A Kremlin spokesman has downplayed the so-called “Christmas ceasefire” in Ukraine, as Putin continues to bomb the country.
Asked if a ceasefire could take a stand this Christmas, Putin’s lackey Dmitry Peskov replied: “No, no such offer has been won from anyone. This issue is on the agenda. “
This comes as citizens of the Ukrainian town of Kherson were left behind in the electritown, according to the head of the region’s regional military administration.
Yaroslav Yanushevich said Thursday that the region has no electricity because of Russian bombings that killed two other people this morning.
In a post on the messaging app Telegram, he said: “On the first occasion, the electric power industry will start restoring power grids. “
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The Russian Embassy in Washington issued a warning about supplying Ukraine with the Patriot missile defense system.
The embassy posted on Telegram: “Even offering the Patriot, the United States is sinking deeper and deeper into conflict in the post-Soviet republic.
“The United States is in favor of prolonging and escalating the Ukrainian conflict. “
Officials in Washington have hinted that an announcement may be made today about the resolution to send the Patriot to Ukraine.
A German vote showed that the majority of Ukrainian refugees who fled to Germany feel welcome and 37% would like to stay there permanently.
The ballot from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees showed that 34% planned to stay until the end of the war, and 27% were unsure where they would settle in the future.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than a million refugees fled to Germany. Only Poland has gained more.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) issued an intelligence update on the scenario in Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry tweeted: “Latest Defense Intelligence Update on the Situation in Ukraine – December 15, 2022
“Read about the UK government’s response: http://ow. ly/BSiV50M41pn
“#StandWithUkraine”
The United States has been open to the option of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in the Olympics under an impartial flag, but on Wednesday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told IOC leader Thomas Bach that Kyiv was seeking “total isolation” from Russia.
Last week, Bach said the prestige of Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation in the Paris 2024 Games is unclear.
But Zelensky said in a statement: “One tries to be impartial when the foundations of nonviolent life are destroyed and universal human values are ignored. “
He said the answer is “complete isolation of the terrorist state on the foreign stage. In particular, this applies to foreign sporting events. “
Russian forces have killed 184 Ukrainian athletes since the war began, all the way to Kyiv.
Zelensky later said in a video address: “We can only say one thing: a white or impartial flag is for Russian athletes, because all their flags are stained with blood. “
Lately there is no electritown in the town of Kherson after heavy Russian bombings that killed two people.
According to Yaroslav Yanushevich, head of the regional army administration for the region, the city has no electricity due to the morning shelling.
In a tone of resonance, Yanushevich posted on Telegram: “At the first opportunity, the electric power industry will begin to repair the power grids.
During Kharkiv and Kherson’s profession, Russian forces installed torture chambers for children, Dmytro Lubinets, Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine’s parliament, told reporters at the Ukrinform media center on December 14.
Children detained in torture chambers reportedly resisted, with Russian occupiers claiming that the young men had been abandoned by their parents or would return to them.
Lubinets said: “There is a 14-year-old boy who was arrested and detained in the torture chamber for photographing Russian curtains on his phone. “
Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk overnight in one of the biggest attacks in years, Russian officials said in adjoining spaces on Thursday.
“At 7 o’clock this morning, they subjected the center of Donetsk to the biggest attack since 2014,” Alexei Kulemzin, mayor of the Russian-backed city, said on Telegram.
“Forty BM-21 Grad rocket launcher rockets were fired at civilians in our city,” Kulezzin said. He called the attack a war crime.
Reuters could not quickly determine Kulemzin’s account of what happened, and there was no immediate reaction to his comments from Ukrainian officials.
Kulemzin told Russian state television that initial data indicated five other people were wounded in the bombing, in addition to a child.
Video footage released through Russia’s RIA news firm showed smoke billowing from destroyed buildings, yards and streets littered with debris, burning cars and what appeared to be a bloodstain on a sidewalk next to someone’s hat.
Firefighters were noticed extinguishing the flames.
Ukraine said this morning’s Russian shelling killed two other people in the southern city of Kherson, which has been under attack since Kyivan forces recaptured it last month.
Deputy head of administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko said: “The enemy has attacked the city center again. A hundred meters from the administrative construction of the Kherson region. . .
“There are reports of two other people killed. The emergency is in place. “
The Sumy region was bombed 58 times today, according to the region’s governor.
Dmytro Zhyvytskyi revealed that Russian strikes basically hit Myropillya and Krasnopillya near the Russian border.
No casualties have been reported at this time.
This follows attacks in the recently liberated town of Kherson that left thousands without electromobile.
In an interview with The Economist, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said he “knows” his troops can defeat Russia.
“I know I can defeat this enemy,” he said.
“But I want resources. I want three hundred tanks, six hundred to 700 IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles) and 500 howitzers.
This comes just days after he announced that 70 countries around the world had donated $1 billion in aid to Ukraine this winter, in a bid to help fend off Russia’s advances.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar warned the global opposition to “reduce its opposition” to Russia.
“We and the rest of the world will not have to relax, because the ultimate goal of the Russian Federation is to conquer all of Ukraine and then it can move on,” Malyar said.
This comes after the Kremlin introduced a new wave of attacks on the besieged nation, leaving thousands of electricity.
Complex of the Ukrainian armed forces just 1. 5 km near the village of Dibrova in Luhansk Oblast.
At a briefing today, Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the brigadier general, said: “During offensive actions, the armed forces go 1. 5 kilometers into the village of Dibrova. “
The Kremlin showed this week that it does not aim to agree to a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No, no such offer has been won from anyone.
“This issue is on the agenda.
The government of Ukraine today signed a new agreement with the International Energy Agency to expand the country’s renewable energy resources.
The new two-year plan comes amid steady Russian moves in Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without electricity.
The Interfax news firm reported that Energy Minister German Galushchenko said: “Strengthening security and the transition to carbon-free energy are basic principles on which the recovery of Ukraine’s energy sector will be based. We are abandoning our previous projects of renewable energy progression and we are joining the global trend of green transition.
“The joint program is expected to help utilize high-quality expertise and widely implement the most foreign productive practices and cutting-edge technologies to rebuild Ukraine’s modern energy system. “
During Kharkiv and Kherson’s profession, Russian forces allegedly set up torture chambers for children, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, told reporters at the Ukrinform media center on Dec. 14.
Children detained in torture chambers reportedly resisted, with Russian occupiers claiming that the young men had been abandoned by their parents or would return to them.
Lubinets said: “There is a 14-year-old boy who was arrested and detained in the torture chamber for photographing Russian curtains on his phone. “
Vladimir Putin said Russia would triumph over sanctions imposed through Western countries by establishing relations with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Putin intends to do so by strengthening ties with Russia’s neighbors.
Putin said: “We will make restrictions on logistics and finance.
“Let me remind you that by introducing sanctions, Western countries were going to push Russia to the outer edge of global development.
“But we will never go down the path of self-isolation.
“On the contrary, we are expanding and will expand cooperation with everyone who has an interest in this. “
Russia’s GDP is expected to fall by 2. 5% in 2022.
Holodomer, the wonderful famine between 1932 and 1933 in Soviet Ukraine in which millions of Ukrainians and Kazakhs died, identified as genocide by an overwhelming majority in the European Parliament.
Historians widely agree that the famine was caused by Soviet political decisions, such as refusing foreign aid, confiscating food, and restricting population movements.
The Holodomor combines Ukrainian words for “starve” and “inflict death. “
Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “The Holodomor is one of the major tragedies of the twentieth century.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has released a map showing the front line between Ukraine and Russia.
The Defense Ministry tweeted: “The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continues.
“The map below is the latest defense intelligence update on the stage in Ukraine – December 15, 2022”
“Read about the UK government’s response: http://ow. ly/GRa450M30Ru
“#StandWithUkraine”
The Kherson Museum of Fine Arts has been nearly emptied by Russian authorities, according to reports.
Almost nothing remains of the more than 14,000 works from the past in his collection.
A key detail of Kherson’s withdrawal from Russia is the looting of anything deemed to have cultural or monetary value.
The stolen pieces come with public monuments, hospital appliances and a raccoon who lives at the Kherson Zoo.
Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s former deputy minister and one of Russia’s richest oligarchs, has been sanctioned by the U. S. government. The U. S. is responsible for its ties to the Russian war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin.
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “The United States continues to impose prices on Russia for its war of aggression against Ukraine.
“Russia’s attacks have devastated Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and caused ordinary death and destruction.
“Today we are pronouncing more sanctions against the Russian Federation and its facilitators.
“Our moves today are a transparent message that the United States will not hesitate to continue with the team at its disposal to announce the end and duty of President Putin’s inconceivable war. “
Russia is going to turn the war in Ukraine into a long military confrontation and is dragging new divisions into the territory of neighboring Belarus, a senior Ukrainian army officer said on Thursday.
Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told a news conference that the likelihood of a military operation being introduced from Belarusian territory remains low.
Gromov said: “The Kremlin. . . It seeks to turn the confrontation into a protracted armed confrontation. “
The head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, posted on Telegram: “The enemy is bombing Kherson, to pretend to be active in the north.
“They are crawling like zombies in our positions in Bakhmut, creating in the south of the Donetsk region. “
At a briefing at the Military Media Center, Hanna Mailar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, accused Russia of making propaganda, for example, focusing on Ukraine’s power crisis and highlighting the strength of Russia’s military, to force the Ukrainian government to negotiate.
Mailar said: “With each and every missile strike, Russia hopes to turn the tide of the war in its favor.
“With the missile launch, the Kremlin hopes to plunge us into total darkness. With the launch of one and both missiles, the terrorist state hopes to defeat the Ukrainians, turning our country into the same slaves of the formula as the Russians.
“However, those attempts prove futile, again and again. “
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said today that the country wants more aircraft than more military personnel.
Speaking to The Economist, Zaluzhnyi said: “We are already achieving [mobilisation] as it is.
“We have enough other people and obviously I can see what I have. I’ve had enough. I don’t want a bunch of thousands more. “
“We want tanks, we want [armored personnel carrier], infantry fighting vehicles. And we want ammunition.
He added: “Please, I’m talking about the F-16s right now. “
Russian forces attacked critical infrastructure in Kharkiv today, triggering explosions, according to the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
Terekhov posted on Instagram: “Explosions in Kharkiv. The enemy targets infrastructure.
“I ask everyone to exercise with the utmost caution and in shelters if possible. “
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