Dec 27: E-Stories
Day671Novocherkassk Kherson CombatSit Zaluzhnyi BehindLines BEL InRussia LNG Allies EU SKor TUR LITH A&P Zelensky Brooks NoelReports ISW F16Rebel Avdeeva Krutov Hoffman Sandu Higgins Mamedov Bennets
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.
Olena Halushka: “The russians shelled Kherson railway station where more than 140 people were waiting for the evacuation train. One police officer was reported killed and four people were injured. The civilians were all taken to shelters. This russian daily terror is horrifying having no breaks.”
Today the Russians took their revenge on Kherson. President Zelensky’s evening address:
Stories we’re following…
Kherson was subjected to heavy shelling for over 2 hours on Dec 26. The railway station was hit in the first minutes by Russian missiles. More than a hundred people were waiting for the departure of an evacuation train here when they were attacked by the Russians. Two civilians received shrapnel injuries. A police lieutenant from Kirovohrad region, who was ensuring the evacuation of people got killed. Another two policemen were wounded.
The Russians also shelled Horlivka on December 26.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine submitted a draft law on mobilization, military registration and military service to the Verkhovna Rada. One of the changes is likely lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25 in order to mobilize more people as requested by the military.
Lt-Gen Mykola Oleshchuk reports that the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Ropucha-class big landing ship Novocherkassk won’t be sailing anymore after an encounter with Ukrainian missiles in Feodosiya, Crimea. In other videos, the nature of the explosions indicate that there were weapons on board (kamikaze drones of the Shahed type). The ship is also an assault vessel. Svoboda Radio reports that the other ship that sunk during the missile strike on the port of Feodosia, is the former training vessel UTS-150.
This video shows the moment of the strike.
Reuters reported that the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on the Telegram messaging app that one person had been killed and two injured as a result of the attack. (Me: I highly doubt only one person was killed.)
Another ship might be damaged during the attack on Feodosia.
"We need additional reconnaissance in Feodosia and obtaining comprehensive information on all affected targets. It is quite likely that another ship was damaged, because everything in the port infrastructure is close," spokeswoman of the Southern Operational Command Nataliya Humenyuk said.
This is was the new flagship Black Sea Fleet after the sinking of the "Moskva."
Maria Avdeeva: Zaluzhny's 1st presser was a punch to the gut. His strong and frank words expose the brutal realities in Ukraine & make the need for aid crystal clear.
The evolution of military technology constantly transforms the nature of war. To win AFU must adapt to these changes. The war in 2024 not only may be different from the war in 2023, it must be different.
"As for Russia, I would like to say that it was my mistake to believe that the number of losses we inflicted on the enemy even a year ago could stop them."
Ukrainian troops remain in the northern part of Maryinka, but this city no longer exists.
"Every piece of land is precious to us; we'll defend as much as our strength allows. If our strength falters, we prioritize saving our people, and then we'll reclaim what's lost. There's no need to make anything remotely like a show around it."
Combat Situation Update
Top regional official names Russia’s main target in Kharkiv region. The main goal of the Russian invasion forces operating in Kharkiv region is to recapture the Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi logistical hub, and to this end they need to not only take Synkivka but also to capture part of Kupiansk.
RBC Ukraine: Over the past day, there have been 76 combat engagements. The enemy launched 1 missile and conducted 19 airstrikes, with 30 bombardments from multiple rocket launcher systems targeting our military positions and civilian areas.
On the Volyn and Polissia fronts, the operational situation remains unchanged with no significant alterations.
On the Kupiansk front, Ukrainian defenders repelled 8 enemy attacks in the areas of Synkivka and northeast of Petropavlivka in the Kharkiv region.
On the Bakhmut front, Defense Forces repelled 3 enemy attacks near Klishchiivka and Andriivka in the Donetsk region.
On the Maryinka front, the Defense Forces continue to restrain the enemy in the areas of Novomykhailivka and Pobieda in the Donetsk region.
The first group of Ukrainian pilots completed the basic training program in Great Britain and began training on F-16 fighters in Denmark. The first group of six Ukrainian pilots completed the basic training program in the UK and began training on F-16 fighters in Denmark. Another 10 pilots remain in the UK to continue with practical basic flight training.
Video: this is REBEL, an American pilot on an F-16. I re-watched Top Gun the other night…I just had to put this in here.
Behind the Lines
Partisans expose another Russian command post in occupied Crimea. Ukrainian partisans have discovered another Russian command post located in the village of Novo-ozerne, Yevpatoriya district of temporarily occupied Crimea.
Invaders plan to apply Soviet practices in schools across occupied Luhansk region. In the temporarily captured part of Luhansk region, Russian invaders plan to divide schoolchildren into age groups by the Soviet-era principle and increase the number of patriotic education tutors.
Dictator Alexander Lukashenko has stated that all the Russian nuclear weapons that were supposedly planned to be stationed in Belarus are already allegedly in the country, reports Zerkalo.
"Long ago. I've already spoken about it when the delivery ended. In September, I think, or in October. The last one was in early October. Everything is in place and in good condition," Lukashenko has said.
As of the morning of 25 December, there were about 4,100 lorries in the queue on the border of Ukraine and Poland; three checkpoints remained blocked, reported Andrii Demchenko, Spokesperson of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, on the the national 24/7 newscast.
"At the moment there are three directions blocked. Yesterday, after 9:00 in the morning, the Shehyni [checkpoint – ed.] was unblocked, thankfully, because in fact this direction had been blocked since 27 November. And over the past day, we noticed that the number of freight vehicles that crossed the border has increased significantly. But three directions remain blocked, these are: Yahodyn – Dorohusk, Korczowa – Krakovets and Rava-Ruska – Hrebenne."
Moldovan President Sandu announces she will run for second term. Moldovan President Maia Sandu announced on Dec. 24 that she is planning to run for another term in office, according to an official statement by the president's office. Sandu, a pro-European politician elected president in 2020, has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and sought to remove Moldova from Russia's sphere of influence. The European Council officially approved Moldova and Ukraine to begin talks on their accession to the EU on Dec. 14.
Charlotte Higgins at the Guardian, has written her moments of hope column about the young women she met in Ukraine. She writes:
There is Sofia Cheliak, a cultural broadcaster who also runs the programme for Lviv BookForum, a brilliant literary festival where ideas are exchanged vigorously, held in the thick of war.
There is Bohdana Neborak, who is editor-in-chief of the Ukrainians magazine, a podcaster and cultural manager: she is elegant-minded, intellectually rigorous and an energetic ambassador for Ukrainian literature.
There are the talented, generous, very funny photographers with whom I’ve covered stories for the Guardian, Anastasia Vlasova and Julia Kochetova. Julia told me once that her career had been defined by documenting conflict, not out of choice, but because war came to her doorstep: it’s an unlooked-for, tough destiny.
There’s Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Nobel peace prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties, whose work as a human rights lawyer is about strengthening institutions in Ukraine and campaigning for justice for war crimes. She is one of the most poised public speakers I have heard, and uses her quiet, eloquent powers of persuasion relentlessly. I could go on: there are many others.
I don’t like to use the word “hero”. I studied Homer, once: the original heroes, the violent, godlike men of the Iliad and the Odyssey, have nothing to do with these women. In our own times, declaring someone heroic often does that person a disservice, flattening out their human complexity, turning them into untouchable paragons. So I don’t call these women heroic. But when I think of the future of Ukraine in such hands, hope still perches in my soul.
Meanwhile in Russia
Japan’s Mitsui & Co has decided to pull its employees out of Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, citing several sources. The decision is yet another blow for the project. Fearing the backlash from US sanctions targeting the project, foreign shareholders have suspended their participation.
Russian Central Bank head says country should prepare for increased sanction pressure. Russia must prepare for increasing pressure from international sanctions, Russia's Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina said in an interview with the Russian media outlet RBC published on Dec. 25.
"It is, of course, tempting to think that we fared well in 2022 and now we don't have a care in the world," said Nabiullina. "But we need to prepare for increased pressure from sanctions."
Chinese trucks, which replaced European ones after the start of the war in Ukraine, have filled the warehouses of Russian dealers and distributors, who will have to sell off current stocks until the spring of 2024. In total, more than 11 thousand unsold truck tractors and 6.5 thousand Chinese-made dump trucks have accumulated in Russia, Kommersant cites VTB Leasing’s assessment. (Me: I wonder what was inside those trucks. Let’s just say nothing: who is going to buy a truck in Russia? Are there enough products to transport to justify the sale of the truck?)
Russian banks have transferred more than 80% of clients’ biometric data to the Unified Biometric System (UBS), said Vladislav Povolotsky, General Director of the Center for Biometric Technologies (CBT).
“Now the data of tens of millions of Russians has been transferred under state protection. The process of importing data from banks is more than 80% complete. Most organizations have already sent data from users who have given their consent to the database,” Povolotsky said in an interview with Izvestia.
Up-date Krasovsky ‘poisoning’: it may have been a staged event to cover up the murder of his lover Alexey Chernykh. The police found the corpse of Chernykh who had been poisoned. Krasovsky was infamous for calling for the genocide of Ukrainians on his show. Moral of the story: don’t jump to conclusions like I did yesterday.
Allied Support
"The European Union countries will approve the decision on the allocation of €50 billion for Ukraine. This will happen despite Hungary's possible veto," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said.
South Korea will tighten export controls against Russia and Belarus by significantly expanding its list of items subject to export restrictions: 700 types of goods. Aircraft parts and automobiles have been banned. Supplies of heavy construction equipment and batteries with charging capabilities will also be restricted.
President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda believes that Russia may resort to aggression against NATO countries if the West stops supporting Ukraine, as reported by Delfi, citing Nausėda in an interview with TV3, as reported by European Pravda.
"It will depend on the war scenario in Ukraine. If Russia fails to turn the tide in its favour, then, of course, it will be stuck there for a long time and won't be able to sustain multiple fronts. If things go differently and the West suddenly turns away from Ukraine, withholding the necessary support... Yes, then such a situation might arise, but the probability of that scenario is low," he noted, commenting on discussions about the threat to NATO from Russia.
Nausėda said that "no one has an answer to the question of when Russia's behaviour may change and when it will turn its gaze towards NATO".
Ryan McBeth—Something you may want to recycle when arguing with a numbnut at a party or dinner about American aid to Ukraine:
Readout—Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on U.S. Strikes in Iraq:
U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq. These precision strikes are a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias, including an attack by Iran-affiliated Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups on Erbil Air Base earlier today, and intended to disrupt and degrade capabilities of the Iran-aligned militia groups directly responsible.
Programming notes…
U.S. Embassy Tallinn, Estonia: For the past 15 years, @USAmbEstonia and his wife Velida have been creating gingerbread - whether it's Capitol, Harvard University or Mariupol in Ukraine. This year's project is dedicated to a beautiful Estonian city of Narva. See yourself. Happy Holidays!