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Russia-Ukraine War: That happened on Monday night (December 12)

2022-12-12T09:10:19.494Z


Apparently, a hotel that housed Russian mercenaries was shelled in Luhansk. Punitive measures have been taken against seven Russian Orthodox churchmen. Odessa partially has electricity again. The most important developments.


Enlarge image

Remains of Azov Steelworks in Mariupol (on December 7)

Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA

What has happened in the past few hours

According to the governor in Luhansk, Ukrainian forces have attacked a hotel in the city of Kadivka where members of the Russian private mercenary group Wagner were staying.

Many members of the group were killed in the attack, Serhiy Gaidai said in an interview with Ukrainian television.

Initially, no comment was available from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the power supply has been partially restored in the port city of Odessa.

Everything is being done to achieve the maximum possible under these conditions after the Russian drone attacks, Zelenskyj said in his nightly video message.

Odessa is one of the regions with the most frequent blackouts.

The day before, more than 1.5 million people in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine were without power after Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

That says Kyiv

Ukraine's General Staff on Sunday confirmed a series of airstrikes against targets in the country's Russian-held areas.

At the same time, a number of command posts, accommodation and supply depots have been shelled with barrel and rocket artillery since Saturday evening, according to a statement from the military leadership in Kiev.

However, the exact targets were not mentioned.

However, the Russian Air Force also carried out several attacks on Sunday.

"And there is still a risk that the enemy will launch missile and drone attacks against power infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine."

The Russian side reported several artillery attacks by the Ukrainian military on Saturday evening, including on the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine.

In addition, Russian anti-aircraft defenses had become active over the region, as well as at Simferopol in Crimea.

According to the defense minister, the Ukrainian armed forces will resume their counter-offensive against the Russian occupiers if the weather conditions are favourable.

The current transition "from dry autumn to not yet frosty winter" does not offer favorable operating conditions for either wheeled or tracked vehicles, said Minister Oleksiy Resnikov on Sunday at a meeting with his Swedish colleague Pål Jonson in Odessa.

"I think the (current) drop in activity on the front lines is due to the weather."

"But the Ukrainian armed forces are not thinking of quitting," Reznikov said.

Rather, they wanted to use the moment when the ground is becoming more solid due to frost to continue their counterattacks.

Ukraine's plan is "very simple," stressed Resnikov.

"It is the liberation of all temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine to the state of 1991, when Ukraine's borders were internationally recognized."

The fronts in Ukraine have been largely static for several weeks, despite continued heavy fighting at various hotspots, primarily with artillery, missiles and drones.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has criticized Germany's refusal to supply main battle tanks.

"We don't quite understand why this decision hasn't been made yet, why artillery can be delivered but no tanks," he said on Sunday on the ARD program "Report from Berlin."

"To be honest, we don't understand that line of reasoning."

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, had previously said that Kiev had received commitments from the federal government for further arms deliveries.

"In a direct conversation, we were assured of more weapons and more ammunition," Makeiev told the "Welt am Sonntag": "We will announce which ones together in due course."

The federal government has already supplied Ukraine with heavy artillery and anti-aircraft defenses, but has so far not fulfilled Kiev's demand for the delivery of modern Leopard and Marder tanks.

Makeiev told the newspaper that Ukraine was "continuing to be in talks" with the federal government about the delivery of such tanks.

Kuleba also announced further talks: »There are no commitments.

But we are working on it."

Zelenskyy thanked US President Joe Biden in a phone call for the government's help in Washington since the Russian forces invaded in February.

"I thanked the unprecedented US defense and financial assistance to Ukraine," Zelenskyy wrote on his official Telegram channel.

This not only contributes to success on the battlefield, but also supports the stability of the Ukrainian economy.

"We also appreciate the help the US is providing in restoring Ukraine's power system."

According to official information, the United States will give priority to supporting Ukraine's air defenses.

The White House announced that Biden had promised this in the phone call with Zelenskyj.

Biden also welcomed Zelenskyy's "declared openness to a just peace based on the fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter."

humanitarian situation

Kiev is taking action against representatives of the Moscow-facing Russian Orthodox Church.

Sanctions including an asset freeze and a de facto travel ban have been imposed on seven top officials, Zelenskyy said.

The Orthodox of the Moscow Patriarchate are the largest denomination in the country.

This had justified the attack on the neighboring country as a holy war in which the aim was to defend "the common historic fatherland" against NATO and the corrupt West.

In almost all regions of Ukraine, the Church makes up the majority of the parishes, around 12,000 at the beginning of the war.

Around 7,000 congregations belonged to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

International reactions

French head of state Emmanuel Macron has expressed his full support for the Ukrainian peace ideas.

In a phone call with President Zelenskyy, Macron welcomed his peace plan, as the Élysée Palace announced after the conversation.

Selenskyj had repeatedly submitted a peace plan which, among other things, provides for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Troops are also said to be withdrawing from the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which has been annexed since 2014.

In addition, there are reparations payments, the legal processing of war crimes and security guarantees from the West for Ukraine.

Czech President Miloš Zeman has spoken out in favor of prioritizing his country's aid to Ukraine over its own economic interests.

In an interview with the Czech public broadcaster on Sunday, he emphasized: "Now it's not just Ukraine that is under threat." Zeman has often been criticized as "pro-Russian" in the past.

His term as head of state ends in March.

In recent months there have been repeated large protest rallies in Czech cities against the government's intensive military aid to Ukraine and the simultaneous price increases, for example for food and energy.

Demonstrators demanded a more neutral stance from the NATO member and were accused by government politicians of supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zeman disagreed that the Czech government was too committed to Ukraine.

In the radio interview, the President also admitted his own misjudgments and regretted that he was wrong about Putin: "I saw him as a politician who I didn't idealize, but who I still had the impression that he was concerned the interests of his country.

But the aggression against Ukraine was against the interests of the Russian Federation.

And if Vladimir Putin wasn't aware of that, it's all the worse for the country."

What is happening today

  • The foreign ministers of the EU states are meeting in Brussels to discuss the latest developments in Iran and in Russia's war against Ukraine.

    It is expected that further sanctions against those responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran will also be decided at the meeting.

    This is intended to respond to the ongoing brutal repression of system-critical protests in the country.

jok/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-12-12

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