Latest news about Russia and the war in Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a decision had not yet been taken on repairing the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which suffered damage in September.

“It has not yet been repaired, and no decisions have been taken on this matter,” he was quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

Nord Stream’s twin undersea pipelines transport important natural gas resources from Russia to Germany. Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom has intermittently suspended gas flows to Germany since late August, citing maintenance issues, although the move is widely believed to be a response to European Union sanctions against Russia.

After pipeline explosions in late September – a clandestine act for which no one took responsibility – Gazprom said it would shut down Nord Stream indefinitely. As a result, gas prices in Europe, which were already higher than at the same time a year ago, have risen as a result.

Moscow has previously accused the British Navy of Infrastructure blown up in Septemberwhich London rejected. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Damage to pipelines was described as sabotage.

– Roxandra Iordach

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned of dramatically worse conditions to come in Ukraine if Russia continues to attack the country’s infrastructure.

“Additional strikes may further seriously deteriorate the humanitarian situation and lead to further displacement,” Volker Türk, the High Commissioner, told the organization’s Human Rights Council after a visit to Ukraine. He said Russian attacks on key energy facilities and other vital civilian infrastructure were putting millions of people in “extreme suffering”.

Large swathes of Ukraine face regular, prolonged blackouts as authorities race to fix them after each attack. Geopolitical analysts say that the aim of the Russian strikes is to make large parts of the country uninhabitable with the advent of the cold winter, threatening starvation.

Rights groups say the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a war crime. The Kremlin has argued that its strikes are in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian facilities such as the Crimean Bridge, which was damaged in an explosion on Oct. 8. Russia has been attacking Ukraine since February 24.

– Natasha Turak

Members of the Ukrainian military relax in a makeshift sauna built by members of the brigade in an underground bunker while spending a day off in Bakhmut at a site on the outskirts of Donetsk, Ukraine.

– Chris McGrath | Getty Images

The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire while the Russian invaders remain on Ukrainian soil.

Moscow on December 14 similarly said that A.S Possible suspension of hostilities for Christmas It was not on paper 10 months after the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s official news agency Ukrinform quoted Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov as saying today, according to Google translation, “I think there will be a complete ceasefire on our part only when there is not a single occupier left on our land.” His comment came in response to a question about a possible suspension of hostilities at New Year’s Eve celebrations.

– Roxandra Iordach

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of the president’s office, wrote on Telegram that the Russian bombing of the city of Kherson in southeastern Ukraine killed two people.

Tymoshenko said the individuals were killed in the city center, about 100 meters from the regional administration building. Ukrainian forces retook Kherson and liberated it from the Russian occupiers in early November, but have since faced near constant bombardment by Russian forces, many of whom remain on the other side of the Dnipro River.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in late September that Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions had been annexed by Russia, an illegal move under international law, and vowed to keep them as Russian territory.

– Natasha Turak

European Union member states failed to reach consensus on a new sanctions package for Russia, which would be the ninth since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in late February.

Progress on the sanctions has been stalled by a row over whether the EU should facilitate the transportation of Russian fertilizers through European ports. Poland and the Baltic states objected, saying the easing of restrictions could be used by Russian oligarchs who own fertilizer companies to evade sanctions, according to Reuters, citing EU officials.

Proponents of easing say the current restrictions threaten food security, particularly in developing countries. Russia is the largest exporter of fertilizers in the world. Some countries want the United Nations World Food Program to be involved in allowing fertilizers to be exported to parts of the world that depend on them.

– Natasha Turak

Russia warned the United States that if it sends Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, it will regard the move as a provocation that could lead to “unpredictable consequences”.

Biden administration Finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile system to UkraineThree defense officials told NBC News earlier this week. The surface-to-air defense system will help Ukraine fend off Russian air attacks, and President Zelensky has long called for such weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against repeated missile attacks.

The Russian embassy in Washington warned In a statement on Telegram He said Wednesday that sending the Patriot missile system would be “provocative”.

“An information campaign has been launched in the United States about a possible future shipment of modern air defense systems to Kyiv. It is said that President Biden may soon make such a decision.” A statement from the Russian Embassy noted.

“If this is confirmed, we will witness another provocative step by the administration that could lead to unexpected consequences,” he added.

The embassy alleged that even without the delivery of the Patriot systems, “the United States is increasingly drawn into the conflict in the post-Soviet republic,” saying that the “flow of weapons” to Ukraine was increasing and that the United States was assisting Ukraine in the terms of intelligence and military training.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it would consider Patriot missile defense systems a legitimate target for Russian strikes if they were sent to Ukraine.

– Holly Ellytt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces are destroying “everything in front of them”.

“There is no calm on the front line. There is nothing easy and simple. Every day, every meter is fought for desperately,” Zelensky said in a Thursday night speech. Telegram channel.

“Russia is destroying city after city in Donbass – like Mariupol, like Volnovaki, like Bakhmut,” he added.

Zelensky also thanked the Ukrainian forces for “repelling another attack by Iranian drones this morning.”

Amanda Macias

Moscow said a “Christmas ceasefire” was on the table after nearly 10 months of war in Ukraine, where the first major drone attack on the capital Kyiv in weeks destroyed two buildings but was largely repelled by air defenses.

The two sides are not currently involved in talks to end the conflict that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions more and reduced cities to rubble since Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Russia should start withdrawing from his country by Christmas as a step to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two. Moscow flatly rejected the proposal, saying that Ukraine must accept the loss of territory to Russia before any progress can be made.

– Reuters

The United Nations has warned that nearly 7 million children in Ukraine do not have regular access to electricity, heat or water, increasing their risks as temperatures drop.

“Millions of children face a bleak winter huddled in the cold and darkness, with little idea of ​​how and when the respite might arrive,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

In addition to freezing temperatures, lack of electricity is interrupting their education, UNICEF said, with schools damaged or destroyed, and many children relying on distance learning.

“In addition to the immediate threats that freezing conditions bring, children are also denied the ability to learn or stay in touch with friends and family, putting their physical and mental health in desperate jeopardy,” she added.

In October, Russian forces intensified their attacks on energy infrastructure and succeeded in destroying nearly half of Ukraine’s energy production.

Amanda Macias