Ukraine announced an attack on two Russian ships transporting military equipment

On December 12, the Ukrainian special forces announced on Telegram that they coordinated with the “local resistance force” Black Spark to carry out a plan to target two ships off the coast of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia.

They said the ships targeted were the Composer Rakhmaninoff and the Askar-Sarydzha, which have been sanctioned by the US for allegedly transporting military goods between Iran and Russia.

Black Spark provided detailed information about the travel schedule as well as the goods on the two ships for Ukrainian special forces to attack. Ukraine did not detail the method of attack or the extent of damage to the two ships.

Russia has not commented on the information.

On the same day, Ukraine said it had reclaimed two villages in the Kharkov region, in the north of the country, and pushed back Russian troops at Kupyansk, an important railway center that Russia announced it had seized last month.

“Kindrashivka, Radkivka and suburban areas have been liberated, as well as some neighborhoods in the north of Kupyansk,” the Khartia battalion announced on social networks.

The Russian army said in late November that it had regained control of the city of Kupyansk, which its forces first captured in 2022 but was later recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

Russia in recent months has claimed to have achieved many advances on the battlefield, pushing Ukrainian forces into a passive position. Kiev has repeatedly rejected information from Moscow about major steps forward, emphasizing that this is an attempt to propagate that Ukraine is about to collapse, thereby influencing negotiations to end the conflict.

Washington is pushing Kiev to accept major territorial concessions, as part of a US plan to end nearly four years of fighting.