Right here is the place issues stand on Sunday, December 14:
Preventing
- Two folks have been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian metropolis of Saratov, regional Governor Roman Busargin mentioned in a press release on Telegram. An unspecified variety of folks have been additionally injured within the assault.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence mentioned it hit Ukrainian industrial and vitality amenities with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, in what it referred to as a retaliatory assault for Ukrainian strikes on “civilian targets” in Russia.
- Ukraine’s southern port metropolis of Odesa and the encompassing area have suffered major blackouts after a big in a single day Russian assault on the ability grid left greater than one million households with out energy.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Russia’s in a single day assault on Ukraine included greater than 450 drones and 30 missiles.
- Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the assault as one of many battle’s largest assaults on Odesa, the place provides of electrical energy and water had been knocked out. She mentioned provides of non-drinking water have been being delivered to areas of town.
- Ukraine’s energy grid operator mentioned a “vital quantity” of households have been with out energy within the southern areas of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and that the Ukrainian-controlled a part of the front-line Kherson area was completely with out energy.
- Ukraine’s navy has accused Russia of utilizing a drone to intentionally assault the civilian Turkish vessel Viva, which was carrying sunflower oil to Egypt, a day after Moscow hit two Ukrainian ports. Not one of the 11 Turkish nationals onboard the ship was damage, and the vessel continued its journey to Egypt.
- Earlier, it was additionally reported that three Turkish vessels have been broken in a separate assault.
- Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant briefly misplaced all offsite energy in a single day for the twelfth time throughout the battle, as a result of navy exercise affecting {the electrical} grid, in keeping with Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director common of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA). Each energy strains at the moment are reconnected, the IAEA mentioned.
US-led negotiations
- Zelenskyy mentioned he would meet US and European representatives in Berlin to debate the “fundamentals of peace”. He added that Ukraine wanted a “dignified” peace and a assure that Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of his nation in 2022, wouldn’t assault once more.
- US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet Zelenskyy and European leaders in Berlin on Sunday and Monday, a US official briefed on the matter mentioned.
- French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have been additionally anticipated to attend the Berlin meeting, The Wall Road Journal reported.
- Europeans and Ukrainians are asking the US to supply them with “safety ensures” earlier than any territorial negotiations in Russian-occupied japanese Ukraine, the French presidency mentioned.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen have mentioned work on US-led peace proposals for Ukraine and efforts to make use of frozen Russian sovereign property to supply funds for Kyiv, a Downing Road spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
- Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, contemporary from a gathering together with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan, mentioned he hopes to debate a Ukraine-Russia peace plan with Trump, including that “peace will not be far-off”.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukraine acquired 114 prisoners released by Belarus, together with residents accused of working for Ukrainian intelligence and Belarusian political prisoners, in keeping with Kyiv’s POW coordination centre. The centre posted pictures showing to point out the launched captives boarding a bus, with a few of them smiling and embracing.
- Zelenskyy spoke to Belarusian prisoner Maria Kalesnikava after her launch, presidential aide Dmytro Lytvyn instructed reporters. Lytvyn instructed reporters that navy intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov was current when the prisoners launched by Belarus have been acquired.
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a welcoming ceremony for a military engineering unit that returned residence after finishing up duties in Russia, North Korea’s KCNA information company reported. On the occasion, Kim praised officers and troopers for his or her “heroic” conduct throughout their 120-day abroad deployment.
- Russia has sentenced prime Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) judges and its chief prosecutor Karim Khan to jail, in retaliation for the courtroom’s 2023 resolution to challenge an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged battle crimes throughout the Ukraine battle.
