Ukraine News: Putin threatens nuclear weapons, Selenskyj does not believe in bluff

In the village of Endirey in Dagestan, residents have blocked a road to hamper the partial mobilization ordered by Putin, say the civil rights activists. Videos show police officers pointing guns in the air, then shots are heard. According to Dagestani media, the protest was a reaction to 110 men from the village being forced into the war against Ukraine. There were also major protests in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala. Dagestan is one of the regions of Russia from which, according to observers, a particularly large number of men are conscripted. Activists complain that members of ethnic minorities are particularly hard hit by the mobilization and are therefore sometimes even talking about “ethnic cleansing”. Anti-mobilization protests are also particularly large in the Yakutia and Buryatia regions of Siberia.

The US has warned Russia, both publicly and in private, of the “catastrophic” consequences of using nuclear weapons. “We have made it very clear to the Russians, both publicly and privately, that they should stop talking about nuclear weapons,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday. In the interview, which was conducted on the sidelines of the UN general debate in New York, Blinken says it is “very important that Moscow hears from us and knows from us that the consequences would be appalling. And we made that very clear,” Blinken said. Any use of nuclear weapons “would obviously have catastrophic consequences for the country using them, but also for many others.”

In an interview with US broadcaster CBS News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear that he took Putin’s nuclear threats seriously. “Maybe yesterday it was a bluff. Now it could be reality,” says Zelenskyj. He refers to the fighting around the Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia and says: “He [Putin] want to scare the whole world. These are the first steps in his nuclear blackmail. I don’t think he’s bluffing.In his speech announcing the partial mobilization on Wednesday, Putin said: “If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will absolutely use all available means to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.” Observers see it as a threat to use nuclear weapons.

Of the Mayor of the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in south-east Ukraine, Ivan Fedorov, fears that Ukrainians in these regions will also be recruited for Russian military service. “They will force the men to fight in their armed forces,” Fedorov told the Funke media group’s newspapers. Men between the ages of 18 and 63 are not allowed to leave his city of Melitopol, says Fedorov. “We advised our men to leave Melitopol for Crimea and travel from there to Georgia or the European Union. But now the town and villages in the region are cordoned off,” the mayor said. Russia does not allow travel between towns and villages. “They will draft our men and use them as cannon fodder. They will mobilize all men, regardless of age,” fears the mayor.

The German Environmental Aid has in view of the energy crisis called for the abandonment of Christmas lights in cities and private households. “This winter it should be a matter of course that both the Christmas lights in cities and those in houses and apartments will be dispensed with,” said Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch of the editorial network Germany. “In view of the war in Ukraine, the energy shortage, but also for reasons of climate protection, we should pause for a moment,” he explained. Resch pointed out the power consumption. “The private lighting orgies alone cause a power consumption of over 600 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year – as much as a medium-sized city with 400,000 inhabitants consumes in a year.” Resch proposes one illuminated tree per city and municipality.

Good morning dear readers, today we are accompanying you through the events of the war in Ukraine! This is the news from the night:

• Shots are fired during protests against partial mobilization in Dagestan. It is said that an above-average number of young men from the region are drafted into the army.
• In the Moscow-occupied areas in the east and south of the Ukraine, the occupiers continue to hold the sham referendums on the region’s accession to Russia, despite shelling.
• In an interview with US broadcaster CBS News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear that he takes Putin’s nuclear threats seriously and no longer sees them as a bluff.
• According to the German government, EU citizens should no longer be allowed to hold top positions in Russian state-owned companies. This emerges from drafts for further sanctions against Russia.