Ukraine suffered a new deadly salvo from Russian missiles on Monday, December 5, leading to new power and water cuts in a country already in energy crisis. The Russian army acknowledged “a massive strike carried out with high-precision weapons” on Monday around 12:00 GMT which targeted Ukrainian military sites and energy infrastructure linked to Ukrainian forces. On the Ukrainian side, as winter set in, emergency repairs were underway, according to Ukrenergo.
Attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities are causing “a new level of humanitarian needs” for the population, Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. The head of the UN humanitarian agency fears new displacements of residents deprived of heating in the middle of winter.
- At least six dead in Ukrainian strikes in Donetsk, says Moscow-appointed official
At least six people were killed on Tuesday in a bombardment on the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, said an official appointed by Moscow in this region which Russia annexed at the end of September. “According to preliminary data, six civilians were killed today as a result of shelling in Donetsk,” the city’s “mayor” Alexey Kulemzin said on Telegram. “The number of injured is being assessed,” he added.
- Volodymyr Zelensky near the front
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the frontline on Tuesday, not far from Bakhmout, the main battlefield in eastern Ukraine where the Ukrainian army has been resisting a Russian offensive for months. This trip also comes at a time when Russia accuses its neighbor of increasing drone attacks against airfields on its territory.
Volodymyr Zelensky released three videos of him in the Donbass, a region which Moscow claimed for annexation in September, without however controlling it completely. “The east of Ukraine is the most difficult axis (of the front),” the Ukrainian president told soldiers on the occasion of the day of the armed forces. “Thank you for your resilience,” he added, before presenting decorations to some of these men.
In another video made in front of the entrance to the city of Sloviansk, the Ukrainian head of state greeted “all those who gave their lives to Ukraine”. Volodymyr Zelensky regularly goes near the front, something that Vladimir Putin has never done so far, preferring video conferences from his office or his residence.
- Drone attack on a Russian airfield near the Ukrainian border
A drone attacked an airfield in the Russian region of Kursk, on the border with Ukraine, its governor announced on Tuesday, a day after Moscow accused Kiev of hitting two of its air bases with drones. Due to a “drone attack in the Kursk airfield area, an oil storage tank caught fire. There were no casualties, Governor Roman Starovoyt said on social media.
In addition, on Monday, Russian air bases, far from the border between the two countries, were the target, according to Moscow, of raids carried out during the day by Ukrainian drones, which killed at least three Russian soldiers. Kyiv did not confirm.
- Another salvo of missiles fell in Ukraine on Monday
Ukraine suffered a new deadly salvo from Russian missiles on Monday, causing further power and water cuts in a country already in energy crisis. These new Russian strikes on Ukraine come on the day of the entry into force of the mechanism for capping the sale price of Russian oil decided by the West, who are thus trying to dry up Moscow’s manna to finance its military effort.
Anti-aircraft sirens sounded again across Ukraine which has “suffered an eighth massive missile attack by a terrorist state. Unfortunately, there is already damage to the energy infrastructure”, indicated the national operator, Ukrenergo . However, the alerts were quickly lifted and Volodymyr Zelensky assured that his country’s anti-aircraft defense had managed to “shoot down most of the Russian missiles”. According to the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an initial report shows at least four dead and three wounded, including a child. The Russian strikes have caused further water and electricity cuts in several cities and regions, while winter temperatures are well established.
“Because of the consequences of the bombardments […], to maintain the balance between electricity production and consumption, an emergency cut-off system will be implemented in all regions of Ukraine. Electricity will be supplied as a priority to essential infrastructure,” Ukrenergo announced on Telegram.
- Security guarantees to Russia? “We’ll talk about it later”, according to Josep Borrell
“The exit from the war will have to be done in compliance with international legality”, declared Josep Borrell in Paris during a symposium organized by the European institute Jacques Delors, detailing that this implied the payment of reparations by Moscow, the trial of war crimes, withdrawal of troops and “security guarantees for Ukraine”. Before adding, “for Russia, we will talk about it later”, in implicit reference to a recent statement by Emmanuel Macron.
The French head of state explained on Saturday that he had discussed with President Biden on “the security architecture in which we want to live tomorrow”, referring to the fact that it would be necessary to give “guarantees for its own security to Russia on day when it will come back around the table” of the negotiations. These statements had drawn criticism in Ukraine and in some of the Eastern European countries with particularly firm postures on the position to adopt vis-à-vis Russia, which sometimes accuse Emmanuel Macron of being too lenient or of making too many overtures. vis-à-vis Moscow, which is defended by Paris, support of Kiev with the other European countries.
The French president defended himself from any faux pas on Tuesday. “I think we should not make big cases, try to create controversy where there is none,” reacted Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the EU-Balkans summit in Tirana. “I have always said the same thing, that is to say that at the end, in the peace talks, there will be territorial issues on Ukraine – and they belong to the Ukrainians -, and there will be collective security issues throughout the region,” he said.
- Russian court orders arrest of two Ukrainian ministers
A Russian court on Tuesday ordered the arrest in absentia of two Ukrainian ministers, at the request of the security services (FSB), the two officials being accused, according to Russian media, of having violated the territorial integrity of Russia .
“The request (issued by the FSB) has been approved,” Anastassia Romanova, a spokeswoman for the Lefortovo court in Moscow, told AFP. This request concerns the Minister for the Reintegration of Territories not under the control of Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emine Djaparova. The court would not specify the reason given by the FSB, but according to the state news agency TASS, the two ministers are accused of violating the territorial integrity of Russia.