(Image by NEIVANMADE)

7/7

Ukraine air defense destroyed 32 out of 46 Russian droned this night. Many of the remaining drones hit Kherson. pic.twitter.com/zpSU4w7dl4

— Kyrylo Loukerenko (@K_Loukerenko) December 27, 2023

Odesa endured relentless 7-hour attack. 12 Shahed drones intercepted, with debris hitting residential buildings. One person killed, four injured, including 4 yo child. Stand strong, Odesa ✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/iVVidV9NE1

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) December 27, 2023

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:

We are working on new defense packages – address by the President of Ukraine

27 December 2023 – 19:46

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

First of all, I would like to thank the defenders of our skies. Over the past evening and night, they managed to shoot down most of the 46 “Shahed” drones. This is a significant result. The result, which proves every day the soundness of our actions and our communication with partners: Ukrainian air defense, our mobile firing groups, our anti-aircraft gunners succeed in defending the state. We are already planning international events in January and February intensively to boost Ukraine’s strength. We are working on new defense packages.

Today, I held a large meeting with the executives of Ukrainian defense enterprises – more than 100 companies of the industry were represented. Obviously, this is not everyone. But these are the ones who are doing a remarkable job, the ones who were able to come to Kyiv today. I presented state awards to the heads of enterprises and, through them, to the teams that have accomplished the most.

In total, our defense industry now employs about 300 thousand people, and this is one of the greatest achievements of our country in several years. Ukraine’s defense industry is not just recovering, it is becoming as productive as it needs to be for a modern, technology-driven warfare. Many private initiatives are already in operation: four out of five companies in our defense industry are private businesses. Many state-owned enterprises that had been inactive for decades have now launched their production, including new types of weapons.

For the next year, we have set ourselves crystal clear goals in terms of artillery, drones, missiles, and armored vehicles. One of our major political results this year is an agreement with our partners, particularly the United States, on co-production of weapons. Establishment of new production facilities. Localization in Ukraine. Expansion of the repair base. All this contributes to Ukraine’s defense and economic robustness, resulting in considerable GDP growth and good jobs. I am grateful to each and every person who develops our industry, to everyone who contributes their efforts and ideas to the development of the Ukrainian defense industry. And I am confident that our defense industry – given such continuous development – will eventually make it into the top 10 most productive and powerful defense complexes in the world. This is the true potential of Ukraine, and our country can definitely become one of the global security donors and one of the strongest members of NATO. We are working for this.

I also held a number of meetings with ministers today. With the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Minister of Finance we discussed the next year’s budget. There was a meeting with the Minister of Defense.

Also, I had a meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs. A report on the Russian strike on Kherson yesterday: unfortunately, one police officer was killed – Lieutenant Ihor Misiunia, Kirovohrad Main Department of the National Police. My condolences to the family and friends… Four people were injured, including two police officers, all of them received the necessary assistance. All services are working to restore electricity supply to Kherson. Yesterday 70% of the city was cut off from the grid. Critical infrastructure is powered by generators. Normal operations are gradually being restored. Gas supply to Kherson has been restored.

The Minister of Internal Affairs also reported on the functioning of the entire MIA system. Emergency response, mine clearance, provision of weapons and equipment to our National Guard and National Police units fighting on the frontline.

By the way, I would like to commend the employees of the National Police of Ukraine who faithfully serve the state and society, defending the country on the frontline together with everyone else in the Defense and Security Forces of Ukraine. Especially the warriors of the “Fury” Brigade of the National Police. Police Private Vitalii Melnychuk, Police Corporal Andrii Molochnyi, Senior Sergeant Dmytro Hanenko, Junior Lieutenant Bohdan Horuk, Lieutenant Oleksandr Pyatnychuk, Senior Lieutenants Oleksandr Hladyr and Ivan Krotov, and Police Captain Mykhailo Hlavatskikh. Thank you, guys, for your exemplary actions in combat!

Of course, today I extend my congratulations and our common gratitude to all the counterintelligence officers of the Security Service of Ukraine – today is their professional day. A unit that works 24/7, whose job is ensuring the state’s tranquility and society’s protection from various hostile agent networks. This year has been productive for counterintelligence. I am thankful for that, guys!

Glory to everyone who fights and works for Ukraine! Glory to our people!

Glory to Ukraine!

The reason:

Love is in the air.

Ukrainian serviceman meets his beloved at the Kramatorsk railway station, Donetsk region.

📸: Thomas Peter / @Reuters pic.twitter.com/1inAO32kpI

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 27, 2023

The Biden administration announced the last tranche of equipment, ammunition, and material under the soon to expire appropriation/authorization earlier today.

US to deliver new $250 million aid package to Ukraine, covering critical needs with ammunition and air defense components. This support is crucial for safeguarding lives on the front lines. Thank you for standing with us 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/ynw40y51XW

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) December 27, 2023

From the Department of Defense:IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Biden Administration Announces New Security Assistance for Ukraine

Dec. 27, 2023

Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs. This announcement is the Biden Administration’s fifty-fourth tranche of equipment to be provided from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. This package includes additional air defense capabilities, artillery ammunition, anti-tank weapons, and other equipment to help Ukraine counter Russia’s war of aggression.

This package utilizes assistance previously authorized for Ukraine during prior fiscal years under Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA).

The capabilities in this much-needed package, valued at up to $250 million, include:

• Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
• Stinger anti-aircraft missiles;
• Air defense system components;
• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
• 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
• Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
• Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
• More than 15 million rounds of small arms ammunition;
• Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing;
• Spare parts, medical equipment, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment.

These capabilities will support Ukraine’s most pressing needs to enable its forces to defend their sovereignty and independence. U.S. leadership is essential to sustaining the coalition efforts of some 50 allies and partners currently supporting Ukraine.

Security assistance for Ukraine is a smart investment in our national security. It deters potential aggression elsewhere in the world, while strengthening our defense industrial base and creating highly skilled jobs for the American people. It remains critical that Congress takes action as soon as possible in the new year on the President’s national security supplemental request to ensure that our support for Ukraine can continue, and Ukraine is able to defend itself against Russia’s ongoing attacks and consolidate and extend its battlefield gains.

They also announced this!

From the White House’s online briefing room:

Memorandum on the Delegation of Authority Under Section 614(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
HOME
BRIEFING ROOM
PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

SUBJECT: Delegation of Authority Under Section 614(a)(1)
of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority under section 614(a)(1) of the FAA to determine whether it is important to the security interests of the United States to furnish up to $20 million in assistance to Ukraine without regard to any provision of law within the purview of section 614(a)(1) of the FAA.

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

Well knock me over with a feather! I am pleasantly surprised and impressed! I did not think they had it in them.

The problem, of course, is that Russia, despite the sanctions, is out producing all of NATO in regard to munitions.

“[T]he Kremlin is producing more shells than all of Nato. Meanwhile, Ukraine is unlikely to see any significant increase in supply for some months. This will cede the initiative to the Russians.”

Urgent attention and support is required. https://t.co/V7gyKqy1ei

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 27, 2023

RUSI’s Jack Watling at The Guardian:

Here is one fact that sums up the gap between the promises that Kyiv’s European partners have made to Ukraine and the reality. In March 2023, the EU made the historic decision to deliver a million artillery shells to Ukraine within 12 months. But the number that has actually been sent is closer to 300,000. For all the rhetorical commitments to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion “for as long as it takes”, Europe has largely failed.

The price of this complacency is already being paid in Ukrainian blood. According to the armed forces of Ukraine, over the summer of 2023, Ukraine was firing up to 7,000 artillery shells a day and managed to degrade Russia’s logistics and artillery to the point where Russia was firing about 5,000 rounds a day. Today, the Ukrainians are struggling to fire 2,000 rounds daily, while Russian artillery is reaching about 10,000. Artillery isn’t everything, but the disparity speaks to Ukraine’s relative shortage of materiel, evident in other areas such as the number of drones it can field.

Russia is likely to be able to fire about 5m rounds at Ukraine in 2024, based on its mobilised defence production, supply from Iran and North Korea, and remaining stocks. Despite the flippant observation – often made by European officials – that Russia’s economy is the same size as that of Italy, the Kremlin is producing more shells than all of Nato. Meanwhile, Ukraine is unlikely to see any significant increase in supply for some months. This will cede the initiative to the Russians. The Kremlin believes it can win by 2026, and so Putin is in no mood to negotiate or back down.

It does not have to be like this. Earlier this month, the Estonian Ministry of Defence published a white paper detailing the levels of military equipment required to make Ukraine’s defence sustainable and for it to pursue the liberation of the occupied territories by 2025. The Estonians costed the requirements, showing they were well within the bounds of possibility. The issue is not money, but competence in delivery. If the steps to implement these measures are not taken, Ukraine will lose.

Ensuring Russia’s defeat in Ukraine is feasible, but it requires some important steps. First, Ukraine will need a steady supply of weapons to be able to blunt Russian attacks over the first half of 2024. This will require plenty of US support, but also increasing supply from European Nato members, whose backing will be critical as the US election looms in November. Many of the munitions provided since the beginning of the war were purchased from the international market or drawn from stockpiles, and investment in European production has been slow. But as stocks run out, sustaining Ukraine’s war effort depends critically on increasing Europe’s manufacturing capacity.

Second, it is essential that Ukraine corrects the mistakes that led to its failed counteroffensive in 2023. Improving the training of its troops must be the top priority. During the second world war, British forces considered 22 weeks of infantry training the minimum before a soldier was ready to join a unit, where they would then carry out collective training as part of a battalion. Ukrainian troops are lucky to get five weeks of training, while collective training is rarely carried out above the scale of the company. European Nato must expand and extend the training support provided in order to give Ukrainian units a wider tactical repertoire, and more importantly expand the scale at which the army can command and synchronise operations.

Persistent inflation and economic shocks, like the disruption to global shipping from Houthi missile attacks in the Bab al-Mandab, mean that among European countries, making a long-term economic commitment to Ukraine will be a domestic political challenge. But that is to ignore its potential upsides. Investment in defence production, rather than relying on purchases from abroad, comes with significant levels of domestic industrial investment and with the potential for expenditure to be recovered through increased tax receipts.

There are good security reasons to invest in domestic production, too. A failure to do so now could leave European leaders needing to deter a fully mobilised Russia without stockpiles or the capacity to replenish them. Meanwhile, a simultaneous escalation in the Indo-Pacific in 2025 could cause the US to shift a range of critical military capabilities – aerial refuelling, logistics, air defences – to deter China, leaving Europe significantly exposed.

For Ukraine, the immediate future is one of several months of hard fighting without critical resources, while endeavouring to regenerate the combat power that was expended over 2023. But Europe can determine what the second half of 2024 and indeed 2025 will look like. This is a war that can be won. The recent successful strike on the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk in harbour, protected by layers of Russian defences, shows how Ukraine can make effective use of the equipment that it is supplied with. But European security must not be squandered by more complacency.

Mariupol:

Fascinating article about an Azov Battalion warrior who did not surrender to the muscovies in May 2022; instead, he hid in a tunnel, waited a week, and made his way out of Azovstal, through Mariupol, and across 200km to the Ukrainian side — where he was initially suspected of… pic.twitter.com/SBJsBfZzGe

— Vatniks Suck (@VatniksSuck) December 27, 2023

Fascinating article about an Azov Battalion warrior who did not surrender to the muscovies in May 2022; instead, he hid in a tunnel, waited a week, and made his way out of Azovstal, through Mariupol, and across 200km to the Ukrainian side — where he was initially suspected of being a double agent. His story has been checked and double-checked, and apparently is legit.

He tells most of his story here, but there is some he cannot tell until the rest of the Azov POWs are returned and the muscovies are evicted from Ukraine.

NY Times says that the link to this article allows access to it without a NY Times account. I don’t know the origination of the link (it was sent around in email), but I appreciate whoever figured out how to email a link that allows widespread access to this article….

From The New York Times

After seven days hiding in a dank and dark tunnel deep in the bowels of the sprawling Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol as the city burned around him, Pfc. Oleksandr Ivantsov was on the verge of collapse.

President Volodymyr Zelensky had ordered Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons after 80 days of resistance and surrender. But Private Ivantsov had other ideas.

“When I signed up for this mission, I realized that most likely I would die,” he recalled. “I was ready to die in battle, but morally I was not ready to surrender.”

He knew his plan might sound a little crazy, but at the time, he was convinced he had a better chance of surviving by hiding out than by surrendering himself to Russians, whose widespread abuse of prisoners of war was well known to Ukrainian troops.

So he knocked a hole in a wall to get to a small tunnel, stashed some supplies and made plans to stay hidden for 10 days, hoping that the Russians who had taken control of the ruined plant would let down their guard by then, allowing him to creep through the ruins unnoticed and make his way into the city he once called home.

But after a week, he had gone through the six cans of stewed chicken and 10 cans of sardines and almost all of the eight 1.5 liter bottles of water he had secreted away.

“I felt very bad, I was dehydrated, and my thoughts were getting confused,” he said. “I realized that I had to leave because I could not live there for three more days.”

Mr. Ivantsov’s account of his escape from Azovstal is supported by photographs and videos from the city and factory that he shared with The New York Times. It was verified by superior officers and by medical records documenting his treatment after he made it to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Still, his tale seemed so far-fetched that Ukraine’s security services made him take a polygraph test to assure them he was not a double agent.

Mr. Ivantsov is still fighting for Ukraine, helping a drone unit outside the pulverized city of Bakhmut, where he recalled his story one sunny afternoon. He told it reluctantly, saying he could not share certain details in order to protect the Ukrainian soldiers from Azovstal still being held as prisoners of war and the civilians in the occupied territories who aided in his escape.

Private Ivantsov, 28, was thousands of miles from Ukraine when Russia began its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, working as a maritime security agent assigned to protect ships from Somali pirates on the Gulf of Aden near the Red Sea.

He had lived in Mariupol for eight years, he said, when it was a city on the rise. “They were making roads, parks, an ice palace, swimming pools, gyms,” he said. On March 14, he enlisted in the Azov regiment, a former far-right militia group that had been folded into the Ukrainian military and was leading the defense of the Azovstal plant.

By then, the battle for Mariupol was already securing its place as among the most savage of the war. As the Russians blasted the city into oblivion, thousands of civilians and soldiers barricaded themselves inside the elaborate network of bunkers under the plant, a complex about twice as large as Midtown Manhattan.

As the Ukrainian forces grew more desperate, the military leadership in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, decided to mount a daring operation to fly in support across enemy lines. Private Ivantsov volunteered for the mission, knowing he might never return.

On March 25, against all odds, his low-flying Mi-8 helicopter eluded Russian antiaircraft batteries and landed inside the factory grounds, delivering desperately needed supplies to the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers holed up there. A total of seven flights would manage to get through in the coming weeks.

But it was not enough. When Private Ivantsov arrived at Azovstal, the soldiers had no ammunition left for many of their heavy weapons and were running low on anti-tank mines and mortars. The civilians were surviving on dwindling rations.

“There were quite a lot of very heavily wounded people who had gangrene,” he recalled. “They were rotting there and slowly dying.”

And every day, the Russian noose around Azovstal was tightening.

On May 16, after it was clear that the Ukrainian soldiers were no longer an effective fighting force, Mr. Zelensky ordered them to surrender.

It would take four days to complete the process, giving Private Ivantsov plenty of time to reconsider his plan. But his mind was made up.

“I told everyone about my decision, and before they left, I shook hands with each of them,” he said of his compatriots, 700 of whom remain in Russian captivity. “Those who had money gave me money.”

On May 20, 2022, the last Ukrainian soldier surrendered and Private Ivantsov went into hiding in the tunnel. In addition to the food and water he had stashed, he had some coffee, tea and sugar, as well as a mattress and a sleeping bag.

Most important, with Covid still a top concern, the plant was littered with bottles of hand sanitizer.

“It burns very well,” he said. “You can even cook with it.”

Sometimes, he said, he would just stare at the flame. When it went out, he was in total darkness.

“It reminded me of the movie ‘Buried Alive,’” he said.

As the days passed, the once unceasing thunder of bombs raining down on Azovstal was replaced by a disquieting silence.

By the seventh day, running low on water, he knew he had to leave. He changed into civilian clothes, ditched his weapons and ventured out into the factory grounds. Looking up at the sky for the first time in days, he said, he was struck by the brilliance of the stars.

He also observed that the Russian soldiers in control of Azovstal did not bother to hide their positions. “The patrols that went around the factory used flashlights, they talked loudly,” he said.

Private Ivantsov was easily able to avoid them, ducking under railroad cars when one came too close for comfort.

It took six hours, he said, and the sun was rising when he made it into the ruined city. It was hard to put what he saw into words.

“I saw animal bodies, human bodies,” he said. “There were pieces of bodies. An arm could be lying around, a dog could be pulling it somewhere.”

Making it out of Azovstal was only the first step.

“The plan was to go to the neighborhood where I used to live,” Private Ivantsov recalled. “I thought if I saw familiar faces, I would ask them for help: to wash, eat and so on.”

But nothing would go to plan. The city he had known was obliterated. Even the people he had known before the invasion were like strangers. He could not trust anyone.

He quickly realized that his only hope of evading capture was to get out of the city and head west to Ukrainian-controlled territory. He would still need help, and clearly he would have to be careful about whom to ask.

“I always looked first to see if I could approach, assess the person,” he said. He would not have survived without the kindness of strangers who helped him, often at great risk.

“In one village, an old woman gave me water from a well to drink,” he said. There were others he would not discuss.

He was captured once while still in the city, he said, refusing to divulge any further details. Reaching the front would take him 18 days, crossing about 125 miles behind enemy lines.

By that point, his feet were bloodied and his back and knees ached so much that he had trouble walking; he had lost more than 25 pounds. When the moment came to cross into Ukrainian territory, he said, he was operating on pure adrenaline.

He thought about crossing a river that presented a natural barrier between the forces, but deemed it too dangerous. He finally decided to just forge ahead through a final 10 to 15 miles overland, past mines and other booby-traps.

“I had nerves of steel, no emotions, no thoughts, just purpose and cold calculation,” he said. “That’s how I mentally psyched myself up. I had already come to terms with my death.”

But he made it, looking wild-eyed and crazy as he struggled to convince stunned Ukrainian soldiers that his improbable story was true.

They eventually believed him, and as he was driven away from the front on his way to Kyiv for medical care and rehabilitation, he stopped at a gas station and bought a coffee and a hot dog.

He had never tasted a better hot dog, he said, or sipped a better cup of coffee.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

If you were ever wondering how to define resilience, now you know!

Stepove, Avdiivka front:

Today Russians once again launched attack on Stepove, Avdiivka front. DeepState regarding the attack:

“Today's attempt by the enemy to break through to Steppe ended in another fiasco. In the morning, Russians entered the village with the forces of at least 10 BMPs and several… pic.twitter.com/4UhJCaAeGC

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 27, 2023

Today Russians once again launched attack on Stepove, Avdiivka front. DeepState regarding the attack:

“Today’s attempt by the enemy to break through to Steppe ended in another fiasco. In the morning, Russians entered the village with the forces of at least 10 BMPs and several tanks. Now their bords are collecting the remains of their bastards for evacuation.

Photo from the pilots of 47 OMBr. We expect more video of the fight on their page.”

https://t.me/DeepStateUA/18441

Krynky, left bank of the Dnipro, Russian occupied Kherson Oblast:

Absolutely masterful destruction of the Russian T-72 obr.2022 by Ukrainian FPV drone operator. Krynky Kherson region. Video by the “Birds of Magyar” unit.https://t.co/hKt7Vk1ZTT pic.twitter.com/GoZP8KXgrI

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 27, 2023

Magyar’s Birds continue their wild hunt!

Russian occupied Crimea:

By far, the most detailed satellite imagery of Feodosia port and Novocherkassk available. https://t.co/k6kEcVmlt7 pic.twitter.com/btWyOpGF1F

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 27, 2023

The OSINT account @bradyafr released two satellite pictures from @Maxar, showing the results of the strike in the harbor of Russian-occupied Feodosia.

The Novocherkassk practically disappeared. There is also significant damaged at the harbor installations.#Ukraine #Crimea… pic.twitter.com/q9v5jJ2ndT

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) December 27, 2023

In reference to the destroyed Russian landing ship Novocherkassk and according to a source of the TG Channel "Astra", 33 Russian sailor are currently declared missing, 23 are injured and one is dead. There were presumably 77 sailors on board the ship during the attack.

Source:… pic.twitter.com/Ta9MxPrW1y

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) December 27, 2023

In reference to the destroyed Russian landing ship Novocherkassk and according to a source of the TG Channel “Astra”, 33 Russian sailor are currently declared missing, 23 are injured and one is dead. There were presumably 77 sailors on board the ship during the attack.

Source: https://t.me/astrapress/44737

#Ukraine #Crimea #Feodosia

Zaporizhzhia front between Verbove and Robotyne:

Russian forces murdered/executed three Ukrainian POWs. The Ukrainian Soldiers had surrendered and the Russians murdered them anyway. I’ve watched the video of this war crime and am not including it here.

For you Cossack enthusiasts.

Ukrainian 🇺🇦 soldiers recreating the famous painting: Cossacks are Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan. pic.twitter.com/XoSHJOZWg0

— 𝕏𝓓𝓪𝓭𝓭𝔂 𝑵𝒂𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒐𝒏 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇮🇪 (@NapoleonDaSup) December 27, 2023

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!

@patron__dsns

Продовження гороскопу вже на @Patron the Dog !🐾 До речі, хто тут ще не дивився нову серію?👀 #песпатрон #песпатронмультфільм

♬ meow – ★

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

Continuation of the horoscope is already on @Patron the Dog!🐾 By the way, who here hasn’t watched the new episode yet? 👀 #песпатрон #песпатронмультфільм

Open thread!