Victorious news of 306th day of war: explosions at Engels airfield, captured Russian soldiers

Espreso prepared the top news of the day, which will steadily (this is our conscious evaluation judgment, - ed.) bring Ukraine closer to victory.

Explosions at the Engels airfield

On the night of December 26, explosions rocked Engels, Russia. As it became known later, blasts occurred at the airfield, and the area of ​​the fire was 120 square meters. In particular, three killed and four wounded were reported.

As noted by military expert Serhiy Zgurets, the powerful fire at the airfield is a sign that drone strikes were effective enough and are a continuation of our preemptive tactics.

“The Russian Ministry of Defense has admitted that Russian servicemen were killed there, air defense was operating, that they shot down Ukrainian drones and, apparently, no damage was done to the warplanes. But we understand that the Russians will not admit the losses associated with the strikes on the warplanes. Because this is the undermining of the Russian nuclear triad base,” Zgurets explained. 

The expert suggested that Russian air defense is not working well and the Russian nuclear triad is vulnerable if we can destroy Russian strategic bombers with conventional drones.

Another expert, Valerii Riabykh, is convinced that strikes on military airfields of the Russian Federation will make it more difficult for the Russians to attack Ukraine.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense called the explosions in Engels "the consequences of Russian aggression."

“Undoubtedly, these events are the consequences of Russian aggression. These are the consequences of what Russia is doing on our land. If the Russians thought that the war would not affect anyone in the deep rear of Russia or anywhere else, they were deeply mistaken. Therefore, as we see, such things are happening more and more often, and let’s hope that this will only benefit Ukraine,” Yurii Ihnat, the spokesman of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said. 

The Liquidation Operation

Soldiers of Ukraine's Armed Forces liquidated another batch of occupiers and captured a dozen Russian soldiers. It happened on December 25, on Christmas Day.

Servicemen of the 108th Battalion stormed the enemy positions. As a result of the battle, many enemy soldiers were killed and 10 were captured, the fighters report.

In addition, as reported by the General Staff, over the past day in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, the invading Russian forces lost up to 50 servicemen killed and up to 100 wounded. Five units of military equipment of various types were also destroyed.

During the day, the Ukrainian Defense Forces hit 4 of the invading Russian troops' control points and 6 military positions. 

Get out of the Security Council and the UN

Ukraine initiated the process of excluding Russia from the Security Council and the UN.  In particular, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized that Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union's seat in the UN Security Council. The MFA website has already published the Statement of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the illegitimacy of the Russian Federation's presence in the UN Security Council and the United Nations. 

As noted in the document, Ukrainian diplomats believe that, guided by the principle of equality of UN members, Russia should follow the same international legal path of acquiring membership in the Organization as other countries.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that the expulsion of Russia from the UN Security Council will not cause the annulment or revision of its resolutions. According to the Ukrainian side, Moscow illegally occupies a place in the organization, since its legitimacy as the successor of the USSR raises questions. Therefore, it must go through the international legal path of joining the UN, like other countries. In this regard, Ukraine initiates a comprehensive process aimed at excluding the aggressor country from the UN and the Security Council.

Sanctions against Russian security forces and employees of the IT sector

Ukraine is preparing sanctions against Russian security forces and representatives of the IT sector. As noted by the Ministry of Economy, the Interdepartmental Working Group recommended submitting to the National Security and Defense Council for consideration proposals for the adoption of sanctions against more than 1,300 representatives of Russia's law enforcement agencies: the FSB, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the judiciary.

It is also recommended to send proposals for sanctions against more than 500 legal entities and individuals in the IT sphere of the Russian Federation to the National Security and Defense Council. These are software or hardware manufacturers, companies and individuals associated with social media that the Putin regime uses for propaganda, etc.