Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,024

Here is the situation on Saturday, December 14:

Fighting

• Russia hammered Ukrainian energy facilities in an aerial attack that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as one of the largest yet on the ailing grid and evidence of why Kyiv needed more Western support before any peace with Russia.
• Moscow reportedly fired at least 93 missiles that “severely damaged” Ukrainian power plants, the DTEK energy company said.
• Ukrainian drones attacked an infrastructure facility storing fuel in central Russia’s Oryol region, sparking a fire and smashing windows in homes, regional governor Andrei Klychkov said.
• Russian air defences destroyed Ukrainian drones in several areas of the region south and east of Ukraine, the governor of Krasnodar region, Vladimir Kondratyev, said. One drone smashed windows in village houses, but there were no injuries.
• Russian air defences also destroyed seven drones over Bryansk – on Ukraine’s northern border – Governor Alexander Bogomaz said.
• Ukrainian forces attacked two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region, injuring one resident and triggering a fire in a house that was quickly extinguished, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Armoured personnel carriers at an exhibition of Ukrainian weaponry and hardware in Russia’s Rostov region – organisers say Russia captured them during the fighting [Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters]

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin praised US President-elect Donald Trump for criticising Ukrainian missile strikes into Russian territory. Still, it said discussions about deploying European troops to keep peace in Ukraine were premature.
• The United States announced a new $500m package of military aid for Ukraine, as Washington races to bolster Kyiv before Trump takes office.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron the possibility of foreign troops in Ukraine in case of a ceasefire, but that Warsaw was not “planning any such actions”.
• Zelenskyy will attend a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the European Union and NATO in Brussels next week to discuss support for his country, Reuters news agency reported, citing sources familiar with the plan.
• The US will in the coming days introduce financial sanctions against Serbia’s oil company NIS, which is majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced.

• Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, is ready to supply food to Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval said. Russian and Syrian sources had said Russian wheat supplies to Syria had been suspended over uncertainty about the new government and payment delays.

• EU foreign ministers will impose sanctions on Russian intelligence agents over “hybrid” attacks against the bloc on Monday, diplomats said. The EU and NATO have accused Moscow of being behind a spate of incidents aimed at destabilising the West.
• A Ukrainian court sentenced a woman to 14 years in jail for working with Russian intelligence to write fake reports justifying Moscow’s invasion.
• Kyiv also arrested several people it accuses of being Russian spies and undermining Ukrainian security.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies