Ukraine’s power grid destroyed on ‘colossal’ scale after Russian strikes
The head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has described the damage dealt to Ukrainian power-generating facilities by Russian missile attacks as “colossal”.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive officer of Ukrenergo, told a briefing that practically no thermal or hydroelectric stations had been left unscathed by the Russian attacks.
Kudrytskyi said:
The scale of destruction is colossal. In Ukraine there is a power generation deficit. We cannot generate as much energy as consumers can use.
He said Ukrainians could face long power outages but that his company wanted to help provide the conditions for people to stay in the country through winter.
Ukraine had enough fuel reserves after building them up before Russia’s invasion, he said, and was working hard to repair damaged infrastructure but was hoping to secure some spare parts abroad.
People from the two southern regions, which were shelled regularly by Russian forces in the past months, have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and western parts of the country, amid fears that the damage to infrastructure caused by the war is too severe for people to endure the winter.
Asked about the proposals to evacuate some cities worst hit by energy shortages, Kudrytskyi said such calls were “inappropriate”.
The head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has described the damage dealt to Ukrainian power-generating facilities by Russian missile attacks as “colossal”. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi alsodismissedcalls to evacuate civilians from some cities worst hit by energy shortages as “inappropriate”.
Ukrainians are likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said, as the government started free evacuations for people in Kherson to other regions. Half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been damaged by Russian attacks, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said, leaving millions of people without electricity and water as winter sets in and temperatures drop below freezing.
Russia’s Gazprom has threatened to cut its gas flows to Europe via Ukraine as early as next week. In a statement, the Russian state-owned energy giant said some gas flows being kept in Ukraine were actually meant for Moldova, and accused Kyiv of obstructing the delivery of 52.52m cubic metres from transiting to Moldova.
Ukraine’s SBU security service and police have raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”.
Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid distribution centre in the town of Orihiv in south-eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing a volunteer and wounding two women, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, gave no further details of the attack on Orihiv, about 70 miles east of the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station which has been shelled in the past few days.
The EU will give a further €2.5bn (£2.2bn) to Ukraine for the reconstruction of the country, the head of the bloc’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen,has announced. Zelenskiysaid he was “grateful” and that the aid would make “a strong contribution to the stability of Ukraine on the eve of a difficult winter”.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has warned his country must be prepared for the situation in Ukraine to escalate. This could include the destruction of infrastructure, he added while speaking at a conference in Berlin.
Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate top officials in war crimes, the US state department’s ambassador for global criminal justice said Monday. There is mounting evidence that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has been accompanied by systemic war crimes committed in every region where Russian forces have been deployed”, said the US ambassador at large, Beth Van Schaack.
Ukraine will summon the ambassador of Hungary to demand an apology after its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, appeared in public wearing a scarf depicting some Ukrainian territory as part of Hungary, the foreign ministry said.
The Polish president spoke to a hoax caller pretending to be France’s Emmanuel Macron on the night that a missile hit a village near the Ukrainian border, his office has admitted. “Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful,” Duda tells the caller in a recording of the call posted on the internet. “I don’t want to have war with Russia and believe me, I am extra careful, extra careful.”
Ukrainian refugees in the UK are experiencing difficulties accessing private rented accommodation because they are unable to secure guarantors or references, the Office for National Statistics has revealed.
The World Health Organization has warned that Ukraine’s health system is “facing its darkest days in the war so far”. The WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, called for a “humanitarian health corridor” to be created to all areas of Ukraine newly recaptured by Kyiv, as well as those occupied by Russian forces.
Russian troops havebeen accused of burning bodies at a landfill on the edge of Kherson during their occupation. Residents and workers at the site told the Guardian they saw Russian open trucks arriving to the site carrying black bags that were then set on fire, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke and a stench of burning flesh.
Canada has announced new sanctions against Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s administration for supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The foreign ministry said it would sanction 22 more Belarusian officials as well as 16 Belarusian companies involved in military manufacturing, technology, engineering, banking and railway transportation.
The officials included some who were “complicit in the stationing and transport of Russian military personnel and equipment involved in the invasion of Ukraine”.
In a statement, the Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly accused Lukashenko’s regime of “letting its territory serve as a launching pad for Russia’s egregious attacks against Ukraine”.
By doing so, Belarus was “enabling the Russian regime’s human rights violations in places such as Bucha, Izium and Mariupol and contributing to the pain and suffering of millions around the globe that has resulted from President Putin’s weaponization of food and energy”, she continued.
Russian-installed officials in the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, said Russian air defences were activated after two drones were shot down.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-installed governor of the Sevastopol, said on Telegram:
There is an attack with drones. Our air defence forces are working right now.
Two drones had “already been shot down”, he said. No civilian infrastructure had been damaged, he added, urging people to stay calm.
Sevastopol is the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. In October, Russia blamed Ukraine for an attack on the port using air and marine drones.
Russia threatens to reduce gas flows to Europe via Ukraine next week
Russia’s Gazprom has threatened to cut its gas flows to Europe via Ukraine as early as next week.
In a statement, the Russian state-owned energy giant said some gas flows being kept in Ukraine were actually meant for Moldova, and accused Kyiv of obstructing the delivery of 52.52m cubic metres from transiting to Moldova.
It said:
The volume of gas supplied by Gazprom ... for transit to Moldova via Ukraine is more than the physical volume transmitted at the border of Ukraine with Moldova.
It went on to say that would “begin reducing gas supply” on Monday 28 November if the “transit imbalance through Ukraine for Moldovan consumers persists”.
The Ukraine pipeline is the last remaining pipeline still bringing Russian natural gas to western Europe after Gazprom shut off its flows via Nord Stream 1.
Ukraine has denied the allegations, saying that all the gas volumes bound to Moldovan consumers have been transferred “in the full amount”.
Officials from Iran and Ukraine have met to discuss allegations that Russia is using Iranian-made attack drones in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson.
Earlier this month, Iran acknowledged for the first time that it supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine. Russia denies its forces have used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
Oleg Nikolenko told CNN:
Such an expert meeting did take place. I cannot disclose the details, but I can assure you that the Ukrainian side continues to take the most drastic measures to prevent the use of Iranian weapons by Russia for the war against Ukraine.
He added:
Ukraine has informed Iran that the consequences of complicity in the Russian aggression will be incommensurable with the potential benefits of cooperation with Russia.
Here are some images we have received from the frontline in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier gestures as a captured Russian tank T-80 fires at the Russian position in Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photograph: Libkos/AP
Ukrainian servicemen fire a mortar on a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine, in this handout image by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Photograph: Ukrainian Armed Forces/Reuters
Ukrainian army fires a captured Russian tank T-80 at the Russian position in Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photograph: Libkos/AP
Ukrainian authorities have warned citizens not to head into the woods without consulting the military, because Russian troops may have left behind mines, tripwires and unexploded shells.
But with the price of firewood rising, many have no choice but to take the risk. If a mine doesn’t kill them, the cold might.
While people living in houses can burn wood – if they can get it – those who live in flats often rely on old Soviet centralised heating systems. The Russians have bombed many of the country’s thermal power plants, which used to pump hot water into the flats’ radiators.
The head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has described the damage dealt to Ukrainian power-generating facilities by Russian missile attacks as “colossal”. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi alsodismissedcalls to evacuate civilians from some cities worst hit by energy shortages as “inappropriate”.
Ukrainians are likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said, as the government started free evacuations for people in Kherson to other regions. Half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been damaged by Russian attacks, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said, leaving millions of people without electricity and water as winter sets in and temperatures drop below freezing.
Ukraine’s SBU security service and police have raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”.
Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid distribution centre in the town of Orihiv in south-eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing a volunteer and wounding two women, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, gave no further details of the attack on Orihiv, about 70 miles east of the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station which has been shelled in the past few days.
The EU will give a further €2.5bn (£2.2bn) to Ukraine for the reconstruction of the country, the head of the bloc’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen,has announced. Zelenskiysaid he was “grateful” and that the aid would make “a strong contribution to the stability of Ukraine on the eve of a difficult winter”.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has warned his country must be prepared for the situation in Ukraine to escalate. This could include the destruction of infrastructure, he added while speaking at a conference in Berlin.
Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate top officials in war crimes, the US state department’s ambassador for global criminal justice said Monday. There is mounting evidence that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has been accompanied by systemic war crimes committed in every region where Russian forces have been deployed”, said the US ambassador at large, Beth Van Schaack.
Ukraine will summon the ambassador of Hungary to demand an apology after its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, appeared in public wearing a scarf depicting some Ukrainian territory as part of Hungary, the foreign ministry said.
The Polish president spoke to a hoax caller pretending to be France’s Emmanuel Macron on the night that a missile hit a village near the Ukrainian border, his office has admitted. “Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful,” Duda tells the caller in a recording of the call posted on the internet. “I don’t want to have war with Russia and believe me, I am extra careful, extra careful.”
Ukrainian refugees in the UK are experiencing difficulties accessing private rented accommodation because they are unable to secure guarantors or references, the Office for National Statistics has revealed.
The World Health Organization has warned that Ukraine’s health system is “facing its darkest days in the war so far”. The WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, called for a “humanitarian health corridor” to be created to all areas of Ukraine newly recaptured by Kyiv, as well as those occupied by Russian forces.
Russian troops havebeen accused of burning bodies at a landfill on the edge of Kherson during their occupation. Residents and workers at the site told the Guardian they saw Russian open trucks arriving to the site carrying black bags that were then set on fire, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke and a stench of burning flesh.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
The Japanese government has announced it will provide Ukraine with generators and solar lanterns as emergency grant aid worth an equivalent of $2.57m (£2.16m).
In a statement, it said:
The large-scale blackout has occurred in various areas of Ukraine caused by destruction of a large part of energy infrastructure facilities.
While the winter gets colder and days get shorter every day in Ukraine, the aid has significant importance as winterisation support for those who cannot use heating facilities and lighting equipment due to the blackout.
Japan will continue to “support and stand by” the people of Ukraine “who are facing hardship”, it added.
Perched as it is in an upmarket neighbourhood overlooking the scenic Vondelpark, it is not hard to imagine why a Russian billionaire would have been interested in the 1879 five-storey Amsterdam property with a lush private garden.
That billionaire was Arkady Volozh, a co-founder of Russia’s biggest search engine, Yandex. He bought the £3m house in 2019, becoming one of the dozens of wealthy Russians who have invested in property in the Dutch capital.
Banners outside the building owned by Arkady Volozh in Amsterdam. Photograph: Pjotr Sauer/The Guardian
But since October, the mansion, which had been undergoing extensive refurbishment, has been taken over by a group of squatters, who issued a statement saying they had done so in a protest against Volozh’s reported ties to the Kremlin, and the wider housing crisis in Amsterdam.
Last Wednesday, a Dutch court ruled the squatters did not have to vacate the property.
Arkady Volozh was placed under EU sanctions in June. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
When the Guardian visited the house, it was hung with banners criticising the war in Ukraine. The Guardian was refused entry to the apartment by one of the squatters, who declined to give her name, citing security issues.
Lighting a cigarette, the squatter said she was relieved by the judge’s verdict. “The law is finally on our side,” she smiled.
A video message recorded by the Ukrainian Nobel peace laureate, Oleksandra Matviichuk, has been beamed on to the building of the Red Bull Formula One racing headquarters outside London, appealing to the world champion driver Max Verstappen to use his influence to persuade Red Bull to pull out of Russia.
Unlike many global brands, Red Bull has refused to cut ties with Putin’s Russia and the energy drink is still on sale in supermarkets across the country.
She said:
This is a message to Max Verstappen and all Red Bull athletes. My name is Oleksandra Matviichuk, I am a Ukrainian human rights defender and head of the Centre for Civil Liberties. I know that driving a Formula One racing car is dangerous, but for millions of people it’s very dangerous just to be in Ukraine. I am in Kyiv and we, like other Ukrainian cities, are constantly being shelled by Russian rockets.
Max, you are a leading brand ambassador of Red Bull. Can you please ask them: why is Red Bull still on sale in Russia while so many global brands have pulled out? Why do Red Bull still continue to help Russia to finance this war? I ask for your support to convince Red Bull to stop their business in Russia.
I do believe that Red Bull must abandon Russian money but not people.
I do believe that western companies must abandon Russian money, but not people. This is a message to Max Verstappen and all Red Bull athletes. #StandWithUkrainehttps://t.co/XdC1ZEysUh
The Polish president spoke to a hoax caller pretending to be France’s Emmanuel Macron on the night that a missile hit a village near the Ukrainian border, his office has admitted.
In a seven-and-a-half minute recording of the call posted on the internet by Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus, Polish president Andrzej Duda can be heard speaking in English to the caller, who attempts to put on a French accent.
The call, the second time in recent years that the pranksters from Russia have succeeded in getting through to Duda, came on an evening when the world feared that the conflict in Ukraine could spill beyond its borders, Reuters reported.
“Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful,” Duda tells the caller. “I don’t want to have war with Russia and believe me, I am extra careful, extra careful.”
Duda’s office wrote on Twitter:
After the missile explosion in Przewodow, during the ongoing calls with heads of state and government, a person claiming to be French president Emmanuel Macron was connected.
During the call, President Andrzej Duda realised from the unusual way the interlocutor conducted the conversation that there might have been an attempted hoax attempt and ended the conversation.
Germany ‘must be ready for an escalation in Ukraine’, warns Scholz
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has warned his country must be prepared for the situation in Ukraine to escalate.
Speaking at a conference in Berlin hosted by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Scholz said:
In view of the development of the war and Russia’s visible and growing failures ... we must be ready for an escalation.
This could include the destruction of infrastructure, he added.
Scholz visited China earlier this month to meet its president, Xi Jinping, a trip he said was worth it alone for spelling out the two countries’ joint stance against using nuclear weapons.
In the first visit by a G7 leader to China since the Covid pandemic, Scholz pressed Xi to prevail on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.
In a readout of the meeting by Chinese state media, Xi agreed that both leaders “jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons” over Ukraine, though he refrained from criticising Russia or calling on Moscow to withdraw its troops.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, has claimed Russia is preparing for a second round of mobilisation in January, with plans to draft up to 700,000 reservists.
Moscow called up more than 300,000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine in September, a move that prompted hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid being conscripted.
In a tweet, Gerashchenko said – without providing evidence – that those 300,000 men who had already been drafted had been killed, wounded or demoralised.
Russia is getting ready for 2nd wave of mobilization in January. The plan is to draft 500,000-700,000. The 300,000 drafted before - already killed/wounded/demoralized.
Russians are starting to be quietly unhappy about authorities - they can't understand losses in praised army.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters yesterday that it was not discussing calling up more Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine through a second round of mobilisation.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he was “grateful” to the EU and the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, after she announced a further €2.5bn in aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said the aid would make “a strong contribution to the stability of Ukraine on the eve of a difficult winter”.
🇺🇦 received another tranche of #EU macro-fin aid worth €2.5 billion. A strong contribution to the stability of 🇺🇦 on the eve of a difficult winter. Grateful to the EU & @vonderleyen for solidarity and support. Waiting for the approval of €18 billion macro-fin program for 2023.
