Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 672

Summary for Wednesday, 27th December 2023 - DAY 672

• Ukraine’s armed forces commander has said his troops remain in an area of the eastern town of Marinka despite Russia’s assertions that Moscow is in control of the settlement. Valerii Zaluzhnyi acknowledged on Tuesday the town was in ruins after prolonged fighting but said Ukrainian troops were still positioned on its northern flank. Capturing Marinka would amount to Moscow’s most significant battlefield gain since May.
  
  
• Russian forces shelled the railway station in Kherson as a train was set to evacuate residents, killing one policeman and injuring four people, said Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.
  
  
• The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee has approved Sweden’s bid for Nato membership but it still needs to pass a full vote of the parliament.
  
  
• The Ukrainian air force said it struck Russia’s Novocherkassk navy ship during an air attack on Feodosia in Crimea, controlled by Russia. Ukraine said the ship was destroyed while Russia said it was damaged. Footage and photographs showed powerful explosions, fires over a port area, and burnt wreckage.
  
  
• The Ukrainian army chief, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said he was not satisfied with the work of military draft offices responsible for mobilising troops. His comments came a day after Ukraine’s parliament published the text of a draft law including lowering the age of men who can be mobilised to 25 from 27.
  
  
• Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence minister, said he wanted “to express deep gratitude” to the British government “for providing basic training to Ukraine’s combat air pilots”.
  
  
• Taiwan’s economy ministry said it expanded a list of sanctioned goods for Russia and Belarus. The list includes equipment for making semiconductors, where Taiwan is a world leader, as well as certain chemicals and medicines.
  
  
• Japan’s Mitsui & Co has decided to pull its employees out of Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. The decision is yet another blow for the project. Fearing the backlash from US sanctions targeting the project, foreign shareholders have suspended their participation.
  
  
• The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in Moscow on Wednesday, Russia’s foreign ministry has said. The ministers plan to discuss bilateral ties as well as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
  

Ukraine military chief disputes Russian claim to control Marinka in east

At this time today, our troops are still in northern areas. Our troops had readied a defensive line outside this locality, but I can say that this locality no longer exists.

Our assault units … have today completely liberated the settlement of Marinka.

One person was killed after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in their latest overnight airstrike

IT Army attacks largest ERP system in Russia, stops its operation

Russian drone and artillery attack kills 6 in Ukraine, knocks out power in a major city

Russia fired almost 50 Shahed drones at targets in Ukraine and shelled a train station where more than 100 civilians were gathered to catch a train to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

The barrages killed at least five people and knocked out power in most of the southern city of Kherson.

The aerial barrage came a day after Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship moored in the Black Sea off Crimea as both sides’ soldiers struggle to make much progress along the front line of the 22-month war.
Overnight, the Kremlin’s forces launched an artillery and drone bombardment of the Kherson region just as some 140 civilians were waiting for a train at the region’s capital city of the same name, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

The shelling killed one policeman and injured two other police officers, as well as two civilians.
More than 100 people who were waiting for the train at the time of the attack arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.

Rescuers work through the debris following a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine on Dec. 27, 2023. REUTERS


The Kremlin’s forces launched an artillery and drone bombardment of the Kherson region just as some 140 civilians were waiting for a train at the region’s capital city of the same name. REUTERS


Workers clean up an area of the train station following the attack in Kherson, Ukraine on Dec. 27, 2023. REUTERS

The attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a mall as well as striking the power grid, leaving around 70% of households in Kherson city without electricity during the winter cold, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said.
It was not immediately possible to estimate when power might be restored, he said.
Targeting energy infrastructure was also a Russian tactic last winter, when it tried to break Ukrainians’ spirit by denying them heating and running water.
In Odesa, another major city in southern Ukraine, the drone assault killed two people and wounded three, including a 17-year-old man, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said.

The attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a mall as well as striking the power grid. REUTERS


A fire burns through a building following a Russian attack in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Dec. 27, 2023. REUTERS

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 32 out of the 46 drones that Russia fired overnight.
A Western military assessment, meanwhile, reckoned that Russia’s capture this week of a city in eastern Ukraine would not provide it with a springboard for major battlefield gains.
Ukrainian commander-in-chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Tuesday that his troops had retreated to the northern outskirts of the city of Marinka, which sits about 12 miles west of Donetsk, the largest city in Russian-held territory.
Zaluzhnyi said his troops had held Marinka for almost two years but Russians “were destroying it street by street, house by house.”


The drone attack on Odesa killed two people and wounded three, including a 17-year-old man. AP

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, said “Russian forces are highly unlikely to make rapid operational advances from Marinka.”
But it noted that “localized Russian offensive operations are still placing pressure on Ukrainian forces in many places along the front in eastern Ukraine.”

Summary of the day so far

• The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has held talks in Moscow with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and said progress had been made on plans for Russia and India to jointly produce military equipment.
  
  
• Ukraine’s armed forces commander has said his troops remain in an area of the eastern town of Maryinka despite Russia’s assertions that Moscow is in control of the settlement. Capturing Maryinka would amount to Moscow’s most significant battlefield gain since May.
  
  
• Russia’s newest howitzers will be deployed “soon” against Ukrainian forces. The head of the state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, told the RIA news agency that testing of the new self-propelled artillery units, named Coalition-SV, had been completed and mass production has already started, with the first pilot batch to be delivered by the end of this year.
  
  
• Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has warned that a move by Japan to hand over Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, would have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties.
  
  
• Russia has lost 355,750 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, according to data published by the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces on Wednesday. This includes 790 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day. The Guardian has been unable to verify the figures.
  
  
• One person was killed after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in their latest overnight airstrike, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine‘s interior ministry also reported another death from overnight shelling of Kherson.
  
  
• Russian forces shelled the railway station in Kherson as a train was set to evacuate residents, killing one police officer and injuring four people, said Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.
  

Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine denied chance to run for president

We will win the right to live without fear, speak freely and feel confident about the future.

Russian shelling has left 70% of Kherson without electricity, says governor

Two people were killed in Russia’s overnight drone attacks on Odesa

Poland is getting closer to ending the trucker blockades of several border crossings with Ukraine, says the country’s prime minister, Donald Tusk.

Since start of full–scale war, Russia carries out 465 chemical attacks, 81 of them in December

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian Federation has used ammunition loaded with chemicals 465 times, of which 81 cases of use were recorded in December 2023, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"Some 465 facts of the use of ammunition by the Russian Federation, which are loaded with toxic chemicals, have been recorded. Of these, 81 cases occurred in December of this year alone. At the same time, the dynamics of application is growing. So, in just one day on December 19, Russia carried out eight attacks using chemicals," reads a message posted on the Telegram channel on Wednesday morning.

The General Staff notes that the occupiers most often use K-51, RGR grenades and the Drofa-PM hand gas grenade, which are dropped from UAVs, and the use of improvised explosive devices equipped with irritating substances has also been recorded.

In addition, the enemy carries out artillery attacks containing chemically dangerous substances. On December 14 of this year, the enemy used a new type of special RG-VO gas grenades containing an unknown chemical substance.
"Twenty-eight cases of the use of dangerous chemicals were documented and sent for investigative actions within the framework of criminal proceedings by groups of radiation, chemical, biological intelligence from military units," the message says.

Russian mass surrender in Zaporizhzhya sector after inhumane treatment and heavy losses

Closing Summary

• Russian shelling has left 70% of Kherson without electricity, says the Kherson oblast governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. Shelling by Russian forces on Tuesday had “badly damaged” the infrastructure of the city, he said, adding that it was “difficult” to say when engineers would be able to complete restoration works. A railway station in the city was also attacked as a train was set to evacuate residents, killing one police officer and injuring four people, said Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.
  
  
• Ukraine’s armed forces commander has said his troops remain in an area of the eastern town of Marinka despite Russia’s assertions that Moscow is in control of the settlement. Capturing Marinka would amount to Moscow’s most significant battlefield gain since May.
  
  
• A Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine has been denied the chance to run for president. Russia’s central election commission refused to accept the former regional legislator, Yekaterina Duntsova’s initial nomination by a group of supporters, citing errors in the paperwork, including spelling. After losing Wednesday’s appeal against the commission’s decision, Duntsova said she would start working on the creation of her own political party that would stand for “peace, freedom and democracy”.
  
  
• EU aid will not change the war’s outcome, the Kremlin has said. It added that such spending would only hurt Europe’s economy.
  
  
• Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has warned that a move by Japan to hand over Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, would have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties.
  
  
• Poland is getting closer to ending the trucker blockades of several border crossings with Ukraine, says the country’s prime minister, Donald Tusk. Polish drivers have been blocking several crossings with Ukraine since 6 November, demanding the EU reinstate a system whereby Ukrainian companies need permits to operate in the bloc and the same for European truckers to enter Ukraine.
  
  
• The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has held talks in Moscow with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and said progress had been made on plans for Russia and India to jointly produce military equipment. Jaishankar added that he expected the Russian president, Vladimir Putin and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi to meet next year.
  
  
• Russia’s newest howitzers will be deployed “soon” against Ukrainian forces. The head of the state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, told the RIA news agency that testing of the new self-propelled artillery units, named Coalition-SV, had been completed and mass production had already started, with the first pilot batch to be delivered by the end of this year.
  
  
• Two people were killed in Russia’s overnight drone attacks on Odesa, according to updated figures posted on Telegram by the Odesa oblast governor, Oleh Kiper. A 17-year-old was among the wounded and remains in hospital.
  
  
• Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, has thanked “all Ukrainian warriors” in a post on X. He also re-emphasised the priority for Ukraine “to strengthen our country, defend our people, and bolster our positions in all areas”.