I'm Vinisha Rainey and this is Ukraine, the latest. Today, we look at Russia's Christmas Day attack and the highly suspicious crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Plus, an interview with Olga Ferrodova, a former beautician based in Khakhiv, who decided to train as an explosive ordnance specialist with charity, humanity inclusion, after the war began.
Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory. The first duty of my government is security and defence to make clear our unshakeable support of NATO and with our allies towards Ukraine.
Nobody's going to break us. We're strong. We're Ukrainians." It's Friday, December 27, two years and 313 days since the full-scale invasion began. Merry Christmas to all they're celebrating, and I hope you're having a restful holiday. The team are enjoying a much deserved break, so it'll just be me giving you the most important updates from this week. So let's get into them, starting with the latest military news.
Let's start with Russia's appalling Christmas Day attack on Ukrainian in an energy infrastructure. Now, Ukrainians across the country woke up to air sirens on December 25, but after Moscow launched 184 missiles and drones. Keef's military said it downed most of them, but some still made it through, seriously damaging several thermal power plants and causing power cuts across Ukraine.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the attack left half a million people without water, electricity or heating despite bitterly cold temperatures, while in Kyiv, residents were forced to shelter in metro stations. But they had a message of defiance for Russia. One woman told Reuters, Christmas is not cancelled and said that she was planning to enjoy some traditional Ukrainian food and drink with her family and friends once it was safe to leave the shelter. I hope she managed to do that.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Odin deliberately chose Christmas, asking, what could be more inhumane? But he also added, Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not distort Christmas. Ukrainian Foreign Minister described that it strikes as Christmas terror, and Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, said it was a bloody and brutal attack.
This is now the 13th major attack on Ukraine's energy sector so far this year. In September, Zelensky said that 80% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian bombs. We should also point out that it wasn't Christmas day for everyone in Ukraine. This is only the second time that Ukraine has officially celebrated Christmas on the 25th of December after it decided to follow the Gregorian calendar as part of its cutting ties with Russia. Before the war, they used the Julian calendar and then Christmas balls on the 7th of January.
But there are still a sizable number of Orthodox Ukrainians who will still be celebrating Christmas on 7th January, so not Christmas Day for them. Now Ukraine's army has also been very busy this week. They launched a number of attacks on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day in the Rostov Oblast. That's just across the border from Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
On December 24th, their drones struck a military airbase in Milarovo. On December 25th, they conducted a strike on a command post of a Russian unit operating in the Kursk Oblast. Now, apparently, Ukrainian long-range drones targeted an ammunition depot in the Kadomovsky military training ground according to a source in the security service of Ukraine. That's what they told the key of independent.
The training ground is one of the largest in Russia, and according to the source, the ammunition depot was completely destroyed by the drones. Then yesterday, on December 26th, Ukraine hit a facility in the town of Kamenska Shatinsky, which is used to produce solid fuel for ballistic missiles. These missiles are reportedly used to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,
including hospitals, residential buildings, power plants. Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications, Strapcom, said the strike is part of a comprehensive campaign to weaken the capabilities of the Russian armed forces to carry out terrorist attacks against Ukrainian civilians.
Now, the other big story this week, of course, is the fate of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Let's just go over the details. So, on Christmas Day, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 passenger aircraft crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after veering hundreds of miles off its planned route and bursting into flames.
The plane had been flying from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grosni in Chechnya. 38 people were killed in the crash, but amazingly 29 people survived. Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday for all the victims. Russian news agencies said the plane was re-rooted because of fog in Grosni and that it had collided with a flock of birds. But there have been lots of claims that it was actually mistakenly shot down by a Russian air defense system guarding the Republic of Chechnya. So let's go over some of that.
We had four Azerbaijani sources familiar with Azerbaijan's official investigation into the crash, which is not public yet. They told Reuters that a preliminary investigation suggested that a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system struck the plane after electronic warfare jamming caused the plane's communications to malfunction, just as the plane was approaching Grosni.
That jamming theory is backed up by flight tracking website FlightRadar24, which said the aircraft had faced strong GPS jamming, which made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data. That refers to the information that allows flight tracking websites like FlightRadar24 to follow planes while they're in the air. Russia has obviously in the past been blamed for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider regions, so that could track. We've also had a US official telling Reuters that there are early indications that it was an anti-aircraft system that struck the plane.
Wall Street Journal reported that aviation experts think that videos of the wreckage suggest that this was the case. We've seen blast holes coming through the plains outer shell, which would not be consistent with a flock of birds. The Institutes for the Study of War cites a Russian insider source who's reportedly affiliated with Russian law enforcement,
This person claims that an air defence missile likely struck the plane at an altitude of 2,400 metres, approximately 18 kilometres north-west of the Grozny Airport, over Nausky-Rayon. And the insider source also adds that there are several Russian military bases in Nausky-Rayon,
that have air defense systems and that the Russian MOD recently placed several panzer systems thought to be the culprit in Chechnya because of Ukrainian drone strikes against the region. There's also been some speculation in Russian media that the plane could have been shot down after being mistaken for a Ukrainian drone.
Official Kazakh sources have denied any Russian involvement at the moment, but I think we can all be aware that this obviously bears similarities to the fate of the MH-17 plane shot down by Russian-backed separatist forces back in July 2014. That plane crashed over eastern Ukraine, and unfortunately then all 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.
I'm sure there'll be lots more details to emerge about this over the weekend, so do tune in on Monday when Don will be taking the reins to hear more about that. Now in terms of the frontline, let's see what the Institute for the Study of War has been saying, Russian forces have likely seized Khurakov following two months of intensified offensive operations aimed at seizing the settlement and eliminating the Ukrainian salient north and south of that area.
They assess that Russian forces have likely advanced to the administrative boundaries of Korokov and Caesar settlement and the fields south of the settlement and north of Dalne. Russian forces have spent about two months trying to seize a settlement which is 7.3 square kilometers in size. They've sent around 36,000 troops to this direction and they've likely sustained significant casualties according to the Institute for the Study of War.
No other major advances elsewhere to report, but one last military update. Today, we've heard lots of reports of the first North Korean soldier to be captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting for Russia. According to South Korea's intelligence agency, he was captured alive, but has since died of his injuries. This comes just a few days after Vladimir Zelensky said nearly 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded since they joined Russian troops in combat.
We're hearing lots of reports about why they're suffering heavy casualties. Poorly trained, they're lacking drinking water. Apparently, supply lines have been impacted by the fighting. It'd be interesting to see how this pans out. We know around 11,000 soldiers from North Korea have been deployed to help Russia. So if 3,000 have been killed or wounded already, that is a very high rate of attrition.
Now, on to political updates, there's not too much going on, but there's been some chatter around negotiations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be open to Slovakia hosting peace talks with Ukraine, quote, if it comes to that. Obviously comes in the wake of Prime Minister Robert Fizzo's visit, Slovakia and Prime Minister Robert Fizzo, which we reported on earlier this week.
Putin also explicitly rejected a suggestion that's apparently being considered by Donald Trump that would delay Ukraine's membership in NATO for at least a decade as a condition for ending the war in Ukraine. Putin commenting on this said Ukraine cannot join NATO today, tomorrow or in 10 years.
Now it comes as there's been a poll released by UGov showing that public willingness to support Ukraine until it wins has dropped significantly. UGov was doing this polling throughout December and it shows that in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the UK
public desire to stand by Ukraine until victory, even if that means prolonging the war, has slumped over the last 12 months. The desire to stand by Ukraine until the end is lowest in Italy now, just 15%. But even here in the UK, it's dropped from over 50% at the beginning of this year to just 36% now. Survey also shows that many respondents across Western Europe oppose a settlement requiring Ukraine to cede territory to Russia.
but that there's widespread concern that Trump will reduce or withdraw American support for Ukraine after his inauguration on January 20th. And then just finally, we've had some assets being transferred to Ukraine. This is the first week that Ukraine has received a transfer of loans generated solely from profits from frozen Russian assets. That was provided by the US $1 billion loan
That's the first of around 20 billion that has already been generated from profits from frozen Russian assets. And it's part of a plan to send in total 50 billion worth of profits from these assets to support Ukraine's budgetary, military and reconstruction efforts throughout 2025. And also a smaller amount coming from Japan, similarly generated from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets, 3 billion in loans from Japan.
Coming up, we hear from Olga Faradova, a former beautician based in Kharkiv who decided to train as an explosive ordnance specialist with charity, humanity and inclusion after the war began. Don't go away.
Welcome back. Now, I want to share with you some of the reporting that the team did in Ukraine earlier this year. Olga Faridova is a volunteer with humanity and inclusion, an international charity specializing in emergency response in areas close to the front line, such as in the Kharkiv region.
It provides a lifeline to the most vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities and older people and thousands of those displaced. Olga is a former beautician based in Kharkiv and she decided to train as an explosive ordnance specialist with humanity inclusion after the beginning of the full-scale invasion. She runs sessions in schools similar to the one in the underground school that you would have heard a couple of years ago.
She lives in Kharkiv with her two cats and they were very keen to take part in the interview so you will hear them a bit in the background. Frances and producer Adley arrived at her flat late in the afternoon after a long day of interviews. She welcomed them with tea and a full table of Ukrainian biscuits and sweets including her mother's apple jam recipe and a speciality of Kharkiv. Fruit jellies covered in chocolate in the shape of a flower.
A symbol of Kharkiv's resilience, the factories that made these jellies was bombed at the beginning of the invasion, and has since been rebuilt. Here's their interview.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, good. Mm-hmm.
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Well, we've just been treated with a delicious tea and biscuit serving by Olga with some jam made by her mother. So Olga, thank you very much for your time and your hospitality. Can you tell us a little bit about your life before the war? What did you do and what is your story? Where are you born?
So before the full invasion, I was happy because I have my favorite interest in my favorite business. And one year before this, 2022, I have changed totally my life.
and I was in pharmacist here but then I have opened my own business and I became a specialist in beauty I became a cosmetician and nevertheless that my age was not so young I was improving myself and I liked it very much and I was happy.
So then the full-scale invasion begins. What do you remember of that day and how did your life change in the hours and days afterwards?
So at 5am I was waking by my friend who lived nearby and she lived on the 9th floor so that's why she could see everything. I mean explosions, some fire in the sky and we may say that she called me and say so it began.
We were waiting for it, of course we were nervous. We didn't believe totally, but we were ready. And my daughter, her boyfriend and I, we have elaborated some plan before her, what to do, how to react, where to go. But when this begin, we may say that all our plans have been ruined.
We realized and understood that no opportunity to leave city now, because it was a big traffic jam. And during three months we stayed in Harkiv. But one week later, after full invasion, my friends with her family, her husband and two sons, 16 and 10 years. So we were hiding in some kind of peach for saving vegetables.
and we were trying to hide the air but when jets started to fly over our houses and bombs were shelling and shelling we understood that there is no reason to stay there and my friend with her family they left Harkif and now they are in Germany and I moved to the downtown of my daughter's house where they had some kind of safe place and it was like functional shelter as it should be
Talk me through what happened after those initial weeks. How did you pick up your life and get back into a new routine, a new way of living?
So as I have said, first three months I lived with my daughter in the downtown and almost at the beginning of this, the boyfriend of my daughter, he started to serve in the territory defense unit.
And we tried to help them and his units, everything that they need. Some kind of medicine, some kind of staff uniform equipment. And the boyfriend of my daughter, he decided to break up with her and it was very stressful for my daughter. And she asked me to support her.
and to move from Harkiv and in this case we appeared in Austria and we may say that my main reason to go with here just to support your in such stressful situation but I wanted to come back because my parents were living there and they were staying there and I may say that in January 2023 or so I came back and I became a volunteer and I started my journey with H.I.
as a volunteer. So tell me about your work with humanity inclusion. How did you hear about them?
So first of all I was a volunteer of some kind of a local charity organization that is called like the community of people who don't care. And I was invited by the training of humanity inclusion and it was that course connected with the demining how to behave with some kind of explosives.
and I have realized that it's very important and I was interested in it because first of all, the first reason I had my personal experience, because nearby my house, I have seen many explosives and there were some shelling and people behaved very dangerous and they were under threat with this. The second reason that my parents has a country house and it was first of all occupied territory and then occupied
and I thought that maybe they need to be aware of this and I will teach them, I will inform them. These two reasons, speaking about my neighbors and my parents' behavior with these explosives, it was the main reasons and why should I start to
learn how to define and how to behave with this explosive. And of course I realize that it's very important to be informed of these dangerous scenes nowadays because unfortunately during the alone period of our time is going to be our reality. So I want to mention that when I came back from Austria, I was still a beautician and I continued to do it.
But I think that it was in vain, it was useless at that time. And I may say that I was trying to search something that was very important and where I would make my efforts and they would be fruitful. And that's why I think that being volunteer a desk in this case is my cup of tea.
And three times a week, I worked as a beautician and two times on three, so I worked as a volunteer. But when I got this training of H.I. a humanity inclusion, so I realized that, yeah, this is something that is very important and I need to continue and to deepen it.
You described the behaviours, reckless behaviours of some of your neighbours. Can you just talk about what those behaviours were and the training that you were able to give them to stop that behaviour?
So I want to say that before being a volunteer in humanity, inclusion, I had no idea what kind of threat and dangerous it can be these explosions and explore the scenes. And at first glance, something seemed even safer for me, but indeed, they were not. I may give you an example. For example, I thought that if rockets
fall down so it means that it's safe and you may take photos and you may come closer but unfortunately so it's not true. It's not safe when a rocket lands and even if it's exploded it's actually not safe.
Yes, you need to be very careful because it's dangerous. So when I got all of this knowledge from humanity inclusion, I may say that I was trying maximum to teach my parents, first of all, how to behave with this dangerous explosion.
And they were my first audience that have been trained by me. And after these trainings, I may say that their behavior has changed drastically. Before that, they were not aware how to behave. They didn't know what to do. And they didn't listen to my warnings. It was in vain. But when I get on my professional level, I may say that the attitude has changed drastically. And all people that have been elected by me,
I may say that they had opened and you discovered it was like some kind of new information for them and we may say that due to these lectures I may say that the risks of the unreasonable behavior is being reduced.
Have you heard of any instances of people not following the behaviours who did not have the training that you've now given them who were injured or worse as a consequence? I'm just trying to get across why it's so important, the consequences of this knowledge not being out there.
Unfortunately, I made to say that there are many people who behave dangerously and maybe unconsciously. And of course the risks of being wounded or being injured are at high.
I don't know personally people who have been in such situations but during visiting different rural countryside and different kind of settlements people tell and told about such events and I want to share with you one serious and unfortunately not a successful event happened in autumn 2023 there were a boy and a girl they were driving by car
and suddenly they bumped the mines on the road and boy died and the girl has got some severe injuries so she lives now without limbs and almost 90% of your eyes tied so was lost
So she's almost blind and we may say that our Department of Protection and I, we tried to help her. We visited her in the hospital and maybe this is one of the serious and the most dangerous occasion that I want an example that I want to share with you.
In that specific example, is there any advice that they could have followed that could have prevented that tragedy? So speaking about this episode and example, I want to say that's the most important to follow some simple rules of word. The first one, you need to drive only on solid surface, no ground or soil.
And if you want to cut the distance, so don't do it, just not try to override and if especially we are speaking about new territories that you don't know. And the second advice may be to, before going there, try to find out or ask local people about the valid safe routes that you may use.
because if you use it previously before the full invasion, so we may say that the troops now cannot be safe for sure. They need to be checked and they need to be approved maybe and experienced by local people. And the third one, no stops on the side because sometimes it's potentially dangerous and if you need to have this stop,
So please do it on some kind of equipped and special places. You helped with a class that we witnessed an underground class that was educating children as to the importance of rules to follow. How do children respond to these lessons and what specific lessons do you teach children?
So the main idea of course speaking about children to get them informed and we may say that this problem how to behave is explosive. It's for years and now here we may say that they are aware but when they grow up this danger is still be alert and this is a burning issue.
And I want to say that nowadays our children, they are tax-savvy and they had formed indeed with the help of different kind of mass media, internet resources. But unfortunately, this information connected with behavior, with explosives is not always correct. And sometimes it may happen that it's going to be threatened even their lives. So that's why our trainings is rather crucial in this. Also, children may get information from parents
But parents are not specialists, so that's why we need to be aware of these two and we need to check information that is given by their parents. And one more point that I need to say that working with children, we need to organize everything in some kind of entertaining way.
We do it with the help of fairy tales, maybe some kind of comics. Sometimes our trainings are held with the help of games and it helps them to be dependent on this process and be more involved and interested. What are your next plans within humanity and inclusion?
Are you still planning to specialise in demining teaching or are there other things that you would like to work on? So I want to underline again that the problem of behaviour with explosives is rather important in crucial and it's still for years so that's why the more people is informed at the more safety
we have in our territory. And beside this, I may say that we are engaged in giving some kind of lectures connected how to safe, how to be safe during assault, combat actions and how to prepare, for example, for surviving. We may speak about how to equip shelter or maybe how to ever create and what kind of stuff should I take with myself. We understood that Harkiev is very close to front.
And that's why all of our news are so unreliable and they are not stable, so that's why we need to be ready for everything. For example, in May we have some rumors about and we have some attempts of new assault.
in the hierarchy of region, and that's why everyone should be ready for this. Also, our new lectures are focused on how to behave yourself, for example, if you are under some debris of destroyed buildings, because nowadays it's rather important and it's burning point too. How to conduct, not to be panic and so on and so forth.
And one more point that we need to be given as lectures, what to do if you want to come back to your accommodation or to your territories when that were occupied. And in this case, war continues and we don't know the possible threats that we will face in the future. That's why I want to develop in this sphere and I don't want to leave it.
What would your message be to those around the world who are listening to this and deciding who are in a position to help?
First of all I want to say many thanks because during 1000 days you are supporting us and you inform your share and it helps a lot believe me and I appreciate this work very much and the second one I want to say so please welcome Ukraine after our victory we invite you and you will help yourself and we will taste you with all delicious and homemade food
I can highly recommend your mother's apple jam, it's delicious. Let's just have a moment to reflect on the victory on the end of the war. When the war ends, do you foresee yourself ever going back to working in beauty? Or do you think you have a new future now working in the organisations that you have been as a result of the war?
So from one side, I may say yes. I would love to continue to be a beautician, but I realize that there is much more work will appear afterwards. So that's why I still need to develop my skills in the second year as a volunteer in working with explosives.
You will speak about our organization, AI has many plans and one of it is to develop some kind of non-technical searching. I mean that for example in December we are going to have some training scores and it would be the joint course with suburbs and the miners and we will try to help them to define potentially dangerous places. So it's not connected with technical and equipment. First of all we need to define them and then they will start to work on these places.
And I may say that humanity inclusion has a powerful world networking and it is connected with the demining and the process. Due to red tape and bureaucracy in Ukraine, unfortunately now we are lack of it, but I think that in future it would be burning issue and in Ukraine we will need it.
these procedures of demining as well so that's why I can see myself in this sphere too and one more point that I need to mention and underline that we need to rebuild Ukraine generally and in this case I can see myself very useful also and maybe beautician and it's going to be my hobby and I will have my clients but these clients would be my friends my family and my relatives maybe I'll be your first client
What color would you pick, Father? No comment.
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