British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will on Monday announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine during a meeting of Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga.

Sunak will arrive in Latvia on Monday for the meeting to discuss ongoing efforts to counter Russian aggression in the Nordic and Baltic region with fellow members of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).

Sunak will call on the leaders to maintain or exceed 2022 levels of support for Ukraine in 2023, a statement issued by the prime minister’s office said.

He will also announce that the U.K. will supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250 million ($304 million) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023,” the statement said.

The U.K. had led the way in “providing defensive aid to Ukraine including sending Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and recently 125 anti-aircraft guns,” it said.

“We have also provided more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition since February, with the deliveries directly linked to successful operations to retake territory in Ukraine,” it added.

Sunak last month visited Kyiv to offer further support to Ukraine in its fight against Russian forces following the February invasion.

“The U.K. and our European allies have been in lockstep in our response to the invasion of Ukraine, and we remain steadfast in our ambition for peace in Europe once again,” Sunak said in the statement.

“But to achieve peace, we must deter aggression and our deployments across the region together are vital in ensuring we are able to respond to the gravest of threats,” he added.

The JEF meeting, which brings together the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, will also be addressed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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When Igor Ponochevny drew his first political cartoon, he was living in Russia and working at a bank. Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 inspired him to draw under the pen name Alyosha Stupin. VOA Russian spoke with the artist. Anna Rice narrates the story. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian.
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Russia on Sunday shelled the center of Kherson, the southern Ukrainian city it retreated from last month, in the latest in a barrage of attacks on the region.

Three people were wounded in the assault on Kherson, one Ukrainian official said, while the regional governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said that Russia in the past day had launched 54 attacks with rocket, mortar and tank fire in the Kherson area, killing three people and wounding six.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said Sunday that one person was killed and eight others wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the area, which lies along Ukraine’s northern border.

For weeks, Russia has been targeting Ukrainian infrastructure as winter sets in, attempting to knock out water and electricity supply lines to demoralize the Ukrainian population.

Rolling blackouts have hit much of the country, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Saturday that power has been restored to almost 6 million Ukrainians. He said crews have been working nonstop to stabilize the energy grid to restore heat and water supplies.

The most difficult situation, he said, is in “Kyiv and the region, Vinnytsia and the region, Lviv and the region.” But large-scale power outages are affecting many other regions, as well, including Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk.

Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, told ABC News’s “This Week” show, “We see what happens when we don’t have enough air defense.”

Markarova said half of Ukraine’s energy grid has been destroyed by Russian missiles. “We have to stop it. And the only way to do it is with increased number of air defense everywhere in Ukraine,” she said.

U.S. officials say they are planning to send a Patriot missile air defense battery to Ukraine to help shoot down incoming Russian airstrikes, but no official announcement has been made. Russia has condemned the anticipated U.S. action and called it a provocation heightening U.S. involvement in the conflict.

Nonetheless, the United States will provide additional security assistance to Ukraine, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told VOA in an interview on Friday.

Asked if Washington would heed Russia’s warning not to deliver sophisticated Patriot air defense missiles or risk the consequences, Kirby replied, “Russia will not dictate to the United States or any other country what security assistance we provide to Ukraine.”

The U.S. official said Washington is in “lockstep with the Ukrainians, talking to them almost every day about what their needs are, and making sure that we are best meeting those needs.”

Zelenskyy thanked the European Union and United States for decisions to provide defense, energy and financial support to Ukraine in the coming year. He added there is more to be done and urged “a reliable air defense shield,” that will protect the Ukrainian people from “the main form of Russian terror – missile terror.”

In an intelligence update Saturday, Britain’s Defense Ministry said, “In recent days, there has been an uptick in Russia’s campaign of long-range strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure.”

The ministry tweeted, “The waves of strikes have largely consisted of air and maritime launched cruise missiles but have almost certainly also included Iranian-provided unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being launched from Russia’s Krasnodar Region.”

Ukraine has said that restoring its pre-2014 border with Russia is its goal in defending against Russia’s nearly 10-month war, including retaking the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.

Markarova acknowledged that “taking everything back is difficult,” but added, “There is no other option.”

Russia last week announced the formation of creative brigades to boost the morale of troops on the front line, with plans to send opera singers, actors and circus performers. In a new intelligence update Sunday, however, the British defense ministry said that while “fragile morale almost certainly continues to be a significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force,” the soldiers’ concerns lie elsewhere.

The ministry said, “Soldiers’ concerns primarily focus on very high casualty rates, poor leadership, pay problems, lack of equipment and ammunition, and lack of clarity about the war’s objectives.”

“The creative brigades’ efforts are unlikely to substantively alleviate these concerns,” the British report concluded.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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DUBAI, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Qatar reiterated on Sunday that the country denies any involvement in a corruption case being investigated by Belgian authorities involving people linked to the European Parliament. 

Belgian authorities have charged four people linked to the European Parliament over allegations World Cup host Qatar lavished them with cash and gifts to influence decision-making. Qatar has previously denied any wrongdoing. 

A statement on Sunday by a diplomat from Qatar’s mission to the European Union said the country had been “exclusively criticized and attacked” in the investigation and was deeply disappointed that the Belgian government “made no effort to engage with our government to establish the facts.”

The statement added that “limiting dialogue and cooperation” on the issue before a legal process has ended will negatively affect security cooperation and discussions on global energy security. 
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February brought large-scale land warfare back to Europe, plunging the world into a dangerous new era of conflict and nuclear brinkmanship. The West responded with huge supplies of arms for Ukraine and harsh sanctions on Russia. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Russia is sending opera singers to its frontline troops in Ukraine to raise the morale of Russian soldiers.  Russia announced the formation of the creative brigades last week, which will also include actors and circus performers.

In the British Defense Ministry intelligence update Sunday on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the agency said that while “Fragile morale almost certainly continues to be a significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force,” the soldiers’ concerns lie elsewhere.

The ministry said, “soldiers’ concerns primarily focus on very high casualty rates, poor leadership, pay problems, lack of equipment and ammunition, and lack of clarity about the war’s objectives.” The ministry said, “The creative brigades’ efforts are unlikely to substantively alleviate these concerns.”

A day after Russia’s massive airstrikes on Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that power has been restored to almost 6 million Ukrainians. However, he added, crews have been working nonstop to stabilize the energy grid in an effort to restore heat and water supplies to residents.

The most difficult situation, he said, is in “Kyiv and the region, Vinnytsia and the region, Lviv and the region.” Large-scale power outages are affecting many other regions, as well, including Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk.

Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, in one of its biggest attacks since the start of the war, Ukrainian officials said. The attack knocked out power in the second-largest city, Kharkiv, and forced Kyiv to implement emergency blackouts nationwide, officials said.

Zelenskyy also said on Saturday that, so far, “Russia’s large-scale investment in terror” amounted to “more than 4,000 missiles.”

Zelenskyy thanked the EU and the United States for decisions to provide defense, energy and financial support to Ukraine in the coming year. But he added there is more to be done and urged “a reliable air defense shield,” that will protect the Ukrainian people from “the main form of Russian terror – missile terror.”

Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update Saturday that “in recent days, there has been an uptick in Russia’s campaign of long-range strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure.”

The ministry tweeted, “The waves of strikes have largely consisted of air and maritime launched cruise missiles but have almost certainly also included Iranian-provided uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) being launched from Russia’s Krasnodar Region.”

“Previously, these UAVs had been primarily launched from locations within occupied Crimea,” the ministry tweeted. “The change of launch site is likely due to Russian concerns about the vulnerability of Crimea, while it is also convenient for resupply from the weapons’ likely arrival point in Russia, at Astrakhan.”

Earlier Saturday, emergency workers pulled the body of a 1-year-old boy from the rubble of an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, following a Russian missile strike.

The barrage of long-range Russian strikes aimed at Ukraine’s infrastructure was coming as Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted meetings with his armed forces commanders, seeking proposals on Russian military strategy against Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Russia has said attacks on basic infrastructure are militarily legitimate. Ukraine has said attacks, which are intended to cause civilian misery, are a war crime.

The United States will provide additional security assistance to Ukraine, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told VOA in an interview, Friday.

Asked if Washington would heed Russia’s warning not to deliver sophisticated Patriot air defense missiles or risk the consequences, Kirby replied “Russia will not dictate to the United States or any other country what security assistance we provide to Ukraine.”

The U.S. official said Washington is in “lockstep with the Ukrainians, talking to them almost every day about what their needs are, and making sure that we are best meeting those needs.”

Kirby emphasized that air defense capabilities are becoming a chief requirement of Ukraine’s military after Russia’s “unprecedented” airstrikes with cruise missiles and Iranian drones “the likes of which we’ve just seen again over the last 12 to 18 hours,” he told VOA.

Kirby said Washington’s focus is to help Ukraine succeed in the battlefield in whichever way Zelenskyy sees fit. The U.S., he said, does not dictate to Ukraine how to defend its territory.

Russia’s foreign ministry has warned the U.S. that if it ships sophisticated Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine, Moscow would consider it a “provocative move” that could prompt a response from the Kremlin.

Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova did not spell out what Moscow’s response might be but said the U.S. should “draw the right conclusions” from Russia’s warnings that equipment supplied by the U.S. is a legitimate target for Russian attacks. With its arms shipments to Ukraine, she said the U.S. already had “effectively become a party” to the war.

U.S. officials this week confirmed to reporters plans to send the Patriot missile system to Ukraine, which Zelenskyy has long said Ukraine needs to defend itself against an onslaught of Russian airstrikes targeting vital infrastructure, including power and water facilities. So far, no official announcement has been made.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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A U.S. company that helped build a huge aquarium in Berlin says it is sending a team to investigate the rupture of the tank, which sent a wave of debris, water and tropical fish crashing through the hotel lobby it was in and onto the street outside.

Reynolds Polymer Technology, which says it manufactured and installed the cylinder component of the AquaDom tank 20 years ago, said in an emailed statement that “at this point, it is too early to determine the factor or factors that would produce such a failure.” 

Police have said they found no evidence of a malicious act but the cause of the spectacular collapse shortly before 6 a.m. Friday, in which two people were slightly injured, remains unclear. Berlin’s top security official, Iris Spranger, told German news agency dpa Friday that the “first indications point to material fatigue.”

Officials said Friday evening that the hotel building itself was assessed to be safe.

The local government said that nearly all the 1,500 fish that were inside at the time of the rupture died but “a few fish at the bottom of the tank” were saved. About 400 to 500, mostly small fish from a separate set of aquariums housed under the hotel lobby, were evacuated to other tanks in a neighboring aquarium that was unaffected.

The AquaDom aquarium opened in December 2003 and was modernized in 2020.

Grand Junction, Colorado-based Reynolds Polymer, which says on its website that 41 of its acrylic panels were used in building the tank cylinder, said it “offers its sincere concern” to the hotel guests and workers who were affected and to those who were injured. It said that “we are also deeply saddened by the animals and aquatic life lost.”
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