Summary
The time in Kyiv is 8.45pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s top headlines:
A security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, and Kyiv ordered a bolstering of security at all its representative offices abroad. The security officer suffered light injuries and went under his own steam to hospital for treatment, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid. In the wake of the incident, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security, a ministry spokesperson said.
The European Commission president has proposed a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen also wants to use the proceeds of Russian funds that have been frozen under western sanctions to aid Ukraine (see 8.19 GMT). Behind each proposal, questions remain.
Ukraine needs the US made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said, adding he would be working with the German government on this issue. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot systems, Reuters reported.
The UK has announced a fresh round of sanctions against 22 Russians, including those the Foreign Office says were involved in enlisting criminals to fight in Ukraine. James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said on Wednesday his department would target a new set of officials, including Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister, who is responsible for troop equipment supplies.
Ukraine’s state emergency service has said nine people have been killed in fires in the past 24 hours after breaking safety rules in an attempt to heat their homes after Russian attacks on power facilities. The number of fires had risen, it said, with Ukrainians increasingly resorting to using emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in their homes because of power outages, Reuters reported.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has arrived in Kyiv for a three-day visit to show solidarity with the people and churches of Ukraine. Welby will meet leaders of Ukraine’s churches, refugees and internally displaced people.
The EU will try to set up a court, backed by the UN, to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, according to the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen. In a video statement, she said: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought death, devastation and unspeakable suffering. We all remember the horrors of Bucha. It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far.”
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, discussed nuclear issues and Ukraine in a meeting this month with the CIA director, William Burns, the RIA news agency reported. Elizabeth Rood, the charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Moscow, previously told RIA that Burns “did not negotiate anything and he did not discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine”.
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officials found weapons and Russian cash on Wednesday after searching properties in around Kyiv linked to a pro-Russian former politician, the agency said. In a statement, the SBU said its searches of homes and offices belonging to Yevhen Murayev, who it said was “hiding from justice abroad”, and his associates were part of a criminal investigation into treason.
Moscow has promoted the chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Yuriy Chernichuk, to become its head, according to Russia’s nuclear agency Rosenergoatom. The position has been vacant since October, when Kyiv says the plant’s boss Ihor Murashov was abducted by Russian authorities.
One person was killed and another wounded in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, the regional governor said. Yaroslav Yanushevych wrote on the Telegram messaging app that several residential buildings and medical facilities had been damaged in the city, which was liberated this month after months of Russian occupation.
Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram early on Wednesday morning that Russian strikes in the region overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.
Ukraine claims to have killed another 500 Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours, bringing the total who have died in combat since 24 February to about 88,880. The general staff of the armed forces said it had taken out three more tanks and six armoured personnel carriers.
Ukrainian forces have downed three Russian reconnaissance drones in the last 24 hours, according to its armed forces. In an early morning bulletin from Ukraine, the spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces, Alexander Štupun, said Ukraine had been subjected to a number of missile attacks from planes and artillery, including on Kivsharivka in Kharkiv and Sloviansk in Donetsk.
A teenager was killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, a presidential aide has said. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had pounded the region with artillery and mortar bombs over the past 24 hours.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he did not believe Russian president Vladimir Putin will use nuclear weapons. He made the comment while speaking by video link at the New York Times ‘DealBook’ summit in New York City. It comes as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was vital to avoid any kind of military confrontation between nuclear powers, even if it only involved conventional weapons, the TASS news agency reported.
The city council in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa has voted to remove and relocate a monument to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia that has been daubed with red paint at least twice. The statue to the city’s founder, which towers over a central square, has been vandalised repeatedly since the invasion of Ukraine that has prompted many Ukrainians to reject their country’s historical ties to Moscow, Reuters reported.
Five Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian forces on Tuesday, according to a senior government official. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted on Telegram that the five were killed in Donetsk, with 15 people also injured. The Donetsk region has continued to face shelling by Russian troops. Others were wounded in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Russia’s defence minister has said it will focus on nuclear arms infrastructure in 2023, including facilities to accommodate new missile systems. Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of the board of the department on Wednesday that it would be a priority for Russia next year. “When preparing the list of major construction facilities for 2023, special attention will be paid to construction in the interests of the strategic nuclear forces,” Shoigu was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.
The head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, spoke to Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday morning. They discussed the US’s support for the Grain from Ukraine scheme, which is running to get grain out of the port of Odesa, and its support for Ukraine over the winter months.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has highlighted Russia’s new foreign agents act in its daily update, which it says will be used to crack down on critics and dissidents. Vladimir Putin has changed the 2012 law so that personal details including the address of designated “foreign agents” can be published, meaning they could become targets of harassment. The change will come into force on Thursday.
The European Commission gave an update on Wednesday on its plans to freeze and confiscate Russian assets. Von der Leyen said: “We have blocked €300bn of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the live blog for today. Thanks following along. I’ll be back in the morning with more up-to-the-minute news of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officials found weapons and Russian cash on Wednesday after searching properties in around Kyiv linked to a pro-Russian former politician, the agency said.
In a statement, the SBU said its searches of homes and offices belonging to Yevhen Murayev, who it said was “hiding from justice abroad”, and his associates were part of a criminal investigation into treason.
Murayev’s political party and a television channel under his control were seen as vehicles for Kremlin interests in Ukraine before Moscow’s invasion, Reuters reported. The party, Nashi, was banned after Russian forces swept into Ukraine.
He had promoted views that aligned with Russian narratives on Ukraine, including that the 2014 Maidan protests in Kyiv were a western-backed coup and the Kremlin-fuelled war in eastern Ukraine that followed was an internal conflict.
Weeks before Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine this year, Britain’s foreign ministry said Russia was considering installing Murayev to lead a new puppet government, a claim denied both by him and by Moscow.
The SBU said an independent analysis of Murayev’s public statements “testify to the presence in his actions of signs” of treason.
It said the materials seized in Wednesday’s searches would be examined further.
Ukraine’s state emergency service has said nine people have been killed in fires in the past 24 hours after breaking safety rules in an attempt to heat their homes after Russian attacks on power facilities.
The number of fires had risen, it said, with Ukrainians increasingly resorting to using emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in their homes because of power outages, Reuters reported.
“Only in the last day there were 131 fires in Ukraine, 106 of them in the residential sector. Nine people died, eight were injured,” the emergency service said.
“Generators on balconies, gas cylinders in apartments, lit candles ... Due to violations of fire safety rules, the use of uncertified products for heating and cooking, incidents of fires and explosions in high-rise and private buildings have become more frequent.”
The service urged Ukrainians to take more care in their homes and to explain fire risks to children.
Updated
The UK has announced a fresh round of sanctions against 22 Russians, including those the Foreign Office says were involved in enlisting criminals to fight in Ukraine.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said on Wednesday his department would target a new set of officials, including Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister, who is responsible for troop equipment supplies.
The Russian officials join more than 1,000 others, including 120 the UK has sanctioned since the invasion of Ukraine in February, including Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian prime minister, and Roman Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea FC.
Cleverly said: “The Russian regime’s decision to partially mobilise Russian citizens was a desperate attempt to overwhelm the valiant Ukrainians defending their territory. It has failed.
“Today we have sanctioned individuals who have enforced this conscription, sending thousands of Russian citizens to fight in Putin’s illegal and abhorrent war.
“The UK will continue to use both sanctions and military aid to support Ukraine in the defence of their independence.”
Updated
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has arrived in Kyiv for a three-day visit to show solidarity with the people and churches of Ukraine.
Welby will meet leaders of Ukraine’s churches, refugees and internally displaced people.
Arriving in Kyiv on Wednesday, Welby said: “The people of Ukraine have shown extraordinary courage in the face of Russia’s illegal, unjust and brutal invasion. This visit is about showing solidarity with them as they face a profoundly difficult winter.
“I look forward to meeting with church leaders and local Christians in Kyiv, and learning how we can continue to support them amid the ongoing devastation, loss and destruction of this war.
“I urge Christians in the Church of England and around the world to keep praying for the people of Ukraine in this Advent season – along with all people caught up in conflicts around the world – and offering our solidarity and support in every way we can.”
Updated
The president of the European Commission appears to have caused some confusion on Wednesday in her speech on Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen said an estimated 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel had died as well as 20,000 civilians. Ukraine has been tight-lipped about its wartime military losses, saying figures would give Russia an advantage.
The commission later apologised, saying the speech was inaccurate and the estimate had included injured as well as dead. The sentence was then removed from the transcript on the commission’s website and edited from the video of her speech.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s general staff told Ukrainian journalists that it would not comment on the figure quoted but vowed that Russia would face punishment for its actions in Ukraine.
Von der Leyen also said the EU would set up a special tribunal for the “crime of aggression” – in other words Russia’s military transgressing Ukraine’s borders.
The statement appears to have caught Ukraine off guard. Oleh Gavrysh, a spokesperson of Andriy Smyrnov, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, who is leading the effort to establish a tribunal, said they were “exploring” what Von der Leyen had said and needed to confirm if this tribunal would include removing the immunity of key Russian leaders, including the Russian president Vladimir Putin. If it did, said Gavrysh, then Ukraine would accept her proposal.
A special tribunal for the crime of aggression has been the subject of a months-long campaign by Kyiv. It would lead to Russia’s top figures prosecuted, including Putin and the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and would require little investigation as the fact that the crime of aggression was committed was something overwhelmingly accepted by the UN general assembly. But states will need to back the tribunal individually as they will be responsible for enforcing any sentencing of Russia’s leaders as international criminals (even if in absentia).
Updated
The European Commission president has proposed a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen also wants to use the proceeds of Russian funds that have been frozen under western sanctions to aid Ukraine (see 8.19 GMT). Behind each proposal, questions remain.
On the special tribunal, she said:
… while continuing to support the international criminal court, we are proposing to set up a specialised court, backed by the United Nations, to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression.
The EU wants a specialised court, because Russia has not signed the ICC treaty, leaving the court without jurisdiction over “crimes of aggression”. The ICC can only judge specific war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
EU officials are certain that Russia, a permanent member of the UN security council, will block any move to create a specialised court. Nevertheless they intend to table a resolution to the security council and when it is shot down, seek support from the general assembly of all UN members. One EU official said they expected “good enough numbers” to support the proposal.
Uncertainties also surround the proposed money for Ukraine.
Von der Leyen said:
We have blocked €300bn of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money.
In the short term, we could create, with our partners, a structure to manage these funds and invest them. We would then use the proceeds for Ukraine.
But officials do not yet know much the proceeds could be worth. For legal reasons they believe they can use only the proceeds generated from managing the assets to aid Ukraine, rather than the assets themselves.
Eventually the funds would have to be returned to their owners, although the commission proposes to offset the Russian central bank’s €300bn against any future reparations to Ukraine, made as the result of a peace agreement. But buy-in from other western allies is not yet clear.
Both ideas will be presented to a G7 taskforce next month.
Updated
Some more on that blast at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, Spain, now from the Reuters news agency.
It reports:
A security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, and Kyiv ordered a bolstering of security at all its representative offices abroad.
The security officer suffered light injuries and went under his own steam to hospital for treatment, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid.
In the wake of the incident, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security, a ministry spokesperson said.
The minister also urged Spain to “take urgent measures to investigate the attack”, the spokesperson added. The perpetrators, he added, “will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work on strengthening Ukraine and countering Russian aggression”.
Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago.
The letter, which arrived by ordinary mail and was not scanned, caused “a very small wound on the ring finger of the right hand” of the employee after he opened it in the garden of the embassy, Gonzalez said. It was addressed to ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev, she said.
Detectives were probing the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators, Spanish police said. Spain’s High Court will lead the investigation.
An officer at the embassy declined to comment. Correos, the Spanish state-run postal company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the origin of the letter.
The residential area surrounding the embassy in northwestern Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene. Reuters footage showed scores of police officers, armed with assault rifles and blocking roads with vans, in the neighbourhood around the embassy.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he did not believe Russian president Vladimir Putin will use nuclear weapons.
He made the comment while speaking by video link at the New York Times ‘DealBook’ summit in New York city.
It comes as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was vital to avoid any kind of military confrontation between nuclear powers, even if it only involved conventional weapons, the TASS news agency reported.
Lavrov also said the West was pushing Ukraine to continue fighting against Russia.
“It is necessary to avoid any military clash between nuclear powers, even with the use of conventional weapons. The escalation may become uncontrollable,” TASS quoted Lavrov as saying.
Putin has issued a series of thinly veiled nuclear threats during the course of the war in Ukraine, but several top officials have repeatedly denied Moscow plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine and have accused the West of upping the nuclear ante.
UK imposes sanctions on Russian deputy PM Manturov
The UK has imposed sanctions on another 22 Russians who it says have been behind the further mobilisation of troops in Ukraine.
Among them is the Russian deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, who oversees the Russian weapons industry and is responsible for arming soldiers.
Arkady Gostev, the director of the Russian prison service, is also on the list because of his support for the Wagner Group’s recruitment of inmates for the war effort.
A total of 10 governors and regional heads have been hit with sanctions, including those in charge of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kalmykia, from where a number of conscripts have been called up. Another 29 regional governors were already placed under sanctions in July for providing financial support to Russian proxy administrations in Ukraine.
Others include Ella Pamfilova and Andrey Burov, who helped organised referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin used as a basis to annex the regions in September.
Those under sanctions are subject to asset freezes, travel bans and transport sanctions.
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said:
The Russian regime’s decision to partially mobilise Russian citizens was a desperate attempt to overwhelm the valiant Ukrainians defending their territory. It has failed.
Today we have sanctioned individuals who have enforced this conscription, sending thousands of Russian citizens to fight in Putin’s illegal and abhorrent war.
The UK will continue to use both sanctions and military aid to support Ukraine in the defence of their independence.
The full list of those hit with sanctions by the British government can be found here.
Updated
Nine people have died in fires in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, according to the authorities, as Russian attacks on power infrastructure has caused people to resort to using emergency generators and gas cylinders.
Ukraine’s state emergency services said there had been more than 130 fires in the last day. It said eight people had been injured.
The blackouts have led to a surge in accidents “due to the violation of fire safety rules”, the service said. The number of fires and explosions in high-rise and private houses has increased, Agency France-Presse reports.
In a press conference on Wednesday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure as “barbaric”.
“Over the past several weeks, Russia has bombed out more than a third of Ukraine’s energy system, plunging millions in the cold,” Blinken said after a meeting with Nato counterparts in Bucharest.
Updated
As we are less than three weeks from Christmas, the sight of trees being erected in city squares around the world is commonplace.
It will be no different in Kyiv despite the ongoing conflict. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a 12-metre artificial tree would go up as a “symbolic Christmas tree of indomitability”.
The tree in Sofia Square will be decorated with “energy-saving” garlands that will be powered by a generator, he said in a Telegram post. After Christmas, the generator will be donated to the military.
There will also be phone charging points set up nearby. Atop the festive structure will be Ukraine’s coat of arms, and around its base will be flags of countries that have helped Ukraine.
Updated
Germany has said it will have trained 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers by the summer of 2023.
The defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, also told the Berlin security conference that Germany understood the importance of supplying weapons to Ukraine, and working with others to support the government in Kyiv.
Updated
A teenager was killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, a presidential aide has said.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had pounded the region with artillery and mortar bombs over the past 24 hours.
Russian forces pulled back from northern Ukraine weeks after its invasion but have continued shelling some areas, Ukrainian officials have said.
Updated
Spanish police say blast at Ukrainian embassy injured one employee
Spanish police said an employee at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was injured on Wednesday in an explosion that occurred while he was handling a letter.
The staff member received light injuries and went to hospital under his own steam, police said.
Detectives are investigating the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators.
Ukraine’s embassy to Spain was not immediately reachable, Reuters reported.
The area surrounding the embassy has been cordoned off, the state broadcaster TVE reported.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has focused his “fire and ire” on Ukraine’s civilian population, bombing more than a third of Ukraine’s energy system – water and electricity supply – in a strategy that will not work, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday.
“These are President Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard,” Blinken said after a Nato meeting in Bucharest.
“His strategy has not, and will not, work.”
Updated
Ukraine needs the US made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said, adding he would be working with the German government on this issue.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot systems, Reuters reported.
Kuleba also said Ukraine would eventually become a member of Nato, saying that didn’t mean nothing could be done now in that respect.
“The discussions on Ukraine’s Nato application should begin,” he said during a press conference after a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Bucharest.
Updated
The city council in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa has voted to remove and relocate a monument to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia that has been daubed with red paint at least twice.
The statue to the city’s founder, which towers over a central square, has been vandalised repeatedly since the invasion of Ukraine that has prompted many Ukrainians to reject their country’s historical ties to Moscow, Reuters reported.
The city council announced the decision to remove the statue on its website on Wednesday. Local lawmakers had also voted to remove and relocate a monument to an 18th-century Russian general, Alexander Suvorov.
A slim majority of Odesa residents had already voted – in an online poll organised by city authorities – to remove the statue to Catherine the Great, who was empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.
Several petitions had also been submitted to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy calling for the statue to be removed, but only local authorities were legally empowered to make the decision.
Updated
One person was killed and another wounded in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, the regional governor said.
Yaroslav Yanushevych wrote on the Telegram messaging app that several residential buildings and medical facilities had been damaged in the city, which was liberated this month after months of Russian occupation.
Updated
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, discussed nuclear issues and Ukraine in a meeting this month with the CIA director, William Burns, the RIA news agency reported.
Elizabeth Rood, the charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Moscow, previously told RIA that Burns “did not negotiate anything and he did not discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine”.
Updated
Alexei Kudrin has become the latest high-profile Russian government official to leave their post since the invasion.
Kudrin, who was head of the audit committee and previously served as finance minister and deputy prime minister, is expected to take up a role at a Russian tech firm Yandex.
Yandex has announced a review of its governance.
Updated
Summary
The time in Kyiv is 1.20pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s top stories so far:
The EU will try to set up a court, backed by the UN, to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, according to the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen. In a video statement, she said: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought death, devastation and unspeakable suffering. We all remember the horrors of Bucha. It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far.”
Moscow has promoted the chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Yuriy Chernichuk, to become its head, according to Russia’s nuclear agency Rosenergoatom. The position has been vacant since October, when Kyiv says the plant’s boss Ihor Murashov was abducted by Russian authorities.
Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram early on Wednesday morning that Russian strikes in the region overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.
Ukraine claims to have killed another 500 Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours, bringing the total who have died in combat since 24 February to about 88,880. The general staff of the armed forces said it had taken out three more tanks and six armoured personnel carriers.
Ukrainian forces have downed three Russian reconnaissance drones in the last 24 hours, according to its armed forces. In an early morning bulletin from Ukraine, the spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces, Alexander Štupun, said Ukraine had been subjected to a number of missile attacks from planes and artillery, including on Kivsharivka in Kharkiv and Sloviansk in Donetsk.
Five Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian forces on Tuesday, according to a senior government official. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted on Telegram that the five were killed in Donetsk, with 15 people also injured. The Donetsk region has continued to face shelling by Russian troops. Others were wounded in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Russia’s defence minister has said it will focus on nuclear arms infrastructure in 2023, including facilities to accommodate new missile systems. Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of the board of the department on Wednesday that it would be a priority for Russia next year. “When preparing the list of major construction facilities for 2023, special attention will be paid to construction in the interests of the strategic nuclear forces,” Shoigu was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.
The head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, spoke to Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday morning. They discussed the US’s support for the Grain from Ukraine scheme, which is running to get grain out of the port of Odesa, and its support for Ukraine over the winter months.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has highlighted Russia’s new foreign agents act in its daily update, which it says will be used to crack down on critics and dissidents. Vladimir Putin has changed the 2012 law so that personal details including the address of designated “foreign agents” can be published, meaning they could become targets of harassment. The change will come into force on Thursday.
The European Commission gave an update on Wednesday on its plans to freeze and confiscate Russian assets. Von der Leyen said: “We have blocked €300bn of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money.”
Nato doubled down on Tuesday on its commitment to one day include Ukraine, a pledge that some officials and analysts believe helped prompt Russia’s invasion this year. The world’s largest security alliance also pledged to send more aid to Ukrainian forces locked in battle with Russian troops.
Ukraine’s supplies of spare parts for its battered electricity grid are running out amid sustained Russian bombing. European companies are being asked to urgently donate surplus kit to help the country get through the winter.
The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato against providing Ukraine with Patriot missile defence systems and called the alliance a “criminal entity”. “If, as [Nato secretary general Jens] Stoltenberg hinted, Nato were to supply the Ukrainian fanatics with Patriot systems along with Nato personnel, they would immediately become a legitimate target of our armed forces,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
Hello, I’m Tom Ambrose, taking over from my colleague Harry Taylor.
Updated
Moscow has promoted the chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Yuriy Chernichuk, to become its head, according to Russia’s nuclear agency Rosenergoatom.
The position has been vacant since October, when Kyiv says the plant’s boss Ihor Murashov was abducted by Russian authorities.
The nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest and in the east of Ukraine, has been occupied by Russian forces since March.
It has not been producing electricity since September but is still run by its Ukrainian staff to keep it safe. Moscow said in October it was putting the plant under control of Russia’s nuclear authorities, Reuters reports, a move Kyiv says is illegal.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power operator Energoatom said in May that Russia had forbidden Chernichuk from leaving the city of Enerhodar, where the plant is based, holding him and other staff as “hostages”.
The six-reactor plant has since come under repeated shelling, drawing condemnation from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has called for a safety zone around it, a proposal so far resisted by Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine each blame the other for the shelling at the plant, located on a Russian-held bank of the Dnipro River across from Ukrainian-held territory. Kyiv also accuses Moscow of hiding military equipment at the plant, which Russia denies.
Updated
Five Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian forces on Tuesday, according to a senior government official.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted on Telegram that the five were all killed in Donetsk, with 15 people also injured. The Donetsk region has continued to face shelling by Russian troops.
Others were wounded in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Updated
Russia to invest in nuclear weapons infrastructure
Russia’s defence minister has said it will focus on nuclear arms infrastructure in 2023, including facilities to accommodate new missile systems.
Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of the board of the department on Wednesday that it would be a priority for Russia next year.
“When preparing the list of major construction facilities for 2023, special attention will be paid to construction in the interests of the strategic nuclear forces,” Shoigu was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.
On Monday, Russia postponed talks with the US on nuclear weapons, saying they would be rescheduled but not giving any reasons for the delay. The Start treaty will expire in 2026.
Shiogu said 300,000 reservists, including volunteers, were trained in two months after Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation order was given, Russian news agency Tass reports.
The defence minister said more than 100 training camps were used in Russia and Belarus.
Updated
The head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, spoke to Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday morning.
They discussed the US’s support for the Grain from Ukraine scheme, which is running to get grain out of the port of Odesa, and its support for Ukraine over the winter months.
According to the Interfax news agency, a spokesperson said: “Yermak informed the interlocutor about the operational situation at the front, as well as about the possible steps Russia is preparing to continue terror against the civilian population of Ukraine.
“The parties discussed providing support to our state to ensure the passage of the winter period.”
Updated
The UK is to sign a new digital trade agreement with Ukraine that will give the country access to Britain’s financial services industry.
Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, will sign the agreement with the UK’s trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, on Wednesday. Officials say the deal – based on a similar agreement earlier this year between the UK and Singapore – will support digital commerce through the facilitation of cross-border data flows.
Digital trade is considered to be particularly important in the current conflict with Russia, PA Media reports, with the fighting and damage to infrastructure making physical trade more difficult.
The agreement also allows for greater cooperation between the UK and Ukraine on cybersecurity and emerging technologies.
Badenoch said: “The landmark digital trade deal agreed today between our two countries paves the way for a new era of modern trade between us. This agreement will mean our businesses and governments can collaborate even more and ensure Ukrainians have access to essential goods and services [that] digital trade opens up.”
Updated
EU to try to set up court to investigate and prosecute Russian war crimes
The EU will try to set up a court, backed by the UN, to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, according to the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen.
In a video statement, she said: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought death, devastation and unspeakable suffering. We all remember the horrors of Bucha. It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far.
“Russia must pay for its horrific crimes, including for its crime of aggression against a sovereign state. This is why, while continuing to support the international criminal court, we are proposing to set up a specialised court backed by the United Nations to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression.
“We are ready to start working with the international community to get the broadest international support possible for this specialised court.
“Russia must also pay financially for the devastation that it has caused. The damage suffered by Ukraine is estimated at €600bn. Russia and its oligarchs have to compensate Ukraine for its damage and for the costs for rebuilding the country.”
She proposes that the EU could seize Russian money in Europe, invest it, and use it to finance the rebuilding (see 8.02am).
“Russia’s horrific crimes will not go unpunished,” she said.
Russia has denied targeting civilians and said it has not committed war crimes, despite evidence of a massacre in Bucha. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said more than 400 war crimes were committed in Kherson during the occupation of the city.
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The European Commission gave an update on Wednesday on its plans to freeze and confiscate Russian assets.
“We have blocked €300bn of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU’s executive.
She said that in the short term the EU and its partners could manage the funds and invest them.
The proceeds would go to Ukraine so that ultimately they would compensate for damage caused to the country, Reuters reports.
“We will work on an international agreement with our partners to make this possible. And together, we can find legal ways to get to it,” she said.
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An interesting story here, as the BBC has been given details of calls made to a hotline set up for Russian soldiers to surrender.
The “I Want to Live” scheme was started in September by Ukraine, and gives Russian troops a way to give themselves up to Ukrainian forces. It includes a hotline and a messaging app.
Officials in Kyiv have told the BBC they have had 3,500 inquiries from personnel, some on the frontline and some in Russia before deployment, and their families.
Svitlana, not her real name, is one of the call handlers who speaks to them.
“First of all, we hear a voice, mainly male. It’s often part-desperate, part-frustrated, because they don’t fully understand how the hotline works, or whether it’s just a set up.
“There’s also curiosity because many call not to surrender but to find out how they could if needed. It’s different every time.”
Recordings provided to the broadcaster include soldiers asking what to do when Ukrainian troops arrive. “Do I drop to my knees, or what? What do I do, how do I surrender?” one asked.
Another said: “I am from Moscow. I haven’t received a conscription ticket yet, but there were attempts to give it to me. Do you have any advice as to what I should do? I won’t kill Ukrainians. I would like to save my life.”
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Ukraine claims to have killed another 500 Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours, bringing the total who have died in combat since 24 February to about 88,880.
The general staff of the armed forces said it had taken out three more tanks, and another six armoured personnel carriers.
The casualty figures published by Ukraine are disputed by Russia, which says its death toll from the war is much lower.
Ukrainian forces have downed three Russian reconnaissance drones in the last 24 hours, according to its armed forces.
In an early morning bulletin from Ukraine, the spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces, Alexander Štupun, said Ukraine had been subjected to a number of missile attacks from planes and artillery, including on Kivsharivka in Kharkiv and Sloviansk in Donetsk. Both are in Ukraine’s east.
“The threat of missile strikes by Russian invaders on energy system facilities and critical infrastructure throughout Ukraine remains,” he continued.
Štupun said attacks from Russian jets had caused fires in Kizomis, a small town on the outskirts of Kherson near the Dnipro River estuary. Artillery shelling continues on Kherson city itself, according to the update.
He added that in response Ukrainian planes had launched 15 strikes on Russian positions and equipment, and two air attacks on anti-aircraft missile systems.
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence has highlighted Russia’s new foreign agents act in its daily update, which the MoD says will be used to crack down on critics and dissidents.
Vladimir Putin has changed the existing 2012 law to mean that the personal details, including the address, of designated “foreign agents” can be published – meaning they could become targets of harassment. It will come into force on Thursday.
Previously it was limited to people who the Kremlin alleged had received financial support from abroad. However, it will now extend to those the government perceives as under the “influence or pressure” of foreign actors.
The MoD said: “The Kremlin is likely acting pre-emptively to prevent greater domestic dissent as the conflict remains unresolved and increasingly impacts Russians’ everyday lives.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 30 November 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 30, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/fgQp2pB2Il
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/tgBYUJUISr
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Zelenskiy says Russians ‘planning something in the south’
In his late-night update, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on Telegram: “Despite extremely big Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south.
“But we are holding out and – most importantly – do not allow the enemy to fulfil their intentions.”
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Fresh missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia region overnight – local official
Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram early on Wednesday morning that Russian strikes in the region overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.
“In one of the settlements of the Zaporizhzhia district, a gas distribution point was damaged as a result of a rocket (probably S-300) hit, resulting in a fire. It was quickly eliminated, but three streets remained without gas. Fortunately, people were not hurt,” he wrote.
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Summary
Hi, this is the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram a short while ago that Russian strikes overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.
In his late-night update, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on Telegram: “Despite extremely big Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south.
“But we are holding out and – most importantly – do not allow the enemy to fulfil their intentions.”
Meanwhile, Nato leaders will meet for a second day of talks in Romania on Wednesday, after vowing more help for Ukraine to restore power and heat knocked out by strikes as Russia attacks on multiple fronts.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Nato doubled down on Tuesday on its commitment to one day include Ukraine, a pledge that some officials and analysts believe helped prompt Russia’s invasion this year. The world’s largest security alliance also pledged to send more aid to Ukrainian forces locked in battle with Russian troops.
Ukraine’s supplies of spare parts for its battered electricity grid are running out amid sustained Russian bombing. European companies are being asked to urgently donate surplus kit to help the country get through the winter, after the latest step in Russian bombings targeting power plants and substations resulted in power cuts lasting 48 hours or more across the country.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato against providing Ukraine with Patriot missile defence systems and called the alliance a “criminal entity”. “If, as [Nato secretary general Jens] Stoltenberg hinted, Nato were to supply the Ukrainian fanatics with Patriot systems along with Nato personnel, they would immediately become a legitimate target of our armed forces,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian forces struck a power plant in multiple attacks on Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday, causing some electricity outages, the local governor said. “In total, there were about 11 launches. A power plant was hit,” Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility and made no immediate comment.
Ukraine’s state energy operator, Ukrenegro, has said it is still struggling to restore full power nearly a week after Russian strikes damaged energy facilities across the country. The power deficit was running at 30% as of 11am local time on Tuesday, Ukrenegro said in a statement, a slight rise from the previous day.
The jailed Belarusian senior opposition leader Maria Kolesnikava has been taken to intensive care in the city of Gomel, according to reports. Belarusian opposition politician Viktor Babariko posted to Telegram that Kolesnikova, one of the most prominent opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, was taken to hospital on Monday for unknown reasons.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Moscow had been left with “no other choice” but to cancel nuclear weapons talks with the US, state-run news agencies reported. He said it was unlikely any meeting would take place this year. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, accused the US of “the highest level of toxicity and hostility” and of “a pathological desire to harm our country”.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has said Beijing is ready to “forge a closer partnership” with Moscow to “maintain international energy security”. “China is willing to work with Russia to forge a closer energy partnership, promote clean and green energy development and jointly maintain international energy security and the stability of industry supply chains,” Xi was cited by state-owned broadcaster CCTV as writing.
Ukraine has detained a deputy head of newly liberated Kherson’s city council on suspicion of aiding and abetting Russian occupation forces, Ukraine’s state prosecutor has said. The official, who was not named, cooperated with the occupation authorities and helped with the functioning of public services under the Russians, according to the prosecutor.
European Union countries are inching towards a deal this week on a price cap on Russian oil, a way to adjust the cap in future, and on linking it to a package of new sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, diplomats said on Tuesday. The deadline for a deal is 5 December because that is when the EU’s own full embargo on purchases of Russian seaborne oil, agreed at the end of May, kicks in.
The G7 group has agreed to set up a network to coordinate investigations into war crimes, as part of a push to prosecute suspected atrocities in Ukraine. In a joint declaration, G7 justice ministers said member countries would ensure there is a central national contact point in each state for the prosecution of international crimes.
Pope Francis has sparked fury in Russia over an interview in which he suggested that Chechen and Buryat members of its armed forces showed more cruelty in Ukraine than ethnic Russian soldiers. He said soldiers from Buryatia, where Buddhism is a major religion, and the Muslim-majority Chechnya republic, were “the cruellest” while fighting in Ukraine.
Germany’s justice minister, Marco Buschmann, said his country contributed to the outbreak of war by “adhering” to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Buschmann also said Russian missile strikes on energy infrastructure constituted a “terrible war crime”, adding that he was “certain that at the end, we will see war crimes cases at the international criminal court against senior Russian leadership too”.
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