Strike on Ternopil, Scholz's visit, and fatal accident in Dnipro: highlights for December 2

Shelling of Ternopil

On the night of December 2, Russian troops attacked with 110 Shahed and other attack drones. 52 of them were shot down.

In Ternopil, a Russian drone hit a high-rise building. One person was killed and three others were injured. More than 100 people were evacuated from the building, where fire broke out in apartments on the upper floors.

The blast damaged the windows of neighboring buildings, a school, and 20 cars.

Scholz's visit

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit.

During his visit, he visited Ukrainian soldiers who had been wounded at the front and inspected products with automatic target detection and engagement systems: FPV drones, ground robotic systems, and a drone swarm control system.

At the end of his visit, Scholz announced that Ukraine would receive another €650 million military aid package by the end of this year, which will include the sixth IRIS-T air defense system.

Car accident in Dnipro

On the evening of December 1, two cars collided in Dnipro. A 10-year-old girl died in the accident. Two other young children were injured.

According to police, the accident occurred at 19:45 in the area of Naberezhna Zavodska Street in Dnipro. It has been preliminarily established that the driver of a BMW near the Children's Factory public transport stop collided with a Ford car that was making a U-turn.

Information was spread on social media that the car was allegedly driven by a 17-year-old boy who had already been involved in another accident. In the summer, he hit two girls on a pedestrian crossing.

Eventually, the police served the 19-year-old BMW driver with the notice of suspicion, and the 17-year-old boy was served with the notice of suspicion of failing to help a person in a life-threatening condition.

6 more children returned from occupation

Six more children have been returned from the temporarily occupied territories to the free land of Ukraine.

The children were returned as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.

One of these children is 14-year-old Diana from Donetsk region. The girl spent most of her life under occupation. At her school, children were forced to come at 7:30 am and sing the Russian national anthem in any weather until classes started.

The organization says that all the educational work of the institution was aimed at raising soldiers who are ready to fight at any cost. Therefore, all children from elementary school were taught to march and shoot from a machine gun.

Zelenskyy's thousand is not available to Ukrainians abroad

The state will verify the assistance provided under the winter program “eSupport”. Those who apply for a thousand hryvnias abroad will have to return it, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

As the official explained, when registering an application, citizens declare that they are on the territory of Ukraine. They will also be checked by software, including registers and geolocation.

US disappointed with Ukraine's unwillingness to lower mobilization age

The administration of US President Joe Biden is in the final stages of negotiations to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of additional weapons. At the same time, U.S. officials are frustrated by Ukraine's refusal to lower the mobilization age to 18.

Some administration officials believe that regardless of what the US does, without an increase in the number of troops, the Ukrainian army will remain at a disadvantage to continue the war.

“Amid the accelerating supply of weapons, frustration is growing with the Ukrainian leadership, which has resisted U.S. calls to lower the draft age from 25 to 18,” the Washington Post writes.

The newspaper notes that in recent weeks, Russian troops have seized Ukrainian territory “at the fastest pace since 2022, alarming Washington”.

Instant transfer system launched in Ukraine

On December 1, a new version of the National Bank of Ukraine's electronic payment system, which provides for instant credit transfers, was launched in Ukraine. They are already available in ten banks.

It is noted that such a payment transaction is provided for by the amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Payment Services” that came into force on November 8.

The NBU assures that the transition to the new version of the software was successful, and now instant transfers of the electronic payment system (EPS) are available to all those connected to the system: banks, non-bank payment service providers, and the State Treasury Service of Ukraine.

Threat to corruption whistleblowers: journalists and human rights activists sound the alarm

Ukrainian media professionals are calling on MPs not to adopt a draft law to increase liability for publishing information from public electronic registers.

Draft law No. 10242 proposes to amend an article of the Criminal Code, in particular, to increase criminal liability during the war for disclosure of data from state registers to 8 years in prison. At the same time, there is no provision for exemption from liability for corruption whistleblowers.

Mykhailo Tkach, a journalist at Ukrainska Pravda, notes that even the current legislation poses a threat to corruption whistleblowers. Even if the court finds that the information they disclose is in the public interest, they may be subject to criminal prosecution.

Other important news:

• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the recent reshuffle in the Armed Forces will not be the last;
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine condemned human rights violations and the use of force against protesters in Georgia. The ministry also responded to Tbilisi's statements about the “Maidan scenario”, which allegedly would not be allowed in Georgia;
• Law enforcers have completed the investigation into the case of former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi on the seizure of state land;
• Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional the rules restricting the right of employees to annual paid vacation during martial law;
• The United States is preparing to provide Ukraine with a new military aid package worth $725 million.