Russia-Ukraine war latest: Putin offers to open Nord Stream gas tap ‘if EU wants’

Russia has unleashed a barrage of missiles on the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, a day after the United Nations General Assembly condemned Moscow’s annexation of four areas.

“A five-storey residential building was hit, the two upper floors were completely destroyed, the rest – under rubble. Rescuers are working on the site,” Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said in a social media post, adding the southern city was “massively shelled”.

A shipbuilding centre and a port on the Southern Bug river off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has suffered heavy Russian bombardments throughout the war.

A settlement in the region of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was hit by shelling early this morning, the region’s administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Rescuers are already working at the site,” the administration said, without providing further details on where the shelling took place.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify the report.

Russia’s “special military operation” has been raging for almost eight months as the conflict records devastating casualties as well as the displacement of millions of Ukrainians.

President Vladimir Putin began the conflict by claiming Ukraine needed to be “demilitarised and de-Nazified.”

Ukraine has defied odds throughout the conflict and defended against Russian attacks with the help of western military aid. In recent weeks president Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces launched a major counter-offensive to retrieve the besieged city of Kharkiv but as Ukraine’s resistance grows, Mr Putin’s threats of escalating the conflict grow also causing concern globally of whether nuclear warfare will be unleashed.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that a price cap on Russian oil exports in the $60-a-barrel range should be sufficient to reduce Moscow’s energy revenues while still allowing profitable production.

Ms Yellen told an event at International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings that Russia has been willing to produce and sell oil in the $60 range over the past five to seven years.

“So certainly a price in that range would be sufficient to feel that Russia could profitably produce and sell oil,” Ms Yellen said, adding the United States and its Western allies were still discussing where to set the price for a capping mechanism. This will come into effect on 5 December.

Statements made this week by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have reignited fears that his army could join Russian forces in Moscow’s war against Ukraine, but the authoritarian leader appears reluctant to lend his troops to the effort, despite perceived pressure from Moscow.

Russia has already used Belarus, its longtime and dependent ally, as a staging ground to send troops and missiles into Ukraine.

Analysts say if Belarus’ small and inexperienced military gets involved, the additional troops could help Moscow cut off some key transportation corridors, but likely wouldn’t significantly boost Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s capabilities on the battlefield.

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine.

They called on all countries not to recognise the move and strengthened a diplomatic international isolation of Moscow since it began its invasion of its neighbour.

Three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly – 143 countries – voted in favour of a resolution that also reaffirmed the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

“It’s amazing,” said Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters after the vote.

Only four countries joined Russia in voting against the resolution – Syria, Nicaragua, North Korea and Belarus. Thirty-five countries abstained from the vote. These included Russia’s strategic partner China, while the rest did not vote.

“Today it is Russia invading Ukraine. But tomorrow it could be another nation whose territory is violated. It could be you. You could be next. What would you expect from this chamber?” Thomas-Greenfield told the General Assembly before the vote.

Police arrested a woman on Monday for allegedly assaulting an officer during a protest outside of the Russian embassy in Washington, DC.

Demonstrators gathered outside of the embassy to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin’s forces have increased brutal shelling attacks on civilians and major metro areas as Russia’s suffered surprise military setbacks in its campaign. One banner at the Monday event called out Russia for the “mass terror unleashed on innocent civilians”.

During the protest, a woman was filmed having a heated encounter with uniformed Secret Service agents on hand, who protect foreign diplomatic missions in the capital.

Joe Biden has warned of “consequences” for Saudi Arabia after the Opec+ group announced a cut to oil production, in line with Moscow’s wishes.

The 13-member Opec+ – a larger version of the organisation to include non-OPEC members that was formed in 2016 – said last week that it would cut its oil production by 2 million barrels per day in November, sending prices soaring ahead of winter.

The decision came in spite of US objections and a meeting between Mr Biden and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud in July over the issue of global energy prices.

Many Finnish pharmacies ran out of iodine tablets Wednesday, a day after the Nordic country’s health ministry recommended that households buy a single dose in a case of a radiation emergency amid increasing fears of a nuclear event due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“An accident at a nuclear power plant could release radioactive iodine into the environment, which could build up in the thyroid gland,” the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said Tuesday.

Pharmacies in many locations in Finland reported Wednesday they had run out of iodine tablets as citizens rushed to purchase the medicine. Drug wholesale also said their were stockpiles emptied out.

The EU’s decision to offer unprecedented rights and freedoms to refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine less than a month after the war began was widely celebrated.

An exceptional measure known as the temporary protection directive, designed to provide immediate protection for at least one year in the event of a mass influx of refugees, was invoked by the EU on 4 March 2022 – for the first time in the bloc’s history.

It would mean that “all those fleeing the war” would be granted rights to schools, medical care and employment for one year, the European commission said.

“All those fleeing Putin’s bombs are welcome in Europe,” President of the commission Ursula von der Leyen proclaimed. German interior minister Nancy Faeser called the temporary protection plan “a paradigm shift” for the EU.

May Bullman and Maud Jullien report: