Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 12-14-2024

Anyone who has made the effort to travel to Ukraine as a volunteer will know first-hand that Ukrainians’ phenomenal resolve will keep the society thriving in the harshest of circumstances.

When our lives are in danger, humans are known to fight, flee, or freeze. When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, the smaller nation chose to fight, impressing the world with their strength and resolve. There is no surrender for Ukraine. It is not in their nature. We have witnessed this in our 10 trips there since the invasion. And we have witnessed much more.

Now more than ever, this moment in time stands to determine the fate of Ukraine. Russia is testing new missiles and specifically targeting Ukraine’s energy grid – leaving millions, including children, in darkness. America will now equip Ukraine with new antipersonnel land mines – land mines, weapons internally recognized as injuring children long after conflicts end. These escalations all came as the war aged past 1,000 days, and President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the soldier death toll has surpassed 43,000.

Some Ukrainian servicemembers claim North Korean troops have already engaged in battles with the Armed Forces of Ukraine over a week ago.

President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed preliminary data indicating that Russia has begun deploying a “significant number” of North Korean soldiers in its assaults in the Kursk region.

“The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” Zelensky stated during his evening address to Ukrainians on Saturday, Dec. 14.

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

The National Assembly in South Korea has passed a motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law declaration, with some lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party joining in support of his removal from office. The impeachment motion against Yoon was put to a vote, with a total of 300 ballots cast: 204 in favor, 85 opposed, 3 abstentions, and 8 invalid votes. The motion's approval comes 11 days after Yoon abruptly declared martial law, citing the need to protect the country and maintain social order against what he referred to as "anti-state forces," a term interpreted as referring to the opposition bloc and others who oppose him. Following the passage of the impeachment bill, Yoon's duties as president are immediately suspended, pending a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to uphold or reject the motion. In the meantime, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will serve as acting president - Korea Times

A former Manchester City footballer is set to be appointed president on Saturday by Georgia's disputed parliament, after 16 days of pro-EU protests that have swept this country's towns and cities. Mikheil Kavelashvili, now 53, is a former MP from the increasingly authoritarian ruling Georgian Dream party and the only candidate for the job. Protesters began gathering outside parliament on Saturday morning, with demonstrations planned for later in the day. The four main opposition groups have rejected Kavelashvili and have boycotted parliament, insisting that the elections held in October were rigged. Georgia's outgoing pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, has condemned Kavelashvili's election as a travesty, insisting she holds Georgia's only remaining legitimate institution - BBC

Outgoing President Salome Zurabishvili has refused to leave office, calling the election “illegitimate” and demanding new parliamentary polls.

Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party has installed far-right loyalist Mikheil Kavelashvili as president through a controversial election process, deepening the country’s political turmoil.

For the first time in Georgia, a president has been elected through a non-traditional process. Instead of citizens voting directly, members of an electoral college—dominated by the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party—chose the president.

Vladimir Putin is a dangerous threat to global security, however do you know what he is like in-person?

Ukrainian intelligence reports that a Russian Su-30 fighter jet was destroyed at its airfield.

Ukrainian intelligence agents carried out a successful operation in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, a region in the North Caucasus bordering the Black and Azov Seas, according to the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR).

The operation resulted in the destruction of a Russian Su-30 fighter jet and the disabling of three locomotives.

In an era of global connectivity, the ability to almost instantly spread disinformation threatens the basic fundamental truths on which civilized society is based.

The uncontrolled spread of disinformation increasingly threatens the ideals that form the basis of democracy in an age of absolute global connectivity. The sacred principle of free and fair elections, the foundation of democratic governance, is in jeopardy as social networks become arenas for populist rhetoric, aggressive demagoguery, and distortion of the truth.

The recent reelection of Donald Trump in the United States, made possible by an orchestrated social media campaign led by Elon Musk’s X platform, is an alarming example. A similar occurrence in Romania, allowed a right-wing populist lacking political infrastructure to emerge victorious following an emotionally charged campaign hosted exclusively on TikTok. If repeated globally this trend would point to the erosion of traditional democratic norms.

Commentators share their observations and ask what comes next after these shocking findings.

With the fall of President Assad, the gates of prisons and torture chambers have opened. Saydnaya Prison in particular, where tens of thousands of people have disappeared or been tortured and murdered, has exposed the full cruelty of the regime.

A perfidious regime

The recovered artworks are estimated to be worth over $186,600.

Polish prosecutors have announced the recovery of contemporary artworks stolen in Poland while being transported from Ukraine’s Kyiv to Switzerland.

The artworks were stolen during a burglary in the southeastern city of Przemyśl on the night of March 24-25, 2022.

On Saturday morning, protesters began gathering outside the parliament building, which was cordoned off by police forces.

Georgia's ruling party is set to appoint a far-right loyalist as president on Saturday in a controversial election process, amid a deepening constitutional crisis and weeks of mass pro-EU protests.

The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested October parliamentary elections.

The Ukrainian military struck a critical dispatching station, igniting a powerful fire.

Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SSO) targeted drones at one of Russia’s largest petroleum terminals in the suburbs of Orel early on Saturday, Dec. 14.

“After carefully planning the operation, SSO personnel successfully struck a linear production-dispatching station, resulting in a powerful fire,” the report shared via Telegram said.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Russian officials almost certainly consider the collapse of the Assad regime, its former Syrian ally, to be both detrimental to its regional strategic interests, and to its image as a security guarantor.
• The Russian leadership almost certainly considers the Ukraine conflict to be their primary concern. Russia's prioritisation of the Ukraine conflict likely degraded Russia's ability and capacity to keep the Assad regime in power.
• Russia's primary aim in Syria is to maintain control of its military bases - its largest overseas naval base at Tartus and its airbase in Khmeimim - to enable Russian strategic access to the Near East and Mediterranean Sea, supporting its aims in Africa and allowing for military power projection. The collapse of the Assad regime has almost certainly increased the risk to the security of these assets.
• In the short term, Russia will highly likely seek to repair its reputation as a reliable partner and engage diplomatically with all relevant actors involved, in efforts to ensure security guarantees for its military bases.

Ukrainian medical science, which withstood the difficulties brought about post-Soviet underfunding and a lack of strategy, may finally change – not necessarily for the better.

Ukraine is a country of science. Dozens of Ukrainians have won Nobel and other prestigious international scientific awards over the past 100 years. The scientific potential of the country is encapsulated by the National Academy of Sciences, which was formed in 1918 when Ukraine was previously an independent state.  With its national branch Academies, such as those for agriculture, medicine, and several others it unites dozens of scientific institutes, enterprises, clinics, and even nuclear research institutes.

Ukraine inherited most of its scientific institutions from Soviet times when the country played an important role in all aspects of the USSR. As much as to 30% of Soviet defense capability was concentrated here including large numbers of leading technological, aviation, and medical institutions, almost half its nuclear power plants, and a quarter of all scientific bodies.

Serbia has maintained a close relationship with Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine and refuses to impose sanctions, even though it is an EU candidate country.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic warned on Friday that the United States plans to impose sanctions on the country's sole gas supplier in the coming days due to its Russian ownership.

Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), majority-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft and its parent company, Gazprom, is the only supplier of gas to Serbia and the majority owner of both gas pipelines that transport gas from Russia to households and industries in Serbia.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces conducted their largest series of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine since the start of the war overnight on December 12 to 13, largely targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
• Russia's strike series targeting Ukrainian energy facilities is part of a broader campaign aimed at freezing out Ukraine in Winter 2024-2025 and compelling Ukraine and the West to self-deter into making policy decisions that benefit Russia.
• Ukrainian strikes against military airfields in Russia and Russian air defense systems in near rear areas may be prompting a decrease in Russian air operations and glide bomb strikes against Ukraine.
• Russia is evacuating elements of its force grouping in Syria while continuing negotiations with select Syrian groups about Russia's longer-term military presence in the country.
• The status of Russia's helicopter base at Qamishli in northeastern Syria remains unclear, however.
• The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced on December 12 a new military aid package for Ukraine valued at $500 million.
• A Russian insider source who has previously correctly predicted command changes within the Russian military responded to recent claims that the Russian military command removed 3rd Combined Arms Army (formerly 2nd Luhansk People's Republic Army Corps) commander Major General Dmitry Ovcharov.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Pokrovsk and Vuhledar.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Rosgvardia Head Viktor Zolotov with the Hero of Russia award.