As the war enters its 659th day, these are the most important developments.
Here is the situation on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
To fight
- At least 53 people, including six children, were injured after Russia launched a rocket attack on Kiev, the second in a week. The city’s air defenses shot down the missiles – Iskander-M and S-400s – but the falling debris blew out windows of apartment buildings and a children’s hospital and destroyed parked cars. Of the injured, 18 were taken to hospital.
- A group of hackers called Solntsepyok has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on Kievstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile phone network, after millions of people were unable to access their phones or receive airstrike warnings. Kiev believes the group has ties to Russian military intelligence. Kievstar started restoring voice services to some people on Wednesday.
Politics and diplomacy
- As European Union leaders meet on Thursday to decide whether to formally open talks on Ukraine’s membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was visiting Norway after returning to Europe from the United States, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had no reason to block Kiev’s membership of the 27-member grouping. Zelenskyy said he had been “very direct” when he had a brief conversation with Orbán in Argentina on Sunday.
- Orban, a conservative nationalist who is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU and is blocking 50 billion euros in financial aid to Kiev, appeared unmoved. “Our position is clear. We do not support Ukraine’s rapid accession to the EU,” Orbán wrote in a Facebook post, claiming that Ukrainian membership would not serve the interests of Hungary or the EU.
- Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, meanwhile, promised Zelenskiy that they would “support Ukraine for as long as necessary.” The five countries have provided Ukraine with aid worth around 11 billion euros since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and said they were ready to continue providing extensive military, economic and humanitarian support. “Russia must end its aggression and immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders,” they said in a joint statement.
- Other EU leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, reiterated their support for Ukraine, with Scholz suggesting the EU would make expansion decisions by majority vote rather than with unanimity. Newly elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would try to convince Orbán to change course. “Apathy towards Ukraine is unacceptable,” Tusk said, adding that he will try to convince “some member states”.
- A German court heard that Russia paid Carsten Linke, a former soldier who worked for Germany’s Foreign Intelligence Service (BND), at least 450,000 euros in exchange for information about weapons the West used to arm Ukraine. Linke and his accomplice, Russian-born German diamond trader Arthur Eller, are accused of high treason.
Weapons
- Germany’s Scholz emphasized that the aim of the West’s continued military support for Ukraine was to strengthen Kiev’s defenses to such an extent that Russia would “never dare to attack again.”