The Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the settlements of Donbass and Belgorod regionMOSCOW, December 18.
/tass/. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the joint headquarters of the troops participating in the special military operation (SVO), the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday. On Sunday, it also became known that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the grouping of troops in the areas of the special operation and talked with servicemen on the front line.
In addition, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported a massive strike on the military control systems of Ukraine. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) shelled the settlements of Donbass and Belgorod region.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky proposed to hold a global summit on achieving peace. At the same time, speaking about the possibility of negotiations with the Russian side, he said that he did not see a subject for conversation.
TASS gathered the main events in and around Ukraine in two days.
Inspection of troops
Putin on Friday worked throughout the day at the joint headquarters of the branches of the armed forces involved in a special military operation, Peskov said on Saturday night. The President familiarized himself with the work of the headquarters, received a report on the progress of its operations, held a meeting and separate meetings with the commanders, listened to the proposals of the military leaders on the immediate and medium-term actions.
Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov took part in the events, and among the speakers was the commander of the group of troops in the zone of special military operation Sergey Surovikin.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Defense reported that Shoigu made a working trip to the Southern Military District and inspected the grouping of troops in the areas of the SVO. The Minister flew around the areas of deployment of troops and checked the positions of the Russian units on the front line, where he talked with the servicemen and thanked them "for the exemplary performance of combat missions."
At the command post of the grouping, Shoigu listened to the reports of the commanders on the current situation, as well as on the actions of the Russian troops, paying special attention to the organization of comprehensive support for the troops.
Operation progress
Russian units have taken control of the village of Yakovlevka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), its cleansing from the remnants of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces continues, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said on Sunday. In addition, three Ukrainian sabotage groups were destroyed in the DPR and the Zaporozhye region.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Defense reported that on the eve of a massive blow was inflicted on the systems of military control, defense industry and energy facilities of Ukraine that provide them. In addition, Russian air defense systems intercepted seven multiple rocket launchers "Hurricane" and HIMARS in the Zaporozhye region and Luhansk People's Republic. In the area of the Red Estuary in the DPR, the deployment point of foreign mercenaries was hit.
The situation in the Ukrainian energy sector
The nuclear power plants of Ukraine controlled by Kiev (Rivne, Khmelnytsky and South Ukrainian) have reached their planned capacity, the Ukrenergo energy holding said on Sunday.
On Saturday, the company announced a "still significant" shortage in the country's energy system.
On December 17, the metro resumed its work in Kiev and Kharkiv.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reported serious problems with water and heat supply in the country.
Shelling of Donbass and Belgorod region
On Sunday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the Belgorod region, as a result, one person was killed, at least eight were injured.
In addition, Donetsk has been subjected to massive shelling several times since midnight on Sunday. The largest number of shells fell in the center of the city, where the largest hospital in the Donbass, the Donetsk Clinical Territorial Medical Association (Kalinin Hospital), came under fire. Two medical buildings, including children's neurosurgery, were damaged by direct hits of shells. One of the rockets hit the hospital ward. As a result of the attack, one person was killed and another was injured.
Makeyevka, Yasinovataya, and the settlement of Kashtanovoye also came under fire from the MLRS.
Protection of the NPP
The Ukrainian side has not yet clearly formulated its position on the creation of a protective zone at the Zaporozhye NPP, Mikhail Ulyanov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, told TASS. According to him, the consultation process is ongoing now, but "it is moving slowly," while direct trilateral negotiations between Moscow, Kiev and the IAEA on the protection zone around the NPP are impossible due to the current state of Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Meanwhile, a protective dome is being built over the storage of nuclear waste at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which will help protect the NPP from improvised explosive devices and fragments, said the chairman of the movement "We are together with Russia" Vladimir Rogov.
According to the adviser to the General director of Rosenergoatom concern Renat Karchaa, the protective wall erected in front of the dry storage of spent nuclear waste already helps to avoid damage to the facility during shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thread of negotiations
Zelensky proposed to organize a global summit in winter to "unite all countries around the problem of [achieving] global peace," the British TV channel ITV reported with reference to Zelensky's video message on the eve of the World Cup final. This record, as it became known on Friday, FIFA refused to show before the start of the final match of the World Cup.
Earlier, in an interview with the French TV channel LCI, the Ukrainian president admitted that he was being urged to sit down at the negotiating table with Moscow, but he himself did not see a "subject for conversation" and did not consider the dialogue between French President Emmanuel Macron and Putin useful.
According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, despite the differences on the situation in Ukraine, it is important not to let the threads of negotiations with the Russian Federation "break." Answering a question in an interview with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung about a possible window for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Scholz pointed out that, given the losses, the time for this "has long come."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, noted that the conflict in Ukraine could drag on for a long time, but expressed confidence that it would end at the negotiating table.
"A little peace"
Pope Francis said that he would like to receive "a little peace" as a gift for Christmas. "There are so many wars in the world! The one in Ukraine concerns us the most, but let's remember Myanmar, Yemen, Syria, where they have been fighting for 13 years," the pontiff said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper ABC.
The pontiff believes that the conflict in Ukraine is a "world war" that will not end in the near future. He complained that his calls for peace in Ukraine "are not being listened to."
