Return of bodies of heroes, detention of "thieves in law": highlights of the day

Russian offensive

Despite significant losses, the Russians do not stop their offensive on the Bakhmut and Avdiyivka axes. They are also trying to improve the tactical situation on the Lyman axis.

Over the last day, units of the missile troops and artillery of the Ukrainian Defense Forces hit a control point, six clusters of manpower and military equipment of the enemy, an ammunition depot, as well as one other important military facility.

Return of bodies

On December 28, Ukraine returned the bodies of 42 more fallen soldiers. In total, since May 2022, the Office of the Commissioner for Missing Persons has returned home 869 slain defenders.

To report the disappearance of a serviceman, one should contact the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The hotline is available by phone: 0 800 339 247.

Travel of men abroad

The Cabinet plans to allow men liable for military service who have been exempted from mobilization to travel abroad, said Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

According to her, the government abandoned the program "eVidriadzhennia", which was supposed to allow men liable for military service to go abroad on business trips for up to seven days. It was planned that the service would be available to individual entrepreneurs and legal entities that meet certain conditions.

This is the law that the Parliament adopted in November. It has already been signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Currently, the Ministry of Economy has prepared a draft resolution that details and regulates the criteria and procedure for booking. The document is currently being approved.

Detention of "thieves in law"

Employees of the Prosecutor General's Office exposed two "thieves in law": "Umka" and "Lasha Svan". They were charged with establishing and spreading criminal influence, as well as participation in a "sit-down".

According to the investigation, being suspects in the case of spreading criminal influence, from December 2020 to March 2021 in Ukraine, they organized and participated in three meetings with representatives of criminals.

Emergency blackouts in the capital

The Kyiv City State Administration predicts that emergency power outages in the capital will continue throughout the winter. The deputy head of the Kyiv administration Petro Panteleev said that power outages in the capital on weekdays are still not planned. The situation with electricity remains difficult.

"We remember the last attack, it was difficult to restore. But round-the-clock work of power engineers provided us with the situation we are in now," he noted.

Other news:

• Gas boiler houses were shut down in Donetsk Oblast due to damage to the main gas pipeline in Kharkiv Oblast. Restoration works continue.
• Two columns of Russian military equipment were spotted moving in the direction of Berdiansk from the city of Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, temporarily occupied by the Russian occupation forces.
• In the temporarily occupied districts of Luhansk Oblast, against the background of significant losses of occupants' personnel, an increase in cases of desertion of Russian servicemen was noticed. They are leaving their combat positions.
• In the absence of new attacks by the occupiers, the New Year holidays will pass without emergency power cuts, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
• On December 27, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decree, which, in particular, terminated the powers of the current composition of independent members of the supervisory board of PrivatBank and appointed new ones.
• The Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized the challenged law on renaming the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as compliant with the Constitution of Ukraine. It obliged the UOC to indicate in its name the affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.
• Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau charged MP from the Servant of the People Yuriy Kamelchuk with false declaration.