Air raid alarm goes off in Kyiv. Torture chambers for children were discovered in Kharkiv and Kherson. The news ticker on the Ukraine war.
- Torture Chambers Discovered: Children are said to have been tortured in Kharkiv and Cherson
- Explosions in Kyiv: Russia flies drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital.
- Editor’s note: Read the latest developments in Ukraine conflict in our news ticker. The information processed here Ukraine war come partly from the warring parties from Russia and the Ukraine. They can therefore not be independently checked in part.
+++ 6.35 p.m.: The city of Kherson in the region of the same name was hit by Russian missiles on Wednesday (see update from 2:20 p.m). An 8-year-old boy was killed, said Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian troops in Kherson, on Facebook. It was not possible to save him.
“The boy was eight years old,” Pletenchuk wrote. He died from injuries sustained in a mine explosion. “The doctors tried to revive him for an hour.” As a result of the attack in Kherson, two other people were found dead.
News regarding the Ukraine war: 20 percent of the Ukrainian population fled
+++ 4:22 p.m.: 20 percent of Ukrainians have left their country since the war began in February – almost eight million people. This was announced by Dmytro Lubinets, Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament on December 14. According to this, 13 million people live in areas where heavy fighting is raging or which are occupied by Russia.
Ukraine war: torture chambers for children new “low point”
+++ 3:52 p.m.: Alleged torture chambers for children have been discovered in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions. Dmytro Lubinets, human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, reported on December 14, according to the website pravda. Children who resisted the Russian military were said to have been tortured in the rooms.
“We have documented the torture of children for the first time,” said Lubinets. “I thought that following Bucha and Irpin, it would not be possible to hit rock bottom once more.” Lubinets claims to have seen two torture chambers in Balaklia in the Kharkiv region. The children are said to have been held in a separate cell. According to Lubinets, local people called them the “children’s cell”.
Lubinets further explained that the occupiers only gave the children water every other day, and there was almost nothing to eat. Psychological pressure was also put on the children. They were told that their parents had left them and would never come back. One of the inmates is said to have been a 14-year-old boy who took photos of Russian equipment. “These are children who, according to the occupiers, resisted,” added Lubinets.
News regarding the Ukraine war: Russia shoots more cities with rockets
+++ 2.20 p.m.: Rocket attacks are once more reported from Cherson during the Ukraine war. The Russian armed forces are said to have hit a building of the regional administration. At least two floors were destroyed. This is reported by the Kyiv Independent news portal, citing a report from the local authorities. A total of six people are said to have been injured.
+++ 12.50 p.m.: In another prisoner swap with Russia, 64 Ukrainian soldiers have been released. “We also managed to free a US citizen who was helping our people,” head of the presidential office in Kyiv Andriy Yermak wrote in the Telegram news service on Wednesday. According to the prisoner coordination staff, the American was arrested in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson for “participating in pro-Ukrainian meetings”. The soldiers fought in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Among them are officers and simple soldiers.
The Russian side had reported regarding the exchange of an orthodox priest and the transfer of the bodies of two pilots of the mercenary troop “Wagner” who were killed near Bakhmut. It was initially unclear whether it was the same exchange.
News regarding the Ukraine war: Russian army attacks Donetsk with S-300 missiles
+++ 11.55 a.m.: The Russian army shelled the center and north of Donetsk region in the night and in the morning. Kurakhove was attacked with S-300 missiles, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, posted on Telegram. This is reported by the news portal UKrinform.
“There are no casualties towards Donetsk, but there is destruction. After midnight, the Russians attacked Kurakhove with S-300 and shelled Kurakhivka – two houses and a company building were damaged. Maryinka, Krasnohorivka, Novomykhailivka and Heorhiivka were under artillery fire. A house was hit in Krasnohorivka,” Kyrylenko wrote.
+++ 10.50 a.m.: The Russian drone strikes on Kyiv and the region around the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday (December 14) did not damage any power plants, according to the national electricity grid operator Ukrenergo. “Thanks to the excellent work of the air defense forces, the power infrastructure facilities [am Mittwoch] not damaged – all 13 drones were shot down,” Ukrenergo said via news app Telegram.
News regarding the Ukraine war: Russian war strategy is clearly criticized internally
+++ 9.30 a.m.: According to British intelligence services, disagreements regarding the nature of the Russian warfare in Ukraine extend to the top level of the military. Recent comments by ex-Russian intelligence officer and former separatist leader Igor Girkin are a sign of the tense debate, the British Defense Ministry’s daily briefing said on Wednesday (December 14).
Girkin, who is held responsible, among other things, for the downing of a passenger plane over the Donbass, says he voluntarily spent two months in a battalion at the front in Ukraine, the British said. After that, he acknowledged a “crisis in strategic planning” in Moscow. He also mocked the Kremlin’s current focus on building defenses and questioned their usefulness.
News on the Ukraine war: Ukrainian foreign minister expects Russian offensive
+++ 9.05 a.m In his own words, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba expects a new major Russian offensive in January or February. “I think that Russia will probably have restored its ability for a major offensive by the end of January or the beginning of February – they will try and we will try to prevent it,” he told press officials on Tuesday evening (December 13). in Kiew. Ukraine will do everything to thwart these plans of the Russian military.
+++ 8.05 a.m.: In the attack on the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian military shot down 11 Russian Shahed drones over Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast. Debris from the drones is said to have damaged two administrative buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district, according to reports from the news portal Kyiv Independent with reference to the military administration of the city of Kyiv. The air alert in the region is still active.
Ukraine war news: Explosions following Russian drone strikes in Kyiv
First report from Wednesday, December 14, 2022, 6:55 a.m.: Kyiv – In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv there were several explosions on Wednesday morning (December 14). This was confirmed by the mayor Vitali Klitschko in intelligence Telegram, without giving details. According to Ukrainian media reports, Russia’s armed forces are said to have flown drone attacks on the three-million metropolis and its surroundings.
The authorities said the air defense was deployed. There were said to be air alerts in the capital, the surrounding area and in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia. So far, nothing is known regarding possible damage and casualties.
News regarding the Ukraine war: Selenskyj wants to rebuild the power grid
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Selenskyj has meanwhile opted for the case of a Emergency winter aid initiated at conference in Paris thanks for his country. Among other things, this might be used to rebuild the badly damaged power grid, he said on Tuesday evening (December 13).
However, the aid should not only benefit the repair of the badly damaged electricity and heat supply, but also the water supply, the transport and health care system and the supply of food. The Russian military recently targeted Ukraine’s entire energy infrastructure in order to wear down the population in winter and to put pressure on the country’s leadership.
News regarding the Ukraine war: USA wants to deliver air defense systems to Kyiv
Die USA are considering the delivery of Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv. Like the transmitter CNN citing unnamed government sources, the plans might be made official as early as this week. The of Ukraine attacked by Russia keeps pushing for better anti-aircraft defenses. (editorial with agencies)
