Day: December 28, 2024

The opposition president of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, was invited to the inauguration of newly elected US President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, US Congressman Joe Wilson reports.

US Congressman praised Salome Zourabichvili’s courage and extended the invitation to Trump’s inauguration.

“I am in awe of her (Zourabichvili – ed.) courage in the face of the assault by Ivanishvili and his friends in the CCP (Chinese Communist Party – ed.)& Iranian regime,” Wilson wrote on X (Twitter).

US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration will take place on January 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

Formally, Salome Zourabichvili’s term will end on December 29, after the inauguration of Mikheil Kavelashvili, who was elected President of Georgia by members of the Georgian Dream party. Kavelashvili did not receive congratulations on his election from the US or European countries.

Zourabichvili refused to step down until new parliamentary elections are called in Georgia.

Situation in Georgia

At the end of October, parliamentary elections were held in Georgia. According to the Central Election Commission of Georgia, the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream party claimed victory. However, the opposition refused to recognize the election results.

The country’s authorities announced the suspension of Georgia’s European integration, which triggered a new wave of protests.

In addition, on December 14, Georgia elected former football player Mikheil Kavelashvili as President. For the first time, the President was not elected by the citizens but by an electoral college, the majority of which is held by the Georgian Dream party. Kavelashvili was the sole candidate.

On Friday, December 28, the United States imposed sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party, former prime minister, and billionaire.

On December 27, a total of 162 combat clashes were recorded on the front line. The highest number of attacks, over 50, occurred in the Pokrovsk direction, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“In the Pokrovsk direction, Ukrainian defenders stopped 52 enemy offensive actions near Myroliubivka, Promen, Vozdvyzhenska, Lysivka, Dachenka, Novy Trud, Shevchenko, Novoelyzavetivka, Novovasylivka, and Vovkove,” the report says.

Situation on other fronts

In the Kharkiv direction, near Vovchansk, two enemy assaults on Ukrainian positions were repelled.

In the Kupiansk direction, five attacks took place, with Ukrainian forces successfully defending positions near Petropavlivka and Lozova.

In the Lyman direction, Russian forces launched 20 attacks, supported by assault and bomber aviation. The enemy concentrated efforts around the settlements of Pershotravneve, Novoehorivka, Nadiya, Terny, Torske, Zarichne, Dibrova, and the Serebryanske forestry.

In the Siversk direction, the enemy attacked four times near Bilohirivka and Vyimka.

In the Kramatorsk direction, the enemy launched five attacks near Chasiv Yar, Bila Hora, and Stupochky.

On the Toretsk direction, Russian forces carried out 10 attacks near Toretsk, Shcherbynivka, and Diliivka, employing bomber aviation actively.

In the Kurakhove direction, Ukrainian forces repelled 18 attacks, with the enemy focusing on areas near Petropavlivka, Slovianka, Dachne, and Kurakhove.

In the Vremivka direction, with aviation support, the enemy made 17 assaults near Kostiantynopil, Rozlyv, Novyi Komar, and Novodarivka.

In the Hulyaipole direction, the enemy made one unsuccessful attempt to advance near Bilohiria.

In the Prydniprovskyi direction, Russian forces launched three attacks but suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat.

The operation in the Kursk region continues. Over the past day, the aggressor launched 23 airstrikes, dropping 27 KABs on Russia. Ukrainian defenders repelled 22 attacks by the occupying forces.

No signs of enemy offensive group formations have been detected in the Volyn and Polissya directions.

On the border with the Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the enemy is actively using artillery from the territory of the Russian Federation against Ukrainian settlements.

Russian losses

On December 27, Russian losses amounted to 1690 soldiers. Ukrainian forces also destroyed seven tanks, 19 armored combat vehicles, 29 artillery systems, 14 operational-tactical drones, and 66 units of military vehicles.

Additionally, Ukrainian missile forces and artillery struck a concentration area of enemy personnel, a command post, and an air defense system.

Ukrainian forces hit the Shahed drone storage facility in the Oryol region of Russia. There are losses among the military, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the ASTRA Telegram channel.

“On December 26, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with other components of the Defense Forces, struck a protected facility of the Russian Armed Forces in the Oryol region,” the General Staff said.

The fire destroyed a storage, maintenance, and repair warehouse for Shahed kamikaze drones – a number of concrete-protected structures.

“This combat operation has greatly reduced the enemy’s potential to conduct air raids with strike UAVs on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine,” the General Staff added.

Russian losses

Information about the damage to this warehouse has already leaked to Russian Telegram channels.

“The missiles hit a military facility of the Russian Defense Ministry between the village of Tsymbulova and the village of Rudnevo in the Bolkhov district,” ASTRA found out.

7 servicemen were injured and hospitalized in the central district hospital, and 2 more were killed.

According to ASTRA, the attack was allegedly carried out by at least three Storm Shadow missiles. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not specify the type of weapons used during the attack on the facility.

Attacks on the Oryol region

This is not the first time Ukraine attacked the Oryol region (Russia). For example, on the night of December 13-14, explosions rocked Oryol. Russians claimed an attempted attack on an oil depot.

On the night of December 22, unknown drones attacked the Oryol region. As a result of the attack, a fire broke out at an oil depot in the region. This enterprise is an important logistics facility for Russia.

The Russian military is using a new tactic of shelling the Ukrainian energy sector. Its purpose is to block certain regions from electricity supply.

As a result, the power supply situation is seriously deteriorating in the eastern and central regions. Currently, the situation is most difficult in the Dnipro and Kharkiv regions.

On November 28, then on December 13, and finally on December 25, the Russians attacked both generation and transmission facilities. In the first two attacks, transmission suffered more. This was reflected in the outage schedules. In the western regions, they were minimal or not applied at all, while in the rest of the territory, 2 lines were disconnected simultaneously.

Due to the inability to transmit electricity through damaged grids, its production was reduced at nuclear power plants.

During the shelling on December 25, the Russians focused on generation. There were destructions in seven regions – RBC-Ukraine wrote about them in detail. Several TPPs, CHPs, and hydroelectric power plants of the Dnipro cascade were damaged. NPP generation was expanded to increase capacity.

“Damage to coal generation is quite significant, and there is damage to hydro generation. They are not critical, but they will take some time to repair. But they could not simultaneously strike at high-voltage networks, and this gives us a certain power reserve, which is now being used,” Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, told RBC-Ukraine.

After the shelling on December 25, the system lost a large share of generation. Theoretically, it could be compensated by imports. But in practice, imports would not have helped anyway, as the transmission capabilities that were destroyed earlier have not yet been restored. As a result, Ukraine had to use uneven power cuts again.

The repair is being taken quickly enough. On December 25 and 27, there were fewer power outages. The situation is so complicated that restrictions had to be imposed on the day off, December 28.

According to Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, the Russians have changed their shelling tactics this year. Previously, the emphasis was on drone attacks, but now they are increasingly using rockets, with cluster munitions.

“This causes more damage and requires more time to restore, as it is necessary to carry out demining,” Halushchenko said on Ukrainian TV.

But despite the complexity of the situation, there is no reason to expect a total blackout. The Russians do not have enough resources, Kharchenko said.

According to him, the situation will be more difficult in the eastern regions.

“There is a lot of damaged generation there, and it is physically impossible to deliver the required amount of electricity there. Therefore, for some time Ukraine will live in slightly different schedules – it will be a bit more difficult in the eastern regions,” he said.

But the expert is particularly concerned about the strikes on the heating system. “In Dnipro and Kharkiv, the attacks were on thermal power plants, and I think this is more dangerous for the population than the lack of electricity,” the expert said.

Attack on Ukraine’s energy sector

On Christmas Day, December 25, the Russian troops launched a new massive attack on Ukraine’s energy sector. They fired 78 missiles of various types and 106 drones. Air defense forces destroyed 59 missiles and 54 drones, while 52 more drones were lost locally. But there were also hits.

After the massive attack, scheduled blackouts were introduced across Ukraine.

A thermal power plant worker was killed in the Dnipro region as a result of the shelling. Read more about the consequences of the shelling in the RBC-Ukraine report.