12/25/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 05:43 Ex-NATO commander in chief: “We can afford military aid for Ukraine” +++
Former NATO commander-in-chief James Stavridis calls for more aid for Ukraine. “It’s a very dangerous situation and the real action is actually not taking place in Kiev. The real action is taking place in Washington,” Stavridis said on the radio show “Cats Roundtable.” “We must provide military support to Ukraine. Their cause is just.” Stavridis calculates that half of Russia’s army was destroyed without any U.S. soldiers being “killed or even endangered,” and that the country did so with “the equivalent of five percent” of the annual U.S. defense budget. “We can afford it and we should. That’s why I’m only worried about the war in Ukraine if the US and our European allies don’t live up to our commitment to support Ukraine,” Stavridis continued.
+++ 04:58 Ukraine: Russian SU-34 fighter jet shot down +++
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk shares Telegram that the armed forces destroyed a Russian SU-34 fighter-bomber that was heading towards Mariupol. “It was confirmed that our anti-aircraft missile system hit the SU-34 fighter-bomber in the Mariupol direction. It did not return to the airfield,” writes Oleschuk. At the same time, the Air Force commander reported that combat operations against Russian SU-30s were taking place in the Black Sea in the direction of Odessa.
+++ 03:36 Russians report dead and injured in Donetsk +++
In the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, a woman has been killed and six civilians injured in Ukrainian shelling of the town of Horlivka, a Russian official says. A shopping center and several buildings were destroyed.
+++ 02:37 Five dead after Russian shelling in Kherson +++
According to Ukrainian reports, five civilians were killed in Russian attacks in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. Three people died when a house and an apartment were shelled in the city of Kherson, a woman died in a drone strike in a small town south of Kherson, and another woman was killed when a town further north came under heavy fire, regional police said. Gas and water supplies were also partially interrupted by the attacks, which also hit a medical facility, explains the head of the press office of the Kherson regional military administration, Oleksandr Tolokonnikov.
+++ 01:37 EU counts 4.1 million Ukrainian refugees +++
According to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), the number of asylum seekers in Germany and Europe has risen massively this year. In October alone, the authority registered around 123,000 applications, the highest monthly value in seven years, EUAA director Nina Gregori told the newspapers of the Funke media group. The total number of asylum applications in the EU will be “well over one million” in 2023. The number of refugees from Ukraine has also continued to rise. At the end of October, 4.16 million Ukrainians were registered in the EU and were enjoying temporary protection here – 320,000 more than in January, says Gregori. At the end of October, Germany was the most important receiving country in the EU with around 1.17 million Ukrainian refugees, while Poland was the second most important with 957,000 Ukrainians.
+++ 23:37 Another break with Moscow: Ukraine celebrates on December 25th. Christmas +++
Orthodox Christians in Ukraine have prepared to celebrate for the first time on December 25th instead of January 7th. Many believers took part in the Christmas Eve services on Sunday. The majority supported Kiev’s decision last summer to change the date of Christmas in order to distance itself from Russia. In his Christmas message recorded in the famous Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that all Ukrainians celebrated Christmas “together” “on the same day, as one big family, as one nation, as one united country.” The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, spoke of a “local turning point”. For the first time, Ukraine will celebrate Christmas “on December 25th together with the whole world,” Makeiev explained on the online service X.
+++ 22:40 Girkin supporters gather in Moscow +++
Hundreds of supporters of imprisoned former separatist leader Igor Girkin supported his candidacy for next year’s Russian presidential election at a meeting in Moscow. Over 300 of them gathered in a hotel in the Russian capital to campaign for Girkin. Among them were many women, elderly people and military veterans. Some wore T-shirts with Girkin’s face and the slogan “Freedom for Strelkov,” his pseudonym. The military blogger supports the current Russian offensive in Ukraine, but strongly condemns its military strategy as not tough enough.
+++ 22:04 Russians step up attacks on Dnipro bridgeheads +++
On December 24, Russian armed forces appeared to have once again increased their attacks on the left bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. This emerges from information from the Ukrainian high command. Accordingly, the defenders repelled 23 attacks by the Russians. However, the Russian attackers received a “good beating” and suffered “significant losses,” writes the army leadership. The Ukrainians held the front line and their positions. Yesterday, Saturday, the defenders there reported 15 attacks repelled. Ukrainian units have established bridgeheads on the southern bank of the Dnipro.
You can read all previous developments here.