Russia-Ukraine conflict dwell: Moscow ‘shall be defeated’, Zelenskiy says as Ukraine marks Christmas Day on 25 December for first time | Ukraine
“,”elementId”:”48a8b88d-155f-4ec8-a93e-1aac978864b5″,”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
“Evil will be defeated,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said in a Christmas Eve address to the nation, as the country’s Orthodox Christians prepare to mark Christmas Day on 25 December for the first time.
“,”elementId”:”0ba43bee-9584-4631-a88e-a1a63e6abe02″,”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
“Today, all Ukrainians are together,” the president said in his nightly address. “We all meet Christmas together. On the same date, as one big family, as one nation, as one united country. And today our common prayer will be stronger than ever … And it will resonate today without a time difference of two weeks. Resonate together with Europe and the world.”
“,”elementId”:”40e71373-79d7-4768-8399-d688e1a765be”,”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
The government changed the date of Orthodox Christmas from 7 January to 25 December in a symbolic shift away from the Russian Orthodox church.
“,”elementId”:”c76b52d7-de22-463b-b2bc-aa09b7ae7fa0″,”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
In other developments:
“,”elementId”:”0435fb98-4162-4aee-9139-b5218a3d2ab6″,”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
- n
-
Russian attacks on southern Ukraine’s Kherson region killed five civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. Regional police said three people died in shelling of an apartment building and a private home in Kherson city. A woman died in a drone attack in a small town south of Kherson and a second woman was killed when a town farther north came under heavy fire.
-
Ukrainian shelling killed one woman and wounded six civilians in the town of Horlivka, an area of Ukraine’s Donetsk region under Russian control, a Russian-installed official said. A shopping centre and several other buildings were destroyed, the mayor of Horlivka, Ivan Prikhodko, said on Telegram.
-
Polish farmers have ended their blockade of one of the border crossings between Ukraine and Poland and the movement of lorries has been fully restored, the Ukrainian border service has said. Drivers have been blocking several crossings with Ukraine since 6 November, demanding that the EU reinstate a system under which Ukrainian companies need permits to operate in the bloc, and the same for European truckers seeking to enter Ukraine.
-
Russian and Ukrainian military officials both reported downing enemy aircraft on Sunday in different areas of the 1,000-km-long (621-mile) front. The commander of Ukraine’s air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said Ukrainian anti-aircraft units had struck a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber near the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine. Oleshchuk, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the aircraft had not returned to its base, but gave no further details.
-
Russia’s defence ministry said earlier that its air defence systems had shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft over the past 24 hours – just two days after Zelenskiy said Kyiv had downed three Russian aircraft. In its daily dispatch, the Russian defence ministry said its air defence shot down three Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Su-24 tactical bomber in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions of southeastern Ukraine. The dispatch provided no further details.
-
Hundreds of supporters of Igor Girkin, a jailed former commander of Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine, rallied in Moscow on Sunday to back his bid to stand for president. Better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, Girkin was a key leader of separatist fighters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The nationalist has strongly criticised Russia’s military strategy in Ukraine for being “too kind”. He was detained in July on an extremism charge after a series of posts critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to easily win re-election.
-
Russia launched 15 drones at Ukraine, mostly in the south of the country, overnight with air defences destroying 14 of them, Ukrainian military said on Sunday. “As a result of air combat, Ukraine’s air force and defence forces destroyed 14 shaheds in Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Khmelnytskyi regions,” the Ukrainian air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
“,”elementId”:”82b209ae-7fa7-48f8-a059-9de30e953070″],”attributes”:”pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”abstract”:false,”blockCreatedOn”:1703492222000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”03.17 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1703492633000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”03.23 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1703492222000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”03.17 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”03.17″,”title”:”Opening abstract”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 25 Dec 2023 04.59 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First printed on Mon 25 Dec 2023 03.17 EST”],”filterKeyEvents”:false,”id”:”key-events-carousel-mobile”” config=””renderingTarget”:”Internet”,”darkModeAvailable”:false”>
Key occasions
Ukraine stated on Monday it had shot down 28 Russian drones out of 31 launched from the annexed Crimea peninsula, AFP studies.
“On December 25, the enemy attacked with 31 attacking UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] … 28 Shahed-136/131 drones had been shot down,” the air pressure stated on social media.
The air pressure stated it had additionally shot down two Russian missiles and two fighter jets, one over the Donetsk area in jap Ukraine and one over the Black Sea.
The defence forces in southern Ukraine stated 17 of the downed drones had been within the southern Odesa area and 5 extra in different components of the south.
In Odesa, the defence forces stated port infrastructure had been broken however there have been no casualties.
Russia on Monday accused Western nations of stirring up tensions in Moscow-friendly Serbia, which has been rocked by protests over alleged fraud in elections held on 17 December.
Only a day earlier than, demonstrators tried to storm town corridor of the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Protesters reject the outcomes of parliamentary and native elections through which president Aleksandar Vučić’s celebration stated it secured a commanding victory, which had been welcomed by the Kremlin.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated Moscow hoped the end result would result in the “additional strengthening of friendship” between the nations.
“The makes an attempt of the collective West to destabilise the state of affairs within the nation are apparent,” the international ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova informed the state-run information company RIA Novosti.
Belgrade didn’t be a part of worldwide sanctions towards Moscow for its Ukraine offensive, however Serbia has condemned Russia’s aggression on the UN and its assist has brought on controversy.
Serbia is sort of fully depending on Russian gasoline, AFP studies.
The Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, can pay a two-day go to to Russia, the RIA Novosti information company quoted the Armenian authorities’s press service as saying on Monday.
Pashinyan will participate in a gathering of the Supreme Eurasian Financial Council on 25 December, and the subsequent day will take part in a casual assembly of heads of state of the Commonwealth of Unbiased States, RIA Novosti reported.
In October, Pashinyan skipped a summit in Kyrgyzstan attended by Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, amid a rising rift between Yerevan and Moscow.
Russia stated on Monday that emergency employees had put out a hearth on a Soviet-era nuclear-powered cargo-icebreaker ship and the state firm which runs the vessel stated there had been no casualties and no risk to the safety of the reactor.
The hearth broke out on Sunday in one of many cabins of the Soviet-made Sevmorput ship, which is docked within the northern Russian metropolis of Murmansk, the emergency ministry stated.
The hearth, which at its peak coated an space of about 30 sq. metres (323 sq. toes), was put out with no casualties, the ministry stated.
“The hearth was rapidly liquidated,” Atomflot, which owns the vessel, stated in an announcement.
“There have been no accidents. There was no risk to essential assist programs or to the reactor plant,” Atomflot stated.
Atomflot runs Russia’s fleet of nuclear icebreakers and is a unit of the Rosatom state nuclear company, Reuters studies.
The Murmansk area, in Russia’s north-west, shares borders with Finland and Norway, in addition to with the Barents and White seas.
The ship, which entered service in 1988 and went by an intensive improve a decade in the past, is Russia’s solely nuclear-powered icebreaking transport ship, based on Rosatom.
Russia launched 31 drones and two missiles at Ukraine in a single day, largely focusing on the south of the nation, with air defences destroying 28 drones and each missiles, the Ukrainian army reported on Monday.
“On account of air fight, the Ukrainian Air Drive and defence forces destroyed 28 Shahed assault drones in Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Khmelnytskyi areas,” Ukraine’s air pressure stated on the Telegram messaging app.
The drones had been launched from Russian-occupied Crimea, it stated.
The army stated particles from the downed drones had broken technical services within the Odesa port in addition to “an inoperable administrative constructing and a warehouse”.
In Kherson area, a hearth broke out in a warehouse, the army stated.
“No folks had been injured,” the army added, additionally repeating beforehand issued data that two Russian army plane had been downed close to the Russian-occupied metropolis of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine and close to the occupied Donetsk metropolis in jap Ukraine.
On Sunday, Russian and Ukrainian army officers each reported downing enemy plane in numerous areas of the 620-mile entrance of their 22-month-old conflict, Reuters studies, however couldn’t independently confirm the Ukrainian air pressure’s report. There was no quick remark from Russia.
Opening abstract
Good day and welcome to the Guardian’s dwell protection of the conflict in Ukraine.
“Evil shall be defeated,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has stated in a Christmas Eve handle to the nation, because the nation’s Orthodox Christians put together to mark Christmas Day on 25 December for the primary time.
“Immediately, all Ukrainians are collectively,” the president stated in his nightly handle. “All of us meet Christmas collectively. On the identical date, as one massive household, as one nation, as one united nation. And at this time our frequent prayer shall be stronger than ever … And it’ll resonate at this time and not using a time distinction of two weeks. Resonate along with Europe and the world.”
The federal government modified the date of Orthodox Christmas from 7 January to 25 December in a symbolic shift away from the Russian Orthodox church.
In different developments:
-
Russian assaults on southern Ukraine’s Kherson area killed 5 civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officers stated. Regional police stated three folks died in shelling of an house constructing and a personal dwelling in Kherson metropolis. A girl died in a drone assault in a small city south of Kherson and a second lady was killed when a city farther north got here underneath heavy fireplace.
-
Ukrainian shelling killed one lady and wounded six civilians within the city of Horlivka, an space of Ukraine’s Donetsk area underneath Russian management, a Russian-installed official stated. A purchasing centre and a number of other different buildings had been destroyed, the mayor of Horlivka, Ivan Prikhodko, stated on Telegram.
-
Polish farmers have ended their blockade of one of many border crossings between Ukraine and Poland and the motion of lorries has been totally restored, the Ukrainian border service has stated. Drivers have been blocking a number of crossings with Ukraine since 6 November, demanding that the EU reinstate a system underneath which Ukrainian corporations want permits to function within the bloc, and the identical for European truckers searching for to enter Ukraine.
-
Russian and Ukrainian army officers each reported downing enemy plane on Sunday in numerous areas of the 1,000-km-long (621-mile) entrance. The commander of Ukraine’s air pressure, Mykola Oleshchuk, stated Ukrainian anti-aircraft models had struck a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber close to the Russian-occupied metropolis of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine. Oleshchuk, writing on the Telegram messaging app, stated the plane had not returned to its base, however gave no additional particulars.
-
Russia’s defence ministry stated earlier that its air defence programs had shot down 4 Ukrainian army plane over the previous 24 hours – simply two days after Zelenskiy stated Kyiv had downed three Russian plane. In its every day dispatch, the Russian defence ministry stated its air defence shot down three Su-27 fighter plane and one Su-24 tactical bomber within the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk areas of southeastern Ukraine. The dispatch supplied no additional particulars.
-
Lots of of supporters of Igor Girkin, a jailed former commander of Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine, rallied in Moscow on Sunday to again his bid to face for president. Higher recognized by his alias Igor Strelkov, Girkin was a key chief of separatist fighters within the self-proclaimed Donetsk Folks’s Republic in jap Ukraine in 2014. The nationalist has strongly criticised Russia’s army technique in Ukraine for being “too type”. He was detained in July on an extremism cost after a sequence of posts essential of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is anticipated to simply win re-election.
-
Russia launched 15 drones at Ukraine, largely within the south of the nation, in a single day with air defences destroying 14 of them, Ukrainian army stated on Sunday. “On account of air fight, Ukraine’s air pressure and defence forces destroyed 14 shaheds in Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Khmelnytskyi areas,” the Ukrainian air pressure stated on the Telegram messaging app.
