This week, battles continued to rage along the front lines. Russia continued to pummel Ukrainian cities and towns deep in the rear with missiles and drones.
Russia has increased the size of its grouping fighting in Ukraine to around 710,000 troops to conduct a strategic offensive operation, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Wednesday. He also said that Ukrainian troops have thrown Russian forces back from Kupyansk, in Kharkiv region, and now control almost 90 per cent of the city. In a joint operation in the Lyman direction, the 3rd Army Corps and Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry have leveled the frontline and improved tactical positions in the area. They also took out a number of Russian soldiers comparable in size to a regiment. In a first, Ukraine struck a Russian submarine with Sub Sea Baby underwater drones.
Intense diplomatic efforts to draft a peace plan continued throughout the week. The U.S. held two days of talks with Ukrainian and European negotiators in Berlin. Despite U.S. pressure, Ukraine rejected the proposal to establish a demilitarized “free economic zone” in Donbas, Politico said. Ukraine expects increased U.S. pressure on Russia if Putin rejects a peace proposal, Zelenskyi said. In the meantime, Russia rejected a Christmas truce proposal. Russia effectively rejects peace proposals and plans to continue its offensive, official statements and ISW’s analysis show.
EU leaders will loan 90 billion euros to Ukraine, but fail to agree to use frozen Russian assets.
European Union leaders decided on Friday to borrow cash to loan 90 billion euros ($105 billion) to Ukraine to fund its defence against Russia for the next two years rather than use frozen Russian assets, sidestepping divisions over an unprecedented plan to finance Kyiv with Russian sovereign cash, Reuters said Friday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the news piece.
The leaders also gave the European Commission a mandate to keep working on a so-called reparations loan based on Russian immobilised assets but that option proved unworkable for now, above all due to resistance from Belgium, where the bulk of the assets is held.
“Today we approved a decision to provide 90 billion euros to Ukraine,” EU summit chairman António Costa told a press conference early on Friday morning after hours of talks among the leaders in Brussels. “As a matter of urgency, we will provide a loan backed by the European Union budget.”