Patients evacuated from Kherson’s hospitals due to Russian shelling, regional governor says
EU countries donate generators to help Ukraine get through winter
From CNN’s Eve Brennan, Irina Morgan and Ivana Kottasova
A number of European Union countries said they will donate power generators to Ukraine to help the country have heating for the winter.
France has announced it will send 100 high-power generators to Ukraine “as Russia wants to make winter a weapon of war,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna tweeted on Friday.
“Reminder: strikes against civilian infrastructures are war crimes,” she added.
Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib announced that the Czech Republic will also donate power generators to Ukraine.
Hřib said the package would include 626 heaters, with 400 for Kyiv and 226 for Mykolaiv, along with other equipment.
“Plus 22 million CZK (approximately $939,000 USD) worth of medical supplies for the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine,” he added.
Latvia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Oleksandr Mishchenko, announced on Facebook that the capital city of Riga had partnered with a charity to donate 84 power generators and 100 heat guns for Kyiv.
Some background: The new pledges come after the EU launched its “Generators of Hope” initiative Wednesday, whereby a network of more than 200 large European cities aim to provide energy to essential facilities in Ukraine.
A Russian missile strike dealt another significant blow to Kyiv’s electricity infrastructure earlier this week, though an energy official voiced optimism Friday that normal power levels would be restored soon.
CNN’s Radina Gigova contributed to this report.
Germany and France sign joint declaration on energy solidarity
From CNN’s Nadine Schmidt in Berlin
Germany and France have signed a joint declaration to strengthen energy solidarity, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced Friday at a press conference in Berlin.
“Friends stand by each other in times of need,” Scholz told reporters during Borne’s inaugural visit to the German capital. “Germany and France exemplify common European solidarity,” he added.
“It is an important text that will have concrete effects and protect citizens in both countries,” Borne said. “Our two countries need each other to get through the energy crisis next winter.”
Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent months due to differing positions on key issues, such as energy, defense and industrial policies. Borne’s trip to Berlin on Friday is seen as an attempt to rekindle relations.
Scholz said Germany and France support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and called on Russia to stop bombing Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.
Some context: Europe appears to be moving toward breaking its energy dependence on Moscow, with Russian exports of coal, oil and natural gas falling sharply since the invasion of Ukraine. But European imports of a key type of Russian natural gas have risen and remain critical to meeting energy needs, as CNN has previously reported.
Government adviser pledges Kyiv will have nearly “normal electricity coverage” by Saturday
From CNN’s Jo Shelley
Power supply to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv will near normal levels by Saturday, according to an adviser to the country’s energy ministry.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Center, said at a briefing that the “key factor” in restoring power in Kyiv and across Ukraine was the operation of the country’s three functional nuclear plants. He said he expected them to be working at normal capacity by Friday night.
“Now the key factor is nuclear power plants. … There is currently a lack of power generation,” Kharchenko said. “Judging by the situation, our nuclear power plants will reach their normal planned capacity by tonight. This will mean that we will return to the planned outage schedules and people will receive electricity for at least 16 to 18 hours a day.”
“The city of Kyiv will have more or less normal electricity coverage tomorrow,” he added.
Kharchenko did not say when he expected the power supply to the rest of the country to improve.
Ukraine is heavily dependent on nuclear energy, according to the World Nuclear Association. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February, the 15 reactors at its four plants generated about half of the nation’s electricity.
Kharchenko went into detail about the impact of Wednesday’s large-scale Russian missile assault on the energy grid, which he said “returned to its integrity and ability to operate as a single system within 10 to 11 hours” of the blackout.
In addition to reconnecting the power plants, increasing their generation capacity and managing the balance of the grid, engineers needed to repair equipment and “step by step” reconnect consumers who had been disconnected, he said.
The attacks damaged or destroyed more than half of the “key equipment” of the high voltage electricity transmission network, he added.
“The world will not produce the quantity enough to cover Ukrainian needs even within a year. We are now in discussion with all producers of such equipment,” he said.
Kharchenko appealed for generators to mitigate the impact of further strikes.
“We are currently seeking generators of all power levels, from all over the world, to secure our cities in case of blackout,” he said.
The head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has called on cities to donate generators and transformers to help Ukrainians get through the winter.
The US ambassador in Kyiv said on Friday that USAID had delivered 80 generators to Ukraine “to help keep the power on.”
Ambassador Bridget Brink tweeted “this support is just one part of the U.S. response to Russia’s cruel, sustained attack on critical infrastructure as we continue to #StandWithUkraine.”
Putin says all Russian soldiers are “equal” despite concerns minorities were targeted for conscription
From CNN’s Katharina Krebs
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that all soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine are “equal,” as activists and Ukrainian officials raise concerns that minorities were disproportionately targeted for conscription in the war.
“I know that the guys there do not divide themselves into any separate, that means castes, nationalities. Everyone is equal, everyone helps each other and understands that their lives depend on this mutual assistance and support,” Putin said Friday, during a meeting with the mothers of servicemen deployed to Ukraine.
Putin added that it is “innate for Russian soldiers to perform their duty with dignity, and even more so for soldiers from the Caucasus, from Dagestan, where people are of a special temperament.”
In September, Putin’s mobilization orders sparked protests in some ethnic minority regions of Russia. Several videos posted to social media, which CNN geolocated to the predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan, showed women in the capital Makhachkala pleading with police outside a theater.
“Why are you taking our children? Who attacked who? It’s Russia that attacked Ukraine,” they could be heard saying in the video. Groups of women then begin chanting: “No war.”
Pope writes letter to “bold and strong” Ukrainian people
From CNN’s Sarah Dean and Delia Gallagher
Pope Francis has written a letter to the Ukrainian people that was published on Friday by the Vatican.
“Not a day goes by that I am not close to you and hold you in my heart and prayers,” the Pope said in the letter, which was originally written in Italian.
“Your pain is my pain,” he wrote.
Francis did not mention Russia, but asked: “How is it possible that men can treat other men this way?”
The Pope mentioned the suffering of young Ukrainian children killed and displaced people who have had to flee the war.
“In each one of them is the defeat of the whole of humanity,” he said.
The letter expressed sympathy for young people “who have had to take up weapons to courageously defend their country,” mothers who have lost husbands, the elderly and volunteers.
“In this ocean of evil and pain,” the Pope wrote, “ninety years from the terrible Holodomor genocide, I admire your ardor. Even in the immense tragedy you are suffering, the Ukrainian people has never become discouraged or abandoned themselves to commiseration.”
The 1932-1933 Holodomor, or Terror Famine, was artificially engineered by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who removed food stocks from Ukrainian peasants, leading to the deaths of millions of people.
“The world has recognized a bold and strong people, a people who suffer and pray, weep and fight, resist and hope, a noble and martyred people,” the Pope added.
Ex-German leader Merkel says she wanted Ukraine talks with Russia but lacked authority
From CNN’s Nadine Schmidt
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wanted to set up a European format for talks involving French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to find a solution to tensions between Russia and Ukraine before she left office last year, but said she lacked authority.
“I no longer had the authority to push it through, because everyone knew after all: she will be gone in the autumn,” Merkel is quoted as saying in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine published Thursday, defending her policy toward Russia and Ukraine.
The former chancellor had indicated for a long time she would leave office after the September 2021 national elections in Germany. Merkel officially left office in December 2021.
In August that year, she traveled to Moscow on her last official visit. Describing the meeting between herself and the Russian president, Merkel told Der Spiegel: “The feeling was entirely clear. ‘As far as power politics is concerned, you’re finished.’ For Putin, only power counts.”
Merkel initiated the Normandy Format, which was set up in 2014 between Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine following the Russian annexation of Crimea and its incursion into eastern Ukraine in February 2014.
“After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, we tried everything to prevent further incursions by Russia into Ukraine and coordinated our sanctions in detail,” Merkel said.
‘I would have liked to have had a more peaceful time after I left, because I was very involved with Ukraine,” Merkel is quoted in the interview.
Since Merkel left office, she and her old government have come under fire for allowing the country to become too dependent on Russian oil and gas.
Russian Justice Ministry adds Meta to “extremist list”
From CNN’s Anna Chernova
The Russian Ministry of Justice has added Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — to its registry of “extremist” organizations, according to the ministry’s website.
The list now includes over 100 companies and organizations, including “American multinational holding company Meta Platforms Inc. selling the following products: social networks Facebook and Instagram,” according to the website.
The Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor blocked access to Facebook and Instagram in March after the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow found Meta guilty of “extremist activity.” The court’s decision did not include Meta’s WhatsApp messenger.
In response, Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said at the time the company was doing “everything we can to restore our services” but that “millions of ordinary Russians” will soon “find themselves cut off from reliable information.”
Patients evacuated from Kherson’s hospitals due to Russian shelling, regional governor says
From CNN’s Jo Shelley
The governor of Kherson said patients being treated in hospitals in the regional capital are being evacuated “due to constant Russian shelling.”
Children being treated at the Kherson Regional Clinical Hospital have been sent west to Mykolaiv and patients at the Kherson Regional Psychiatric Hospital have been sent to Odesa, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram.
“Nothing can replace the loss of a son,” Putin tells Russian soldiers’ mothers
From CNN’s Anna Chernova
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine Friday, marking national Mother’s Day.
Speaking to the women in Novo-Ogaryovo, at his official residence on the outskirts of Moscow, Putin said he shared the pain of loss with those who had lost a child and urged them against trusting so-called “fake news” and “lies.”
“I want you to know that I personally, as well as the entire leadership of the country, we all share this pain. We understand that nothing can replace the loss of a son, a child,” Putin said.
“Life is more complicated and diverse than what is shown on TV screens or on the Internet. You can’t trust anything there at all. There are a lot of fake [news], deceit, lies. There are a lot of information attacks,” he claimed.
Putin went on to say that he had personally spoken over the phone to some of servicemen, calling those on the frontline “heroes.”
I spoke directly with the guys on the phone, in any case, I spoke with those who even surprised me with their mood, with their attitude to their duty,” he said.
“This gives me every reason to say that they are heroes,” Putin added.
Exactly how many Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Ukraine remains unknown to all but a few inside the Kremlin, and US and NATO estimates have been significantly higher than Russian defense ministry projections. The Pentagon said in August that it believed as many as 80,000 Russians were dead or wounded.
The Council of Mothers and Wives [of Russian soldiers], one of the most well-known groups advocating for soldiers, said in a Telegram post Friday that they had not been invited to the meeting.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-11-25-22/index.html
