Dec 30: E-Stories

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Dec 30, 2023

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.

Over an 18 hour period, the Russians attacked 6 Ukrainian cities, striking Ukraine’s people and their livelihoods. It was the worst attack since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. President Zelensky didn’t go into hiding.

President Zelensky showed his courage and that of his people by going to the front in Avdiivka. Putin and the Russians will be defeated: Ukraine will not surrender—they will not cower to brutal force. This is President Zelensky’s message.

President Zelensky: “Avdiivka. I visited the positions of the 110th «Marko Bezruchko» Mechanized Brigade. One of the toughest spots of the frontline.”

Stories we’re following…

The most intense Russian attack against Ukrainian civilians since the start of the full-scale invasion

The attacks started in Odesa last night and the major coordinated was unleashed at roughly 5:30am. Over 110 missiles and shaded drones hit Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and other cities, making it the the largest Russian missile attack since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the head of Ukrainian Air Defence confirms.

The Russians used strategic bombers against Ukrainian non-military targets: residential buildings/areas in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, and multiple other Ukrainian cities. In Kharkiv, a medical institution was damaged after a fire broke out. One emergency vehicle was also damaged. In the video, a high rise apartment building was hit.

The Air Force spokesman reports that Russia used a mix of Kh-47 Kinzhal, S-300, UAVs, Kh-22/Kh-32 and Kh-101/Kh-50. 18 strategic bombers took part. In total, 114 out of 158 air targets were destroyed. 87 missiles of various types and 27 Shahed drones. The Russian arsenal used for the strike amounts to $1.27 Billion. (You read that correctly, billion.)

At the writing of this post 26 people have died, and over 150 were injured in cities all over Ukraine. This is how the Russians negotiate. An operation of this magnitude could not have been planned and coordinated as retaliation to Ukraine’s sinking of the Russian vessel.

The Kyiv City Military Administration reports that over 36 aerial targets were hit by air defense over Kyiv. Two people died, 17 were injured in Kyiv. Damage was done to a warehouse, a high-rise building, cars, an unfinished business center, residential buildings and garages.

Footage of the first minutes from a police camera after entering an Odesa high-rise building was shown by the first deputy head of the patrol police department, Alexey Beloshitsky.

In Dnipro, the Russians hit a maternity hospital. Our friend Vadym, who lives in Dnipro, is unharmed but totally shaken. Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Serhiy Lysak said that the amount of victims has risen to 5, over 20 are wounded. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing as there might still be people under the rubble.

Zelensky Official: A total of 110 missiles were fired on various Ukrainian regions.

Maternity hospital, educational institutions, shopping center, high-rise buildings and private houses, commercial warehouse, parking lot. Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and our other cities. Today, Russia was fighting with almost everything it has in its arsenal: "daggers", S-300, cruise missiles, UAVs. Strategic bombers launched X-101/X-505. Approximately 110 missiles were fired, most of which were shot down.
Unfortunately, as a result of the shelling, there are dead and wounded. All services work in an enhanced mode and provide the necessary assistance to people. My condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims, and a speedy recovery to the injured.
We will certainly respond to the terrorists' blows. And we will fight to guarantee the safety of our country, every city, and all our people. Russian terror must lose - and it will.

If you haven’t seen the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol”, please make time to watch it. The Russian attacks that started last night in multiple cities in Ukraine are horrific: the future of Ukraine would be what the documentary has painfully reported. Make sure to send the link to your government representatives and ask them to act now. Ukraine doesn’t have time for politics.

Combat Situation Update

CDS Report: Russian forces advanced near Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Donetsk and Verbove; positional combat operations continued along the entire line of contact.

Russian efforts to capture Avdiivka remain the adversary’s main offensive operation in Ukraine.
The enemy offensive operations on the Novomykhailivka and Novopavlivka directions are conducted as diversions.
The Russian military command's unwavering commitment to capturing the ruins of Maryinka at any cost is driven not only by the desire to have at least a tactical victory but also by operational-tactical considerations aimed at disrupting the Ukrainian foothold in the Maryinka-Vuhledar area. This area serves as a convenient launchpad for an offensive on Volnovakha and Mariupol and provides fire control over the railway leading to Volnovakha from the north and extending through Khlibodarivka and the Komysh-Zorya station to the west.

ISW: Russia has officially deployed a battalion formed of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) to the frontline in Ukraine, further confirming a myriad of apparent Russian violations of the Geneva Convention on POWs. Recent incidents of apparent Russian violations of the Geneva Convention on POWs likely implicate elements of the now notorious 76th Guards Air Assault (VDV) Division in the abuse of POWs.

Russian navy’s Ropucha-class landing ship tank (LST) Novocherkassk was completely destroyed on 25 December 2023 following a Ukrainian strike while alongside at the port of Feodosia, on the south coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, the latest summary from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

Mobile air defense groups in Ukraine’s north receive new powerful searchlights. Commander of Ukraine’s Joint Forces Lieutenant General Serhiy Nayev, handed over new powerful anti-aircraft searchlights to the crews of mobile air defense groups deployed in the Northern operational zone.

An unidentified aerial object entered the airspace of Poland from Ukraine this morning. It was monitored on radar until the signal was lost, the command of the Polish Armed Forces reports.

According RMF24, the object was moving at a great speed. It was observed by residents of Dolgobychuv commune in the Lublin Voivodeship. They heard a loud noise and whistling, and the object itself was moving to the west. Searches are underway in the vicinity of Zamoste.
Polish President Duda convenes an urgent meeting due to the violation of Polish airspace. He will hold a meeting with the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff and other military personnel.

Nato Chief Jens Stoltenberg: “Spoke with President Duda about the missile incident in Poland. NATO stands in solidarity with our valued Ally, is monitoring the situation & we will remain in contact as the facts are established. NATO remains vigilant.”

Behind the Lines

RBC Ukraine: NATO Air Force scrambled over 300 times in 2023 in response to actions by Russia, with the majority of interceptions occurring over the Baltic Sea, according to Sky News.

"The vast majority of aerial encounters between NATO and Russian jets were safe and professional. Breaches of NATO airspace by Russian military aircraft remained rare and generally of short duration," said Alliance spokesperson Dylan White.

Lukashenka on Thursday attended a government-organized meeting with children brought from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, the Associated Press reported, according to Ukrinform.

Speaking at the event marking the arrival of a new group of Ukrainian children ahead of the New Year holiday, President Alexander Lukashenko vowed to “embrace these children, bring them to our home, keep them warm and make their childhood happier.”
The Belarusian opposition has urged the International Criminal Court to hold Lukashenko and his officials accountable for their involvement in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children. The kidnapping of children is a war crime.

Over 10,000 Ukrainian children illegally taken from occupied territories to Russia this autumn, a child dies while transported in terrible conditions. Camps, propaganda, and no guarantee of returning home. Each region targeted with 2,500 abductions.

"All children were transported in terrible conditions, and before that they were vaccinated with a poor-quality Russian flu vaccine. As a result, over 100 children were hospitalized," — National Resistance Center.

Zelensky signs law criminalizing smuggling. President Zelensky signed the Law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on Criminalization of Smuggling of Goods and Excisable Goods, as well as False Declaration of Goods".

In the temporarily occupied Melitopol district, the actions of the occupation forces could provoke an environmental disaster. Yuriy Malashko, the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said this during a briefing at the media center of the Regional Military Administration, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. "An environmental disaster is brewing in the Melitopol district. On the territory of the National Nature Park, which is located on the coast of the Molochnyi Estuary, the occupiers have set up a landfill where they train their mobilized soldiers," he said. The Molochnyi Estuary is a unique reservoir, the largest spawning ground for pilchard and other rare fish species in Ukraine. The invaders turned the Azov Sea coast into their training ground.

Brazil will probably not arrest Russian dictator Vladimir Putin despite the country being a signatory to the Rome Statute, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said in an interview with the BBC on December 27th. He stated that the Russian leader will be invited to Brazil for the G20 summit, which Brazil will be hosting in 2024.

"We have to see this in each case. There are always, even in the ICC rules, treatments for heads of state that we have to examine. If he (Putin) wants to come, we will be very happy for him to be present and at the meetings in Brazil." the minister added.

Meanwhile in Russia

In 2023, Russian media reported more than 4,900 utility accidents - this is almost twice as many as in pre-war 2021, according to data from the Integrum service, which aggregates reports from Russian regional and federal media. More than 3,200 incidents were reported in 2022, and 2,900 accidents were reported in 2021. urbanist Peter Ivanov:

“The number of major accidents is increasing. Now the networks that were laid there during the Brezhnev era are already approaching wear and tear. If 10 years ago we had a surge in the wear and tear of Khrushchev buildings, now we have a surge in the wear and tear of buildings already under Brezhnev. The time has come. The problem is that in almost no cities we have had any large-scale infrastructure projects to repair these networks. That is, it was mainly spot repairs.”

Me: This means very little funding is going to infrastructure and maintenance.

The United States condemns russian-occupied Abkhazia's handing Bichvinta resort over to Russia: "We condemn the illegitimate attempts to transfer land in the occupied Georgian territory of Abkhazia to Russia," a State Department spokesperson tells me.

"Russia’s ongoing occupation of 20 percent of Georgia’s territory undermines Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The U.S. continues to call on Russia to uphold its obligations and commitments in the 2008 ceasefire agreement and UN Charter".

Julia Davis—Meanwhile in Russia: state TV experts discussed how to best attack their archnemesis: the United States. They admitted that globalism would suit them just fine, as long as Russia ends up on top.

Allied Support

President Zelensky has thanked the United States for its arms package worth up to $250m. In his post on social media he wrote:

US leadership in the coalition of over 50 countries providing Ukraine with military aid is critical to countering terror and aggression not only in Ukraine but around the world.
Over the course of this year, the US has provided 34 military aid packages worth over $24bn. “Patriots,” “Abrams,” armored vehicles, ATACMS, DPICM, air defense, missiles, artillery rounds, mine clearing capabilities, and other critical equipment.
A historic decision to provide Ukraine with F-16 jets was made. We will always be grateful for all of this support.
To defend freedom and security not only in Ukraine and Europe but also in the United States, we must continue to respond to ongoing Russian aggression in the most forceful and resolute manner possible.

NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg spells out why we need to support Ukraine to defeat the Russian forces.

There is absolutely no reason for Ukraine’s allies to keep back resources from Ukraine to defeat Russia.

German authorities freeze Russian assets worth over €4B. In Germany, in connection with Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, as of early December, assets worth about €4.1 billion have been sanctioned, he said.

This is why I keep banging on about armaments deliveries to Ukraine, which are essential to its forward action. The Ukrainian forces are trying to get beyond the Russian defensive belt in the southeast in order to get into a position to hit Russian supply lines that run along the south axis. They are accompanying this action with continued attacks on Russian Crimean positions.

In the immediate future, the Ukrainian forces do not need to get to Mariupol or any other coastal city now occupied by the Russian forces. They need to get to within range to begin hitting Russian defensive infrastructure and supplies, which are refurbished via trucks. Yes, trucks. These are private companies hauling supplies for the Russian forces in the southeast. This is also why it was so important for the EU and the U.S. to come through for Ukraine in terms of ammunition supplies. The numbers below show that the Ukrainians are now fighting with one arm tied behind their backs.

InformNapalm has published this video in support of Ukraine. They are a reputable investigative network, and so I’m publishing it here. Watch the full video here.

Russia’s imitation of negotiations initiative “tactical trick” - Nauseda. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda believes Russia could be imitating the initiative of truce negotiations with Ukraine in order to buy some time in the ongoing war, adding that the move is part of the Kremlin’s "tactical tricks".

Ukraine will receive €50 billion from the EU even without Hungary's support. This was announced by German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner in an interview with Bloomberg. According to him, Berlin is confident that the EU will continue to support Ukraine "in any case" despite Hungary's resistance.

U.S. Department of State in a joint statement regarding the latest Iranian nuclear steps as reported by the IAEA. The Iranians have escalated their nuclear programme.