Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, kindly brought to you by Anastasiya: @Anastasiya1451A
🔥Battlefield overview
🔥Bakhmut
Russian forces are reporting advances of Ukrainian troops after Ukrainian counteroffensive actions that led to the removal of Russian troops from the Eastern suburbs of Bakhmut.
So, after more than 4 months of Russian attempts to take Bakhmut, immense resources poured into this operation, the Russian marines, Wagner mercenaries, prisoners recruited by Wagner, thousands of KIA Russians, Bakhmut stands.
🔥Soledar-Mariinka & Svatove-Kreminna
Tactical operations and clashes between Ukrainian and Russian troops continue.
🔥Zaporizhzhja
Minor clashes and artillery & drone duels between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
🔥Kherson
Russia is attacking Kherson with artillery. Ukraine has successfully hit several high-profile military targets on the East bank of the Dnipro River.
🔥Russian missile attack on Ukraine
Kyiv was attacked with 36 Shaheds, 30 of which were destroyed. This was another attack on the critical infrastructure to terrorise the civilian population by compromising the electrical grid and heating in the Winter.
Russia has also attacked residential areas and infrastructure in Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Krivij Rig, wounding and killing civilians.
🔥Russia claiming destruction of 120th HIMARS
Russian sources report the alleged destruction of another 2 HIMARS without specifying where, when or how they did it. While it’s possible in theory, so far, Russia hasn’t managed to destroy a single HIMARS in Ukraine or to find a feasible strategy to do so.
🔥Belarus
Putin visited Belarus fearing Lukashenko flirting with the West and China. It seems that Lukashenko continues resisting Putin’s demands to send the Belarusian Army to a direct confrontation with the Ukrainian Army Forces. The main discussion was around:
1) countering Belarusian collaboration with China,
2) Belarus continuing training of Russian mobilized,
3) transfer of additional equipment from the Belarusian reserves to arm the mobilized and
4) potentially using Belarusian territory to launch missiles/drones to attack Ukraine
🔥Potential expansion of UN Permanent Security Council & Russian mobilization & lack of equipment
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has suggested that the UN might expand the list of permanent members of the Security Council. This may potentially refer to the addition of countries like Germany, Japan, and India. The next logical step after this move would be the substitution of unanimous voting (aka possibility of veto) for the majority voting.
Russia is violating the UN charter every single day – from invading Ukraine to acts of terror, to acts of genocide of Ukrainians, to threatening to use nuclear weapons in an unjust, offensive war.
The West, from the EU to NATO and now the UN, has realised that collective security cannot be compromised by individual actors. Thus, just as the EU has circumvented Orban’s sabotage, the UN might adopt a majority voting strategy to deal with the Russian menace to global security.
🔥Ukraine increases criminal responsibility for deserters and negligent commanders
Ukraine is a freedom-loving, pro-active, and highly initiative nation. This is reflected in many volunteers and recruits in the Ukrainian Army. While this is great from the motivation, sometimes it clashes with discipline and subordination in the army. On the other hand, there are some cases of negligence from the commanding officers.
To bridge the gap in the current legislation, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) approved a law to increase legal responsibility for the desertion of soldiers and negligence of commanding officers.
War is a horrible affair because soldiers may be asked to sacrifice their lives fighting for the survival of the Nation. The paralysing fear that could compromise the military in this situation is only controlled by discipline in the Army.
The law was supported by General Zaluzhny and is meant to protect discipline in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition to the new legislation, Zaluzhny proposed an increase in the professional education and preparedness level of not only soldiers but also officers. Officers and commanders must train, prepare and supply the soldiers with everything necessary and the soldiers must show personal responsibility and discipline to execute the combat missions.
🔥Price cap for the Russian gas
The EU countries agreed on a price cap for Russian gas. Limiting the Kremlin’s profits from oil and gas has a direct limiting effect on the Russian regime’s capacity to buy Iranian drones and fuel their war machine.
🔥Putin will fight until the last Russian. But will the Russians?
While the number of KIA Russian invaders approaches 100k, Putin is willing to continue the mobilization and war in Ukraine. In the polls, the majority of Russians support the continuation of “the special military operation” and mobilization. Nevertheless, one-third of the interviewed Russians had a family member or a friend that died invading Ukraine. At the same time, 78% of Russians view Russia leaving Kherson as something positive. This cognitive dissonance indicates either unwillingness to accept the reality of the situation in Russia or Russians fearing retaliation from the Kremlin.
Next stream is on Tuesday, 20th of December.
