+++ 21:02 EU wants to launch Ukraine aid by February 1 at the latest +++

The EU wants to make a decision on billions in new financial aid for Ukraine by February 1 at the latest. EU Council President Charles Michel has announced that a special summit of heads of state and government is to be organized on this date. This could either confirm plans agreed until then or allow final negotiations to take place once again. The new billions in aid for Ukraine are part of a project to revise the long-term EU budget, which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stopped with a veto. He had previously criticized the budget plans on several occasions and pointed out that, in his view, the EU had wrongly frozen funds earmarked for his country from the EU budget. If no solution is found with Hungary in the coming weeks, the other EU member states in the group of 26 want to take action. Concessions to Orban are officially ruled out.

+++ 20:34 US government: money available for further aid package +++TheUS government says it still has funds for a further military aid package for Ukraine this year. "But when that's done (..) Congress needs to act immediately," says National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby. Only then can the country attacked by Russia continue its fight for freedom. Kirby does not give an exact figure of how much money is still available for military support for Ukraine. The USA is Ukraine's most important ally in the fight against the Russian invasion. The release of further funds is currently being blocked by a dispute in the US Parliament between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans are standing in the way of the approval of new aid because they are demanding that Biden tighten asylum policy in the USA in return.

+++ 20:11 USA and Finland agree on military cooperation +++TheUS military is to have access to 15 bases and training areas in Finland in future. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen sign an agreement to this effect in Washington. This still has to be approved by the Finnish parliament before it comes into force. Russia criticized the planned strengthening of defence cooperation between its north-western neighbor Finland and the USA last week. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin also declared that the Leningrad military district would now be established around the metropolis of St. Petersburg and that certain military units would be stationed there. Finland only gave up its decades of military non-alignment under the impact of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The country borders Russia to the east over a distance of 1340 kilometers. The USA recently concluded a similar agreement with Sweden and will therefore be allowed to use 17 Swedish military facilities in future.

+++ 19:44 Bulgaria stops oil imports from Russia +++TheEU country Bulgaria will stop importing oil from Russia ahead of schedule on March 1, 2024. It will stop exporting products made from Russian crude oil as early as January 1, 2024. The pro-Western government majority in the Bulgarian parliament has passed corresponding amendments to the law. The new regulation affects the majority Russian oil refinery Lukoil Neftochim to the west of the Bulgarian port city of Burgas on the Black Sea. The move will "deprive Lukoil and thus also the Kremlin of the additional profits needed to finance its military efforts in Ukraine", says the head of the parliamentary energy committee, Deljan Dobrev. The Russian oil company Lukoil has announced that it is rethinking its strategy in Bulgaria due to the changed business environment. The sale of the refinery and petrol stations in Bulgaria has not been ruled out. The oil refinery, which has been operating since 1963, is one of the largest in south-eastern Europe.

+++ 19:18 Colonel Reisner: "Ukraine has skillfully covered up its loss" +++The"dithering in the West" means serious setbacks for Ukraine. Russia, on the other hand, recognizes and exploits the situation immediately, says Colonel Markus Reisner of the Austrian Armed Forces. One response could now be "front straightening". As with Bachmut, Kiev could also rely on distraction.

+++ 18:52 New EU sanctions also target Russian diamond trade +++Russiandiamonds and diamond jewelry may no longer be imported into the EU in future. As part of the twelfth package of sanctions against Russia, the 27 member states have decided on a corresponding import ban. It is intended to deprive the state leadership in Moscow of an important source of income and thus also limit its ability to finance the war against Ukraine. The EU Commission recently estimated Russia's income from the sale of diamonds at around four billion euros per year. The ban should also apply to gemstones processed in third countries such as India. The sanctions package also tightens the price cap for Russian oil exports to third countries and bans the import of LPG liquefied gas from Russia, as well as raw materials for steel production, aluminum products and other metal goods. Export bans are introduced for lithium batteries and certain chemicals.

+++ 18:37 Video: "Unlikely that one side will win militarily" +++Russiaand Ukraine are engaged in a war of attrition from which there is no military way out, according to political scientist Gerhard Mangott. It is true that Kiev now has an advantage over last winter. However, it will not be enough for another counter-offensive in 2024.

+++ 18:03 Report summarizes the hell of Avdiivka in numbers +++Russiahas deliberately razed the civilian infrastructure to the ground and damaged or destroyed almost every building in its major attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. This was reported by the British organization Center for Information Resilience. According to the report, all 17 educational institutions in the city were affected. The Russians targeted nine out of eleven medical clinics, all five churches in Avdiivka and the three large supermarkets. The most affected district was Khimik, which consists of Soviet-era residential buildings. Russian forces have targeted the 26 high-rise apartment buildings in the central area, apparently to prevent the Ukrainian army from using them as observation posts. Around 1200 people still live in Avdiivka.

+++ 17:26 Bulgaria abandons special tax for Gazprom due to threat from Hungary +++Bulgariaabolishes its tax on the transit of Russian gas through its territory. Hungary had previously threatened to veto Bulgaria's long-standing application to join the Schengen area. The special tax was levied on Russian gas from the TurkStream gas pipeline, which is also transported to Hungary and Serbia. The measure was approved in October and was intended to reduce the profits of the Russian state-owned company Gazprom. Gazprom never paid the tax.

+++ 16:58 Great Britain: Russian Storm Z soldiers sent back into combat with untreated wounds +++Russianfighters from the Storm Z units would "most likely be sent back into combat with unhealed wounds", the British Ministry of Defense explains. According to the report, some members even returned to combat after having their limbs amputated. Storm Z is an unofficial term used by Russian troops. It combines a term for assault troops with the letter Z, which was adopted by the military as a symbol for the invasion of Ukraine. According to the statement, a large proportion of the units are made up of convicts who often do not receive the medical treatment they need. Among other things, they lack the necessary documents to access military hospitals.

+++ 16:27 Polish truck drivers block important border crossing into Ukraine +++Inprotest against Ukrainian truck drivers, Polish colleagues are blocking access to the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing in western Ukraine on their side. This was reported by the news website "Ukrainska Pravda". The highway is the most direct connection between Warsaw and Kiev. The Polish protesters only want to allow one truck through per hour. Exceptions are made for the transportation of humanitarian and perishable goods. The reason for the protest is a general work permit for Ukrainian drivers for the EU. The Polish drivers suspect their Ukrainian colleagues of abusing their free access to the EU by driving down prices and offering illegal services.

+++ 16:02 Video: Tanks can no longer get through to the front near Robotyne +++++Allthat remains of thevillage of Robotyne in southern Ukraine is rubble. Around it, however, Ukrainian units are fighting doggedly to hold the line of defense. Between destroyed roads and widely sown mines, the soldiers can only make progress on foot. Heavy equipment has to stay behind.

+++ 15:28 Russian Crimean administration "nationalizes" houses, luxury hotels and factories of Ukrainians +++Russia"nationalizes" property of 77 individuals and companies in occupied Crimea due to alleged "anti-Russian activities" of their owners, writes an official appointed by Russia. A total of 1150 properties were confiscated, Konstantinov said. The list of confiscated properties includes luxury hotels, banks, including a branch of the State Reserve Bank of Ukraine, factories and property belonging to the well-known Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. In recent months, Russian proxies in occupied Crimea also confiscated an apartment in the city of Yalta that belonged to the family of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The property was auctioned off.

+++ 14:54 Latvia expands training of Ukrainian soldiers +++Morethan 1500 soldiers will have been trained in Latvia by the end of the year, says Colonel Mykola Huben, Head of the Department of Individual Training of the Ukrainian General Staff. The cooperation is to be expanded in the coming year. "The plan is to train around 96 commanders and 360 combat medics in 2024 with the participation of Latvia," said Huben. According to media reports, Latvia is training the Ukrainian military in the use of linked weapons and bomb disposal, among other things, and is training officers.

+++ 14:25 Army chief Salushnyj sees movement on the front +++Ukrainian army chief Valerij Saluschnyj declares on Ukrainian broadcaster RBC that the situation on the front is not stagnating in immobility. He refuses to answer the question of whether the army will continue the counter-offensive in winter, citing the confidentiality of such information. Almost two months ago, Salushnyj had warned of an immobile war of position in which Russia could gain the upper hand due to greater resources, thus triggering opposition from President Volodymyr Selenskyj.

+++ 13:58 Lack of ammunition from the West - Ukraine must reschedule offensive +++TheUkrainian soldiers at the front are facing a shortage of artillery shells and have scaled back some offensive operations due to a lack of foreign support, explains Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi. He is referring in particular to the blockade of a 60 billion dollar package by the Republicans in the USA. Hungary has also recently blocked 50 billion euros in EU funds for Kiev. "There is a problem with the ammunition, especially with the post-Soviet bullets, i.e. 122 mm and 152 mm. And these problems exist on the entire front today. The quantities available to us today are no longer sufficient to meet our needs. So we are redistributing them. We are re-planning the tasks we have set ourselves and reducing them because we have to fulfill them."

+++ 13:28 Ukrainian front on the Dnipro holds: Russians sabotage each other +++TheUkrainian military continues to hold its positions onthe left bank of the Kherson region. This was stated by Natalia Humenjuk, spokeswoman of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces, on Ukrainian television. Despite constant attacks by Russian troops, the positions have held so far. According to Humenjuk, obvious discord between the units also plays a role in the failure of the Russian attacks. They are in competition and are always trying to show themselves to be more effective than other units. This is often at the expense of communication between them. Humenjuk assures that the Ukrainian units would not give them a chance to distinguish themselves. Earlier, Humenjuk explained that the challenges facing the Ukrainian military on the left bank of the Dnipro were great, but that progress was nevertheless being made.

+++ 13:09 Latvia wants to expel more than 1000 Russians +++Latviais considering the expulsion of more than 1000 Russians because they have not taken the necessary steps to extend their temporary residence permits, the Latvian news agency Delfi reports, citing statements by Maira Roze, the head of the Latvian Citizenship and Migration Office, on television. In 2022, the Latvian parliament adopted a change to the residence regulations for Russian citizens in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russians living in Latvia must now apply for permanent residence and pass a Latvian language test at basic level. About 24 percent of the Latvian population are ethnic Russians, some of whom have Latvian citizenship and some of whom are Russian citizens. The latter can obtain Latvian citizenship through a naturalization procedure. The Latvian authorities have written to more than 3000 Russian citizens informing them that they must leave Latvia because they have not registered for the residence and language test.

+++ 12:43 More than 30 Ukrainian civilians killed by mines andexplosive remnants of war within four months +++BetweenAugust 1 and November 30 of this year, at least 31 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 98 others injured by mines and explosive remnants of war, says Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, citing data from the UN Human Rights Office.

+++ 12:14 Alleged assassination attempt foiled - FSB detains Russian +++TheRussian Federal Security Service (FSB) detains a person suspected of planning an attack on a senior defense sector executive in Izhevsk, Udmurtia region, the FSB Public Relations Center tells TASS news agency. "As a result of operational measures, a Russian citizen born in 1990 was detained in Izhevsk on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack with a homemade explosive device against a senior executive of a defense industry enterprise in the Udmurtia region on the instructions of a Ukrainian terrorist organization," the press service said. The components of a makeshift explosive device and explosive substances were seized from the detainee, as well as the devices with which the suspect is said to have communicated with his Ukrainian handlers. Russia has repeatedly arrested people for allegedly plotting attacks on people or military facilities.

+++ 11:47 Rheinmetall delivers: Bundeswehr can send more ammunition to Ukraine +++++Ukrainewill receive more artillery ammunition from a framework agreement concluded between the Bundeswehr and Rheinmetall in July 2023. As the armaments company announced, the Bundeswehr is now calling off further ammunition. The order is worth a three-digit million euro amount. Delivery is scheduled to take place in the course of 2025. The framework agreement runs until 2029 and is worth around 1.2 billion euros.

+++ 11:13 Roadmap for German soldiers on NATO's eastern flank +++NATO partners Germany and Lithuania want the new German combat brigade in the Baltic Republic to be fully operational by 2027. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his counterpart Arvydas Anusauskas have agreed that extensive infrastructure should be created in Rudninkai near the capital Vilnius and in Rukla near Kaunas for a robust and war-ready brigade. Barracks and living quarters are to be built at the two military bases in accordance with German requirements. In their roadmap signed in Vilnius, the two ministers reaffirm their countries' commitment "to defend each other and every inch of the Alliance's territory at all times and to protect our freedom and democracy in accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty". Germany has offered to station around 5000 men and women of the Bundeswehr in the country on NATO's eastern flank.

+++ 10:45 "The will to defend in Kiev is still unbroken" +++ Waningwillingness to help from the West and tough battles: According to ntv reporter Carolin Unger, the mood in the Ukrainian capital is less optimistic than it was a year ago. Nevertheless, people are still determined to oppose the invasion.

+++ 10:17 Night terror: Ukraine shoots down all Russian drones +++Inthe night of December 18, the Russian military is said to have attacked with five Shahed attack drones from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk region. This was reported by the Ukrainian air force on Telegram, according to the Ukrinform news agency. "All drones were shot down by mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the regions of Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky," the message reads.

+++ 09:49 Asylum seekers: Ukrainians make up eight percent of benefit recipients +++Thenumber of foreigners receiving benefits as asylum seekers in Germany rose significantly last year. Around 482,300 people were receiving standard benefits under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act at the end of 2022, which is 21 percent or around 84,000 more people than a year earlier, according to the Federal Statistical Office. One reason for the increase is the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: at the end of 2022, around 40,000 asylum seekers were Ukrainian, accounting for eight percent of the total. After the attack on their country on February 24, 2022, war refugees from Ukraine were initially provided for under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. Since June 2022, they have been integrated into the basic income support scheme under the German Social Security Code II (formerly Hartz IV, now Bürgergeld). According to the information provided, newly arrived Ukrainians will continue to receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act until they are granted a residence permit.

+++ 09:07 Traveling at 140 km/h: Ukraine receives first models of new drone +++TheUkrainian military has received the first batch of the new AQ 400 Scythe drones. This is evident from the photos published by Terminal Autonomy, a company formerly known as startup One Way Aerospace. The company currently has an initial production capacity of 100 AQ 400 Scythe units per month. However, an increase to 500 units is planned for the future. The AQ 400 Scythe is a long-range drone with a range of around 750 kilometers that can be launched from short runways or catapults. It weighs around 70 kilograms and can carry a load of 32 kilograms. This can even be extended to 43 kilograms, although this reduces the flight range. The drone flies at 144 kilometers per hour. The AQ-400 Scythe kamikaze drone project was presented in the spring of this year. The Ukrainian drone is characterized by fast assembly, mass production and low cost.

+++ 08:29 Munz: "Russia regroups western military district" +++Theparamilitary group "Freedom of Russia" is attacking Russian territory from Ukraine, Putin threatens Finland with unspecified "problems". ntv Russia correspondent Rainer Munz looks at the latest developments in the war from Moscow.

+++ 07:52 ISW: NATO border in danger after Ukraine defeat +++RussianPresident Vladimir Putin's recent public statements on NATO pose a credible threat to Western security if Russia achieves its military goals in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its latest assessment. Putin said in an interview on Russian state television that fears that Russia could fight directly against NATO members were "complete nonsense". He then explained that he was planning to concentrate armed forces near the Finnish border in retaliation for Finland's accession to NATO. The ISW explains that Putin's reassurances should rather be understood as threats. "If Russia were able to achieve its stated maximum goal of the complete capitulation of Ukraine, it could move its forces to the NATO border from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean," says ISW. A Russian victory in Ukraine would force Western allies to prepare to defend against direct attacks on NATO, which would entail "astronomical" costs and high risks to global security.

+++ 07:17 More soldiers thanks to abortion ban? Committee rejectsproposal+++++TheState Duma's health committee is against the proposal to ban abortions in private clinics. This was reported by the newspaper "Vedomosti", citing a letter from the committee to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin. A draft had previously been submitted to the State Duma that proposed excluding private clinics from the list of medical facilities that are allowed to perform abortions. "After analyzing the positions of the Ministry of Health, the Federal Health Supervision Service and public organizations, the State Duma committee came to the conclusion that the right of citizens of the Russian Federation to choose doctors must be protected," it says. The letter also states that the State Duma Committee considers it necessary to develop a system of pre-abortion counseling and recommends "promoting positive views on women's reproductive health", providing information on state support and strengthening control over the work of private clinics.

+++ 06:38 Russian troops are said to have shot down their own fighter jet +++OnSunday, Russian troops are said to have accidentally shot down their own SU-25 fighter jet in eastern Ukraine. This was reported by the command of the Ukrainian air force. "I can say with certainty that it was not the Ukrainian air defense that shot down the Russian SU-25 fighter plane! It was clearly a coordinated action by the Russian air defense forces, for which the entire Ukrainian people are greatly indebted to them," Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, announced on Telegram. Russian military bloggers first reported the loss of the SU-25, but attributed the crash and the pilot's death to unfavorable weather conditions.

+++ 06:09 Ukraine: Moscow takes stronger action against guerrillas in Kherson +++Accordingto the National Resistance Center, the number of Russian special forces and military personnel patrolling the occupied Kherson region is increasing. The Center explains that the Russian occupation forces are increasingly conducting "counter-sabotage" throughout the region to intimidate residents who provide information to the Ukrainian military. Separate radar reconnaissance units are reportedly trying to locate radiation sources using satellite phones. "The enemy knows that the defense forces are using the equipment of the satellite communications operator Iridium for military purposes," the center said. The center also reports that around 100 members of the Russian National Guard have been deployed to search the area for guerrillas.

+++ 02:50 Ukrainian Foreign Minister: Partners must also increase arms production +++Withregard to the expansion of arms production in Russia, Ukraine is counting on a corresponding reaction from its allies. "Ukraine and its partners must also increase arms production," said Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on ARD television. "We must remain resolute, stick together and support each other." Just over a week ago, Kremlin leader Putin said that Ukraine's own arms industry was producing many times more than at the start of the war almost 22 months ago. At the beginning of December, Ukraine itself announced that the Russian arms industry had ramped up production of missiles and combat drones.

+++ 00:59 Ukrainian paramilitaries claim responsibility for attack on Belgorod +++Aparamilitary group based in Ukraine claims responsibility for an attack on the Russian region of Belgorod. The group "Legion of Freedom of Russia", which is classified as terrorist in Russia, claims to have destroyed a base of Russian troops near the village of Trebreno. It is not known whether any soldiers were killed. The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, stated that Trebreno had been shelled by Ukrainian forces and that there had been an "exchange of fire" on the outskirts of the village. Civilians were not injured, but three houses and power lines were damaged.

+++ 22:24 Bug discovered in possible future office of Ukrainian commander-in-chief +++Abug was found in an office possibly intended for the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Salushnyi, according to intelligence sources. The domestic intelligence service announced that criminal proceedings had been initiated after a technical device was discovered at a potential future location of the commander-in-chief. According to the intelligence service, the device is not functional and there is no evidence that audio surveillance took place. According to the online portal "Ukrainska Pravda", the device was discovered during a routine check on Sunday. According to the report, it is a location that could have served as the new office of the commander-in-chief. The portal refers to military sources.

+++ 21:56 Hand grenades detonated at village council meeting - MP charged with terrorism +++AnMP who allegedly detonated several hand grenades during a village council meeting in the western Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia has been charged with terrorism. This was reported by the news portal "Kyiv Independent". He is accused of terrorism and is in custody. One person was killed in the attack in the village of Kerezky and 22 others were injured, according to the report. The motive is still unclear. A police video shows a man entering the meeting room and suddenly throwing several grenades. According to consistent media reports, the MP is said to belong to the presidential party Servants of the People.

+++ 21:26 Zelensky celebrates "historic week" +++UkrainianPresident Zelensky has celebrated a "historic week" that has taken him from West Africa via South America and the USA to Scandinavia and finally to Germany to the US headquarters for Europe. Finally, the EU decided to start accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. "The negotiation process will not be easy, but the most important thing is that we have historically decided on one thing: Ukraine will always be a part of our common European home," says Selenskyj in his evening video address.

+++ 20:48 Nikopol again reports heavy attacks +++Thecity of Nikopol is again under attack, according to the authorities. Today alone, there have been three attacks with kamikaze drones, and heavy artillery has also been fired at the city twice, says the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak. According to him, no one was injured, but infrastructure was damaged. Lysak had already reported continuous shelling and several injuries the day before.

+++ 20:21 Investigators: Woman dies from artillery shelling +++Accordingto the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, a woman was killed in her home by Russian artillery shelling. The Russian army attacked the settlement of Krasnopillja at midday, the investigating authority writes. According to the report, a shell hit the 69-year-old woman's house. Krasnopillja in the Sumy region is about 10 kilometers from the Russian border.

+++ 19:50 Russian media: Regular Ukrainian units attack villages in Belgorod +++Afterfighting is said to have broken out in the Russian region of Belgorod, Russian media are reporting an attack by regular Ukrainian units. According to the reports, several villages were attacked. Ukrainian military intelligence had previously spoken of an unexpected attack by "opponents of the Kremlin regime". According to the reports, the surprised Russian troops fired on Russian villages in panic. Independent clarification is not possible.

You can read about all previous developments here.