Hello again. It's Day 295 of the #RussiaUkraineWar
It's Thursday 15 December and this is the daily thread with the news, views and analysis as #Ukraine fights for its very existence.
Quite a lot happened yesterday, if you need to catch up, scroll here:
Almost 600 more dead Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours according to #Ukraine.
But as I've said in these threads many times, and as the President's Office confirmed yesterday evening, these figures don't include mercenaries used by #Russia. So they say the real total is >100k
Puppet "head" of the illegal '#Donetsk People's Republic' says "#Marinka is 80% taken" by #Russia's forces.
Of course this cannot be verified.
2/2 #Russia's occupiers say shelling of #Donetsk saw a nursery and here a hospital hit by #Ukraine's strikes.
Many independent observers concur there is no proof Ukraine is responsible for these and similar attacks. Russia may be trying to stoke hatred to introduce conscription.
At just before 2am this morning I wrote about the explosion and fire at a refinery in #Russia.
It's the largest such field in Siberia.
Here's a video of the fire earlier, but management say the blaze has now been extinguished.
#Kherson city centre is attacked again, with #Russia hitting a medical help point.
Unconfirmed: a 31 year old medic and a 70 year old man died in the latest missile attack, just 100 metres from the regional government building which was hit yesterday.
EU Diplomat says "It’s like an abusive relationship: they keep promising it will be different next time, but deep down we know we will get hurt over and over again"
Good evening or good night to my Australian friends and followers.
A massive thank you to Aly in particular for just gifting me "some food and a beverage"
💙💛💙💛
The European Parliament has now officially recognised the #Holodomor as genocide of the people of #Ukraine. Deliberate starvation by the regime in #Moscow.
This is probably another hit on #Russia's officers and even FSB, according to locals in the occupied part of #Kherson.
The Salimar hotel in Zaliznyi Port, was visited by some missiles. The town is a popular Black Sea resort, about 70km south from Kherson city. #SlavaUkraini
An accredited journalist has been arrested in #Dnipro after reportedly getting drunk and firing a pistol in to the air.
The incident happened on vul. Shinna in the city yesterday evening.
His identity has not been made public.
Blood on the streets of #Kherson again today after #Russia's shelling, as this video from the local government shows.
People describe where and how the damage was caused and an old man being treated for light shrapnel wounds says he's lucky it wasn't worse.
A few minutes ago I heard about the hit on an hotel in southern #Kherson oblast, and now it looks like another one a few miles away in the occupied part of the region.
This unverified photo is said to be from #Skadovsk, about 60km from #Crimea as the crow flies, 90km by road.
A crazy story from #Poland where the Commander in Chief of Police was injured when a grenade launcher, gifted by #Ukraine, was accidentally set off in the police HQ.
Ceilings were damaged and some say Gen. Jarosław Szymczyk himself fired the device.
So let's start today with news of explosions inside #Russia and on #Crimea
First Crimea - they may try to pass off loud bangs in #Simferopol & #Bakhchisarai as "air defence working". But it seems more than that, one report of several military trucks and fuel trucks were damaged.
Speaking of loud bangs, this was heard in #Belgorod region in #Russia.
Maybe the Russians are fearful of a breakaway Republic? The last one to try that was #Chechnya and its capital got razed to the ground.
First a story causing concern in #Ukraine where rumours abound that President #Zelenskyy's entourage is so worried by the popularity of the Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny, they want to replace him.
So I'm still on the same train. 15 hours after boarding. No communication from staff sadly. Hours stood in the countryside with no wifi, phone signal and for a while the train lost light, heat and power.
We are approaching the #Poland border now.
I was able to take pretty pics!
Not had chance to read the news yet. But have seen the daily losses for #Russia increase significantly following the successful #HIMARS strikes on enemy bases in #Kadiivka and #Melitopol in particular.
One of my unsung heroes of the war is #Ukraine's legendary rock star @s_vakarchuk who's spent so much time criss-crossing the country giving free, unannounced performances to keep spirits high.
Here the @okeanelzy frontman turned up in #Kyiv's main railway station
Yesterday the #USA announced that #Russia and #Iran have made a deeper agreement.
Today the daily update from the #UK Defence Intelligence picks up on the matter:
The number of #Russia's soldiers remains quite high if you actually think about the waste, the grieving families. However the totals this week well down on the peak figures.