TheVoiceOfJoyce Straight from The Guardian, Ukrainian counteroffensive is working in Melitopol, where the bridge to the Crimea and other ports limits Russian troop supplies chains, effectively cutting them off. This tactic was deployed to save Kyiv from further hardships. Zelensky is asking for the Patriot Defense Systems or the Iron Dome, they’re being bombarded with 1000’s of missiles destroying key infrastructure. Russia is still insisting they own the territories they annexed, though they occupy less then 50%. Fighting is fierce in Donetsk. Putin isn’t ready for Peace and Belarus is preparing a combat ready training mission on their borders. Why now? While Europe prepares for another onslaught of Ukrainian refugees, many Ukrainians are staying home waiting for the promised generators and eventual withdrawal of Russian troops. The fighting in Ukraine, keeps us all safe from Russian Imperialism.

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/dec/13/russia-ukraine-war-live-us-sends-first-power-equipment-to-ukraine-eu-breaks-hungary-stalemate-to-approve-18bn-aid-plan

Ukraine must take into account the new territorial “realities” that include Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, the Kremlin has said in response to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s three-step proposal for peace.

In a statement to G7 countries yesterday, the Ukrainian leader said Russia could begin to withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine to show they are capable of abandoning their aggression.

Zelenskiy told G7 leaders he was offering Moscow an “opportunity to make a real, meaningful step towards diplomatic settlement” of the conflict.

He said:

The holidays are ahead, celebrated by billions of people around the world: Christmas of the Gregorian calendar, New Year, Christmas of the Julian calendar. This is the time when normal people think about peace, not about aggression. I offer Russia the opportunity to at least try to demonstrate that they can abandon the way of aggression. It would be right to start withdrawing Russian troops from internationally recognised borders of Ukraine this Christmas. If Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, it will ensure a lasting cessation of hostilities.

Russia does not have full control of any of the four provinces of Ukraine it says it annexed in September, but which most UN member countries have condemned as illegal.

In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine needed to accept new territorial “realities”, including that the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of Ukraine were Russia’s “new subjects”.

Asked about the proposed Russian troop withdrawal, Peskov said:

The Ukrainian side needs to take into account the realities that have developed during this time. And these realities indicate that new subjects have appeared in the Russian Federation. They appeared as a result of referendums that took place in these territories. Without taking these new realities into account, no kind of progress is possible.

There could be “no question” of Moscow beginning to pull out its troops by the end of the year, he said.

Last Updated: 08:28 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

1h ago

Air raid alerts have been reported across Ukraine, including its capital Kyiv.

People are being urged to stay in shelters.

Ukrinform

@UKRINFORM

В Україні масштабна повітряна тривога. Перебувайте в укриттях!

7:48 AM · Dec 13, 2022

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Last Updated: 07:50 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

1h ago

Talks between the Chinese and Russian presidents later this month will unlikely be face-to-face, according to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti.

Earlier we reported that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting to discuss the events of 2022 in late December.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has confirmed to the paper that the date and the agenda of the talks are already known, and an official announcement will come later.

Xi and Putin were “in constant communication”, he told reporters during his daily briefing today. He added:

We are preparing to continue this communication. We will inform you in a timely manner as to when and how future contacts will take place.

Last Updated: 07:32 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

1h ago

Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.

A man walks down a war-torn street in the city Sloviansk, Donetsk region. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Rescuers remove debris of a residential building heavily damaged in recent shelling in Gorlovka in the Donetsk region, Russian-occupied Ukraine. Photograph: Pavel Klimov/Reuters

People walk down a street amid a snowfall as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in central Kyiv Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Last Updated: 07:23 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

2h ago

Patrick Wintour

‘Generators as important as armour’: Zelenskiy urges €800m in Ukraine winter help

Generators are as important as armour in helping Ukraine survive Vladimir Putin’s energy terror this winter, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told an emergency conference convened in Paris to coordinate short-term infrastructure and humanitarian aid to Ukraine for the next four months.

Zelenskiy said his country needed an additional €800m to survive the winter and €1.5bn to restore the long-term damage to the energy grid.

The aim of the conference is to set up an international coordination mechanism to ensure the €800m needed secures Ukraine the right mix of generators, transformers, equipment for the restoration of high voltage networks, and gas turbines.

Zelenskiy vowed that “we will do everything to counter the blackout and the energy terror. Most of our power plants are damaged or destroyed by the bombings,” he said addressing the conference by video link.

Every day our engineers have to disconnect millions of Ukrainians for these repairs. Currently there are 12 million. And every day we expect new Russian strikes. That’s why the generators have become as important as armour to protect the population.

He was addressing a French-inspired conference designed to coordinate humanitarian aid to the country attended by more than 40 countries and 30 multilateral bodies. In the afternoon France was holding a separate conference on the long-term reconstruction of the country.

Energy experts say the key task for Ukraine is not to avoid black-outs but to ensure that each day all neighbourhoods are receiving at least three hours of electricity, something that requires difficult distribution of the grid.

Latest figures from the EU Frontex cited by the Polish migration expert at Warsaw University Maciej Duszczyk show the Russian bombardment has not led to a second wave of mass refugees.

He said there had been only a slight net increase of 10,000 Ukrainians crossing their border in the past week, with 65% still going to Poland.

He added:

The next two months are crucial, but the exodus may be lower than in April because Ukraine’s morale about winning the war is higher.

He added although the temperature was projected to drop below freezing at night it was due to be about five degrees by day, relatively mild for a Ukrainian winter.

Olena Zelenska, the president’s wife, addressing the conference in person, asked Europeans to imagine being under the Russian bombardment.

The first lady of Ukraine said in a rare address:

But how do you feel what this war is doing to our country and our people? how do you feel what more than 4,000 missiles that hit Ukrainian cities mean? What does 50,000 missiles launched in a single day against our country mean? What are 2,719 educational establishments affected or destroyed? How do you feel over 1,100 medical establishments destroyed or affected? Can you imagine half of France without electricity?

Macron, often accused of trying to secure a premature peace said “it is up to Ukraine, the victim of this aggression, to decide on the conditions for a just and lasting peace”.

He added the 10-point peace plan proposed by Zelenskiy at the G20 in Bali “constitutes an excellent basis on which we will build together”.

Last Updated: 07:15 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

2h ago

Germany will approve another €50m in winter aid for Kyiv following Russia’s missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said.

Baerbock said Berlin was working to deliver generators, blankets and heating fuel to Ukraine over Christmas, as Russia’s pummelling of power facilities causes power shortages in many parts of the country.

“We will not allow” Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to break the people of Ukraine, she told reporters at a donors’ conference in Paris.

Last Updated: 07:15 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

2h ago

Patrick Wintour

UK sanctions Russian commanders and Iranian businessmen

The UK Foreign Office announced it was sanctioning 12 Russian commanders for their role in attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Major General Robert Baranov, identified by Bellingcat as the commander of programming and targeting Russian cruise missiles.

The Foreign Office view the dozen as the most senior officers directly involved in the assault on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. The sanctioning makes them prime targets for war crimes tribunals in the event of such trials ever being held.

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

@FCDOGovUK

United Kingdom government organization

SANCTIONED: 12 senior commanders of Russian military forces, including units implicated in attacks on Ukrainian cities.

https://gov.uk/government/news/new-uk-sanctions-target-senior-russian-commanders-following-strikes-on-ukrainian-civilian-infrastructure…

6:32 AM · Dec 13, 2022

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The UK said it was sanctioning four Iranians including the co-owner and managing director of MADO, an Iranian drone engine manufacturer.

The Foreign Office, citing UK defence intelligence reports, claimed:

Russian armed forces are struggling to replenish their missile reserves, while they are increasingly forced to rely on second rate drones supplied by Iran to keep up their inhumane bombardments of the Ukrainian people.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said:

The Iranian regime is increasingly isolated in the face of deafening calls for change from its own people and is striking sordid deals with Putin in a desperate attempt to survive.

Last Updated: 06:38 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

2h ago

The UK has announced a fresh package of sanctions targeting Russian military commanders implicated in missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, as well as Iranian businessmen involved in the production and supply of drones to the Kremlin.

My colleague Patrick Wintour tweets:

Patrick Wintour

@patrickwintour

Official

12 senior Russian commanders sanctioned by UK for attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Major General Robert Baranov, identified by Bellingcat as the commander of programming and targeting Russian cruise missiles. Co-owner of Iranian drone engine manufacturer also targeted.

6:14 AM · Dec 13, 2022

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Last Updated: 06:21 Tuesday, 13 December 2022

3h ago

Peter Beaumont

Ukrainian forces damage key bridge near Melitopol, reports say

Ukrainian forces have reportedly damaged a key bridge outside the southern city of Melitopol, a key objective for Kyiv in the region.

The crossing over the Molochna River is situated between Melitopol and the village of Kostyantynivka just to the east of the city on the M14 highway and was struck overnight.

Video posted online showed two supports of the bridge had been damaged during the attack, with the span partly collapsed by the blast, making it reportedly unusable for heavy military traffic.

Euromaidan Press

@EuromaidanPress

An explosion damaged the bridge in occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia Oblast) last night.

Ukrainian Army continues targeting Russian ground lines of communication on the southern front. Melitopol is a key logistics hub that leads to occupied Crimea.

http://t.me/ivan_fedorov_melitopol/1032…

Watch on Twitter

4:13 AM · Dec 13, 2022

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The strike on the bridge comes just two days after Ukraine hit a Russian barracks sited in a resort in the city, with Himars rockets causing substantial damage and casualties.

The increase in Ukrainian pressure on Russian forces in Melitopol appears to be following a similar pattern to tactics used against Kherson before its liberation, with the targeting of both Russian troops and supply lines, including logistics links to the Crimean peninsula and to the east via the Russia-occupied cities to Berdiansk and Mariupol.

With Ukrainian forces now operating east of the Dnieper River, Melitopol is seen as a key objective for Kyiv in the south of the country after the recapture of Kherson.

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