The battle for the cities of Bakhmut and Kreminna in the Donbass is intensifying. Meanwhile, according to the UN, the Ukraine war claimed 17,831 civilian casualties. The news ticker.
- Border with Belarus: Ukraine wants to react quickly in the event of an escalation.
- Battle of Kreminna: Ukrainian troops are advancing on the city in the Luhansk region
- Editor’s note: Read the latest developments from the Ukraine conflict in our news ticker. The information processed here Ukraine war come partly from the warring parties Russia and the Ukraine. They can therefore not be independently checked in part.
+++ 7.15 a.m.: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) counted 17,831 civilian casualties in Ukraine as of December 26, including 6,884 dead and 10,947 injured since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. This was announced by OHCHR in a civilian casualty report released on Tuesday (December 27). Most of the civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with large-scale effects, including heavy artillery fire, multiple rockets, missiles and airstrikes.
Ukraine war: Putin bans oil sales to countries with a price cap
+++ 6.44 a.m.: A document published on Tuesday said of the oil export ban: “Supplies of Russian oil and oil products to foreign companies and individuals are prohibited if the mechanism for fixing a price cap is directly or indirectly built into these contracts.” The ban on oil transportation comes into force on February 1st. For oil products such as gasoline and diesel, the Russian government should set the exact date, although it cannot be earlier than February 1, the decree says. Initially, the decree is valid until July 1, 2023.
The price cap for Russian oil was decided by the EU at the beginning of December and is currently 60 US dollars (57 euros) per barrel (159 litres). The G7 countries, Australia and Norway have joined the measure. The price cap is one of the sanctions with which the West is responding to Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy expects Ukraine’s liberation from Russia next year
Update from Wednesday, December 28, 6:25 a.m.: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Tuesday evening (December 27) that Ukraine is preparing its defense and security forces for what is likely to be a crucial year ahead. “We know about the risks in winter, we know what we have to do in spring, and therefore we know what results the entire defense and security sector has to show,” Zelenskyy.
The President named the liberation of Ukraine from Russia and reconstruction, the repatriation of the Ukrainians who had fled, the further rapprochement of the state with the most important partners and the opening of new opportunities for Ukraine in the world as the main goals. He also said that he would soon present his concept for the implementation of these tasks in the Ukrainian parliament.
Ukraine war: The border with Belarus also remains in focus
+++ 10.55 p.m.: Following recent meetings between Vladimir Putin and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, Ukraine is keeping a particularly close eye on what’s happening on the border with Belarus in the north of the country. In this way, Ukraine wants to be able to react quickly in the event of a further possible escalation. That said according to a report in the newspaper Kyiv Independent Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian border guard, on Tuesday. At the same time, however, he emphasized that no acute threats from offensive forces were foreseeable at the border.
However, the fact that preparations are being made for a possible escalation has been made clear by Ukrainian officials, and not just since the meetings of the two heads of state, because even if Belarusian troops are not involved in the current military operations, the country in northern Ukraine offers the Russian ones Troops again and again terrain for training and airfields as well as bases for military equipment and personnel. Kyrylo Budanov, head of news at Ukraine’s defense ministry, recently accused Russia in an interview with the New York Times with the help of implied troop deployments on the Belarusian border, to try to get Ukraine to withdraw personnel from other fronts. So far, however, he too sees no signs of a concrete threat from Belarus in the near future.
Russian attack on maternity ward in Kherson – Ukraine plans counter-offensive
+++ 9.50 p.m.: During the war in Ukraine, Russia carried out another bomb attack on a civilian hospital on Tuesday, where two babies had been delivered on the same day. The news portal reports Kyiv Independent citing information from the Ukrainian Presidency. “Miraculously” no one was injured in the attack on the hospital in Kherson. According to official sources, five women and their recently born children were in the maternity ward at the time of the attack. The hospital workers had completed a caesarean just before the attack.
+++ 7.55 p.m.: On the southern front of the Ukraine war, Ukrainian troops are expecting military successes soon on the left bank of the Dnipro River, which is currently largely occupied by Russian troops. This is reported by the online news portal Ukrainska Pravda, which the spokeswoman for the units in southern Ukraine, Nataliya Humenyuk, quoted. According to Humenyuk, there are already preparations on the fronts of the liberated right bank of the river for extensive offensives with the aim of liberating areas to the left of the river in the near future.
According to Humenyuk, the fact that the Russian occupiers are nervously waiting for Ukrainian counterattacks is shown not only by the corresponding troop movements, but above all by the “terrorist attacks” on the liberated area to the right of the river, which are intended to put pressure on the civilian population.
Nationwide air alert in the Ukraine war: explosions in Odessa
+++ 4.50 p.m.: Airborne alarm sirens warned of impending attacks throughout Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon. Explosions erupted in the city of Odessa, which is not far from the front lines on the shore of the Black Sea. This is reported by the online news portal Ukrainska Pravda.
A possible trigger for the air alert are reports from military experts on the independent portal Belaruski Hajun, which said several Russian military planes had left airfields in Belarus. The all-clear was only given after more than an hour of nationwide alarm around 4:30 p.m. local time. Reported on the explosion sounds in Odessa Ukrainska Pravdathat it may have been the noise of a Ukrainian air defense system shooting down enemy drones.
War in Ukraine: Patriot system to be operational soon – Fierce fighting for Bakhmut
+++ Update from Tuesday, December 27, 6:25 a.m.: According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Associated Press Patriot air defense systems in Ukraine are expected to be operational in approximately six months once all necessary preparations have been completed. According to Kuleba, the US government has drawn up an action plan to have the Patriot missile battery operational in less than six months. The training usually lasts up to a year.
Ex-President Medvedev on nuclear weapons: ‘The only thing stopping our enemies today’
Update from Monday, December 26, 6:56 a.m.: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote an article in the Official Journal Rossiyskaya commented on the role of “the West” in the Ukraine war. “The only thing stopping our enemies today is the realization that Russia will be guided by the principles of state policy… nuclear deterrence. And in the event of a real threat, it will act accordingly,” Medvedev said SZ.de cited with reference to the article.
The West is caught between a “burning desire to humiliate, insult, dismember and destroy Russia as much as possible and the desire to avoid a nuclear apocalypse.” The arsenal of nuclear weapons that Russia has is estimated by experts to be around 6,000 warheads.
Russia is expanding troops in Belarus
First report: MINSK – A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Belarus. The fire in the “Naftan oil refinery” near the city of Wizebsk in the north-west of the country was discovered on Sunday morning (December 25, 2022). This was reported by the Belarusian Ministry of Emergencies. The news portal Ukrainska Pravda from Ukraine reported on this.
The fire was extinguished shortly after it broke out. No people are said to have been injured in the accident. A cause of the fire has not yet been announced. A commission has been set up to take care of the investigation.
Ukraine News: Will Belarus still be a party to the war?
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Belarus had recently become the focus of public attention again. The country north of Ukraine is considered a close ally of Russia. Its President Wladimir Putin recently visited ruler Alexander Lukashenko in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
Reinforced now Russia in the Ukraine War its troops stationed in Belarus. This is reported unanimously by the US Institute for War Studies (ISW) and the Ukrainian military. Moscow move further battalions to the Ukrainian border with Belarus. While the ISW still considers a Russian attack on Ukraine from Belarusian soil to be unlikely, the danger must be taken seriously. The construction of a field hospital is seen as an indication of a planned offensive. Russia had set up such military hospitals near the border shortly before the start of hostilities in the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. “Field hospitals are not necessary for exercises and can be an indication of the preparation for combat operations,” said the ISW. Lukashenko made his military bases available to Kremlin troops for their attack on Ukraine in February.
Ukraine News: Lukashenko meets Putin in Moscow
The ruler in Minsk, in turn, arrived in Moscow on Saturday for a state visit. There Lukashenko again stressed that his country would not take part in a war against Ukraine. Due to the numerous cooperations with Moscow, Belarus is seen in Kyiv just as much as a warring party, just as Moscow sees the role of the West.
Lukashenko’s state visit is part of an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The union of states from the former Soviet republics emerged from the collapse of the USSR a good 30 years ago. The end of the month also marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union. (editorial/dpa)