Israel pounds Khan Younis with artillery; Rafah bulldozed for ‘buffer zone’ Al Jazeera English
Israel bombs Palestine Red Crescent building, as genocide probe looms Middle East Eye
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 13 civilians, including baby The Associated Press
WHO chief deplores ‘unconscionable’ strikes on Red Crescent in Gaza The New Arab
The Palestinian Red Crescent condemns the targeting of Al-Amal Hospital by the occupation forces and calls on the international community to provide urgent protection for the hospital [EN/AR] – occupied Palestinian territory ReliefWeb
Ukraine’s artillery supply declines as shells go to Israel Defense One
Russia Rips Ukrainian Command Posts In Kharkiv; Zelensky Blames ‘Israel-Hamas War For…’ | Watch Hindustan Times
Zelenskyy warns that supply of vital artillery ammunition to Ukraine has ‘really slowed down’ ABC News
Zelensky: Artillery munition deliveries to Ukraine have decreased since Israel-Hamas War Yahoo News
Zelensky says West’s pivot to Israel has slowed delivery of new artillery shells to Ukraine, as Kremlin plans his ouster in so-called ‘Maidan 3’ plot Meduza
Front-line Ukrainian soldiers say it seems like Russia has ‘unlimited’ artillery shells to throw at them while they’re worried about running out Yahoo News
Russians Regret Fighting in Ukraine, Says YouTuber Who Speaks to POWs Business Insider
Ukraine War: Kyiv Signals Bakhmut Counteroffensive Against ‘Exhausted’ Russian Troops The Moscow Times
Leaked Tape Captures Russian Troops Mocking Vladimir Putin’s War in Ukraine The Daily Beast
$650 per kilometer: Russia offers incentives to recruits ready to join assault units and advance frontline in Ukraine Meduza
Video: Ukrainian soldiers hit by Russian artillery, running low Business Insider
Russian soldiers are shocked by the ‘horrible reality’ in Ukraine and often regret going, says YouTuber who spoke to more than 200 after they were captured Yahoo News
Ukraine War: Kyiv Signals Bakhmut Counteroffensive Against ‘Exhausted’ Russian Troops The Moscow Times
Leaked Tape Captures Russian Troops Mocking Vladimir Putin’s War in Ukraine The Daily Beast
Front-line Ukrainian soldiers say it seems like Russia has ‘unlimited’ artillery shells to throw at them while they’re worried about running out Yahoo News
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its 11th month, US and Ukrainian officials tell CNN that Russia’s artillery fire is down dramatically from its wartime high, in some places by as much as 75%.
US and Ukrainian officials don’t yet have a clear or singular explanation. Russia may be rationing artillery rounds due to low supplies, or it could be part of a broader reassessment of tactics in the face of successful Ukrainian offenses.
Either way, the striking decline in artillery fire is further evidence of Russia’s increasingly weak position on the battlefield nearly a year into its invasion, US and Ukrainian officials told CNN. It also comes as Ukraine is enjoying increased military support from its western allies, with the US and Germany announcing last week that they will be providing Ukrainian forces for the first time with armored fighting vehicles, as well as another Patriot Defense missile battery that will help protect its skies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is apparently clambering to shore up domestic political support, US intelligence officials believe, for a war he initially would only describe as a limited “special military operation.”
US officials believe the 36-hour ceasefire Putin ordered in Ukraine last week to allow for the observance of Orthodox Christmas was an attempt to pander to Russia’s extensive Christian population, two people familiar with the intelligence told CNN, as well as an opportunity for Putin to blame Ukrainians for breaking it and paint them as heretical heathens.
Much of the domestic opposition Putin and his generals have faced over the handling of the war has come from one of the Russian leader’s closest allies: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary organization Wagner Group. Prigozhin has complained that the Russian Ministry of Defense has botched the war effort, and that Wagner Group should be given more equipment, authority and autonomy to carry out operations in Ukraine.
But Wagner Group has lost thousands of fighters in Ukraine the last two months alone, a senior US official said.
Russia suffered another setback earlier this month when Ukrainian forces hit a weapons depot in Makiivka in eastern Ukraine, destroying more Russian supplies and killing scores of Russian troops housed nearby. The strike also raised questions among prominent Russian military bloggers about the basic competence of the Russian military brass, which had apparently decided to house hundreds of Russian troops next to an obvious Ukrainian target.
“Maybe this one strike is a drop in the bucket, but the bucket is getting smaller,” a US defense official said, referring to the Russians’ dwindling stockpiles.
To date, questions about Russia’s stockpile of weapons have mostly focused on their precision-guided munitions, such as cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. But US officials said their dramatically reduced rate of artillery fire may indicate that the prolonged and brutal battle has had a significant effect on Russia’s supply of conventional weapons as well.
Last month, a senior US military official said that Russia has had to resort to 40-year-old artillery shells as their supply of new ammo dwindled. To the US, the use of degraded ammunition, as well as the Kremlin’s outreach to countries like North Korea and Iran, was a sign of Russia’s diminished stocks of weaponry.
The rationing of ammunition and lower rate of fire appears to be a departure from Russian military doctrine, which traditionally calls for the heavy bombardment of a target area with massive artillery fire and rocket fire. That strategy played out in cities like Mariupol and Melitopol as Russian forces used the punishing strikes to drive slow, brutal advances in Ukraine.
Officials said the strategy shift could be the doing of the recently installed Russian theater commander, General Sergey Surovikin, who the US believes is more competent than his predecessors.
Ukraine has had little choice but to ration its ammunition since the beginning of the war. Ukrainian troops rapidly burned through their own supply of Soviet-era 152 mm ammunition when the conflict erupted, and while the US and its allies have provided hundreds of thousands of rounds of Western 155 mm ammunition, even this supply has had its limits.
As a result, Ukraine has averaged firing around 4,000-7,000 artillery rounds per day – far fewer than Russia.
The Russians’ declining rate of fire is not linear, one US defense official noted, and there are days when Russians still fire far more artillery rounds – particularly around the eastern Ukrainian cities of Bakhmut and Kreminna, as well as some near Kherson in the south.
US and Ukrainian officials have offered widely different estimates of Russian fire, with US officials saying the rate has dropped from 20,000 rounds per day to around 5,000 per day on average. Ukraine estimates that the rate has dropped from 60,000 to 20,000 per day.
But both estimates point to a similar downward trend.
While Russia still has more artillery ammunition available than Ukraine does, early US assessments vastly overestimated the amount that Russia had its disposal, a US military official said, and underestimated how well the Ukrainians would do at hitting Russian logistics sites.
It appears now that Russia is focused more on bolstering its defense fortifications, particularly in central Zaporizhzhia, the UK Ministry of Defense reported in its regular intelligence update on Sunday. The movements suggest that Moscow is concerned about a potential Ukrainian offensive either there or in Luhansk, the ministry said.
“A major Ukrainian breakthrough in Zaporizhzhia would seriously challenge the viability of Russia’s ‘land-bridge’ linking Russia’s Rostov region and Crimea,” the ministry said, while Ukrainian success in Luhansk would “undermine Russia’s professed war aim of ‘liberating’ the Donbas.”
Ukraine’s counter-offensives last fall targeting Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the north resulted in humiliating defeats for Russia – and were aided enormously by sophisticated western weaponry like HIMARS rocket launchers, Howitzer artillery systems and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that the US had previously been reluctant to provide.
“The fact of the matter is we have been self-deterring ourselves for over a year now,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of US Army Europe and NATO Allied Land Command and currently a senior advisor for Human Rights First.
“There’s been so much anxiety about the possibility of Russia’s escalation – I mean ten months ago, there was concern about giving Stingers…obviously that’s ridiculous, and it looks ridiculous now.”
Tensions between Kremlin defense officials and Wagner Group leaders have also been rising amid public complaints by the mercenaries that they are running low on equipment and reports that their leader, Prigozhin, wants to take control of the lucrative salt mines near Bakhmut.
In a video that ran on Russian state media, Wagner Group fighters complain that they are running low on combat vehicles, artillery shells and ammunition, which is limiting their ability to conquer Bakhmut – shortages Prigozhin then blames on “internal bureaucracy and corruption.”
“This year we will win! But first we will conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption,” he says in the clip. “Once we conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will conquer the Ukrainians and NATO, and then the whole world. The problem now is that the bureaucrats and those engaging in corruption won’t listen to us now because for New Year’s they are all drinking champagne.”
Prigozhin’s ambitions are not limited to greater political power, however, the US believes. There are also indications that he wants to take control over the lucrative salt and gypsum from mines near Bakhmut, a senior administration official tells CNN.
“This is consistent with Wagner’s modus operandi in Africa, where the group’s military activities often function hand in hand with control of mining assets,” the official said, adding that the US believes these monetary incentives are driving Prigozhin and Russia’s “obsession” with taking Bakhmut.
The official also said that Wagner Group has suffered heavy casualties in its operations near Bakhmut since late November.
“Out of its force of nearly 50,000 mercenaries (including 40,000 convicts), the company has sustained over 4,100 killed and 10,000 wounded, including over 1,000 killed between late November and early December near Bakhmut,” the official said, adding that about 90% of those killed were convicts.
The official said that Russia “cannot sustain these kinds of losses.”
“If Russia does eventually seize Bakhmut, Russia will surely characterize this, misleadingly, as a ‘major victory,” the official added. “But we know that is not the case. If the cost for each 36 square miles of Ukraine [the approximate size of Bakhmut] is thousands of Russians over seven months, this is the definition of Pyrrhic victory.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to fly to Belarus on Monday amid fears he intends to pressure the former Soviet ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine and re-open a new front.
His visit for talks with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will be his first to Minsk since 2019. Ukrainian joint forces commander Serhiy Nayev said:
During (these talks) questions will be worked out for further aggression against Ukraine and the broader involvement of the Belarusian armed forces in the operation against Ukraine, in particular, in our opinion, also on the ground.”
Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzhniy told The Economist last week that Russia was preparing 200,000 fresh troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus as early as January, but more likely in spring.
There has been constant Russian and Belarusian military activity for months in Belarus. Russia also used its ally as a launch pad for an abortive attack on Kyiv in February.
Moscow and Minsk have since set up a joint regional unit of forces in Belarus and held numerous military exercises. Three Russian warplanes and an airborne early warning and control aircraft were deployed to Belarus last week.
Foreign diplomats say Lukashenko, a pariah in the west who relies heavily on Russian support, understands it would be a deeply unpopular step at home for him to commit troops to Ukraine. But he has already supported Russia’s war extensively.
Some military analysts see the manoeuvring as a ploy to make Ukraine commit forces to its north so it is more exposed to Russian assaults elsewhere.
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The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.
According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.
The prime minister will travel to Latvia for the leaders’ gathering of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) countries, including Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands, which will be addressed by Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenksiy.
From the Arctic Circle to the Isle of Wight, the UK and our European allies have been in lockstep in our response to the invasion of Ukraine, and we remain steadfast in our ambition for peace in Europe once again,” Sunak said ahead of the visit.
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But to achieve peace, we must deter aggression and our deployments across the region together are vital in ensuring we are able to respond to the gravest of threats. I know this Joint Expeditionary Force summit will only underline our close friendships and unwavering support for Ukraine.”
No 10 said the meeting would also discuss intelligence sharing between JEF countries, threats to infrastructure and hybrid threats posed by Russian aggression and bolstering support to Finland and Sweden ahead of their accession to Nato. Further announcements on joint military exercises are also expected.
Sunak is then expected to fly on to Estonia, where he will meet UK and Nato troops serving on the military alliance’s eastern flank on the Russian border.
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New information published by Ukrainian authorities suggests that Russia’s earlier drone attack on Kyiv damaged critical infrastructure and injured two people.
Infrastructure objects and private houses were damaged as a result of a night drone attack in the Kyiv region … two victims. People are given help – they are under the supervision of doctors.”
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Russian military proxy group Wagner continues to take a major role in attritional combat around Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
In recent months, the group has developed offensive tactics to make use of the large number of poorly trained convicts it has recruited, the ministry notes in its latest intelligence report.
Individual fighters are likely issued a smart phone or tablet which shows the individual’s designated axis of advance and assault objective superimposed on commercial satellite imagery.
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At platoon level and above, commanders likely remain in cover and give orders over radios, informed by video feeds from small un-crewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
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Individuals and sections are ordered to proceed on the preplanned route, often with fire-support, but less often alongside armoured vehicles. Wagner operatives who deviate from their assault routes without authorisation are likely being threatened with summary execution.
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These brutal tactics aim to conserve Wagner’s rare assets of experienced commanders and armoured vehicles, at the expense of the more readily available convict-recruits, which the organisation assesses as expendable.”
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) December 19, 2022
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At least two powerful explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of Monday morning, as officials claim the city was hit by a series of Russian drones.
Multiple local news sources reported the blasts in central Kyiv. Several loud blasts were also heard in the city’s surrounding regions, Reuters witnesses reported. A fire was also reported in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Ukraine’s armed forces first sounded the alarm in a Telegram alert about 2am local time, saying the military had sent air defences to protect the capital from drone attacks.
Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said air defence works were operating in the region and claimed the city was under a drone attack.
Kyiv’s military administration later said that nine Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down in Kyiv’s airspace. In a Telegram update, the administration said:
⚡️Governor: Air defense at work in Kyiv Oblast amid drone attack.
Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that the air defenses in Kyiv Oblast were operating "due to a Russian attack."
Kuleba asked residents to stay in shelters as the "drone attack continues."
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 19, 2022
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Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
Meanwhile, the UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.
The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday. According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.
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Ukraine said Russian shelling targeted the southern city of Kherson on Sunday, which has faced repeated attacks since Kyiv’s forces recaptured it last month. “Another blow was delivered to the city centre. Three people were injured. They received shrapnel wounds, one wounded is in a serious condition,” deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said. Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Sunday that Moscow’s troops had carried out 54 attacks on Kherson region with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars over the previous day, leaving three dead and wounding six others.
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Four people in the southern Russian border region of Belgorod were reportedly wounded by shelling on Sunday, the governor said. Witnesses reported loud blasts in the regional capital.
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Ukraine’s forces are holding on to the heavily contested eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “The Bakhmut direction is key,” he said in his latest national address. “We keep the city, although the occupiers are doing everything so that not a single undamaged wall remains there.”
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Power has been restored to three million more Ukrainians after the latest Russian attacks on infrastructure, bringing the total to nine million after two days, Ukraine’s president has said. “Electricity supplies have been restored to a further three million Ukrainians,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday evening video address. “That means after the terrorist strikes on Friday, we have results already for nine million of our people.” Heating has also been fully restored to Kyiv, the city’s mayor said.
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Protecting Ukraine’s borders is a “constant priority” as the country readies for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus, Zelenskiy added. “Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus – is our constant priority,” he said in his nightly video address. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.” Zelenskiy also issued a new appeal to western nations to provide Ukraine with effective air defences.
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Russia will reportedly deploy musicians to Ukraine’s frontlines in a bid to boost morale, according to its defence ministry. The “frontline creative brigade” will be tasked with maintaining “a high moral, political and psychological state [among] the participants of the special military operation,” Russian outlet RBC news cited the ministry as saying. UK defence officials said the new unit is in keeping with the historic use of “military music and organised entertainment” to boost morale as low morale continues to be a “significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force”.
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Iran’s foreign ministry has said it will not “seek permission from anyone” to expand relations with Russia, dismissing US concerns over a growing military partnership between Tehran and Moscow. Iran has been accused of supplying drones to Russia, allegedly used to attack Ukraine. CIA chief William Burns said the military cooperation between Iran and Russia “poses real threats” to US allies in the Middle East. Nasser Kanani, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, called the comments “baseless” adding that Tehran “acts independently in regulating its foreign relations and does not seek permission from anyone”.
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Veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger believes the time is approaching for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. “The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” Kissinger wrote in The Spectator magazine. “A peace process should link Ukraine to Nato, h owever expressed. The alternative of neutrality is no longer meaningful,” he added. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed the comments as amounting to “appeasing the aggressor” and said there could be no deal involving ceding territory. “Any agreement with the devil – a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories – will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
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Key events
Putin set to fly to Belarus
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to fly to Belarus on Monday amid fears he intends to pressure the former Soviet ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine and re-open a new front.
His visit for talks with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will be his first to Minsk since 2019. Ukrainian joint forces commander Serhiy Nayev said:
During (these talks) questions will be worked out for further aggression against Ukraine and the broader involvement of the Belarusian armed forces in the operation against Ukraine, in particular, in our opinion, also on the ground.”
Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzhniy told The Economist last week that Russia was preparing 200,000 fresh troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus as early as January, but more likely in spring.
There has been constant Russian and Belarusian military activity for months in Belarus. Russia also used its ally as a launch pad for an abortive attack on Kyiv in February.
Moscow and Minsk have since set up a joint regional unit of forces in Belarus and held numerous military exercises. Three Russian warplanes and an airborne early warning and control aircraft were deployed to Belarus last week.
Foreign diplomats say Lukashenko, a pariah in the west who relies heavily on Russian support, understands it would be a deeply unpopular step at home for him to commit troops to Ukraine. But he has already supported Russia’s war extensively.
Some military analysts see the manoeuvring as a ploy to make Ukraine commit forces to its north so it is more exposed to Russian assaults elsewhere.
UK to announce major new artillery package for Ukraine
The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.
According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.
The prime minister will travel to Latvia for the leaders’ gathering of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) countries, including Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands, which will be addressed by Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenksiy.
From the Arctic Circle to the Isle of Wight, the UK and our European allies have been in lockstep in our response to the invasion of Ukraine, and we remain steadfast in our ambition for peace in Europe once again,” Sunak said ahead of the visit.
But to achieve peace, we must deter aggression and our deployments across the region together are vital in ensuring we are able to respond to the gravest of threats. I know this Joint Expeditionary Force summit will only underline our close friendships and unwavering support for Ukraine.”
No 10 said the meeting would also discuss intelligence sharing between JEF countries, threats to infrastructure and hybrid threats posed by Russian aggression and bolstering support to Finland and Sweden ahead of their accession to Nato. Further announcements on joint military exercises are also expected.
Sunak is then expected to fly on to Estonia, where he will meet UK and Nato troops serving on the military alliance’s eastern flank on the Russian border.
Two injured in Kyiv drone attack – reports
New information published by Ukrainian authorities suggests that Russia’s earlier drone attack on Kyiv damaged critical infrastructure and injured two people.
Kyiv’s regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, wrote on Telegram this morning:
Infrastructure objects and private houses were damaged as a result of a night drone attack in the Kyiv region … two victims. People are given help – they are under the supervision of doctors.”
Russia’s Wagner recruits likely threatened with execution if they deviate from assault plan, UK says
Russian military proxy group Wagner continues to take a major role in attritional combat around Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
In recent months, the group has developed offensive tactics to make use of the large number of poorly trained convicts it has recruited, the ministry notes in its latest intelligence report.
Individual fighters are likely issued a smart phone or tablet which shows the individual’s designated axis of advance and assault objective superimposed on commercial satellite imagery.
At platoon level and above, commanders likely remain in cover and give orders over radios, informed by video feeds from small un-crewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Individuals and sections are ordered to proceed on the preplanned route, often with fire-support, but less often alongside armoured vehicles. Wagner operatives who deviate from their assault routes without authorisation are likely being threatened with summary execution.
These brutal tactics aim to conserve Wagner’s rare assets of experienced commanders and armoured vehicles, at the expense of the more readily available convict-recruits, which the organisation assesses as expendable.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 19 December 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/E7U3CGkr8J
At least two powerful explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of Monday morning, as officials claim the city was hit by a series of Russian drones.
Multiple local news sources reported the blasts in central Kyiv. Several loud blasts were also heard in the city’s surrounding regions, Reuters witnesses reported. A fire was also reported in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Ukraine’s armed forces first sounded the alarm in a Telegram alert about 2am local time, saying the military had sent air defences to protect the capital from drone attacks.
The Kyiv city state administration also sent an alert urging residents to seek shelter.
It later added that more than 20 Iranian-made drones were detected over Kyiv’s air space and at least 15 of them were shot down.
⚡️ The moment of the explosion in the Kyiv region. Video from subscribers. 👉@Flash_news_ua pic.twitter.com/xjRtmqu3HO
Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said air defence works were operating in the region and claimed the city was under a drone attack.
The drone attack continues,” he said.
Kyiv’s military administration later said that nine Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down in Kyiv’s airspace. In a Telegram update, the administration said:
Air alert continues in Kyiv. The enemy is attacking the capital with ‘Shahed’ barrage ammunition. Air defence is being at work.”
It was not immediately clear whether the blasts were air defence systems destroying the drones or hitting targets.
⚡️Governor: Air defense at work in Kyiv Oblast amid drone attack.
Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that the air defenses in Kyiv Oblast were operating "due to a Russian attack."
Kuleba asked residents to stay in shelters as the "drone attack continues."
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 19, 2022
⚡️Governor: Air defense at work in Kyiv Oblast amid drone attack.
Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that the air defenses in Kyiv Oblast were operating “due to a Russian attack.”
Kuleba asked residents to stay in shelters as the “drone attack continues.”
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 19, 2022
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
A series of explosions have rocked Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of this morning, according to regional officials.
Meanwhile, the UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.
For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.
If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday. According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.
Ukraine said Russian shelling targeted the southern city of Kherson on Sunday, which has faced repeated attacks since Kyiv’s forces recaptured it last month. “Another blow was delivered to the city centre. Three people were injured. They received shrapnel wounds, one wounded is in a serious condition,” deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said. Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Sunday that Moscow’s troops had carried out 54 attacks on Kherson region with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars over the previous day, leaving three dead and wounding six others.
Four people in the southern Russian border region of Belgorod were reportedly wounded by shelling on Sunday, the governor said. Witnesses reported loud blasts in the regional capital.
Ukraine’s forces are holding on to the heavily contested eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “The Bakhmut direction is key,” he said in his latest national address. “We keep the city, although the occupiers are doing everything so that not a single undamaged wall remains there.”
Power has been restored to three million more Ukrainians after the latest Russian attacks on infrastructure, bringing the total to nine million after two days, Ukraine’s president has said. “Electricity supplies have been restored to a further three million Ukrainians,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday evening video address. “That means after the terrorist strikes on Friday, we have results already for nine million of our people.” Heating has also been fully restored to Kyiv, the city’s mayor said.
Protecting Ukraine’s borders is a “constant priority” as the country readies for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus, Zelenskiy added. “Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus – is our constant priority,” he said in his nightly video address. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.” Zelenskiy also issued a new appeal to western nations to provide Ukraine with effective air defences.
Russia will reportedly deploy musicians to Ukraine’s frontlines in a bid to boost morale, according to its defence ministry. The “frontline creative brigade” will be tasked with maintaining “a high moral, political and psychological state [among] the participants of the special military operation,” Russian outlet RBC news cited the ministry as saying. UK defence officials said the new unit is in keeping with the historic use of “military music and organised entertainment” to boost morale as low morale continues to be a “significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force”.
Iran’s foreign ministry has said it will not “seek permission from anyone” to expand relations with Russia, dismissing US concerns over a growing military partnership between Tehran and Moscow. Iran has been accused of supplying drones to Russia, allegedly used to attack Ukraine. CIA chief William Burns said the military cooperation between Iran and Russia “poses real threats” to US allies in the Middle East. Nasser Kanani, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, called the comments “baseless” adding that Tehran “acts independently in regulating its foreign relations and does not seek permission from anyone”.
Veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger believes the time is approaching for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. “The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” Kissinger wrote in The Spectator magazine. “A peace process should link Ukraine to Nato, h owever expressed. The alternative of neutrality is no longer meaningful,” he added. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed the comments as amounting to “appeasing the aggressor” and said there could be no deal involving ceding territory. “Any agreement with the devil – a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories – will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
A woman walks on an empty street in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on 18 December. Photograph: Reuters