Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 668

Summary for Saturday, 23rd December 2023 - DAY 668

• Ukraine says its forces have shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war.
  The Russian military made no mention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested US-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used.
  
  
• Ukraine shot down 24 of 28 Shahed drones Russia launched in an overnight attack that damaged residential buildings in Kyiv and an infrastructure facility and grain warehouse in southern regions, officials said on Friday. Drones hit three storeys of an apartment block in the Ukrainian capital, injuring two people and causing lesser damage to several other residential buildings.
  

• Russia said its air defences intercepted five Ukrainian drones south of Moscow in the space of less than an hour. The defence ministry said four were intercepted over Kaluga region and a fifth was destroyed in the Moscow region.
  
  
• Russia may sever diplomatic ties with the US if Washington confiscates Russian assets frozen over the Ukrainian conflict, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, as saying on Friday. The Kremlin said Russia would never leave in peace any country that seized its assets, adding that it would look at what western assets it could seize in retaliation if that occurred. The comments came amid suggestions from some western politicians that frozen Russian assets worth $300bn be handed to Ukraine.
  
  
• Russia is ready to swiftly respond in kind to Washington deploying short- and medium-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Ryabkov said. Separately, the deputy foreign minister said Moscow and Washington were still engaged in sensitive negotiations over a prisoner exchange, but accused the US side of leaking details to the media.
  
  
• The Dutch government will send 18 F-16 jets to Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Friday after a conversation with the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte.
  
  
• Police have arrested a senior Ukrainian defence ministry official suspected of embezzling €36m (£31m/$40m) for the purchase of much-needed artillery shells in the war against Russia, according to officials. Prosecutors said on Friday that the official, whose identity they did not reveal, had developed a system under which he bought artillery shells at inflated prices. Ukraine has had a series of corruption scandals in recent months, including several in the defence ministry.
  
  
• The US said it would place sanctions on foreign banks that supported Russia’s war in Ukraine, in a new bid to exert economic pressure on Moscow as it diversifies from the west to China.
  
  
• The Kremlin accused the Wall Street Journal of publishing “pulp fiction” after it reported that the death of the mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash had been orchestrated by a Russian security official, Nikolai Patrushev.
  
  
• Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, visited Kyiv on Friday to present an aid package for Ukraine on his first official foreign visit, a ministry spokesperson said.
  
  
• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held a phone call with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday to discuss ways to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza as well as humanitarian relief efforts, the Kremlin said.
  
  
• The renowned Russian writer Boris Akunin, who was declared a terrorist by Moscow and became the target of a criminal inquiry this week, says he fears the move signals a new milestone in the country’s history under the Russian president. The writer, who lives in exile, told Agence France-Presse: “Putin’s regime has clearly decided to take a very important new step on its way from a police, autocratic state to a totalitarian state.”
  

Ukraine says it shot down three Russian bomber aircraft

 Today at noon in the southern sector – minus three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers!

Russian war bloggers call for withdrawal from Kherson region after Ukraine downs three Su-34s

Three Su-34 fighter-bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces were destroyed in the Kherson region, along with news of the imminent delivery of F-16s to Ukraine, causing panic among Russian war bloggers. The  Russian Telegram Channel "Airborne troops for for Honesty and Justice", which is affiliated with the officers from the Dnieper group of the Russian armed forces, is demanding an immediate "goodwill gesture" on the Southern front.
The channel confirmed the news about three Russian Su-34s downed in the Kherson region, specifying that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had taken down the Russian aircraft near the town of Chaplynka, which is deep in the rear of the Russian army in the Kherson region, approximately 60 km from the front line.
The channel asserts that recently an "unknown foreign air defense system" has taken control of almost the entire right bank of the region along the Nova Kakhovka-Armiansk line. The Russians believe this could be the Patriot system. According to the Russian bloggers, this makes it practically impossible for Russian warplanes to conduct combat operations there.
"Our command at the time ignored the threat, which resulted in the loss of scarce aircraft and valuable skilled pilots," wrote the Russian military. They demand the withdrawal of the Russian army beyond the Nova Kakhovka-Armiansk line, leaving about half of the right-bank region of the Kherson region.
"This will secure our aircraft, remove command posts from being targeted by enemy missiles, and allow our fighters to take up more advantageous defensive positions… The HQ of the Dnieper group of forces has already developed a corresponding plan. The only thing is that General Teplinsky, due to personal ambitions and excessive vanity, is currently delaying its implementation," the Russian military resource reported.

Frontline troops experiencing 'exceptional levels of rat and mice infestation'

This year’s mild autumn, along with ample food from fields left fallow due to the fighting, have likely contributed to the increase in the rodent population.
As the weather has become colder, the animals are likely seeking shelter in vehicles and defensive positions. Rodents will add further pressure to frontline combatants’ morale.
In addition, they pose a risk to military equipment by gnawing through cables – as recorded in the same area during the second world war.
Unverified reports also suggest Russian units starting to suffer from increased sickness cases which the troops attribute to the pest problem.

Here are some of the latest images coming through from Ukraine:

Former TV journalist barred from running against Putin in presidential election

Video from a meeting of the central electoral commission shows members voting unanimously to reject Yekaterina Duntsova’s candidacy

Russian troops have made small territorial gains in recent weeks on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, with their manpower advantage seen as one decisive factor

Russia’s recent advances near Avdiivka, as well as around other cities such as Kupiansk, Bakhmut and Marinka, are also further evidence that Russia has firmly seized the initiative on much of the battlefield.
“Currently, the situation on the front line is difficult and is gradually deteriorating,” Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s committee on national security, defense and intelligence, said in an interview. “Without American ammunition, we are beginning to lose territory that was hard won this summer.”
Since launching offensive operations near Avdiivka in October, Russia has gained a total of about seven miles in all directions around the city, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
“But it has cost them dearly,” Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Army, told national television on Wednesday. He noted that Russia had suffered 25,000 casualties in the east over two months, most of them around Avdiivka.
“I would say the motto of their attacks is ‘We have more people than you have ammunition, bullets, rockets, and shells,’” Tykhyi, a major fighting with the Ukrainian National Guard in Avdiivka, said in audio messages, using only his call sign to identify himself, as per Ukrainian military rules.

The International Committee of the Red Cross last night reported that it had been able to facilitate an exchange of parcels for prisoners of war which included letters from their families.

The assassination of the Wagner mercenary army chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was approved by a close ally of president Vladimir Putin, the Wall Street Journal has reported after conversations with western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in Prigozhin’s death, and Putin offered the closest thing to an official explanation for the plane’s fiery crash, suggesting a hand grenade had detonated onboard. None of that was true.
Hours after the incident, a European involved in intelligence gathering who maintained a backchannel of communication with the Kremlin and saw news of the crash asked an official there what had happened. “He had to be removed,” the Kremlin official responded without hesitation.

In the beginning of August, as most of Moscow went on vacation, [the secretary of Russia’s security council, Nikolai] Patrushev, in his office in central Moscow, gave orders to his assistant to proceed in shaping an operation to dispose of Prigozhin, said the former Russian intelligence officer. Putin was later shown the plans and didn’t object, western intelligence agencies said.

Several weeks later, following his tour through Africa, Prigozhin was waiting at a Moscow airport while safety inspectors finished a check on the plane. It was during this delay that a small bomb was placed under the wing, said western intelligence officials.

Protesting Polish truckers have unblocked the key border crossing of Shehyni-Medyka between Poland and Ukraine, Kyiv’s economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko has announced, hailing an “important improvement”.

Fighting age Ukrainian men in Estonia could be extradited to their home country and forced to join the war effort amid a shortage of soldiers.

Ukraine will officially celebrate Christmas on Monday, 25 December, for the first time since 1917 as part of the continued attempt to wipe out Moscow’s influence in the country.

Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova has said she will challenge in the supreme court the decision to disqualify her from running in the Russian presidential election next year, calling it unjustified and undemocratic.

Members of the central electoral commission on Saturday voted unanimously to reject her candidacy, citing “numerous violations” in the papers she had submitted in support of her bid.

“With this political decision, we are deprived of the opportunity to have our own representative and express views that differ from the official aggressive discourse,” she said on Telegram.
Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speechwriter now labelled by the authorities as a “foreign agent”, said Putin had not wanted to risk the same scenario as Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian leader clung to power in 2020 only with the help of what the opposition and western governments said was large-scale ballot rigging to claim victory over opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
“The Tsikhanouskaya effect is absolutely possible, and in the Kremlin they understand that,” Gallyamov wrote on Telegram.

Meanwhile the Communist party, which has finished a distant second to Putin at every election since 2000, named 75-year-old Nikolai Kharitonov as its candidate. Tass news agency quoted him as saying he would not find fault with the Kremlin leader. “He is responsible for his own cycle of work, why would I criticise him?” Kharitonov said.
In a separate development, Russian news outlets said Boris Nadezhdin, an opposition politician who has been critical of Putin and the war, was put forward as a candidate today by the centre-right Civic Initiative party.
One of the nominal opposition parties in parliament, the A Just Russia – For Truth party, said it would support Putin at the election, state news agency RIA reported.

Russian forces try to drive Ukrainian forces out of their footholds on Dnipro's left bank in Kherson Oblast

• On the Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna fronts, Russian forces carried out airstrikes in the vicinity of Leonivka and Chervonyi Khutir (Chernihiv Oblast). More than 20 Ukrainian civilian settlements came under Russian artillery and mortar fire, including Bleshnia and Leonivka (Chernihiv Oblast); Oleksiivka, Stanychne and Sadky (Sumy Oblast); and Kozacha Lopan, Bolohivka, Velykyi Burlyk, Izbytske and Stroivka (Kharkiv Oblast).
  
  
• Ukrainian forces repelled 12 Russian assaults near Synkivka (Kharkiv Oblast) on the Kupiansk front, where Russian forces attempted to break through the Ukrainian defences. Russian forces also deployed mortars and artillery to attack around 10 settlements, including Dvorichna, Synkivka, Petropavlivka and Berestove (Kharkiv Oblast).
  
  
• Russian forces did not undertake offensive operations on the Lyman front but carried out an airstrike in the vicinity of the Serebrianka forest (Luhansk Oblast). Russian forces also deployed mortars and artillery to attack more than 10 Ukrainian settlements, including Nevske and Bilohorivka (Luhansk Oblast) and Torske, Serebrianka, Verkhnokamianske, Spirne and Rozdolivka (Donetsk Oblast).
  
  
• On the Bakhmut front, Ukraine’s defence forces repelled eight Russian assaults near Bohdanivka, Ivanivske, Klishchiivka and Andriivka (Donetsk Oblast). Around 10 civilian settlements, including Vasiukivka, Bohdanivka, Klishchiivka, Andriivka and New-York (Donetsk Oblast), came under Russian mortar and artillery fire.
  
  
• Ukrainian forces repelled 19 Russian assaults to the east of Novobakhmutivka, Stepove and Avdiivka, and another 12 assaults near Sieverne, Pervomaiske and Nevelske (Donetsk Oblast) on the Avdiivka front. Russian forces deployed artillery and mortars to attack around 10 civilian settlements, including Novobakhmutivka, Berdychi, Avdiivka and Lastochkyne (Donetsk Oblast).
  
  
• On the Marinka front, Ukraine’s Defence Forces are continuing to hold Russian forces back  near Marinka and Novomykhailivka (Donetsk Oblast), where the Russians carried out two unsuccessful aircraft-supported assaults on Ukrainian positions. Krasnohorivka, Heorhiivka, Pobieda and Kostiantynivka (Donetsk Oblast) came under Russian fire.
  
  
• Russian forces did not undertake offensive operations on the Shakhtarsk front. Around 10 civilian settlements, including Vuhledar, Bohoiavlenka, Prechystivka and Rivnopil (Donetsk Oblast), came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.
  
  
• On the Zaporizhzhia front, Ukrainian forces repelled all Russian assaults in the vicinity of Robotyne (Zaporizhzhia Oblast), where Russian forces made unsuccessful attempts to push the Ukrainians out of their positions. Around 20 civilian settlements came under Russian artillery and mortar fire, including Poltavka, Huliaipole, Charivne, Mala Tokmachka and Robotyne (Zaporizhzhia Oblast).
  
  
• On the Kherson front, the cities of Kherson (Kherson Oblast) and Ochakiv (Mykolaiv Oblast) came under Russian fire.
  

Closing summary

• Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova has said she will challenge in the supreme court the decision to disqualify her from running in the Russian presidential election next year, calling it unjustified and undemocratic.
  

• Fighting age Ukrainian men in Estonia could be extradited to their home country and forced to join the war effort amid a shortage of soldiers. Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR reports that the Baltic nation stands ready to support Ukraine in its proposals to conscript Ukrainian men abroad for military service.
  

• The Communist party of Russia, the second largest party in parliament, has selected a 75-year-old candidate, Nikolai Kharitonov, who won just under 14% of the national vote when he stood against Putin in 2004, to stand in the presidential polls.
  

• The assassination of the Wagner mercenary army chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was approved by a close ally of Vladimir Putin, the Wall Street Journal has reported after conversations with western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer.
  

• Financial institutions that support the Russian military-industrial complex are to be blacklisted in the US after president Joe Biden signed an executive order yesterday to deny banks under sanctions access to the American financial system.
  

• Protesting Polish truckers have unblocked the key border crossing of Shehyni-Medyka between Poland and Ukraine, Kyiv’s economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced, hailing an “important improvement”.