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The White House has devised a last-minute strategy to bolster Ukraine’s war efforts through significant military aid and sweeping new sanctions on Russia, according to a security briefing.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan committed to delivering hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, and hundreds of armoured vehicles by mid-January, during a meeting with Ukrainian presidential office head Andrii Yermak on Thursday.
The United States also plans to train Ukrainian troops outside the country and finalise $20bn in loans backed by frozen Russian assets, according to the briefing shared with the Guardian.
The strategy includes a final push of sanctions on Russia before US president-elect Donald Trump renters the White House. The move aims to weaken Russia’s war effort and enhance Ukraine’s leverage in future negotiations.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said his country would be “ready to use any means” so that Moscow does not suffer “strategic defeat” against Ukraine.
Mr Lavrov also said the West should abandon any notion that Russia had no “red lines” and laid out conditions for peace in Ukraine, during the interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
Russian troops took control of the settlements of Pustynka and Sukhi Yaly in eastern Ukraine, the TASS state news agency reported on Friday, citing the defence ministry.
Separately, the defence ministry said the Russian navy destroyed six Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea on Friday.
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 13:00
Russia has lost 750,610 troops in Ukraine since its invasion started in February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported.
Russia has also lost 30,899 vehicles and fuel tanks, 21,043 artillery systems, 20,023 drones, 19,518 armoured fighting vehicles, 9,514 tanks, 1,253 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,020 air defence systems, 369 airplanes, 329 helicopters, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine, the report added.
FILE – A Ukrainian assault unit commander passes by a dead Russian soldier (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 12:40
A Ukranian military partisan group has claimed it sabotaged a key railway line between Moscow and Kursk, disrupting Russian supply lines.
An operative set fire to a relay cabinet near the village of Chekhov in Moscow Oblast, the Atesh group posted on Telegram on Friday, along with an undated video of the alleged sabotage.
The railway line has been partially occupied by Ukrainian forces since August.
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 12:20
Norway’s $1.8tn sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, can start selling stocks it holds in Russian companies, as long as it complies with international sanctions, the deputy finance minister told Reuters on Friday.
“Permission to sell the fund’s Russian stocks is given on the condition that the sale can be done in line with applicable sanctions,” Ellen Reitan said in an email.
The Norwegian finance ministry ordered a halt to all transactions in the fund’s Russian assets shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and said at the time that the ultimate goal was to divest its holdings.
The fund has so far been unable from offloading Russian assets because it is not permitted to sell to counterparties under US or EU sanctions.
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 12:00
Russia’s capacity to outpace Ukraine’s artillery barrages has reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for each Ukrainian shell fired, Western officials said.
Previously Russia has been able to launch at least five times as many rounds as Ukraine could, with ratios higher at times.
Anonymous Western officials said the narrowing gap was down to a “wide variety of factors”, including limitations on Russian production lines, disruptions to arms rail transportation, Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian and North Korean ammunition stockpiles inside Russia, and Western supplies bolstering Ukraine’s armoury.
But large numbers of Russian glide bombs may be compensating “to devastating effect” for the reduced artillery front, the Western officials warned.
File image of artillery projectiles (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 11:40
The special forces shared footage on Telegram showing intense close-quarters combat between Russian and Ukrainian troops in a wooded area.
Ukraine claimed that 17 Russian soldiers were killed in the assault targetting Kursk, an area Kyiv had invaded in a bold incursion back in August.
This fresh Kursk advance follows Ukrainian advances during a counterattack south of Korenevo, near the Ukrainian border, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russia is believed to have reclaimed about 40 per cent of the Kursk region originally taken by Ukraine. Soldiers told the BBC they had been instructed to hold their position “until Trump’s inauguration and the start of negotiations.”
File image of Russian bomber over Kursk (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service)
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 11:20
The White House has devised a last-minute strategy to strengthen Ukraine’s war efforts through significant military aid and sweeping new sanctions on Russia, according to a security briefing shared with the Guardian.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, during a meeting with Ukrainian presidential office head Andrii Yermak on Thursday, committed to delivering hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, and hundreds of armoured vehicles by mid-January.
The United States also plans to train Ukrainian troops outside the country and finalise $20bn in loans backed by frozen Russian assets, according to the briefing.
The strategy includes a final push of sanctions on Russia before US president-elect Donald Trump renters the White House. The move aims to weaken Russia’s war effort and enhance Ukraine’s leverage in future negotiations.
File Image Jake Sullivan (Copyright 2024 the Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 11:00
The Crimean Bridge was closed on Friday morning following reports of Ukrainian drone activity in the region.
Explosions were heard near Zaliv shipyard in the city of Kerch, according to the pro-Ukrainian Crimean Wind Telegram channel. Air defence systems were also activated, according to news outlet Krym.Realii.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed Friday to have downed a Ukrainian drone over Crimea and destroyed two uncrewed boats heading to Crimea in the Black Sea.
FILE image: Russian warship sailing near the Kerch bridge, linking the Russian mainland to Crimea (AFP via Getty Images)
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 10:40
Russian forces suffered about 53 casualties per square kilometre as they advanced in Ukraine in autumn 2024, according to an Institute for the Study of War (ISW) report.
From September to November 2024 Russian soldiers lost about 125,800 personnel as they captured approximately 2,356 square kilometres of territory including the Kursk Oblast, the report said.
Unrelated: Russian soldier (AP)
Steffie Banatvala6 December 2024 10:20