Nov 25 Buonasera Mag
Day 275: Kherson UAEnergyGrid 77pp killed UAradar IranInstructors OBON PutinSham GER POL EU blankets Armenia-A&Ps-UAmusic ReinsaluGift KyivIndie UKDef Michel Iran Mongelli Slavka LiberiOltre Babij
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…
Zelensky: Reports of Russian attacks on liberated Kherson Oblast come ‘almost every hour.’ In an address on Nov. 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the frequent attacks started after Russian forces were forced to withdraw from Kherson Oblast. “Only the liberation of our land and reliable security guarantees for Ukraine can protect our people from any escalation by Russia,” he said. “We are working with our partners every day for this.”
Ukraine’s national energy grid operator, Ukrenergo, has said the battle to restore power to homes is being slowed by “strong winds, rain and sub-zero temperatures at night”. In a statement on Facebook, the company said “more than 70% of the country’s consumption needs” were covered with priority given to critical infrastructure facilities.
18:10 CET: From 200 to 400 thousand consumers are currently without power in every region of Ukraine, – Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. "The entire trunk high-voltage infrastructure is working, but problems persist in the distribution networks of ‘Oblenergo’ throughout the entire state, “– the prime minister adds.
DTEK: Electricity for Kyiv residents to be reduced to 2-3 hours daily until power fully restored. Dmytro Saharuk, the executive director of Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK, said on Nov. 24 that the city’s critical infrastructure has partially been restored.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said Russian strikes on critical infrastructure had killed at least 77 people since October. Since early October, Russian forces have launched missiles roughly once a week with the aim of destroying the Ukrainian energy grid, crippling the country’s power and heat supply.
Governor: Russian strikes on Kherson Oblast kill 10 people, injure 54. Russian forces shelled Kherson Oblast 49 times on Nov. 24, hitting residential buildings, a shipyard, school grounds, and gas pipes in Kherson, Kherson Oblast Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych reported. The authorities have evacuated patients from the hospitals in Kherson City.
Russian strikes have damaged a hospital in Zaporizhzhia overnight, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said on Telegram. He wrote: “The enemy again attacked the suburbs of Zaporizhzhia. This time the rockets hit near the hospital. Fortunately, people were not injured, the same cannot be said about the building. Dozens of broken windows.”
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine conducted space radar reconnaissance of about 150 areas where Russians are located, both in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in the territory of Russia and its allies.
Oleksiy Danilov confirmed that the Ukrainian military killed Iranian instructors who taught Russians to pilot Shahed-136 kamikaze drones in Crimea. "The next question is whether they will have time to escape from Crimea through their bridge. It already needs a little preparation. If it happens that it ceases to exist, then they will have nowhere to run but the sea."
Chechen separatist fighters defend Ukraine against 'common enemy' Russia. The volunteer unit, which calls itself the Separate Special-Purpose Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria -- OBON -- serves as part of the Foreign Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine and most of its members fought against Russia in the first and second Chechen wars (1994-96 and 1999-2009, respectively). The volunteers warn that if Ukraine is not defended, the "Russian bear" will not stop there.
Reuters: Official says more than 15,000 people missing in war in Ukraine. More than 15,000 people are documented to have gone missing during the war in Ukraine, an official with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) said on Nov. 24.
Zelensky: Peace solutions not including liberation of Crimea are ‘waste of time.' President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times that “no one should waste their time” on excluding the liberation of Crimea from solutions to ending Russia's war.
In a pre-staged video Putin appears to be meeting with a handpicked cadre of mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine meant to calm public anger over mobilisation. I personally have doubts they were actually mothers, but more likely female FSB agents. The video was pre-recorded. Dozens of ordinary mothers have gone public saying they were snubbed by the Kremlin.
Reuters: Germany is in talks with NATO allies about moving Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine. German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht's view was that NATO equipment can only be transferred to a non-NATO country like Ukraine if all members approve Stoltenberg's comment it was Germany's choice to supply Ukraine likely inspired these talks.
Poland's President Andrzej Duda asks German Patriot air defence systems to be stationed in Ukraine. Duda's comment builds on a similar request from Kaczynski. The plan would be to move the systems to western Ukraine, so the Poland-Ukraine border can be shielded from missiles. Germany has yet to make a firm decision.
EU diplomats are meeting this evening to resume talks on a price level to cap Russian oil exports, sources have told Bloomberg. EU governments have failed so far to reach a deal on the price level for Russian oil. A G7 proposal for a cap of $65-$70 a barrel is seen as far too high by some, and too low by others. Six of the EU’s 27 member countries opposed the price cap level proposed by the G7, Reuters cited diplomats.
Forbes estimates Russia has spent $82 billion on war with Ukraine since Feb. 24. During nine months of its full-scale attack on Ukraine, Russia has spent $82 billion on war, which is a quarter of its annual budget, according to Forbes.
National Resistance Center: 12,000 Russian troops deployed in Belarus. Russia continues to send its forces to Belarus, the Ukrainian military’s National Resistance Center reported on Nov. 25, citing Belarusian underground sources.
The US has donated 22,500 blankets for warming centres run by Ukraine’s railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, as temperatures plummet and millions are still without reliable access to power, the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, said.
BBC: UK foreign secretary visits Kyiv, pledges more support. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly travelled to Kyiv on Nov. 25 where he is set to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky. While in the capital, Cleverly announced the UK will send 24 ambulances to Ukraine.
Putin's press secretary Dmytro Peskov says that in order to "stop the suffering of the civilian population" Ukraine must fulfill the requirements of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the Kremlin claims that the Russian army allegedly does not attack social objects.
Armenia has asked the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to chair peace talks with Azerbaijan in a fresh challenge to Putin’s increasingly loose grip on Russia’s regional allies in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Hundreds of Armenians unhappy about Putin's visit to their country gathered at two separate rallies in Yerevan on November 23. Putin arrived in the Armenian capital for a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) -- a Russian-dominated military bloc.
Romania, Moldova, Ireland, and Germany recognize Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainian people. On Nov. 24, the parliaments of Ireland and Moldova recognized Holodomor, the manufactured famine of Ukrainians by the Soviet authorities, which killed millions in 1932-1933, as genocide of Ukrainian people. The Romanian parliament also recognized the Soviet genocide on the day prior.
Casey Michel, Decolonize Russia- The Atlantic
To avoid more senseless bloodshed, the Kremlin must lose what empire it still retains.
The former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski once said that without Ukraine, Russia would cease to be an empire. It’s a pithy statement, but it’s not true. Even if Vladimir Putin fails to wrest back Ukraine, his country will remain a haphazard amalgamation of regions and nations with hugely varied histories, cultures, and languages. The Kremlin will continue ruling over colonial holdings in places including Chechnya, Tatarstan, Siberia, and the Arctic.
Russia’s history is one of almost ceaseless expansion and colonization, and Russia is the last European empire that has resisted even basic decolonization efforts, such as granting subject populations autonomy and a meaningful voice in choosing the country’s leaders. And as we’ve seen in Ukraine, Russia is willing to resort to war to reconquer regions it views as its rightful possessions.
US Department of State, The United Nations Human Rights Council Holds Special Session on Iran
Today’s Special Session at the UN Human Rights Council addressed the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, with a particular and appropriate focus on the regime’s brutal acts of repression and violence against women and children, especially girls. Following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s so-called “morality police,” thousands of brave Iranians have risked their lives and their liberty to protest the regime’s long record of oppression and violence. The regime has responded with a ruthless crackdown on peaceful protestors, including the lethal response on November 19 in Mahabad, mass arrests including the preemptive detention of journalists, and use of the death sentence against peaceful protestors. The United States continues to support the people of Iran in the face of this brutal repression. We reiterate our call for the regime to immediately end its harsh crackdown and cease its violence against women and girls.
The UN Human Rights Council has a crucial role to play in drawing international attention to human rights crises such as the one in Iran, investigating them, and establishing accountability mechanisms to document and respond to the abuses committed. Today’s session leaves no doubt that the HRC’s membership recognizes the gravity of the situation in Iran, and the fact-finding mission established today will help ensure that those engaged in the ongoing violent suppression of Iranian people are identified and their actions documented.
It is also important that the international community work in partnership to ensure that Iran plays no role on UN or other international bodies charged with protecting and promoting human rights of women. As Vice President Harris recently announced, the United States is working with other nations to remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
We look forward to the day when all Iranians can enjoy the human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That day is long overdue.
Larissa Babij, A Kind of Refugee: 23.11.2022
This month I started going to a rehabilitation center for Ukrainian soldiers outside Kyiv to teach Awareness Through Movement on Wednesdays. They lie on the floor while I talk them through a series of movements for an hour, asking questions to direct their attention to sense with greater breadth and finer nuance what they are doing in any given moment. Today I failed to make it.
Last week I managed to teach three classes—two with a group of acting students and one with the soldiers. The cold creates a challenge, but one that is not impossible to overcome. Yesterday while preparing I found I could hardly move, in part due to all the clothing—sweater, hood, scarf—cluttering my neck and torso, in part from the condition my body has taken—tense, gathered, like a bulwark against the cold and unpredictable, constantly changing conditions. The light goes on, the light goes off, it comes back on again (oh, joy!).
Programming Note:
If you live in Milano and would like to get to the ceremony organised by LiberiOltre to commemorate the Holodomor, you can contact the number below. The ceremony will also include a request to the Italian government to officially recognise the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people at the hands of the Soviet regime. The ceremony will be held on Saturday at 5pm in Piazza San Francesco, Bologna.
