Victory Chronicles-DAY 1385

U.S. President Donald Trump assessed on Dec. 9 that America is no longer spending money to help Ukraine defend itself, saying Washington is instead earning revenue because NATO countries are buying American weapons at full price and sending them on to Kyiv.

Speaking at a roundtable with U.S. agribusiness leaders, Trump contrasted his approach with that of President Joe Biden. “Biden gave them $350 billion. And I gave them nothing,” he said, before adding that he did provide Javelin anti-tank missiles early in the war and claimed they “knocked out a hell of a lot of attacks.” He repeated a familiar jab at former President Barack Obama, saying Obama “gave sheets.”

Trump portrayed the current situation as “great” for the U.S. financially, but then pivoted to a humanitarian argument, saying, “you got a lot of people dying and I want to see that stop.” 

He again offered an unverified figure of 27,000 soldiers killed in the past month, “mostly Ukrainian soldiers and Russian soldiers.” He insisted that U.S. taxpayers are not footing the bill for Ukraine’s defense. 

“We aren’t spending money,” he said. “NATO is buying our equipment at full price and giving it to Ukraine. What we are doing is spending time on a humane basis.”

Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs $15 billion in 2026 for NATO program that buys U.S. weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine will need about $15 billion next year to keep PURL, the NATO initiative that finances purchases of U.S. weapons for Kyiv,  running at the level required to defend the country from Russian aggression..

Speaking at an online briefing, Zelenskyy stressed that PURL is now one of Ukraine’s most important lifelines, particularly for air-defense systems that help shield cities from combined Russian missile and drone attacks. 

He thanked NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte for reminding allied leaders that they must “find additional funds,” noting that the yearly requirement is roughly $15 billion.

Zelenskyy said that for this year, the program is still short “about $800 million” even after The Netherlands announced a $700 million contribution earlier in the day. “We are counting on the United States, we are fighting for this, looking for money for PURL, working with everyone,” he said.

Since NATO created PURL, 21 countries have contributed more than $4 billion. A meeting of NATO defense ministers in the Belgian capital of Brussels in early December brought another set of commitments worth roughly $1 billion.

Russia unveils giant Christmas tree at Mariupol theater where hundreds were killed in 2022 airstrike. Russian occupation authorities have erected a 14-meter (46-foot) Christmas tree outside Mariupol’s Drama Theatre — the site of one of the deadliest civilian massacres of the full-scale invasion — in a move Ukrainian officials say is designed to bury the memory of those who died there.

The theatre, which served as a refuge for families sheltering from Russia’s siege, was struck by a Russian airstrike on 16 March 2022. The word “children” had been painted in giant letters outside to ward off an attack. Independent investigations later found that hundreds of civilians — including many children — were killed when the building collapsed.

Mariupol’s City Council in exile said the ornate tree, crowned with a red Soviet-style star, is part of Moscow’s effort to “repackage a mass killing as a festive landmark.” Before reconstruction began, occupation forces walled off the area, which Ukrainian officials say allowed crews to remove debris and human remains out of sight, preventing any independent accounting of the true death toll.

Russian authorities plan to reopen the theater after more than three years of tightly controlled reconstruction — a reopening Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to overwrite the site’s history with staged “restoration” rather than acknowledge the hundreds who died there.

Ukrainian special forces hit Russian drone warehouse and fuel depot. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) say they destroyed two key Russian military sites overnight on Dec. 7-8, striking deep into the occupied parts of the two easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk with long-range drones.

According to the forces’ press service, one strike hit a warehouse used by Russia’s 9th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade in occupied Donetsk. The building reportedly held a large stock of reconnaissance and attack drones, along with warheads prepared for those systems – tools Russia relies on heavily for frontline surveillance and strikes.

Farther east, in the occupied Luhansk region, Ukrainian drones targeted a fuel depot in the settlement of Simeikyne. The site belonged to Russia’s Operational Group South and stored roughly 6,000 cubic meters (about 1.6 million gallons) of fuel. The tanks erupted into flames, dealing a blow to the logistics that keep Russian vehicles and generators running. The military released video from the operation, showing the quiet precision of the strikes. 

Key Takeaways

1. Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin is trying to portray the Russian economy as able to support a protracted war in Ukraine — likely to buttress the ongoing Russian cognitive warfare effort falsely claiming that a Russian victory is inevitable.
2. Kremlin officials continue to demonstrate Russia’s unwillingness to compromise to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
3. Russia is reportedly planning to foment protests in Ukraine, likely to support the longstanding Kremlin narrative that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate.
4. Russian forces recently advanced near Borova and Pokrovsk.

• Trump says Russia holds stronger negotiating position on ending war in Ukraine
• Zelenskyy discusses war, POWs and abducted Ukrainian children with Pope Leo XIV
• Politico: US insists Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk Oblast without a fight
• Trump says he respects Ukrainian forces, but Russia will win due to having advantage
• Russian military transport aircraft crashes in Ivanovo Oblast
• Macron: Ukraine and Europe now have “many cards” in peace talks
• Axios: US pressures Zelenskyy on territorial concessions under the “peace plan”
• Zelenskyy: 20-point peace plan covers return of Ukrainian children and exchange of all POWs
• Von der Leyen on Ukraine’s long-term security: First line of defence of our Union