Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Iran must be punished for what he called its “complicity in Russian terror” and accused the Tehran regime of helping to prolong and exacerbate the war the impact on food and energy supply.
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“If it weren’t for Iran’s supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would now be closer to peace,” Zelensky said Sunday evening in his daily speech. Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Zelensky in a phone call that this week she would propose a financial aid package of up to 18 billion euros ($17.9 billion) to help cover the needs of Ukraine next year.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and six other regions in northern and central Ukraine face additional emergency blackouts on Monday due to growing power shortages following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces repelled attacks over the past day near eight settlements in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook. The country’s southern operational command said three Russian ammunition depots and a UAV control station were destroyed. Russian troops shelled the Nikopol district in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, local authorities told Telegram.
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The UK Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update that “Russia’s continued lack of air superiority is likely to be exacerbated by poor training, the loss of experienced aircrew and the increased risks of hard close air support” and that “it is unlikely to change in the coming months”.