Events on the front line
In the vicinity of Bakhmut and Soledar , fighting continues for control over settlements. South of Bakhmut, Wagner PMCs are again trying to advance from Ozaryanovka and Kurdyumovka. Also fierce battles in the Kleshchievka area. According to War Gonzo, Wagner's mercenaries have broken through the defenses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Bakhmut Experienced and are trying to enter the city from the eastern outskirts. South of Soledar, the PMC is attacking in the direction of Krasnaya Gora. Progress there is complicated by the presence of numerous underground passages used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine for attacks and sabotage in the rear.
In the Zaporizhzhya direction, the RF Armed Forces continue to deliver artillery strikes on Plavni, Kamensky, Stepnoy, Maly Shcherbak, Novoandreevka, Orekhovo, Novodanilovka, Charovnoye, Gulyaipolsky, Zheleznodorzhny, Gulyaipol, Zeleny Guy and Olgovsky.
In the Donetsk direction, Russian troops are attacking in the city of Marinka, as well as in the Avdiivka area. According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russia also launched 3 missile strikes on civilian targets in the city of Konstantinovka.
In the Lugansk direction, Russian troops are again advancing near Belogorovka. To the north they attack in the area of Ploshchanka and in the direction of Makiivka. The attack of the RF Armed Forces on Stelmahovka is carried out with the support of artillery.
Attack on Tokmok
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the attack on the positions of the Russian military in the city of Tokmak in the Zaporozhye region and reported that 80 Russian soldiers were killed and wounded in total. This is stated in the summary of the department.
Ukrainian media report with reference to Telegram channels that after the shelling, the place of impact in Tokmak was immediately cordoned off, firefighters and rescuers arrived there. At the same time, local residents allegedly saw how black packages with the bodies of the dead were loaded onto army vehicles.
Vladimir Rogov, a representative of the occupying "authorities" of Zaporozhye, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had attacked the Tokmak hospital. The same information was disseminated by the Russian state agencies TASS and RIA Novosti. A hospital employee told TASS that "none of the patients or staff were injured" as a result of the attack. According to her, one of the medical buildings was destroyed, the windows in the neighboring building with the maternity and pediatric departments, where the children were at the moment of impact, were shattered by the blast.
RIA Novosti wrote that fragments of a HIMARS rocket were found at the site.
The shelling of Vasilyevka
Russian media and Telegram channels reported on a missile strike inflicted on December 4 by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Vasilyevka in the Zaporozhye region.
According to the chairman of the movement “We are together with Russia”, Vladimir Rogov, the blow fell on the military commandant’s office, but later Rogov began to assert that the shell hit a residential building.
Rogov also said that the fire was fired from HIMARS, two people were killed, the number of wounded is being specified. At the same time, the Telegram channel of the RT propaganda channel writes that the hotel was hit.
Ukraine plans a large-scale counteroffensive
In the spring, Ukraine plans to conduct a large-scale counter-offensive, Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, said in an interview with ABC. According to him, the fighting in March will be "the hottest", and in the spring the Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to conduct a "serious offensive." “This will happen throughout Ukraine, from Crimea to Donbass,” Budanov said. He stressed that the goal of Kyiv is to reach the borders of 1991, that is, the return of all territories occupied by Russia and Crimea.
The dead mobilized in Makeevka
The number of servicemen who died during the strike on Makeevka has increased to 89. This was stated by Lieutenant-General Sergei Sevryukov, First Deputy Head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the RF Armed Forces. Currently, according to him, a commission is working to investigate the circumstances of the incident in Makeyevka. The Ministry of Defense clarified that among the dead was the deputy commander of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Bachurin.
The reason for the attack, he said, was the massive use of mobile phones by personnel. “This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel for a missile strike,” Sevryukov said. The Russian Defense Ministry also claims that the HIMARS MLRS launcher, from which fire was fired at Makiivka, was destroyed by return fire.
As the Moscow calling Telegram channel notes , if a deputy regiment commander died in Makiivka, then at least a battalion of mobilized people was stationed there. Which, taking into account the state of the building after the impact, indicates about 300 dead.
Arms deliveries
France hands over AMX-10RC tanks to Ukraine. This information was confirmed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. He also said that during a telephone conversation, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to provide the Ukrainian military with Bastion armored personnel carriers.
"Thank you friend! Your leadership is accelerating our victory,” Zelensky wrote to Macron on Twitter.
When the Armed Forces of Ukraine can receive this equipment and in what quantity has not yet been specified. The AMX-10RC is classified as a "wheeled tank" and is equipped with a 105mm cannon and a machine gun.
In the meantime, the United States intends to provide Kyiv with new military assistance in the coming days, including additional installations of HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). This was stated by White House spokesman John Kirby.
“I think we should expect such hostilities to continue for quite a long time, so we continue to provide security assistance to Ukraine,” Mr. Kirby said at an online briefing (quoted by TASS ). The US will be doing this again in the coming days and weeks, he said, and new aid could well include more HIMARS in the future.
In parallel with this, the Norwegian Ministry of Defense announced that 10 thousand 155-mm shells were sent to Ukraine, which were delivered by Polish transport workers.
Shard of Rogozin
The former head of Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, who was wounded in the Donbass, sent a fragment extracted from his body to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France, Pierre Levy. Rogozin asked President Emmanuel Macron to hand over a fragment from a projectile, fired, according to him, by the French Caesar installation, to President Emmanuel Macron, RIA Novosti reports , which publishes a photo of the fragment and a cover letter.
Rogozin was wounded during the shelling of a hotel in Donetsk. Baza wrote that Rogozin had a shrapnel wound to his buttocks and left thigh. Later it was reported that he was wounded above the right shoulder blade near the spine. Rogozin was taken to a hospital in the Moscow region and operated on.
On October 24, Rogozin confirmed that he was on the front line in the Zaporozhye region. He also wrote that he wanted "to make the dream of Slavyansk come true." In 2014, Rogozin wrote in his social networks about his readiness to exchange all his positions “for the happiness of being now in the same trench with the defenders of Slavyansk.”
Read also The Insider's summary of January 3: “ Russia will not be able to take Bakhmut, the insulation was passed off as mattresses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense “destroyed” too many HIMARS. What's going on at the front ."