Latest Developments in Ukraine: Dec. 13

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.

11:30 p.m.: The United States was finalizing plans to send its sophisticated Patriot air-defense system to Ukraine, U.S. officials told Reuters, while allies pledged just over $1.05 billion (1 billion euros) to help Ukrainians survive the freezing winter.

10:50 p.m.:

9:20 p.m.: Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled their country since Moscow announced a "partial" mobilization on September 21. Many have traveled to Uzbekistan to seek refuge. The Russians say they are settling into their new lives and are unsure how long they'll be abroad. In the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, the arrival of tens of thousands of Russians has impacted the local economy, with rent prices surging across the city.

8:07 p.m.: FDD defense expert Mark Montgomery tells VOA, "I think Ukraine wants Patriot missiles because they're having short range ballistic missiles shot at them, and they really are out of the kind of weapon that's needed to defend against that." But he adds, "Patriot is an extremely complex and expensive system to operate. Each round of Patriot is between $3 and $4 million apiece. That is a very expensive system. It would use up a lot of the money being set aside for them I think in a, with a very limited return on investment.

2:30 p.m.: The United States is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, a decision that could be announced as soon as this week, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defenses, including U.S.-made Patriot systems, to protect it from heavy Russian missile bombardment including against its energy infrastructure.

Ground-based air defense systems such as Raytheon Technology Corp's (RTX.N) Patriot are built to intercept incoming missiles.

2:20 p.m.: U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths shared on Twitter some of his experiences while visiting Ukraine’s southern city Kherson Tuesday, noting that civilian needs are “immense.”

Griffiths met with Kherson mayor Halyna Luhova and governor Yaroslav Yanushevych, who thanked the U.N. and its humanitarian partners for their support, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

“In the past month, humanitarian convoys have been bringing water, food, medicines, blankets and other essential items to the people of Kherson,” Dujarric said. “We have also sent generators to make sure hospitals and schools can continue to operate despite the damage to the energy infrastructure.”

Griffiths also visited one of 22 resilience points, which are places for people to warm up, when the energy crisis leaves them with no electricity and no heating at home, the spokesman added.

2:10 p.m.: Located astride two major crossroads and home to a decades-old winery, Bakmut has been all but emptied of its 70,000 residents, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

The city's buildings and houses are — or are steadily being reduced to — rubble, as Ukrainian troops defend the city's northern, eastern, and southern approaches against Russian forces creeping across fields and gentle slopes dipping down to the Bakhmutovka River.

Many of the full-frontal assaults are being led by soldiers from Russia's notorious private mercenary company, Wagner Group, according to Ukrainian, Western, as well as Russian officials; some reports point to World War I-style "human wave" infantry attacks.

The question is: Why is Russia expending so much manpower and effort to capture this city at this stage in the war — a city whose tactical significance is eclipsed by the sustained ferocity of the assault?

"Militarily, Bakhmut has no strategic importance," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said during a TV appearance last week. "But it has psychological significance," he said. Capturing the city "will be symbolic for the enemy," he said. "Therefore, [Russia] is trying in any way to take control of this city."

2:00 p.m.:

1:50 p.m.: Ukrainians leaving the eastern city of Bakhmut this week described almost constant Russian shelling that forced residents to shelter in basements and sleep in the bitter cold, Reuters reported.

Bakhmut, with a population of 70,000 people before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, has become a symbol of the grinding warfare playing out along much of the eastern front, where enemy positions have rarely budged more than a few hundred meters in recent weeks.

1:35 p.m.:

1:20 p.m.: A prominent Russian businessman on Tuesday asked a London court to pause an $850 million fraud lawsuit brought by two Russian banks because of UK sanctions, arguing that any money recovered could be used to “indirectly fund the war in Ukraine,” Reuters reported.

Boris Mints and his sons Dmitry, Alexander and Igor are being sued by National Bank Trust, which is 99% owned by the Central Bank of Russia, on behalf of Bank Otkritie, once Russia’s largest private lender before it collapsed in 2017.

Lawyers representing the Mints family – who deny the banks’ fraud allegations – say the lawsuit should be indefinitely put on hold because, if the banks win at trial, any damages could not be paid as Bank Otkritie is under British sanctions.

But the banks say their application is “opportunistic”, describing it as “a transparent attempt” to exploit the fact that Bank Otkritie has been placed under sanctions.

The application represents one of the first legal tests of Britain’s sanctions regime in relation to Russia.

1:10 p.m.: Ukraine’s ministry of defense on Tuesday shared video on Twitter of a concert where the audience, in darkness because of recent Russian attacks on the power grid, used hand-held lights to sing along to a song with lyrics by a well-known Ukrainian poet.

12:55 p.m.: Russian forces have apparently used cluster munitions on civilian areas of Kherson at least three times since they retreated from the city, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, quoting a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on Tuesday.

The incidents were part of a series of attacks on the city that resulted in at least 15 civilian being killed and 35 wounded.

“Residents of Kherson survived eight months of Russian occupation, and are finally free from fear of torture, only to be subjected to new indiscriminate attacks, apparently including cluster munitions,” said HRW's Belkis Wille.

Russia has been attacking Kherson from across the Dnieper River.

12:40 p.m.: The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that its director and the prime minister of Ukraine had made a new agreement aimed at improving safety at nuclear facilities and at helping prevent a nuclear accident.

12:25 p.m.: According to the Russian government, 1.6 million Russians live in 112,353 buildings that have been officially deemed uninhabitable slums, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

It is unknown how many more live in buildings that residents say clearly should be condemned. It is a national problem that local officials seem unwilling or unable to address.

At a virtual meeting with government officials of all levels on November 30, President Vladimir Putin raised the issue. "We have been constantly talking about this," Putin said. "We must move people out of these slums, as I already told my colleagues."

In fact, Putin has been "constantly talking" about the problem. He has urged officials to resolve the problem at least seven times over the past 15 years.

12:15 p.m.:

11:50 a.m.: Nearly ten months into the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration is intensifying diplomatic efforts to ensure that the transatlantic alliance that opposes Russia's invasion survives a bitter European winter, Reuters reports.

The coalition of countries opposing Russia's invasion - from NATO members to U.S. allies such as Japan and Australia - has proven resilient, defying predictions that rising energy prices in part caused by the war could fracture the grouping. But sustaining that united front has required diplomacy and compromise, say diplomats and U.S. officials, and will likely require more as the European winter tests the public's support for Ukraine.

In the past weeks, the administration has scrambled to adjust its signature inflation legislation to appease European governments whose support it needs on Ukraine, and secured an agreement from the G7 nations to cap the price of Russian oil.

President Joe Biden also briefly moderated his strong opposition to talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a signal to allies restless for a negotiated end to the conflict.

The Ukraine war is also the backdrop for the U.S.-Africa Summit, a relationship-building exercise that starts on Tuesday and brings together the leaders of 49 African nations, many of whom have expressed frustration with paying the economic price for the war, which the United Nations says has worsened a global food crisis.

11:20 a.m.:

11:00 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will hold talks to discuss the events of 2022 in late December, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, told the newspaper that the date and the agenda of the meeting are already known, but an official announcement will come later.

In a daily briefing with reporters later on Tuesday, Peskov said Xi and Putin were "in constant communication."

Russia has moved closer to China since sending its armed forces into Ukraine in February as Moscow seeks to boost its political, economic and security relations with non-Western countries.

10:35 a.m.:

10:10 a.m.: Dozens of countries and international organizations threw their weight and more than 1 billion euros (dollars) in aid pledges behind an urgent new push Tuesday to keep Ukraine powered, fed, warm and moving amid the onset of winter, The Associated Press reported.

An international donor conference in Paris quickly racked up substantial promises of financial and in-kind support, a defiant response to sustained Russian aerial bombardments that have plunged millions of Ukrainian civilians into the deepening cold and dark by targeting critical infrastructure.

Ukraine’s president made an impassioned argument that such aid could pressure Russia into pursuing peace, and conference donors strongly condemned the Kremlin’s savaging of power stations, water facilities and other essential services in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the conference host, denounced Moscow’s bombardments of civilian targets as war crimes. He said the Kremlin is pounding civilian infrastructure because its troops suffered setbacks on the battlefields and their “military weaknesses have been exposed to all.”

9:30 a.m.: Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the House of Commons in a recent briefing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a “disaster.”

9:05 a.m.: Ukrainian officials gave the all clear on Tuesday after air raid sirens blared across the country following warnings that Russia may carry out a new wave of missile strikes, Reuters reported.

No new attacks were reported despite the air alerts, officials said.

Russia has launched several waves of missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure since October that have caused power outages across the country.

8:45 a.m.:

8:30 a.m.: More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering catastrophic food shortages and many are dying of hunger, with that number set to rise to over 700,000 next year, according to an analysis by an alliance of U.N. agencies and aid groups, Reuters reported.

A two-year drought has decimated crops and livestock across Horn of Africa nations, while the price of food imports has soared because of the war in Ukraine.

8:15 a.m.:

8:00 a.m.: The British government said in a statement Tuesday that 12 senior commanders of Russian military forces, including units implicated in attacks on Ukrainian cities, have been sanctioned, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

The list includes Major General Robert Baranov, identified by the Bellingcat investigative media group as the commander of a unit responsible for programming and targeting Russian cruise missiles.

Three Iranians and one Iranian company have also been targeted in the sanctions, which include an asset freeze, travel ban, and transport sanctions.

"The Iranian regime is increasingly isolated in the face of deafening calls for change from its own people and is striking sordid deals with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in a desperate attempt to survive," Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in the statement.

"Putin wants to break Ukraine’s spirit, but he will not succeed. Ukraine will win, and Ukraine will rebuild," he added.

7:40 a.m.:

7:25 a.m.: Agence France-Presse reported that Swiss food giant Nestle said Monday it was opening a new production site in war-torn Ukraine and would invest tens of millions in a factory and production network set to employ 1,500 people.

“Nestle is announcing the opening a new production site in Ukraine,” the company, which had three facilities in Ukraine before the war broke out, said in a statement.

It said that “40 million Swiss francs ($43 million) will be invested in production in Smolyhiv located in Volyn region, in the western part of the country.”

The aim was to increase “the capacity of noodles culinary production in Ukraine,” the company said, adding that it also wanted to help support growth of the Ukrainian economy, which has been ravaged since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February.

7:10 a.m..:

7 a.m.: Arms shipments to Ukraine will end as soon as peace talks to end the Russian invasion begin, Italy’s defense minister told parliament on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

“I am aware that military aid will have to end sooner or later and will end when we will have the peace talks that we are all hoping for,” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said while addressing the upper-house Senate.

Earlier this month, Italy’s cabinet adopted a decree allowing it to keep supplying Ukraine with weapons for the whole of next year without seeking formal approval from parliament for each new shipment.

6:30 a.m.: Agence France-Presse reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told an international aid conference on Tuesday that Ukraine needed emergency aid for its energy sector totaling around 800 million euros.

“Of course, it is a very high amount, but the cost is less than the cost of a potential blackout,” Zelenskyy told the gathering in Paris via video link. “I hope that decisions will be made accordingly.”

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine needed transformers, equipment to repair damaged high-voltage power lines, as well as generators and gas turbines.

“Because of the destruction of our power plants by terror attacks we will need to use more gas this winter than expected,” he added.

This would require the import of two billion cubic meters of gas over the winter as well as major electricity imports from EU neighbors, he added.

6:15 a.m.: The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be holding his annual marathon news conference this fall, The Associated Press reported.

Observers have attributed the break in the long-held tradition to the Kremlin’s uneasiness about a string of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Monday that Putin wouldn’t hold the annual news conference this month for the first time in 10 years.

He didn’t comment on the reason behind it, but many commentators attributed it to the Kremlin’s uneasiness about facing possibly unpleasant questions regarding what it calls Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. The British Defense Ministry observed that the Kremlin fears that the event could be “hijacked by unsanctioned discussion” about the war.

6 a.m.: Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Tuesday that the U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA agreed to dispatch permanent teams to the country’s nuclear plants, including the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant, a hotspot of fighting, Agence France-Presse reported.

Ukraine’s atomic sites have been a key concern throughout the nearly 10 months of the conflict, with attacks around several facilities — including Chernobyl — raising fears of a nuclear incident.

“The missions are aimed at securing the plants and recording all attempts to externally influence them, in particular shelling by the Russian aggressor,” Shmygal said in a statement on social media following a meeting in Paris with Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The prime minister said the IAEA’s teams would deploy to plants at Zaporizhzhia, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Pivdennoukrainska and Chernobyl without specifying a time frame.

Shmygal added that during the meeting with Grossi he had repeated a call for the “demilitarization” of the plant in Zaporizhzhia, describing it as a priority for Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The IAEA has already deployed teams to Zaporizhzhia, where Russian troops have seized control of the plant and claimed to have annexed the region into Russia.

“The plant is still in a very precarious situation,” Grossi said ahead of the meeting.

“We have started to explore ways to deepen this protection and above all to reach an agreement which will have to involve the Russian side, obviously, to protect the plant,” Grossi said ahead of the meeting, referring to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Ukraine last week accused Russian troops of detaining two senior employees at the Zaporizhzhia plant — Europe’s largest nuclear facility — after a “brutal beating.”

Regular Russian shelling in recent months of Ukraine’s energy grid has disrupted the supply of power to and from the plants, adding to electricity outages and concerns over their safety.

5:35 a.m.:

5 a.m.:

4:30 a.m.: Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has launched a snap inspection of its troops’ combat readiness following an order from President Alexander Lukashenko, the defense ministry said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

It was the latest in a flurry of military actions, including a counter-terrorism exercise last week, that have raised fears Russia may mount an attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory in coming months.

Belarus has said it will not enter the war in Ukraine, but Lukashenko has in the past ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, citing threats to Belarus from Kyiv and the West.

Russia and Belarus are formally part of a “union state” and are closely allied economically and militarily, with Moscow using Belarus as a staging post for its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

As part of the exercise announced on Tuesday, troops will have to quickly move to “designated areas,” use equipment and set up bridge crossings over the Neman and Berezina rivers in western and eastern Belarus, the defense ministry said.

“During this period, it is planned to move military equipment and personnel, and to temporarily restrict the movement of citizens (transport) along certain public roads and sections of terrain,” it said.

4:05 a.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that there was an agreement on removing heavy weapons from Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and that talks were underway on the modalities around this, Reuters reported.

"We managed to protect Chornobyl and our goal is to protect Zaporizhzhia. The coming weeks will be crucial," Macron said, as he arrived to attend an international conference France is hosting an international conference in Paris to provide urgent aid to help Ukraine get through freezing winter temperatures as Russian forces target civilian infrastructure across the country.

3:30 a.m.:

3 a.m.:

2:30 a.m.: European Union countries will try on Tuesday to agree an EU-wide cap on gas prices, after months of talks that have so far failed to break the deadlock between governments at odds over whether the measure will ease Europe's energy crisis, according to Reuters.

Energy ministers from 27 member countries meet in Brussels to attempt to approve a price cap proposed by the European Commission last month - the latest EU response to an energy crunch caused by Russia slashing gas deliveries to Europe this year, leading to severe price spikes.

"Probably not one member state is happy with the proposal we are discussing," said one senior EU diplomat, who described the gas price cap as "one of the most complicated and difficult files you can imagine."

Countries including Belgium, Poland and Italy say a cap is needed to shield their economies from high energy prices, while Germany, the Netherlands and Austria fear it could divert much-needed gas cargoes away from Europe.

Other EU diplomats said they were not sure if there would be a deal on Tuesday. One option could be to escalate the talks to a meeting of EU country leaders on Thursday, and then try again to have ministers approve the price cap next week.

1:55 a.m.:

1:30 a.m.: Reuters reported that the United States has shipped the first part of its power equipment aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said on Monday, as Washington works to support the country’s energy infrastructure against intensifying attacks from Russia.

The first tranche was power equipment worth about $13 million, one of the officials said. Another source familiar with the matter said two more planeloads of equipment would leave from the United States this week.

1:05 a.m.: The world must “rethink nuclear safety,” Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said ahead of a conference held on Tuesday in Paris to discuss France’s ongoing support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

“It’s a very important issue that all the world should rethink what nuclear safety is now,” Galushchenko told Agence France-Presse in an interview on Monday. “That’s a question to all the countries of the world.”

12:30 a.m.: Agence France-Presse provided a preview of the international conference France hosts Tuesday, designed to raise material and money to repair Ukraine’s damaged infrastructure as well as underline Paris’ ongoing support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

The gathering of politicians, blue-chip companies and aid agencies comes after fresh comments about the war from French President Emmanuel Macron which put him at odds with many in Ukraine.

Macron called for Russia to be offered “security guarantees” at the end of the war during an interview on December 3, drawing criticism from some Ukrainian and eastern European politicians.

A call between the French leader and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday cleared the air and saw the men discuss Tuesday’s conference.

Macron “reminded President Zelenskyy that Ukraine can count on France’s support for as long as is required to fully re-establish its sovereignty and national integrity,” according to the French presidency.

Both men will address the first part of the conference, called “Solidarity with the Ukrainian People” — Macron in person and Zelenskyy via video link.

The event will focus on ways in which Ukraine’s Western allies can provide immediate support to keep the country’s civil infrastructure functioning amid incessant bombing from Russia.

With snow on the ground and Ukraine’s energy grid battered by Russian strikes, many are facing freezing temperatures without power or heating.

During a video conference with the G-7 club of wealthy nations on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs “about two billion cubic meters” of additional gas to get through the winter.

He also urged the G-7 to send more arms to Ukraine, including “modern tanks” as well as “rocket artillery and more long-range missiles.”

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.