WAR IN UKRAINE: December 10, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 290
UK Defense Ministry: Russia likely started using new batch of Iranian drones in Ukraine. Russia has likely “exhausted its previous stock of several hundred Shahed-131s and 136s and has now received a resupply” as Ukraine’s General Staff reported attacks by Iranian drones for the first time in three weeks on Dec. 6, according to the U.K Defense Ministry - Kyiv Independent
UN rights chief says Ukraine is ‘human rights emergency.’ About 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian help because of Russia’s all-out war against the country, including 9.3 million who require food and livelihood assistance, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Dec. 9.
What Russia cannot win on the battlefield, it is seeking to win by casting Ukrainian cities into the dark and cold as a long winter sets in. The result is a grinding battle of attrition: Barrages of Russian missiles fly across Ukraine, and Ukrainian power engineers work for days in freezing temperatures to restore power. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN that "what the Ukrainian energy system has been experiencing since October, no energy system in the world has ever experienced." The CEO of state power generator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, says the issue is not in generating power but in getting it to the people. "The enemy is hitting the most important facilities and key elements of substations that ensure the output... and transmission of electricity." Kudrytskyi told CNN.
Iran is giving Russia an unprecedented level of military support - including supplying drones for use against Ukraine, said US national security council spokesman John Kirby.
"Iran has become Russia's top military backer..." he said. "Russia's been using Iranian drones to strike energy infrastructure, depriving millions of Ukrainians of power, heat, critical services. People in Ukraine today are actually dying as a result of Iran's actions” - BBC
Required reading…
LATimes: Op-Ed: Negotiations can’t end the Russia-Ukraine war until one side has lost
In recent days we see an increase in calls for a negotiated solution of the war in Ukraine. From the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, from progressive members of Congress and from leading international relations scholars, a growing number of voices urge the U.S. to invest in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and to give peace a chance. According to some reports, the Biden administration is also warming up to the thought. It’s a dangerous idea.
Fears of nuclear escalation between Russia and NATO drive many to argue for negotiations, and although the impetus is well-intentioned, the suggestion is naive and impractical. In Ukraine, the choice is not between a costly, bloody war and diplomacy. The choice is between a bloody war and an equally bloody peace — which would itself lead to even larger confrontation. The sad reality is that not all military problems have political solutions. Any discussions of ending the war should recognize this fact.
Read the full article here