WAR IN UKRAINE: December 23, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 304
Besides their incessant shelling of Bakhmut and Avdiyivka in Donetsk, where the fiercest battles have been fought in recent months, Russians kept pounding military and civilian locations in three other eastern regions -- Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk, the General Staff said, adding that Ukrainian forces repelled a total of 19 attacks over the past 24 hours - RFE/RL
In Ukraine's southern Azov Sea port city of Mariupol, which fell earlier this year following months of resistance by Ukrainian forces, Russian troops on December 22 started demolishing the famed Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater, Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city's mayor, said on Telegram. The theater, a historical monument which at the start of the Russian invasion had been converted into a bomb shelter for about 600 people, including many children, was repeatedly targeted by Russian air strikes despite being clearly marked as a refuge for civilians. "The demolition is a clear attempt to hide forever the physical evidence of the largest simultaneous deliberate killing of Ukrainians by the Russians since the beginning of this phase of the war," Andryushchenko wrote, adding that only the front part of the theater had been left intact, apparently as a basis for future reconstruction.
Reuters: Wagner Group allegedly purchased North Korean weapons for war against Ukraine. The U.S. intelligence assessment, which will be released publicly on Dec. 22, is that the arms delivered by North Korea will not significantly alter the dymanics of the war. The unnamed official nonetheless expressed concern that North Korea may be planning to provide more military equipment to Wagner in the future - Kyiv Independent
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, via Twitter: “As long as Russia continues its war against Ukraine, NL will provide assistance to Ukraine. Military, humanitarian and diplomatic. We’re allocating €2.5 bn for this in 2023. Ukraine can rely on the Netherlands. We just confirmed this in our conversation with @ZelenskyyUa.”
The Estonian government - which has provided the largest amount of aid to Ukraine when measured as a percentage of GDP - has approved the provision of a new military assistance package to Ukraine, which will include drones, winter uniforms and personal protective equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The United States will soon begin training the Ukrainian military to use Patriot systems, CNN reported. It is expected that the training of Ukrainians will last for several months, and to work with the system, as a rule, 90 servicemen are required.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stopped in Poland on his way back from Washington, D.C., and met with Polish President Andrzej Duda. And by Friday he was back at his desk in Kyiv, posting a short video on Telegram: "We are working towards victory," he said.
The extraordinary measures taken to transport Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine to the US capital are a sign of just how crucial the relationship is for both countries, the BBC reported. After visiting the front line in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky's journey to Washington DC began with an overnight train journey to Poland before boarding a US Air Force plane, reportedly supported by a Nato spy-plane and an F-15 fighter jet.
The drama theater in Mariupol is seen in April after the bombing of March 16, in which hundreds of civilians, including children, were killed.