Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:17 The Russian army shelled Kherson - two people were wounded, among them a child, said the head of the OVA, Alexander Prokudin. An educational institution, residential buildings, and garages were damaged.
21:49 Russia, bypassing sanctions, receives Western electronics through Morocco, according to an investigation by The New York Times. According to the newspaper, chips used both in industry and for the production of weapons pass through this country. Goods from production centers, including Taiwan, are reloaded at the port of Tangier-Med by ship, bound for the Russian Federation.
21:40 Zelensky held his annual press conference on December 19. About the interesting things the head of state said in the material Relations with Zaluzhny and mobilization .
21:36 France will join the training of Ukrainian pilots on Western fighters at the beginning of 2024. According to the country's Ministry of Defense, we are talking about initial training, which will then be continued by European partners.
20:21 Zelensky promised that next year 1 million drones will be produced in Ukraine. “We will do everything to make it so,” he emphasized. The president also spoke about a case when 26 thousand drones “lay in a warehouse and did not arrive.” “We will overcome this - logistics,” he added.
19:48 Zelensky said that he will not sign the bill on the mobilization of women. At the same time, he noted that he would most likely approve lowering the mobilization age from 27 to 25 years.
19:22 Zelensky said that Ukraine will not revise the strategy for entering the 1991 borders, but may change tactics. He also admitted that Ukraine is not being invited to NATO - none of the member countries has done this. “Signals about participation in the Alliance are nonsense, these are just messages,” the president added.
Speaking about relations with Zaluzhny, Zelensky emphasized that this is a working relationship, and the commander-in-chief must be responsible for the results on the battlefield. "I'm expecting very specific things on the battlefield. I want to see details," he added.
18:39 Zelensky said that this winter Ukraine will be protected by several new Patriot systems, but he refused to specify their number and the countries that provided these systems.
The president also said that at a meeting of the Headquarters, the General Staff and the Commander-in-Chief submitted a request for the mobilization of 450-500 thousand people. However, according to Zelensky, the topic of demobilization, rotation, leave, etc. needs to be worked out, so a decision has not been made yet. He added that mobilization in this format would cost 500 billion hryvnia.
Asked whether the war would end in 2024, the president replied: "I don't think anyone knows the answer." Zelensky noted that the lack of control over the skies affected the counter-offensive, but overall he is confident in partners and financial assistance.
18:25 Zelensky gives the annual final press conference. The meeting with journalists takes place in secrecy. Korrespondent.net is conducting an online text broadcast of the event.
18:17 Germany should be ready to increase spending on supporting Ukraine against the backdrop of cuts by other countries, said German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck.
18:03 A meeting of the board of the Ministry of Defense was held in Russia, at which Sergei Shoigu reported on the so-called “successes” of the Russian army in the past year. At the same event, Vladimir Putin promised to fight in 2024, until the “North Military District goals” are fully achieved. Read more in the article What Shoigu lied about .
17:36 In Melitopol, an explosion occurred near a school, which the Russians were one of the first to capture. As a result of the explosion, a policeman from Krasnodar, who came to Melitopol to work with the occupation police, was wounded, said the mayor of the city, Ivan Fedorov.
17:28 Italy has adopted a law allowing military supplies to Ukraine to continue until the end of 2024, the country’s Ministry of Defense reported. The supplies include not only weapons, but also vehicles, power generators and "everything necessary to support military operations in defense of unarmed civilians."
17:23 Director of the FSB of the Russian Federation Alexander Bortnikov said that Ukraine “is beginning to intensify the secret struggle, sending agents and saboteurs to Russia.”
17:09 The Russians fired at Antonovka, Kherson region - two people were injured as a result of a direct shell hit on a house. Another person was wounded as a result of enemy shelling at Tyaginka, the OVA reported.
17:04 In the Dniprovsky district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, air defense destroyed an X-59 guided missile, the Air Command reported.
16:30 The fourth plane since the beginning of the war took off from Boryspil airport. According to the airport's press service, in the morning a technical transfer of the Boeing 777-300 aircraft took place from Boryspil to one of the European airports at the request of the operating company Skyline Express. The flight was operated without passengers or cargo on board.
16:23 The White House explained the difference between the victims of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. National Security Council Speaker John Kirby stressed that the Israeli army, unlike Russian troops in Ukraine, does not aim to kill, torture and rape civilians, and does not intentionally try to kill civilians. “Torture, rape, murder of civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure, terrorization of the population - all this is included in Putin’s war plan,” Kirby said.
16:19 The Russians fired artillery at the town of Kupyansk-Uzlovoy, Kharkov region, one person was wounded, the prosecutor’s office reported. Residential buildings, outbuildings and a hospital were damaged.
15:38 The Office of the Prosecutor General said that they are in contact with Russian ex-Colonel Igor Salikov, who wants to testify at the International Criminal Court about Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The work with him has been going on for six months now, and the Office of the Prosecutor General was able to confirm some of the information received from Salikov.
14:57 Shoigu said that Russian troops have mined 7,000 square meters in the occupied regions of Ukraine. km of territory, while the depth of the minefields is up to 600 meters, which is “twice the standard.” Also, according to the minister, 1.5 million “dragon teeth”, 2000 km of anti-tank ditches, 12 thousand prefabricated reinforced concrete structures, 3000 platoon strong points, 45 thousand dugouts and more than 150 thousand shelters for equipment were installed.
14:15 Propaganda Russian media admitted the death of five employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Skadovsk as a result of the HIMARS strike on November 9. Earlier, the “governor” of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, stated that all the missiles were allegedly shot down, and one fell on a private sector and injured civilians.
13:44 Putin said that “Russia was the only guarantor of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine.” According to him, the West allegedly started a war in Ukraine in 2014, and “there would have been a massacre” in Crimea if Russia had not annexed the peninsula after the “coup d’etat” in Kyiv. The head of the Kremlin also claims that Moscow “did not intend to fight with Europe and is not going to now.”
13:36 Shoigu said that plans for recruiting the army and navy of the Russian Federation in 2023 have been completed in full, their number has been increased to 1 million 150 thousand military personnel. According to the Russian Minister of Defense, the increase in the number of armed forces to 1 million 320 thousand people began in December in accordance with Putin’s decree.
Shoigu also claims that, in general, all the tasks defined for 2023 have been allegedly completed by the Russian Armed Forces, “the specified level of maintaining defense capability has been ensured.” In 2024, the Russian military will continue the war in Ukraine “until the tasks determined by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief are fully completed,” the minister added.
12:53 Putin once again stated at a board meeting at the Russian Ministry of Defense that Russia “is not going to give up” its goals for the war in Ukraine.
12:08 Vnukovo Airport introduced restrictions on the arrival and release of aircraft, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the destruction of a drone in the Odintsovo urban district. According to him, there was no destruction or casualties at the site where the debris fell. Also, the Russian Ministry of Defense today announced the alleged destruction of one drone over the Kaluga region and three over the Bryansk region.
11:42 In the Kupyansk direction, many units of the Russian military have recorded an outbreak of so-called mouse fever - a viral disease that is transmitted to humans from rodents, reports the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. Symptoms include severe headache, body temperature up to 40 degrees, decreased blood pressure, nausea, and severe pain in the kidneys. The Russian command ignored complaints about fever from personnel, regarding them as another manifestation of avoidance of participation in hostilities.
11:11 The EBRD announced that it will increase the bank’s capital by 4 billion euros, to 34 billion. The additional capital of shareholders will be used for investment in the Ukrainian economy both in wartime and during the recovery period. Since the Russian invasion began, the EBRD has already provided more than €3 billion in loans to Ukraine.
10:37 US Ambassador to Kiev Bridget Brink voiced Washington’s main priorities for Ukraine. "Protecting Ukraine's energy infrastructure in winter and maximizing exports across ports and borders are top US priorities. A productive discussion on how to help Ukraine defend against Russian attacks and speed up its economic recovery," she said following a meeting with Ukrainian officials.
09:58 Ukraine has decided to compensate for the shortage of artillery shells by producing drones, said Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Gavrilyuk. In addition, according to him, its own production of ammunition “of almost all types of the former USSR”, as well as Western caliber 155 mm, is being increased. At the same time, Gavrilyuk clarified that it is not yet possible to talk about the production of 155-mm shells in large quantities, but next year they will be produced “enough to cover the difference between what is needed and the number of shells that partners can provide.”
09:07 Britain plans to sign a ten-year security pact with Ukraine in the coming weeks, writes The Telegraph. According to the draft document, London undertakes to “support Kyiv in the fight” by providing military assistance focused on naval assets. Financial assistance and intelligence sharing are also provided. In addition, the pact will contain promises of post-war security guarantees.
08:40 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of December 19:
- personnel - about 348,300 (+1140) people,
- tanks - 5798 (+15),
- armored combat vehicles - 10,771 (+19),
- artillery systems - 8190 (+15),
- MLRS - 926 (+0),
- air defense systems - 611 (+1),
- aircraft - 324 (+0),
- helicopters - 324 (+0),
- Operational-tactical level UAV - 6299 (+9),
- cruise missiles - 1611 (+1),
- ships/boats - 22 (+0),
- submarines - 1 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tank trucks - 10,842 (+20),
- special equipment - 1200 (+2).
08:36 On the evening of December 18, the Russians shelled Kupyansk, Kharkov region - private houses were damaged, one person was wounded, said Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA.
08:28 Over the past 24 hours, 105 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report . In particular, in the Avdeevka direction, the Defense Forces repelled 11 enemy attacks in the areas of Avdeevka and another 13 attacks near Severny, south of Tonenkoye, Pervomaiskoye and Nevelskoye in the Donetsk region. Also repelled were 21 attacks in the Bakhmut direction (near Bogdanovka, Kleshcheevka and Andreevka in the Donetsk region) and 17 attacks in the Zaporozhye direction (west of Novopokrovka and Rabotino in the Zaporozhye region).
In addition, in the Kupyansk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled enemy attacks in the Sinkovka areas and east of Petropavlovka, Kharkov region; on Limansky - east of Ternov, Spornoye, Donetsk region; on Maryinsky - not far from Novomikhailovka, Donetsk region.
07:39 At night, air defense destroyed both “martyrs” in the Khmelnitsky region, which Russia attacked from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk area, the Air Force command reported. Monitoring publics clarified that the drones were again flying in the direction of Starokonstantinov, where the military airfield is located.