​ 21 months after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced new sanctions against hundreds of Russian entities and individuals directly involved in or supporting the war. On the battlefield, Russia is dropping “waves” of troops around the Ukrainian Avdiyivka, suffering heavy losses, trying to seize strategically important territory on the eastern front, the Ukrainian military claims.

Basic information about the war in Ukraine, day 639, LIVETEXT:

07:55 Air defense systems shot down 13 Ukrainian drones over Crimea and three more over the Volgograd region on Friday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported with reference to RIA Novosti.

A brief summary of recent events:

• In his video message on Thursday evening, Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced that today Ukraine introduced two new packages of sanctions – against more than 300 Russian legal entities and 150 individuals who are directly involved in or support Russian military aggression.
• In the battles near Avdiivka on November 22, Russia would have used several armored columns, but the attacks were not successful and the losses would have amounted to about 80% of the units, Kyiv Independent writes.
• VIDEO Military film: Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov filmed the battle of his platoon near Avdiivka from the trenches
• Polish truck drivers with the support of farmers blocked a new checkpoint on the border with Ukraine / Thousands of trucks are stuck on the border in the cold. Two Ukrainian drivers died
• NATO will become increasingly involved in the military conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin believes. This will not change the goals of the Russian special operation,” says Peskov
• Ukraine asked for emergency help from Romania due to electricity shortage
• A Russian journalist who Moscow says was wounded during a Ukrainian strike in the Zaporizhzhia region has died of his injuries, Russian media reported on Thursday, AFP reports.
• “It’s like having the crown jewels stolen.” Old and rare books have disappeared from the great libraries of Eastern Europe, and all traces lead to Moscow
• A Russian man who was detained in Latvia for spying for Moscow died in prison due to sudden health problems
• The Russian parliament has adopted the budget for 2024, according to which military spending will increase to more than a third of total government spending, the independent Russian publication Meduza reports, the Kyiv Independent reports. Combined with the funding of domestic law enforcement agencies, this figure rises to 40 percent.
• Russian military bloggers have new grievances against Russia’s military command over what they perceive as poor choices that contribute to casualties, the Institute for the Study of War says.
• The EU takes the first step to convince Viktor Orbán to support Ukraine: the European Commission approved advance payments to Hungary in the amount of EUR 900 million
• A close friend of Putin denies that he adopted a Ukrainian woman deported to Russia

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Thursday’s events related to Russian aggression were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro