Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 659

Summary for Thursday, 14th December 2023 - DAY 659 

• Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is expected to hold his annual end of the year press conference on 14 December. The event will include a call-in known as the “direct line”, in which Russians can ask Putin for his advice. “On December 14, Vladimir Putin will sum up the results of the year. It will be a combined format of the direct line and the president’s final press conference,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
  
  
• Russia launched a massive missile attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday in an apparent show of strength, minutes after Volodymyr Zelenskiy met his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for talks in Washington. Ukraine’s air defences shot down all 10 Russian missiles targeting the capital but least 53 people were injured by falling debris.
  
  
• Ahead of Thursday’s EU leaders summit, Zelenskiy said that Orbán had no reason to block Ukraine’s EU membership. “I was very direct … He has no reasons to block Ukrainian membership in the EU. I asked him to tell me one reason … I’m [still] waiting for an answer,” Zelenskiy said about his short encounter with Orban in Argentina on Sunday.
  
  
• Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also urged EU countries to recognise that Ukraine has “much to offer” the bloc. “Values-wise and ideologically, Ukraine is an indisputable part of Europe – which is precisely why Russia attacked us … Without Ukraine, the ‘Europe’ puzzle cannot come together,” he said.
  
  
• Arriving at the summit in Brussels, Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, said that “apathy on Ukraine” was “unacceptable”. Poland’s previous government had become embroiled in a row with Ukraine over grain exports but new foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, also stressed that supporting Ukraine would be a “priority” for the new administration.
  
  
• The five Nordic nations told Zelenskiy during previously unannounced talks in Oslo that they would support his country “for as long as it takes” in its struggle to drive out Russian forces. Together, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland have provided aid to Ukraine worth €11bn since Russia invaded in February 2022 and are ready to continue giving extensive military, economic and humanitarian support, the five nations said in a joint statement.
  
  
• Denmark’s government would present a new support package for Ukraine worth €1bn ($1.08bn) to parliament on Thursday, the country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said at a press conference in Oslo with the Nordic leaders and Zelenskiy in Oslo.
  
  
• Ukraine’s top mobile phone operator, Kyivstar, started restoring voice services to some clients a day after its networks were knocked out by a major cyber-attack, Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said, with data and other services to follow. The company, which provides services to more than half of Ukraine’s population, sustained “huge” damage during the attack on Tuesday, Komarov told Reuters, calling it “the biggest cyber-attack on telco infrastructure in the world”.
  
  
• A hacking group believed by Kyiv to be affiliated with Russian military intelligence claimed responsibility for the cyber-attack. A group of activist hackers, or “hacktivists”, called Solntsepyok said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that it carried out the cyber-attack, and published screenshots appearing to show that the hackers had accessed Kyivstar’s servers.
  

Putin confronted by critical text messages beamed on screen at year-end news conference

President sought to paint rosy picture of Russia at four-hour-long event – but citizens had other plans

Across the four hours of a marathon end-of-year press conference, Vladimir Putin offered a familiar mix of threats and jibes against Western nations as he tried to paint a rosy picture of Russian life.
However, he was confronted by criticism from ordinary Russians when text messages were beamed in front of him in an apparent gaffe.

Having cancelled the usual annual event last year, this was the first held since the Russian president launched his war almost two years ago.

Mr Putin said “there will only be peace in Ukraine when we achieve our aims” – essentially forcing Kyiv into submission. It is a threat that Russia has repeated while Ukraine’s forces have put up a stout defence of their territory.

Putin was holding his first press conference since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine last February /(Reuters)

With Mr Putin having recently announced he is running for the presidency again in March 2024, he had to be seen to be backing his war machine, although even he let slip that any Russian gains in Ukraine were “modest”; Kremlin-speak for the fact that there has been little movement on the frontlines in recent months.
The heavily stage-managed news conference was watched by millions across Russia. Ordinary citizens submitted questions alongside those from journalists, and Russian media said at least 2 million were sent in advance, with some being shown on a screen at the venue, even if they weren’t answered by Mr Putin. That led to some awkward messages for the president.
“Why is your ‘reality’ at odds with our lived reality?” one message read. Another criticised the Kremlin’s propaganda, saying: “Mr President, why does the real Russia differ from the one on television?” it said.

“This question won’t be shown! I’d like to know, when will our president pay attention to his own country? We’ve got no education, no healthcare. The abyss lies ahead...” a third said.
Many of those who have questioned the war in Ukraine in public have faced jail sentences, while protests over the invasion are banned.
As Mr Putin spoke, Ukrainian citizens across the country rushed underground as Russia launched missile attacks on a number of cities.

Ukrainian military soldiers fire at Russian positions in Avdiivka earlier this month /(Getty)

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to president Volodymyr Zelensky, added that Mr Putin’s latest comments show the Russian leader only wants to “wage war, murder and conquer”. In a statement on Twitter/X, he added: “[Putin] hates Ukraine fiercely and that is the only reason for a large-scale war.”

The Russian president also inadvertently revealed that Russian losses during the war were significantly higher than the Kremlin had previously admitted. Mr Putin suggested that 617,000 Russians were fighting in Ukraine, having earlier claimed that 730,000 had been mobilised or volunteered.
According to military analyst Yan Matveyev, an additional 250,000 Russian soldiers were involved in the first stages of the invasion in the six months before the other mobilisation of September 2022.
Taking those numbers, Mr Matveyev said: “That is, Mr Putin literally admitted irretrievable losses in the amount of 363,000 people.” The last time the Kremlin offered an estimate of the death toll was September 2022, in which they said only 5,937 soldiers had been killed. Mr Matveyev’s calculations roughly align with the latest US intelligence estimates of Russians killed or wounded, at around 315,000 soldiers.
Amid all the bluster about Russia’s war goals, Mr Putin also raised the prospect of releasing the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, saying he hopes for a prisoner swap deal.
The Russian leader said he hoped an agreement would be reached with the United States on Mr Gershkovich, who faces up to 20 years in prison after his arrest on espionage charges, and his fellow American citizen Paul Whelan, who has been detained on similar charges. The White House has called for both men to be released.

Putin appeared briefly lost for words when confronted with an AI-generated version of himself /(Reuters)

Asked about Mr Gershkovich and Mr Whelan, Mr Putin said: “It’s not that we decline to send them home. No, we want to come to terms and these agreements must be mutually acceptable and should be OK for both of the parties.” He added that Russia had ongoing contact with the US on the issue.

Ukraine has had a tough week diplomatically, with both the US and EU facing political fights to authorise tens of billions of pounds worth of fresh funding for Ukraine, with Mr Putin taking a jab at Western support “running out” during his press conference. But a few hours after Mr Putin finished, EU leaders unexpectedly agreed to open membership talks with Ukraine, something Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, a Putin ally, had vowed to block for weeks.

EU diplomats and officials said that Mr Orban agreed to leave the room, knowing the other leaders would go ahead and vote on Ukraine. Orban confirmed on Facebook that he had abstained from the vote on what he called a “bad decision”.
Mr Zelensky praised the decision: “This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens,” he said.

It was a boost for Kyiv, as the administration of Joe Biden has so far been unable to get a $60bn aid package for Kyiv through the US Congress, while the issue of fresh EU funding is still to be resolved.

In Brussels, Ukraine’s president Zelensky had a welcome boost from the EU / (Cornelius Poppe / NTB)

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said opening the membership talks was “a strategic decision and a day that will remain engraved in the history of our Union”.

Nato secretary Jens Stoltenberg had earlier warned that support for Ukraine was vital not only to protecting their sovereignty but also to the security of the European continent.
“If Putin wins in Ukraine, there is real risk that his aggression will not end there. Our support is not charity. It is an investment in our security,” he said.

In one of the most bizarre exchanges of the news conference, Mr Putin appeared briefly lost for words when confronted with an AI-generated version of himself.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich, hello, I am a student at St Petersburg State University. I want to ask, is it true you have a lot of doubles?” the double asked, prompting laughter among the audience. The question prompted a rare hesitation from Mr Putin, already in his fourth hour of taking questions at the marathon event.
“I see you may resemble me and speak with my voice. But I have thought about it and decided that only one person must be like me and speak with my voice, and that will be me,” he said. “That is my first double, by the way,” Mr Putin added as an afterthought.

There has been recurrent speculation, particularly in Western media, that Mr Putin has one or more body doubles to cover for him in some public appearances because of alleged health problems. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied this.

European Union leaders struggled at the start of a two-day summit on Thursday to keep their two most elementary promises to Ukraine at war intact — to give it the money and wherewithal to stave off the Russian invasion and maintain its hope that one day it will be able to join the wealthy bloc.

And stunningly, the threat to that commitment does not come from outside, but from within, from its increasingly recalcitrant member Hungary, AP reports. The country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, came into the summit vowing to both block the plans by his 26 fellow leaders to officially declare that membership negotiations with Ukraine can start, and more pressingly, deny Kyiv €50bn ($54bn, £43bn) in financial aid that the country dearly needs to stay afloat.
The challenge comes at an especially dire time for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, straight off a trip to Washington where his pleas for more aid from the US Congress fell on deaf ears. He was widely expected to come to Brussels to make his case heard here too but there was no official confirmation early on Thursday that he would attend.
“We absolutely have to provide a sense of security on the budget, especially after the disappointment in the United States,” said a high-level EU diplomat who requested anonymity because the summit talks had not yet begun.

Kyiv says Russia attacked south Ukraine with 42 drones overnight

Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a total of 617,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine

'Real risk' Vladimir Putin will not stop with Ukraine if he achieves military victory, says Nato chief

If Putin wins in Ukraine, there is real risk that his aggression will not end there. Our support is not charity. It is an investment in our security … The only way to reach a just and lasting solution is to convince President Putin that they will not win on the battlefield. And the only way to ensure that President Putin realises that he is not winning on the battlefield is to continue to support Ukraine.

An explosion rocks Voronezh Oil Depot, sparking concerns and confusion

Illustrative photo / screenshot from video

On December 12, 2023, a powerful explosion erupted at the Rosneft oil depot in Voronezh, russia, raising serious concerns about security and sparking confusion over the cause and official response, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine reports.
The blast, believed to have targeted a fuel tank, ignited a major fire that engulfed parts of the facility. While the exact cause remains under investigation, speculation points towards anti-Putin rebels seeking to disrupt operations and expose vulnerabilities.

Rosneft oil depot in Voronezh / Photo credit: The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine

Local Voronezh officials quickly devised a narrative of “emergency training exercises” conveniently occurring near the burning fuel tank. This explanation, however, has been met with skepticism and raised questions about transparency and the true extent of the situation.
Investigators themselves are reportedly baffled by the “training exercise” claim, unable to reconcile it with the ongoing investigation and the visible damage to the facility.

Latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine and elsewhere:

When asked about a possible prisoner swap for the jailed Wall Street journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, Putin said that he hoped to find an agreement with the US that was “satisfactory to both sides.”

Romania finds drone crater on its territory after Russian attack on Ukraine

Romania will summon Russia’s ambassador after it discover a drone crater near its border with Ukraine

Hundreds of protesters angered by what they view as wasteful spending by municipal officials gathered outside Kyiv city hall on Thursday and demanded that the money should go to Ukraine’s war against Russia instead of local projects.

Closing Summary

• Ukraine said on Thursday that its air defence systems had downed dozens of Iranian-designed drones launched by Russian forces targeting the southern city of Odesa, in Moscow’s latest overnight barrage that wounded 11 people.
  
  
• At the EU summit on Thursday, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told reporters that Ukraine did not yet meet the “merit-based” criteria to join the EU and that the issue should not even be discussed.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, lost an appeal on Thursday to be released from jail and must remain in custody until at least 30 January.
  
  
• When asked about a possible prisoner swap for the jailed Wall Street journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, Putin said he hoped to find an agreement with the US that was “satisfactory to both sides”.
  
  
• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged a summit of EU leaders on Thursday to open membership talks with his country, warning that Europe would not understand if the meeting resulted in a “satisfied smile” for Putin.
  
  
• There is a “real risk” that Putin will not stop with Ukraine if he achieves military victory there, the Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned.
  
  
• A Moscow court on Thursday has ordered a retrial in the case of a veteran Russian human rights campaigner who is fighting charges of discrediting the country’s armed forces.
  
  
• Finland will sign a defence agreement with the US, the Finnish government has said, to grant the US military broad access across the Nordic country to the vicinity of its long border with Russia.
  
  
• Romania has identified a drone crater near its border with Ukraine after an overnight Russian attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure, its defence ministry has said.