russian influence vectors need to control ALL of the narratives- the pro-Ukrainian to pro-Russian positions. Their focus is to talk about Russia, and distract from Ukraine and the crimes being committed there daily.
I hope you’ll take the time to listen to the podcast put out by European Values Center.
Anne Applebaum, What If the U.S. Hadn’t Helped Ukraine? The Atlantic
On the eve of the invasion, some American experts advised against offering military aid to Ukraine, on the grounds that the war was going to be over too quickly. Other Americans repeated Russian propaganda, questioning whether Ukraine deserved to exist or whether it deserved to be defended. Some American politicians echoed those views and indeed continue to do so. What if they had prevailed? What if a different president had been in the White House? What if a different president had been elected in Ukraine? Let’s imagine, just for a moment, a world without Ukrainian courage, or American and European weapons, or the unity and support of democracies around the world.
Had the Russian plan been carried out as it was written, Kyiv would have been conquered in just a few days. Zelensky, his wife and his children would have been murdered by one of the hit squads that roamed the capital city. The Ukrainian state would have been taken over by the collaborators who had already chosen their Kyiv apartments. Then, city by city, region by region, the Russian army would have fought the remnants of the Ukrainian army, until finally conquering the entire country. Originally, the Russian general staff imagined that this victory would require six weeks.
Ukrainian rights activist and former political prisoner Hennadiy Afanasyev has died fighting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. Afanasyev's wife, Lyudmyla Afanasyeva, told RFE/RL on December 21 that her husband was killed in combat in eastern Ukraine.
Russian reaction to President Zelensky’s visit to Washington…
Andreas Nick: Russia should remain a member of the Council of Europe if possible- Deutsche Bundestag
(Thanks to Nathalie Vogel for tagging me on this: “He’s an architect of Russia's reintegration. We warned about him YEARS ago, nobody wanted to listen. Who remembers ex-CDU MP&Merkel fan Andreas Nick aka Sputnik insulting Polish&Ukrainian reps at the PACE and telling them to „f*ck off“ after being reminded in 2019 of the Ukrainian victims of the Russian attack…because WE CERTAINLY DO! Read the whole interview.)
How important is Russia for the Council of Europe?
The basic position of the German delegation on the illegal annexation of Crimea and the military conflict in the Donbass region is absolutely clear and remains unchanged. I personally, as rapporteur, formulated the unequivocal position of the Assembly in January 2019 on the crisis in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov. This resolution was also widely welcomed by the Ukrainian government and delegation. On the other hand, the German delegation also supports the efforts of the Finnish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers to overcome the threatening institutional crisis between the organs of the Council of Europe. The German position, which is shared equally by the government and the delegation, is that Russia should, if possible, remain a member of the Council of Europe “with full rights and duties”. Human rights organizations active in Russia are calling on us to uphold the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights over 140 million citizens of the Russian Federation.
"This journey to Washington by Zelensky, it is an act of desperation." The opinion of @gudrun_engel, on legacy media in Germany.
Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation- BBC News
The Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country. The higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect. Some women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday.
"Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls' universities," protesters from the Afghanistan Women's Unity and Solidarity group said.
