President Putin chairs military review meeting, Ukraine warns of power outages in the new year

President Putin will chair a meeting to review Russia's military activities. Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal warns of attacks on energy facilities during Christmas and New Year.

According to TASS, on December 20 (local time), the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to chair a meeting to review military operations in 2022.

"The meeting will be held at the National Defense Control Center on December 21. The focus of the meeting will be on summarizing the activities of the Russian Armed Forces, as well as discussing the course of action for 2023," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: TASS

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will deliver a "key" speech at the meeting, a source told TASS, adding that he will detail the progress of the special military operation, the number of weapons and military equipment delivered next year, the progress of military infrastructure construction, the results of the Defense Ministry's international activities and the regime of military allowances.

The meeting will be attended directly by military district commanders and federal officials. In addition, 15,000 Russian military officials will watch online.

Ukraine warns of power outage risk for New Year

According to the Guardian, on December 20 (local time), Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal warned of the risk of Russia continuing to attack energy facilities. Mr. Shmyhal also expressed concern that people may have to spend Christmas and New Year without electricity.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Photo: KMU

"Repairs to the energy infrastructure are continuing, but the situation remains extremely difficult. There are currently eight nuclear power units and 10 thermal power plants in operation, but the energy deficit remains quite large," Shmyhal said.

Also in his speech, Mr. Shmyhal emphasized that it is impossible to make any predictions about stable power supply in the current situation. He asked local authorities not to "inflate expectations" for Christmas and New Year.

Ukraine receives 10,000 more satellite internet devices from billionaire Elon Musk

According to Bloomberg, on December 20, Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced an agreement to transfer 10,000 Starlink satellite internet receivers from SpaceX.

“SpaceX and Mr. Elon Musk quickly responded to the situation and helped us,” Mr. Fedorov said.

Starlink allows the Ukrainian military to have a reliable and robust communications system that does not have to worry about being cut off by attacks, Ukrainian officials said. Since the start of the special operation, Ukraine has received about 22,000 Starlink satellite internet devices.