The time is just after 6pm in Kyiv and we are now closing the blog. Here is a summary of events.
Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in the flooding after the explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam an investigation by the Associated Press (AP) has found. Russia said 59 people drowned in the territory it controls, but the AP investigation claims the number is at least in the hundreds in the town of Oleshky alone.
The United States has announced a fresh package of arms to Ukraine, worth up to $250m. The package comes amid growing Republican opposition to continued financial support for Kyiv. The state department has said the US Congress should “act swiftly” to renew the flow of aid to Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the United States for the fresh military aid package. In a post on X, Zelenskiy wrote: “We must continue to respond to ongoing Russian aggression in the most forceful and resolute manner possible.”
Russian forces struck Vovchansk in Kharkiv oblast on the morning of 28 December, killing a 66-year-old woman and wounding another resident, reported Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor.
Russian navy’s Ropucha-class landing ship tank (LST) Novocherkassk was completely destroyed on 25 December 2023 following a Ukrainian strike while alongside at the port of Feodosia, on the south coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, the latest summary from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned that no one worldwide could be certain of escaping unscathed from western machinations in 2024, Reuters reported. In an interview released by the official Tass news agency, Lavrov added that the west’s dominance was “slipping away”.
Russia is resolved to achieve its goals in its military operations in Ukraine, Lavrov has said, adding that what he called the west’s strategy to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia had “completely failed”.
The G7 countries intend to discuss a “peace formula” proposed by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which they agreed on at a “secret summit” held about 10 days ago, Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state media.
In an interview with RIA state news agency and the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Lavrov said some in the west were suggesting Moscow should discuss peace in Ukraine because the United States and its allies had failed to defeat Russian forces in Ukraine. He added he believed there were signs the west was changing its tactics and strategy on Ukraine.
A Panama-flagged bulk carrier, which was heading to a River Danube port to load grain hit a Russian mine in the Black Sea on Wednesday, injuring two crew members, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
Russia is resolved to achieve its goals in its military operations in Ukraine, Lavrov said, adding that what he called the west’s strategy to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia had “completely failed”.
Russia has lost 356,670 personnel since the beginning of the war until 28 December, according to the Ukrainian army’s general staff. Other losses include 5,940 tanks, 11,015 APVs, 8,391 artillery systems and 6,503 drones.
Ukraine and Hungary are preparing a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Viktor Orbán in the near future, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said on Thursday.
Ukraine’s air defence systems shot down seven out of eight Russia-launched Shahed drones overnight, the country’s air force said on Thursday. Drones were downed in three central and southern regions, the air force said on the Telegram messenger. The Russian defence ministry said it thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack over Moscow-occupied Crimea overnight.
Finland will be the first country to “suffer” in the event of an escalation of tensions between Russia and Nato due to its proximity to the former, the RIA news agency cited senior Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov, permanent representative of Russia to international organisations in Vienna as saying: “...since they are our neighbours, if, God forbid there is some escalation, they will be the first to suffer.”
The United States has proposed that working groups from G7 nations explore ways to seize $300bn in frozen Russian assets, according to the Financial Times.
Two Russian men have been sentenced to long prison terms for reading poems criticising Russia’s military attack on Ukraine. Artyom Kamardin was sentenced to seven years in prison and Yegor Shtovba to five years and six months. Both men were convicted of “inciting hatred” and “calling for activities threatening state security”.
A raunchy celebrity-studded party in Moscow has prompted outrage among Russian politicians and law enforcement agencies, in one of the starkest examples to date of how Vladimir Putin is moving the country in a conservative and anti-liberal direction.
Russia’s space state agency Roscosmos said has said that a cross-flight programme with Nasa to the International Space Station (ISS) had been extended until 2025, Interfax news agency reported.
Updated
A raunchy celebrity-studded party in Moscow has prompted outrage among Russian politicians and law enforcement agencies, in one of the starkest examples to date of how Vladimir Putin is moving the country in a conservative and anti-liberal direction.
The party, which took place on 20 December, was a dress-up ball held at a Moscow nightclub with the theme “almost naked”, and was organised by the popular Instagram influencer Anastasia Ivleeva and attended by a number of household celebrity names who have stayed in the country since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The scantily clad stars wore flesh-coloured mesh, lace, and lingerie, with one rapper attending in nothing but a sock, in what appeared to be a tribute to the famous 1987 Red Hot Chili Peppers album cover.
“Everyone was having a good time, no one could imagine what a mess this would all become,” said one person who attended the party who asked not to be named.
Footage of the party quickly spread across Russian social media, causing outrage among pro-war commentators and nationalist officials.
“There is a war going on in the country, but these beasts, scum are organising all this, these brutes who don’t care what’s going on,” said Vladimir Solovyov, Russia’s most prominent television propagandist, in a Telegram post.
Read the full report here.
