The EU is talking about using not just the interest but the capital of what member states are holding (E210bn)
This report from the Kyiv Independent asserts that a number of Chechen fighters for Russia have been killed in a friendly fire incident by North Korean troops:
North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk Oblast killed eight members of a Russian unit in a “friendly fire” attack, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) claimed on Dec. 14.
[ellipsis]
While engaged in combat in Kursk Oblast, a group of North Korean soldiers opened fire on members of the Chechen Akhmat unit fighting for Russia, HUR reported via its official Telegram channel. The attack allegedly killed eight Russian soldiers.
The Kyiv Independent was unable to verify the report.
HUR said the incident was the result of the language barrier between Russian and North Korean troops, which continues to be a “difficult obstacle” on the battlefield.
There’s more information at that link on the NK soldiers.
It looks like the front fell off.
For those that don’t recognize this man doing Dark Brandon, it’s
Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov
Much more on the story and video of the explosions at:
Ukraine bombed a chemical plant. That’s ***risky if the chemicals get into the air and wipes out a town.
***Risky because of support from Europe
Link Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 18, 2024 | Institute for the Study of War
I think that with those particular chemicals, you can probably expect a whole lot of secondary explosion, and almost none of the material surviving intact into the environment.
I’d expect solid rocket fuel residue is pretty crappy for the environment, but it’s not like the Russians care about the environment in the first place. If they did, they wouldn’t be sailing riverine tankers past the Kerch Strait into the Black Sea where they get hit with large waves causing the front to fall off (which is not very typical, I’d like to make that clear).
Bravo! 
And here I thought all the chemical plants were in Ukraine? Or so certain media outlets assured me.
Anyhoo, Russia appears to be having a really bad day, at least according to Ukraine.
Germany delivers more miliary air defense.
Many Ukrainians are spending Christmas Day in shelters because Russia has launched a large missile barrage at Ukrainian cities. Evil fuckers.
If course Russia celebrates Christmas in early January so perhaps an attack today was predictable. It’s only very recently that Ukraine has shifted to celebrating Christmas on December 25th.
Curious because Wiki says of the religious in Ukraine (82%) 72.7% are Eastern Orthodox, far ahead of of the second largest group, 8.2% Ukrainian Greek Catholics. Perhaps their distaste of anything Russian made them change the date.
Bingo. The Ukrainian Orthodox church became autocephalous in 2019 (with the agreement of the Patriarch in Constantinople) as a big fuck you to the Patriarch of Moscow. There is a very long background history that reaches back to the Middle Ages, but the trigger was the obvious.
In May of 2023 they tossed the Julian calendar and adopted the Gregorian as a further extension of that separation from Russia and the Russian church.
Japan will transfer $3 billion of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.
This will allow Ukraine to transfer the assets as needed back to Russia.