Dec 1 Buonasera Mag
Day 281: Dnipro Polohy RUpoll Madrid Raytheon USaid UN EU Switerland FR GER Serbia- A&Ps- EUComm Avdeeva Martin Klain Pevkur Davis Szabolcs Tokariuk Barbieri
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
Ukrainian intelligence: Russia stockpiles missiles for next mass missile strike. Vadym Skibitsky, Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate representative, said Russia was looking into new targets and conducting reconnaissance for its next mass missile strike. Skibitsky said that Russia had enough weapons to bombard Ukraine.
As Ukrainians wake up on the first official day of winter, 6 million people across a majority of Ukraine’s regions have no electricity, President Zelensky said on Wednesday night.
Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on the main frontline in the south. Ukrainian officials also stressed that Russia had intensified shelling across the river, knocking out power again in Kherson where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops vacated the city and fled across the river.
According to analysis of satellite photographs of Russian forces by the Institute for the Study of War, Moscow has built defences at the neck of the Kinburn peninsula, suggesting that it has given up hope of holding on to the spit for much longer.
Official: Russia forcibly relocates residents from Kinburn Spit on left bank of Dnipro River. Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said that Ukraine is currently conducting a counteroffensive operation to liberate the spit.
The Russians are starting a "planned evacuation" from the city of Polohy to the temporarily occupied Mariupol, military expert, pilot-instructor and reserve colonel Roman Svitan said.
55% of Russians are in favor of negotiations with Ukraine, only 25% are in favor of continuing the war. Meduza learned the results of a closed opinion poll commissioned by the Kremlin. Supporters of peace have doubled in six months. The Russian authorities noticed a decrease in public support for the war against the backdrop of constant defeats at the front and mobilization.
U.S. Embassy in Madrid also received a package with explosives according to Spanish media reports. A sixth letter bomb has been intercepted at the United States embassy in Madrid. Police sources confirm that the area is cordoned off and that the anti-terrorist protocol has been activated.
Ukraine dismissed the deputy chief engineer of its Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP today, accusing him of collaborating with Moscow’s forces and treason, the Energoatom state nuclear energy company said.
SBU conducts raid at Moscow Patriarchate monastery in Zakarpattia Oblast. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Nov. 30 that it was conducting a search of one of the Moscow-linked monasteries in Mukachevo in the western Zakarpattia Oblast to counter the possible “subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine."
General Staff: Russia prepares new mobilization campaign. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Nov. 30 that Russia planned to release cadets from military academies early to replenish its losses in Ukraine at the beginning of 2023. According to the General Staff, Russia plans to launch a new mobilization campaign in January-February 2023.
Pentagon awards Raytheon $1.2 billion contract for NASAMS for Ukraine. The U.S. Army on Nov. 30 awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Raytheon Technologies for six National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) for Ukraine, the Pentagon said in a statement published online. Ukraine received its first two NASAMS air defense systems in early November, which are already being used on the battlefield.
CNN: US considers significantly expanding training of Ukrainian forces. The expansion in training would include instructing 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers monthly at a U.S. base in Germany, CNN reports, citing multiple U.S. officials.
The UN appealed for record funds for aid next year, AFP reports, as the Ukraine war and other conflicts, climate emergencies and the still-simmering pandemic push more people into crisis, and some towards famine.
FM Kuleba has called for the EU to include Russia’s missile industry in its next sanctions package. Kuleba says it is warranted for their part in Russia’s war efforts, including those which have targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure. He added that Ukraine needs the US made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said, adding he would be working with the German government on this issue.
The head of the EU Council, Charles Michel, has urged China’s top leaders to use their influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Michel, who chairs EU leader summits, held talks with Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday, in the first face-to-face encounter between the head of an EU institution and China’s top officials since the start of the pandemic.
Switzerland freezes almost $8 billion in Russian assets under EU sanctions. Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth nearly $8 billion in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on Dec. 1.
France publicly backs the creation of a special tribunal to try senior Russian officials – potentially including Vladimir Putin – for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
Germany recognizes Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainian people. On Nov. 30, Germany’s Bundestag recognized Holodomor, the man-made famine of Ukrainians ordered by the Soviet authorities, which killed millions in 1932-1933, as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
A Serbian history textbook describes neighboring post-Yugoslav countries as "Serb states," plays up Serb suffering, and downplays or anonymizes atrocities. Within the nearly 400 pages of a widely used Serbian textbook, college-age students can learn that neighboring Montenegro and Republika Srpska, one of the two main entities that compose Bosnia-Herzegovina, are "Serb states." Together with RFE/RL's Balkan Service, Jelena Djureinovic, a historian from the University of Vienna, analyzed the contents of the textbook for its accuracy in a country less than three decades removed from the internecine wars of the Balkans in the 1990s.
President Biden and President Macron Presser
President Biden said the support would continue in the face of Russian aggression, which he adds has been “incredibly brutal”. He adds:
I knew Russia was [brutal], but I didn’t anticipate them being as brutal as they have been. Today we reaffirm that we are going to stand together against this brutality. We will continue this strong support for the Ukrainian people as they defend their homes, their families, hospitals, their nurseries, their sovereignty, their integrity, against Russian aggression.
He adds that France has welcomed more than 100,000 refugees, and Biden thanks them for doing so. “We will work together to hold Russia accountable for their actions, and to mitigate the global impacts of Putin’s war on the rest of the world.”
Panyi Szabolcs, Getting to the Bottom of Hungary’s Russian Spying Problem- Balkan Insight
In late November, at a Ukrainian-Hungarian border crossing checkpoint, Ukrainian special forces armed with machine guns and rifles arrested a suspected Russian agent just as he was trying to cross the state border.
The man was a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who, according to the Ukrainian security agency SBU’s statement, “collected classified information about the leadership and staff of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. The man planned to personally transfer the data to the Russian Embassy in Budapest on a flash drive”.
Video reportage by RFE/RL
Near the front line, Ukrainian doctors fight in a daily battle between life and death. RFE/RL spent a day at a field hospital near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, which Russian forces are attempting to capture.
Olga Tokariuk, Light Flares in Ukraine’s Darkness- CEPA
If you need an illustration of how everyday life in Ukraine differs from the rest of Europe, consider the elevators.
Power cuts brought on by Russia’s attacks against the civilian energy infrastructure are now so frequent, so long and unpredictable, that people are often stuck in elevators for extended periods. Residents of apartment blocks have therefore started leaving boxes with food and hygiene items, such as baby diapers, in elevators for their neighbors in case they are trapped.
Life is difficult across Ukraine. My mom, who is in her 70s and lives in a town in Western Ukraine, now leaves her sixth-floor apartment only when it’s strictly necessary. It reminds her of Covid lockdown, she says, but it’s worse.
Valentina Barbiero: at my son’s school…
Who knows if the moon In Kyiv Is as beautiful As the moon in Rome Who knows if it's the same Or perhaps, her sister
