WAR IN UKRAINE: December 25, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 304
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his people to persevere in the face of Russian attacks as the country celebrates Christmas. In a defiant speech on Saturday, he said: "Freedom comes at a high price. But slavery has an even higher price." Describing Russia as a "terrorist country", Mr Zelensky accused Russian troops of "killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure” - BBC
Earlier on Saturday, Russian air strikes killed 10 people and injured 68 in Ukraine's southern Kherson city, officials said. The city’s busy market was also hit. Regional officials put out a call for urgent blood donations.
Three Ukrainian emergency services workers have been killed when a mine exploded while they were de-mining parts of the southern Kherson region, according to officials. Meanwhile, the Christmas Eve Russian raid on Ukraine’s recently recaptured city of Kherson has killed at least 10 people, wounded 58 and left bloodied corpses on the road, authorities say - Al Jazeera
Pope Francis has appealed for an end to the “senseless” war in Ukraine in his traditional Christmas message from St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. “May the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to assist all those who are suffering, and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war,” the 86-year-old said.
Congress gave final approval to a bill to expand the U.S. government’s power to prosecute international war crimes suspects who are in the United States, allowing them to be tried in a federal court regardless of the nationality of the victim or the perpetrator, or where the crime was committed. Experts say the legislation, shepherded by a bipartisan group of lawmakers amid reports of Russian forces committing war crimes in the brutal conflict in Ukraine, brings the U.S. legal code in line with international law and prevents the United States from being seen as a potential haven for war criminals. The bill, called the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act, now goes to President Biden. It sped through the Senate and then the House in the hours surrounding a congressional address on Wednesday night by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who condemned President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia for targeting civilians and urged the United States to continue sending financial and military aid amid a winter assault. “By passing this vital legislation, we are sending a clear message to Vladimir Putin: Perpetrators committing unspeakable war crimes, such as those unfolding before our very eyes in Ukraine, must be held to account,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in a statement on Thursday. Mr. Durbin, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, helped spearhead the legislation along with Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the panel’s top Republican.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar says the war in Ukraine “will not end easily”, despite Ankara’s repeated efforts to arrange peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
The United Arab Emirates announced today that it is sending about 2,500 household generators to civilians affected by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine that has disrupted energy infrastructure and caused power outages, with the objective of helping them survive the harsh winter conditions. The assistance comprises 2,500 household generators, each with a power output of between 3.5 and 8 kilowatts. These generators will help the civilians with some of the electricity they require, which will help alleviate the difficult living conditions of crisis-affected families. Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, said that this aid to Ukraine stems from the UAE's belief in the importance of human solidarity, especially in cases of conflict, and is part of the country's continuous efforts to mitigate the humanitarian repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis. The UAE will transport approximately 1,200 household generators to the Polish capital, Warsaw today, and will transfer the remaining generators by January. This support comes within the $100 million humanitarian relief aid allocated by the UAE to the civilians affected by the crisis in Ukraine.
Required reading…
Ukraine must be given the tools to stop Vladimir Putin in 2023
By Kira Rudik
The big lesson of 2022 is that failure to counter international aggression inevitably leads to further aggression. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is widely recognized as Europe’s largest armed conflict since World War II, but it did not appear out of thin air. On the contrary, the international community’s failure to punish Vladimir Putin for earlier invasions of Georgia, Crimea, and eastern Ukraine fueled a sense of impunity that set the stage for the horrors of the current war.
In the coming year, this slow but steady erosion of the post-Cold War global security system must be brought to a halt. Unless Russia is decisively defeated in 2023, the crisis will escalate further and reach new levels. It should now be obvious to all but the willfully blind that talk of compromise with the Kremlin only serves to encourage further Russian aggression. Instead, the West must speak to Putin in the only language he understands: the language of strength.
Defeating Russia will not be easy…
Read the full Atlantic Council analysis by Kira Rudik here