Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:39 National Security Advisor to the US President Jake Sullivan called on Congress to support the White House's request for additional funding for Kiev, since "any member of Congress who does not support funding for Ukraine is voting for a result that will make it easier for Putin to win."
22:35 The Assembly of the International Maritime Organization adopted a resolution in support of Ukraine's efforts in the Black Sea - Ukrainian success in resuming shipping and operating a new grain corridor. This export corridor has already yielded results - more than 7 million tons of cargo, Zelensky said in an evening video message.
22:14 The Washington Post conducted the most comprehensive study of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Published in two parts, the material is based on interviews with more than 30 Ukrainian and American officials, as well as more than two dozen officers and soldiers on the front lines. Some officers and soldiers spoke about military operations on condition of anonymity. Read more in the material Disagreements with the United States. WP about the failure of the counteroffensive .
22:03 Ukraine has begun consultations with the European Union on collective security guarantees, the Presidential Office reported.
21:57 The Russians are carrying out strikes with Shahed drones in the Izyum and Chuguevsky districts of the Kharkov region, said the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov. Hit marks were recorded on civilian infrastructure, several fires broke out, but initially there were no casualties.
21:14 The United States assesses the situation in Ukraine as “difficult”, given that the money for support will run out “very soon”, 97% of the assistance has already been spent, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
20:31 Putin will visit the UAE and Saudi Arabia this week, said Russian Presidential Assistant Yuri Ushakov.
20:28 The Russians launched a missile strike on Krivoy Rog - the consequences are being clarified, no people were injured, said the head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Sergei Lysak. In addition, during the day the enemy attacked Nikopol, Manganets and the Krasnogrigoryevsk community with heavy artillery. The gymnasium building, four residential buildings, and power lines were damaged. No people were hurt.
20:03 The Lithuanian government has contributed €1 million to the Ukraine Solidarity Fund, a trust fund of the Council of Europe Development Bank aimed at improving the living conditions of Ukrainians and supporting reconstruction efforts.
19:51 Disputes in the American Congress could leave Ukraine without military assistance. The White House warned that funds allocated to help Ukraine would run out before the end of the year. The situation is critical. Read more in the material: Running out of money?
19:17 Ambassadors of the 27 EU member states will begin discussing on December 5 the possible start of membership negotiations with Ukraine and other candidates, a decision on which should be made at the EU summit in the middle of the month, writes Reuters.
19:12 The international conference on the restoration of Ukraine with the involvement of Greek business will be held in Athens on February 15, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers announced.
18:50 StratCom of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed information about an attack on fuel warehouses in occupied Lugansk.
18:39 Brazilian President Lula da Silva said that Putin will be invited to the G20 summit in his country: “Russian President Putin will be invited to the G20 summit in Brazil, but he will have to deal with an international warrant for his arrest.” Da Silva recalled that Brazil is a party to the International Criminal Court convention and is responsible for its compliance.
17:53 The new Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico and Shmygal had their first conversation, as a result of which the head of the Slovak government announced a meeting in early 2024. Fico also confirmed that Bratislava will not supply Kyiv with weapons from state warehouses and the army, but will continue to provide assistance in the humanitarian and civilian spheres. He added that Slovakia “does not believe in a military solution to the conflict in Ukraine, since this will only lead to unnecessary bloodshed without results.”
17:28 Geert Wilders, whose party won the elections in the Netherlands, confirmed that he opposes arms supplies to Ukraine, although he condemns the Russian invasion: “I think Russia is the bad guy here. I think, whatever you think about Ukraine, how corrupt it is, it is a sovereign country, and Russia should not have started the war. But I believe that the Netherlands should not give weapons to Ukraine, because we have very little of them. Other countries do this. I believe that there should be negotiations, and not a war."
17:15 The German defense concern Rheinmetall reported that it has received an order for 142 million euros for the production of tens of thousands of shells for Ukraine for 155-mm artillery. The ammunition is due to be delivered in 2025.
16:32 Another family with two children was returned from the temporarily occupied territories, said the head of the Kherson OVA, Alexander Prokudin.
15:44 Ukraine received from its partners scarce missiles for existing air defense systems, as well as new modern anti-aircraft systems, Zelensky said following a daily conference call. In addition, according to him, for the first time Ukraine managed to reach the production rate of six Bogdan self-propelled guns per month, and there is already an understanding of how to increase it further.
The president also said that he had received intelligence reports and reports from the front: “Defensive battles in the Bakhmut and Avdeevsky directions, active operations in the south.” In particular, the Defense Forces “are implementing a plan to repel the enemy’s ability and desire to terrorize Kherson.”
15:17 According to British intelligence estimates, Russian losses in Ukraine could amount to 70 thousand dead and 220-280 thousand wounded. In general, the department determines the average value of about 320 thousand military personnel, whom the Russian army lost in one way or another. At the same time, the intelligence agency added that “even among Russian officials there is a low level of understanding of total losses due to a long-established culture of false reporting in the army.”
14:52 Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko visited China for the second time this year. Putin's close ally is in Beijing on a working visit and was received by Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for lunch. In general, the negotiations between Lukashenko and the Chinese leader lasted three hours. What they agreed on - in the material of Lukashenko in China .
14:26 The Russian army fired at residential buildings in Antonovka, Kherson community - one person was killed, said the head of the OVA Alexander Prokudin. Three more people were injured in the village of Inzhenernoe.
13:58 Deep State analysts published a video on December 2 showing Russian soldiers shooting Ukrainian soldiers who had their hands behind their heads. According to Deep State, Ukrainian soldiers were killed near Stepnoye in the Donetsk region. Everything that is known about this incident is in the material The shooting of two Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers .
13:34 In December, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will receive many times more drones, Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Gavrilyuk said in an interview with ArmyInform: “In November, we managed to send more UAVs to the troops than in the previous month. We recently received additional resources for the purchase. Therefore, in December, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will receive "There are already many more drones. I hope the picture on the battlefield will change." In addition, according to him, Ukraine is now increasing the production of not only UAVs, but also electronic warfare equipment.
13:05 White House Budget Director Shalanda Young said in a letter to the leaders of both parties in Congress that the United States will run out of funds to finance Ukraine by the end of the year. According to her, this will “bring Kyiv to its knees on the battlefield” if Congress does not approve a new aid package, writes the Financial Times.
She clarified that money is needed both for arms supplies and to support the economy. "Putin understands this well, which is why Russia has made destroying Ukraine's economy a central part of its strategy," Young writes. She also emphasized that providing assistance to Ukraine would also benefit the US economy.
12:37 Governor of the Voronezh region Alexander Gusev confirmed the death in Ukraine of the deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps of the Northern Fleet, Major General Vladimir Zavadsky.
12:32 Ukraine is working on a new modification of the Neptune rocket, Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Gavrilyuk said: “Currently, work is underway to create the so-called long Neptune. We are talking about a new modification of the rocket for the Neptune complex.”
12:06 GUR representative Andrei Yusov, in a comment to Radio Liberty, did not confirm the information about the alleged liquidation of Russian military personnel involved in the execution of unarmed Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region, as recently stated by the head of the Avdiivka GVA Vitaly Barabash. According to Yusov, so far there is not even data on which Russian military units could have done this.
12:04 The air raid alarm is not sounded if there is accurate information that the Russian MiG-31K taking off from the airfield does not pose a threat, Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. At the same time, he clarified that such information is not always possible to obtain: “Our Western partners of NATO countries are trying to inform us as quickly and fully as possible about this or that MiG-31K flight. Plus, we have our intelligence. But there is not always information, with “He’s flying with or without a rocket, whether it’s just a flight, or a combat sortie, or just a training flight.”
Commenting on a possible solution so that several hours of MiG flights would not paralyze the whole of Ukraine, Ignat noted that this question is not for the Air Force: “This question is not really for us. The Air Force will continue to inform about the threat due to MiGs and provide this information to the operational duty officer "The State Emergency Service in Kiev, which launches the warning system. At the same time, the state leadership instructed the relevant ministries and departments to develop a decision on responding to the MiG-31K flights. I cannot say what this decision will be. We will continue to inform about the threat."
11:55 In Novogrodovka, Donetsk region, at the site of an enemy missile hitting an apartment building in the city center on the night of November 29, a search and rescue operation is still ongoing. As of the morning of December 4, the child’s body was recovered from the rubble. The child’s parents, who are probably under the rubble, have not yet been found, said the head of the State Military Administration, Alexander Shevchenko. The Novogrodovsk community declared three days of mourning for the victims - from December 4 to 6. As a result of the strike, three people are already known to have died.
11:48 The Russian army attacked a kindergarten in the Shumen microdistrict of Kherson - according to preliminary information, one person was wounded, the OVA reported. Over the previous 24 hours, two people were killed and nine were injured as a result of Russian shelling in the region.
11:12 Bulgarian President Rumen Radev vetoed the transfer of 100 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine, which parliament approved in November. He explained this by the fact that some members of parliament were allegedly not sufficiently familiar with the details of the transfer of equipment. Also, the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which owns these BTR-60s produced in the 60-70s, were allegedly not taken into account.
11:07 The Russians are not just accumulating missiles, but also restoring their strategic reserve, Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine: “They are not just accumulating missiles - they are restoring their strategic reserve. After all, most of the missiles that we "We are telling you, they are also carriers of tactical nuclear weapons. They need to have this critical reserve in order to threaten NATO countries and their other enemies." He also added that the enemy has not abandoned plans to “extinguish” the Ukrainian energy grid and is preparing for this more carefully.
10:56 The Financial Times writes about a new threat to the allocation of 50 billion euros to Ukraine by the European Union: in addition to the position of Hungary, EU member countries cannot yet agree on replenishing the joint budget, from which it is planned to allocate funds to support Kiev, the publication’s sources report. Reaching a compromise is complicated by the far-right's election victory in the Netherlands and a recent German court ruling to curb government borrowing.
10:21 The Ukrainian Armed Forces received another 5,000 FPV drones purchased as part of the Ednist initiative, said the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Mikhail Fedorov. Each drone is equipped with cumulative and high-explosive fragmentation shells.
09:59 On the evening of December 3, drones attacked an oil depot in Lugansk, local residents posted a video of the fire on social networks . Russian "military correspondents" confirmed the information. They suggest that the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian counterparts of Shahed.
09:07 The British Ministry of Defense showed a video from the destroyed Avdiivka:
08:40 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of December 4:
- personnel - about 332,810 (+770) people,
- tanks - 5580 (+5),
- armored combat vehicles - 10,401 (+5),
- artillery systems - 7961 (+12),
- MLRS - 913 (+0),
- air defense systems - 602 (+0),
- aircraft - 323 (+0),
- helicopters - 324 (+0),
- UAV of operational-tactical level - 6017 (+22),
- cruise missiles - 1569 (+0),
- ships/boats - 22 (+0),
- submarines - 1 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tank trucks - 10,451 (+19),
- special equipment - 1141 (+1).
08:28 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports, citing geolocated footage, that in the Avdeevka direction, Russian troops advanced west of the railway north of Stepnoye (3 km southwest of Avdeevka), as well as to the southwest from Pervomaisky (10 km southwest of Avdeevka).
08:09 In the Nikolaev region, during a night attack, the building of an agricultural enterprise and a power line in the Bashtansky district were damaged by debris from a downed UAV; there were no casualties, said the head of the OVA Vitaly Kim. In total, six enemy Shahed-131/136 UAVs were shot down in the region at night.
07:45 Over the past 24 hours, 68 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report . In particular, the Defense Forces repelled 21 enemy attacks in the Avdeevsky direction (in areas east of Novokalinovo and Novobakhmutovka, as well as in the Stepnoy, Avdeevka, Severny, Pervomaisky districts of the Donetsk region) and 16 attacks in Bakhmutsky (in the areas of Bogdanovka, Ivanovsky, Andreevka and Kleshcheevka Donetsk region).
In addition, in the Kupyansky direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled enemy attacks in the Sinkovka areas of the Kharkov region; on Limansky - in the Serebryansky forestry area of the Lugansk region; on Maryinsky - in the Marinka and Novomikhailovka districts of the Donetsk region; on Shakhtarsky - in the Staromayorsky district of the Donetsk region; in Zaporozhye - south of Rabotino and in the Novopokrovka area of the Zaporozhye region.
At the same time, the Defense Forces continue assault operations south of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, in the Kherson direction they hold occupied positions on the left bank of the Dnieper, in Melitopol they continue to actively inflict losses on Russian troops in manpower and equipment, the General Staff noted.
07:19 At night, air defense destroyed 18 of 23 Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs and one X-59 guided missile , the Air Force command reported. Russia attacked with drones from the Crimean Cape Chauda, and with a missile from the airspace of the occupied Kherson region. Air defense operated in at least nine regions of Ukraine.
01:21 American companies cannot produce weapons fast enough to meet global demand, in particular due to the wars in Ukraine and Israel. This is stated in the draft of the first National Defense Industrial Strategy in US history, writes Politico.
The draft document, which the Pentagon is expected to release in the coming weeks, says that in its current form, the US defense industrial base "does not have the capacity, capability, responsiveness or resilience necessary to meet the full range of military production requirements at the required speed and scale." At the same time, the US Department of Defense admits that China’s industry “significantly exceeds the potential of not only the United States, but also the total production volume of our key European and Asian allies.”