The governments of the European Union have agreed on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, EU diplomats announced, as reported by Reuters.
The package will be formalized through what the EU calls a "written procedure" by midday on Friday.
"Sanctions have been agreed," said one of the diplomats.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzhny, said today that he expects a new Russian attack on Kiev in the first months of 2023, while fighting has been going on for several months in the east and south of Ukraine.
"It is a very important strategic task for us to create reserves and prepare for war, which can take place in February, in the best case in March, and in the worst case at the end of January," Zaloužni told the British weekly The Economist.
Zaluzhny said he had no doubt that Russian forces would try to take the Ukrainian capital again.
At the end of February, the Russian army launched an invasion of Ukraine, with the aim of quickly capturing Kiev with Russian soldiers who had arrived from Belarus.
Russian forces then reached a few kilometers to Kiev, but at the end of March and the beginning of April they completely withdrew from that area.
A gift that the commander of the Polish police received during a recent visit to Ukraine exploded at the police headquarters in Warsaw, slightly injuring the commander and a civil servant, the Polish Ministry of the Interior announced today.
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The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned today that sending the modern US Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine would be "another provocative move by the US" and that Moscow could respond to it.
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The Ukrainian general announced that Moscow is preparing for a long war and believes that it will not abandon its plan to conquer all of Ukraine.
"The Kremlin is trying to turn the conflict into a prolonged armed conflict," said Brigadier General Alexei Gromov, as reported by Reuters.
"The enemy's main strategic goal remains to occupy all the territory of our country and to prevent the Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine," Gromov concluded, rejecting the possibility of a truce during the holidays.
The Ukrainian city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recently recaptured from the Russians, was "completely" without electricity today due to a strong Russian attack on basic infrastructure, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said.
Ukrainian officials also report that two people were killed today in Russian attacks on the center of Kherson.
Kherson has been regularly targeted by the Russians since it was retaken by the Ukrainians a month ago.
According to Ukrainian media, the city was targeted three times today.
In yesterday's attack on the headquarters of the regional administration, six people were injured, the local authorities announced.
Due to the almost daily attacks and very difficult living conditions, the authorities call on the residents of Kherson to evacuate to safer areas, said regional official Juri Sobolevski.
He said that hundreds of people leave Kherson every day. In total, around 11.000 residents have left the city since Ukrainian authorities called for voluntary evacuation after retaking the city.
At least nine civilians were wounded in Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk, a separatist stronghold in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian authorities said, saying it was the worst on the city since 2014.
The head of the Donetsk administration, Alexei Kulemzin, said that Ukrainian troops fired 40 "Grad" rockets at Donetsk.
He said that rockets hit residential and business buildings, a church, a school and a sports field.
The spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, says that all the weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine are legitimate targets for Russia, reports Reuters.
It will either be destroyed or confiscated, says Zaharova.
Russian troops are concentrating their offensive in the direction of Bakhmut and Avdiyivka, while simultaneously trying to improve their tactical position in three other areas, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on Facebook.
"They are trying to improve the tactical position in the direction of Kupyansk, Liman and Zaporozhye," states the General Staff.
War in Ukraine – 295th day. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that there is no lull on the front line and that violence has returned to Kyiv.
The Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, announced that Ukrainian investigators in the liberated area of Kherson discovered a prison cell where children were allegedly detained and mistreated, reports Reuters.
As he stated, the cell is located in one of four discovered torture prisons in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine that was abandoned by Russian forces last month. He states that the investigators found that the children were given water every other day, as well as that they were subjected to "psychological pressure" and were told that they had been abandoned by their parents.
Lubinets also said that around 12.000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since the start of the war in February, and that 8.600 have been taken by force.
Reuters states that Lubinec did not provide evidence for his claims, and that the agency could not confirm the veracity of his report. Russia has previously rejected accusations that civilians were the targets of military attacks in previous operations.
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