Ukraine updates: Russian ship 'destroyed' in Crimea — UK

Two men in Russia have been handed prison sentences over participation in anti-mobilization protests.

Artyom Kamardin was sentenced to seven years for reciting an anti-mobilization poem at a protest. Yegor Shtovba was given a five-and-a-half year term for attending the protest.

Kamardin's poem was entitled " Kill me, militia man!" He also shouted slogans against Russia's claimed annexation of territory in southern and eastern Ukraine.

Both Kamardin, who is 33, and Shtovba, who is 23, were convicted of "inciting hatred" and "calling activities threatening state security."

On Thursday, Kamardin recited a poem that referred to poetry as "gut-wrenching" and often disliked by "people accustomed to order" just before the ruling.

The eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which Russia illegally annexed, has a new governor. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Vadym Filashkin, who has been the region's deputy governor since February 2019, by decree on Thursday.

His predecessor Pavlo Kyrylenko was appointed head of the cartel office in Kyiv in September.

Russia lays claim to the Donetsk region, however, with a heavy military presence along most of the border with Russia.

Parts of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk have been under the control of Moscow-backed separatists since spring 2014.

In a further decree, Zelenskyy appointed Olexander Koval as the new governor of the western Ukrainian region of Rivne.

Budapest and Kyiv are working toward a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, according to Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

Yermak made the comments after a call with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

"We are working to organize a meeting between the two leaders in the near future," Yermak said.

"We also discussed Ukraine's progress on the European integration path," he said.

Hungary has been blocking €50 billion ($55 billion) in European Union aid for Kyiv over the next four years, while signaling willingness to allow the funding if it comes from outside the bloc's common budget.

Budapest hesitated to greenlight negotiations over Ukraine's potential EU accession but dropped its veto earlier this month.

Britain's Ministry of Defence says in its daily intelligence update that the Russian navy's large landing ship "Novocherkassk" "was completely destroyed following a Ukrainian strike" on the port of Feodosia in Crimea late in the night of December 25, 2023. 

Russia acknowledged the following day that the ship had been "damaged," but offered few details. Ukraine's air force said the ship was destroyed, and that they believed a secondary explosion on board the ship — most likely of munitions that were on board — explained the massive fireball they were sharing in unverified video footage from the strike. 

Pictures filed from the scene in Crimea on Russian news agencies like TASS conspicuously failed to show the relevant part of the port where the Novocherkassk was docked, making it impossible to ascertain the ship's fate. 

But satellite images from the US company Maxar Technologies, taken the following day, appear to show a large cloud of black smoke at the exact spot where the ship had been docked for several weeks, beneath which the ship appears to have sustained extensive damage.

"Open source evidence suggests it is highly likely the vessel was carrying explosive cargo when it was hit, causing a large secondary explosion," the defense ministry said in its daily intelligence update, adding that it was the third ship of its type that Russia had lost since the war began. 

The UK said Russia "likely planned" to use so-called LST (Landing Ship Tank) vessels "to launch significant amphibious assaults during the invasion" and noted it had doubled the number of such ships stationed in the Black Sea soon before the invasion. As the war has dragged on and amid minimal Russian progress, it said the vessels were now primarily being used to provide logistical support. 

"This is a significant role because it augments the vital and relatively fragile road and rail connection of the Crimea Bridge, which links Crimea to Russia," the ministry said.

Ukraine's military says a Panama-flagged bulk carrier that was headed to a Danube river port to load grain hit a mine in the Black Sea. 

It's the latest incident of a civilian vessel hitting an explosive in the Black Sea, as Kyiv claims Russia is stepping up its attacks on shipping and port infrastructure. 

"A Panama-flagged civilian vessel was blown up on an enemy sea mine in the Black Sea ... The vessel lost its course and control, and a fire broke out on the upper deck," the southern military command said on Telegram. 

It said that one person was hospitalized and another received medical treatment on board. Tugs were sent to the site to help the vessel. 

The military did not say when the alleged incident took place. 

Russia quit an agreement in mid-July that had allowed the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea, claiming that guarantees for its shipments were not being upheld. 

Kyiv has since established an alternative route hugging the western shores of the Black Sea and loading at ports on the River Danube. It says that Russian forces have been trying to mine and sabotage this new route.

Russia's Roscosmos and US space agency NASA have agreed to keep working together to fly crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2025, Roscosmos said on Thursday.

The space sector has been a rare remaining area of cooperation between Russia and the US as ties deteriorate amid the war in Ukraine. 

It includes a practice called "cross-flights," sending crews of different nationalities to the ISS on the same spacecraft, typically a Russian Soyuz craft, although in recent years US commercial company SpaceX has also begun transporting people to the orbiting laboratory.

"An agreement was reached to continue cross-flights until 2025 inclusive," Roscosmos said in a press release. It said the decision was taken "to maintain the reliability of the ISS as a whole." 

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday thanked "Joe Biden, Congress, and the American people" for the latest $250 million (roughly €225 million) military aid package announced late on Wednesday. 

"Additional air defense missiles and components, anti-tank weapons, ammunition, mine clearing, and other equipment will cover Ukraine's most pressing needs," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. 

He said such assistance from the more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine with military aid "is critical to countering terror and aggression not only in Ukraine but around the world." 

The tranche of aid approved late Wednesday is the last for the year, and as the White House appeals to Congress to approve more funds urgently, warning that failure to do so will lead to available resources running out by the end of the year. 

Republicans, who hold the balance of power in the House of Representatives, are trying to tie any future assistance for Ukraine to promises of tightened security along the US border with Mexico. Congress has not approved the allocation of any new funds for Ukraine since Republicans took a majority in the House in January 2023, but the previously agreed plans were completed as scheduled.

"To defend freedom and security not only in Ukraine and Europe but also in the United States, we must continue to respond to ongoing Russian aggression in the most forceful and resolute manner possible," Zelenskyy said. 

msh/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)