Russian forces have incurred record-high casualties in manpower during hostilities in both November and December, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on December 11, after hearing a report from Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Moscow’s troops are advancing at a rapid pace in Ukraine’s east, pushing back outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian defenders at the cost of staggering losses.
“As in November, the Russian military is using a record number of its men in December in battles and assaults,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
“These months — November and December — saw record Russian losses,” the president noted, adding that the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove sectors in Donetsk Oblast remain the active parts of the front.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on December 1 that Russian losses throughout November had amounted to 45,720 soldiers wounded, killed, or captured, as well as over $3 billion worth of equipment.
Despite the losses, Russia is still advancing toward key Donetsk Oblast towns like Pokrovsk, and chipping away at the Ukrainian positions in the Russian border region of Kursk.
In his post, Zelensky thanked Ukrainian forces for “tangible hits on Russian targets,” namely “military facilities on Russian territory” and “energy and fuel facilities.”
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported a successful strike against a Druzhba oil pipeline loading station near the Russian city of Bryansk, resulting in a large-scale fire.
Ukraine has arms to resist at least until mid-2025 if US cuts aid, finance minister says
Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said in an interview with the El Pais newspaper published on December 11 that Ukraine has enough funds and ammunition to continue resisting Russia at least throughout the first half of 2025, even if US assistance dries up.
Marchenko’s comments come amid growing concern that US President-elect Donald Trump might withdraw Washington’s crucial support for Kyiv after he takes office in January.
“I believe that we have enough funds, enough weapons, missiles, and artillery shells to resist at least during the first half of 2025,” Marchenko said. Ukraine is allocating necessary funds from its budget to purchase equipment, and continues to receive US arms, the minister explained.
“This means that at least during the first half of the year and beyond, we will be well-equipped to resist this aggression,” he added.
Marchenko expressed his belief that full NATO membership remains the best possible guarantee to deter Russian aggression, with a “modern and strong Ukrainian military” as the only alternative.
Russian proxies sentence 9 Azovstal defenders to 24 years, life in prison
Russian occupation authorities in Donetsk jailed nine Ukrainian soldiers captured after defending Mariupol to between 24 years and a life sentence, the city’s exiled authorities reported on December 11.
Russia often uses trumped-up charges to jail captured Ukrainian soldiers, activists, journalists, and regular civilians for lengthy terms.
“Moscow’s proxies in Donetsk have sentenced soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade who fell into Russian hands after a gruesome siege of Mariupol and its Azovstal steel plant in the spring of 2022,” the exiled Mariupol City Council said on Telegram.
Andrii Shestak, Nazarii Moroz, Vladyslav Yavorskyi, Vadym Shulha, Serhii Yampolskyi, Maksym Kolbasin, Dmytro Shalara, Volodymyr Penzin, and Kostiantyn Romaniuk will serve their sentences in a high-security prison, the statement notes.
The occupation authorities accused the soldiers of shelling the village of Staryi Krym, near Mariupol, in March 2022.
Ukraine’s former Prosecutor General said that nine out of 10 Ukrainian prisoners of war are being subjected to physical and moral torture. While Ukraine has managed to bring back home some of the captives, including Azovstal defenders, through prisoner exchanges, many more remain in Russian captivity.
Russia may launch new Oreshnik missile against Ukraine in ‘coming days,’ US intelligence says
Russia may launch its new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) against Ukraine for the second time “in the coming days,” the Associated Press (AP) reported on December 11, citing an unnamed US official.
Russia launched its new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Dnipro in Ukraine on November 21. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the strike was in response to Ukraine’s use of American and British weapons to target deeper within Russia.
Washington still sees the experimental Oreshnik missile more as “an attempt at intimidation than a game-changer on the battlefield in Ukraine,” a US official told reporters on condition of anonymity, referring to a US intelligence assessment.
Russia has only “a handful” of the Oreshnik missiles, and they carry a smaller warhead than other missiles that Russia has regularly launched at Ukraine, AP reported, citing an official.
In early December, the Moscow Times reported, citing four Russian official sources, that the media blitz following the strike on Dnipro was a carefully staged stunt designed to scare off the West.
Russian missile attack kills 9 in Zaporizhzhia
A Russian missile attack has killed at least nine people and injured another 22 – including a child – in Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local officials say. As many as five people may still be trapped under rubble after Tuesday’s strike on a private clinic and residential buildings in the city center, police say.
A search and rescue operation is continuing. Zaporizhzhia regional head Ivan Fedorov says Russia fired a ballistic missile, most likely an Iskander. Russia’s defense ministry has not commented.
Ukraine has repeatedly asked its Western allies to provide more advanced air defense systems to repel almost daily Russian missile and drone attacks.
Shortly after the Zaporizhzhia attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that plea.
“We don’t have enough systems to protect our country from Russian missiles. But our partners have these systems. Again and again, we repeat that air defense systems should save lives, not gather dust in warehouses,” he said.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
