Latest Updates on Ukraine, 8 December 2022

1- Donetsk:
On December 7, the Russian army heavily bombarded Avdiivka and Bakhmut areas in a new round of artillery attacks. Heavy clashes also going on in the Bakhmut fronts. The pro-Russian media claim that during the recent battles in Bakhmut fronts, the Russian army destroyed a battalion of Ukrainian forces consisting of Ukrainian militia and Georgian volunteers.

– On December 7, as a result of the Ukrainian army’s artillery and rocket attacks on Gorlivka and Donetsk city, at least 8 people, including the deputy of the Donetsk People’s Council were killed and more than 20 people were injured.

– On December 7, the Russian army, continuing its attacks on the northern regions of Donetsk oblast, captured the Yakovlivka village located on the northern axis of Soledar town. Advancement in this axis will lead to the withdrawal of Ukrainians from Soledar and weakening their position in Bakhmut. (View on the online map)

– On December 16, the artillery of the Russian army attacked the positions of the Ukrainian forces in the town of Toretsk. This settlement plays an important role in maintaining the lines of the Ukrainians in this axis (especially in preventing the advance of the Russians in the southern regions of Bakhmut).

2- On December 5, the Ukrainian army attacked Dyagilevo military airport in Ryazan oblast and Engels airport in Saratov oblast deep in Russian territory with several suicide drones.

3- On December 5, Tupolev Tu-22M strategic bombers and submarines of the Russian army launched a massive attack on Ukrainian energy facilities in various cities using dozens of cruise missiles.

Read more: Russia fires a barrage of missiles across Ukraine + Video

4- On December 7, Volodymyr Zelensky said in response to the Russian army’s missile attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities:

“Now it is impossible to revive Ukraine’s energy industry as it was before the massive (Russian) invasion. And that’s why the outages in the cities will continue.”

Zelensky previously claimed that one third of the energy sector was destroyed and 40% of Ukraine’s energy facilities were damaged in Russian attacks.

5- On December 4, as a result of the AFU drone attack on the city of Kursk located in the west of Russia, one of the oil storage tanks of the airport and another place in this city caught fire. According to the governor of the Kursk region, there were no casualties in this attack and the fire has been controlled, but the pictures and videos published show that the fire continues in these places.

6- The Russian army attacked positions of Ukrainian forces in the cities of Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr with one or more Shahed-136 suicide drones. Local sources have also reported the occurrence of several explosions in these cities. The official details of this news have not been published yet, but some Russian sources, citing local sources, have reported that Zhytomyr energy facilities were hit in these attacks.

The decrease in Russian drone attacks in recent weeks has raised the suspicion that Shahed-136 drones are not capable of carrying out attacks in the winter due to the plastic parts and other materials that are not resistant to extreme cold. But these attacks questioned the Ukrainian authorities claims and put an end to the rumor about the Shahed-136 drones.

7- On December 3, a Tupolev-154 aircraft belonging to the Russian Ministry of Defense traveled from Moscow to Tehran, the capital of Iran, and returned to Moscow on December 4. According to Russian sources, this flight was carrying Alexander Fomin, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia and a number of other senior Russian military personnel to meet with Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces. Major General Bagheri said during the meeting, referring to the formation of the pillar of world power in the East.

“Today, the Americans admit that they have not been successful in the approach of unilateralism and creating a unipolar system. We emphasize the necessity of cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in bilateral, regional and international issues by maintaining the national interests of the two countries and maintaining the peace and security of the region, and negotiations in these areas should be carried out continuously.”

8- On November 30, following an explosion near the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, the capital of Spain, one of the employees of the Ukrainian embassy was injured. According to Spanish media reports, an envelope containing explosives was sent to this embassy and the Ukrainian employee opened it.

9- The Ministry of Defense of Russia published a video of the operation of several Lancet suicide drones against military convoys and armored vehicles of the Ukrainian army in Kherson fronts. In this video, the moment when the Russian Lancet drones hit the P-18 and 36D6 radars, as well as a convoy of S-300 defense system launchers of the Ukrainian army are shown. This video shows that the Russian Lancet is successful in hitting fixed targets such as radars and has a low percentage in effectively hitting moving targets. The reason for this is due to the dimensions, weight and other technical characteristics of this drone.