Here is the situation on Friday, December 13:
Military
- Fighting around the key eastern city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine is “extremely intense” after a months-long Russian push, according to Ukraine’s top military commander.
- Ukrainian troops repelled nearly 40 Russian attempts to storm defences around Pokrovsk in the past 24 hours, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.
- Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), condemned a “direct” drone attack that destroyed a “clearly marked” agency car in Ukraine on Tuesday, saying the strike had the “intention to harm”. Kyiv and Moscow traded blame over the strike.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met soldiers in the front-line southeastern Zaporizhia region, as Russia stepped up pressure on what had been a relatively calm part of the battlefield.
Zelenskyy met soldiers in the front-line southeastern Zaporizhia region [Handout/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via AFP]
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin backed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to achieve a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine and a significant exchange of prisoners of war, the Kremlin said, even though Kyiv scoffed at the idea.
- The administration of US President Joe Biden announced another package of weapons aid for Ukraine, valued at $500m, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
- US President-elect Donald Trump said he disagreed “very vehemently” with Ukraine firing US-supplied missiles deep into Russia, but that US support for Kyiv would be key leverage in efforts to bring the war to a close.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron the possibility of stationing foreign troops in Ukraine in case of a ceasefire, but that Warsaw was not currently “planning any such actions”.
- Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said Kyiv was not yet ready to start talks with Russia as it lacked the weapons, security guarantees and international status that it sought.
- NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to “wipe Ukraine off the map” and could come after other parts of Europe next, as he urged Europeans to press their governments to ramp up defence spending.
- Ukraine’s path to NATO membership is “irreversible”, seven European foreign policy chiefs said at a meeting in Berlin.