Attacks on water and power supply: Ukrainian secret service currently fears "five waves of attacks"

Created: 2022-12-14 05:05

By: Florian Naumann, Christoph Gschoßmann

The Donbass is heavily contested in the Ukraine war.

But Vladimir Putin's troops have apparently lost their offensive power.

The news ticker.

• Attacks

  on water and

  electricity supply

  : the secret service currently fears "five waves of attacks"

• Russia

  is apparently changing tactics

  in the

  Ukraine war : Donbass is heavily contested

• Vladimir Putin's

  military is apparently looking

  for supplies

  : are there already courses for young people?

• This

  news ticker

  on the

  military situation in the Ukraine war

  is continuously updated.

Update from December 13, 9:39 a.m

.: The Russian leadership is concerned about increasing anti-war sentiment in the country.

According to the British secret service, this is indicated by the fact that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has canceled the traditional annual press conference.

"Officials in the Kremlin are almost certainly very concerned about the possibility that an event attended by Putin could be hijacked for an illicit discussion of 'military special operations'," the Defense Ministry tweeted in London.

Attacks on water and power supply: Secret service currently fears "five waves of attacks"

Update from December 13, 7:19 a.m

.: Putin’s armed forces have been targeting the entire Ukrainian energy infrastructure with “kamikaze drones” for weeks, resulting in water and power failures.

Russia now has an arsenal of around 360 cruise missiles, and that would be enough for at least five attack waves, said spokesman Vadim Skibizkyj, spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence service.

The information could not be independently verified.

Picture taken on December 7th: An investigator in Kharkiv amid rocket remnants © Aleksey Filippov/AFP

Update from December 12, 8:58 p.m .:

According to reports from Kiev, the heavy fighting for the villages of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donbass in eastern Ukraine continues.

Several advances by Russian troops had been fended off there, the Ukrainian general staff announced in Kyiv on Monday evening.

Several attacks from Russian multiple rocket launchers were reported from Cherson in southern Ukraine.

There were dead and injured, it said.

Russian troops and armored vehicles were targeted in several attacks by the Ukrainian air force and the barrel and rocket artillery.

However, the military in Kyiv did not give any more detailed information about the location.

Mayor of Melitopol: Russian troops will be "relocated"

Update December 12, 7:18 p.m.:

Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, said in a Ukrainian TV interview that Russian troops in the city are being “relocated” and are now “in panic".

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Without providing any evidence, he stated: "They are busy moving their military groups to other places to try and hide them."

Fedorov also informed about the number of injured and dead as a result of the rocket attacks: “There are dozens of Russo-fascists who were killed, and there are wounded who were taken to hospitals and Crimea: about 200 Russo-fascists went to the hospitals".

As reported

, citing reports from Russian and Ukrainian sources, the Russian-held city in southern Ukraine came under heavy shelling over the weekend - but there were conflicting reports of casualties and deaths.

Brittney Griner is training again for the first time in ten months

Update December 12, 10:38 a.m

.: Brittney Griner has trained for the first time in ten months.

The US basketball player and two-time Olympic champion, who was released in a prisoner exchange, completed a quick training session in the US state of Texas, her adviser Lindsay Kagawa Colas told US broadcaster ESPN.

According to her adviser, the 32-year-old currently has no intention of leaving the military base where she has been staying since arriving in the United States.

Griner is "in the process of reintegrating into a world that is changing for her."

From a “purely safety point of view” she will not be able to move around the world like she used to.

.

Griner was exchanged last Thursday at Abu Dhabi airport for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had previously been released from US custody.

Ukraine war: Russia currently has no chance of gaining new territory

Update from December 12, 9:01 a.m .:

According to British assessments, Russia currently does not have the capabilities for conquests in the Ukraine war.

Although Russia is still sticking to its minimum goal - complete control over the southern and eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Cherson and Zaporizhia - the Ministry of Defense announced in London on Monday about the current situation in the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine war: "Russian strategy unlikely to achieve its goal"

"However, it is currently unlikely that the Russian strategy will achieve its goal," it said, citing intelligence findings that Russia is treading water and stuck in terms of territorial gains.

The Russian troops are currently hardly in a position to reconquer recently lost areas.

"Russia's ground forces are unlikely to make significant operational progress in the next few months."

Ukraine War: Mercenary Group Wagner is said to have suffered heavy casualties

Update from December 12, 6:27 a.m .:

Ukrainian forces have apparently inflicted heavy losses on the Russian private mercenary group Wagner in Luhansk.

Governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a TV interview with Ukrainian television that many members of the group were killed in an attack on a hotel in the city of Kadivka.

At first, nobody in the Russian Ministry of Defense commented on the incident.

Wagner is said to have suffered heavy casualties in a Ukrainian attack.

Here are soldiers of the Russian mercenary group on a patrol in Luhansk (October 13, 2022) © Viktor Antonyuk/imago

Ukrainian Defense Minister announces counter-offensives

Update from December 11, 10:53 p.m .:

Ukraine apparently wants to start a counter-offensive again soon – if the weather is suitable for it.

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

The "reduction in activity at the front" is probably due to the weather.

"But the Ukrainian armed forces are not thinking of stopping," stressed Reznikov.

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 Reznikov.

"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 heavy fighting in Donbass, for example.

Ukraine war: Selenskyj admits "difficult situation" - allegations against Russia

December 11 update, 10:15 p.m .:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has acknowledged a “difficult situation” in many parts of the country.

"We are doing everything we can to restore the light in Odessa," Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Sunday evening.

"We're doing everything we can to get the maximum out of the Russian goals under these conditions."

"Kyiv and its environs, Lviv Region, Vinnytsia Region, Ternopil Region, Chernovyts Region and Zakarpattia Region, Sumy Region, Dnipropetrovsk Region - the situation remains very difficult," said Zelenskyy.

However, everything is being tried to “relax the situation” and to provide people with electricity.

The Russian military has been targeting the energy infrastructure for several weeks, causing massive outages in the power and water supply.

Meanwhile, a report by the British

has raised concerns about a possible Russian paramilitary attack on NATO.

Update from December 11, 6:55 p.m .:

Ukraine is once again raising serious allegations against Russia: troops had fired on humanitarian workers delivering water in the contested Bakhmut, the Ukrainian emergency service said on Sunday, according to the Kyiv Independent.

There were no injuries, but a car was damaged.

The site also shared photos.

However, the information has not been independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian General Staff, meanwhile, reported five rocket strikes and 40 artillery attacks by Russia on Sunday.

There were attacks in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts.

At the same time, seven Russian command posts were hit during attacks.

These representations are also not verifiable.

Putin's troops in front of "new Lyman"?

Expert sees signs of further defeat in Ukraine

December 11 Overview:

Kiev/Washington, DC – Heavy fighting continues in eastern Ukraine two weeks before Christmas.

The first experts see Russia facing another painful defeat in the Ukraine war.

CNN journalist Neil Hauer tweeted an anonymous war blogger's analysis that he saw signs of "another Lyman" in the city of Kreminna.

There, Ukrainian forces had forced Russian troops to withdraw in October.

Hauer explained that the Ukraine could attack the “heavily fortified” Kreminna from the flank and force “a costly Russian retreat under fire”.

It is possible if Kiev's troops liberate the city of Schytliwka, the Twitter user "Def Mon", followed by more than 100,000 users, had previously speculated.

Current information from the Ukrainian general staff gives an insight into the current course of the front - they indicate that the army is near the village of Serebryans'ke.

All of this information cannot be independently verified.

Most recently, however, the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also reported on ground fighting near Kreminna.

According to the ISW, the Ukrainian military governor Serhiy Hajdaj has also spoken of advancing towards Kreminna.

Ukraine war: Russia is apparently changing tactics – Donbass is heavily contested

Either way, the Donbass, which is symbolically important for Russia, is currently the focus of the fighting.

"Donbass is the main front in the struggle for Ukraine's independence," Serhiy Cherevatyy, spokesman for Army Group East of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on television on Saturday (December 10).

The battles are centered on the transport hub of Bakhmut and the small town of Avdiivka.

Russia has changed its tactics.

Instead of attacks by larger units, attacks were now carried out by smaller groups, above all by the "Wagner" mercenary unit, supported by barrel and rocket artillery.

But the spokesman also assured: “We are analyzing this tactic and will find an antidote for every military poison.” The Russian military had previously reported an offensive.

According to the Russian authorities, the Ukrainian armed forces repeatedly fired at occupied Donetsk from rocket launchers.

The bus station in the center and a school were also hit, the Russian state agency Tass reported.

There were reports of air defense deployments from both Simferopol in Russia-annexed Crimea and Melitopol in the south-east.

Local residents reported numerous detonations in the sky.

Vladimir Putin's military is apparently looking for supplies: courses for young people?

But there are also massive problems in the Ukrainian hinterland.

After new drone attacks on Odessa in the south, the power supply in the port city practically collapsed.

"Odessa and almost the entire oblast remain without light," said a statement from the local electricity supplier on Saturday evening.

The severely damaged mesh could take longer to repair.

"It's not about days or weeks, rather two to three months are not ruled out." Residents were advised to leave the city temporarily.

Odessa used to have almost a million inhabitants.

According to the ISW, Vladimir Putin's government could also work on strengthening its military: There are plans to set up "training centers" in ten Russian regions to prepare 14 to 18-year-olds for military service.

According to Hajdaj, “young fighter courses” were already part of the school curriculum in the Russian-occupied part of Luhansk.

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