For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
3:18 p.m.: When Russian forces occupied Arkhanhelske, a settlement in the Kherson region, they are said to have set up a military base at a local school building. The school director, Oleh Sobchuk, says the Russians used the building to interrogate and torture locals. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Roksolana Bychai visited Arkhanhelske and spoke with the director about what life was like under Russian occupation.
2:30 p.m.:
2:15 p.m.: A court in the Siberian city of Chita has fined a blogger for sharing on Instagram a dream he had where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes an appearance.
The Central District Court told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Monday that it had ordered Ivan Losev to pay a $470 fine after finding him guilty of discrediting Russia's armed forces, which are involved in Moscow's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Losev told RFE/RL that the court's ruling was made on December 8. He called the case against him a sign of "idiocy" and said the hearing was held without his presence as he had not been informed properly and in a timely manner about its date and time.
2 p.m.: The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, recently concluded a four-day visit to Ukraine, during which she traveled to Odesa, Mykolaiv, the Kherson region and Kyiv to meet with authorities, families of prisoners of war, and communities affected by the armed conflict, according to an ICRC statement.
1:50 p.m.: European Union foreign ministers agreed in principle on Monday to add about 200 Russian people and groups to a sanctions list, even if a whole ninth package of sanctions wasn't approved yet, Reuters reported.
"What we have already approved is the individual sanctions ... to about 200 individuals and entities," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a news conference.
"This is approved, it is going to hit hard the Russian defense sector and the Russian military. It is going to hit also the political masters of the Russian government, in the Duma, in the Federation Council and in the judiciary. We are targeting those responsible for looting the Ukrainian grain, and for the deportation of Ukrainian people and in particular children."
1:35 p.m.: Many young Ukrainians who have fled the war and were separated from their families still live with uncertainty about their futures. Sixteen-year-old Diana Kryvorotko found safety with a couple in Germany but is still not sure when she will see her mother again. VOA’s Khrystyna Shevchenko has the story.
1:10 p.m.: U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths arrived in Ukraine Monday for a four-day visit, and his first stop was the southern city of Mykolaiv, VOA’s U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer reported.
Griffiths visited a bakery which managed to stay open throughout the conflict and is now being supported by the U.N. World Food Program to help distribute bread to citizens in the area, according to U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq.
Griffiths also visited a center for displaced people who are dependent upon U.N. agencies, partner charities, and local authorities for their needs, Haq said, adding that Griffiths “heard from many elderly people who shared stories of loss and pain, as well as how humanitarians are helping them.”
He met with the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, and the governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitalii Kim, who spoke about the devastated economy and destruction of essential services. The U.N. has provided over 500,000 people in the Mykolaiv region with assistance this year, including generators to provide power to hospitals, schools and displaced shelters, Haq said.
12:45 p.m.: President Vladimir Putin will not hold his traditional televised year-end news conference this month, the Kremlin said on Monday, 10 months into Russia's stuttering invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The event is a staple of Putin's calendar, giving him the chance to showcase his command of issues and his stamina as he sits alone on a stage in a large auditorium for a question-and-answer session with reporters that can last more than four hours.
12:30 p.m.:
12:15 p.m.: Historian Dominic Lieven is a visiting professor at the Department of International History at the London School of Economics. A fellow of the British Academy, Lieven writes about Russian history, empire, the Napoleonic era and World War I. Lieven spoke to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Georgian Service about the war in Ukraine, Russia's grievances, and how the conflict is likely to end.
In this wide-ranging interview, Lieven makes the case that it may be against Ukraine's interest to take back Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas, given current circumstances. “What you want inside your territory, to the extent possible, are citizens loyal to the state,” Lievens says. “The last thing you want is some constantly dissatisfied minority, with an inevitably, in the long run, more powerful neighbor on the other side of your eastern frontier who's going to get excited on their behalf.”
He said that without the instability in those regions, Ukraine could “concentrate on rebuilding a prosperous, stable democracy. In the long run, just as West Germany in the long run totally undermined East Germany by the power of its example, I think that would be the most optimistic scenario for the Ukrainians.”
“I also realize it is impossible to say this to most Ukrainians at the moment, and it would be impossible to say it to me if I was a Ukrainian,” Lievens added. “These people are fighting for their lives; they're doing so with immense courage; they have suffered enormously.”
He spoke of reframing the debate. “Don't debate whether you're going to cede territory, debate whether you're going to get rid of territory and the people on it who are unworthy of being your citizens and will be a constant source of weakness and trouble,” Lievens said.” Ukraine would be better off without these areas, just as the Danes were better off without bits of Schleswig Holstein, where German majorities existed.”
12:05 p.m.:
11:55 a.m.: The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Monday he anticipates another wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine in Europe over the winter, because of "unlivable" conditions, Reuters reported.
"Nobody knows how many but there will be hundreds of thousands more as the horrific and unlawful bombing of civilian infrastructure makes life unlivable in too many places," Jan Egeland told Reuters by phone after returning from a trip to Ukraine earlier this month.
"So I fear that the crisis in Europe will deepen and that will overshadow equally crises in other places of the world," he said.
11:40 a.m.:
11:20 a.m.: The European Union needs to review its budget and consider launching a new fund for the major additional energy investments needed to wean countries off Russian gas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday, according to Reuters.
"The question is whether it [the EU budget] is still fit for purpose, and a fresh look through a midterm review of the budget would open the door to create a sovereignty fund," von der Leyen said.
Von der Leyen declined to specify if this new fund would require the EU to take out further joint debt, but said the bloc's existing funds would need to be "augmented by other sources."
11:15 a.m.:
10:50 a.m.: Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smaiylov says 19 international companies have relocated from Russia to Kazakhstan since Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Smaiylov said on Monday that other international companies were currently in talks with Astana regarding possible relocation from Russia to the oil-rich Central Asian country.
Smaiylov said earlier that about 300 foreign companies had expressed a willingness to relocate from Russia to Kazakhstan. Several international companies, including Honeywell, InDriver, Fortescue and Marubeni, said they have already moved to Kazakhstan.
10:10 a.m.:
9:50 a.m.: Germany pointedly reminded Hungary on Monday of the importance of the European Union's democratic values as the bloc threatens to keep billions from Budapest unless it lifts its veto on a joint loan to Ukraine and a global corporate tax, Reuters reported.
At stake is 5.8 billion euros from an EU economic stimulus pot the bloc's executive has withheld, citing poor judicial independence in Hungary, and a further 7.5 billion euros the Brussels-based Commission said should be frozen over corruption.
As the wrangling has gone on, Hungary also blocked the 18 billion euros joint EU loan to Ukraine and the tax plan, drawing ire from other countries for what they said was an attempt to blackmail the bloc into releasing the funds to Budapest.
Veteran populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban needs the resources for Hungary’s ailing economy with inflation seen climbing to 26% this month, state debt shooting up and the forint currency visibly underperforming regional peers.
9:25 a.m.:
9:05 a.m.: A court in St. Petersburg on Monday ordered popular Russian rapper Oxxxymiron to pay a fine of $705 for "discrediting Russia's armed forces" in comments over Moscow's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Oxxxymiron, 37, whose real name is Miron Fyodorov, called the Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine a "catastrophe and a crime” right after it started in February.
He canceled a Russian tour in protest at the invasion before subsequently leaving Russia, and giving a series of concerts titled "Russians Against The War" in Turkey, Britain and Germany.
8:45 a.m.:
8:20 a.m.: On the heaviest days of fighting in east Ukraine, teams of army doctors near the front line can carry out five amputations at a time as they try to save limbs and lives, Reuters reported.
But no two days are the same at a military hospital in the Donetsk region that treats soldiers wounded in some of the fiercest battles in nearly 10 months of war with Russian forces.
“There are days when there are many heavily wounded: four or five amputations at once. Sometimes there is no one for two, three, four hours,” said Oleksii, a 35-year-old army doctor who declined to give his full name.
For 36-year-old Oleksii Nazaryshyn, a brigade military service chief, the main goal is simply to save lives. “We need to make sure the boys don’t die, and reach the next point of evacuation,” he said.
Some of the staff find it hard to hold back tears as wounded soldiers are carried in on bloody stretchers. “To be honest, it is mentally very hard when very young boys are being brought in. We transported boys without legs born in 2002 and 2000. It is mentally very hard,” said a 24-year-old intern who gave her name only as Olena.
8:05 a.m.:
7:50 a.m.: Poland and Germany should ask the European Union for more help in dealing with an expected increase in Ukrainian refugees during the winter, the Polish president said on Monday, Reuters reported.
"I believe that we should turn to the European Community so that there is financial support for our countries, which bear a particular burden in connection with taking in refugees from Ukraine," Andrzej Duda said during a press conference in Berlin.
7:30 a.m.:
7:10 a.m.: Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, released from a U.S. prison in a swap last week, has joined Russia's ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Party leader Leonid Slutsky wrote on Telegram on Monday that Bout received his membership card at a gathering to mark the party's 33rd anniversary.
Bout was exchanged for American basketball star Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months in Russian custody for possessing a small amount of cannabis oil.
Nicknamed the "Merchant of Death," Bout was handed a 25-year sentence in the United States in 2012 after being convicted of conspiracy to kill Americans, delivering missiles, and aiding a terrorist organization.
7 a.m.:
6:45 a.m.: Highly trained Ukrainian workers could fill thousands of job vacancies in the Czech arms industry to help meet demand triggered by the war in Ukraine, a Czech defense official said on Monday.
The Czech Republic has been one of the top weapons providers to Kyiv among NATO allies since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Deliveries, though, have badly depleted inventories and officials have warned it could take years to restock, according to Reuters.
6:30 a.m.: The European Union has secured enough gas for this winter but could face a gas shortage next year if Russia further cuts supplies, the European Commission and the International Energy Agency said on Monday, Reuters reported.
“Despite the action that we have taken, we might still face a gap of up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas next year,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a press conference, citing data from the International Energy Agency due to be published on Monday.
6:10 a.m.:
6 a.m.: U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths arrived in Ukraine on a four-day trip on Monday as officials raced to repair energy facilities hit by Russian air strikes that have caused winter power outages, according to Reuters.
The under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator will visit the southern city of Mykolaiv as well as the frontline city of Kherson, which was liberated last month, the United Nations said.
"Griffiths will see the impact of the humanitarian response and new challenges that have arisen as infrastructure damage mounts amid freezing winter temperatures," it said.
In Kherson, which was recaptured from Russian forces on November 11 after about nine months of Russian occupation, Griffiths will see how warm shelters are being set up for residents in case they are left without heating, power, or water, it said.
It said in a statement that nearly 18 million people — around 40% of Ukraine’s population — need humanitarian aid.
Waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure are leaving "millions of people without means to heat their homes, have clean water or electricity, at the same time as a freezing winter sets in," it said.
5:30 a.m.: A massive fire has gutted a shopping mall on Moscow’s eastern outskirts, the second such blaze in four days, The Associated Press reported.
Monday’s blaze at the mall in Balashikha that trades in construction items and decorative materials first erupted at a storage area and later spread to part of the building. The fire teams managed to localize it in an area of about 9,000 square meters (about 97,000 square feet) and prevent it from engulfing the entire mall. Officials said the fire was caused by a short circuit that came amid heavy rain in Moscow.
The blaze follows Friday’s fire that destroyed the huge OBI construction materials store, part of the MEGA shopping mall in Khimki, on the Russian capital’s northwestern outskirts.
5 a.m.: Reuters reported that the Russian rouble weakened on Monday as global inflation pressure and recession concerns limited appetite for risk, with investors looking ahead to the Bank of Russia's rate-setting meeting on Friday.
Markets also are awaiting a flurry of other interest rate decisions this week, including from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
At 0708 GMT, the rouble was 0.3% weaker against the dollar at 62.63 and had lost 0.4% to trade at 65.79 versus the euro.
It had firmed 0.1% against the yuan to 8.97.
4:45 a.m.: Russia sees Istanbul as a "comfortable place" to conduct diplomacy with the United States but does not yet believe Washington has adopted a constructive approach in talks, the RIA Novosti news agency cited Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying on Monday, Reuters reported.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as a key broker between Russia, Ukraine and the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Several rounds of diplomacy, including failed early peace talks, the Black Sea grain initiative, prisoner exchange negotiations and a face-to-face meeting between Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin and CIA Director William Burns have taken place in Istanbul or the Turkish capital Ankara.
4:30 a.m.: The leaders of the Group of Seven, or G-7, countries are to hold a video conference on Monday, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz scheduled to give a news conference afterwards, the German chancellery said.
Scholz's news conference is scheduled for 1630 GMT, Reuters reported citing a statement.
4:15 a.m.: Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa has resumed operations that had been suspended after a Russian attack on the region’s energy system, a spokesperson for the infrastructure ministry said on Monday.
Russia has since October been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missile and drone strikes.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said on Sunday that two other ports — Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi — that are authorized to export grains from Ukraine under a deal between Russia and Ukraine were partially operating.
4 a.m.:
3:30 a.m.: Russia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said Britain’s royal family had been recommended not to have any contacts with the Russian embassy in London, Reuters reported citing the Izvestia newspaper.
Asked by Izvestia if there had been any contacts with King Charles III, Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin said: "No, and I know that members of the royal family are advised not to maintain or enter into contact with the Russian embassy."
Buckingham Palace could not be immediately reached for comment out of normal business hours. Russia's relations with the West are at the worst level since the lows of the Cold War after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine and the West imposed the most severe sanctions in modern history on Russia.
Kelin said most politicians in the West had become "one-day butterflies" who did little serious thinking about the future and were obsessed with scoring futile political points.
"This deprives them of understanding what will happen in a month and a year from now with Ukraine," Kelin said. "After all, if things go on like this, Ukraine will become a failed state, a black hole that will have to be patched up."
He said that Russian businessmen, including the so-called oligarchs who earned fabulous fortunes after the fall of the Soviet Union, no longer considered London to be a safe haven. "No one now would consider the United Kingdom to be a safe haven; it turned out to be a pirate haven," he said.
3:15 a.m.: While a number of Russians in Bulgaria are helping refugees, a large swathe of the Balkan nation remains resolutely pro-Russian. And the Bulgarian government has often been less than welcoming when it comes to providing accommodation and support, forcing many Ukrainians to leave.
Of the some 932,000, who fled to Bulgaria since the invasion, only some 51,000 remain with less than 10,000 put up by the state, according to official data. Agence France-Presse has this story about some Russians helping Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria.
3 a.m.: Russian state-owned multinational energy company Gazprom said it will ship 42.3 million cubic meters of natural gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, a similar level to that reported in recent days, Reuters reported.
2:30 a.m.: Russia will be invited to attend meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, bloc hosted by the United States next year, Reuters reported Monday, quoting a U.S. official.
As "good stewards of APEC," the United States will invite Russia, which is a member of the 21-country bloc, Matt Murray, a senior U.S. official for APEC, told a media briefing in Singapore.
Relations between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated to their worst in 60 years since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, an act it justifies as a "special military operation," but which has prompted sanctions and condemnation from Western nations as well as countries like Singapore.
At an APEC meeting hosted by Thailand in May, representatives from the United States and some other countries walked out of a meeting in protest of Russia’s actions in Ukraine when Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov was delivering remarks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Bali last month despite an invitation from host Indonesia, which had resisted pressure from Western countries to disinvite the leader and even expel Russia from the bloc.
Murray did not say if Putin would attend next year’s APEC leaders' meeting in San Francisco. The Russian leader was represented by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov at the leaders’ meeting hosted by Thailand last month.
2:15 a.m.: U.S. efforts to negotiate the freedom of a former Marine held in Russia as part of the swap involving basketball star Brittney Griner were thwarted by Moscow’s demand for the release of a convicted murderer held in Germany, according to a top U.S. official and media reports.
The swap of Griner for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout raised questions as to why the U.S. side had failed to secure the simultaneous release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine accused by Moscow of spying — a charge Washington flatly rejects, Agence France-Presse reported.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby was asked Sunday about reports negotiations stumbled over a Russian demand for the release of Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel in Russia’s domestic spy organization serving a life sentence for murder in Germany. Kirby acknowledged on ABC’s "This Week" that "there was a claim that they wanted a man named Mr. Krasikov, that the Germans have held in custody."
"That just wasn’t considered a serious offer," said Kirby, who characterized Krasikov as "an assassin." Kirby had told CNN in late July that including Krasikov in any deal was "a bad-faith attempt (by Moscow) to avoid a very serious offer" from the U.S. side.
On Friday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the Krasikov matter. Krasikov is serving a life sentence in Germany for murdering a Chechen fighter in a park in Berlin in 2019, a killing which German authorities say was ordered by Russian intelligence services.
1:30 a.m.:
1:05 a.m.: Sunday marked exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. But life in the southern city is still very far from normal, The Associated Press reported.
The departing Russians left behind all sorts of deadly booby traps, and their artillery continues to batter the city from new, dug-in positions across the Dnieper River.
Residents' access to electricity comes and goes — although water is largely connected. Painstaking efforts are continuing on to establish a better sense of normalcy, like clearing the mess and mines left behind by the Russians, in tough wintertime weather.
12:30 a.m.: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold an online meeting with G-7 leaders and the European Union foreign ministers on Monday and will to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and on additional aid or arms deliveries to Ukraine, Reuters reported.
12:15 a.m.: The United States is prioritizing efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defenses, President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart on Sunday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stepped up efforts to secure international assistance over the Russian invasion that is dragging into a 10th month, Reuters reported.
Heavy fighting in the country’s east and south continued unabated, while drone and missile strikes on key power infrastructure, notably in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, kept many Ukrainians in the cold and dark.
There are no peace talks and no end in sight to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation” and Ukraine and its allies call an unprovoked act of aggression.
“We are constantly working with partners,” Zelenskyy said after talking to Biden and the leaders of France and Turkey, adding that he expects some “important results” next week from a series of international events that will tackle the situation in Ukraine.
12:01 a.m.:
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
World - Latest - Google News
December 12, 2022 at 12:02PM
https://ift.tt/5yre7sR
Latest Developments in Ukraine: Dec. 12 - Voice of America - VOA News
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/5okCf9G
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Latest Developments in Ukraine: Dec. 12 - Voice of America - VOA News"
Post a Comment