29.12.2022, Moscow.
We publish a summary of events concerning the situation around Ukraine as of 7 a.m., December 29.
Political situation
Lavrov said that there were hundreds of US servicemen in Ukraine. “There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of US servicemen in Ukraine, they were there even before the coup d’etat,” the minister pointed out. “CIA employees occupied at least one floor in the Security Service of Ukraine.” According to Lavrov, the US military attaché in Kiev now has a significant number of employees.
The Turkish defence minister and the Chief of the National Intelligence Organization arrived in Moscow for talks.
The president of the Kalashnikov Concern Alan Lushnikov said that the company plans to seriously increase the production of weapons. In particular, the concern plans to develop new tactical drones, which are now extremely important in the air defense area.
The Kazakh authorities announced the growth in the number of high-class IT specialists in the country after the announcement of mobilization in the Russian Federation.
In Turkey, Russian citizens are being denied a residence permit on a mass scale. On December 26, on the social networks, there were reports that no residence permit was granted to Russian citizens in Izmir. The alleged reason was an “urgent order” from Ankara, but there were no official comments from the government.
Ukraine
Zelensky made a speech at the Ukrainian Rada:
Ukraine has become one of the leaders of the free world. For many people, it is a pride to have friends among Ukrainians.
Ukraine is on its way to the victory that all generations of Ukrainians dreamed of. Everything Ukraine did not achieve before, it will have.
We will get through this winter, Russian “chess” blows will not help.
More than 1.2 trillion hrivnyas have been allocated for defence in 2022.
It is time for negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the EU, Vladimir Zelenskyy said during a speech in the Ukrainian Parliament. “Ukraine has proved that no association in Europe would be strong without our country,” the president said.
Zelensky met French Defence Minister Lecornu, who arrived in Kiev.
The Ukrainian mayor appealed to the Ukrainian Security Service over the appearance of Father Frost and Snow Maiden at a children’s matinee because he considered them “Soviet propaganda.”
Western countries and their supporters
The UK Ministry of Defence has said that it will hand over Westland WS-61 “Sea King” helicopters, which are a British modification of the US Sikorsky SH-3 “Sea King” helicopter with the same name, to the Ukrainian army. The British defence ministry also noted that 10 Ukrainian crews had been trained to pilot this machine.
France may provide Ukraine with Mistral SAMs for protection against drones. French Defence Minister Lecornu said this after his visit to Kiev. According to him, the systems can be supplied through a special fund of 200 million euros set up by France.
This fund allows the weapons to be obtained directly from French manufacturers. According to the minister, France will also help with the maintenance of the already supplied weapons.
