400 localities are without electricity – L’Express

⇒ 400 localities without electricity in Ukraine

⇒ A “limited market loss” after the sanctions against Russia

⇒ A wanted notice against the Meta spokesperson

Nearly 400 localities are without electricity in Ukraine due to “extremely difficult” weather conditions, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday, while the Ukrainian electricity system is threatened by Russian bombing. Ukraine fears a new campaign of massive Russian strikes targeting its essential infrastructure this winter, as in 2022 when these attacks plunged millions of people into cold and darkness.

“A large part of the territory of our country is experiencing extremely difficult weather conditions,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily message. According to him, around 400 localities in ten regions, particularly in the South, are without power. “Our engineers will restore electricity supplies as soon as possible,” he promised, as the country faces winter temperatures and snowstorms in places.

Violent wind gusts and giant waves crashing onto highways: a storm hit southern Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula, causing major power cuts, local authorities said on Monday.

Dubbed “storm of the century” and “mega-storm” by Russian media, bad weather began to rage on Sunday, according to emergency services. In the Krasnodar region, which is home to the seaside resorts of Sochi and Anapa, very popular with Russians, hundreds of trees as well as numerous metal constructions equipping the beaches were uprooted by the wind on Sunday night to Monday, causing injuries, indicated the local branch of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

In Vitiazevo, near Anapa, the storm caused the grounding of a large cargo ship flying the flag of Belize, the Blue Shark, according to the same source.

The first eleven sets of economic sanctions from the European Union against Russia resulted in a “limited market loss” for some 145,000 French exporters, Cepii indicates in a note published Monday.

“All products subject to sanctions correspond to less than 1% of the value of French exports in 2021 (0.8%), or around 4 billion euros”, calculates the research center placed with the Prime Minister .

Russian authorities on Sunday included Andy Stone, the spokesperson for the American social media giant Meta, parent company of Facebook and Whatsapp, in the list of wanted people, even though the company is classified as “extremist” in the country.

Andy Stone’s name now appears in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of people wanted for violations of the criminal code. The authorities do not specify what they accuse Meta’s communications director of.