Page The Kyiv Independent On December 11, citing announcements from Ukrainian regional officials, Russia’s attacks that day left at least 8 civilians dead and at least 57 injured.
The scene of a missile attack in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on December 11
The Russian army has destroyed or controlled many Ukrainian positions near the eastern city of Pokrovsk and is only 3 km from the southern suburbs of this strategic city, Reuters reported citing the Ukrainian army and a monitoring organization. war said.
Pokrovsk is a strategic logistics center and home to Ukraine’s only coke mine. Losing the city would mark Ukraine’s biggest military defeat in months.
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Russia has more than 70,000 soldiers on the Pokrovsk front and has been rapidly advancing on the village of Shevchenko south of the city in recent weeks. Russian forces were trying to gain positions in the village and sent reconnaissance groups but were blocked by Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military spokesman.
At dawn the same day, the port city of Taganrog in Rostov province in southern Russia suffered an attack from Ukraine. Acting provincial governor Yury Slyusar said an industrial site was damaged and 15 cars were burned, with no loss of life, according to RT station.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said a military airport in Taganrog was attacked by six long-range ATACMS missiles but all were stopped. ATACMS is a ballistic missile provided by the US to Ukraine, estimated to have a range of 300 km. Moscow did not provide damage information but announced that it would respond to this attack.
Previously, a US official told Reuters that Russia could launch a hypersonic ballistic missile toward Ukraine in the next few days. On November 21, Russia launched the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile for the first time at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in response to Kyiv’s use of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles to attack Russian territory.
Russia’s record losses?
After hearing a report from Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on December 11 that Russian forces suffered record high military losses in November and December.
The Russian army, with superior firepower and numbers, is advancing at a very fast pace in eastern Ukraine. However, Mr. Zelensky said that in the past two months, Russia has suffered the heaviest military losses. He added that Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in Donetsk oblast were the front-line areas where the most intense fighting occurred.
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In early December, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Russia’s losses in November were 45,720 soldiers, including those killed, wounded or captured. The value of Russian military equipment damaged in November was more than 3 billion USD. The number of Russian soldiers lost in one day in November was 2,030, the highest since the beginning of the war. Ukraine and the West estimate that Russia lost 600,000 – 750,000 soldiers since the beginning of the war, while Moscow has not announced detailed numbers. It is impossible to verify the casualty figures given by both sides.
Russia has not commented on the information given by Ukraine.
Mr. Trump prioritizes the Ukraine issue
US President-elect Donald Trump said one of his priorities when returning to the White House early next year is to resolve the Ukraine crisis.
“I think we need to resolve the Ukraine issue with Russia,” Magazine Paris Match (France) today (December 11) published an interview with Mr. Donald Trump during his first foreign visit since being re-elected president.
“Both countries are suffering at a level no one can imagine. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died,” Mr. Trump answered a question about priority issues that need to be resolved in the international arena at the time of inauguration. position.
During the election campaign, he vowed to end the conflict within 24 hours, even before taking office. However, in a recent interview with NBC News, Mr. Trump only said he would try to resolve the conflict.
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The Hungarian Prime Minister contacted Mr. Putin after meeting Mr. Trump
On December 11, the Kremlin announced that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine conflict and other topics in a phone call requested by Budapest, according to TASS.
The call took place after Mr. Orban met with US President-elect Donald Trump at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida (USA). According to the Kremlin, Prime Minister Orban expressed interest in promoting a joint resolution of the crisis politically and diplomatically, including through his contacts with many Western leaders.
President Putin gave a fundamental assessment of the current situation in Ukraine and said that Kyiv continues to reject the possibility of a peaceful settlement.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and US President Donald Trump at the White House in 2019
Mr. Orban announced on social network X that the phone call lasted 1 hour on the morning of December 11. “These are the most dangerous weeks of the Russia-Ukraine war. We are taking every possible diplomatic step to support ceasefire and peace dialogue,” Mr. Orban wrote.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Prime Minister Orban did not convey any message from President-elect Trump to President Putin. “As you heard, the focus is mainly on the energy sector and the exchange of views on the issue of Ukraine and Syria,” Mr. Peskov said.
Russia stated the conditions for ending the conflict
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 11 that if the US really wants to end the Ukraine conflict, they should call on the Ukrainian army to withdraw from the Donbass region and the two newly annexed Moscow provinces, according to TASS. Donbass is located in eastern Ukraine and includes two oblasts, Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia unilaterally annexed these two provinces and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 but did not control them all.
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Those who expect Russia to make concessions are “lacking information or lacking memory,” Ms. Zakharova said at a press conference. According to the official, Russia is ready to discuss a solution for Ukraine with the US but has so far not received any serious proposals from President-elect Trump.
“We have not received any work plan that addresses Russia’s legitimate security concerns and guarantees the rights of Russian-speaking residents,” the diplomat said. According to Ms. Zakharova, the conditions set by President Putin for a solution in Ukraine should be the basis for any agreement.
Previously, President Putin set the condition that the Ukrainian army withdraw from Donbass and the areas annexed by Russia, and must give up joining NATO. Besides, Russia wants the West to withdraw sanctions and Ukraine to commit not to align and not pursue nuclear weapons. In addition, the rights, freedoms and interests of Russian speakers in Ukraine must also be guaranteed.
