Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:37 Biden said at a meeting with Zelensky that Congress should vote on additional funding for Ukraine before the holidays, “before they give Putin their biggest Christmas gift.” According to the American president, the decisions taken now will determine the future “for decades to come, especially in Europe.” Biden also said that Russia is going to strike Ukrainian energy facilities, and “we must not allow it to succeed.”
In turn, Zelensky stated the need to quickly work with frozen Russian assets worth more than 300 billion euros. “Our goals for 2024 are clear - to deprive Russia of air superiority and disrupt their offensive operations. This is real,” the Ukrainian president said.
22:16 Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Congress will likely delay consideration of aid to Ukraine until next year. According to him, it is “virtually impossible” for Congress to pass a bill on Ukraine and border security before the holidays.
22:13 Biden, at a meeting with Zelensky at the White House, announced that he had signed a decree to allocate $200 million in military assistance to Ukraine. “This money will come quickly,” the American president added.
21:25 Budapest is ready to revoke the veto on EU funding for Ukraine in exchange for billions of euros that the EU froze due to problems with democracy in Hungary, Bloomberg writes, citing the chief political adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Balazs Orbán. According to him, Hungary wants to receive about 30 billion euros from the EU. He also said that Hungary remains opposed to the full four-year €50 billion bailout plan for Ukraine and would prefer that the EU offer Kyiv funding for one year without amending the budget.
21:19 Orban, in response to the call of the Hungarian community in Ukraine to support the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, once again repeated that the European Commission was unable to properly prepare this issue, and it was not the right time to begin negotiations with Kiev. “Therefore, we will make a proposal that the EU should not set as its goal a legally complex membership, but a strategic partnership with Ukraine,” the Hungarian Prime Minister explained.
21:14 EU ambassadors again did not agree on a new package of sanctions against Russia, but not because of Hungary, Radio Liberty correspondent in Brussels Rikard Jozwiak reported. According to him, Austria is now complaining that Ukraine has included Raiffeisen Bank in the list of international war sponsors.
21:01 Russia is already waging a hybrid war against Latvia, said the country’s Defense Minister Andris Spruds: “Of course, we do not have a full-fledged war with Russia in terms of conventional combat, but a hybrid war is taking place. We are conducting disinformation campaigns. Manipulation of illegal migration on our border, in this case with Belarus, but it can also happen on the Latvian-Russian border, as well as on the Finnish-Russian border." According to the minister, for Latvia, increasing readiness and defense capability is a daily task, and it is also learning this from Ukraine.
19:58 Zelensky’s meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson has ended. Johnson called the meeting good, but made it clear that the issue of funding aid for Ukraine still depends on the US border. He also said the Biden administration should provide more details on how the money will be used for Ukraine. At the same time, Johnson said he told Zelensky that “we stand with him against Putin’s brutal invasion.” NYT journalists note that the Speaker of the House of Representatives avoided joint photos with the President of Ukraine.
19:29 American intelligence estimates Russia's losses in the war against Ukraine at 315 thousand killed and wounded, Reuters writes, citing a source. This is about 90% of the personnel that the Russian Federation had at the beginning of the invasion. According to the source, intelligence also believes that losses of personnel and equipment have set back the modernization of the Russian army by 18 years.
19:05 Ukraine and the United States are developing a new military strategy. To do this, one of the American generals will come to Kyiv on a permanent basis. They plan to approve the new action plan next month during a series of military exercises that will take place in Wiesbaden, Germany. Read more in the material New military strategy of Ukraine .
18:12 A closed meeting between Zelensky and congressmen ended in the US Senate. Two senators told CNN that Zelensky "tried to dissuade" them that corruption remains a serious problem in Ukraine and is a reason not to provide new American aid.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Zelensky was warmly received and spent his time trying to persuade senators to provide more funding. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) said the meeting was "very powerful" and "productive."
17:33 The US Treasury announced sanctions against more than 150 individuals and legal entities involved in Russia's evasion of restrictions and strengthening of its military-industrial complex. Among others, dozens of companies from Turkey, the UAE, China, Switzerland, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and the Maldives were subject to restrictions.
17:16 Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny visited military positions in the Eastern direction, the Ministry of Defense reported. The commander of the Khortitsa group of troops, Alexander Syrsky, briefed them on the situation in the Eastern direction. They also discussed the key needs of the Ukrainian military, issues of training recruits and strengthening fortifications along the entire contact line.
The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are developing a joint action plan and assessing potential threats. “We are working to strengthen the supply of weapons to the front, launching production, expanding the possibilities for purchasing UAVs (both reconnaissance and attack), and are in daily contact with partners,” Umerov noted.
17:07 Ukraine received the first “non-public and unofficial” signal from Hungary, indicating a “window of opportunity” at the EU summit on December 14-15, Kuleba said. According to him, there is not a single country that does not want to see Ukraine as part of the European Union. Thus, Budapest is seeking to slow down the process in order to carefully study the consequences of accession.
“But yesterday, based on the results of my long conversation with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó, the threat that Hungary is in principle opposed to Ukraine’s membership in the EU has been completely removed. He confirmed that this is not the question at all,” the Ukrainian minister explained.
16:53 The Russian Army shelled the village of Tyaginka, Berislavsky district, Kherson region, one person was wounded, the OVA reported. In addition, today two people went to the hospital who yesterday came under enemy fire in the Korabelny district of Kherson.
16:32 The malfunction of the Kyivstar operator did not affect the actions of military personnel on the front line, said Vladimir Fityo, speaker of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. According to him, directly on the front line, the military uses “slightly different communications.”
16:06 The United States plans to provide Ukraine with another package of military assistance by the end of the year, said John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council. According to him, to provide further assistance, it is necessary for Congress to pass a bill to support Ukraine.
15:59 The Swiss company Global Clearance Solutions announced that in 2024 it will increase the number of unmanned mine clearance vehicles supplied to Ukraine to 70 units. The company plans to increase the number to 25 machines in the last quarter of 2023, to 40 in the spring of 2024, and to 70 by mid-2024.
15:35 On the morning of December 12, a large-scale failure occurred in the Kyivstar network, due to which communication services and the Internet became partially unavailable for some subscribers. The failure in the operator's network also affected national roaming, the payment system, the operation of ATMs, street lighting and even the air raid signal. The company said that the cause of the failure was a powerful hacker attack, and the timing of the resumption of the operator’s services is unknown.
The SBU reported that it had opened criminal proceedings into the cyber attack under eight articles of the Criminal Code. According to one version, Russian intelligence services may be behind the attack.
15:26 Cyber units of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense conducted another successful special operation on the territory of the Russian Federation - they attacked its tax system. As a result of two cyber attacks, the entire database and its backup copies were completely destroyed. Communication between the central office in Moscow and 2,300 territorial tax departments is paralyzed. In fact, we are talking about the complete destruction of the infrastructure of one of the
13:20 The Russians continue to shell Kherson, another person was wounded, OVA reported.
12:58 Donald Tusk, who became Polish Prime Minister for the third time, said that Poland and the new government will demand that the entire free world mobilize efforts to help Ukraine in the war with Russia: “This is a matter that should unite us. Today we see the president "Zelensky, who is trying to convince the world again that Russia's attack on Ukraine is an attack on us all. We will, and I count on the cooperation of all political forces, loudly and decisively demand the full mobilization of the free world to help Ukraine in this war." The new prime minister stressed that there is “no alternative” to such actions by the Polish government.
12:32 The number of people wounded as a result of today’s shelling of Kupyansk, Kharkov region, has increased to two, one person died, the prosecutor’s office reported.
11:49 The IMF has developed three scenarios for Ukraine: basic, negative and positive. In the base scenario, the war will end in 2024 with an expected GDP growth of 3-4%, in 2025 - by 6.5%. The negative scenario assumes that the war will continue until the end of 2025, causing GDP to contract by 5% next year. The positive scenario does not indicate an exact date for the end of hostilities, but with high investment, migration influx and increased productivity, GDP growth could reach 10% by 2025. This year, the IMF expects GDP growth to be 4.5% instead of the previously predicted 1-3%.
11:16 The Russians fired artillery at Kupyansk, Kharkov region - one person was killed, one was wounded, said the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov.
11:13 Two days ago, the Russian army began massive offensive operations with the support of armored vehicles in the Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions, said the commander of the operational-strategic group of troops of Tavria, Alexander Tarnavsky. According to him, the enemy is actively using aviation - in two days he carried out 19 airstrikes with guided bombs. Ukrainian forces are holding the line.
11:08 Austria will not approve the start of negotiations with Kiev on accession to the EU in the current conditions, because Ukraine should not enjoy privileges compared to other candidates, said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer. He recalled that Bosnia and Herzegovina has been trying to join the EU for a long time, but no one has invited it. Also, Austria will not support the allocation of 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine.
11:05 At night, Russia attacked the Odessa region with attack drones. Air defense forces managed to destroy two drones. As a result of the attack, the administrative and technical building of the sports institution was damaged, but no people were injured, said Oleg Kiper, head of the OBA.
10:56 Zelensky said that he held a meeting in Washington with representatives of US think tanks: “We talked about how to maintain American support for Ukraine and attention to our state in the face of other global challenges.”
10:50 The Union of Slovaks of Transcarpathia in its letter called on the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico at the upcoming EU summit to support the decision to open negotiations with Ukraine on accession to the European Union. The authors of the letter note that Ukraine has demonstrated significant progress in implementing the recommendations of the European Commission on the rights of national minorities and that the bill approved by the Rada reflects their interests.
10:37 The Russians have been shelling Kherson since the morning - one person was injured in the Central region, another in Korabelny, said the head of the OVA Alexander Prokudin. Over the past 24 hours, as a result of Russian shelling in the region, one person was killed and four were injured.
10:18 After Argentina, Zelensky flew to the United States against the backdrop of Republicans blocking the provision of new aid to Ukraine. The President will speak at a meeting of senators on December 12, where he will try to convey his position not only to loyal Democrats, but also to disloyal Republicans. Read more in the material A trip for the sake of conviction .
09:29 Partisans from the Atesh movement stated that they penetrated the territory of the 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment in Feodosia and collected data on the unit’s personnel, equipment and weapons. According to Atesh's sources, due to intense fighting, the regiment suffers heavy losses among its personnel, including during poorly organized assaults. The command makes up for the losses with prisoners, which greatly undermines discipline in the unit and causes dissatisfaction primarily among local commanders.
08:52 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of December 12:
- personnel - about 340,650 (+800) people,
- tanks - 5664 (+9),
- armored combat vehicles - 10,579 (+19),
- artillery systems - 8073 (+3),
- MLRS - 919 (+0),
- air defense systems - 605 (+0),
- aircraft - 324 (+0),
- helicopters - 324 (+0),
- UAV of operational-tactical level - 6163 (+9),
- cruise missiles - 1596 (+10),
- ships/boats - 22 (+0),
- submarines - 1 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tank trucks - 10,650 (+14),
- special equipment - 1170 (+2).
08:36 The United States recommended that Ukraine consolidate its current positions within a year and increase weapons production, The New York Times writes, citing sources.
07:58 Over the past 24 hours, 89 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report . In particular, the Defense Forces repelled 42 enemy attacks in the Avdeevsky direction (in areas east of Novobakhmutovka, Avdeevka, south of Severny, south of Tonenky, Pervomaisky and Nevelsky of the Donetsk region), 14 attacks in Bakhmutsky (in the areas of Bogdanovka, Kleshcheevka, Andreevka and Severny of the Donetsk region ) and the same amount - on Maryinsky (in the areas of Marinka, Krasnogorovka and Novomikhailovka, Donetsk region).
In addition, in the Kupyansky direction, Ukrainian forces repelled enemy attacks in the Sinkovka areas and north-west of Petropavlovka, Kharkov region; on Limansky - in the Sporny and Vesyoly districts of the Donetsk region; in Zaporozhye - in areas north of Priyutnoye and west of Novopokrovka, Zaporozhye region. The enemy did not conduct offensive actions in the Shakhtarsky direction. At the same time, the Defense Forces continue assault operations south of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, and in the Kherson direction they hold their positions on the left bank of the Dnieper.
06:49 At night, air defense destroyed nine of the 15 Shahed-type drones that Russia attacked from the Balaklava area, the Air Force command reported. In addition, on the evening of December 11, two X-59 guided aircraft missiles were destroyed in the Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
02:23 The European Commission intends to send 15 billion euros from the frozen assets of the Russian Federation to Ukraine as financial support, but the developed plan must be supported by all EU member states, writes the Financial Times.
01:47 Zelensky said that in Washington he held a meeting with the heads of US defense companies. “We are ready to produce more ammunition and military equipment, but we need support. It is important to develop joint production of artillery ammunition, air defense systems, artillery and missile systems,” the president emphasized.
He also met with the President of the World Bank and the Managing Director of the IMF.
01:21 Argentina intends to hold a summit on Ukraine with leaders of Latin American countries early next year, the Office of the President reported. Zelensky discussed the holding of the summit with the new President of Argentina, Javier Miley, during a visit to Buenos Aires.