DEC 13, 2022
Dozens of countries and organizations have pledged more than 1 billion euros (dollars) in fresh aid pledges to keep Ukrainians powered, fed and warm during the winter.
apnews.com
Dozens of countries and international organizations threw their weight and more than 1 billion euros (dollars) in aid pledges behind an urgent new push Tuesday to keep Ukrainians powered, fed, warmed and moving as winter approaches.
An international donor conference in Paris quickly racked up substantial promises of
financial and in-kind support, a defiant response to sustained Russian aerial bombardment of critical infrastructure that has plunged millions of Ukrainian civilians into deepening cold and dark.
The Kremlin says that President Vladimir Putin has ditched his annual marathon news conference following a series of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine.
apnews.com
Putin typically uses the year-end ritual to polish his image, answering a wide range of questions on domestic and foreign policy to demonstrate his grip on details and give the semblance of openness even though the event is tightly stage-managed.
But this year, with
his troops on the back foot in Ukraine, it could be impossible to avoid uncomfortable questions about the Russian military’s blunders even at a highly choreographed event. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Monday that Putin wouldn’t hold the news conference this month without explaining why.
“Although questions are almost certainly usually vetted in advance, the cancellation is likely due to increasing concerns about the prevalence of anti-war feeling in Russia,” the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in a commentary on Twitter.
A team of doctors and nurses who fled Mariupol as Russian forces closed in on their hospital are starting up a new medical center in the Ukrainian capital to serve people displaced by the war.
apnews.com
A nurse wounded by a Russian sniper was spirited out wrapped in sheets. Another, sickened by the thought of working for the people who destroyed his home, sneaked out a side door and walked out through Mariupol’s shattered streets.
Doctors shed their scrubs for street clothes. And one by one,
the staff of the largest hospital in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine slipped away as Russian forces seized control of the city’s center.
Months later, around 30 staff members from Mariupol’s Hospital No. 2 have reassembled in Kyiv. Along with 30 specialists from a cardiac hospital in Kramatorsk, a Donetsk city that remains under Ukraine’s control, they are opening a pared-down version of a public hospital to help displaced Ukrainians in need of care.
DEC 14, 2022
U.S. officials say the Biden administration is poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian missiles.
apnews.com
The approval is likely to come later this week and could be announced as early as Thursday, said three officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision is not final and has not been made public. Two of the officials said the Patriot will come from Pentagon stocks and be moved from another country overseas.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed Western leaders as recently as Monday to provide more advanced weapons to help his country in its war with Russia. The Patriot would be the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the West has provided to Ukraine to help repel Russian aerial attacks.
Ukrainian authorities say they thwarted a Russian attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region as their air defense system destroyed 13 explosive-laden drones.
apnews.com
The attempted strikes underlined how vulnerable Ukraine’s capital remains to the regular Russian attacks that have
devastated infrastructure and population centers in recent weeks, mostly in the country’s east and south. But they also highlighted Ukraine’s claims of increasing efficiency in intercepting drones and missiles, and the possibility that
Patriot missiles from the U.S. may further boost defenses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video the “terrorists” fired 13 Iranian-made drones, and all were intercepted. Such drones have been part of the firepower — along with rockets, missiles, mortars and artillery — that Russia uses to target power stations, water facilities and other public utility equipment.
time.com
