Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 666
Ukrainian military moving to defensive positions, UK’s MoD says; Russian tax revenue from oil exports slashed by 32%, US says
Thu 21 Dec 2023 00.18 GMT
Ukraine’s armed forces are taking up a more defensive posture, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest analysis of the conflict, after their summer counteroffensive failed to achieve a major breakthrough against Russia’s army and as winter weather sets in after almost 22 months of war. “In recent weeks, Ukraine has mobilised a concerted effort to improve field fortifications as its forces pivot to a more defensive posture along much of the frontline,” the MoD said.
Russia’s tax revenue from exports of oil and petroleum products has fallen by 32% after a price ceiling was enacted by the US and its allies to restrict funding for its war in Ukraine, US authorities said Wednesday. In a statement published by the Treasury Department, the allies also announced that rules surrounding the price cap will be tightened.
Kyiv plans to produce a million FPV (first-person-view) drones, widely in demand on the frontline, and more than 11,000 medium- and long-range attack drones next year, Ukraine’s minister for strategic industries said on Wednesday. “All production facilities are ready, and contracting for 2024 begins,” Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister, said on Telegram messenger. The figure includes at least 1,000 drones with a range of more than 1,000 km (600 miles), he said.
The international rules-based system needs urgent and fundamental change if it is not to collapse, the Estonian foreign minister has said, calling for “a new global conversation” to begin on how to reform the UN and the international criminal court. Writing in the Guardian, Margus Tsahkna said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had highlighted flaws in the system that risk fatally undermining people’s faith in it.
Moldova plans to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, a Russia-aligned trade and political body, by the end of 2024, parliamentary foreign policy committee head Doina Gherman said on Wednesday. The announcement followed a gradual drawdown of Moldova’s participation in the bloc since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova put her name forward to stand in a Russian presidential election in March that Vladimir Putin is expected to win by a landslide. Duntsova, 40, has called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and the release of political prisoners including opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
A Russian court fined Alphabet’s Google 4.6bn roubles ($50.84m) for failing to delete so-called “fake” information about the conflict in Ukraine and other topics, the Tass news agency reported. The Ria news agency said the fine had also been imposed due to Google failing to remove “extremist content” and the distribution of what Russia calls “LGBT propaganda”.
German federal prosecutors said Wednesday they aim to seize hundreds of millions of euros from an unnamed Russian bank as part of a western crackdown over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “The aim of these proceedings is to seize more than 720 million euros ($789m) deposited by a Russian financial institution in a bank account in Frankfurt am Main due to a suspected attempt to violate embargo regulations” under German law, the prosecutors office said in a statement.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that there is no current basis for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and that Kyiv’s proposed peace plan was absurd as it excluded Russia. “We really consider that the topic of negotiations is not relevant right now,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/21/russia-ukraine-war-at-a-glance-what-we-know-on-day-666