Sunday, November 26

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Ukrainian gunner patrols at sunrise. (General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Facebook)

Ukrainian forces defend positions on left bank of Dnipro river. Kyiv says the country’s armed forces are inflicting serious damage on Russian troops in the region and that Moscow has suffered “colossal losses.”

Biden denounces Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s agriculture in Holodomor remembrance statement. “90 years ago, the inhumane policies of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet regime created death by hunger… Stalin and his regime systematically seized Ukraine’s grain and farms and transferred Ukrainian grain to other parts of the USSR as a tactic to repress Ukraine’s national identity,” Biden said.

Russia has stolen and exported $1 billion worth of Ukrainian grain on world commodities markets, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Nov. 24 at a grain market forum in Kyiv.

Air Force warns of continuing air strikes, drone activity in multiple oblasts. President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed out that the strikes coincided with the Holodomor Memorial Day, a commemoration of a man-made artificial famine from the years 1932-33 aimed against the Ukrainian people.

Tech giant Cisco built special device to help Kyiv ward off cyberattacks on power grid. Cisco delivered to Kyiv in April 2023 a special prototype device that will help Ukraine’s power grid defend against Russian attacks this winte

Some EU members seek to weaken Russia sanctions enforcement plan. Some EU countries seek to weaken the bloc’s plans aimed against Russia’s ability to acquire restricted dual-use goods via third-party countries, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 25, citing undisclosed sources.

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Defense Ministry: $4.8 billion to be allocated for shells, missiles in 2024. Deputy Defense Minister Yurii Dzhyhyr said that another Hr 80 billion ($2.2 billion) will go towards the purchase of military equipment.

EU to provide $55 million to repair Ukraine’s port infrastructure. The European Commission will provide 50 million euros ($55 million) in EU funds for repairs and upgrades of Ukraine’s port infrastructure damaged in Russian attacks, the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen said on Nov. 25.

Reuters: Ukraine faces LPG shortages over Polish border blockade. Around a million Ukrainian cars use LPG, a third of which is delivered to Ukraine via the Polish border.

China’s support is crucial in bringing lasting peace to Ukraine. “We are counting on the vigilance of Chinese authorities so that no structure in China, particularly private, contributes directly or indirectly to Russia’s illegal war effort in Ukraine,” Colonna said after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during her trip to China.

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Ukraine sides with Israel. How will it affect Kyiv’s relations with Arab world, Global South?

Zelensky has compared Hamas to Russia, while his chief of staff Andriy Yermak suggested that Israel’s fight with Hamas and Ukraine’s defensive war are “elements of an asymmetric war waged against the free world by the’ axis of evil’.”

Photo: (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

‘Flicking’ away Russia: Ukrainians de-Russify sign language.

When the expert committee at the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf was working on de-Russifying the word “thank you” after the start of the full-scale war, there was the suggestion to leave it be.

A Ukrainian Sign Language word “de-Russification” in motion. (Illustration: Karolina Gulshani)

Human cost of war

Russian strike on Chernihiv Oblast injures woman. A Russian mortar strike on a village in Chernihiv Oblast’s Semenivka district on Nov. 25 injured a woman, the regional police department said.

Russian attacks on Kherson Oblast kill 1, injure 3. Russian forces attacked Kherson Oblast 100 times over the past day, killing a civilian and injuring three others, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Nov. 25.

International response

Zelensky meets Swiss president in Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset met in Kyiv on Nov. 25, discussing the use of frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine and Switzerland’s role in implementing Zelensky’s peace formula, among other things.

Azerbaijan delivers demining machine to Ukraine. The vehicle is part of an aid package for Ukraine pledged by Azerbaijan during an Aug. 10 meeting between Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Bohdan Drapiatyi and Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Ukraine Seymour Mardaliev.

Zelensky and Dutch PM discuss future support for Ukraine following elections. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte discussed the future of Dutch support for Ukraine following the outcome of the Dutch general elections which resulted in a surprise victory for far-right candidate Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV).

Bild: US, Germany quietly seek to prod Ukraine to negotiate. The U.S. and Germany allegedly hope to nudge Ukraine to negotiate with Russia through a carefully targeted scope of arms deliveries, the German tabloid Bild reported on Nov. 24, citing an anonymous government source.

UN declaration commemorating Holodomor anniversary signed by 55 nations.

“The horrors of the Holodomor should serve as a clear reminder to current and future generations of the need to prevent such atrocities and attempts to weaponize food, which are one of the key components of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine,” said Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba.

Slovak PM calls war in Ukraine a frozen conflict. During a state visit to Prague on Nov. 24, Slovakia’s new Prime Minister, Robert Fico, called the war in Ukraine a frozen conflict that cannot be solved by sending arms to Ukraine.

In other news

How Ukrainian identity evolved since the Revolution of Dignity. It was at Kyiv’s Independence Square on Dec. 1, 2013, when Ukrainians gathered during the Revolution of Dignity to express their outrage over violent police crackdowns against protestors the day prior, that author Lyuba Yakimchuk’s then three-year-old son first learned the patriotic national slogan “Glory to Ukraine!”

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Nate Ostiller, Francis Farrell, Martin Fornusek, Lili Bivings, Alexander Khrebet, Dinara Khalilova, Rachel Amran, Lance Luo, and Dmytro Basmat.

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