12/24/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 08:54 report: Japanese companies stop ship insurance for Russia +++
According to a media report, three Japanese financial institutions will soon stop insuring ships against war damage in all Russian waters. The three insurance companies Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Sompo Japan Insurance and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance have started to inform shipping companies about their decision, reported the Japanese financial newspaper “Nikkei Asia”. Accordingly, as of January 1, they will no longer cover damage resulting from the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. This applies to all Russian waters, no matter how far away from the war. Without additional security, operating ships in Russian waters would become too risky for most operators. This could also affect Japan’s imports of natural gas, which comes from the Russian Far East island of Sakhalin, it said.
+++ 08:22 Lambrecht announces the opening of further ammunition depots +++
The Federal Ministry of Defense has launched a pilot project for the construction and reopening of ammunition depots for the German armed forces. “We lack depots because they were closed under my predecessors. That will change now,” said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht of the “Welt am Sonntag”. “The Bundeswehr lacks infrastructure everywhere.” In the course of the pilot project, close cooperation with the building authorities of the federal states is planned, Lambrecht added. Four ammunition depots and material stores were reactivated this year. “Two more will follow next year, and then two more.” Further new buildings for ammunition storage are in the planning stage.
+++ 07:33 European high jump champion Mahutschich dreams of the end of the war +++
European high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchich has spoken out vehemently against a possible re-admission of Russian athletes by the International Olympic Committee. “As a Ukrainian athlete, I am totally against it. Many Ukrainian athletes were killed in this war. Many of them are still in Russian captivity today – among them the Ukrainian track and field athletes Dmytro Vitkovskyj and Vladyslaw Oksenchuk. All this makes me sad,” said the 21-year-old interviewed by the media group “Münchner Merkur”. At the same time, Russian athletes would support the Russian war of aggression and “genocide in Ukraine”. “From the very beginning I have openly expressed my position on the subject, and since then nothing has changed – I am against their participation in international competitions,” said the world indoor champion and Eugene’s runner-up.
+++ 06:26 a.m. Large majority of Germans expect gas shortages +++
A large majority of Germans expect that gas will be scarce this winter or next, 2023/24. In a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, 29 percent said they expected a gas shortage this winter. 26 percent do not expect it until 2023/24. Only 29 percent believe that the gas supply is secured over both winters. In the course of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, gas supplies from Russia, which covered 55 percent of German consumption before the war, were completely stopped. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stated several times that the gas supply for the winter of 2022/23 is still secured. A few days ago he said that in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” for the first time for the winter of 2023/24 – albeit with the caveat: “if nothing unforeseen happens”.
+++ 05:50 aid organization: Children miss their fighting fathers +++
For the first Christmas in Ukraine since the start of the Russian war of aggression, the aid organization Save the Children draws attention to the dramatic situation of children in the country. “Many fathers serve in the army and the children miss them especially now,” says the managing director of the German section of Save the Children, Florian Westphal. With shelter and play areas, Save the Children wants to ensure that “children can forget everyday wartime life for a while”. There they could “play, learn and laugh with their peers”. Since the beginning of the war in February, around 400,000 children and almost as many adults have been reached in the country. Employees provide emergency relief by providing shelter, food and drink, or medicine to displaced families.
+++ 02:38 “Resistance against war continues in Belarus” +++
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has criticized the long prison sentence for a man accused of sabotaging railway lines in Belarus for sending Russian soldiers to Ukraine. “The criminal case against the ‘railway partisan’ Vital Melnik ended yesterday with a sentence of 16 years in prison,” writes Tichanovskaya, who lives in exile, on Twitter. “Resistance to the war continues in Belarus, despite the risk of severe penalties,” emphasizes Tichanovskaya. According to them, Melnik was shot in the knee when he was arrested in April.
+++ 01:22 Ukraine seeks support in Africa +++
Ukraine plans to expand its presence in Africa next year by opening ten embassies. “We are in the process of strengthening relations with dozens of African countries,” announced President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine is trying to win the support of African countries and advertises, among other things, humanitarian aid in the form of grain deliveries. Selenskyj leaves open the countries in which embassies are to be opened.
+++ 00:44 Olena Selenska: “War is our life now” +++
Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, fears that people in the West are suffering from “Ukraine fatigue”. “We don’t want people to get used to what’s happening in Ukraine,” she told the Financial Times. “Unfortunately, we cannot turn off the news and make the problem go away. War is our life now.”
+++ 23:48 IAEA: Lack of staff causes problems in nuclear power plants +++
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the thinning of the specialist staff at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia is causing problems. Because the facility occupied by Russia is operated with fewer staff than planned and war damage has to be repaired, the workload of the remaining employees is increasing, reports IAEA boss Rafael Grossi. The Russian-installed governor of the Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, says shelling at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has “almost stopped”. On Russian state television, Balizki declared that Russian troops would not leave Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and that it would never come under Ukrainian control again.
+++ 22:15 Ukraine loses 40 percent of its grain harvest +++
According to estimates, the grain harvest in Ukraine fell by around 40 percent this year as a result of the Russian war of aggression. A crop yield of “65 to 66 million tons” is expected by the end of the year, explains the head of the Ukrainian grain association, Sergiy Ivashchenko. Last year, the yield reached a record 106 million tons. The main reason for the decline is the war, explains Ivashchenko. As a result of the Russian invasion of the country, the available acreage has shrunk and the yield of the seeds has declined.
+++ 21:40 power shortage in Kyiv: trams out of order +++
Due to the acute lack of electricity as a result of the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy network, local public transport with trams and trolleybuses in the capital Kyiv has been suspended for the time being. In their place, 222 additional regular buses would be used, Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced in the evening. The subway is not affected by these energy saving measures. “The subway works,” writes Klitschko on Telegram. The subway network, which opened in 1960, is now almost 70 kilometers long. The repeated Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid have caused severe damage, especially in Kyiv. Klitschko explained at the beginning of this week that the electricity requirements of the city of three million could only be covered by 50 percent.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine war here.