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U. S. and Polish officials have contacted Ukraine to explain the facts about a missile that hit southeastern Poland and two other people on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. Rock.
Warsaw and its Western allies say evidence from the scene indicates the explosion caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile that swerved in search of a Russian missile. Kiev denies this and says it has evidence of a “Russian trail” in the blast.
Ukraine’s former ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, was appointed deputy foreign minister, a senior official on Friday.
Taras Melnychuk of the government in parliament announced the appointment on the messaging app Telegram.
Melnyk served for seven years as ambassador and quietly returned to Kyiv last month after commenting on wartime nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, who still divides opinion in Ukraine and abroad.
The Kyiv city government warned on Friday that a “complete shutdown” of the capital’s force network was imaginable and Ukraine’s prime minister said nearly a part of the country’s force formula had been defused by Russian strikes.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February, stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian power installations in weeks and hit electric power infrastructure across the country with heavy airstrikes on Tuesday and Thursday.
“Unfortunately, Russia continues to launch missile movements against Ukraine’s critical and civilian infrastructure,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said after talks with EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. “Almost part of our energy formula is off. “
Poland will allow a Russian delegation to attend an assembly of the world’s largest regional security framework next month, the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Spokesman Lukasz Jasina said yes when asked via AFP whether Moscow denied access to the December assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), of which Russia is a member.
Ukraine is a member of the organization.
The U. S. Treasury Department on Friday issued sanctions over Russia’s involvement in Guatemala’s nickel sector, according to a statement.
The sanctions target the Guatemalan Nickel Company ProNiCo and Mayaniquel, Guatemalan subsidiaries of Solway Investment Group. From the same action, the Treasury also sanctioned Dmitry Kudryakov, who runs Solway’s mining operations in Guatemala, and a Belarusian national for allegedly directing bribery and corruption schemes. .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he discussed security and energy cooperation with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, and hoped Ukraine would be a guarantor of global food security.
“In a phone call with President @RTErdogan, we welcome the extension of the grain agreement,” he wrote on Twitter following the extension of an agreement to ease global food shortages by helping Ukraine export agricultural products from Black Sea ports that had been blocked by Russia.
“I thanked him for his #GrainfromUkraine initiative and I am confident that Ukraine will continue to be a guarantor of food stability. Energy security and cooperation were also discussed.
Ukraine said Friday that nearly a portion of the country’s electric power infrastructure needs maintenance following waves of Russian airstrikes that cut off power to millions of Ukrainians.
“On November 15 alone, Russia fired a hundred missiles at Ukrainian cities. Almost a part of our power formula has been deactivated,” Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said, as he appealed to Ukraine’s European allies.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that Ukraine executed more than 10 Russian prisoners of war with direct bullets to the head.
The Defense Ministry responded to a video posted on Russian social media that it said showed the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war. News agencies have not been able to independently determine those claims.
On Friday, a UN official said he expected a shipment of Russian fertilizer exports to Malawi to lead to further relief from a 300,000-tonne backlog at European ports as the global framework struggles to cope with Russian considerations that have threatened a deal. export cereals from the Black Sea.
“We are very pleased with the extension of the Black Sea grains initiative. . . ,” Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told a news conference in Geneva. “But we have made it very clear that we are still not where we need to be, there are still paints to be done and especially in fertilizers. “
Ukrainian experts are already racing in Poland’s southeastern border domain, where a missile killed two people, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday.
He wrote on Twitter that Ukraine would continue its “open and constructive” cooperation with Poland over Tuesday’s incident in which two more people were killed.
Warsaw and its Western allies say evidence from the scene indicates the explosion caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile that swerved in search of a Russian missile. Kiev denies this and says it has evidence of a “Russian trail” in the blast.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has the idea of creating a Turkish “gas hub” with President Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said on Friday.
“Special attention is paid to the implementation of the initiative, presented by the Russian president in October and supported by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to create a main fuel hub in Turkey,” the Kremlin said.
A rail link between Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the recently retaken city of Kherson will restart on Friday, a week after Russia’s withdrawal, a senior official said Friday.
“The first exercise leaves at 22:14 (2014 GMT) from Kyiv and will arrive in Kherson around 09:00 (07:00 GMT) tomorrow,” Kherson’s deputy boss Sergiy Khlan said on social media.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis visited Kyiv on Friday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal about the EU for Ukraine.
“We arrived in Kyiv to talk about the EU for #Ucrania, focus on emergency monetary assistance and our plans for 2023,” Dombrovskis, one of the 3 executive vice presidents among the 27 EU commissioners, wrote on Twitter.
“I will also talk to @ZelenskyyUa and @Denys_Shmyhal about concrete steps for closer economic integration between the EU and Ukraine. “
A senior U. N. official on Friday expressed optimism that Russia and Ukraine would agree on situations to resume Russian ammonia exports via a pipeline to the Black Sea.
A deal to mitigate global food shortages by helping Ukraine export its agricultural products from Black Sea ports dragged on for four months on Thursday, but ammonia exports via the pipeline were not part of the renovation.
“Some elements of this agreement (on ammonia) want to be concluded between the two countries,” said Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). “We have an explanation for why there is interest in this event. “
On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sanctioned Russia as a “step towards war” and called the bloc’s Russian policy dangerous.
Orban has sought to take an even-handed stance since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, refusing to send military aid to Kyiv and opposing an 18 billion euro EU package for Ukraine.
Although Budapest blocked EU sanctions against Russia after winning key exemptions, it blamed Brussels’ measures for rising energy costs and skyrocketing inflation in Hungary.
“This is a step towards war, if you intervene economically in a military conflict,” Orban said in a radio interview, adding that “taking a stand” may temporarily amount to “becoming a genuine belligerent. “
A senior U. N. official on Friday welcomed the four-month extension of an agreement to ease global food shortages by helping Ukraine export its agricultural products from Black Sea ports, but said there would still be work to be done.
“We are very pleased with the extension of the Black Sea grains initiative. This is very smart news for the world, because of the crisis of lack of food confidence that we are going through,” Grynspan told reporters in Geneva.
“But we have made it very clear that we are still where we need to be, there are still paints to be done and especially in fertilizers,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U. S. President Joe Biden have no plans to meet at this time, the Kremlin said Friday after Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow does not rule out high-level meetings between the two countries.
“A summit is ruled out right now,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier that Russia rules out higher-level meetings with the United States on “strategic stability” ahead of an upcoming meeting between the two powers in Cairo on nuclear proliferation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the meeting between US and Russian intelligence was vital to avoid an “uncontrolled” escalation on the ground, the Turkish presidency said on Friday.
In a phone call, Erdogan said diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine will have to be revived and thanked Putin for ending the Black Sea grain deal.
Russia will wait for a full assessment of the damage from the Nord Stream pipelines before deciding on imaginable repairs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Swedish investigators have discovered lines of explosives in Nord Stream’s broken pipes, confirming that extensive sabotage has occurred.
Neither Gazprom nor Nord Stream 1 and 2 to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin will attend a Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit next week in Armenia.
Russia said Friday it is strengthening its positions on the Crimean peninsula, annexed to Ukraine in 2014, as Kyivan forces retake territory in the neighboring Kherson region.
“Fortification works are being carried out on the territory of Crimea under my control with the aim of ensuring the protection of all Crimean inhabitants,” Moscow-appointed governor Sergei Aksyonov said on social media.
Russia annexed Crimea following national pro-democracy protests that led to the ouster of Ukraine’s former president, a member of the Kremlin.
It served as a launching pad in February for what the Kremlin calls its “special army operation” in Ukraine.
Russia is in a position to hold high-level meetings with the United States on strategic stability if Washington is in position, Moscow Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state media on Friday.
He also said Russia rules out further contacts with the United States after upcoming talks in Cairo on the new START nuclear weapons treaty.
Investigators discovered lines of explosives in Nord Stream’s broken pipes, confirming sabotage had occurred, a Swedish prosecutor said Friday.
The Swedish and Danish governments are investigating 4 holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea and have a critical point in the Ukraine crisis.
Denmark said last month that an initial investigation had shown the leaks were due to loud explosions.
Russia hopes to carry out a prisoner exchange with the United States that would come with convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” a deputy foreign minister said Friday.
“The Americans show some external activity, we paint professionally through a special channel designed for this purpose,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said via Interfax on Friday.
“It is undeniable that Viktor Bout is among those under discussion, and we are counting on a positive result,” Ryabkov said.
Pope Francis reiterated Friday that the Vatican is in a position to do everything imaginable to mediate and end the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, the pontiff said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa.
Asked if he believed a reconciliation between Moscow and Kyiv was possible, the pontiff asked everyone not to give up.
“But everyone will have to dedicate themselves to demilitarizing hearts, starting with their own, and then defusing and disarming violence. We will all have to be pacifists. Want peace, not just a truce that only serves to rearm. True peace, which is the fruit of dialogue,” he told the newspaper.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday suggested Asian countries sign up to the “growing consensus” opposing the confrontation in Ukraine, telling them war was also “their problem. “
Macron told business leaders on the sidelines of a Pacific summit that France seeks to “create a developing consensus that this war is also its problem, because it’s going to create a lot of destabilization. “
New Russian moves hit Ukrainian cities on Thursday, crippling the country’s energy infrastructure and plunging millions into darkness as winter sets in and temperatures plummet.
Repeated blockades have disrupted electricity and water resources across Ukraine, but the Kremlin has blamed the suffering of civilians on Kyiv’s refusal to negotiate, rather than Russian strikes.
AFP journalists in several Ukrainian cities said the new attack coincided with the first snowfall of the season, after officials in Kyiv warned of “difficult” days ahead.
“Currently, more than 10 million Ukrainians have electricity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, adding that the regions of Odessa, Vinnytsia, Sumy and Kyiv were the hardest hit.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters and AP)