Victory Chronicles
-DAY 306

Above: It’s a rule for despotic regimes to indoctrinate and militarize youth.  Here, Ukrainian children under occupation in Luhansk city glorify the enemy in a staged production. (AP News)

• Russian siloviki may be setting information conditions to justify the nationalization of oligarchs’ resources to sponsor Russia’s war effort. The Wagner financier stated that Russia needs to confiscate luxury possessions and accommodations from elites who ignore or do not support the war effort out of fear of losing their privileged lifestyles. The Russian President attacked Russian oligarchs on December 22, stating that Russians who drain Russia’s money from abroad and do not have a connection with the country “represent a danger” to Russia.
• The Russian Orthodox Church — a Kremlin-controlled institution — asked the Kremlin for a mobilization exemption for its clergy, despite avidly supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
• Russian forces are installing metal bars on the windows of hospitals to prevent Russian servicemen from deserting. Russian casualties are continuing to overload the medical system in occupied Ukraine. Many Russian personnel die waiting for medical assistance due to lack of specialists, necessary medical equipment, and medicine.
• Chief of the Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kyrylo Budanovsaid that Russia is trying to divert Ukrainian forces from the southeast by setting up a feint in Belarus, noting that military activity in Belarus is an element of a disinformation campaign. Russian force arrayment in Belarus does not indicate preparations for an offensive and that Russian forces in Belarus do not have enough armored equipment for a mechanized assault.
• Independent imagery analysis of Russian forces in Belarus found that Russian forces maintain about 10,000 personnel in Belarus, about 5,000 of whom are stationed at the 230th Obuz-Lesnovsky Training Ground in Brest, Belarus as of December 23.

Above: (Yahoo News)

Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces estimated enemy losses for last 48 hours

• Liquidated personnel, 102,600 (+550)
• Tanks, 3,016 (+5)
• Armored personnel vehicles, 6,017 (+7)
• Artillery systems/MLRS, 1,996/418 (+5/0)
• Anti-aircraft warfare systems, 212 (0)
• Aircraft/helicopters, 283/267 (0)
• UAV operational-tactical level, 1,707 (+1)
• Cruise missiles, 653 (0)
• Warships/boats, 16 (0)
• Vehicles and fuel tanks, 4,647 (+12)
• Special equipment, 178 (0)

The General Staff video digest of destroyed enemy assets:

Above: Cruelty is the point.  The enemy shelled Kherson on Christmas Eve, killing and wounding dozens of civilians. (BBC)

Glory to Ukraine! The three-hundred-sixth (306) day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to a russian military large-scale invasion continues.

• Over the past 24 hours, the enemy launched 1 air and 5 missile strikes, carried out more than 40 MLRS attacks.
• In the Siversk direction, enemy shelling was recorded in the areas of Vyntorivka, Manukhivka, Ryzhivka and Vorozhba settlements of the Sumy
• In the Slobozhansk direction, areas of the settlements of Strilecha, Starytsia, Zemlianka, Ustynivka, Vilkhuvatka, Chuhunivka, Novomlynsk and Kamianka of the Kharkiv oblast were hit by mortar and artillery fire.
• On the Kupyansk and Lyman directions, the enemy inflicted fire damage in the areas of more than 25 settlements. Among them – Dvorichna, Kislivka, Kotlyarivka and Berestovka in Kharkiv oblast; Stelmakhivka, Ploshchanka, Dibrova and Chervonopopivka in Luhansk oblast and Yampolivka and Torske in Donetsk oblast.
• On the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, the enemy fired at the positions of our troops in the areas of more than 20 settlements. In particular, these are Spirne, Berestovka, Yakovlivka, Soledar, Bakhmut, Opytne, Ozaryanivka, New York, Avdiyivka, Krasnohorivka and Maryinka of the Donetsk
• In the Novopavlivsk direction, Vuhledar, Velyka Novosilka and Vremivka of the Donetsk oblast were affected by fire.
• Areas of more than 25 settlements were shelled in the Zaporizhya Among them are Hulyaipole, Chervone, Stepove, Mali Shcherbaky, Shcherbaky and Charivne of the Zaporizhzhia oblast and Nikopol – Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
• In the Kherson direction, the enemy continues artillery shelling of populated areas along the right bank of the Dnipro River. The civil infrastructure of the settlements of Respublikanets, Tyahynka, Zelenivka, Inzhenerne, Antonivka, Sadove and Veletenske of the Kherson oblast and the city of Kherson were damaged.

Believe in the Armed Forces! Together we will win! Glory to Ukraine!

Above:  Christmas 2022 in the trenches for Ukraine’s defenders. (The Guardian)

• Russian forces continued to conduct limited counterattacks to regain lost positions along the Kreminna-Svatove line on December 24. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian assault near Andriivka, Luhansk Oblast (15km west of Svatove).
• The Ukrainian Resistance Center noted that Russian occupiers are selling nationalized property and the belongings of those who fled their homes in occupied territories.The Luhansk Military Administration reported that Russian occupation authorities in Luhansk Oblast publicized the names of homes and apartments they have designated for nationalization and occupation by Russian forces.

Above:  (New York Times)

• Russian forces continued to conduct offensive operations around Bakhmut on December 24. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces repelled Russian assaults near Bakhmut, within 19km northeast of Bakhmut near Rozdolivka and Bakhmutske; and within 31km south of Bakhmut near Pivichne and Niu York.
• The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (UK MoD) reported on December 24 that Russian forces currently lack the necessary stockpile of artillery munitions to support large-scale offensive operations and that sustaining defensive operations along the lengthy frontline in Ukraine requires the Russian military to expend a significant number of shells and rockets daily.
• Russian forces continued to conduct offensive operations in the Avdiivka–Donetsk City area on December 24. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces repelled Russian assaults within 27km southwest of Avdiivka near Krasnohorivka, Vodyane, and Marinka.
• Russian officials are taking children from Horlivka, Donetsk to Belarus, potentially as a scheme to deport Ukrainian children. The deportation of children may amount to a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and constitute a wider ethnic-cleansing effort.

Above: Families in Kyiv of Azov Battalion defenders rally for their return at a table set for Christmas dinner. (New York Times)

• Russian forces struck a residential area of Kherson City with a Grad multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) on December 24, killing at least 10 and injuring 55 civilians.
• Ukrainian advisor to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko reported on December 24 that Russian forces are transporting an unusually high number of armored personnel carriers and truck convoys through Mariupol towards Berdyansk in Zaporizhia Oblast to fortify the Melitopol front.
• Ukrainian forces are conducting operations on the Kinburn Spit under operational silence.
• Video posted in the early morning of December 24 reportedly shows an explosion from a Ukrainian drone attacking an oil refinery in Nyzhniohirskyi Raion in Crimea.