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Not enough being done to protect Kyiv residents, says Zelenskiy
While efforts by Ukrainian authorities to restore power are gradually progressing, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, criticised the fact that progress was slow, especially in the capital, Kyiv.
“Many Kyiv citizens were without electricity for more than 20 or even 30 hours,” he said on Friday evening, and stressed that he expects quality work from the mayor’s office, in remarks widely interpreted as rare open criticism of the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
Zelenskiy did not mention Klitschko’s name, but made clear that he was annoyed that there were too few heat rooms for the capital’s 3 million inhabitants, referring to “many complaints, especially in Kyiv”.
Klitschko had reported earlier that 400 of these facilities had been set up to provide electricity, water, first aid and internet access to citizens, who could also warm up there.
“There is still work to be done in other areas, to say the least,” the president said, adding: “The residents of Kyiv need more protection.”
Key events
Belarus’s foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, has died, according to the country’s state media.
This is relevant to the war in Ukraine because of Belarus’s role as an ally of Russia, and a base for the invasion over the border in February.
In September Makei repeated part of the Kremlin’s line about the reason for the war in Ukraine, blaming Nato and the west, who “overlooked the legitimate security interests of both Russia and Belarus”.
More details have emerged about the prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine that we reported earlier (see 12.47pm).
In exchange for the nine Russian prisoners of war, 12 Ukrainians have returned, including three civilians who were believed to be missing.
12 people returned from Russian captivity, the President’s Office reported
Among them are three civilians who were considered missing.
Ukraine, returned 9 invaders. pic.twitter.com/vzmrh8okzu
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 26, 2022
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson urged people on Saturday to consider supporting an appeal for medical equipment for Ukraine, organised by the UK’s largest group of private hospitals.
Hospitals across Ukraine need our support. It was great to visit @Circlehealthgrp who have sent 12 lorry loads of medical kit over, & to help load the 13th with beds & anaesthetic machines for Kherson. Please consider supporting their appeal pic.twitter.com/Z5WrpRiRhv
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 26, 2022
Nine Russian prisoners of war have been freed in a prisoner exchange with Ukraine on Saturday, the Russian Tass news agency said, according to Reuters, citing Moscow’s defence ministry.
“On November 26, as a result of the negotiation process, nine Russian servicemen who were in mortal danger in captivity were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, hosted an international summit in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss food security and agricultural exports with the prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania and the president of Hungary.
Zelenskiy opened the summit speaking at a panel flanked by his chief of staff and prime minister. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, delivered speeches that were shown by video, Reuters reports.
Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander de Croo, tweeted, after arriving in Kyiv for his first visit since Russia began its invasion: “With the cold winter months ahead, Belgium is releasing new humanitarian and military aid.”
Arrived in Kyiv.
After the heavy bombing of recent days, we stand with the people of Ukraine. More than ever before.
With the cold winter months ahead, Belgium is releasing new humanitarian and military aid. pic.twitter.com/2nR3xoS55i
— Alexander De Croo 🇧🇪🇪🇺 (@alexanderdecroo) November 26, 2022
Belgium pledged a further €37m (£32m) of financial aid for Ukraine, the Belga news agency reported.
At least six people were injured in a Russian attack on the regional capital Dnipro, according to the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, who said that Russia had hit a residential area, partially destroying seven houses and causing a fire on Saturday.
According to Reznichenko, a woman was hospitalised in critical condition following the attack, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The Dnipro mayor, Borys Filatov, reported the attack at noon, saying that infrastructure was not damaged, but some power outages may occur.
Denmark’s autonomous Faroe Islands have renewed a fishing quota deal with Russia for one year despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a local minister said on Saturday.
Home to about 54,000 inhabitants, the Faroe Islands have been largely autonomous from Denmark since 1948.
“The Faroe Islands are totally right to extend their existing fishing agreement with Russia,” the North Atlantic archipelago’s minister of fisheries, Arni Skaale, told the Jyllands-Posten daily.
He added, however, that the islands, which are not part of the EU, condemned “all form of war – also the war in Ukraine” after Russian forces invaded in February.
The agreement has been in place since 1977 and is renewable each year.
It lays out catch quotas for cod, haddock, whiting and herring in the Barents Sea north of Russia for Faroese fishermen, and in waters off the coast of the Faroe Islands for Russian fishing boats.
The autonomous territory is highly dependent on fishing for its income, and the fisheries ministry says the deal with Russia covers 5% of its GDP, AFP reports.
Russia has become a key commercial partner of the Faroe Islands since they and neighbouring Iceland fell out with the EU – including Denmark – between 2010 and 2014 over mackerel and herring quotas.
An EU embargo on Faroese fish harmed the economy of the territory, which then turned to other markets.
“Today we only have free trade agreements with six countries – and not with the European Union,” said Skaale.
“If we cut ourselves off from one of these markets, it could be problematic for the whole of the next generation.”
Authorities on the archipelago have, however, said they would think about alternatives to the deal with Russia after local parliamentary polls on 8 December.
Last month, neighbour and Nato member Norway and Russia also agreed on catch quotas in the Barents Sea for next year.
Not enough being done to protect Kyiv residents, says Zelenskiy
While efforts by Ukrainian authorities to restore power are gradually progressing, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, criticised the fact that progress was slow, especially in the capital, Kyiv.
“Many Kyiv citizens were without electricity for more than 20 or even 30 hours,” he said on Friday evening, and stressed that he expects quality work from the mayor’s office, in remarks widely interpreted as rare open criticism of the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
Zelenskiy did not mention Klitschko’s name, but made clear that he was annoyed that there were too few heat rooms for the capital’s 3 million inhabitants, referring to “many complaints, especially in Kyiv”.
Klitschko had reported earlier that 400 of these facilities had been set up to provide electricity, water, first aid and internet access to citizens, who could also warm up there.
“There is still work to be done in other areas, to say the least,” the president said, adding: “The residents of Kyiv need more protection.”
Electricity has been restored in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson after its liberation earlier this month from Russian occupation, a senior presidential aide said on Saturday, Reuters reports.
“First we are supplying power to the city’s critical infrastructure and then immediately to household consumers,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, wrote on Telegram.
The city had been without electricity, central heating and running water when Ukrainian forces reclaimed it on 11 November.
Russian troops seized Kherson shortly after the invasion began in late February and it was the only regional capital they had managed to capture.
Their retreat marked a significant setback for Moscow, but Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are still shelling the city from across the Dnipro River.
The head of the local administration said on Friday that 15 people had been killed and 35 wounded in the past six days.
A “Grain from Ukraine” programme to subsidise exports of grain to poor and hungry countries has launched on the anniversary of Stalin’s man-made Holodomor famine.
Up to 60 Ukrainian grain ships can be sent by the middle of next year to some of the world’s poorest countries in Africa, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said in a statement released to the Guardian, my colleague Patrick Wintour reports.
The Ukrainian ministry of defence tweeted:
Ninety years ago, russia committed mass genocide against the Ukrainian people. Stalin’s manmade famine – the Holodomor – targeted Ukrainian civilians, millions of whom perished from hunger between 1932-1933. The world didn’t know then what was happening.
1/3— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 26, 2022
Today, through social media and firsthand accounts, anyone can see the terror that russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people. And this time, the theft and destruction of 🇺🇦 grain is causing famine outside of Ukraine’s borders, in some of the world’s poorest countries.
2/3— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 26, 2022
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