EU members fail to reach agreement on new Russia sanctions - diplomats

BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) – European Union member states failed to agree on a ninth package of Russia sanctions in talks late on Wednesday, diplomats said as EU leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday for their last summit of the year.

Countries moved closer to a deal in Wednesday's negotiations but Poland and some other countries still have objections, one EU diplomat told Reuters, adding a new draft was expected to be circulated on Thursday evening.

Fresh sanctions on Moscow have been held up by disagreement over whether the EU should make it easier for Russian fertiliser exports to pass through European ports, even in the case when the fertiliser companies are owned by blacklisted oligarchs.

Some say EU restrictions pose a food security threat to developing countries, while others argue that relaxing them would allow Russian oligarchs who own fertiliser businesses to dodge EU sanctions against them.

One EU diplomat said Poland and the Baltic states are telling other countries that they are deluding themselves if they think a relaxation on Russian fertilisers is not going to be abused as a loophole for oligarchs.

Some member states want the World Food Programme involved on authorisation for exports of fertilisers to countries that need it.

#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
The new list of "sanctioned" people includes not so many "oligarchs" (by the way, there are no oligarchs in Russia, well, almost*) but "influencers", including Telegram channels admins. That certainly is a new European high/low on the freedom of speech.
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* Oligarchs should have access to the power outside of their, business, minor or major bribery does not count. One of the greatest achievements of Putin was removal of that access.
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Nine people were injured during the shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian troops
During the shelling of Donetsk by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, nine people were injured, including a child

MOSCOW, December 15 - RIA Novosti. The number of people injured during the shelling of the Voroshilovsky and Kievsky districts of Donetsk by the Armed Forces of Ukraine has grown to nine people, the headquarters of the territorial defense of the DPR reported on Telegram.
"Nine people were injured, including a child born in 2012," the statement said.
As the mayor of the city Oleksiy Kulemzin pointed out in his Telegram channel, on the morning of December 15, Ukrainian troops launched the most massive strike on the city center since 2014.
So, according to the information of the DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes of Ukraine, at 07:00 the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired 40 rockets from the Grad MLRS at Voroshilovsky and Kievsky districts of Donetsk, and at 08:02 – three more shells of NATO caliber 155 millimeters in the Kyiv district.

Kulemzin specified that the square at the intersection of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Avenue and Universitetskaya Street, Shkolny Boulevard, Naberezhnaya Street and the area of the Covered Market in the Voroshilovsky District came under fire. There are hits in residential buildings – along Vatutin Avenue, Shkolny Boulevard, Mira Avenue, 50 Years of the USSR Street, Shevchenko Boulevard, Theater Avenue, near the railway hospital and campus. Kindergarten No. 15, school No. 2, Holy Transfiguration Cathedral, several buildings of DonNTU, student hospital were damaged.

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Pushilin said that Maryinka is already 80 percent free
Acting head of the DPR Pushilin announced the release of Maryinka by 80 percent

MOSCOW, December 15 - RIA Novosti. The city of Maryinka in the Donetsk People's Republic has already been liberated by more than 80 percent, Denis Pushilin, acting head of the region, said on Channel One.
"Fights are now going on in multi-storey buildings there, the enemy is still trying to hold on due to the fact that fortifications were built there long before that," he specified.
After the liberation of Maryinka, the Russian military will be able to advance towards Krasnogorovka. This will help stop shelling by the Armed Forces of Petrovsky district of Donetsk, Pushilin explained.
As the head of the region said on December 13, the allied forces blocked the supply routes for the Ukrainian troops to the Maryinka garrison, and even earlier they took all roads under operational fire control. This significantly worsened the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city.

In turn, LPR Police Colonel Vitaly Kiselev said at the same time that the Russian military had taken Maryinka in a tight ring, and fighting was going on in the city center. He confirmed that the route to Krasnohorivka, along which the Ukrainian troops were supplied, was under the control of the allied forces.

Recently, the Russian army has increased its activity in the Donetsk direction, including near Vuhledar and Avdiivka. The allied forces liberated Pavlovka, Opytnoe and Mayorsk, which opens up the prospect of not only further advancement in these territories, but also a reduction in the number of shelling of densely populated areas of the DPR.
On Thursday morning, Ukrainian troops fired 40 rockets from the Grad MLRS into two central districts of the capital of the DPR. The mayor of the city, Aleksey Kulemzin, said that the center of Donetsk was subjected to the most massive shelling since 2014.

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#Breaking Ukraine forces hit l strip mall and many other civilian locations In center Donetsk with rockets. My full report to come

Ukraine fired rockets on the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Center Donetsk. My oldest child was baptized here.

From PatrickLancaster
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​​Peaceful people of Donbass and their homes are targets for destruction by Western weapons

Yesterday, on December 14, a press conference 👈read the article, dedicated to the catastrophic consequences of the use of Western weapons against the civilian population of Donbass was held. Representatives of the foreign press and the public were invited to it.

Among the speakers are the Deputy Head of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC, the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the DPR, the Head physician of the Republican Center for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine of the DPR, and military experts of the JCCC.

The speakers paid special attention to the facts of the use of NATO-supplied rocket and artillery weapons by the AFU, and also provided evidence of indiscriminate and targeted shelling of places of mass congestion.

In the West they have paid attention to the loading of "Yars" into the underground missiles silo and believe that this is a signal for them.

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