Dec 9 Buonasera Mag
Day 289: Donetsk ZNPP Putin IranDrones Istanbul $275M sanctions St Petersburg UNHCR Karpowership Shevchenko Yashin-A&Ps-Kandelaki ISW Mongelli Borys Junisbai Kirillova Halushka Komarcevic Colbert
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 forces have shelled the “entire front line” in the Donetsk, the region’s governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has said. The fiercest fighting was near the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Reuters quotes him as saying in an interview on Friday.
Russian attacks kill 15 people, injure 17 over past day. Over the past day, Russian attacks targeted Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Sumy, and Mykolaiv, killing 15 people and injuring 17.
Energoatom: Russia places Grad rocket launchers next to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reactor. Russian forces have placed Grad multiple launch rocket systems on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s territory next to the spent nuclear fuel storage units near the plant's sixth reactor, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy operator Energoatom reported on Dec. 8.
ISW: Kremlin has likely not abandoned its maximalist goals in Ukraine despite Dmitry Peskov’s comments on Russian territorial objectives. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged for the first time that Moscow’s current territorial objective is to seize four partially occupied Ukrainian oblasts fully, the Institute for the Study of War reports.
Putin says Moscow will continue to strike Ukraine’s energy grid in a campaign that has left swaths of the country without clean water and electricity.
UK Ministry of Defence: Russia has likely received a resupply of Iranian Shahed-131 and 136 loitering munitions, with new reports over the past three weeks of attacks involving these devices.
Representatives from Russia and the US are meeting in Istanbul today to discuss “difficult questions”, the Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported. The two sides are set to discuss “irritants” in bilateral relations including visas, embassy staffing levels and the work of each side’s institutions and agencies abroad, among other unspecified issues, the report said.
Putin said Russia may cut oil production and will refuse to sell oil to any country which imposes the G7’s price cap on its oil. His comments came after the Group of Seven nations, the EU and Australia announced a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil last week.
US to announce additional $275 million in military aid to Ukraine. The U.S. is sending $275 million in military aid to Ukraine, including large amounts of ammunition and high-tech systems that can be used to detect and counter drones in its ongoing war with Russia, U.S. officials who spoke on conditions of anonymity told the Associated Press.
The US is set to levy fresh sanctions against Russia and China today, according to the Wall Street Journal reports, with measures intended on targeting Russia’s deployment of Iranian drones in Ukraine, as well as alleged human-rights abuses by Russia.
The UK FM Cleverly has announced in that he will place new sanctions on 2,000 individuals and 400 entities across the world with connections to the Kremlin.
UN Human Rights Commissioner declares "human rights emergency" in #Ukraine. "You have 17.7 million in need of humanitarian assistance; you have 9.3 million requiring food & livelihood assistance. You have 7.4 million refugees, you have 6.5 million people internally displaced."
France sends 100 generators to Ukraine. France has dispatched 100 generators to help Ukraine get through the winter, according to Deputy Energy Minister Farid Safarov and Benjamin Roehrig, deputy chief of Mission at the French embassy in Ukraine.
Turkish company to supply Ukraine with electricity via Romania, Moldova. Turkish energy company Karpowership intends to provide Ukraine with electricity through floating power plants in Romania and Moldova, Anadolu news agency reported, citing the company’s president, Zeynep Harezi.
Canada has imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, Iran and Myanmar over alleged human rights violations, its foreign ministry said. The measures included sanctions against 33 current or former senior Russian officials and six entities involved in alleged “systematic human rights violations” against Russian citizens who protested against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it said in a statement.
Ukrainian court issues arrest warrant for ex-central bank chief. The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine has issued an arrest warrant for Kyrylo Shevchenko, a former chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, the Anti-Corruption Action Center reported on Dec. 8.
A senior Orthodox Christian cleric has been accused of engaging in anti-Ukrainian activity by supporting Russian policies in social media posts. In a statement, it said an archbishop in a diocese in western Ukraine had distributed posts that “humiliated the national honour and dignity of Ukrainians” and “contributed to the incitement of religious enmity and hatred”, Reuters reports.
A Russian court has sentenced the opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half years in prison, in the most high-profile case to date of a Russian dissident being jailed for opposing the invasion of Ukraine.
The EU’s ninth set of restrictive measures on Russia closes gaps with further sanctions on 169 entities “which might contribute to the technological enhancement of Russia’s defence and security sector”. These companies will face restrictions on their ability to purchase from Europe so-called dual use goods, civilian products that can be turned to military purposes. This package adds:
items such as generators, toy drones, laptops, cameras and lenses.
four pro-Kremlin TV companies will lose their licence to broadcast in the EU, including NTV, Rossiya 1, Pervyi Kanal and REN TV.
eight individuals are facing personal sanctions (travel ban & asset freeze in the EU) including Russian officials said to be involved in the illegal transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia, the leaders of right-wing nationalist groups
EU assets freeze: nationalist groups such as the Russian Imperial Legion, the Russian Imperial Movement & Taskforce Rusich.
still no ban on the Russian diamond traders, like Alvarosa.
Azmat Junisbai: waking to Russian colonialism
Soviet school curriculum taught us that colonialism was something perpetrated by evil European powers on people in faraway lands. My country, USSR, covering 1/6th of the Earth’s land surface, was a strong and loyal friend to colonized people everywhere.
I learned this as a nerdy Kazakh kid in the 1980s Almaty. Although I was in the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, very few of my classmates were Kazakh. I grew up speaking Russian and felt genuine disdain for all things Kazakh. The awful irony was lost on me.
In my defense, our curriculum brushed over certain historical facts, such as hundreds of nuclear tests in the Kazakh steppe, deaths of over 40% of Kazakhs in a man-made famine, or Stalin’s purges that destroyed most of the Kazakh intelligentsia.
Kseniya Kirillova, Russia’s Covert Mobilization to Feed the Frontline-CEPA
There are several signs of this increasingly active covert effort, including the announcement of a large number of benefits and payments for mobilized men and their families. In addition to lump sums and “bonuses” introduced in some regions, those who have fought in Ukraine automatically receive the status of combat veterans, entitling them to a number of benefits and monthly payments. The government, in turn, promised to increase these payments by one and a half times in 2023.
Another means to replenish the ranks, without triggering a new wave of panic in Russian society, is to attract foreign recruits. In mid-November, Putin signed a decree giving foreigners the opportunity to serve under contract. Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are again discussing the possibility that as many as 100,000 North Korean “volunteers,” as well as military personnel from Central Asia and Africa, may join this effort. Even commentators loyal to the regime note the risks of such a decision, including the lack of patriotic motivation among mercenaries, which can lead to sabotage, betrayal, and increased risk of inter-ethnic conflicts.
Dusan Komarcevic, Serbian Right-Winger Says Vagner Ties Could Help If There's 'Conflict In Kosovo’- RFE/RL
In a video posted on November 27, an exuberant Knezevic and a colleague from his People's Patrol group traipsed the dimly lit sanctum of the Vagner Center alongside other visitors, scooping up PR merch and testing meeting spaces and barren offices with floor-to-ceiling views across the city.
"Many of my friends will be proud that I had the honor of visiting the Vagner Center," Knezevic said in a Russian-made video touting the visit. "That center and that organization are extremely popular in Serbia."
