Because the conflict enters its 665th day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the scenario on Wednesday, December 20, 2023.
Combating
- Ukraine’s army mentioned Russia launched its fifth air assault this month on the capital, with air defence programs destroying all weapons on their strategy to Kyiv. “In accordance with preliminary info, there have been no casualties or destruction within the capital,” Serhiy Popko, the top of Kyiv’s army administration, mentioned on the Telegram messaging app.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry mentioned it introduced down a Ukrainian drone close to the capital that led to restrictions on flights at Moscow’s important airports. No casualties had been reported.
- Ukraine mentioned its army was holding the road within the jap Kharkiv area, regardless of being outgunned by Russian forces attempting to take management of the city of Kupiansk. “The scenario is sophisticated. We’ve to combat in circumstances of superiority of the enemy each in weapons and within the variety of personnel,” mentioned Oleksandr Syrsky, the top of Ukraine’s floor forces. Russia’s Defence Ministry mentioned it had repelled eight Ukrainian assaults round Kupiansk with artillery.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned the army had requested for the mobilisation of 500,000 extra individuals within the combat to take away Russian forces from its territory and urged america and Kyiv’s different Western allies to keep up their assist for his nation. He mentioned he additionally hoped prisoner swaps, which he mentioned had been delayed because of unspecified “causes” on the Russian facet, would quickly resume. The final trade happened in early August.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin informed defence and army chiefs that Moscow had the momentum in its conflict in Ukraine and was well-positioned to achieve its objectives, claiming that makes an attempt to defeat it had failed. Putin additionally mentioned Moscow was upgrading its nuclear arsenal and sustaining the army at its highest stage of readiness.
- Italy’s cupboard handed a decree permitting it to provide “means, supplies and tools” to Ukraine in its combat in opposition to Russia till the top of 2024. Provides will embody not solely weapons but in addition energy mills and “every little thing wanted to assist army operations in defence of unarmed civilians”, a Defence Ministry assertion mentioned.
- Volker Turk, the United Nations’s human rights chief, mentioned there have been indications Russia had dedicated conflict crimes in Ukraine, together with 142 instances of “summary executions” of civilians as nicely we enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment reminiscent of sexual violence in opposition to detainees.
- A court docket in Poland convicted 14 residents of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine for being a part of a spy ring making ready acts of sabotage on behalf of Moscow. They got jail phrases starting from 13 months to 6 years.
![Volodymyr Zelenskyy sitting on stage during his annual press conference. A map of Ukraine is in blue and yellow behind him.](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/AP23353635013048-1703036976.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
- A former Russian soldier sought asylum within the Netherlands and mentioned he needed to testify on the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) about Russian conflict crimes he witnessed whereas combating in Ukraine. A Dutch authorized supply informed the Reuters information company the person had been a member of Russian-backed separatist forces in jap Ukraine since 2014 and had additionally labored as an teacher for the Wagner mercenary group there.
- Chuck Schumer, the bulk chief within the US Senate, mentioned the higher home aimed to go an settlement to supply further help to Ukraine and bolster US border safety as quickly because it returns to Washington, DC in January after the Christmas and New 12 months holidays.
Weapons
- Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, mentioned that for the reason that nation started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it had elevated manufacturing of tanks by 5.6 occasions, drones by 16.8 occasions and artillery shells by 17.5 occasions. Talking throughout Putin’s assembly with army chiefs, Shoigu mentioned Russian forces had additionally laid 7,000sq km (2,703 sq. miles) of minefields in Ukraine – a few of them as a lot as 600 metres (1,969 ft) large – together with 1.5 million anti-tank obstacles and a pair of,000km (1,243 miles) of anti-tank ditches.
- Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine deliberate to fabricate some 1 million drones subsequent yr to be used on the battlefield. Ukraine and Russia use drones to scope out enemy positions, drop explosives and launch assaults on the enemy.
![Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu walking together](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/AP23353625229007-1703036797.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C597)
- The US charged Hossein Hatefi Ardakani, an Iranian, and Gary Lam, a Chinese language nationwide, with allegedly supplying dual-use US-manufactured microelectronics to Iran’s drone programme. “These very parts have been present in use by Iran’s allies in present conflicts, together with in Ukraine,” particular agent Michael Krol mentioned. Each males stay at giant.
- The US Treasury Division, in the meantime, introduced that it was imposing sanctions on a community of 10 Ardakani-linked entities in addition to 4 people primarily based in Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia, for circumventing export bans to obtain US parts for Iranian-made assault drones.