An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country proposes starting a real peace process only "after the withdrawal of the occupying forces from its lands". target.

"Ukraine refuses to stop the war, give its lands to Russia, kill its sovereignty, accept the ultimatums of the occupier, and refuse to prosecute war criminals," added Mikhalio Podolyak, assistant to the Ukrainian President.

🇺🇦 indeed refuses to "stop the war", giving its territories to RF, killing its sovereignty, accepting the ultimatum of the occupier & refusing to prosecute war criminals.


🇺🇦 proposes to start a real peace process only after the withdrawal of occupation troops from our territory.

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) December 30, 2022

For his part, Zelensky announced a further expansion of the country's air defenses, amid renewed Russian missile attacks targeting it.

"In the new year, the Ukrainian air defense will become stronger and more effective," he said on Friday in his daily video address, adding that this step could make the Ukrainian air defenses the strongest in all of Europe.

This will be a guarantee of security not only for our country, but for the entire continent."

The Ukrainian president also confirmed that the Ukrainian forces are sticking to their positions in the face of the Russian forces in the Donbass region, in the east of the country, and are making slight progress in some areas.

"In general, we are holding our positions... There are also some areas on the front where we are making little progress," he added in his nightly speech yesterday.

Zelensky also spoke of a "clear strategy" to secure the generation and distribution of electricity.

He said: "It takes a lot of effort, but it will work.. It is one of the most important tasks for the next year, and I have no doubt that we will master it."

Russia has been bombing Ukraine's power grid since last October, causing frequent and prolonged power outages and water supplies.

And Ukraine announced earlier Friday that it had repelled a night attack with explosive marches launched by Russia, less than 24 hours after the massive bombing of energy facilities, which deprived millions of Ukrainians of electricity.

On Friday morning, the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that it had shot down 16 Iranian-made drones that were launched to target transformers and power stations.


Russian army losses

In turn, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov believes that due to the level of losses of the Russian army in Ukraine, it has lost its strength and will need at least 5 years to recover.

"According to the intelligence of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Russians suffered heavy losses in tanks, artillery, armored personnel carriers and soldiers," the Ukrainian newspaper "Ukranska Pravda" quoted Friday.

"It will not be possible to restore the regular armed forces of the Russian Federation before 5 years at the earliest, maybe 10 years," he said, adding that the same goes for Russian missile stockpiles.

Escape from military service

On the other hand, the Ukrainian border guards announced on Friday that nearly 12,000 men had been arrested trying to illegally cross the border into Western countries.

It added that 15 men died while illegally crossing the border.

According to information, two men froze to death in the mountainous Carpathians on their way to Romania.

Since the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine, thousands of young Ukrainians have tried to escape military service.

In contrast, thousands of young men in Russia have also tried to evade military service.

After the mobilization announced in Russia last September, thousands fled abroad, and small Russian settlement areas appeared in some republics of the former Soviet Union.


Exemption from income tax

For its part, the Russian authorities announced Friday that they had decided to exempt soldiers and state employees deployed in Ukraine from income tax, as part of its efforts to mobilize support for its war in Ukraine.

The new measure relates to all Russians fighting in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia announced its annexation, although it still did not fully control it, which are Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye.

The decree stated that members of the army, police, security forces and other state employees who serve in the four regions will no longer have to provide information regarding their "income, expenses and assets".

The decree also gives them the right to receive "bonuses and gifts" if they are of a "humanitarian nature" and were received within the framework of the military operation in Ukraine.

The decree applies to their spouses and their children, and it is being applied retroactively from February 24, 2022, the day Russia launched its military operations in Ukraine.

The Kremlin launched a series of incentives for Russians to push them to fight in Ukraine, from financial incentives to banking and real estate-related facilities, while pledging to provide financial assistance to families in the event of the death or injury of their loved ones.