Here is the situation on Thursday, December 12:
Military
- Ukrainian officials said that the death toll from a Russian missile strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday had climbed to nine.
- Ukraine’s military general staff says it hit an oil depot in western Russia that fuels a key pipeline for Russian military supplies in an overnight attack that caused a “massive fire” at the facility in the Bryansk region.
- Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz acknowledged a production facility had caught fire after a drone attack, but said there were no casualties and that the fire was extinguished.
- Russia’s army said it recaptured two villages in the western Kursk region, where Kyiv has been waging a cross-border offensive since August.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that Ukraine fired six Western-supplied ATACMS missiles at a military airfield in the port city of Taganrog in its southern Rostov region.
- Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists a United States “intelligence assessment” found “it’s possible that Russia could use [an] Oreshnik missile in the coming days”, after a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “Russia has signalled its intent to launch another experimental Oreshnik missile at Ukraine.”
- Videos posted on social media show that a law passed in April to boost army conscription in Ukraine is facing growing resistance while some Ukrainian war veterans say they feel snubbed and forgotten.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry said a $20bn loan from the US to Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets, was “banal theft” that “will not go unanswered”. The loan is part of a $50bn G7 support package announced in October.
- Ukraine denied having discussed with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban a Christmas ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Russia.
- Russia warned its citizens not to travel to the US and other Western countries, claiming they could be “hunted” by the authorities amid worsening relations between Moscow and the West.
- Austrian oil and gas firm OMV announced it had ended its contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom, which had earlier stopped supplying Austria with gas. Some European countries remain highly reliant on Russian gas, funnelled via Ukraine, although the war has seen them reduce imports.
