Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 12-05-2024

In a recent OSCE address, Blinken reaffirms US support for Ukraine, condemns Russia’s hybrid war tactics, and stresses the importance of defending democratic values across Europe.

In a powerful address at the recent Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial meeting on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed the United States' unwavering commitment to supporting Ukraine.

His remarks come as the OSCE grapples with challenges posed by Russia's actions, which Blinken described as a direct threat to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Why the new government structure and what will happen to the occupied territories - first reactions.

A new ministry has been created in Ukraine—the Ministry of National Unity. The parliament – the Verkhovna Rada, has even managed to appoint a new minister—the former head of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Oleksiy Chernyshov.

What does this change represent and what the implications?

The uncommon conversation occurred last Wednesday, Nov. 27, shortly after Russia launched a nuclear-capable intermediate-range “Oreshnik” ballistic missile at Ukraine.

Gen. Valery Gerasimov, a key figure behind Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, spoke with President Biden’s top military adviser, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles K. Brown Jr., last week to address concerns about managing escalation between the two nations, The New York Times reported, citing US defense and military officials.

The uncommon conversation occurred last Wednesday, Nov. 27, shortly after Russia launched a nuclear-capable intermediate-range “Oreshnik” ballistic missile at Ukraine.

Denys Davydov, one of YouTube’s most recognizable Ukraine experts, explains how Russia’s problems - at home, as well as abroad in Syria, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine - are compounding.

Ukraine’s FM called Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov a "war criminal" Thursday as they both attended an international meeting in Malta, the latter’s first visit to an EU country in almost 3 years.

Ukraine's foreign minister called Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov a "war criminal" Thursday as they both attended an international meeting in Malta, the latter's first visit to an EU country since the 2022 invasion.

Ukraine's Andriy Sybiga also accused Moscow of being "the biggest threat to our common security" as both ministers sat at the same huge table for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Ukrainian lawmakers have taken the first step toward “restoring trust in the courts and fighting corruption” in the country.

In the first reading, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s legislature) approved draft legislation necessary to introduce jury trials, an important judicial reform, reported lawmakers Oleksiy Goncharenko and Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

According to Goncharenko, 232 members voted in favor of the bill to create the institution of the jury court.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Kyiv plans to announce its readiness for peace at the meeting, though Andriy Yermak emphasized that any agreement must be sustainable.

A Ukrainian delegation, led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, has met with key members of Donald Trump’s transition team, including National Security Adviser nominee Mike Waltz, and Keith Kellogg, proposed to be the Special Envoy for Russia and Ukraine.

Vice President-elect J.D. Vance also joined the talks, according to reports from Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.

Romanian authorities alleged that there has been Russian interference and “preferential treatment” of far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu by TikTok.

The European Commission on Thursday said that it has stepped up its monitoring of TikTok in the context of Romania's elections, after receiving information about possible Russian interference.

Romanian authorities alleged that there has been Russian interference and "preferential treatment" of far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu by TikTok -- a claim the social network has denied.

Some sources claim the drone was intercepted by local air defense systems just meters from the facility’s entrance, with the resulting blast wave causing minor damage to the gate.

A Ukrainian drone reportedly targeted the Kapustin Yar military testing site in Russia’s Astrakhan region, known as the launch site of the Oreshnik ballistic missile toward Ukraine’s Dnipro city. The incident was reported by the Russian Telegram channel Mash.

Conflicting accounts have emerged about the attack. Some sources claim the drone was intercepted by local air defense systems just meters from the facility’s entrance, with the resulting blast wave causing minor damage to the gate.

Russian troops reportedly suffered heavy losses, while marines from the 40th Separate Brigade of the Russian Marine Corps were captured.

Ukrainian troops have regained control of Novy Komar, a village in the Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region, Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for the Khortytsia operational-strategic group, told Kyiv Post.

“The enemy has been expelled from there. The settlement of Novy Komar is under the control of the [Ukrainian] Defense Forces,” Voloshyn said. In 2016, the village had a population of 479.

While solidarizing with democratic Georgians, stop ignoring freedom-seeking Belarusians

Attention is rightly focussed on Georgia, where pro-European forces are battling it out on the streets against a pro-Russian government and its security forces.

With the fate of that country hanging in the balance, the scenes from Tbilisi are strongly reminiscent of the internal pro-democracy protests in Ukraine in Kyiv and elsewhere, which in fact became revolutions – the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity in the capital’s central Maidan Square in late 2013 and early 2014.

A source told Kyiv Post that HUR hackers targeted one of Russia’s largest banks, disrupting online payments and money transfers for hundreds of thousands of customers.

Cyber experts from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) successfully launched a cyberattack against Gazprombank, one of the largest financial institutions in Russia, a source within the special services told Kyiv Post.

Gazprombank ranks among Russia’s top three banks. According to the source, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the institution on Nov. 21. Its clientele includes approximately 3 million individuals and 45,000 legal entities.

Russian milbloggers are bemoaning the quantities of modern military kit left behind by Russian forces in Syria, the latest being a ‘state of the art’ air defense radar.

The list of the most modern and essential Russian military equipment that has been abandoned in the face of the lightning advance of Syrian rebel forces is astonishing and grows every day. For the last few days, the world’s media has been plastered with photos of masked jihadists in front of captured helicopters, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.

On Sunday both pro-Kyiv and pro-Moscow social media was awash with reports and images of captured Russian air defense equipment, all of which were said to be operational, after the rebels seized the Kuweires air base.

High stakes of the presidential election in Romania on Sunday, Dec. 8.

Romania could elect its first far-right president on Sunday in a key vote for the EU and NATO member bordering Ukraine.

Far-right politician Calin Georgescu, a former senior civil servant, shocked the eastern European nation when he topped the first round of the presidential elections on November 24.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

French lawmakers on Wednesday voted to oust the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier after just three months in office, a historic move which plunged the country further into political chaos. For the first time in over sixty years, the National Assembly lower house toppled the incumbent government, approving a no-confidence motion that had been proposed by the hard left but which crucially was backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen. Barnier's rapid ejection from office comes after snap parliamentary elections this summer which resulted in a hung parliament with no party having an overall majority and the far-right holding the key to the government's survival. President Emmanuel Macron now has the unenviable choice of picking a viable successor with over two years of his presidential term left. The National Assembly debated a motion brought by the hard left in a standoff over next year's austerity budget, after the prime minister on Monday forced through a social security financing bill without a vote. With the support of the far-right, a majority of 331 MPs in the 577-member chamber voted to oust the government. Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet confirmed Barnier would now have to "submit his resignation" to Macron and declared the session closed - France 24

Georgian police on Wednesday raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to squelch a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. During the past six nights, riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard. More than 300 protesters have been detained since Thursday and over 100 people have been treated for injuries. On Wednesday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car. Georgian media reported that police also raided the offices of several other opposition groups and non-government organizations - AP

Ukraine Has Imposed Sanctions on Ivanishvili and His Accomplices – the Ones Who Are Selling Out the Interests of Georgia and Its People – Address by the President

Good morning, fellow Ukrainians!

I have just signed a decree that gives effect to the National Security and Defense Council's decision on sanctions.

Interest rate movements have mostly corrected due to the new maturities and do not indicate a possible NBU key policy rate revision in a week. Bond Market Insight for Dec. 4

Yesterday's auction allowed the MoF to borrow planned funds and to slightly correct interest rates due to changes in the maturities of offered bonds.

Yesterday, the MoF offered three new UAH military bonds with some differences in maturities compared with bonds sold earlier this year. The new one-year paper has a longer maturity than the 11-month bills sold in October, but is shorter than the 1.5-year paper sold in November. New three-year notes are shorter, too.

Carns said that in a large-scale war, comparable to the war in Ukraine, the British Army would be depleted within six months to a year as part of a broader multinational coalition.

A British defense minister, Alistair Carns, has warned that the British Army could be decimated in “six months to a year” if faced with a major war akin to the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a report by Politico.

The minister for veterans’ affairs made the remarks at a Royal United Services Institute conference in London. He attributed the dire outlook to the army’s current size and capacity constraints, highlighting how casualty rates in such a scenario would quickly render British forces non-operational.

It obligates both states to provide military assistance "without delay" in the case of an attack on the other, and to jointly oppose Western sanctions.

A landmark defence pact between North Korea and Russia, signed by its leaders in June, has gone into effect after the two sides exchanged ratification documents, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Thursday.

The formalization of the treaty comes as the United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.

The slowdown is definitely noticeable, and while the bump in the federal signing bonus adds a twist, it makes pinning down an accurate estimate a challenge.

The Russian military is struggling with a significant drop in the recruitment of contract soldiers and volunteers for its ongoing war, despite offering increased financial incentives and benefits, including promises to forgive loan debts.

Janis Kluge, a researcher at Germany’s Institute for International Security Affairs, estimates that in the third quarter of 2024, the Russian army attracted around 700 new recruits daily, based on federal budget data.

The Georgian government’s decision to suspend the EU rapprochement process has sparked mass protests, with tens of thousands rallying and nightly clashes erupting in Tbilisi.

The Georgian government's announcement that it will suspend the EU rapprochement process has triggered widespread protest. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in recent days, while in Tbilisi there have been violent clashes between demonstrators and the security forces every night. Both socially and in its foreign policy, the country is at a crossroads.

Reminiscent of Kyiv in 2014

Baker Sergo Gornakashvili grew up near Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, haunted by echoes of the wars in nearby Chechnya, before trading his apron for a rifle and dying on Ukraine’s front line.

Baker Sergo Gornakashvili grew up near Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, haunted by echoes of the wars in nearby Chechnya, before trading his apron for a rifle and dying on Ukraine's front line.

His life and death aged 36 reflects Kyiv's battle for survival and the thunder of the 1990s conflicts in the Caucasus -- tremors of the geopolitical upheaval that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and continued with Moscow's pursuit of its lost glory.

Ukraine’s defense news outlet Militarnyi has published images of a modified US donated HMMWV utility vehicle fitted with two Soviet-era UMZ remote minelaying launchers.

Ukraine has been looking for ways to more rapidly lay minefields to disrupt Russian mechanized assaults for some time. Militarnyi reported on Tuesday that Ukraine’s defense forces have begun to use modified high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs) to assist in the rapid creation of minefields using PTM-3 anti-tank landmines.

A Ukrainian military engineer Andrii Shyshuk, call sign Sievier was interviewed in June by the Ukrainian Espresso TV channel. In it he said that Ukraine’s armed forces had a pressing need for remote minelaying systems in order to rapidly reinforce its defensive lines against Russian assaults. At the time he said the only way they could remotely lay anti-vehicle mines was by dropping them one by one from aerial drones or using the artillery delivered remote anti-armor mine (RAAM) system.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Mounting evidence continues to personally implicate Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Kremlin officials in the forced deportation and "re-education" of Ukrainian children in Russia.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to posture Russian economic stability and growth while high interest rates and efforts to combat inflation suggest that the Kremlin is worried about economic stability in the long-term.
• Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on December 4 that Armenia has effectively reached "the point of no return" in its ties with the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
• Ukrainian forces recently regained lost positions in Toretsk and near Velyka Novosilka. Russian forces recently advanced in Chasiv Yar, near Toretsk, Pokrovsk, Vuhledar, Velyka Novosilka, and in Kursk Oblast.
• The Kremlin continues to use its "Time of Heroes" program to place veterans of the war in Ukraine in leadership positions within the Russian government and major state companies.