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News about the Russia-Ukraine war: That happened on Thursday night (December 29)

2022-12-29T04:02:27.241Z


President Zelenskyj appeals to the humanity of his people. Russia launches more attacks - and reiterates demands for recognition of the occupied territories. The most important developments.


Enlarge image

After attacks, clouds of smoke rise into the air over the outskirts of the city of Bakhmut

Photo: Libkos / dpa

That says Kyiv

According to Ukrainian information, Russian military launched a new wave of attacks with so-called kamikaze drones against Ukraine on Wednesday evening.

The drones were aimed at various targets in the south and east of the country, the command center of the Ukrainian air defense south said on Facebook.

Five drones were shot down in the Dnipro region.

"Let's stay in a festive mood," it said.

The arrival of several groups of drones was also reported from the Donetsk region, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv.

Observers also reported flights towards Odessa.

According to reports from the Unian agency, numerous unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down.

Further details have not yet been provided.

Most recently, the Russian military used so-called kamikaze drones made in Iran against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

The supply of water and electricity across the country was severely affected.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the humanity and feelings of his fellow citizens in an unusually apolitical message.

"No matter what happens and what's on your mind, support each other, absolutely," Selenskyj asked in his daily video speech on Wednesday evening.

"Please take the time to say kind words to those close to you."

He called on Ukrainians to help each other in times of need.

"If you know that someone is expecting a son or daughter from the war, please pay attention: say hello, listen, help," said the Ukrainian leader.

»Hug your family more often.« Kind words to colleagues or friends are also appropriate.

“Thank your parents more often, be happy with children more often.” It is also important not to lose contact with friends and relatives.

At the end of his speech, Zelensky did get a bit political: "Protect Ukraine, respect each other and do everything you can to help our soldiers."

In addition to his speech to the people, Zelenskyy also addressed the parliament in a closed session.

On the occasion, he stated that the Ukrainian resistance to Russia had an impact on the whole world.

Over the course of ten months, "we helped everyone," he said before the parliament in Kyiv.

The unity of the EU had been strengthened.

"We helped the West to find itself again, to return to the global arena and to see how much the West is asserting itself," Zelenskyy said. "No one in the West is afraid of Russia, nor will they be afraid."

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, has reiterated his country's demands for further support in the war against Russia.

»Peace does not fall from the sky.

It has to be fought for.

And we Ukrainians do that on behalf of all Europeans,” Makeiev told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

The ambassador renewed the request for more weapons.

This aid must be "intensified and strengthened over the coming months so that even more civilians in Ukraine can be rescued".

In addition, transformers and generators are urgently needed to repair the destroyed critical infrastructure.

According to Makeiev, reconstruction will not begin after the end of the war, but now.

Ukraine is also dependent on Germany's financial and economic support in the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

On the question of a peace solution, Makeiev referred to President Zelenskyy's ten-step plan.

In addition to the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian national territory, this "peace formula" includes the release of all prisoners of war, a tribunal against Russian war criminals and security guarantees for Ukraine.

The Kremlin rejects this.

Moscow says so

Moscow made that clear again recently.

From the Kremlin's point of view, a possible peace plan for Ukraine must recognize Russia's annexation of the four regions in the east and south of the country.

"There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities on Russian territory," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

He was reacting to the ten-point peace formula presented by Ukrainian President Zelensky at the G20 summit in Bali in November.

Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov countered that "there is no reality where 'new areas' are in the Union of the Russian Federation".

Rather, the Kremlin spokesman should leave the "state of information mania," Danilov tweeted.

»The realities of the Russian Federation are: disgrace, defeat and its collapse.«

"So far there is no peace plan at all," emphasized Peskow.

Moscow had recently repeatedly stated that it was ready for negotiations.

However, Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of not taking the offer seriously.

Russia refuses to withdraw troops.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the supply routes for weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian army from abroad will soon be interrupted.

"We see that Ukraine is getting more and better Western weapons," Lavrov said during an interview on Russian television on Wednesday.

Therefore, there are calls among military experts to interrupt these delivery routes.

"Railway lines, bridges and tunnels" are being considered, said Lavrov.

"I expect they'll make professional decisions about how to make these deliveries more difficult or, ideally, stop them altogether."

Attacks against the Ukrainian infrastructure are already being worked on in part.

If the energy grid is interrupted, the delivery of new weapons will already be made more difficult.

"And I am convinced that there are other plans that are being used in this regard." Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for more than a decade.

humanitarian situation

According to Ukrainian President Selenskyj, there are hardly any civilians left in the fiercely fought-over city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

»Last year 70,000 people lived there.

Now only a few civilians are left,” said Zelenskyj on Facebook on Wednesday.

He did not provide information on the number of civilians who remained in the city.

There is "no place" in the city that is "not covered in blood," Zelenskyy wrote, adding several photos showing the extent of the destruction in the city.

According to AFP journalists who have been to Bakhmut several times in recent weeks, the already difficult living conditions are made even more difficult by the lack of access to water and electricity.

Zelenskyy traveled to Bakhmut on December 20 - a day before his visit to Washington, where he presented the US Congress with a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers fighting in Bakhmut.

economic consequences

The head of the Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom has acknowledged the company's difficulties as a result of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

"I would like to emphasize right away that 2022 has obviously proved to be very, very difficult," said Alexei Miller on Wednesday at a press conference in Moscow at the end of the year.

There have been “radical changes” on the energy markets.

In 2021, Russia, through Gazprom, was the world's largest gas exporter and the European Union's largest gas supplier.

According to information from Brussels, the 27 member states have reduced their gas imports from Russia to less than ten percent of their total imports since the end of February.

According to Miller, Gazprom produced 412.6 billion cubic meters of gas this year, of which just over 100 billion cubic meters was intended for export.

According to earlier information from the company, gas production this year is likely to be around 20 percent lower than in 2021. Exports outside the CIS countries fell by 44.5 percent.

Miller emphasized that Gazprom continues to work "very well coordinated".

In particular, he welcomed the opening of the Kowikta natural gas field in eastern Siberia last week, which should bring a noticeable increase in exports to China.

A new pipeline dubbed Kraft Siberia has been transporting eastern gas to China since late 2019.

jok/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-12-29

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