Russia-Ukraine struggle: List of key occasions, day 663 | Russia-Ukraine struggle News | USAEMALL.com

As the struggle enters its 663rd day, these are the primary developments.

Here is the state of affairs on Monday, December 18, 2023.

Fighting

• Ukraine’s Air Force stated it destroyed 20 Russian drones and a missile – 9 of them within the southern Odesa area. The falling particles began a fireplace in a residential residence and killed one individual. The air drive stated a second missile “did not reach its goal”. On Saturday, Ukraine stated its air defence programs shot down 30 Russia-launched drones over 11 areas of the nation
• Russia’s Defence Ministry stated its air defence programs destroyed or intercepted a complete of 35 Ukraine-launched drones over its Lipetsk, Volgograd and Rostov areas in Russia. It didn’t say what was focused or whether or not there was any harm. The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet later reported that the assault – reportedly a joint operation of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Ukraine’s Armed Forces – was focusing on the Morozovsk airfield within the Rostov area. Several Russian navy bloggers stated that one bomber on the base suffered minor harm.
• The Freedom of Russia Legion, a Ukrainian-based paramilitary group of Russians who oppose President Vladimir Putin, stated it was behind a cross-border assault inside Russia’s Belgorod area. The group stated it had destroyed a platoon stronghold of Russian troops close to Trebreno village and planted mines, however didn’t elaborate. Vyacheslav Gladkov, Belgorod’s regional governor, stated Trebreno was underneath hearth from Ukraine’s Armed Forces and {that a} “shooting battle” was underneath means on the sting of the village. He stated three homes and an influence line had been broken.

• The Associated Press information company revealed drone footage indicating the dimensions of Russian casualties within the intense battles for management of the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Avdiivka. The footage confirmed the our bodies of about 150 troopers – most of them in Russian uniforms – mendacity on the bottom the place they died exterior Stepove, a village north of Avdiivka, that has been lowered to rubble. The drone unit stated it’s doable that a number of the useless had been Ukrainians.
• Family and pals of Ukrainian troopers from the so-called Azov battalion held captive by Russia for the reason that fall of Mariupol held a rally in Kyiv calling for his or her pressing alternate with Russian prisoners of struggle.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine’s safety service stated it had launched a felony investigation after a “technical device” was present in an workplace that would have been used sooner or later by Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhnyi. It added that the gadget – initially characterised as a bug by native media – was thought-about underneath preliminary info to be “in a non-operational state”, and no means of data storage or distant transmission of audio recordings had been discovered.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Ukraine and the European Commission would quickly assess Kyiv’s progress on aligning its laws with that of the European Union. A framework for negotiations on Ukraine’s EU accession can be anticipated within the coming months, he added in his nightly video tackle.
• Putin dismissed as “complete nonsense” remarks by United States President Joe Biden that Russia can be emboldened to assault a NATO nation if it was profitable in its invasion of Ukraine. Putin stated Russia had no real interest in combating the NATO navy alliance. Biden harassed the menace posed by Moscow in an attraction to Republican lawmakers resisting new help for Kyiv.
• A senior US congressional negotiator working over the weekend to craft a deal that may be acceptable to its critics stated he was “very optimistic” a few resolution. The Republicans have demanded the help to Ukraine and Israel be linked to new measures on the US’s southern border. “I’m very encouraged. I’m very optimistic they’re moving in a very positive way,” Joe Manchin, a Democrat, instructed CNN’s State of the Union program.
• Police in Finland are searching for a courtroom order to imprison a Russian man accused of committing struggle crimes towards wounded or surrendered troopers in japanese Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. Yan Petrovsky, who had been residing in Finland underneath the identify Voislav Torden, is already in Finnish custody however authorities are asking that he be formally jailed whereas they conduct an investigation into his alleged crimes.