Ukraine Update…283 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…The next 6 months will tell?

• The United States announced new sanctions on 18 entities in Russia’s financial services sector on Thursday. “By sanctioning additional major Russian banks, we continue to deepen Russia’s isolation from global markets,” the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in a news release. One of those banks is Rosbank, a Russia-based commercial bank acquired by Potanin earlier this year. In addition to Potanin and members of his “network,” the State Department also designated 40 people linked to the Russian government on the sanctions list, according to the Treasury Department.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “the next six months will be decisive,” in an address delivered virtually to E.U. leaders in Brussels. He called for more support. European Council President Charles Michel said that the E.U. must discuss “how to guarantee the sustainability of our military and financial support to Ukraine” in the long term, as questions arise about how Ukraine’s economy can survive the onslaught.
• Ukraine has made “important progress” on strengthening its air-defense capabilities, Zelensky said in his nightly address, after officials said this week that the Pentagon was preparing to provide Ukraine with a Patriot missile system, the U.S. military’s most sophisticated air defense weapon. The Kremlin warned that if the United States were to send Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, they would be legitimate targets for Russia’s military.
• A gift given by a member of the Ukrainian police to Poland’s police chief exploded on Wednesday in Warsaw, injuring the chief and a civilian employee at the National Police Headquarters, the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration said Thursday. The police commander, Gen. Jaroslaw Szymczyk, “suffered minor injuries” and was hospitalized for observation, the statement said. Polish officials have asked their Ukrainian counterpart for an explanation and the case is being handled by the Polish prosecutor’s office, it added. Ukraine’s police and emergency services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
• The E.U. could not agree on a ninth package of sanctions targeting Russia in talks Wednesday, two diplomats told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Member states reportedly disagreed over whether to restrict the export of fertilizer from Russia to other countries through E.U. ports with some states arguing that doing so would further fuel a global food crisis, and others fearing that loosening restrictions could create a loophole for Russian companies and individuals on E.U. sanctions lists.
• Ukraine is experiencing a “significant deficit” of electricity due to Russia’s strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure, national grid operator Ukrenergo said in a Telegram post. Winter weather, particularly snow and ice, has further complicated matters, it said. The United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, said almost every child in Ukraine is without regular access to electricity, heat and water in biting winter cold amid Russian attacks.

• The head of Ukraine’s armed forces suggested Russia is shelling civilian areas and Ukrainian infrastructure to “get a pause by any means” in the fighting in order to regroup. “So our task now is to hold on” and prepare for fierce fighting in February, General Valery Zaluzhny told the Economist. It’s essential “to focus on the accumulation of resources right now for the more protracted and heavier battles that may begin next year,” he said. Ukranian Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told Ukranian troops on Thursday that Russia was preparing to draw out the war, not working toward a potential ceasefire, Reuters reported.
• Only 7 percent of Ukrainians still in the country are actively considering leaving their location despite attacks on power supply and heating systems, the International Organization of Migration said. Two out of three Ukrainians say they would not leave their homes in the event of prolonged utility cuts, even as almost half the households have exhausted their savings.
• Two people were killed in a strike against the city of Kherson, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office. “The enemy hit the city center again,” he wrote on Telegram Thursday. Tymoshenko said the strike landed “100 meters” away from a regional administration building that Russia previously shelled on Wednesday.
• After Belarus said it would test the combat readiness of its troops this week, Britain’s Defense Ministry said that “the exercising Belarusian troops and Russian units are currently unlikely to constitute a force capable of conducting a successful new assault into northern Ukraine.” Though Belarus has supported Russia’s war effortand allowed Moscow to station troops and equipment in Belarusian territory, at least some of which were used to invade Ukraine in February, military experts say it is unlikelythat Belarus will invade Ukraine at this stage….

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