War in Ukraine: more than 500 localities still without electricity

See you tomorrow on Le Parisien to follow the news related to the war in Ukraine and its consequences.

The representatives of the thirteen members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Riyadh, and their ten allies led by Moscow, have agreed to keep the course decided in October of a reduction of two million barrels per day until at the end of 2023, two participants in the meeting told AFP.

A press release confirmed the continuation of the current strategy, taken to support prices.

“It’s not a big surprise”, commented analyst Hans van Cleef of ABN Amro, recalling that the alliance had already “warned of a slowdown in economic growth and therefore in demand for crude”. . The next meeting was set for June 4, 2023, but the group said it was ready to meet “at any time” between now and then to take “additional immediate measures” if necessary.

According to the British daily Guardiana draft resolution is circulating at the United Nations in New York to set up a tribunal similar to that of Nuremberg, in order to judge the Russian leaders responsible for the crimes of aggression in Ukraine.

Russia is working on a mechanism to ban the export of oil to countries that cap the price, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak says, as reported Reuters. “Russia will not bow to a cap, even if Moscow has to reduce its production,” he insists. The cap at $60 a barrel of Russian oil was decided on Friday and should be implemented on Monday or in the next few days.

On his Facebook account, the Hungarian Foreign Minister says that his country has succeeded in negotiating not to be forced to apply the cap on the price of oil imposed on Russia and which must be put in place in the next few days. Information taken from several Hungarian media.

According to the Ukrainian army, about 550 Russian soldiers were killed in 24 hours, for a total of 91,150 fallen in combat since the beginning of the war. They also claim to have disabled five additional tanks, without the exact veracity of the numbers advanced being able to be verified.

The cinema objects auction, organized this Thursday in Paris on the initiative of director Michel Hazanavicius, raised 250,000 euros for Ukraine. Half of the funds will be allocated to the government program for the reconstruction of the country.

Among the lots offered for sale, the César for best director by Jacques Audiard was notably awarded at 25,000 euros.

According to Ukraine’s first deputy interior minister, Yevhen Yenin, “more than 9,400 civilians died and around 6,800 were injured. Unfortunately, there are also children among them: since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 461 children have died,” he said, quoted through the ministry’s website.

According a survey Annual Meeting of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, 57% of Americans believe that the United States should continue to send aid to Ukraine. Moreover, Russia is perceived as an enemy by 82% of respondents.

More than 500 Ukrainian localities in eight different regions are still without electricity, following Russian strikes in recent weeks that have largely damaged the national electricity grid, said an official from the Ministry of the Interior.

In detail, “the Kharkiv region is the most affected, where 112 villages are isolated; in the Donetsk and Kherson regions: more than 90; the Mykolaiv region: 82; Zaporizhia region: 76; the Lugansk region: 43”, specifies Yevgeniy Yenin, First Deputy Minister of the Interior.

The former sovereignist presidential candidate, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, believes on the set of the Grand rendez-vous (Europe 1 / Les Echos / Cnews) that it is time to “make peace” between Ukraine and Russia and to “calm Zelensky”, whose objective would be, according to him, “to be the instrument of the destruction of Russia”.

According to various local reports, eight Ukrainian regions have been the target of attacks in the past 24 hours: those of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporijjia, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.

the Guardian reports that Russian army recruiters have visited the Moscow home of the son of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy-turned-whistleblower, who was poisoned in Britain after fleeing his country. They would have tried to enlist him in the army. But Anatoly Litvinenko was not there, since he no longer lives there.

The Director of American Intelligence, Avril Haines, questions the information available to Vladimir Putin about the exact situation on the Ukrainian front. “He is more aware (than before) of the difficulties (…) but we do not really know if he has the complete picture of the military challenges” on the ground, she explains, on the occasion of the Reagan National Defense Forum held in California.

Alexander Stryuk, the mayor of the city of Severodonetsk (in the Luhansk region), says living conditions are difficult for the civilians who remained there. As winter sets in, they have no heating and almost no electricity, he explains on Telegram. Not to mention that many mines are hidden in the city. “The food supply is limited,” he also says.

OPEC+ oil producers are meeting this Sunday at noon, just before the Russian price cap is put in place from this Monday “or very shortly after”. For oil-producing countries, the question is what impact this measure will have on the supply of Russian black gold, knowing that the Kremlin has made it known that it will not deliver oil to those who apply this mechanism.

The Ukrainian security services let it be known that 10 members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are under sanctions (blocked assets, restriction of commercial operations, etc.). They are accused of supporting Moscow, accusations which are based, according to Reuterson the fact that these people would have agreed to work with the Russians in the occupied zones or to have “justified the invasion”, according to the security services.

On Telegram, Oleg Sinegoubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, reports that new attacks are taking place around the city of Kupyansk, very close to the front line.

Director of American Intelligence, Avril Haines, believes that the pace of the conflict will slow down over the next few weeks, as the Russians and Ukrainians will seek to re-equip and rearm for a possible new counter-offensive which will not intervene without doubt, in his eyes, until after the winter.

In its daily update, the British Ministry of Defense ensures that a poll released by an independent Russian media shows that in Russia, public opinion is less and less favorable to the war waged in Ukraine. 55% of respondents would be in favor of peace talks with kyiv and only 25% support the continuation of the conflict.

Lloyd Austin, the United States Secretary of Defense, judges that Russia acts with “deliberate cruelty” by putting “civilians and civilian targets in its sights”. The bombings have “killed children, destroyed schools, wiped out hospitals”, he denounces.

Volker Turk, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (he succeeds Michelle Bachelet) is expected in Ukraine from this Sunday, for a four-day visit. He will notably travel to kyiv, Kharkiv or even Izioum and he is to meet the families of missing civilians.

The first ship of the “Grain from Ukraine” program (cereals from Ukraine) has just arrived in Ethiopia, announces Volodymyr Zelensky. It carries 25,000 tons of wheat.

The battle around Bakhmout, a city in the Donetsk region that the Russians have been trying in vain to conquer since the summer, has taken on an even more symbolic importance for Moscow in recent days as its conquest would come after a series of humiliating defeats, with the retreats from Kharkiv (north-east) in September and Kherson (south) in November. According to a bulletin from the Ukrainian presidency this Saturday, the fighting there would be “difficult”, because “the Russians have had time to prepare”.

In an interview at Parisian, Emmanuel Macron announced that he would meet this Sunday with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He will then discuss “soon” with Vladimir Putin, on security issues around “civilian nuclear” in Ukraine. Find all of the interview here.

Welcome to this new direct dedicated to the war in Ukraine.