Victory Chronicles-DAY 1023

According to Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) without including provisions for landmark support for Ukraine. 

The NDAA, which received support from 281 members of Congress, will now move on to be approved by the U.S. Senate. However, the budget does not include funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which was allocated $300 million in last year’s law. Additionally, the approved version of the NDAA does not extend the law on lend-lease for Ukraine, despite initial expectations. The Senate version of the NDAA did include a provision to extend the term of the Ukraine Democracy Assistance Act, but it was not included in the bill approved by the House of Representatives. 

Markarova emphasized that the Embassy is actively working to preserve this mechanism, as outlined in the bipartisan and bicameral “Stand with Ukraine Act.”

According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with CBN, during the war in Ukraine, Russian occupiers destroyed around 700 churches and killed 50 priests. The Russian troops treated churches and schools roughly, destroying them to eliminate any trace of Ukrainian identity. The president highlighted that there is evidence of how the Russian occupiers tortured the priests in various ways. 

10 dead in Zaporizhzhia as a result of Russian missile strike on 10 December. Twenty-two people were injured. Emergency rescue operations continue. There are probably still people under the rubble of the building.

The Bureviy Brigade, along with the AHILLES Battalion, successfully defended against an enemy mechanized attack in the Kupyansk sector. The enemy suffered heavy losses as a result, with 33 personnel casualties, 3 FPV kamikaze drones destroyed, 2 shelters, 2 tanks, 2 infantry fighting vehicles, and 4 MTLBS vehicles destroyed. This successful defense was achieved through the effective use of artillery, FPV strike drones, and coordinated actions by the personnel involved. The information about these losses comes from operational reports provided by NGU units.

Russian forces continue to make tactical gains south of Pokrovsk as they attack into Ukrainian weak points and attempt to conduct a turning maneuver to directly assault Pokrovsk from the south. Geolocated footage published on December 10 indicates that Russian forces have advanced in western Novyi Trud and along the E50 highway south of Dachenske, narrowing the small pocket west of the E50 highway and south of the Novyi Trud-Dachenske line.

This advance places Russian forces about six kilometers south of Pokrovsk. Russian forces will likely continue efforts to close the pocket between Novyi Trud and Dachenske in the coming days, as doing so will provide them a stronger position from which to assault Shevchenko (just northwest of Novyi Trud and southwest of Pokrovsk). Ukrainian Khortytsia Group of Forces Spokesperson Colonel Nazar Voloshyn noted on December 11 that Russian forces attacked Ukrainian fortifications west of Novyi Trud, south of Novotroitske (southwest of Shevchenko), and on the southwestern outskirts of Shevchenko itself. Voloshyn reported that Ukrainian forces lost two positions during these attacks and are working to restore them. A Ukrainian battalion commander operating near Pokrovsk characterized the situation in this direction as “critical,” largely because each Russian battalion-sized formation receives about 200 fresh personnel per month.

The Ukrainian commander also emphasized that Russian forces are attacking Ukrainian positions up to 30 times per day and have an advantage in artillery fires—suggesting that Russian forces are currently relying on a superior number of personnel and artillery ammunition to secure tactical gains in the Pokrovsk direction. ISW recently assessed that the Russian command has resumed offensive operations to seize Pokrovsk via a turning maneuver from the south, but that this maneuver is coming at a massive cost to Russian manpower and equipment

 Another Ukrainian brigade officer reported that Russian forces lost nearly 3,000 personnel in the Pokrovsk direction in two weeks. Continued Russian losses at this scale will impose a mounting cost on Russia’s already-strained force generation apparatus. Russian forces may well continue making gains towards Pokrovsk, but the losses they are taking to do so will temper their ability to translate these gains into more far-reaching offensive operations.

Viacheslav “Khmil” Zalevskyi was killed on 30 May 2024 while performing a combat mission on the territory of the Serebrianka forestry near the village of Hryhorivka in Donetsk region. He was killed as a result of an enemy munition drop from a UAV. On 12 December, the fighter would have turned 25 years old.

Viacheslav was born in the village of Pykovets, Vinnytsia region. He graduated from Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University with a degree in History and Law. In civilian life, he worked as a bartender in Vinnytsia. In 2019, he joined the reconstructionist movement. He took part in a number of military and patriotic festivals, educational and memorial events in Berdychiv, Vinnytsia, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Kyiv, Lviv and other cities. As a volunteer, he actively helped the Vinnytsia History Centre and later the Vinnytsia Museum, and participated in international, national, and regional museum projects and exhibitions.

In early 2024, the man voluntarily joined the ranks of the 12th Special Forces Brigade ‘Azov’ of the National Guard of Ukraine. He served in a mortar crew.

‘My son could have avoided going to war and no one would have judged him, as he had congenital eye disease and had been blind in one eye since birth. But the military uniform was his dream. Many volunteer units rejected Slavik, but Azov accepted him on the third try. He said to me: ‘Mum, don’t cry, I chose my own path. The path of a warrior. Who else but me’. I love and am proud of my son through pain and despair,’ Natalia Zalevska said.

Viacheslav was buried in his native village. He is survived by his parents and two younger brothers.

*Viacheslav’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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