In many parts of the country, the power regularly fails due to Russian rocket attacks.
(Photo: dpa)
Kyiv, Moscow Despite feverish repair work on the severely damaged power grid, around nine million people in Ukraine are still without electricity. “But the number and duration of power outages is steadily decreasing,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily video address on Monday evening. But there are still many deficits in the power supply.
At the same time, Zelensky warned of possible new Russian attacks on the energy grid. “The air defenses are preparing, the state is preparing and everyone must prepare,” he said.
The Russian military has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian energy grid for weeks with cruise missiles, rockets and so-called kamikaze drones. The aim is to put the population under pressure in the middle of winter with the failure of the electricity and water supply.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko fears a major Russian attack with rockets and cruise missiles on New Year’s Eve. “The Russians have not renounced attacks against our energy grid,” he said on Ukrainian television on Monday evening. “And since they’re looking at specific dates, New Year’s is likely to be one of those dates that they’re going to try to damage our energy grid.”
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Russian invading forces and Ukrainian defenders continued fighting around the frontline town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The general staff in Kyiv said that several advances by Russian units had been repelled.
The front-line town of Bakhmut has been contested for weeks after Ukraine liberated it from occupying forces.
(Photo: dpa)
The city of Bakhmut is considered the so-called cornerstone of the front in eastern Ukraine. A breakthrough at this point would allow Russian troops to penetrate deep behind the Ukrainian lines. The city has since been expanded into a fortress by the defenders.
Ukrainian artillery hit a concentration of Russian troops in the village of Polovinkino in the Luhansk region in the east of the country on Monday. Around 150 soldiers were killed or wounded, it said. A similar artillery attack on Russian troops in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine killed around 50 soldiers and wounded another 100, the general staff in Kyiv said. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Kyiv wants to challenge Moscow’s UN membership
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it launched an initiative to question the legitimacy of Russia’s membership in the United Nations and all bodies. According to the foreign office in Kyiv, Moscow’s seat is not regulated on the basis of international law either in the UN or in the World Security Council, the “Ukrajinska Pravda” quoted on Monday from a letter from the authority. Russia has “wrongly” considered itself a UN member since December 1991.
According to Kiev, the name “Russian Federation” does not appear in the UN Charter, and the country has not gone through the necessary admission procedure, such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the collapse of Czechoslovakia. The former republics of Yugoslavia also had to re-apply for UN membership after the collapse of the multinational state.
Russia considers itself the legitimate successor to the Soviet Union, which was a founding member of the United Nations. The then Russian President Boris Yeltsin merely informed the UN in December 1991 that Russia, with the support of the Commonwealth of Independent States, retained membership in the UN and all bodies.
Lavrov: Ukraine wants to draw NATO deeper into the conflict
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov told the TASS state agency in an interview published on Tuesday night: “The (Kiev) regime is trying on its behalf to draw the Americans and other NATO members deeper into the vortex of the conflict in the hope of to make a hasty clash with the Russian army inevitable.”
He also criticized the course of the West. He constantly speculates that Russia is about to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. “We are talking about completely different matters here – the political course of the West, aimed at total restraint from Russia, is extremely dangerous. It poses risks of a direct armed clash between the nuclear powers,” Lavrov claimed.
The Russian foreign minister criticizes Ukraine and the West.
(Photo: dpa)
The federal government approved arms exports for at least 8.35 billion euros this year. This is already the second highest value in the history of the Federal Republic. Only last year was the number even higher at 9.35 billion euros.
More than a quarter of arms and military equipment delivered between January 1 and December 22 went to Ukraine. This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Economics to a request from the left-wing member of the Bundestag Sevim Dagdelen. The letter is available from the German Press Agency. Since the beginning of the war, arms sales worth 2.24 billion euros have been approved for Ukraine.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
That will be important this week
The Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, is expecting Zelensky’s annual address to MPs this week. The exact date is not given for security reasons.
More: Don’t miss any developments in the Ukraine war – everything new in our news blog