KYIV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold a year-end news conference on December 19 as he and his military leaders continue their efforts to bolster domestic morale and maintain Western support as the war with Russia heads toward its third bloody and destructive year.
Zelenskiy's office on December 18 said the exact time and place of the meeting with the press will be disclosed to reporters prior to the gathering, as security measures remain in place in the face of continued Russian drone and missile attacks throughout the country, including in the capital, Kyiv.
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Zelenskiy last held a news conference on February 24, the anniversary of the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy, moved to walk back his earlier comments indicating that the long war had reached a "stalemate," raising concerns with some Western backers about the apparent slow pace of Kyiv's latest counteroffensive.
"We cannot afford any stalemate," Zelenskiy said on November 15 following Zaluzhniy's remarks.
Asked on December 18 whether the situation had reached a statement, Zaluzhniy responded, "No," although he declined to say if a new counteroffensive was planned for winter.
"This is a war. I can't say what I plan, what we should do. Otherwise, it will be a show, not a war," the general was quoted as saying by RBK Ukraine.
Separately, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on December 17 said it launched a probe into the discovery of a possible listening device "at a place that could potentially be a working site" of Zaluzhniy's.
The SBU said the device was not functional and no traces of compiled materials or devices capable of transferring audio information to remote sites were found. The device was given to forensic experts, the SBU said.
Media had reported earlier in the day that an eavesdropping device had been found in one of Zaluzhniy's offices.
Fatigue And Frustration As Ukraine Soldiers On
On the battlefield, Russia launched five drones at four Ukrainian regions early on December 18, but the attacks were repelled by Ukrainian air defenses, the military said.
"All five drones were shot down by air-defense mobile groups in the Mykolayiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskiy regions," the air force said in a statement, without saying whether there were casualties or damage from falling debris.
On the diplomatic front, the European Union on December 18 adopted its 12th round of sanctions against Russia "in view of the continued Russian war of aggression against Ukraine."
"These measures deliver a further blow to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s ability to wage war by targeting high-value sectors of the Russian economy and making it more difficult to circumvent EU sanctions," it said.