Sunday, December 10

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Municipal workers dismount a monument of a Soviet field commander during the Russian Civil War, Mykola Schors, in Kyiv. Ukraine has been actively conducting decommunization since 2014, refusing the names, symbols, and ideology of the Soviet era in all spheres of life. (Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

First Lady: Ukraine in ‘mortal danger’ without financial aid. Ukraine is in ‘mortal danger’ if it does not continue receiving financial aid from Western countries, First Lady Olena Zelenska told the BBC on Dec. 9, one day after a Ukraine aid bill failed to pass in Washington.

Hungarian truckers to join Polish and Slovak protests on border with Ukraine.

Hungarian freight carriers starting on Dec. 11 will begin an official demonstration and block the Záhony-Chop checkpoint on the border with Ukraine, local media reported citing the Association of Hungarian Road Carriers.

Rada’s new freedom of speech chief criticizes TV marathon. Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, the newly appointed head of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Freedom of Speech, questioned the effectiveness of Ukraine’s TV marathon introduced after Russia’s full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022, Interfax reports.

Russia studying allocation of frozen gold reserves to Global South for climate change. Russian officials at the COP28 summit on Dec. 9 in Dubai said Moscow is studying whether some of its gold reserves, frozen by the West after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, could be used to help the Global South combat climate change.

Covid on the rise in Ukraine, deputy health minister warns. The rising epidemic has seen 1.3 million citizens fall ill, 40% more than last year. Officials say that Covid-19, flu, and other viruses are circulating in Ukraine simultaneously and will peak in mid-December before gradually reducing in January 2024.

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Kyiv denounces Russian election plans in occupied Ukrainian territories as ‘gross violation of international law.’ Kyiv condemns Russia’s plan to hold presidential elections in the occupied parts of Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry wrote on Dec. 9.

Kyiv authorities begin dismantling prominent Soviet-era statue in city center. Authorities in Kyiv have begun dismantling a statue of Red Army commander Mykola Shchors located on one of the main streets in the center of the capital, the Kyiv City State Administration announced on Dec. 9.

Read our exclusives

War in Ukraine puts sex workers at higher risk of violence, disease

As millions have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the hostilities, some women, displaced and unable to find other forms of employment, have turned to sex work. 

Photo: Alexander Query/ Lisa Kukharska/ The Kyiv Independent

This week in Ukraine Ep. 37 — What’s behind the crisis at the Ukraine-Poland border?

Human cost of war

Russian attacks on Kupiansk district kill 2, injure 2. Russian forces struck Kupiansk and the village of Podoly nearby, killing two people and wounding another two, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported on Dec. 9.

Russian attack on Kherson injures 2. Russian forces struck Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Dec. 9, wounding two residents, the Kherson Oblast Military Administration reported.

International response

US, South Korea, Japan pledge to increase cooperation, pressure on North Korea. The national security advisors of Japan, the U.S., and South Korea met in Seoul on Dec. 9 and pledged to mutually combat North Korea’s cyber threats, as well as weapons and spy satellite testing, which have been bolstered by the country’s increasing cooperation with Russia.

Zelensky, en route to Argentina, holds meeting with leader of Cabo Verde. President Volodymyr Zelensky held his first ever meeting with Cabo Verdean Prime Minister José Ulisses Correia e Silva, while on his way to the inauguration of Argentina’s president-elect, Javier Milei.

Foreign Ministry condemns IOC decision to let Russian athletes compete at Paris Olympics. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry condemned on Dec. 9 the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutral athletes in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Scholz on Ukraine aid: Germany should be prepared **to do more ‘when others are faltering.’**Germany should be prepared to increase its support for Ukraine “when others are faltering,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Dec. 9, apparently referring to the uncertainty over further aid to Ukraine in the U.S.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Martin Fornusek, Oleksiy Sorokin, Nate Ostiller, Francis Farrell, Dinara Khalilova, Dmytro Basmat, Lance Luo, and Abbey Fenbert.

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