Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 12-02-2024

Zelensky urges the German chancellor for continued support, stressing the need for more weapons and diplomacy to ensure a ‘just peace’ amid fears of a forced deal under Trump’s upcoming leadership.

Ukraine needs more weapons and stronger diplomatic backing to reach a “just peace” with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky argued Monday as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Kyiv.

Attempting to cast himself as a mediator, Scholz came to Ukraine's capital a few weeks after becoming the first major ally of the war-torn country to speak to Russian leader Vladimir Putin in more than a year.

Zelensky said that his country is in a “complicated period” of the war, but “there will be no capitulation from the side of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined his vision for ending the war with Russia in an exclusive interview with Kyodo News on Sunday, emphasizing diplomacy to reclaim occupied territories once Kyiv secures NATO membership.

With Russian forces making gains in eastern Ukraine, he acknowledged the challenges his military faces. “Our army lacks the strength to do that. That is true,” he said, referring to the difficulty of retaking all Russian-occupied areas, including Crimea. “We do have to find diplomatic solutions.”

Military analysts say the rise in desertions is down to Ukraine’s inability to rotate troops and provide adequate rest, leading to exhaustion, mental health struggles, and mounting casualties.

More Ukrainian soldiers deserted in the first 10 months of 2024 than in the previous two years combined, with prosecutors opening 60,000 cases against troops for abandoning their positions - according to a report by the Financial Times (FT). If convicted personnel face up to 12 years in prison.

A notable and worrying incident occurred in late October when it was rep[orted that hundreds troops from the 123 Infantry Brigade abandoned their positions in Vuhledar, in the Donetsk region, and returned to Mykolayiv.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

U.S. President Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son Hunter on Sunday night after repeatedly insisting he would not do so, using the power of his office to wave aside years of legal troubles, including a federal conviction for illegally buying a gun and for tax evasion. In a statement issued by the White House, Mr. Biden said he had decided to issue the executive grant of clemency for his son “for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024.” He said he made the decision because the charges against Hunter were politically motivated and designed to hurt him politically. “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Mr. Biden said in the statement. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong.” - NYT

President-elect Donald Trump said he would require countries that are part of BRICS — a China- and Russia-backed group of emerging economies — to commit to not creating new currency or face 100% tariffs during his administration. “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER. We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday afternoon. BRICS had been made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa since 2011. Earlier this year, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt formally joined — the first expansion in over a decade. Thirty-four countries have submitted an expression of interest in joining the bloc of major emerging economies, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said in February. The leader of one member country, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in 2023 proposed creating a common currency in South America to reduce reliance on the US dollar - CNN

Ukraine’s former foreign minister gave his assessment of how the Trump presidency could affect the course of the war in Ukraine in interviews with Western media.

In an interview with Politico on Wednesday and the Financial Times on Friday, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s former foreign minister who resigned in September after four pretty successful years in the post gave his assessment of how the war in Ukraine was going and what impact the Donald Trump presidency would have.

In his view “Both Zelensky and Putin will have the same strategy.”

Russia flees Damascus, abandoning equipment while a special forces commander is heading to Moscow to explain the failures in Syria.

In the Syrian capital of Damascus, armed clashes have erupted between rebels and government forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, with the situation for Russians in Syria deteriorating rapidly.

As a result, Russian military personnel and diplomats have begun urgently evacuating the capital, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on Monday, Dec. 2.

As the US president-elect confronts the seemingly insoluble problem of Russia’s continued assault on Ukraine, he may be compelled to cut the Gordian knot in his own slapdash manner.

Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have a new buzz phrase on Ukraine’s war with Russia: they say they will come up with a “responsible peace deal.”

But as they take office, America’s soon-to-be rulers might uncover a situation better described by a more ancient term: a Gordian knot.

Scholz seeks to understand Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s perspective on the situation.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Kyiv to assess Ukraine's position on the ongoing war and potential peace negotiations, Bild reported on Monday, Dec. 2, as Scholz made his first in over two years visit to the Ukrainian capital.  

In a confidential meeting, Scholz seeks to understand Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s perspective on the situation and the peace terms Ukrainian society might accept.

Ukrainian military sources claim that whenever Moscow uses strategic bombers to launch missile strikes against them several missiles fail and end up falling on Russian territory.

During the Nov. 28 missile strike against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure several malfunctioning missiles crashed on Russian territory soon after launch an event, that according to the Ukrainian milblogger Colonel GSH happens almost every time.

The flight profile of Russian strategic bombers preparing to launch missile attacks against Ukraine seems illogical. Why do aircraft from the Engels military airfield, for instance, which is only 560 kilometers (350 miles) from the Ukrainian border and only 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from the capital of Kyiv, fly almost 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) south to the Caspian Sea before launching their weapons the 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) at the Ukrainian capital?

Georgia’s pro-Europe protests continue as ruling pro-Russian party seeks to control situation.

Georgia's president said Monday that mass pro-EU protests involving tens of thousands of people showed no sign of stopping after police fired water cannon and tear gas on a fourth night of demonstrations.

The Black Sea nation has been rocked by turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October 26 parliamentary elections that the pro-European opposition said were fraudulent.

Romanian parliamentary election results showing confused and worrying signs.

Romania's ruling Social Democrats (PSD) were set to win Sunday's parliamentary elections while the far right secured big gains, partial results showed, deepening uncertainty in the NATO country rocked by political chaos.

With more than 96 percent of ballots counted, the pro-European PSD -- which has governed with the Liberals until now -- was leading other parties with 23.5 percent of the vote.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Thousands of Syrian insurgents took over most of Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country’s largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their shock offensive to a nearby province. They faced little to no resistance from government troops, according to fighters and activists. A war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seized control of Aleppo International airport, the first international airport to be controlled by insurgents. The fighters claimed they seized the airport and posted pictures from there. Thousands of fighters also moved on, facing almost no opposition from government forces, to seize towns and villages in northern Hama, a province where they had a presence before being expelled by government troops in 2016. They claimed Saturday evening to have entered the city of Hama. The swift and surprise offensive is a huge embarrassment for Syria’s President Bashar Assad and raises questions about his armed forces’ preparedness. The insurgent offensive launched from their stronghold in the country’s northwest appeared to have been planned for years. It also comes at a time when Assad’s allies were preoccupied with their own conflicts. - AP

In a highly-risky roll of the dice move (my interpretation) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after his meeting with Donald Trump without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. After the leaders’ hastily arranged dinner Friday night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trudeau spoke of “an excellent conversation” but offered no details. Trump said in a Truth Social post later Saturday that they discussed “many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address.” For issues in need of such cooperation, Trump cited fentanyl and the “Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration,” fair trade deals “that do not jeopardize American Workers” and the U.S. trade deficit with its ally to the north. Trump asserted that the prime minister had made “a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation” of American families from fentanyl from China reaching the United States through its neighbors. The U.S., he said, “will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic.” - AP

The German Chancellor is also expected to announce additional arms shipments worth €650 million, set to arrive in December.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit on Monday, Dec. 2, marking his first trip to the Ukrainian capital in two and a half years. The visit aims to show solidarity with Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia.

The US President stated that his son was “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” because of his familial ties.

US President Joe Biden has granted “a full and unconditional pardon” to his son, Hunter Biden, for any crimes he “has committed or may have committed or taken part in” between Jan.1, 2014, and Dec.1, 2024, according to a White House statement.

The pardon covers all charges, including those for which Hunter Biden had been convicted.

While continuing to rattle his saber on tariffs, the incoming US president hints he will draw back Russian sanctions for a peace deal, just as those measures are starting to bite.

US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday warned the BRICS nations about launching their own currency, while showing no signs of reversing his plans to ease sanctions on Russia as part of a peace deal with Ukraine.

“We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The call came after Syrian rebels and their Turkish-backed allies launched their biggest offensive in years, seizing control of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo.

Turkey's top diplomat and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday about the "rapidly developing" conflict in Syria where rebel forces have made gains.

Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed by telephone "the need for de-escalation and the protection of civilian lives and infrastructure in Aleppo and elsewhere," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Since the US presidential election result, Ukrainians have focused on their management skills. The country hoped for Harris but now must hope for a silver lining to Donald Trump’s presidency.

Trump and his team are already trying to influence world politics with statements, phone calls and no doubt, other behind-the-scenes actions. Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.  Nobody will press the stopwatch until the day he takes office, but to have any hope of fulfilling his promise, he needs to “prepare” Putin and Zelensky for the end of the war in advance, so that on Jan. 21, the day after his inauguration, they are ready to sign an agreement to end the war.

Nobody on the planet can be oblivious to the fantastical nature of this plan, but Trump believes in himself with the force of one of Elon Musk’s rockets and we can assume that members of his team are already working to bring this miracle about. Some of them have no doubt called Putin’s people in the Kremlin with specific suggestions and advice on how to end Russia’s aggression and save face.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) reportedly replaced Lieutenant General Sergei Kisel with Colonel General Alexander Chaiko who will reprise his previous assignment as commander of the Russian Force Grouping in Syria, though it remains unclear how Russian operations in Syria may change.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving the 2025 federal budget and the 2026–2027 draft federal budget on December 1.
• Russian state media reported that the Russian military command appointed Colonel General Rustam Muradov as the First Deputy Commander of the Russian Ground Forces.
• The Georgian opposition continues to contest the legitimacy of Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party's electoral victory following Georgian Dream's suspension of Georgia's European Union (EU) membership accession talks.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Kursk Oblast, and Russian forces recently advanced near Pokrovsk and Hulyaipole.