Russia on Friday reported seizing eight cities and towns over the past week, while Ukraine claimed on the same day that its forces had stabilized the situation in the direction of Kupyansk, according to two separate statements released by the two sides.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in its latest report that over the past week, its forces had controlled eight cities and towns, including Seversk, over the past week in the special military operation zone.
It also said that in response to Ukraine's attacks on the civilian facilities in Russia, the Russian armed forces had launched one large-scale attack and five coordinated attacks from Dec 6 to Dec 12.
The targets included Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises and their associated fuel and energy facilities, transportation infrastructure, and airports and ports used for Ukrainian military operations, as well as temporary deployment points of the Ukrainian armed forces and foreign mercenaries.
The National Guard of Ukraine reported advances in the direction of Kupyansk, controlling two settlements and multiple districts in the northern part of the city and cutting off Russia's supply lines to the strategic hub.
It said the situation in the direction of Kupyansk had been stabilized.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Friday that its forces had attacked a Russian oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region, aiming to cut off the Russian military's fuel supply chain.
It also said that on the same day, the Ukrainian forces had launched multiple attacks in the direction of Donetsk, destroying a Russian ammunition depot and hitting a concentration site of Russian personnel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday on X that he had visited the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine.
During the visit, he met with the Ukrainian troops to mark the Land Forces Day and presented state awards to them.
Kupyansk, a key rail and road logistics hub, has seen intense battles since the autumn of 2024. In November this year, the Russian forces claimed that they had captured the city, according to local media reports.
Russia reports seizing settlements as Ukraine claims gains in direction of Kupyansk
A Canadian historian has shed light on how the horrors of the Nanjing Massacre were largely forgotten in North America, making it susceptible for distortion and denial of crucial facts.
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG), David Wright, an associate professor at the Department of History in the University of Calgary's Faculty of Arts, emphasized that the truth of the massacre in Nanjing is beyond dispute, yet several generations later, the West has not adequately preserved the memories of this history.
"My mother's and father's generation, they were alive when the Rape of Nanking happened. They were horrified to listen to reports on radios. And especially after the war was over, when the Tokyo war crime trials began, a lot more detail about the Rape of Nanking came out. In North America, the wartime generation remembered it and remembered it well. But then the next generation, my generation, baby boomers, that abhorrence was not passed on to us adequately well," Wright said.
The notorious Nanjing Massacre by Japanese troops led to over 300,000 deaths in 1937. According to the historian, the accuracy of this figure is supported by a robust body of evidence, but Japan's right-wing forces have nonetheless attempted to deny the number of victims as well as the severity of the crimes. Often, these claims rely on the absence of physical remains of the victims.
"They're dumped into the river. They're burned, a lot of them. You cannot find the remains. So they think they can find one or two errors you've made about photographs and from that conclude that the entire Rape of Nanking never happened. It's just nonsense. There is abundant evidence that something very, very terrible did happen in Nanjing," Wright said.
"And the people who deny it, I mean, historically they are nihilists. For them, history is all about image, not about fact. And if that thing really did happen in Nanjing, that's an inconvenient fact and they want to try to erase it by denying it," he added.
The Nanjing Massacre occurred after Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital on Dec. 13, 1937. Over six weeks, they killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.
Truth of Nanjing Massacre allows no distortion: Canadian historian
Truth of Nanjing Massacre allows no distortion: Canadian historian
