Zelensky says there’s no split among Europeans over Russian invasion

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.

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.

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. 

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.”

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. 

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.”

“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.”

“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.

These satellite images illustrate just how much Russia’s war has affected infrastructure in Ukraine.

Above, while surrounding parts of Europe and Russia are illuminated in light, much of Ukraine is dark.

And below, a composite image from NASA shows Ukraine’s network lit up before Russia invaded, and how much it has changed until this month.

Right now in the capital of Kyiv, about 50% of customers remain without power in near-freezing temperatures, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The UN also estimates that more than 7.2 million Ukrainian refugees have been recorded across Europe, while more than 6.9 million have been internally displaced.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN that he’s “confident” that both Hungary and Turkey will ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance, following Hungary’s announcement that it would support membership for both countries next year.

“I can’t tell you exactly when,” he said, but added on “CNN This Morning” that it was “one of fastest ever accession processes in history.”

He commended the United States in particular “for providing unprecedented support to Ukraine.”

Stoltenberg told CNN that supporting Ukraine was important, “because our own security interest is to ensure that President Putin does not win in Ukraine.”

When asked about comments from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley that there may be a window for negotiations to end the war, Stoltenberg replied, “what happens around the negotiating table is dependent on what happens on the battlefield.”

Schools in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv have opened their doors to residents who don’t have power at home.

Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said the city had set up hundreds of power supply points in educational and other facilities, where people can get warm, drink tea and recharge telephones and flashlights.

“Kyiv has launched more than 400 heating points. These points will work every day,” Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. “The majority of them are located in schools and other social facilities. In case there is no electricity supply in your house for more than a day, you will be able to come to the heating point to recharge gadgets or flashlights, drink tea and find out information about the nearest water pumps, shops and pharmacies.”

Here’s why: Half of the city’s households were still without power on Friday morning after a large-scale Russian missile assault two days earlier hit power generation facilities across the country.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv to ensure support for the country as winter sets in.

Cleverly announced another 3 million pounds (about $3.6 million) of support to the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine, and he and Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey also announced 5 million pounds for a Ukraine-led initiative to ship grain to countries facing famine.

“The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine. I have today announced a package of hands-on support for our Ukrainian friends in their fight, from ambulances to crucial support for survivors of the sexual violence carried out by the Russian military,” Cleverly said.

New funding will be targeted to areas recently taken back from Russian control in southern Ukraine, including Kherson region, according to the release.

After Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure this week, the country is hurrying to restore power to citizens’ homes, but adverse weather in the form of sub-zero temperatures, rain and wind are hampering efforts, officials say.

Millions of Ukrainians are being “plunged into extreme hardship and appalling conditions of life” due to this, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk warned Friday.

Here are more of the headlines:

Half of Kyiv remains without power: Some 50% of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was without power on Friday morning following the Russian strikes, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Water has been fully restored and emergency crews are working fast to restore heat to the city, the Kyiv city military administration said.

Electricity deficit: Although power has been restored to critical infrastructure across Ukraine’s regions, efforts to restore electricity to household consumers have been slowed, according to national energy supply company Ukrenergo. There is still a deficit of electricity, and consumers will lose access to power at times under “planned and emergency consumption restriction schedules,” the company said Friday.

Russian shelling reported near Zaporizhzhia and Nikopol: Russia struck the outskirts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight into Friday, Oleksandr Starukh, head of the local regional military administration, said on Telegram Friday, while the Dnipropetrovsk region, across the river from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, also reported shelling. 

UN watchdog providing support to four more Ukraine nuclear plants: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has started providing onsite support to four more Ukrainian nuclear power plants – Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, South Ukraine, and Chornobyl – in response to a request from the country, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a video statement on Thursday.

Following the strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the operational nuclear power plants of Zaporizhzhia, Rivne, South Ukraine and Khmelnytskyi were disconnected from the grid and “forced to rely on emergency diesel generators for the electricity they needed to ensure their continued safety and security,” Grossi said.

NATO “will not back down” on support for Ukraine: NATO will not reduce its support for Ukraine, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference on Friday.

Stoltenberg said foreign ministers are providing “unprecedented military support” and he expects they will agree to step up “non-lethal support,” at the Bucharest meeting.