U.K. would support whatever Sweden decides on NATO membership, PM Johnson says
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that he had agreed to a new deal with Sweden to bolster European security and pledged to support both countries’ armed forces should they come under attack.
“In the event of a disaster or an attack upon Sweden, the U.K. would come to the assistance of Sweden with whatever Sweden requested,” Johnson told a news conference with his Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson.
Should Sweden decide to apply to join NATO, he added that the U.K. would “support whatever of course of action Sweden decides to embark upon and we’ll be as useful and supportive as we can.”
Johnson is set to visit Finland later in the day, where he is expected to formalize a similar agreement with the country’s President Sauli Niinistö.
Taking shelter in Kharkiv
Finland’s leader says if it joins NATO it would be for security of its citizens
If Finland decides to join NATO, it will be for the “security” of its citizens, Finland’s prime minister said Wednesday.
“If Finland makes this historical step, it is for the security of our own citizens,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin said during a press conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “Joining NATO would strengthen the whole international community that stands for our common values.”
Marin has previously said that joining NATO would open Finland to potential risks from Russia, including cyberattacks. The Nordic country shares a more than 800-mile-long border with Russia and has been a NATO partner since 1994.
Russia sends tanks and soldiers to capture Mariupol’s last pocket of resistance, Ukrainian official says
The Azovstal steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol was again in flames after intense strikes from Russian forces, an advisor to the mayor said Wednesday. In an attempt to break through the final pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the city, which has otherwise been captured by Moscow, the Russian military has sent in tanks and soldiers.
“Azovstal is attacked not only from the sky and artillery, but again with tanks. They are also trying to break through with manpower,” mayoral adviser Petro Andryushchenko said in a post on Telegram. “If there is hell on earth, it is there.”
Outside of the steel plant, the city has a “catastrophic lack of medical staff and access to medicine,” he said. Earlier on Wednesday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that up to 10,000 people could die in the occupied city by the end of the year because of a lack of critical infrastructure including clean water and sewage.
Ukrainian soldiers train on howitzers in Germany
The first Ukrainian soldiers to be trained on the howitzer 2000 have arrived in Germany, the German Defense Ministry confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday.
Up to 18 Ukrainian soldiers will be trained on the artillery in the southwestern city of Idar-Oberstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Howitzers are midrange surface-to-surface cannons used to support ground forces in either defensive or attacking maneuvers.
“It is the first time that soldiers from the Ukrainian armed forces receive training on the howitzer 2000 in Germany,” a spokesperson for the defense ministry said.
Since the start of the war, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with scores of howitzers, as well as with ammunition and drones, in addition to humanitarian and economic assistance. On Tuesday, the House approved a fresh $40 billion Ukraine aid package.
The highwway to Kyiv
Ukraine recaptures villages from Russian troops around Kharkiv
Shelling in Kharkiv
E.U.’s proposed Russian oil ban would devastate Hungary’s economy, foreign minister says
The European Union’s proposed ban on Russian oil would devastate Hungary’s economy, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday.
An agreement between Budapest and the E.U. on the proposed ban looked unlikely, he said, according to Reuters. “Brussels has no proposal for a solution… which could handle the atomic bomb-like impacts of this potential oil embargo against Russia on Hungary’s economy,” Szijjarto said in a video posted on his Facebook page, according to Reuters.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also described the proposal as an economic “atomic bomb” on state-run radio earlier this month. Hungary is one of the main critics of the E.U.’s proposed ban and each of the 27 members of the bloc must back the plan for it to pass.
Southern Kherson region to ask Putin to join Russia, pro-Russian official says
A Moscow-installed official in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson said the Russia-occupied region will appeal directly to President Vladimir Putin about accepting it into Russia, the state news agency Tass reported.
The intended move was announced Wednesday by Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the so-called military-civilian administration of the region, according to Tass. The administration was installed in late April after the Russian forces deposed Ukrainian officials in the region.
The strategic region with access to the Black Sea has been under Russian control since the early days of the war.
There has been much speculation about Russia’s intentions for its future, with observers suggesting it could be turned into a “people’s republic” akin to those controlled by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east or annexed altogether like the Crimean Peninsula was in 2014.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that residents of the region should decide for themselves whether or not to appeal for the region to join Russia, and that such a possibility should have a clear legal justification, according to Tass.
Russian forces placed land mines around Kharkiv, Ukraine says
Russian forces placed land mines in the Kharkiv areas they occupied, the head of the region’s military warned.
“The enemy completely mined everything,” Oleh Sinegubiv said in a post on Telegram. He warned residents to beware of returning to areas where the Russian military had recently been forced out, and that schools, kindergartens and private homes had been mined. Teams were demining the area, while critical infrastructure such as gas and electricity was also being restored, he said.
Ukraine’s forces have in recent days pushed Russian troops out of areas they had occupied earlier in the war, taking back several towns in the Kharkiv region.
More than 100 hospitals destroyed in Ukraine, health ministry says
Russian forces have destroyed 101 hospitals and shot or captured 200 ambulances since the invasion began Feb. 24, Ukraine’s ministry of health said in a post on Facebook on Wednesday.
The claims came as the head of the Luhansk region said Tuesday that Russian forces took equipment from local hospitals and schools in the town of Kreminna, located in the east between Kharkiv and Luhansk, and sent it to Russia.
“The Russians were shocked by the equipment of our hospitals, so they did not delay and in the first days of the occupation began to dismantle the equipment and transport it to Luhansk or Russia,” the regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, said in a post on his Telegram channel.
Gas shortages hit Ukraine
ON THE ROAD TO KYIV, Ukraine — Driving anywhere in Ukraine these days takes a lot of planning due to the country’s fuel shortage.
On the roughly 340-mile drive from Lviv to the capital city, Kyiv, many gas stations are closed because they have run out of fuel.
Some gas stations that are still open only service trucks, agricultural vehicles, ambulances, police cars and other essential vehicles. Even then, most gas stations have put a limit on the amount of gas allowed per vehicle.
For everyday Ukrainians, it can be hard to find gas stations that will service them. And the lines can be brutally long.
Christmas socks for refugees in Odesa
Mariupol mayor warns more than 10,000 people could die by the end of the year
More than 10,000 people could die by the end of the year in the southern port city of Mariupol, now mostly occupied by Russia forces, the mayor said Wednesday.
“The humanitarian situation in Mariupol is catastrophic now,” Mayor Vadim Boichenko said in a post on Telegram. “There are no medicines and doctors, normal water supply, sewage does not work, etc.”
He warned that without the operation of clean water and sewage, epidemics could break out in the city, especially with a population made up mainly of the sick and elderly. Around 100,000 civilians are still present in the southern port city and awaiting evacuation, the mayor said Tuesday.
Zelenskyy thanks Pelosi, House for approving Ukrainian aid
Ukraine halts Russian gas flows in areas Moscow occupies
Ukraine’s gas pipeline operator said Wednesday that it will stop the flow of Russian natural gas at a key hub in the east of the country currently occupied by Russian forces.
The operator, GTSOU, said in a statement that it “cannot carry out operational and technological control” over the Novopskov compressor station, located in Luhansk, which handles around a third of Russian gas that passes through Ukraine to Europe, as well as in other assets in the area.
The operator said it would redirect the flow of gas to a facility in the south under Ukraine’s control.
The European Union is working to secure a ban on Russian oil imports to its 27 member states, designed to hit Russia’s national finances.
Faces of Azovstal
Ukraine makes gains in northeast counteroffensive against Russian forces
Ukraine’s military has recovered territory in the northeast of the country, making gains against Russian forces and pushing them back toward the border.
“The occupiers are gradually being pushed back from Kharkiv oblast,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Tuesday, adding that invading troops had been pushed out of four villages in the region.
Ukraine’s forces may be within six miles of the Russian border, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Russian forces from the Izyum area, located around 75 miles southeast of Kharkiv, are reportedly redeploying north to attempt to halt Ukraine’s advance, its daily update said Tuesday afternoon.
The Kharkiv region, including the major city itself, came under heavy attack early in the war with many of its buildings destroyed by Russian strikes.
Ukraine strikes Russian resupply ships with drones, U.K. says
Ukraine’s military has successfully attacked Russian resupply vessels with drones, the United Kingdom’s defense ministry said Wednesday.
Ukraine launched successful attacks against air defenses and resupply vessels with Bayraktar drones, the defense ministry said in a daily intelligence update.
“Russia’s resupply vessels have minimum protection in the western Black Sea, following the Russian Navy’s retreat to Crimea after the loss of the Moskva,” the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, fighting continues on Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, the U.K. said. If Russia consolidates its position in the island, “they could dominate the north-western Black Sea,” the ministry said. The island is off of Ukraine’s southwestern coast, south of Odesa.
House passes $40 billion package to provide military, humanitarian aid
The House passed legislation Tuesday night that would provide $40 billion in new aid to Ukraine as the Biden administration looks to step up U.S. support for Kyiv in its war against Russia.
The House voted 368-57 after President Joe Biden urged quick congressional action and Republicans balked at passing an additional $10 billion in Covid relief funds alongside the military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. All 57 no votes came from Republicans.
The supplemental funding measure now heads to the Senate. GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he asked Biden last week to separate the coronavirus aid from the Ukraine funding.
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Reference-www.nbcnews.com