Ukraine Daily

Wednesday, December 7

Russia’s war against Ukraine

People stand on Armed Forces Day near the grave of a soldier who died during Russian attacks against Ukraine at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. Armed Forces Day is celebrated in Ukraine on Dec. 6 every year. This year, people came to the graves of those who died in the Russian-Ukrainian war to pay their respects. (Photo by Pavlo Palamarchuk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Kuleba: 2 more Ukrainian embassies receive suspicious parcels. “I ask those who continue to send these packages and terrorize our embassies to relax and stop wasting time and money on postage stamps. You won’t achieve anything with this,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Dec. 6.

PM Shmyhal: Electricity deficit in Ukraine at 19% after latest Russian attack. Energy workers will eliminate the consequences of Russia’s Dec. 5 strike on critical infrastructure in the coming days, but the capacity deficit in the system will last, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Dec. 6.

Forbes estimates Russia spent $400-500 million on Dec. 5 missile strikes. Russia fired more than 70 cruise missiles at targets across Ukraine on Dec. 5 with a total value of $400-500 million, according to Forbes.

NYT: Russia continues missile production despite Western sanctions. Some of the cruise missiles used by Russia in its strikes on Ukraine were produced no earlier than October, the New York Times reported on Dec. 6, citing Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a British independent analyst group that tracks illegal weapons in conflicts.

60 Ukrainian service members return home in new prisoner exchange with Russia. President’s Office Head Andriy Yermak said that Russia had released 60 Ukrainian prisoners of war under the prisoner exchange on Dec. 6. He added that among those who returned home were soldiers who fought in the port city of Mariupol. Yermak said that some soldiers were held in occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, where an explosion on July 29 killed over 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Prosecutors discover another Russian detention facility in Kherson Oblast. Russian occupiers used the facility to detain over 100 people with pro-Ukrainian views, according to the prosecutors. Prisoners could be subjected to physical and psychological pressure.

Sirens reportedly activated at Russia’s Engels Air Base. Air raid sirens were activated late on Dec. 6 at an airfield in Russia’s city of Engels, the day after explosions rocked two Russian airbases, including Engels, hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine. Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted First Deputy Head of the Engels District Yevgeny Shpolsky, who said that the sirens sounded on the territory of a military unit and “there is no threat to civilian infrastructure.”

ISW: Kremlin departs from limited messaging intended to minimize concerns about Ukraine war. Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk oblasts have announced the formation of territorial defense units, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest report, exposing many civilians to the prospect of all-out war “under the absurd premise of the threat of a Ukrainian ground assault on Russia’s border regions.” The Russian propaganda machine has continued to frame the war against Ukraine as simply a “special military operation” and not a war.

Russian forces strike Zaporizhzhia Oblast with drones, missiles overnight on Dec. 7. Two communities in Zaporizhzhia Oblast were hit with Russian drones and S-300 missiles, Oleksandr Starukh, the region’s governor, reported on Telegram. In one of the villages, three people were wounded in the attack, including a 15-year-old girl.

Governor: Ukraine’s air defense downs all 8 Russian drones in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Russian forces attacked two communities - Marhanetska and Nikopolska - at least seven times using Uragan multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported on Telegram. No casualties were reported. According to Reznichenko, Ukraine’s air defense downed eight drones (preliminary Shahed-136) Russia used to attack the region overnight on Dec 7.

Read our exclusives

Departing EU diplomat: Civilian casualties in Ukraine may be 3 times higher than UN estimates.

Behind the tragic headlines, Ukrainian state institutions are faced with the mammoth task of documenting and investigating thousands of cases of potential war crimes.

Photo: Oleksii Temchenko

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Ukraine war latest: Zelensky vows to push Russians out of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.

For months, Zelensky has repeatedly stressed the severity of the situation in Bakhmut as Russia throws troops and equipment en masse in its months-long desperate attempts to capture the city.

Photo: President’s Office

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The human cost of Russia’s war

President’s Office: 1 killed in Russian strike on infrastructure facility in liberated Kherson. Since Kherson’s liberation on Nov. 11, Russian troops have been regularly shelling the city. 19 civilians have been killed by Russian attacks in the past two weeks, according to local officials.

General Staff: Russia has lost 92,200 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Dec. 6 that Russia had also lost 2,929 tanks, 5,905 armored fighting vehicles, 4,505 vehicles and fuel tanks,1,915 artillery systems, 395 multiple launch rocket systems, 211 air defense systems, 281 airplanes, 264 helicopters, 1,587 drones, and 16 boats.

International response

Norway to allocate 14.5 million euros to military assistance for Ukraine. Norway will make a voluntary financial contribution to the European Union Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine, according to the Council of the European Union.

Germany blocks Polish offer to place Patriot systems in Ukraine. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Dec. 6 that he was disappointed by the decision, made after speaking with his German counterpart Christine Lambrecht, as **“**the deployment of Patriots in western Ukraine would increase the security of Poles and Ukrainians.”

CNN: Defense secretary says US is not preventing Ukraine from developing long-range strike capabilities. “We are not working to prevent Ukraine from developing their own capability,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Dec. 6. Austin’s comment followed Ukraine’s new long-range striking ability, which came into focus on Dec. 5 with attacks on air bases located hundreds of kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian territory, demonstrating the ability to evade Russian air defenses and hit with precision. U.S. State Department also said the country has not supplied Ukraine with weapons to use beyond its borders and is not encouraging Ukraine to conduct such strikes.

In other news

National Bank: Ukraine’s foreign reserves surpass pre-war level. Ukraine’s foreign currency assets amount to $27.95 billion as of Dec. 1, with an increase of 10.7% in November due to “the rhythmic inflow of international aid, lower volumes of currency net sales and moderate payments of the state debt in foreign currency,” according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

Ukrainian media expert declines German press freedom award over Russian co-recipient. Oksana Romaniuk, the head of the Institute of Mass Information, rejected the Johann-Philipp-Palm-Award for Freedom of Speech and the Press due to the award also being given to Russian journalist Alexei Venediktov, whom she called “an official Kremlin liberal.”

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