WAR IN UKRAINE: December 15, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 295
European Union member states failed to back a package deal to release €18 billion in European Union aid for Ukraine as well as two unrelated but linked decisions on Hungary over concerns about a separate minimum corporate tax rate plan, four EU diplomats said. “There’s a lot of frustration with Poland jeopardizing Ukraine aid by blocking the minimum tax,” said an EU diplomat, describing the move as “another hostage-taking situation.” The four files — the Ukraine support, Hungary's spending plan under the EU's post-pandemic recovery fund, a decision to freeze €6.3 billion in funds for Budapest and the tax reform — were all part of a package deal that was scheduled for adoption by the EU's member countries today.
Russian troops stepped up the pace of their relentless attacks on Bakhmut and Avdiyivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region as Moscow continued to pound the entire front line in the east after a largely failed drone attack on Kyiv and a deadly bombardment on Kherson in the south. Meanwhile, Russian forces fired at the building of the regional military administration in the central square of Kherson, Yaroslav Yanushevich, the head of the military administration, said on Telegram on December 14 - RFE/RL
A US citizen held since June is among dozens released in a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said in his nightly address Ukraine had received 64 soldiers, including four officers and 60 other troops. In a tweet, a top adviser to Mr Zelensky said the deal also freed an American, Suedi Murekezi. A White House spokesman refused to confirm the deal, but told reporters: "We certainly welcome that news." Ukrainian chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the military personnel released had fought in Donetsk and Luhansk - BBC
US National Security Council’s John Kirby told CNN Wednesday that any discussions on whether it’s time to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an end to the war in Ukraine should be left “to President Zelensky, not the United States,” while acknowledging that initial assessments that the war could end by year’s end seem unlikely. “We certainly would love to see it end, if not today, then before the end of this year, which is, of course, fast approaching. I think just given what we’re seeing in the air and on the ground in Ukraine, it’s difficult to conclude that this war will be over by year’s end,” Kirby told CNN’s MJ Lee in a virtual gaggle…”And both sides are still in violent fighting in the Donbas, particularly in and around Bakhmut – a small area comparatively speaking to some of the other battles of Ukraine over the last nine months, but very intense fighting-- and the Russians are in defensive positions all throughout the South, while the Ukrainians continue to try to press. So, there is active fighting going on right now, we would expect that that would continue for some time going forward.” Kirby said that while military analysts have suggested winter freezes may cause a lull in skirmishes as conditions become less ideal for fighting in the air and on the ground in Ukraine, “we have no expectation that the fighting will stop in the winter months to come….So, no indications, certainly no expectations that, by the year’s end, there’ll be an end of war — that doesn’t mean, however, after your word, aspiration, that we wouldn’t love to see that, it’s just that none of the indicators are pointing in that direction.”
Leaked emails detail how Russia’s biggest state broadcaster, working with the nation’s security services, mined right-wing American news and Chinese media to craft a narrative that Moscow was winning. Among a favourite source for spinning the narrative was FOX News’ Tucker Carlson. Read the full New York Times report here
Millions of energy-efficient lightbulbs are needed to help Ukraine cope with Russian attacks on the country's energy system, President Zelensky has said. Speaking at a conference in Paris, he argued that one of the keys to stopping Russian aggression was to guarantee Ukraine's energy stability. Generators are now "as necessary in Ukraine as armoured vehicles and bulletproof vests", he said. Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy grid have left millions without power. The damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure has caused an average shortfall of about two-and-a-half gigawatts of power, Volodymyr Zelensky told an international aid conference on Tuesday. But supplying the country with 50 million LED lightbulbs, which use less energy than older varieties, would save around one gigawatt of power - reducing the shortfall by about 40%. The EU has already committed to sending 30 million bulbs - BBC