Nov 10 Buonasera Mag
Day 260: Russian retreat from Kherson, reactions, North Korea, Hungary, Ukrainian children, NATO, Biden, Germany, Ukraine Day of Literacy and Literature, NGOs, Evelyn Farkas
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.
This is a flash post. I was in a meeting yesterday as the news of the liberation of Kherson hit. I put together a brief post to commemorate the day.
Watch the first video and pay attention to the expressions on their faces- a golden moment.
When it happened, we were talking about Ukrainian resilience and rebuilding the nation. What a joyful moment. The amount of territory in Kherson oblast which will be liberated the next hours is around 4,300 km².
Stories we’re following
Def Minister Shoigu has ordered the country’s troops to leave Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow captured since the invasion began in February. Ukrainian victory in Kherson, one of the main objectives of Kyiv’s southern offensive, will be widely seen as a significant blow to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, only weeks after a high-profile ceremony in Moscow in which he announced the “forever” annexation of Kherson region along with three other regions.
Ukraine liberates two villages in Kherson Oblast. Videos of troops raising Ukrainian flags in Pravdyne and Kalynivske have been published online. Pravdyne is located 45 kilometers west of regional capital Kherson, while Kalynivske is located 70 kilometers north of the city.
Zelensky holds meeting of commander-in-chief's staff as Russia announces withdrawal from Kherson. Staff members discussed the situation on the front, measures to strengthen and defend the Ukrainian border, and providing the Armed Forces with weapons and ammunition. They also analyzed the energy system’s recovery after Russian attacks and the strengthening of air defense to protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Top Russian collaborator in Kherson Oblast reportedly dead. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of Russia's illegal occupation government in Kherson Oblast, died in a car accident on Nov. 9, according to Ukrainian and Russian media, as well as another Kherson collaborator.
PM Shmyhal: EU proposes 18 billion euros aid plan for Ukraine in 2023. The European Commission proposed on Nov. 9 a new mechanism to provide 18 billion euros in financial aid to Ukraine to help cover the country's needs in 2023, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. It is a very important initiative that will support the economic stability of our country and strengthen the foundation of our future victory," Shmyhal said.
Minister: Recession in Ukraine more dramatic than expected. Due to the destruction of civilian infrastructure by Russia, Ukraine’s GDP will likely fall by 39% in 2022, compared to the previous forecast of 35%, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told Die Zeit. As a response to the recession, Kyiv is taking steps to downsize the government, she said. Svyrydenko also said that she is exploring the possibility of privatizing small state-owned companies.
Russian forces have greatly depleted their arsenal of high-precision weapons and suffered significant aviation losses and will likely struggle to maintain the current pace of their coordinated campaign against Ukrainian critical infrastructure.
The disproportionate financial burden of Russian force generation efforts continues to fall primarily on Russian regional governments’ budgets rather than the federal budget, prompting public backlash.
Putin won’t attend the Group of 20 summit next week, people familiar with the planning said, as the Kremlin seeks to protect the president from potential high-level tensions over his invasion of Ukraine.
UK Ministry of Defence: “Russian efforts to repair the Crimean bridge continue but it is unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.” According to intelligence, the road bridge was closed yesterday to allow the movement and installation of a replacement 64-metre space. Three more spans will be required to replace the damaged sections.
The Russian military has still not demined the temporarily occupied Mariupol. Local residents continue to find explosive objects in the city, even on the roofs of their own homes, - Mariupol City Council.
Russia's economy and banking sector have withstood the challenge of "powerful" Western sanctions but the central bank has no plans yet to ease capital controls that have helped support the rouble, Governor Elvira Nabiullina said on Tuesday. In one of the strongest comments to date about the sanctions by a Russian official, Nabiullina told lawmakers: "Sanctions are very powerful and their influence on the Russian and global economy should not be downplayed.
Putin’s nuclear threats may hint at an electromagnetic pulse strike. Launching such a weapon over Ukraine would be lethal to Kyiv’s information warfare systems. Putin may be considering: a tactical electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, strike. These weapons — designed to create a powerful pulse of energy which short-circuits electrical equipment such as computers, generators, satellites, radios, radar receivers and even traffic lights — could disable Ukraine’s military and civilian infrastructure at a stroke and leave the country without light, heat, communications or transport.
Media: North Korea makes winter uniforms for Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Factories in North Korea are producing “large quantities” of winter uniforms, underwear, and footwear for Russian soldiers fighting against Ukraine, Radio Free Asia reported, citing unnamed sources.
Hungary will not support the EU's long-term financial assistance plan for Ukraine. Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó said that his country has already provided Kyiv with significant financial assistance on a bilateral basis.
Ukraine has collated thousands of reports of its children being deported to Russia and wants their plight addressed at a summit of the Group of 20 major economies, Vladimir Zelenskiy’s chief of staff was quoted as saying on Tuesday. “The Russian Federation continues to commit its crimes in connection with Ukrainian children,” Zelenskiy’s office quoted Andriy Yermak as saying at a meeting he chaired of a group of officials responsible for child protection. “The removal of children continues.”
US president Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed hope for Democrats and Republicans to continue their “bipartisan approach” to Russia’s war in Ukraine, regardless of the final results of the midterm elections.
Regardless of what the final tally of these elections show, and there’s still some counting going on, I’m prepared to work with my Republican colleagues. The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans be prepared to work with me as well. In the area of foreign policy, I hope we’ll continue this bipartisan approach of confronting Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
President Biden also said that Russia’s withdrawal of troops from Kherson is “evidence” that its military has “real problems". “First of all, I found it interesting that they waited until after the election to make that judgment, which we knew for some time that they were going to be doing,” Biden said. “And it’s evidence of the fact that they have some real problems, the Russian military.” “It remains to be seen whether or not there will be a judgment made as to whether or not Ukraine is prepared to compromise with Russia,” he added.
Germany gives Ukraine IRIS-T missiles, Dingo armored vehicles. The German government said it had provided 30 Dingo armored vehicles, missiles for IRIS-T air defense systems, four anti-drone sensors and jammers, five heavy-duty M1070 Oshkosh semi-trailers, and one forklift.
Thousands of Kyiv residents have signed a petition urging city authorities not to erect a giant tree during this year’s festive period, and instead to give money to the army and to people displaced by the war with Russia. The Kyiv tree, which in recent years has been set up in front of the 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral at the heart of the capital, is traditionally the main one in Ukraine at Christmas and New Year.
A British man has died fighting in Ukraine, his family and the Foreign Office said on Wednesday. Simon Lingard died on Monday, according to a GoFundMe set up by his family for funeral expenses. The father of two from Blackburn, Lancashire, was described as “an inspiration to all who knew him” and “a real life hero who died fighting for what he believed in”.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan will meet with Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin on Friday to discuss extending the Black Sea grain initiative, Reuters reports.
A Russian hacker group took down the Mississippi Secretary of State's website for hours in an Election Day cyber attack. The DDoS attack did not change any votes, but prevented voters from accessing the state's polling place locator tool.
Ukrainian language and literacy day…
Once again, the Ukrainians surprise us with an initiative which underscores the love of their culture and identity. There are numerous pictures online with troops in the trenches participating in the initiative.
Back at the ranch, the Meloni government blocking ONG ships from docking in Italy
Note bien: only 5% of the asylum seekers come to Italy via NGO ships, according to studies carried out by Matteo Villa. All the others come to Italy via air or sea vessels. Targeting the NGOs gives visibility to Salvini and the politicians that have used the Great Replacement conspiracy or the good old racism card as their campaign platform.
An inside joke…
The League’s leader, Matteo Salvini, is famous for bringing bad luck. Every time he wishes a team good luck on a very important up-coming match, a politician in for their campaign and race, they usually end up losing. On the eve of the 2020 Presidential campaign, he sent a tweet to Trump and we know how that went. And so the Salvini’s bad luck- ‘sfiga’- continues. See the tweet below.
This didn’t age well…
