Dhe Mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has warned against political disputes after the critical words of President Volodymyr Zelenskyj. “The key to Ukraine’s success after Russia’s attack on our country is cohesion, both nationally and internationally,” said Klitschko of “Bild am Sonntag”. “We must continue to work together to defend the country and protect the infrastructure.”
Selenskyj criticized Klitschko on Friday, who went into politics after his success as boxing world champion. The President complained that the restoration of the power supply, especially in the capital after Russian attacks, was progressing slowly.
Klitschko now assured that a solution was being worked on at “record speed”. “The city has water again and 95 percent heating, now we are mainly working on getting the electricity back everywhere.” Klitschko has been mayor of the Ukrainian capital since 2014.
The current situation in Ukraine
Source: Infographic WORLD
All developments in the live ticker:
11:30 am – Ukraine reports progress in restoring power
After the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, the authorities on Saturday continued their efforts to restore electricity and water supplies in the country. Since widespread power outages in recent days, millions of people have been reconnected to the grid, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
From Wednesday to Friday evening, it was possible to halve the number of people cut off from the power supply from almost twelve million to more than six million and to stabilize the system, Zelenskyj said in his evening television speech on Friday. In most regions, including the capital Kyiv, there are still blackouts.
11:10 am – Ukraine commemorates famine Holodomor 90 years ago
Amid more than nine months of Russian war of aggression, Ukraine commemorated the devastating Holodomor famine 90 years ago. “Once they wanted to destroy us through hunger, now through darkness and cold,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday, referring to Russia’s attacks on his country’s energy infrastructure. In the years 1932/33, the then Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had deliberately brought about a famine in the Ukraine, the so-called Holodomor. Up to four million people died.
Zelenskyy emphasized that the Ukrainians are just as little willing to be broken by the Russians today as they were then. “We will conquer death again.” Ukraine’s presidential office chief Andriy Yermak wrote: “Russians will pay for all victims of the Holodomor and will be held accountable for today’s crimes.”
8:55 am – Russia to fire guns without ammunition
Russia is likely to remove nuclear warheads from aging cruise missiles and fire weapons without ammunition, Britain says. Ammunition would be fired even without weapons, the UK Ministry of Defense reports, citing its daily intelligence report. “Regardless of the reasons, this improvisation shows the extent to which Russia’s contingent of long-range missiles has been reduced.” The missing warheads may have been filled with ballast. The kinetic energy and unused fuel would still cause damage.
8:15 a.m. – Klitschko: Half of the households without electricity
Two days after the heavy Russian rocket attacks on the Ukrainian electricity and water supply, half of the consumers in the capital Kyiv still had no electricity, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Friday morning. A third of Kiev’s houses have already been heated again, Klitschko said on the Telegram news channel. According to the capital’s military administration, the water supply in Kyiv was now fully restored. Some consumers could still experience low water pressure, it said. The heat supply in the city will also be restored. Emergency teams are in the repair operation. As soon as the power grid has stabilized, the mobile phone network will work again in all districts of Kiev.
7:45 a.m .: Selenskyj criticizes Klitschko for emergency accommodation
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticizes Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko. In his evening video address, Zelenskyy said the capital had not adequately provided the emergency shelters set up after Russia’s destruction of infrastructure. “Unfortunately, the local authorities have not done a good job in all cities,” he says. “In particular, there are numerous complaints in Kyiv.” Many citizens of the capital are now up to 30 hours without electricity. “We expect quality work from the mayor’s office.” Klitschko has not commented. Ukraine is setting up thousands of so-called “invincibility centers” where the population will have access to heat, water, the Internet and cell phone coverage.
05:15 a.m. – Federal government: All jobs in PCK refinery Schwedt secured for 2023
According to the federal government, all 1,200 jobs in the PCK refinery in Schwedt are secured for 2023. The shareholders Rosneft, Shell and Eni have agreed on a budget for the operating costs for the coming year, said the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner, the German Press Agency. “Accordingly, layoffs for operational reasons can be ruled out in 2023. Everyone is committed to ensuring that no one is fired. That’s what we promised.”
In mid-September, the federal government put the majority owners of PCK, two subsidiaries of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft, under trusteeship and thus under the control of the Federal Network Agency. At that time, the government had already given a two-year employment guarantee for the employees in the refinery in north-eastern Brandenburg. According to Kellner, this has now been implemented with the resolutions for 2023.
12:00 a.m. EU Commission Vice – Refugees will stay after the war is over
According to EU Commission Vice-President Dubravka Suica, host countries such as Germany and Poland will have to adjust to the fact that refugees from Ukraine will remain in the country for years after the end of the war. “I think we have to be prepared for that,” Suica told the editorial network Germany (RND). “Their schools are destroyed, their homes are destroyed, their jobs are lost.”
A key problem is that these families think they can go home the day after the war. “But they will not go home then,” said Suica, Vice President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography. “I have to say it so frankly, I experienced the war in Croatia in former Yugoslavia myself.”
11:50 p.m. – Turkey certifies Sweden and Finland “progress” after meeting on NATO accession
Turkey has attested Sweden and Finland “progress” with regard to the NATO accession of both countries. In a statement, the three countries congratulated each other “for intensifying cooperation (…) and the progress made by Finland and Sweden in complying with the memorandum”. The latter was signed in June on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid.
“Sweden has fully respected the trilateral memorandum and is moving closer to NATO,” Swedish negotiator Oscar Stenstrom said after the meeting in Stockholm announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month.
11:11 p.m. – Zelenskyj: More than six million Ukrainian households are still without electricity
In Ukraine, two days after the massive Russian attacks on power plants, more than six million households are still without power. “Tonight, power outages continue in most regions and in Kyiv,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening video address. With six million affected households, the number has “halved” since Wednesday.
According to Selenskyj, around 600,000 customers were affected by power outages in the capital Kyiv. The regions most affected also included Odessa in the south, Lviv and Vinnytsia in the west, and Dnipropetrovsk in the interior.
22:52 – Ukraine evacuates more civilians from Kherson
Because of the difficult situation in Cherson, the Ukrainian government has evacuated the first civilians from the recaptured city. The Ministry of Infrastructure announced that 100 people had been taken by train to Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine. These included 26 children and 6 sick people. They would be housed in what was considered a safe area and would receive the usual state support for internally displaced persons.
8:03 p.m. – EU meeting on oil price cap canceled
A planned EU meeting to cap Russian oil prices has been canceled, according to insiders. According to an EU diplomat, the positions were not sufficiently approximated. Another explained that there would be no meeting in the evening or at the weekend. Some countries, such as Poland and Estonia, wanted a significantly lower cap than the $65-$70 per barrel proposed by the G-7 countries. On the other hand, Greece and Cyprus wanted a higher price or compensation for expected costs.
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