The Ukrainian Week summarised the most recent updates from the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine:
- Institute for the Study of War (ISW): the pace of military operations on the front line will significantly slow down due to challenging weather conditions, but they won’t come to a complete halt. ISW cites Volodymyr Fitio, Head of Public Relations of Ukraine’s Army Ground Forces, who said that Russians have been actively using aviation in the Bakhmut direction, weather conditions permitting, adding that weather does not have a significant impact on the Russian artillery. On the other hand, on December 1, Russian military bloggers claimed that strong winds near Bakhmut and in the western part of the Zaporizhzhia region hindered Russian forces from using drones and artillery over the past two days.
- Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukraine’s parliament), appealed to the Red Cross and the UN Monitoring Mission regarding the killing of Ukrainian military personnel who surrendered. In a comment to the Ukrainian news outlet, Suspilne, he said, “Today, we already sent out official letters. This is not the first case, and unfortunately, very likely, it is not the last case when the Russian armed forces cynically violate the Geneva Conventions and the entire spectrum of international humanitarian law. Honestly, I do not expect any breakthrough results from the ICRC and the UN, but, in my opinion, we should continue to do this because the ICRC has a special mandate to document POW’s rights violations. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, we do not have another organisation with a similar mandate”, said Lubinets.
- Shalanda Young, White House budget director, warned that the United States is running out of funds and time to support Ukraine, which has been fighting to deter Russian invasion since February 2022. Young raised her concerns in a letter to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and other congressional leaders. According to Reuters, Young emphasised that halting funding and arms shipments to Ukraine would increase the likelihood of Russia’s victory. She also said that it is clear that without Congressional action by the end of the year, resources to purchase additional weapons and military equipment for Ukraine, as well as supply equipment from U.S. military stocks, will run out.
- Another Russian general confirmed dead in Ukraine: on 4 December, Alexandr Gusev, the Governor of the Voronezh Region in Russia, confirmed the death of Major General Vladimir Zavadskiy, the Deputy Commander of the 14th Army Corps of Russia, in Ukraine. He announced this on his Telegram channel. According to Gusev, Zavadsky died “at a checkpoint in the zone of the special military operation”; he did not provide any further details. According to preliminary information, Zavadsky detonated a mine in the rear, and a neighbouring unit was setting up the minefield to protect against sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRG). This is reportedly the seventh Russian general who died in Ukraine and whose death was confirmed by Russian sources. Attempts were also made to attribute his death to Ukrainian forces artillery shelling.
- According to the press release of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Affairs of Prisoners of War, Russia plans to launch a disinformation campaign regarding the suspension of the POW exchange program. Russian intelligence reportedly aims to destabilise Ukraine’s internal situation, creating distrust in the government institutions that are responsible for organising the POW exchange. Despite Ukraine’s efforts to continue the humanitarian mission of returning prisoners of war since the summer of 2023, Russian authorised representatives systematically complicate the exchange process. According to the Coordination Headquarters for the Affairs of Prisoners of War, in order to justify its inaction, Russians are preparing numerous accusations against Ukraine, for example, claiming that Ukraine has inflated demands.
