December 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

France and Poland have signed a deal for the sale of two French observation satellites to Poland, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu tweeted on Tuesday.

"This major contract demonstrates Poland's trust in our technology and industry," Lecornu tweeted after meeting with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw.

The French minister went on to say this deal shows the “deep ties that unite France and Poland in the field of defense,” while emphasizing this it would create “500 jobs in France for five years.  

Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak reiterated his French counterpart’s sentiment saying it was “an important day for the Polish Army.”

“This investment in state-of-the-art technology is a significant improvement in the capabilities of the Polish Armed Forces in the key area of reconnaissance data acquisition,” Błaszczak tweeted. 

Tuesday’s announcement comes six weeks after the country was hit by a "Russian-made" missile, causing an explosion outside the rural eastern Polish village of Przewodow, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) west of the Ukrainian border, killing two farmers. 

At the time of the event, Poland’s ambassador to the United Nations Krzysztof Szczerski said the incident “teaches us how close we actually live the potential escalation in the spillover of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine of far-reaching consequences that we all can perceive.”

The number of outages across Ukraine is decreasing as more parts of the electric grid are restored and consumption is reduced due to favorable weather conditions, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday.

In the event of no Russian shelling, the New Year holiday will pass without emergency shutdowns, Shmyhal said during a cabinet meeting in Kyiv, according to a government statement. 

More consumers are seeing power restored at least partially as the infrastructure is being restored, the prime minister said. 

“A well-developed algorithm for the priority of consumers' power supply is in place. First  — the critical infrastructure is being reconnected, then goes the military-industrial complex, thirdly — important production facilities and the fourth turn is for the residential sector,” Shmyhal said.

Ukraine also believes Russia is preparing to continue attacks on the country’s energy system, according to Shmyhal who emphasized that his country is “in daily state of readiness for new massive shelling. It can happen at any time: today, tomorrow or even on New Year's Eve. The enemy seeks not only to disable another substation or power line. He primarily aims to sow fear and panic. But he will not succeed. We believe in ourselves, in our army, in our power engineers, in our partners.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Tuesday banning oil supplies to countries that have introduced price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products, according to the decree published on the Kremlin’s website.  

The ban on oil supplies under the price ceiling comes into effect on Feb. 1, 2023 and is valid until July 1, 2023. The date of the ban on the supply of petroleum products will be determined by the government, according to the decree. 

Moreover, the head of state can issue a special permit for the supply of Russian oil and oil products prohibited by the document.

On Dec. 5, Western oil sanctions came into force after the European Union and Australia agreed this month to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil. 

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told the Russian state news agency TASS on Monday that he expects Russian gas exports and gas output to drop in 2022. 

Novak added that the production and export of liquefied natural gas would rise by more than 8.7%.

In the same interview, Novak also said Russia plans to expand port facilities to supply energy resources by sea in three years.

When summing up the results of 2021, Novak said that Russian gas exports had risen by 10% to 763 billion cubic meters and exports had grown by 3% to 250 billion cubic meters.

The deputy prime minister added that Russian exports were being redirected to the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and Latin America.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the West must show restraint in nuclear questions, in an interview with TASS news agency on Tuesday. 

"We continue to call on the West to exercise maximum restraint in this extremely sensitive area. In order to minimize nuclear risks, it is important in practice to remain committed to the postulate of the inadmissibility of nuclear war, confirmed by the countries of the nuclear ‘five’ in a joint statement dated January 3, 2022,” he told TASS. 

"In particular, it emphasizes that Russia stands for the formation of a renewed, more stable architecture of international security based on ensuring predictability and global strategic stability, as well as observing the principles of equality, indivisible security and mutual consideration of the interests of the parties," Lavrov concluded.

In the same interview, Lavrov said significant ideas from Washington regarding full-fledged diplomatic contacts between Russia and the US have not been received. 

"Now it is difficult to say something about the implementation of full-fledged bilateral contacts through the foreign ministries," he said. 

"There were no significant ideas from the Americans on this issue," Lavrov told TASS. 

“We, at various levels, including the highest, have repeatedly stressed that we are not shying away from a constructive dialogue,” the minister said.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin floated the possibility that Russia may formally change its military doctrine of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, days after he warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war.

The power situation across Ukraine remains "really difficult" because of the persistent risk of Russian shelling, Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said, warning that New Year's Eve could see "maximum damage to the energy system."

Speaking on Ukrainian television on Tuesday, Halushchenko said Ukraine was trying to use the time between Russian attacks to reduce the energy deficit by increasing electricity production and also to increase the capacity to transmit electricity.

During the holidays the risk of shelling could be higher, Halushchenko added. 

"There is a feeling that [Russians] have not refused to continue shelling our energy system. They are tied to certain dates. I think that the New Year is one of such dates when they will try to cause maximum damage to the energy system," he said. 

"The situation is such that it is definitely difficult to plan anything, because we do not know the volume of possible future shelling and the amount of damage it will cause to the power system."

Ukraine's state energy company Ukrenergo said Tuesday that the power deficit in the system had "slightly decreased due to the increase in the production volumes of power plants" but that "the available capacity in the system is still not enough to meet all the needs of consumers in the country" because the level of power consumption had increased at the same time.

"This is due to the gradual return to operation of power grids that were damaged during massive attacks, as well as the restoration of energy infrastructure in the de-occupied territories," Ukrenergo said in a statement. 

The number of consumers whose electricity supply has been restored at least partially has increased and the volume of industrial consumption is also growing, Ukrenergo said. 

During his nightly address on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 9 million people remained cut off from power in different regions of Ukraine.

Russia is expending huge amounts of resources as it tries to defend the eastern Ukrainian town of Kreminna, a Ukrainian official said. The town has been under Russian occupation since the spring and Russia keeps bringing in more troops and equipment to bolster its forces there, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said Tuesday.

Here's what else is happening today:

The city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region is holding "courageously" despite Russian forces' concentrated efforts to advance, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Tuesday.

"Bakhmut is really our eastern fortress now. Indeed, the enemy has concentrated most of its efforts, military equipment and weapons there," Maliar said in an interview with Ukrainian television, adding:

"But you can see how courageously Bakhmut is holding, how much our soldiers inflict losses on the enemy and the enemy simply cannot advance further," she said. "There was a slight advance, but the enemy was pushed out," she added. 

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Tuesday that in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, Russian forces had inflicted damage through firing on more than 25 settlements, including Bilohorivka, Bakhmut, Klishchiivka, Bila Hora, Kurdiumivka, Vodiane, Pervomaiske, Maryinka and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on Monday evening that the situation on the front lines of Bakhmut and other areas in the eastern Donbas region was “difficult, painful.”

The Ukrainian city of Kreminna, northwest of Lysychansk, continues to experience heavy fighting as the Russian military keeps renewing its forces there, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said Tuesday.

"The Russian occupation troops managed to build a very powerful defense in a month, even a little more. They are bringing there a huge amount of reserves and equipment. They are constantly renewing their forces," Haidai said.  

He said the Russian military had suffered a large number of casualties "but they still bring new [personnel], because they understand that if they lose Kreminna, in principle, the entire line of defense will crumble."  

CNN has not been able to verify the number of casualties on the Russian side. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on Monday evening that the situation on the frontlines in Bakhmut, Kreminna and other areas in the eastern Donbas region is “difficult, painful” as Russian forces use all resources available to them "to squeeze out at least some progress."

Why Kreminna matters: The town in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region has been occupied since the spring.

Kreminna lies on a key north-south road from Svatove, which Russian troops had been using to resupply and which became even more important to them after Ukrainian troops took over Kupyansk, a resupply hub to the northwest of Kreminna and Svatove. Losing Kreminna would limit Russia's ability to resupply its troops in the key city of Severodonetsk.

Haidai said the road remained under Ukraine's fire control, which meant there was "no safe and calm way for the occupiers to bring in the equipment or ammunition towards Kreminna using this road," he said.

Ukrainian forces appeared to be on the verge of retaking Kreminna a few weeks ago, but Ukrainian officials said the approaches to the city were difficult because of extensive mining.

"Every meter is difficult, because everything there is mined and they are constantly shelling with large caliber," Haidai said, saying the situation in Kreminna was "radically different from Bakhmut."

"[Russian troops] are trying to shell more powerfully, they have occupied all the forests, they have completely mined everything and no one knows the map of minefields. Therefore, it is very difficult to advance," Haidai said.  

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, which follows the conflict closely, said information from Russian military bloggers suggests that "Russian forces are pulling troops from various points throughout the theater to fill holes in the Svatove-Kreminna line and compensate for the continued degradation of conventional units."