Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 12-28-2024

Italy is investigating cyberattacks by pro-Russian group NoName057(16) targeting Milan’s airports and the Foreign Ministry on Saturday in another example of the rising use of hybrid warfare tactics.

Italian police said Saturday that they were investigating cyberattacks claimed by a pro-Russian group targeting several websites including those of Milan’s airports and the foreign ministry.

The websites of the ministry, Malpensa and Milan-Linate airport, and the transport systems in Siena and Turin were hit, according to national cybersecurity police.

Listening equipment was found on a tanker seized by Finland for cutting undersea cables, according to a leading shipping publication’s sources within the industry.

Eagle S, the Russia-linked tanker suspected of damaging an underwater electricity cable on Christmas Day, was kitted out with special transmitting and receiving devices that were used to monitor naval activity, according to Michelle Wiese Bockmann, an analyst for Lloyd’s List, citing a source with direct involvement in the ship. The vessel has since been detained by Finnish police.

The dark fleet tanker with links to Russia, Eagle S, seized by Finland on Dec. 25 for damaging an undersea cable, had transmitting and receiving devices installed that effectively allowed it to become a “spy ship” for Russia, Lloyd’s List has learned.

Unable to ignore the international outcry over Russia’s shooting down a passenger plane, Putin called his Azerbaijani counterpart to apologize.

Vladimir Putin admitted Saturday Russian air defense was working when an Azerbaijani Airlines plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, breaking the Kremlin’s silence as speculation mounted Russia may have accidentally shot the plane.

The Russian leader called his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, apologizing the incident took place in Russian airspace, while stopping short of saying Russian air defense shot the plane.

Russia’s December 2024 shooting of an Azerbaijani passenger plane echoes the MH17 incident 10 years earlier. An interview with Andreas Umland delves into the potential blowback.

Dr. Andreas Umland is a political analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS) at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) and an expert on Ukrainian and Russian histories.

This interview has been shortened for brevity and clarity.

In an effort to give Ukrainian art and culture its rightful place on the world’s stage, the Ukrainian Museum in New York uses its cosmopolitan history to attract international attention and prestige.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited New York’s Ukrainian Museum last September during his trip to speak at the UN General Assembly, he brought international attention not only to his country’s fight for survival but also its rich artistic tradition.

The Ukrainian Museum sits in the heart of the East Village, a part of Manhattan that became the creative epicenter of the world’s art capital in the second half of the 20th century.

Ukraine’s military intelligence has been conducting an ongoing campaign of sabotage deep in Russian territory.

A video of train cars exploding was published on social media by Ukraine‘s military’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) on Saturday.

“On Dec. 27, 2024, at one o’clock in the morning, an explosion took place at the railway station of the settlement of Voskresensk, Moscow region, which destroyed the wagons of a freight train – the aggressor state used them to provide logistics for the Russian occupation army,” the Facebook post said.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Overnight 12-13 December 2024 Russia conducted a large-scale multi-axis attack into Ukraine. As with the attacks that occurred in November and prior, it involved Russian Long Range Aviation assets and Russian fixed wing Tactical Aviation assets launching multiple types of air launched cruise-missile and air launched ballistic missile systems.
• The air assets were supported by SAGARIS Land Attack Cruise Missiles launched by Black Sea Fleet assets, and One-Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Systems (OWA UAS) were used from multiple launch sites. In total approximately 90 missiles were used in conjunction with at least 180 OWA UAS.
• Since August 2024, it is highly likely Russia has chosen to take time to build stocks between strikes and then launch in larger, less frequent strike waves, rather than the more frequent smaller attacks conducted earlier in the year. The composition and target set of the 12-13 December attack was similar to previous attacks, focusing on Ukrainian Critical National Infrastructure and industry, whilst also attempting to supress Ukrainian Air Defence and airfields by saturating them with OWA UAS. However, Russia retains the ability and the stocks to allow such assets to be employed in smaller numbers, as a punitive measure, with little or no warning.

As an assessment of Ukraine’s history over the last 30 years since the country’s independence, Adrian Karatnycky’s “Battleground Ukraine” leaves much to be desired.

When I heard that my former longtime friend Adrian Karatnycky was completing a history of contemporary Ukraine, I was thrilled and eagerly awaited getting my hands on the book.

Like me, Karatnycky is a longtime observer of Ukraine. He was born in the US, I was born in the UK; and like me he has largely dedicated his life to the Ukrainian cause, whether as a journalist, publicist, human rights activist or working for international organizations. 

Russian operatives recruited agents to derail ammo trains. But Ukrainian security service were a step ahead, watching with cameras planted in bird nests.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has uncovered a network of three Russian intelligence agents plotting to sabotage Ukraine’s railways, according to the SBU.

The SBU’s counterintelligence unit apprehended one of the agents before he could derail a train loaded with ammunition, weapons, and equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The suspect had been preparing a makeshift brake shoe designed to cause trains to derail.

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

An Azerbaijani lawmaker said there is a “very strong” possibility that the crash of a passenger jet earlier this week was caused by Russian air-defense systems on alert for Ukrainian drone attacks. Speculation has mounted that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which was headed from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya region, may have been hit by an air-defense missile before crossing the Caspian Sea and crashing near Aqtau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 passengers and crew. Lawmaker Hikmat Babaoghlu told RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service in an interview on December 27 that such an explanation is most likely “closest to the truth.” He added: “This is only a possibility, but a very strong one, and the observations and conclusions drawn so far support the idea that the plane being shot down is the closest to the truth,” he said. “In this specific case, the incident involves Azerbaijan’s airliner being damaged within the territory of the Russian Federation, with the event causing the crash occurring there. Therefore, there is no doubt that responsibility falls on the Russian Federation. If these assumptions are correct, accountability also undoubtedly rests with Russia,” he added. Kazakh experts arrived on December 27 to examine the crash site and black box of the ill-fated passenger jet, as speculation -- and evidence -- mounted suggesting that a Russian air-defense missile may have inadvertently struck the craft - RFE/RL

White House spokesman John Kirby has said the US has seen “early indications” that Russia may have been responsible for the downing of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on 25 December, killing 38 people. Mr Kirby did not elaborate further, but told reporters the US had offered assistance to the investigation into the crash - BBC

“If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes real. Then the lie no longer exists and all you’re left with is your version of the truth.” ― Irfan Master, A Beautiful Lie

Since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “Kremlin Watchers” have tuned in to Russian talk shows, with the expectation that they will give clues to Putin’s latest line of thinking.

While it’s true that millions of Russians sit down to watch these shows, we mustn’t forget that they mainly want to be entertained and that, while toeing the party line, the primary aim of these programs is not to indoctrinate the audience – it is already by and large on board.

A ship seized by Finland for cutting undersea cables is now suspected of being a spy ship. NATO secretary general says it will bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea in response.

Germany said on Saturday the suspected sabotage of an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia this week was a “wake-up call” that demanded new EU sanctions against Russia’s ‘shadow fleet.”

The Estlink 2 cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid on Wednesday, Dec. 25, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.

Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency has been vocal in his support for Kyiv but has shown he is not above US politics when it comes to handling Russian and Ukrainian information.

CIA Director Bill Burns made his final secret visit to Ukraine as head of the US intelligence agency last weekend, meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky and tying up the current administration’s loose ends with Kyiv before Donald Trump moves into the White House on Jan. 20.

It has left Ukraine’s leadership wondering what will come next for the two countries’ intelligence cooperation. While intel officials in Kyiv maintain that their allied counterparts are not made aware of covert operations, such as assassinations of Russian military officials, the overall collaboration between the CIA and its Ukrainian partners has been robust during the Russian invasion, officials say.

Troops are committing suicide rather than risking capture, likely out of fear of reprisal against their families in North Korea. An estimated 1,000 to 3,000 North Koreans have been killed so far.

A “human wave” of North Korean soldiers fighting on Russia’s side in the Ukraine war are being sent to their deaths in futile attacks by generals who see them as “expendable,” the White House said Friday.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed South Korean estimates of around 1,000 of Pyongyang’s troops killed or wounded in just a week in the Kursk border region, where Ukraine mounted a shock incursion in August.

Ukraine’s underground network of partisans in occupied Crimea have noted Russian preparations for an expected attack on airfields previously hit by Ukrainian missile and drone attacks.

Russian forces are building protective structures at the Saky airfield in occupied Crimea, trying to protect themselves from Ukrainian missile and drone strikes, the Atesh underground network said in their Telegram channel.

“Atesh agents conducted reconnaissance of the military airbase near the settlement of Novofedorovka. The presence of special equipment and construction work was recorded, indicating that the occupiers are trying to build protective structures for aircraft,” the partisan group said.

Moscow’s playbook for re-establishing its dominance is no secret: destabilize Europe and NATO so that they suffer from paralysis. That way Russia can coerce and control states fearing chaos.

As the Kremlin once again resorts to false flag tactics, this time in Transnistria, it is clear that Moscow has no intention of backing down from its offensive strategy of destabilizing Europe. The goal is clear: to create an additional front, weaken Western support for Ukraine, and restore Russian influence through chaos and destabilization. Moldova is the next target on Vladimir Putin’s list. How the West responds to this threat will determine not only the fate of Moldova but also the security of Europe.

Russia has, as many times before, carefully constructed accusations of “Moldovan aggression” against Transnistria. These allegations are not just disinformation; they are the prelude to a destabilization plan that could escalate into military intervention. The Kremlin has already “illuminated” this path: it will stage incidents, accuse Moldova, and then intervene militarily under the guise of protecting the Russian people and “peace interests.” This is not a hypothesis – it is a tried and tested scenario from Ukraine, Georgia, and other parts of the post-Soviet space.

Two Puccini operas staged at the Odesa Opera House in collaboration with Italian institutions exemplify the port city’s defiance of Russia’s attempts to bomb Ukrainians into capitulation.

In an Odesa besieged by weeks of missile strikes and blackouts that left residents without light and heating, Odesans filled their Opera and Ballet Theater on Dec. 20, drawn by the allure of Italian music.

The performance was the Ukrainian premiere of two operas by Giacomo Puccini: Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica. These two short operas (50 minutes each) have very different plots. The first is a comic opera set in ancient Florence, where a disinherited family seeks to reclaim an inheritance through the cunning of a trickster, Gianni Schicchi. The second, set in a convent, portrays the inner torment of Angelica, a nun.

As Trump tries to strongarm European countries into buying US natural gas, Ukraine, which is shutting off gas transit from Russia the EU, has just received LNG from the US.

Ukraine on Friday received its first batch of liquefied natural gas from the US, a deal that Kyiv says will boost Ukrainian and European energy security as a major gas transit deal with Russia ends.

Despite the war, Moscow has continued to pump gas across Ukraine to Europe under a multi-billion euro deal, an agreement Kyiv has long said it will not renew when it expires at the end of 2024.

Despite the boost, 60 days is still far from the NATO standard of 6 to 9 months.

Recruits into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) will receive two months of induction training instead of 45 days as in the past, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a Monday statement.

Basic training will be expanded to one and a half months from the 30 days at present, Syrsky said in an announcement following the AFU’s final 2024 meeting on training military personnel.