RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russian forces struck over 230 Ukrainian army sites in the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.
"Operational-tactical aircraft, missile troops and artillery destroyed 83 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, and also manpower and military hardware in 156 areas," the spokesman said.
Russian forces inflicted damage on the Ukrainian military by firepower in the Kupyansk and Krasny Liman areas, eliminating about 70 militants in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kupyansk and Krasny Liman areas, as many as 70 Ukrainian troops, three combat armored vehicles and five motor vehicles were eliminated as a result of inflicting damage on the areas of amassed Ukrainian manpower and military equipment by combined firepower," the spokesman said.
Russian forces continue offensive operations in the Donetsk area, successfully repelling Ukrainian army counter-attacks, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Donetsk direction, Russian troops continued their offensive operations. A preemptive strike thwarted an enemy attempt to counter-attack the Russian positions near the settlement of Peski in the Donetsk People’s Republic by a company of the Ukrainian army’s 59th motorized infantry brigade," the spokesman said.
The Ukrainian army’s losses in that direction amounted to 30 personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles and three pickup trucks, the general said.
Russian air defense forces shot down two MiG-29 fighter jets and two Mi-8 helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force in the Donetsk People’s Republic in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"Russian air defense capabilities shot down two MiG-29 planes of the Ukrainian Air Force in areas near the settlements of Rodinskoye and Pavlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. In addition, they shot down two Mi-8 helicopters in the areas of the communities of Kurakhovo and Konstantinovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
Russian air defense forces intercepted two Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missiles and two HIMARS rockets in the Kherson Region in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"Two Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missiles and two HIMARS rockets were intercepted in the area of the settlement of Yubilyeinoye in the Kherson Region," the spokesman said.
In addition, Russian air defense capabilities destroyed six Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Golikovo, Ploshchanka, Melovatka and Popasnaya in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Terny in the Kharkov Region and the city of Donetsk, the general specified.
Russian troops obliterated an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 102nd territorial defense brigade in the Zaporozhye Region in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the area of the settlement of Gulyaypole in the Zaporozhye Region, an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 102nd territorial defense brigade was obliterated," the spokesman said.
Russian forces destroyed a Grad multiple launch rocket system of the Ukrainian army in the Donetsk People’s Republic in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the area of the settlement of Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a Grad rocket launcher was destroyed," the spokesman said.
In counter-battery warfare, a Ukrainian Smerch rocket launcher was destroyed in the area of the settlement of Zelyony Gai in the Kharkov Region, the general specified.
In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 343 Ukrainian warplanes, 183 helicopters, 2,653 unmanned aerial vehicles, 396 surface-to-air missile systems, 7,076 tanks and other combat armored vehicles, 928 multiple rocket launchers, 3,678 field artillery guns and mortars and 7,568 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.
** A highway bridge located near the city of Melitopol in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region was damaged in an explosion late on Monday, the local authorities have reported. The officials called the incident a “sabotage attack.”
The blast in the region bordering Ukraine took place around 22:00 local time, a statement by Zaporozhye’s administration said, adding that “several pillars of the bridge were damaged.” Traffic across the bridge was halted following the incident, the authorities stated.
Several videos published on social media by Vladimir Rogov, a senior regional official, showed the roadway on the bridge sagging down in at least one place. A loud bang can also be heard on another of Rogov’s videos purporting to show the moment of the blast.
On his Telegram channel, Rogov blamed the attack on Ukrainian “terrorists.”
The bridge is part of a road linking Melitopol to the port city of Berdyansk located on the Azov Sea.
Zaporozhye Region, together with three other former Ukrainian territories, joined Russia after holding referendums this fall.
In late November, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed to have foiled a terror plot in Zaporozhye. The suspects planned to detonate a bomb at a market in Melitopol, according to the FSB. At least three Ukrainian nationals were arrested in connection with the plot.
** Once Russia ends the conflict in Ukraine, it should be given a chance to do business with Germany again, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday. He repeated that Moscow must and will not win, however.
A Russian government that ends the hostilities “needs a chance to restart economic cooperation, in another time when this is possible,” Scholz said in Berlin, at a meeting of the Eastern Committee for German Business (OA), a trade association focused on relations with Eastern Europe. “Now is not that time.”
"At the moment, the relationships we have are being scaled back,” Scholz said, according to the weekly Zeit. The EU is “tightening the sanctions” now, but Russia will remain the largest country on the European continent after the conflict is resolved. “It is therefore very important that we make preparations for this time.”
Scholz described the current conflict as an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to re-create a Russian Empire that is destroying the country’s future instead, and accused Moscow of atrocities against the Ukrainian civilians. Russia must not win “and Russian will not win, either,” he told the business group.
Berlin’s determination to ditch Russian energy imports – pushed mainly by Scholz’s Green coalition partners – created troubles for Germany even before the gas deliveries were disrupted by the sabotage on Nord Stream pipelines in September. Germans are now trying to make up the shortages from elsewhere, though unsuccessfully.
Earlier this month, Germany’s ambassador in Washington admitted to the economic troubles, but said this was a small price to pay for a “profound transformation” of her country into a remilitarized continental power, more hostile to Russia and closer to the US.
For all of Scholz’s promises to help Ukraine, Kiev has continued to browbeat Berlinabout deliveries of tanks and even more artillery. Last week, the chancellor’s predecessor Angela Merkel admitted that the 2014 Minsk agreement was not aimed at resolving the conflict in Donbass, but to "give Ukraine time" to arm against Russia.
Putin said he was disappointed by Merkel’s admission and that the trust between Moscow and Berlin was now “almost at zero.”
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russian missiles, artillery and drones hammered targets in eastern and southern Ukraine, Ukraine's General Staff said on Monday as global economic powers pledged to beef up Kyiv's military capabilities with a focus on air defences.
The Group of Seven promised to "meet Ukraine's urgent requirements" after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to the virtual G7 meeting for modern tanks, artillery firepower and long-range weapons against Russia's devastating invasion, which began almost 10 months ago.
Zelenskiy also urged the G7 to help Ukraine obtain an extra 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas in light of dire energy shortages as millions languish without power in subzero cold after further Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure.
Sergey Kovalenko, head of YASNO, which provides electricity to Kyiv, said on his Facebook page that the limitation to power consumption in the capital remained significant.
Separately, European Union foreign ministers agreed to put 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) more into a fund that has been used to pay for military support for Ukraine, after it was largely depleted. More money may be added in the future.
There are no peace talks and no end in sight to the conflict, the biggest in Europe since World War Two, and which Moscow describes as a "special military operation" against security threats posed by its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies call it an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.
Russia does not yet see a "constructive" approach from the United States on the Ukraine conflict, RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying on Monday.
AIR DEFENCE
U.S. President Joe Biden told Zelenskiy on Sunday that Washington's priority was to boost Ukraine's air defences, the White House said. Zelenskiy said he had thanked Biden in a phone call for the "unprecedented defence and financial" help the United States has provided.
British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Monday he would be "open minded" about supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles to target launch sites for Russian drones that have hit infrastructure if Russia carried on targeting civilian areas.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians but the war has displaced millions and killed thousands of civilians.
Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday resumed operations suspended after Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy plants. Power is slowly being restored to some 1.5 million people, but the situation remains difficult, national grid operator Ukrenergo said.
HEAVY FIGHTING
The General Staff said on Monday evening that Russian artillery had hammered nearly 20 frontline settlements around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Moscow seeks to capture but which is now largely in ruins because of incessant bombardment.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in Zaporizhzhia region, shared video on his Telegram channel of what he said was a damaged bridge connecting a suburb to Melitopol, a city Ukraine sees as vital to Russia’s defence of territory it holds in the south, including Crimea.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report. Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, also shared video of what appeared to be the same bridge, taken from the perspective of a vehicle approaching and then reversing away from a section that had buckled in the middle.
Ukraine has said Russian forces are suffering huge losses in brutal dug-in warfare on the eastern front. The regions Donetsk and Luhansk in the east are two of four in Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. The claims have been rejected by most countries as illegal.
A senior U.S. military official said Russia was burning through so much ammunition that it was using 40-year-old rounds with high failure rates.
The fighting is also exacting a serious toll on Ukrainian troops. "There are days when there are many heavily wounded: four or five amputations at once," Oleksii, a 35-year-old army doctor who declined to give his full name, told Reuters at a military hospital in eastern Ukraine.
At least two people were killed and five wounded in Kherson on Monday after what regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said was "massive shelling" by Russian forces of the southern city, which was liberated by Ukrainian forces last month.
Reuters could not independently verify the latest battlefield accounts.
Against a backdrop of setbacks for Russian forces since the summer, the Kremlin said on Monday President Vladimir Putin would not hold his annual, marathon televised year-end news conference this month, an event he has used to showcase his command of issues and stamina.
In Washington, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said U.S. officials planned talks this week with Russian counterparts to discuss the case of an American imprisoned in Russia, Paul Whelan.
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths arrived in Ukraine on Monday to see "the impact of the humanitarian response and new challenges that have arisen as infrastructure damage mounts amid freezing winter temperatures", his office said.
"Unliveable conditions" are likely to send another wave of hundreds of thousandsof Ukrainian refugees into Europe over the winter, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
TASS/RT/Reuters
