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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia claims Ukraine shelling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and says there is ‘no prospect for peace talks’ | Russia

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Russia accuses Ukraine of ‘nuclear terrorism’ over Zaporizhzhia

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Ukraine was continuing to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, deliberately creating the threat of a possible nuclear catastrophe.

Shoigu said Russian forces were taking “all measures” to ensure the safety of the power plant, Europe’s largest, in the face of what he called “nuclear terrorism” from Kyiv, Reuters reported.

Ukraine denies shelling the facility, which has been under the control of Russian forces since the first days of the war, and has accused Russia of firing on it.

“Our units are taking all measures to ensure the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Shoigu told his military chiefs in a conference call, an abridged transcript of which was published by the defence ministry.

“In turn, the Kyiv regime seeks to create the appearance of a threat of a nuclear catastrophe by continuing to deliberately shell the site,” he added.

Shoigu said Ukraine had fired 33 large-caliber shells at the plant in the last two weeks. Most had been intercepted by Russian air defences, he said, though “some still hit objects that affect the safe operation of the nuclear power plant”.

“We classify these attacks by Ukrainian troops as nuclear terrorism,” he added.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the claims. Both Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for attacks on the facility. Kyiv has also accused Moscow of using the plant as a de facto weapons depot.

Key events

Closing summary

It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • A drone attack has set an oil storage tank on fire at an airfield in Kursk, the Russian region’s governor, Roman Starovoyt, has said. Video footage posted on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night sky followed by a substantial fire at the airfield 175 miles (280km) from the Ukrainian border.

  • The drone attack came a day after Ukraine appeared to launch audacious attacks on two military airfields deep inside Russian territory. For Kyiv the strike represented an unprecedented operation to disrupt the Kremlin strategy of trying to cripple the Ukrainian electrical grid to provoke a humanitarian catastrophe in a country on the verge of winter.

  • Shelling by Ukrainian forces killed at least six civilians in the Russian-controlled city on Tuesday, according to the Russian-installed head of the separatist-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Alexey Kulemzin. The head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said Ukrainian shelling had killed a deputy in the self-proclaimed republic’s People’s Council, Maria Pirogova.

  • Russian and Ukrainian authorities confirmed the exchange of 120 people in a prisoner swap. According to the Russian defence ministry, 60 servicemen were returned from “Kyiv-controlled territory”. Ukraine received 60 prisoners in return, said Andrii Yermak, Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, said.

  • Ukraine’s health ministry has asked regional authorities to consider suspending non-essential surgeries and hospitalisations due to power blackouts. In a statement, the ministry said hospitals were continuing to provide emergency care but that planned surgeries should be temporarily suspended to ease the load on the medical system amid potential future blackouts.

  • Russia has launched strikes overnight on Zaporizhzhia region, according to Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia’s regional military administration, who posted photographs on Telegram in the early hours of Tuesday. The strikes damaged critical infrastructure and residential buildings, he said. At this stage there were no injuries or fatalities.

  • Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Ukraine was continuing to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, deliberately creating the threat of a possible nuclear catastrophe. Shoigu said Russian forces were taking “all measures” to ensure the safety of the power plant, Europe’s largest, in the face of what he called “nuclear terrorism” from Kyiv.

  • Russia’s defence ministry has said it has deployed mobile coastal defence missile systems on a northern Kuril island, part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka peninsula. Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates to the end of the second world war, when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.

  • The Kremlins spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he agreed with comments by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, about the need for lasting peace in Ukraine, but that Moscow does not see the prospect of talks “at the moment”. He added that in order for talks to happen with potential partners, Russia would need to fulfil the goals of its “special military operation”.

  • A Ukrainian presidential adviser has said that Iran has so far not delivered ballistic missiles to Russia and may not do so, as a result of diplomatic pressure and Iran’s own internal political turmoil. Mikhailo Podolyak told the Guardian that Russian forces currently had enough of its own cruise missiles in its stockpile for “two or three” more mass strikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure like the salvo fired on Monday.

  • A US national who was arrested by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine in the summer has been released and is residing without documents in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk. Suedi Murekezi, 35, told the Guardian he had been unable to leave Donetsk after spending more than four months in different prisons and basements in Russian-occupied Ukraine because he did not have any identity papers.

  • Senior EU officials have vowed to ensure Ukraine gets €18bn in financial aid, after Hungary vetoed the release of the funds. Earlier Viktor Orbán’s government was accused of “holding hostage” funds for Ukrainian hospitals and “cynical obstructionism” after Hungary confirmed on Tuesday that it would block €18bn of aid for Ukraine. The move by the Orbán government is widely seen as an attempt to gain leverage in separate disputes over Hungary’s access to €13bn EU funds.

  • Ukrainian embassies have received more “bloody packages”, according to its foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”. Over the past week, Ukraine said its diplomatic missions in countries across Europe had been targeted with packages soaked in liquid with a distinctive smell and containing animals’ eyes.

  • The number of Russian-affiliated oil tankers “going dark” to avoid being tracked in the south Pacific has doubled in recent months in a sign of clandestine means being deployed to avoid sanctions. By switching off their tracker systems on the high seas, the ships can quietly transfer oil on to tankers without links to Russia so as to avoid their oil exports being flagged.

  • Latvia has revoked a broadcast licence for TV Rain, the independent Russian TV station broadcasting from exile, following a scandal over its coverage of the war in Ukraine. The channel had been charged with failing to provide Latvian subtitles in its coverage and for having displayed a map that showed Crimea, the peninsula occupied by Russian forces in 2014, as part of Russia.

The European Commission is reportedly considering a ban on new investments in Russia’s mining sector as part of a fresh package of sanctions against Moscow, aimed at further eroding the Kremlin’s ability to fund its war against Ukraine.

Sources have told the Financial Times that the mining investment ban is part of a ninth EU sanctions package, which officials aim to discuss with member states and have agreed by the end of next week.

If approved, the ban, which the paper writes will exempt some specific products, would mark the first time Brussels has directly targeted Russia’s metals sector.

The FT said the new sanctions package could also include export controls on civilian technologies that Brussels believes Russia is using to support its arms factories, a ban on transactions with three more Russian banks, and targeted sanctions against another 180 individuals.

Ukrainian hospitals to temporarily suspend planned surgeries due to blackouts

Ukraine’s health ministry has asked regional authorities to consider suspending non-essential surgeries and hospitalisations due to power blackouts as a result of Russian missile strikes targeting the country’s critical infrastructure.

In a statement, the ministry said hospitals were continuing to provide emergency care but that planned surgeries should be temporarily suspended to ease the load on the medical system amid potential future blackouts.

⚡️Health Ministry recommends suspending elective surgeries, hospitalizations due to blackouts.

The move will reduce the load on Ukrainian hospitals and allow them to provide emergency care during possible electricity cut-offs, the Health Ministry said.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 6, 2022

Here are some of the latest images we have received from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where people have been marking the country’s Army Day today.

An elderly woman grieves next to the grave of a Ukrainian soldier.
An elderly woman grieves next to the grave of a Ukrainian soldier. Photograph: Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images
Servicemen of the Honour Guard stand next to the graves of Ukrainian soldiers at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv.
Servicemen of the Honour Guard stand next to the graves of Ukrainian soldiers at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. Photograph: Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images
The inscription "Dad I love you" is seen on a child's drawing at the grave of a fallen Ukrainian soldier.
The inscription “Dad I love you” is seen on a child’s drawing at the grave of a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Photograph: Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images

Latvia shuts down exiled Russian TV station over Ukraine war coverage

Earlier we reported that the chair of Latvia’s broadcasting regulator, Ivars Abolins, said it had cancelled the licence of the exiled Russian independent television station, TV Rain, “in connection with the threat to the national security and public order”.

TV Rain, or Dozhd in Russian, moved to broadcasting from Latvia in July, when it was forced to shut its Moscow studio after accusations by Russia’s communications watchdog that it was spreading “deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel” in Ukraine.

The station was earlier this month fined €10,000 by the Latvian regulator for displaying a map of Russia which included the occupied Crimea peninsula.

It was also forced to apologise to viewers and fired a presenter, Alexei Korostelyov, on Friday for comments he made on air, after he said he hoped that the station’s efforts would help provide Russian soldiers with basic equipment and amenities.

The network, which was founded in 2010 as the main opposition channel in Russia, has also been accused of failing to ensure Latvian language translation, local media reported.

Abolins told reporters today that Latvia’s counterintelligence and internal security service had informed his office that the station represented a threat to the country’s security.

TV Rain dismissed the accusations as “unfair and absurd” and said its programmes could still be seen on YouTube, which is where most of its audience watches its content.

Its founder, Natalya Sindeeva, posted a video this afternoon describing Korostelyov’s firing as “the worst thing we could have done in that situation”.

But in this emotional video, @sindeeva, TV Rain’s founder, says firing the anchor, Alexei Korostelyov, was “the worst thing we could have done in that situation.” She begs him and three other staffers who quit in protest at his firing to come back. pic.twitter.com/qvN5C1yjZm

— max seddon (@maxseddon) December 6, 2022

The move comes as Latvia faces a growing rift between the country’s Latvian majority and its Russian-speaking minority. A quarter of the population of two million in Latvia are Russian speakers.

The charity Reporters without Borders called the move a “serious blow to freedom of information”.

Several other Russian newsrooms have also found refuge in the Latvian capital, including Novaya Gazeta Europe and Deutsche Welle’s Moscow branch. The city has also hosted independent news website Meduza since 2014.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the move showed foreign states were no freer than Russia. He told reporters today:

Some always think that elsewhere is better than home. And some always think that freedom is elsewhere and there is no freedom at home. This is one of the clearest examples that demonstrate the fallacy of such illusions.

Moldova’s prime minister, Natalia Gavrilița, has pledged to boost cooperation between her country and Ukraine during a visit to the towns of Bucha and Irpin.

In a series of tweets, Gavrilița said justice would be carried out for “the innocent victims that died, were tortured and hurt during this cruel and unjust war unleashed by Russia”.

She added:

Ukraine is fighting for us all – for the freedom of the entire European continent.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, tweeted about his meeting with his Moldovan counterpart, saying that the pair had agreed to cooperate in air defence, energy and customer control.

Cooperation between 🇲🇩 and 🇺🇦 makes us stronger. Today we reached agreements with PM @natgavrilita on strengthening 🇺🇦-🇲🇩-🇷🇴 dialogue & coordination to the 🇪🇺 membership. Agreed to cooperate in air defence, energy and customer control. We remove obstacles to economic cooperation. pic.twitter.com/DD5Ko7mHNI

— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) December 6, 2022

Summary of the day so far

It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • A drone attack has set an oil storage tank on fire at an airfield in Kursk, the Russian region’s governor, Roman Starovoyt, has said. Video footage posted on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night sky followed by a substantial fire at the airfield 175 miles (280km) from the Ukrainian border.

  • The drone attack came a day after Ukraine appeared to launch audacious attacks on two military airfields deep inside Russian territory. For Kyiv the strike represented an unprecedented operation to disrupt the Kremlin strategy of trying to cripple the Ukrainian electrical grid to provoke a humanitarian catastrophe in a country on the verge of winter.

Russia: drone attack sets oil storage tank alight on Kursk airfield – video

  • Shelling by Ukrainian forces killed at least six civilians in the Russian-controlled city on Tuesday, according to the Russian-installed head of the separatist-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Alexey Kulemzin. The head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said Ukrainian shelling had killed a deputy in the self-proclaimed republic’s People’s Council, Maria Pirogova.

  • Russian and Ukrainian authorities confirmed the exchange of 120 people in a prisoner swap. According to the Russian defence ministry, 60 servicemen were returned from “Kyiv-controlled territory”. Ukraine received 60 prisoners in return, said Andrii Yermak, Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, said.

  • The power deficit caused by the latest wave of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine will be significantly reduced by Tuesday evening, the Ukrainian energy minister, German Galushchenko, said in televised comments. Missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday destroyed homes and knocked out power in some areas.

  • Russia has launched strikes overnight on Zaporizhzhia region, according to Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia’s regional military administration, who posted photographs on Telegram in the early hours of Tuesday. The strikes damaged critical infrastructure and residential buildings, he said. At this stage there were no injuries or fatalities.

  • Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Ukraine was continuing to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, deliberately creating the threat of a possible nuclear catastrophe. Shoigu said Russian forces were taking “all measures” to ensure the safety of the power plant, Europe’s largest, in the face of what he called “nuclear terrorism” from Kyiv.

  • Russia’s defence ministry has said it has deployed mobile coastal defence missile systems on a northern Kuril island, part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka peninsula. Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates to the end of the second world war, when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.

  • The Kremlins spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he agreed with comments by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, about the need for lasting peace in Ukraine, but that Moscow does not see the prospect of talks “at the moment”. He added that in order for talks to happen with potential partners, Russia would need to fulfil the goals of its “special military operation”.

  • A Ukrainian presidential adviser has said that Iran has so far not delivered ballistic missiles to Russia and may not do so, as a result of diplomatic pressure and Iran’s own internal political turmoil. Mikhailo Podolyak told the Guardian that Russian forces currently had enough of its own cruise missiles in its stockpile for “two or three” more mass strikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure like the salvo fired on Monday.

  • A US national who was arrested by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine in the summer has been released and is residing without documents in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk. Suedi Murekezi, 35, told the Guardian he had been unable to leave Donetsk after spending more than four months in different prisons and basements in Russian-occupied Ukraine because he did not have any identity papers.

  • Senior EU officials have vowed to ensure Ukraine gets €18bn in financial aid, after Hungary vetoed the release of the funds. Earlier Viktor Orbán’s government was accused of “holding hostage” funds for Ukrainian hospitals and “cynical obstructionism” after Hungary confirmed on Tuesday that it would block €18bn of aid for Ukraine. The move by the Orbán government is widely seen as an attempt to gain leverage in separate disputes over Hungary’s access to €13bn EU funds.

  • Ukrainian embassies have received more “bloody packages”, according to its foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”. Over the past week, Ukraine said its diplomatic missions in countries across Europe had been targeted with packages soaked in liquid with a distinctive smell and containing animals’ eyes.

  • The Russian state-owned bank VTB said it was hit by an “unprecedented cyber-attack from abroad”, which it said was the largest cyber-attack in its history. In a statement, it said it was repelling the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, and that an analysis indicated it was a “planned and large-scale” attack.

  • The number of Russian-affiliated oil tankers “going dark” to avoid being tracked in the south Pacific has doubled in recent months in a sign of clandestine means being deployed to avoid sanctions. By switching off their tracker systems on the high seas, the ships can quietly transfer oil on to tankers without links to Russia so as to avoid their oil exports being flagged.

  • The Latvian broadcasting regulator cancelled the licence of Russian independent television station TV Rain on Tuesday, the regulator’s chairman said. “In connection with the threat to the national security and public order, [the regulator] has made a decision this morning to annul the broadcast licence of TV Rain”, Ivars Abolins said on Twitter, adding the broadcasts will cease on Thursday.

American man ‘trapped’ in Donetsk despite release from prison

Pjotr Sauer

Pjotr Sauer

A US national who was arrested by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine in the summer has been released and is residing without documents in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.

Suedi Murekezi, 35, was detained on 10 June by Russian occupying forces in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, where he had been living for more than three years.

After spending more than four months in different prisons and basements in Russian-occupied Ukraine, he told the Guardian on Monday that he had been released by the Moscow-backed Donetsk separatists on 28 October.

Murekezi said he had been unable to leave Donetsk because he did not have any identity papers.

Suedi Murekezi was arrested a few months into the Russian occupation of Kherson when he tried to change the oil in his car.
Suedi Murekezi was arrested a few months into the Russian occupation of Kherson when he tried to change the oil in his car. Photograph: Youtube

In a phone interview from the city of Donetsk, the capital of the Russian-annexed Donetsk region, Murekezi said:

I am very happy to be free. But I don’t know what to do next. The Russians never gave me back my passport, and I feel trapped here.

Murekezi spent most of his time in two different jails with a group of international foreign fighters, including the British nationals Aiden Aslin, John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy, who returned to the UK after a prisoner swap in September.

But unlike the foreign fighters, Murekezi and his close friends and relatives said he did not participate in any fighting in Ukraine, to where he moved about four years ago, eventually settling in Kherson.

“It became clear early on to the Russian authorities that I had nothing to do with the fighting, but they just kept me in jail anyway,” he said.

Read the full story here:

The Russian-installed head of the separatist-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Alexey Kulemzin, said shelling by Kyiv’s forces had killed at least six civilians in the Russian-controlled city today.

Kulemzin wrote on social media:

Preliminary data shows that today six civilians were killed as a result of shelling in Donetsk, the number of wounded is being specified.

A firefighter works to extinguish fire at market stalls hit by shelling in Donetsk.
A firefighter works to extinguish fire at market stalls hit by shelling in Donetsk. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
A firefighter works to extinguish fire at market stalls hit by shelling in Donetsk.
A firefighter works to extinguish fire at market stalls hit by shelling in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Separately, the head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said Ukrainian shelling had killed a deputy in the self-proclaimed republic’s People’s Council.

Maria Pirogova, who Pushilin said had been involved in the separatist movement since 2014, was “the epitome of kindness” whose life was ended “in its prime”, according to a tribute he wrote on his Telegram account.

Daniel Boffey

Daniel Boffey

The number of Russian-affiliated oil tankers “going dark” to avoid being tracked in the south Pacific has doubled in recent months in a sign of clandestine means being deployed to avoid sanctions.

By switching off their tracker systems on the high seas, the ships can quietly transfer oil on to tankers without links to Russia so as to avoid their oil exports being flagged.

A $60 (£50) a barrel ceiling on purchases of Russian oil came into force on Monday. Companies in the EU, the UK, US, Canada and Japan as well as Australia are banned from providing services enabling maritime transport, such as insurance, in cases where the price cap has been breached.

The G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US – provide insurance services for 90% of the world’s cargo while Greece, an EU member state, is a major player in the shipping industry.

The cap is aimed at maintaining the flow of oil to countries such as China, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which have not banned Russian oil imports, while maintaining economic pressure on the Kremlin.

A traffic jam of oil tankers built up in Turkish waters on Monday as Turkey’s government demanded proof of insurance cover.

Read the full story here:



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