Russia has launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine. Explosions were heard in Odessa, Lviv, Kharkiv and Cherkassy. Ukraine requests meeting with donors due to budget problems. Zelensky had a phone call with the Pope and thanked the religious leader for supporting him.
Important on December 29 at 5:46:
– Russia staged a large-scale missile and drone attack on Ukraine;
– Ukraine requests meeting with donors due to budget problems;
– Zelenskyj had a phone call with the Pope and thanked the religious leader for his support.
Russia has launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine
On Friday night, Russia carried out another drone attack on Ukraine. Early Friday morning there were also reports that the missile attack had begun.
This time the drone attack started from two directions at once, because drones launched by Russia entered Ukraine’s airspace in both the south and north-east of the country. In most regions of Ukraine the air raid warning worked during the night.
Around midnight, Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne reported that a fire broke out in an Odessa apartment building following a drone attack. According to Odessa authorities, the fire was caused by falling debris from the downed Shahed-136 drone.
A considerable number of drones continued to move towards western Ukraine. At 4:50 there was a report of explosions in Lviv. According to mayor Andri Sadovõi, two drone strikes were recorded. It is not yet known which objects were hit by the drones and whether there were any casualties as a result of the explosions.
Shortly before five o’clock, the Ukrainian Air Force announced the start of a Russian missile attack. A missile threat has been declared in almost all of Ukraine. There are already reports of explosions in Kharkiv and Cherkassy.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terehhov announced at 5.18am that there had been at least six explosions in the city.
At 5:35 it was announced that the missile threat had ceased in all regions of Ukraine, except the Kharkiv region.
Ukraine requests meeting with donors due to budget problems
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denõss Shmyhal has raised the alarm over state finances and called for an urgent meeting with international donors, as the country faces an exceptionally high level of uncertainty regarding the budget at the beginning of the year, he the UNIAN news agency reported. Bloomberg channel on Friday.
In a letter to the key coordination group overseeing the funding, the prime minister said the money will be needed next month and should be allocated to the primary needs of the Ukrainian budget.
The message supports Ukraine’s appeals to the international community as more than $110 billion in financial aid has stalled due to internal political conflicts in the United States and the European Union.
“To maintain macroeconomic stability, it is important to receive sufficient, timely and predictable external financing starting from January 2024,” Šmõhal said in a letter to the Inter-Agency Donor Coordination Group this month.
The prime minister added that the group, created by G7 leaders in December 2022 to coordinate international funding, should focus more on immediate budgetary needs, which means keeping the government running, on the salaries and pensions of teachers and public employees, rather than on long-term challenges.
“It is hardly possible to discuss future reconstruction and reconstruction projects when we are struggling to meet survival priorities,” the Prime Minister said in the letter.
According to the head of government, the donors are expected to meet in January ahead of a meeting scheduled for next month.
“We cannot wait until March to fund our social needs,” the Prime Minister stressed.
Shmyhal also called on donors to initiate coordination activities to allocate frozen Russian assets to the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Zelensky had a phone call with the Pope and thanked the religious leader for his support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Pope Francis discussed work on the implementation of the Ukrainian peace formula during a phone call on Thursday, UNIAN news agency reported.
The head of state spoke about this in his evening speech to the Ukrainians.
“I just spoke with Pope Francis. I thanked him for his beautiful Christmas greetings to Ukraine and the Ukrainians. For his wishes for peace – a just world for all of us. We discussed our joint work on the peace formula , which is already in the process of more than 80 countries at the level of their representatives. There will be more,” the president said.
Zelensky added that he was grateful to the Vatican for supporting Ukraine’s work for peace.
In his Christmas message, Pope Francis called for peace in Ukraine, where Christmas was officially celebrated for the first time on December 25.
“We confirm our spiritual and human closeness to the Ukrainian people so that they can feel the reality of God’s love through the support of all of us,” the Pope said.
“We are close to our brothers and sisters who suffer in the war. Our thoughts go to the Palestinians, Israel and Ukraine”, said the religious leader also in the Christmas Eve prayer.
UNIAN pointed out that Francis announced in late April that the Vatican was preparing a special peacekeeping mission to help end the war in Ukraine. On May 18, the Italian publication Il Sismografo reported that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to receive special envoys from the Vatican.
The Vatican’s special envoy visited Kiev on a peacekeeping mission in June. The ambassador subsequently visited Moscow, where he met Patriarch Kirill, Putin’s advisor and head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The ambassador announced after his visit to Moscow that there is no peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, the cardinal has been involved in efforts to bring home Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia.
In September it became known that the Vatican’s peace envoy to Ukraine had traveled to China. Before the trip, Vatican diplomats held consultations with the United States, NATO and Italy.
2023-12-29 03:43:00
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