Not enough being done to protect Kyiv residents, says Zelenskiy
While efforts by Ukrainian authorities to restore power are gradually progressing, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, criticised the fact that progress was slow, especially in the capital, Kyiv.
“Many Kyiv citizens were without electricity for more than 20 or even 30 hours,” he said on Friday evening, and stressed that he expects quality work from the mayor’s office, in remarks widely interpreted as rare open criticism of the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko works at his desk in his City Hall office on Friday. Photograph: John Leicester/AP
Zelenskiy did not mention Klitschko’s name, but made clear that he was annoyed that there were too few heat rooms for the capital’s 3 million inhabitants, referring to “many complaints, especially in Kyiv”.
Klitschko had reported earlier that 400 of these facilities had been set up to provide electricity, water, first aid and internet access to citizens, who could also warm up there.
“There is still work to be done in other areas, to say the least,” the president said, adding: “The residents of Kyiv need more protection.”
More than 6m households in Ukraine are still affected by power cuts, two days after targeted Russian strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Russian shelling on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed 15 civilians on Friday, officials said, as engineers across the country sought to restore heat, water and power to major cities. Thirty-five people had been injured, including a child, and several “private houses and high-rise buildings” damaged, city official Galyna Lugova said. The shelling of Kherson, a key eastern city recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces, was the deadliest Russian bombardment in recent days.
Ukraine’s national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, said 32 civilians had been killed in Kherson since 9 November, when Russian forces were forced to withdraw from the city that they had occupied for eight months, the Kyiv Independent reports.Since then, Russian troops have shelled Kherson frequently
Ukraine accused the Kremlin of reviving the “genocidal” tactics of Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33.
The prime ministers of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine – Ingrida Šimonytė, Mateusz Morawiecki and Denys Shmyhal, respectively – met in Kyiv on Saturday for talks to discuss and reiterate their commitment to work together “in countering Russia’s armed aggression”.
Belarus’s foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, has died. Belarus has been an ally of Russia and a base for the invasion over the border in February. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted on her Telegram channel: “We are shocked by the reports of the death of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Makei.”
Ukraine accused the Kremlin of reviving the “genocidal” tactics of Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33.
The remembrance day for the “Holodomor” comes as Ukraine is battling to repel invading Russian forces and deal with sweeping blackouts caused by air strikes that Kyiv says are aimed at breaking the public’s fighting resolve.
“Once they wanted to destroy us with hunger, now * with darkness and cold,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. “We cannot be broken.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative demonstrated that global food security was “not just empty words” for Kyiv.
Zelenskiy said Kyiv had raised about $150m (£124m) from more than 20 countries and the EU to export grain to countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
“We plan to send at least 60 vessels from Ukrainian ports to countries that most face the threat of famine and drought,” Zelenskiy told the gathering.
The summit was attended in person by the prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania and the president of Hungary. Germany and France’s presidents and the head of the European Commission delivered speeches shown by video, Reuters reports.
The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, expressed his condolences after the sudden death of the Belarusian foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, Reuters reports.
But exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, commenting on the minister’s death, called Makei a traitor to the Belarusian people.
“In 2020, Makei betrayed the Belarusian people and supported tyranny. This is how the Belarusian people will remember him,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted on her Telegram channel: “We are shocked by the reports of the death of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Makei.
A hospital bed and equipment is rescovered from the destroyed maternity section of the Vilniansk hospital in Zaporizhia region. Photograph: Celestino Arce Lavin/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Rescuers search for medicines in the destroyed maternity ward of Vilniansk hospital, after it was struck by a Russian missile. One newborn was killed in the attack. Photograph: Celestino Arce Lavin/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Ukraine’s national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, said on Saturday that 32 civilians had been killed in Kherson since 9 November, when Russian forces were forced to withdraw from the city that they had occupied for eight months, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Since then, Russian troops have shelled Kherson frequently. On 24 November alone, the Russian military carried out 17 attacks on the city, killing seven people and injuring 21, according to a report by the Kherson Oblast governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych.
Klymenko added that seven police departments resumed their work in the liberated territories of Kherson Oblast, four of them in the city of Kherson.
The police’s demining officers have checked 450 hectares of land in Kherson Oblast and removed about 3,500 explosives.
“It saved hundreds or even thousands of people’s lives,” he said.
The prime ministers of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine – Ingrida Šimonytė, Mateusz Morawiecki and Denys Shmyhal, respectively – met in Kyiv on Saturday for talks to discuss and reiterate their commitment to work together “in countering Russia’s armed aggression”.
The member states of the Lublin Triangle released a joint statement, condemning the “systemic war crimes committed by Russia’s forces in regions of Ukraine, including deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks against the civilian population and elements of the civilian infrastructure”.
The statement also condemned forced deportations of Ukrainians, continued attacks around Ukrainian nuclear sites and “the organisation by Russia of illegal so-called referendums in regions within the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine”.
The Lithuanian prime minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, said on Twitter that the meeting had reconfirmed “the rules-based world order”.
A 2nd Lublin triangle meeting of the 🇱🇹, 🇵🇱 & 🇺🇦 PM's today in Kyiv, reconfirming trilateral cooperation, first of all, in helping Ukraine to defend its own freedom, as well as the rules-based world order. Our support to Ukraine must and will continue till their victory and ours. pic.twitter.com/pavaRtB8Kz
Here is some more detail on the sudden death of the Belarusian foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, from Reuters:
[Makei] had attended a conference of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – a military alliance of several post-Soviet states – in Yerevan earlier this week and was due to meet Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Monday.
Before the presidential elections and mass anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020, Makei had been one of the initiators of efforts to improve Belarus’s relations with the west and had criticised Russia.
However, he abruptly changed his stance after the start of the protests, claiming they were inspired by agents of the west.
“We are shocked by the reports of the death of the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Makei,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted on her Telegram channel. “Official condolences will be published soon.”
The Belarusian foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, left, and Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, at talks in Moscow in June 2021. Photograph: AP
