Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine has called for the west to supply Patriot missiles batteries and other modern air defence systems. The country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, appealed to western allies amid growing concern that attacks by Russia on its electricity grid could prompt a new wave of refugees from the wartorn country.
The head of the Norwehgian Refugee Council said he expected another wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine to go to Europe over the winter because of “unliveable” conditions. Millions of people in Ukraine have been left without heat, clean water or power amid plummeting temperatures, following Russian missile strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.
The exiled mayor of Melitopol occupying Russian troops are “redeploying” and are “panicking” following Ukrainian attacks on the Russian-occupied city over the weekend. Russian forces “are busy moving their military groups to other places to try to hide them”, Ivan Fedorov said, without proving any evidence.
Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence has warned that Russia has enough missiles to launch another three to five waves of strikes on the country. Vadym Skibitsky also claimed Russia is using old Ukrainian missiles against Kyiv and outlined the four general directions from which Russia is launching missiles into Ukraine.
Two civilians have been killed and 10 more injured after Russian rocket attacks on the town of Hirnyk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces struck the centre of the town “with cluster munitions and Uragan MLRS [multilaunch rocket systems]”, the prosecutor general’s office said.
Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to local authorities. “The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson,” governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday.
Ukraine has attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties. According to witnesses 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties.
The strike on Melitopol was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian-occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol. Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a fire caused by the strike engulfed the recreation centre.
The strike came as all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power. Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people cut off from electricity. “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Ukraine has claimed to have struck a headquarters used by the paramilitary Wagner group in the occupied territories of the Luhansk region. Serhiy Haidai, the exiled governor of the Luhansk region, told Ukrainian television that a strike in the town of Kadiivka had led to a “huge number” of deaths among the mercenary group that has been accused of torture and other war crimes.
Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian military planners are likely still aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk, the latest British intelligence report reads, adding that Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives.
Vladimir Putin will not hold a year-end press conference for the first time in at least a decade, in what Kremlin watchers view as a break with protocol due to his war in Ukraine. There would also be no new year reception at the Kremlin, officials said, possibly a decision influenced by the reluctance to celebrate because Russia’s war in Ukraine has not gone to plan.
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are reportedly unhappy with the military top brass and President Vladimir Putin, an influential nationalist Russian blogger has said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, said there was some discontent with the top brass because of the poor execution of the war.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said its embassy in Greece has received an anonymous “bloody package”. As of Monday, Nikolenko said there had been a total of 33 cases of “threats” targeting Ukrainian diplomatic missions in 17 countries, including 28 bloody packages, two bomb threats, and an “attempted terrorist attack”, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
The EU has agreed an extra €2bn for a fund that has been used to supply Ukraine with weapons. The €2bn top up was approved on Monday, despite concerns about Hungary’s “blackmail diplomacy”, after Budapest blocked an €18bn financial aid package for Ukraine last week. Hungary has previously signed off on the EU weapons fund for Ukraine, although it does not allow arms to pass through its territory.
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said he would be “open minded” about supplying Ukraine with longer-range weapons systems if Russia continued to target civilian areas. Wallace said he “constantly” reviewed the weapons systems the UK sends to Ukraine, and that he “will be open minded to see what we do next” if Moscow tries to “break those Geneva conventions”, referring to agreed basic humanitarian principles during war.
President Joe Biden has pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defence during a call to to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday. Biden also welcomed Zelenskiy’s “stated openness to a just peace based on fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” according to a readout from the White House.
The EU has secured enough gas for this winter but could face a gas shortage next year if Russia further cuts supplies, the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have warned. If Russia cuts the small share of gas it still delivers to Europe, after slashing gas deliveries this year, and China’s gas demand rebounds from lockdown-induced lows, the EU could face a gas shortfall of 27bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2023, the IEA said.
An international team of legal advisers has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine’s recaptured city of Kherson to gather evidence of alleged sexual crimes by Russian forces. A team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, are conducting a full-scale investigation part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
The Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has joined the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), its leader said. Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death”, was freed last week after 14 years in US custody in a high-profile swap with the American basketball star Brittney Griner. Griner is currently undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries. The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
The body of a 23-year-old Zambian student who died while fighting for the Russian army in the war in Ukraine has been returned home. Zambia’s government has requested that Russian authorities give details of Lemekani’s demise, foreign affairs minister Stanley Kakubo said.
Updated
Zelenskiy urges G7 to supply Ukraine with natural gas, long-range weapons
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has appealed to the G7 nations to help obtain an additional two billion cubic metres of natural gas and to supply it with modern tanks, artillery units and shells as well as long-range weapons.
In a video address to the Group of Seven nations, Zelenskiy also called on Russia to make a “substantive” step towards a diplomatic resolution of the war in Ukraine.
He said:
If Russia conducts a withdrawal of its forces from Ukraine, then it will also ensure a reliable end of hostilities.
I see no reason why Russia should not do this now - in time for Christmas.
