Ukraine Daily

Saturday, November 26

Russia’s war against Ukraine

A civilian carrying bags walks past damaged buildings in Ukraine’s city of Bakhmut, a flashpoint in Russia’s war now in its ninth month on November 23, 2022. The city has been abandoned by its residents as Russian strikes destroy infrastructure and disrupt essential services such as gas, electricity and water. Those who were left behind avoid going outdoors and stay put in bomb shelters. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Ukrenergo: Ukraine still faces 30% electricity shortage after Russian missile attack. Ukraine’s state grid operator Ukrenergo said on Nov. 25 that the country’s energy system still has a significant power shortage at 30% of consumption needs.

Ukrenergo: Ukraine to import electricity from EU. “Special mechanisms are needed to guarantee these imports since the price of electricity in Europe is higher than in Ukraine,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, board head of Ukraine’s state grid operator Ukrenergo.

IAEA: All Ukraine-controlled nuclear power plants reconnected to the country’s power grid. The Rivne, South Ukraine, and Khmelnytsky nuclear power plants have been reconnected to the power grid and are now operating to generate electricity for the country’s needs, Ukraine confirmed to the International Atomic Agency on Nov. 25, according to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

Zelensky: Ukraine restores electricity for half of those affected by Nov. 23 missile attack. “As of this evening, blackouts continue in most oblasts and in Kyiv. In total, it affects over six million customers compared to almost 12 million who were disconnected on Wednesday evening,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Zelensky visits Vyshhorod after Russian missile strike. President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Vyshhorod, a suburb of Kyiv, on Nov. 25 after a Russian missile strike killed seven people there two days ago.

Ukrainian authorities evacuate hospital patients from Kherson amid Russian attacks. According to Kherson Oblast Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych, children and psychiatric patients have already been evacuated from some of the hospitals in Kherson.

Zelensky: Peace solutions not including liberation of Crimea are ‘waste of time.’ President Volodymyr Zelensky told Financial Times that he is in favor of liberating Crimea by “non-military means” if possible, but “no one should waste their time” on excluding the liberation of Crimea in potential solutions to ending Russia’s war. “We must return all lands… because I believe that the battlefield is the way when there is no diplomacy,” Zelensky. “If you can’t get your land back entirely, the war is simply frozen. It’s a question of time before it resumes.”

The Guardian: Danilov says Iranian military instructors killed in occupied Crimea. Ukraine’s military has killed Iranian instructors training Russian forces to operate kamikaze drones in occupied Crimea, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksii Danilov told the Guardian. Danilov warned that further Iranian military presence in Ukrainian territory would also be targeted. “They were on our territory,” he said. “We didn’t invite them here, and if they collaborate with terrorists and participate in the destruction of our nation, we must kill them.”

UK Defense Ministry: Russian conscripts face heavy casualties in Ukraine. The U.K. Defense Ministry said there are likely high casualty rates among mobilized Russian reservists due to frontal assaults near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, and digging trench systems under artillery fire near Svatove, Luhansk Oblast. The ministry said Russian conscripts often face “confusion over eligibility for service, inadequate training and personal equipment, and commitment to highly attritional combat missions.” Many reservists are likely deployed without adequate medical status checks, and many are compelled to serve with serious health conditions.

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, citing Belarusian underground sources.

Ukrainian delegation to boycott OSCE parliamentary assembly. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada permanent delegation to the OSCE parliamentary assembly will boycott the parliamentary assembly after the standing committee failed to change the rules to expel Russia, member of the delegation Yevheniia Kravchuk said. “As of today, we, the Ukrainian delegation, boycott the OSCE parliamentary assembly until this international organization can form its attitude toward the participation of Russians - propagandists and representatives of the terrorist state, the criminal state,” Kravchuk wrote on Facebook.

Kuleba: Most German parliament fractions agree to recognize Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians. According to Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the vote on the resolution will take place next week.

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Meet the Chechens fighting Russia in Ukraine.

In the Kyiv office of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, two flags hang on the wall next to each other: the yellow-and-blue flag of Ukraine and the green-white-and-red flag of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Photo: Francis Farrell

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Ukraine war latest: 6 million still without electricity after Russia’s Nov. 23 missile attack.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that six million people still have electricity shortages three days after Russia launched a mass missile attack on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Photo: Getty Images

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The human cost of Russia’s war

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. Russian forces also attacked the communities of Zelenivka, Chornobaivka, and Stepanivka, which are located on the west bank of the Dnipro River, where Russian forces retreated from at the beginning of November.

Russian attacks injure 5 people in Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv oblasts. Russian attacks on Bakhmut, Vuhledar, and Krasnohorivka in Donetsk Oblast injured three people, Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Nov. 25. Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said Russian forces attacked Ochakiv, Mykolaiv Oblast, with MLRS, injuring one person and damaging residential buildings. Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces struck Vovchansk, injuring a 66-year-old man and damaging residential buildings.

Russia strikes Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast, wounds 1. Russian troops hit Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast on Nov. 25, injuring a 71-year-old man, Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko reported. The attack also destroyed a medical facility and damaged three high-rise buildings, Honcharenko added.

UN: Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system have killed 77 civilians since Oct. 10. Some 272 people have been injured, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Prosecutor General’s Office: Bodies of 2 men killed by Russian troops exhumed in Kharkiv Oblast. Local law enforcement exhumed the bodies of two men shot by Russian troops near a forest in Podoly, Kharkiv Oblast, on Nov. 24, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported. The men, aged 28 and 39, had reportedly been killed in mid-September when the region was still under Russian occupation.

General Staff: Russia has lost 86,150 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Nov. 25 that Russia had also lost 2,899 tanks, 5,844 armored fighting vehicles, 4,404 vehicles and fuel tanks,1,895 artillery systems, 395 multiple launch rocket systems, 209 air defense systems, 278 airplanes, 261 helicopters, 1,553 drones, and 16 boats.

Speaking of Russian military casualties, Putin says ‘death is inevitable.’ During a meeting with soldiers’ mothers, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin compared the country’s losses during the invasion of Ukraine with the number of people dying in road accidents and from alcohol-related reasons.

International response

Norway provides Ukraine with winter clothing, howitzer in new military aid package. The package includes 55,000 units of winter clothing, an M109 self-propelled howitzer, and spare parts for military equipment repairs, the country’s government announced on Nov. 25.

EU will give Ukraine 200 transformers, 40 heavy generators to support energy sector. The announcement was made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a phone conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Official: South Korea to provide high-voltage generators for Ukraine. “We greatly appreciate the support South Korea has already provided and is planning to provide,” said First Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian parliament Oleksandr Korniienko.

Finland to send energy equipment to Ukraine. In an interview with Finnish Yle news, Finland’s Economy Minister Mika Lintila said Finland may send the first batch of energy equipment to Ukraine next week. After Russia’s Nov. 23 mass missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Lintila has started conversations with Finnish businesses in the energy sector “to coordinate efforts to assist Ukrainians.” “Yesterday I asked companies to donate equipment, and today the companies responded positively to the request,” Lintila wrote on Twitter.

Stoltenberg: ‘NATO will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes’ NATO will keep supporting Ukraine and also step up non-lethal aid, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference in Brussels on Nov. 25. “Most wars end with negotiations. But what happens at the negotiating table depends on what happens on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg said. “Therefore, the best way to increase the chances for a peaceful solution is to support Ukraine.”

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Teah Pelechaty, Dinara Khalilova, Toma Istomina, Thaisa Semenova, Oleg Sukhov, and Anastasiya Gordiychuk.

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