Dec 28 Buonasera Mag
Day 308: Zelensky Kherson Kharkiv Ukrenergo kidnapping Mariupol RUlaw Peskov Antov Kiriyenko CIS EU NATO-KFOR TikTok-A&Ps- TrumpTaxes ISW UKDef Weiss Aseyev Battistini Kirillova Coffey Patron Lucas
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…
President Zelensky said “only a few” civilians remain in the embattled frontline city of Bakhmut in the eastern province of Donetsk.
Last year, 70,000 people lived there. Now only a few civilians are left there. There is no place that is not covered with blood. There is no hour when the terrible roar of artillery does not sound. Still, Bakhmut stands.
Russia shells maternity hospital in Kherson. “They shelled a place where two children were born today. Before the attack, doctors managed to complete a caesarean section. There are five women after childbirth at the institution,” he said, adding that “miraculously” there were no casualties.
Ukrenergo: Power shortage in Ukraine ‘slightly reduced.’ The power deficit in Ukraine has been "slightly reduced" due to an increase in production by the country's power plants, Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Dec. 27.
Russia has damaged more than 700 critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine since Feb. 24. First Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin said on Dec. 27 that at least 702 critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine have been hit since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Forced passportization of children continues in the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region Children under the age of 14 may become Russian citizens.
ISW: Putin’s statement of readiness for negotiations with Ukraine is bluff for West. The statement was part of “a deliberate information campaign,” spreading the false narratives that Ukraine had disrupted Russia’s diplomatic efforts prior to the full-scale invasion, according to the D.C.-based think tank.
With the aid of the materials provided by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the court has seized the property of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov worth UAH 2 billion [US$54 million]: the issue of transferring the property to the Agency for Investigation and Management of Assets is being considered now.
Ukraine has bought some 1,400 drones, mostly for reconnaissance, and plans to develop combat models that can attack the exploding drones Russia has used during its invasion of the country, according to the Ukrainian government minister in charge of technology.
Thanks to new orders from the prime minister, Russia’s federal censor can now block websites that contain information about the LGBT community.
Russia’s Justice Ministry added a bunch more organizations to its “foreign agents” registry, including feminist anti-war and Internet freedom groups.
Russian-controlled church may lose control of part of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra on Jan. 1. Ukraine’s Culture Ministry will recommend terminating the Russian-backed church's lease on part of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine's most important Orthodox monastery, Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Dec. 27.
Mysterious deaths: Antov’s death adds to the long list of Russians who have fallen from buildings in recent years, among them Lukoil Chairman Ravil Maganov, who opposed the invasion of Ukraine, Putin-critic Dan Rapoport, a police officer who testified about corruption and doctors who criticized Russia’s COVID policies.
Reuters reports that Kremlin aide, Sergei Kiriyenko, has visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia NPP. Kiriyenko discussed the safety of the plant, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed “official” in the occupied region.
Mafia rings: At the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in St. Petersburg, Putin presented the CIS leaders with club rings. Each ring’s design incorporates the CIS emblem and the words “Happy New Year 2023.” Of all the recipients — the presidents of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as the Armenian prime minister — only Alexander Lukashenko put on his ring as soon as he received it.
The EU delegation to Ukraine has announced that it will support “more than 700,000 Ukrainians in the winter” during the war. In a press statement released on Wednesday, the office of the international organisation for migration (IOM) in Ukraine says:
IOM’s winter preparedness support, made possible by EU funding, includes repairs to collective centres for displaced people, improvements to water, drainage and heating systems, repairs to damaged houses, and the provision of warm blankets, bedding, mattresses and hygiene items. The programme also provides solid fuel and cash assistance to help people have flexible winter livelihoods. This funding will also enable IOM to ensure the availability of critical assets to ensure that aid continues to reach war-affected populations, and to support partner organizations responding to urgent needs on the ground.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday reaffirmed her government’s “full support” for Ukraine in a call with president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, her office said in a statement. “Meloni renewed the Italian government’s full support for Kyiv in the political, military, economic and humanitarian fields, to repair energy infrastructure and (to work) for the future reconstruction of Ukraine”, her office said.
Germany allocates 35 million euros to support children in Ukraine. Germany has contributed 35 million euros ($37.3 million) to the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine to support Ukrainian children during Russia’s war, Germany’s embassy to Ukraine said.
The deterioration of diplomatic relations between Russia and Lithuania has continued, with the expulsion today of a Lithuanian from their embassy in Moscow.
Health ministry: Kazakhstani businesses donate 41 generators to Ukrainian hospitals. Kazakhstani businesses have given Ukrainian healthcare facilities 41 power generators worth around $500,000 amid power outages across the country, the Health Ministry reported.
A Belgian court reversed a decision to release Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, one of the main suspects in the ongoing Qatargate corruption probe, with an electronic monitor. He will remain detained pending trial, as Pieter Haeck reports. Figà-Talamanca is secretary-general of one of the NGOs linked to the scandal, No Peace Without Justice, which works on rule of law and human rights issues.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia increased overnight, as Pristina’s foreign ministry claimed that the Merdarë border crossing had been blocked by “Serbian criminal groups.” Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić said around midnight that he was mulling traveling to Kuršumlija, the municipality where the blocked border crossing is located.
Stanislav Aseyev, Evil Must Have a Name- Epofenie
In the Gospel of Luke, there is an episode in which Jesus exorcizes an unclean spirit from a man and asks him: "What is your name?". The man replies: "Legion," as it turned out that several demonic entities had possessed him. Later, this principle would find a place in medieval books on demonology, according to which the acquisition of power over an evil spirit is primarily related to knowing the specific name of the demon, and not just to the corresponding rite.
Evil must have a name.
February 24 raised the question of what ethical system we live in. The answer to this question is also the answer to how the war will end. It is already evident that after thousands of tortured Ukrainian civilians, it will not end at the front.
I’m only 33 years old. In my lifetime I already endured electric-shock torture for 2.5 years in the notorious Russian concentration camp known as Izolyatsia, was released from there on a prisoner exchange, found the concentration camp's commandant right in the center of the Ukrainian capital and had the special services arrest him. Since then I’ve been attending Palych's trial (that's what we all called the head executioner back in Izolyatsia) like a concert or theater performance: he shouts that he was promised to be let off and doesn't even know why he's being tried. My Old Testament outlook began from this court case.
What’s the most important lesson of the war in Ukraine? 15 experts gave us their answers. Grid
We asked former commanders and intelligence officials, scholars of Europe and NATO, experts in nuclear security and military history, leading analysts in the fields of media and human rights. We asked a former CIA director, a former prime minister, and a former Russian TV presenter. Fifteen people in all, each of whom has contributed to Grid’s coverage of the war.
Ksenia Kirillova- Former reporter for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta; analyst of Russian media
I think the main lesson of this war is that the West should learn the futility and even the danger of appeasing the aggressor. Don’t forget that the first Russian aggression against Ukraine began in 2014. I mean not only the annexation of Crimea but also the unleashing of a bloody war in Donbas. The Minsk agreements then seemed like an illusion of peace, and many in the West thought that if we gave Putin what he wanted (actual recognition of his control over Crimea and the occupied part of Donbas), then he would stop.
Luke Coffey, Preparing for the Final Collapse of the Soviet Union- Hudson
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the start of the USSR’s collapse—but not the collapse itself. While the USSR ceased to exist as a legal entity after 1991, the collapse of the USSR is still happening today. The two Chechen Wars, Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the on-and-off border skirmishes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the 2020 Second Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan are just a few examples showing that the Soviet Union is still collapsing today.
Scott Lucas, EA on Times Radio: Tick-Tock for Trump Over His Tax Returns
I spoke with Times Radio’s Matt Chorley on Wednesday about the impending release of Donald Trump’s tax returns by the House Ways and Means Committee, explaining the significance amid the court cases and claims over alleged fraud and tax avoidance by Trump and his businesses.
