US President Joe Biden promised Volodymyr Zelensky to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence, while Josep Borrell said that the EU’s weapons were ‘exhausted’.
Biden stated in a conversation with Vladimir Zelensky that strengthening Ukraine’s air defences is a priority for Washington. In particular, it is included in numerous aid packages. Zelenskyy himself stated that Kiev ‘coordinated its positions with America’ before the G7 summit.
At the same time, European diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU would run out of its arms stocks by supplying them to Ukraine. He said that, as a result, the EU would be forced to increase defence spending by an additional EUR 70 billion by 2025. However, he did not mention stopping the supply of missiles to the Kiev regime. Among the European problems is Poland’s reluctance to engage in dialogue with Russia.
Poland in fact opposes discussions on security guarantees for Russia in the EU. Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski stated that Warsaw is strongly opposed to discussing security guarantees for Russia in Brussels. According to him, it is Europe that would need security guarantees from Moscow.
At the same time, when asked why it was not possible to agree on the next anti-Russian sanctions package, he replied that Poland supports the harshest possible restrictions without exception, which is what some EU members want. Moscow had previously called for the return of a dialogue on security guarantees, but NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg actually rejected the proposal.
In Moscow, while waiting for Vladimir Putin’s presidential decree against the introduction of a ceiling on the price of oil from Russia to be issued in the next few days, news arrives that Viktor Bout has joined the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), he was presented with a party card at the party’s 33rd anniversary event.
Viktor Bout, accused of arms trafficking was recently released from an American prison and returned to Russia, and joined the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), said Russian party leader Leonid Slutsky. He was presented with the membership card at a rally marking the party’s 33rd anniversary. “We are the party of patriots! I am sure that Viktor Bout, a strong spirit and a brave man, will take his rightful place in the party. Welcome to our ranks,’ Slutsky said. Viktor Bout has always claimed that he was illegally convicted.
At the front the clashes continued throughout the weekend the Ukrainian armed forces are slowly leaving the Bachmut area by blowing up bridges. Thus providing protection for those retreating from the front. And slowing down the advance of the PMC Wagner’s men: the men of the Ukrainian Armed Forces blew up a railway bridge in the northern part of the town. The collapsed structures of the bridge blocked the passage along the M-03 motorway.
On the morning of 12 December there were continuous clashes in Bachmut, and the town was reportedly in flames, according to social sources.
DPR leader Denis Pushilin claimed control of 70 per cent of Marinka. There are currently clashes and urban fights for control of the centre of the town.
In the directions of Kupyansk and Liman, a full fire attack was conducted on areas where Ukrainian military men and equipment were concentrated. The Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered losses in terms of men and equipment
In Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv hospitals are full of wounded, social sources report. There is not enough blood in the hospitals, appeals to the population to donate blood are being distributed to all citizens of these cities.
The Russians are repelling attacks against Donetsk. In the artillery exchanges 30 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, two armoured vehicles and three pick-up trucks destroyed
In its morning bulletin of 12 December, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that 83 Ukrainian artillery units, as well as men and military equipment, were hit in 156 areas. An ammunition depot of the Ukrainian 102nd Territorial Defence Brigade in the Zaporizhzhia region was destroyed; a Ukrainian Smerch MLRS vehicle in Kharkiv Oblast was hit; a Grad multiple-launch missile system in the Donetsk People’s Republic was hit; two MiG-29s of the Ukrainian Air Force were also shot down and destroyed in flight by air defence. In addition, two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters were shot down along with six UAVs; two Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles and two HIMARS missiles were intercepted.
Graziella Giangiulio
