December 6, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the strong international support for Ukraine has likely impacted China’s thinking about Taiwan.

Blinken reiterated that the United States is determined to preserve peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and indicated that robust support to Ukraine would help rather than deter that goal.

His comments came in response to a question from CNN’s Kylie Atwood about a?letter?to Blinken from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who voiced “concern about reports that U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine are impeding our ability to prevent a war in Asia by supplying Taiwan with the weapons it needs to deter a Chinese invasion.”

Blinken said he couldn’t speak to the issue of weapons systems, but pushed back on the argument that Hawley put forward: “Taiwan is more important for U.S. national interests than Ukraine.”

Blinken said Beijing has seen “countries coming together in extraordinary ways to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself, to put tremendous pressure on Russia to ends its aggression, and as well, to make sure that, in the case of NATO, we’re strengthening our own capacity to defend ourselves in case that aggression were to spread.”

“And I think that has to have an impact on China’s thinking about the future and about what it may be looking at in terms of Taiwan,” he said.

Some context: Under the “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China but has never officially recognized the Communist Party’s claim to the self-governing island of 23 million. The US provides Taiwan with defensive weapons but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks at a press conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, on December 6.

The US is not working to prevent Ukraine from developing its own long-range strike capabilities that could potentially target inside Russian territory, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

“We are not working to prevent Ukraine from developing their own capability,” Austin said on Tuesday.?

His comments come after a top US State Department official on Tuesday suggested that the Ukrainians were behind the recent drone strikes on two Russian bases, and directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes by targeting civilian populations and infrastructure.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told CNN that “nobody has claimed responsibility” for the drone strikes, but added that “the Ukrainian people are incredibly innovative; they are making their own drones, air and sea, that are incredibly effective.”

Additionally, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the US has “neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia.” ?

Speaking at a press conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Australian counterparts, Blinken said he was aware of the reported drone strikes on Russian territory, but had no further information.

Ukraine says it is working with international partners to help restore its energy sector after several waves of Russian missile attacks against critical infrastructure over the last several weeks.

A large delivery of equipment from France is about to be delivered, Herman Halushchenko, the Ukrainian minister of energy, said in a statement Friday.

The manufacture of new power equipment is a rather long process, so the Ukrainian side “accepts assistance in the form of used equipment that is in working condition,” he added.

Notably, he said Ukraine was talking with former Soviet republics, including Azerbaijan.

“The Baltic countries also help us significantly. I would like to highlight Lithuania, which has already transferred a large amount of equipment, and another part is on its way to us,” he said.

People walk down a street in downtown Kyiv on December 6.

Ukraine said it has reduced its “power deficit” as engineers work to restore infrastructure damaged by waves of Russian missile strikes.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that after Monday’s attacks, “power engineers promise to eliminate the consequences” in the coming days.

“At the same time, the power deficit in the energy system will remain. Currently, it is 19% of the forecast consumption,” he said. It has been higher than 30% in recent weeks.

Even so, Shmyhal said, “35% of key facilities of the main power grids have been damaged by massive attacks by the Russians in recent months.”

Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov said that water supply and sewage treatment had been restored by Tuesday evening.

Eleven district and quarter boiler houses —used for heating — were operating, serving about 88% of consumers. “This means that more than 600,000 Odesa residents have heat,” Trukhanov said.

More strikes in the south: Russian missile and artillery attacks have continued elsewhere in southern Ukraine.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, the head of Kherson region military administration, said Tuesday that “Russian occupiers shelled Kherson city again, hitting an “infrastructure facility and residential buildings.”

One person had been killed and a large fire was extinguished, he said.

Further north, Russians attacked the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said an industrial enterprise had been hit.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih district, said the strike appeared to have been by a ballistic missile, calling them “very significant destructions.”

Vilkul said that after Monday’s missile attacks, the gradual restoration of electricity had begun. But hourly and scheduled outages would continue “to keep the power system of Ukraine intact.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, in November.

The US State Department said the US is not “enabling” or “encouraging Ukraine to strike beyond its borders” with lethal aid, after Russia blamed several recent attacks on Russian military infrastructure on Ukraine.

“We are providing Ukraine with what it needs to use on its sovereign territory, on Ukrainian soil, to take on Russian aggressors, Russian aggressors that have crossed over the border,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

Price said that the US has not “provided Ukraine with weapons that it is to use inside of Russia.”

In an earlier interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland suggested that Ukrainians were behind the recent drone strikes on two Russian bases.??

“The Ukrainians are enormously innovative. They are working very hard with their own technologies and their own equipment,” she said.?

Nuland, who just returned from a trip to Kyiv, said the US policy of not providing Ukraine with offensive weaponry that could strike Russian territory has not changed.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the country is strengthening its defense industry in association with Western partners.

In an online briefing, Kuleba said Ukraine’s allies had also stepped up weapons production and improved supply chains to help Ukraine.

“We continue to work on strengthening the military production capacities of Ukraine’s defense industry with the participation of international partners,” he said.

“Partner governments are already mobilizing industries and allocating additional funds for training and retention of personnel, as well as investments in supply chains,” Kuleba added.

He said Ukraine was receiving military aid from “at least 20 countries,” which include many NATO members.

NASAMS are highly advanced anti-air systems which have helped Ukraine intercept and destroy a growing proportion of Russian missiles.

Kuleba also said he was grateful to Germany for strengthening their air defenses by transferring a further seven Gepard anti-aircraft systems.

CCTV footage geolocated by CNN to the Russian city of Engels, where a Russian air base is located, appears to show an explosion lighting up the sky at around 6 a.m. on Monday morning.

A top US?State?Department official on Tuesday suggested that Ukrainians were behind the recent drone strikes on two Russian bases and directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes by targeting civilian populations and infrastructure.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Undersecretary of?State?for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland noted that “nobody has claimed responsibility” for the drone strikes on the Russian bases Monday.

“But the targets were the very precise bombers that the Russians have been using to attack critical infrastructure,” she said, noting that “the Ukrainian people are incredibly innovative; they are making their own drones, air and sea, that are incredibly effective.”

Nuland, who just returned from a trip to Kyiv, said the US policy of not providing Ukraine with offensive weaponry that could strike Russian territory has not changed.?

“As I said, the Ukrainians are enormously innovative. They are working very hard with their own technologies and their own equipment,” she told Amanpour.

Although US officials have said that war crimes are being committed in Ukraine, they’ve often shied away from definitively naming specific acts or actors, citing ongoing investigations into the crimes. President Joe Biden in March did label Putin a “war criminal.”

Nuland directly called out the Russian leader for war crimes.

Nuland said Putin had initiated a new phase to the war, noting that “when he couldn’t win on the battlefield, he decided to try to freeze Ukraine.”

On Monday, Secretary of?State?Antony Blinken said that the Ukrainians were collecting war crimes evidence, but said he did not “want to prejudge where this is going.”

“I don’t want to prejudge it, but all I can say is this:?Accountability for what’s happened is very important,” he said.

The head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said Russia has nearly exhausted its arsenal of high-precision missiles and has so far not received ballistic missiles from Iran.

Kyrylo Budanov said on Ukrainian television that Russian stocks of high-precision missile weapons “are already coming to an end.”

“However, as we see, they decided to go to the end, to zero, which, in fact, is very bad for the Russian Federation itself and the military there are aware of this problem,” he said.

CNN is unable to verify the level of Russian missile stocks, which has previously been underestimated by Ukrainian officials.

“In reality, they have [missiles] for a few more large-scale attacks and they will reach full zero,” he claimed.

Budyanov also said that “as of now, Iran has not delivered any ballistic missile to Russia.”

He also sounded bullish about the overall military situation, saying, “Ukraine has already won, everyone in the world feels it. We also understand it. …There will be some more difficult times, but Russia’s loss is a done deal. They themselves are well aware of this.”

Latvia’s broadcast regulator has revoked the license for an independent Russian television channel based in the Baltic country.

The?decision to cancel TV Rain’s license was “due to threats to national security and public order,” Latvia’s National Electronic Media Council said in a statement on its website.?The decision will come into effect Thursday, NEPLP said.?

“We continue to work and consider all accusations against us to be unfair and absurd,” TV Rain said in a statement on Telegram.

As Russia’s only independent news network, TV Rain shuttered its Moscow operations in early March after the Russian government shut down its website, and it eventually set up in Latvia. Its journalists fled Russia, hoping to work in safety abroad.?

TV Rain said it will stop broadcasting on cable but remain on YouTube.

In response to the news, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said,?“It always seems to some people that somewhere is better than at home, there is freedom somewhere, but at home, there is no freedom. This is one of the clearest examples that demonstrates the falsity of such illusions.”

Kira Yarmysh, press secretary of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, criticized the move: “Putin started the war. Dozhd channel [TV Rain] tells the truth about Putin and the war. Depriving Dozhd of its license helps Putin, and certainly not vice versa.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands with an injured service member as he visits a hospital on the Day of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kharkiv,?Ukraine, on?December 6.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited wounded soldiers in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday to mark the country’s Armed Forces Day.

Video released by his office showed the president presenting awards to combat medics and taking selfies with injured soldiers, as well as meeting medical staff.?

Later, he met wounded soldiers, thanking them “for the heroism with which you defend our state, its independence and territorial integrity, the freedom and life of our people. I wish you a speedy recovery.”

Russia’s Belgorod region — which borders northeastern Ukraine — is forming a militia, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Tuesday.

“Literally from the very first days of the start of the special military operation, a large number of residents of the Belgorod region appealed with the need to start preparing and forming territorial defense or self-defense units. We made this decision,” Gladkov said on his Telegram account.

According to the statement, the so-called territorial defense units?are formed from those who “for health reasons or within the limits of age cannot be called up, but have combat experience and a great desire, if necessary, to defend their home.”?

“Experienced instructors who have gone through a large number of wars and have combat experience are now conducting training and combat rallying of units on the territory of all border regions of the Belgorod region,” Gladkov added.

A satellite image shows bomber aircraft at Engels Air Base in Saratov,?Russia, on December 4.

Moscow’s accusation that?Ukrainian drones struck two airbases?deep inside Russia has once again raised the febrile question of escalation nine months into the war.

The?strikes are an extraordinary breach?of Russia’s assumptions that it can protect its deep interior, from which safe harbors its strategic bombers have caused carnage across Ukraine with relative impunity.

These are airbases very far inside Russia, and whatever the truth of the strikes – whether they represent a new?long-distance drone capability?Ukraine has advertised, or there’s another explanation – this is just not something that was meant to happen when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “10-day invasion” in February. Week by week, there are yet more signs that Moscow’s military machine cannot perform as advertised

The low-tech tools employed in this embarrassment pop the balloon of Russia’s peer status to NATO.

Russian humiliation is usually accompanied with concerns it may escalate the conflict. But it is hard to know what else Russia could do to Ukraine that it has not already done. It has leveled cities, hit civilian infrastructure callously and relentlessly when it can, killed thousands of civilians and yet more troops, and?bombed maternity hospitals?and shelters marked with the word “children.”

At some point, the labored assumption that Russia has magic, non-apocalyptic buttons left to press will begin to fade.

So what does Russia have left? Chemical weapons are a possibility, but likely have formed a part of the warnings it has received to not use nuclear force. Moscow’s choices appear limited to the more accurate or savage use of the same conventional brutality it is currently throwing at Ukraine’s cities almost daily.

This is the most damaging side effect of how public the exhaustion of Russia’s military has been: There is no real “fear factor” left.?

Read more here.

Hungary vetoed the European Union’s proposed?nearly $19 billion?2023 aid package to Ukraine Tuesday, forcing the bloc to seek alternative solutions.

It marks the latest in long-running standoff, with Brussels withholding funds to Budapest amid a rule-of-law dispute.??

Hungarian Finance Minister Mihály Varga addressed his EU counterparts in a public session Tuesday in Brussels, where he announced “Hungary is not in favor of the amendment of the financial regulation,” referring to the support package proposed by the EU Commission in November.?

It comes as Brussels continues to withhold?around $7.9 billion of Covid-19 recovery funds from Hungary as punishment for Budapest’s rule-of-law reforms restricting democratic freedoms.?

Smoke and flame rise from burning vehicle damaged in shelling by Ukrainian forces in a street in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on December 6.

The local authorities in Russian-occupied Donetsk said a third day of shelling by Ukrainian forces has killed two people and injured 10.

The Territorial Defense Forces of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said on Telegram that the shelling had struck a residential area of Donetsk city.

Unofficial Telegram channels claimed that a power substation near the city had been hit. And a series of photographs posted by the mayor of nearby Horlivka purported to show damage to the Stirol State Enterprise.

Alexei Kulemzin, head of the Russian-backed city administration, said there had been heavy shelling Tuesday from the Ukrainian-held village of Novomykhailivka.

The city of Donetsk fell to pro-Russian separatists in 2014, but Ukrainian forces remain within a few miles of its limits.

More “dangerous packages” have been sent to Ukrainian embassies in Romania and Denmark, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a video press briefing on Tuesday.?

Kuleba discussed the “campaign of terror and intimidation” that began last Wednesday against Ukrainian embassies and consulates with “a package with explosives in Madrid,” followed by “bloody letters with animal eyes in other capitals.”?

“We have had new instances of dangerous packages sent to our embassies. Today, this was done to our embassy in Romania and the embassy of Ukraine in Denmark,” Kuleba said.

He did not specify whether these packages contained animal eyes like those that have been sent to Ukrainian diplomatic missions in other countries across Europe within the past week.?

“To all those who continue to send these packages and terrorize our embassies, I say please relax, don’t waste your time and money for postage. You’ll achieve?nothing,” he added.?

This brings the total number of cases of threats to Ukrainian embassies and consulates abroad to 23 across 14 countries.?

On Monday, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on Facebook that the total number of cases of threats to Ukrainian embassies and consulates was at 21 across 12 countries. This followed Spanish police seizing packages addressed to the Ukrainian embassies in Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga — all of which contained animal eyes — at a post office in Spain on Monday.?

Three fire trains have been sent to battle a blaze at an airfield in Russia allegedly caused by a Ukrainian drone strike, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met troops in eastern Ukraine to mark the country’s armed forces day.

Here are the latest headlines:

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu speaks during a meeting with Russian hight level officers in Moscow, Russia, on December 6.

Russian forces are “inflicting massive strikes” on Ukraine, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday.

The strikes are being carried out with “long-range precision weapons on the military command and control system, enterprises of the military-industrial complex, as well as related facilities to crush the military potential of Ukraine,” said Shoigu.

On Monday, Russia unleashed a wave of drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, targeting the country’s energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes caused extensive power outages in several regions, including Kyiv and Odesa.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a US - EU Stakeholder Dialogue during the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) Ministerial Meeting at the University of Maryland on December 5.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Russia could seek a phony off-ramp to the Ukraine war that would not produce a durable peace, and would only allow Russian troops to re-group and attack Ukraine again.

Blinken explained that such a situation could occur if Russia fails in trying to “get the Ukrainian people to throw up their hands,” which is possible because of the incredible resilience the Ukrainians have shown.

“This will end, and it will end almost certainly with diplomacy with a negotiation. But what I think we have to see is a just and durable peace. Not a phony peace,” Blinken said.

Only about one third of the 300,000 Russian called into active military duty have been fully mobilized, said Blinken, who pointed to the weak capabilities of those who have joined the fighting.

“You get forces that are barely trained, poorly equipped, not winterized, who are thrown into this mix,” he said. “And it’s terrible. But they’re also not, generally speaking, particularly effective units.”

A military vehicle of the Bastion coastal missile system on duty on the?Kuril?island of Paramushir, Russia, in this still image taken from video released on December 5, 2022.

Russia’s defense ministry said Monday it has deployed mobile coastal defense?missile systems?on a northern?Kuril island, part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.

Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates to the?end of World War II, when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.

The Russian Bastion systems, which have missiles with a flight range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), were deployed on the island of Paramushir, the Russian defense ministry said Monday.

Read the full story here.

Russian and Ukrainian authorities have confirmed the exchange of 120 people in a prisoner swap.

According to the Russian defense ministry, 60 Russian servicemen have been returned from “Kyiv-controlled territory.”

Returned soldiers will be treated and rehabilitated at the defense ministry’s facilities, it said.

Ukraine will receive 60 prisoners in return, said Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, on Telegram.

“This is the best news on the holiday,” said Yermak. Of the total, there are 58 men and two women, with 14 prisoners captured during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

Details surrounding the timing of the swap and location have not been released.

Last week, 50 Russian and 50 Ukrainian soldiers were exchanged.

The?Zaporizhzhia?nuclear?power plant outside the city of Enerhodar in the?Zaporizhzhia?region of Ukraine, on November 24.

Alleged Ukrainian attacks on the?Zaporizhzhia?nuclear power plant (ZNPP) constitute “nuclear terrorism,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed on Tuesday.

“In the last two weeks alone, 33 large-caliber projectiles have been fired at the [nuclear power] station by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Shoigu said, according to a readout of a meeting with the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Russian air defense forces are intercepting most Ukrainian weapons, Shoigu added, but some have still managed to hit objects that affect the safety of the nuclear power plant.

“We classify these attacks by Ukrainian troops as nuclear terrorism,” he said.

Shoigu said Russia’s army will continue to protect critical facilities in the captured territories.

Some context: Since falling under Russian control, frequent shelling in and around the plant has raised fears about a nuclear accident. Both sides have accused the other of nuclear terrorism, with Ukraine alleging that the Kremlin is using the nuclear plant as a cover to protect troops and launch attacks.

Last week, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hoped to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica published on Friday, Grossi said his commitment was to reach a solution “as soon as possible,” hopefully by the end of the year, he added.

But Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson?Maria Zakharova said that there can be “no talk of any withdrawal of ZNPP from Russia or transfer control over it to a third party.”

“The station is located on Russian territory and is fully controlled by Russia,” said Zakharova on Monday. “We presume that only we are able to ensure the physical and nuclear safety of ZNPP.”

A Ukrainian soldier takes a selfie with President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, during his visit to Sloviansk in the Donbas region, Ukraine, on December 6.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, according to a post on his Instagram page.

Zelensky’s office shared images and videos of him recording a message in front of a blue and yellow sign, indicating he was in Sloviansk.

The city is around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Bakhmut, which has been under siege from Russia for months.

Zelensky added that he hoped to celebrate the next Armed Forces day “under a peaceful sky” on Independence Square in the center of Kyiv.

Some context: The Donbas comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which together cover much of eastern Ukraine.

It is a historically and culturally significant place whose proximity to Russia has dictated much of its turbulent existence, which has been the front line of the country’s conflict with Moscow since 2014.

Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazovic attends a joint press conference during Norway-Western Balkans Business Conference in Belgrade, Serbia, on November 17.

Montenegro will donate 11% of its military budget to Ukraine, the prime minister’s office said Monday.?

The donation, along with “receiving thousands of refugees,” shows the Montenegrin government’s “clear determination to support the defence of Ukrainians,” the statement from the Office of the Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazovi??said.

The terms were agreed by Abazovi??and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who signed a joint declaration on Monday, according to Zelensky’s Telegram channel.?

“Today, we signed the Joint Declaration, which defines the priority areas of cooperation between Ukraine and Montenegro within the strategic course of our country to acquire full membership in NATO,” Zelensky said in the Telegram post.?

Abazovi??said on Twitter that Montenegro “wants peace.”

“That is why we express our unequivocal support for Ukraine and its people with a view to safeguarding their integrity, sovereignty and right to a free life,” added Abazovi?.

Russian media shows aftermath of alleged drone strike on oil tank at Kursk airfield on December 6.

Moscow Railways has sent three fire trains to help put the “fire out at the airport” in Kursk, western Russia, according to regional officials.?

Earlier on Tuesday, regional governor Roman Starovoit?alleged that a drone attack hit an oil tanker near Kursk airfield. Kursk is located about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

It comes one day after Moscow claimed Ukraine used drones to attack two military air bases deep within Russian territory. Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attacks.

Starovoit?said he had held a meeting of the “anti-terrorist commission” and decided to “extend the yellow level of terrorist danger” for 15 days.

In addition, two schools in Khalino and the village of Marshal Zukov had classes cancelled on Tuesday.

Russian shelling was reported overnight in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia and central Dnipropetrovsk regions, officials said on Telegram on Tuesday morning.

Critical infrastructure and residential buildings were damaged by the strikes in the suburbs of?Zaporizhzhia city,?said Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.?No one was injured, according to preliminary information.

In the nearby Dnipropetrovsk?region, shelling continued overnight, said Valentyn Reznichenko, its regional military administration head.

Gas pipelines, power lines and more than 10 homes were damaged in the district of Nikopol,?Reznichenko said.?

More than 9,000 families were also left without water near the community of?Chervonohryhorivka?after the power line supplying the pumping station of the local water utility was cut, he said. Engineers are working on restoring supplies, he added.?

Homes and a gas pipeline were also damaged near the community of Marhanets, he said. No casualties were reported..

The attacks follows Russian strikes Monday on Zaporizhzhia and Nikopol.

A drone strike took place Tuesday at an airfield in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders northeastern Ukraine, according to the regional governor.

The alleged strike comes one day after Russia blamed Ukraine for drone attacks on two Russian military airbases. Ukraine has not confirmed the strikes.

A satellite image shows an overview of Engels Air Base, in Saratov, Russia, on December 4.

Explosions at two Russian air bases Monday have focused attention on Ukraine’s efforts to develop longer-range combat drones.

The Russian Defense Ministry says the attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones, which it claims were brought down by Russian air defenses. Imagery — both satellite and photographs — indicates some damage was done to Russian military planes at one base in Ryazan region.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no official comment on the explosions, and the Ukrainian government has not acknowledged adding long-range attack drones to its arsenal.

However, the state-owned weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom has indicated several times in the last few weeks that it is close to finishing work on a new long-range drone.

Read more here.

The Russian Foreign Ministry appears to have dealt a blow to proposals by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to create a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since March.

There has been no response from the UN nuclear watchdog to the latest word from Moscow.

Last week, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said he hoped to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the plant by the end of the year.

Ukrainian servicemen ride atop a tank in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region,?Ukraine, on?December 5.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine continues to be concentrated in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk, according to Ukrainian officials.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said on Ukrainian television that the “Donetsk sector is the most difficult as Russians are trying to capture Bakhmut — and all settlements from Lysychansk to Bakhmut are important for them.”

Lysychansk is in the neighboring Luhansk region and was captured by Russian forces in June.

Hayday said the Ukrainian military had destroyed a “huge number of occupiers’ personnel and their equipment” in the village of Bilohorivka.

Amid difficult weather conditions, Hayday said the “liberation of Luhansk region is very difficult. However, there is a positive thing. Our troops are not far from Kreminna,” a town north of Lysychansk that has been occupied since the spring.

Meanwhile, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said that after Russian missile strikes on parts of Donetsk Monday, “emergency power outages continue. Power engineers are feeding the system with backup sources. In general, the situation is stable. After emergency shutdowns, generators are switched on.”

He said the situation around Bakhmut “is extremely tense.”

The Ukrainian military said the center of??Bakhmut was hit — and an administrative building, a dormitory, and a residential building were damaged.?

Kyrylenko said the Russians also shelled the town of Vuhledar, as well as Kurakhove and Hostre — a kindergarten, four high-rise buildings and seven private houses were damaged.

Bakhmut Mayor Oleksiy Reva shared a video of damage done to his city:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a visit to the?Kerch Bridge, a key link between the annexed Crimean peninsula and mainland Russia which was partially destroyed by an?explosion?in October, according to Russian state media.

Photos and videos from the visit have been released, including footage of Putin behind the wheel of a Mercedes vehicle sitting beside Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. In another video Putin is seen walking along a section of the bridge.

In the driving video, Khusnullin tells Putin that “metal was available for bridge parts, so the metal was brought over to build these structures, and within two weeks all the 1,214 tons were assembled and brought here.” This is an apparent reference to the damage caused to the bridge by the explosion on October 8.

Read more here.

Investigators work near the bodies of local residents killed by shrapnel during Russia's missile attack on Zaporizhzhia,?Ukraine, on?December 5.

Russia launched a?fresh barrage?of missiles toward?Ukraine?on Monday as it accused Kyiv of striking military airfields deep inside its territory.

Dozens of missiles were launched by Russian forces towards Ukraine on Monday, cutting off water and electricity supplies in some areas, and killing at least one person in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, and at least two people in Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities.

Debris from one missile also crossed the Ukrainian border, hitting a town in Moldova.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that more than 60 Russian missiles were intercepted. Yet some reached their targets and the shelling cut water and electricity access in Kryvyi Rih and in the southern city of Odesa, after recent shortages across the country due to Russian attacks targeting?critical infrastructure.

Airfield attacks: The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack two Russian military airfields on Monday morning, adding that its air defenses intercepted the attacks “in the Saratov and Ryazan regions,” according to a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Pro-Russian bloggers have said that the incidents were likely an act of sabotage from Ukraine, which has not confirmed that it attacked either airfield.

Read more here.

A soldier in a Ukrainian uniform morosely contemplates the ruins of an Orthodox monastery in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

“This is a result of?Putin’s war,” he says, angrily, as he paces through the wreck. “As a Christian, this is very offensive to me.”

The soldier, whose name CNN agreed not to reveal to protect his identity, goes by the call-sign “Caesar.” He is one of hundreds, if not thousands, fighting to keep the town of Bakhmut, the current epicenter of the war, in Ukrainian hands.

But there’s one thing that sets him apart from most of those who share the same goal: he’s Russian.

“We are now fighting in the Bakhmut direction, this is the hottest part of the front.”

Read more here.