Important Takeaways:
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held his annual press conference in Moscow, and although he had criticism toward the UDS on a range of subjects, he did bring warm words of praise towards new President Trump.
- He especially commended Trump’s analysis pointing at NATO’s plan to include Ukraine as one of the root causes of the conflict.
- Lavrov reiterated that peace talks have to include ‘broader arrangements for security in Europe’.
- Associated Press reported:
- “Trump said Russia had it ‘written in stone’ that Ukraine’s membership in NATO should never be allowed, but the Biden administration had sought to expand the military alliance to Russia’s doorstep. Trump added that, ‘I could understand their feelings about that’.”
- Trump’s comments lift the seriousness of discussion, moving away from the tired old trope of denouncing Russia’s action as ‘an unprovoked act of aggression’.
- “’NATO did exactly what it had promised not to do, and Trump said that’, Lavrov said. ‘It marked the first such candid acknowledgement not only from a U.S. but any Western leader that NATO had lied when they signed numerous documents. They were used as a cover while NATO has expanded to our borders in violation of the agreements’.”
- “Lavrov also praised comments by Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who said Sunday it’s unrealistic to expect that Ukraine could drive Russian forces ‘from every inch of Ukrainian soil’.
- ‘The very fact that people have increasingly started to mention the realities on the ground deserves welcome’, Lavrov said during his annual news conference in Moscow.”
- “’Threats on the western flank, on our western borders, must be eliminated as one of the main reasons (of the conflict)’, he said. ‘They can probably be eliminated only in the context of some broader agreements’.”
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Important Takeaways:
- NATO scrambled its warplanes early today in response to a fierce Russian bombardment of Ukraine close to its border with Poland.
- The Russian strikes – hitting vital energy facilities in the coldest weeks of winter – were led by Vladimir Putin’s Tu-22 and Tu-95 strategic bombers.
- The onslaught was seen as instant revenge for Tuesday’s Ukrainian aerial strikes on Russia, the heaviest of the almost three-year war.
- In particular, Putin was rattled by Ukraine’s use of British Storm Shadow and American ATACMS missiles which hit key defense facilities including a chemical plant in Bryansk region.
- NATO forces went on full alert in Poland with warplanes scrambled, the country’s operational command headquarters said.
- ‘Duty fighter pairs have been scrambled, and the ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness,’ said a statement.
- ‘The steps taken are aimed at ensuring security in the areas bordering the threatened areas.’
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Important Takeaways:
- President Biden on Wednesday denounced Russia’s large-scale Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine that damaged critical energy infrastructure and vowed to continue a U.S. surge in weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X called the attacks “inhumane,” while Russia’s Defense Ministry said the “long-range precision weapons and strike drones on critical energy infrastructure facilities” in Ukraine had achieved the goal of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s forces.
- “The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid,” Biden said in a statement.
- “I have directed the Department of Defense to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and the United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defense against Russian forces.”
- Trump’s pick for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia also criticized the assault. “Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day,” Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg said on X.
- “Launching large-scale missile and drone attacks on the day of the Lord’s birth is wrong. The world is closely watching actions on both sides. The U.S. is more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 came down on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of southern Russia in which Moscow has used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent days.
- The Embraer (EMBR3.SA), opens new tab passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.
- It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian after what Russia’s aviation watchdog earlier said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
- Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash occurred after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Chechnya. The nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
- Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev said he could neither confirm nor deny the thesis that Russian air defenses downed the plane.
- The Kremlin said that an investigation was ongoing and that it would be improper to comment until the inquiry came to its own conclusions.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine targets Russia’s mercenaries saying ‘there is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin’
- “Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
- Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) reported the North Koreans were embedded with Russian Marines and Airborne troops – elite units – in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine has counter-invaded.
- Zelenskyy posted that Russia was adopting gruesome tactics to obscure the loss of North Korean soldiers.
- “After the battles with our guys, the Russians are also trying to… literally burn the faces of the killed North Korean soldiers,” he wrote on Telegram.
- He added, “There is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin. And even after their death, all that awaits them from Russia is mockery.”
- There were no statements from Russia or North Korea on these first casualties of Korean mercenaries.
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Important Takeaways:
- The strange, Zeppelin-like aircraft had been spotted on the Russian side of the frontier near Narva, a Russian-speaking Estonian town on the far edges of Nato territory.
- After some debate, Estonian police chose to ignore the blimp and hoped that would be the end of the matter. But the next day, it came back – this time marked with a “Z”, the symbol of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
- “We are seeing things like this nearly every week,” Egert Belitšev, the director-general of the Estonian police, said during a tour of Narva’s border checkpoint, the day before Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, arrived in the country for a security summit with Baltic and Nordic leaders.
- “It was intentionally made visible to everyone, to say: ‘We are watching you.’”
- “Two years ago we had 18 border incidents and this year we had 96,”
- “We have seen constant attempts to destabilize the situation.”
- In one of the more serious incidents in May, Russian border guards removed 20 buoys from the Narva river in the middle of the night in an apparent attempt to redraw the edges of Russia’s territory.
- “They did it at 3am – this is not something you do if it is a proper or normal thing,” Mr. Belitšev said.
- Moscow is also trying to push irregular migrants across the Estonian border, and across the Baltic Sea into Finland.
- Police say there have even been cases of Russians trying to smuggle drone parts across the Estonia border to support Putin’s war.
- “Russia will remain a threat for a very significant time, we don’t see any changes in the mindset of the Russian regime,” Mr. Tori said.
- “Russia’s understanding is that we will become more tired and they can outlast us in this war of aggression. Russia sees itself as being at war with Nato and therefore the ends justify the means.”
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Important Takeaways:
- A Ukrainian official has taken credit for the assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s chemical, biological and radiation defense forces, and his assistant, who were killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday.
- Russia’s Investigative Committee said the explosive device was placed in a scooter near a residential apartment block on Ryazansky Avenue and triggered remotely, according to The Associated Press. The bombing came one day after Ukrainian Security Services charged Kirillov with crimes.
- The bomb had the power of roughly 300 grams of TNT, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
- Kirillov was charged by the SBU on Monday with using banned chemical weapons on the battlefield. Several countries had also placed him under sanctions for his role in the war against Ukraine, The AP reported.
- The SBU said it has recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which began in Feb. 2022.
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Important Takeaways:
- NATO fighter jets have been scrambled in Poland and along the Alliance’s eastern flank
- Russia staged a brutal attack on Ukraine this morning, targeting energy and military facilities to plunge civilians into darkness and misery ahead of the festive season.
- A massive Russian onslaught had been expected, but there were no immediate reports of fearsome medium range ballistic missile Oreshnik being deployed, as had been predicted, although it may yet come.
- Instead, Ukraine was hit with Iskander, Kalibr, Kinzhal [or Dagger] missiles and Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones, launched from Tu-95MS strategic bombers and MiG-31Ks.
- The capital Kyiv was hit by major power cuts – and underground trains stopped running, while people huddled in metro stations to escape the bombardment.
- There were reports of an airbase being hit, along with warehouses and a plant producing drones and repairing helicopters.
- Ukraine’s national power operator Ukrenergo warned that today half the country would be without power – with temperatures of minus 5C – due to the latest Putin onslaught, ahead the Christmas festivities.
- Explosions ranged across Ukraine from Ivano-Frankivsk in the west to Kharkiv in the east.
- Among the other regions hit were Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Khmelnitsk, Lviv, and Ternopil.
- Russia had warned of a powerful response to a Ukrainian strike this week with US-supplied ATACMS missiles on a military airbase in Taganrog.
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Important Takeaways:
- Britain and other members of Nato have been urged to shift to a ‘wartime mindset’ amid the ongoing threats from Russia.
- Head of the military alliance, Mark Rutte, warned that nations are not ready for the coming years – and that much higher defense spending is needed to keep the enemy at bay.
- He said more than 3% of GDP had been splurged during the Cold War, but that future spending would have to be much higher than the current target of 2%.
- ‘Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation, with Ukraine and with us,’ Rutte said in a speech in Brussels.
- ‘We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,’ the Nato secretary-general said.
- He added: ‘It is time to shift to a wartime mindset and turbocharge defense production and defense spending.’
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Important Takeaways:
- Russian and US diplomats say the relationship is worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis…
- “In the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture due to the fault of Washington, trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told a news briefing.
- “We urge you to continue to refrain from trips to the United States of America and its allied satellite states, including, first of all, Canada and, with a few exceptions, European Union countries, during these holidays,” she said.
- Both Moscow and Washington say their citizens have been wrongfully imprisoned and their diplomats harassed increasingly as relations soured, though they both defend convictions by their own justice systems.
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