Sweden, Finland and Turkey are “making progress” on NATO membership
NATO allies have pledged to help Ukraine repair energy infrastructure badly damaged by Russian attacks after Kyiv called on its Western partners to provide the country with specific electrical transmission equipment to rebuild its power grid.
NATO pledged to “further increase” support to Ukraine, including by providing equipment to repair the country’s energy infrastructure, when NATO foreign ministers met on November 29 in Bucharest. A ministerial statement also condemned Russia’s “sustained and unconscionable attacks” which “deprive millions of Ukrainians of basic human services”.
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Russia has attacked Ukraine’s electricity transmission and heating infrastructure since October in what Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate campaign to harm civilians.
The shelling of electrical infrastructure means Russia is using the cold weather as “a weapon of war,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine needed equipment to restore electricity to citizens who have been left in the cold and dark due to outages caused by the damage.
“If we have transformers and generators, we can restore our energy needs,” said Kuleba, who spoke to reporters in Bucharest on the sidelines of the NATO summit. “If we have air defense systems, we can protect ourselves from the next Russian missile attack. In a nutshell: Patriots and transformers are what Ukraine needs most.”
The United States said it would provide $53 million to support the purchase of power grid equipment that will be delivered “in an emergency situation to help Ukrainians endure the winter.” A Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement said the package would include distribution transformers, circuit breakers, surge arresters and other equipment.
the German government said it would provide 350 generators to Ukraine. Berlin has so far provided short-term financial support for energy infrastructure repairs amounting to 56 million euros ($57.8 million), the German government said after a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania said NATO powers must make the political decision to send modern main battle tanks to Ukraine to give them a military edge in the winter months.
“I have spoken to a number of military experts and the answer I am hearing is that if we provide tanks for this winter – let’s say January – it could make a difference,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters at the conference. NATO gathering.
Russian shelling of civilian and infrastructure targets across Ukraine continues alongside fighting in the east, Ukrainian military and regional officials said earlier on November 29.
Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that the situation on the front line remains difficult, with Russian forces trying to advance in the Donbass region and Kharkiv.
“Despite extremely heavy losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance on the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move into the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south,” Zelenskiy said.
The central city of Dnipro was the target of a Russian rocket attack overnight, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.
“The Russian occupation forces shelled the Nikopol district with Uragan rockets and heavy artillery,” Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.
“Manufacturing facilities were destroyed. A fire broke out,” Reznichenko said, adding that there were no immediate reports of injuries. He did not reveal the identity of the company.
Dnipro has often been the target of Russian missiles and other longer-range weapons. Reznichenko said on November 27 that at least 13 people were injured in a Russian rocket attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops continued their assault on Ukrainian forces dug in along the front in the Donetsk region. The town of Andriyivka was among those mentioned by the ministry as attacking from the air.
The report was consistent with similar statements by the Ukrainian General Staff, which referred to massive Russian troop concentrations along the front in this area. The said the Ukrainian military repelled Russian attacks near 10 settlements, including the key targets of Bakhmut and Avdiyivka.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region around Kupyansk and Lyman, Russian troops resisted Ukrainian attacks, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
WATCH: Ukrainian artillery crews regularly use the Western M777 howitzer and say it has had a major impact against Russian forces. Crews operating one in a muddy field in the Donetsk region say the key to its success is its targeting accuracy.
The Ukrainian military said Russia bombed areas around the cities, which were recently recaptured by Kyiv.
In the southern Kherson region, the Russian military attacked a hospital in the city of Kherson, the president’s office said on November 29. There were no injuries, but windows were broken in the building, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.
The United Nations said the situation in Kherson and Mykolayiv remained “difficult” and “critical”. Almost a quarter of a million people in Mykolayiv lack heat, water and electricity.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown visited the two southern cities over the weekend.
In Kyiv, snow fell and temperatures hovered around freezing as millions in and around the capital struggled to heat their homes.
Officials said Christmas trees would be erected in Kyiv without lights in a defiant display of Christmas spirit.
“We cannot allow [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to steal our Christmas,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko told the RBC-Ukraine news agency in an interview.