
[ad_1]
Ukraine marked the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine on Saturday, as Russian airstrikes left thousands without power across the country.
President Vladimir Zelensky recalled the victims of the 1932-1933 famine, which occurred under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Holodomor is Ukrainian for “death by starvation.” In 1932, Stalin ordered the authorities to confiscate all grain and livestock from the newly collectivized Ukrainian farms in order to deliberately devastate the population.
“Ukrainians have gone through very terrible things,” Zelensky said in a video posted on social media. “Once they wanted to destroy us with hunger, now with darkness and cold,” he added.
“We cannot be broken,” Zelensky said.
Millions starved to death during the Holodomor, which Kiev considered an intentional act of genocide.
The leaders of Poland, Belgium and Lithuania also traveled to Ukraine to mark the anniversary and renew their pledges of support amid the nationwide blackout.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine compared the history of Ukraine with the current situation on Twitter.
“Everyone can see the terror that Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people,” the Ministry of Defense wrote, adding: “This time, the theft and destruction of grain is causing hunger beyond the borders of Ukraine, in some of the poorest countries in the world.”
Here are other top headlines from the war in Ukraine on Saturday, November 26:
Russian strikes on the Dnieper killed 13 people
At least 13 people were killed in rocket attacks on the Ukrainian industrial city of Dnipro on Saturday, officials said.
A 17-year-old boy is among the victims, the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentin Reznichenko, said in Telegram.
Ukrainian authorities announced that a total of seven residential buildings were damaged in the rocket attacks. A warehouse in the city, which is the fourth largest in Ukraine, was also destroyed.
The number of dead and injured could still rise, as several people are believed to be trapped under the rubble of damaged buildings.
Ukraine launches grain program to support Africa and Asia
The Ukrainian government has announced the creation of an international food aid program to ensure supplies to the poorest countries.
As part of the “Grain from Ukraine” program, 60 ships will be dispatched from Ukrainian Black Sea ports to deliver food to countries in dire need of grain supplies, such as Yemen, Sudan or Somalia. Deliveries are expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
“Ukraine has always been and will remain the guarantor of world food security, and even in such difficult conditions of war, the Ukrainian leadership works for the sake of global stability,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
Countries including Germany and Belgium will help finance the shipments.
“This initiative allows us to prevent possible problems with food supply in certain African countries,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo, speaking alongside Zelensky in Kyiv.
In addition to benefiting Ukraine’s economy, the program seeks to win support from Asian and African countries, which have been hardest hit by the global food crisis and are the targets of Russian disinformation campaigns to divert attention from Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine.
Tens of thousands remain without electricity after Russian strikes
In Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, around 130,000 people are still without power after a wave of Russian airstrikes on critical infrastructure.
The Kyiv military administration said it expects the final repair to be completed within the next 24 hours.
All the heating systems in the city of three million should then work again.
The mayor of the city, Vitalij Klitschko, called for calm and warned that power cuts could cause political unrest.
We must continue to work together to defend the country and protect the infrastructure,” he said, adding that a solution is being sought “at record speed.”
A series of attacks by Russian forces on Wednesday knocked out electricity, water and heating in Kiev and many other parts of the country — which faces freezing temperatures as winter sets in.
UK: Russia uses ‘aging cruise missiles’ in Ukraine
In its latest intelligence briefing, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia is “likely removing nuclear warheads from aging cruise missiles” and using unarmed missiles to strike Ukraine.
“Whatever Russia’s intention, this improvisation highlights the level of exhaustion of Russia’s long-range missile stockpile,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The ministry added that unarmed cruise missiles would not cause major damage by themselves, but could serve to disrupt Ukraine’s anti-missile defenses.
Germany is on track for an oil embargo by the end of the year, Scholz says
Despite questions about Germany’s oil supplies, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the country would stick to its timetable for banning Russian oil shipments via pipelines.
At the end of the year, the member states of the European Union should introduce an embargo on Russian oil deliveries. The ban will take effect on January 1.
Oil deliveries to a refinery in the eastern state of Brandenburg will be suspended, although it remains unclear whether there are alternative sources of oil.
“We are working intensively to create technical conditions for more opportunities for oil deliveries via Rostock, but at the same time via Poland,” Scholz said at a party conference for his center-left Social Democrats.
Germany is also in talks with Kazakhstan about potential oil deliveries.
Germany has faced criticism from its European partners for relying on Moscow for oil and gas. Before the war, more than a third of the oil that was processed in Germany came from Russia.
Germany promises food aid to Kiev
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged an additional 10 million euros ($10.3 million) in support to speed up grain deliveries from Ukraine. Speaking on the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine that killed millions in Ukraine, Scholz said “hunger must never again be used as a weapon”.
The move comes as the world faces a food crisis caused in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“We cannot tolerate what we are witnessing: the worst global food crisis in years with appalling consequences for millions of people, from Afghanistan to Madagascar, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa,” said Scholz.
More coverage of the war in Ukraine
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine for the destruction caused by its war of aggression. But it is not binding. DV is investigating whether Russia could be held responsible.
Russian forces occupied Kherson for months. Earlier this month, Ukraine regained control. Ihor Burdiga from DV comes from the city. Here he describes life in his liberated hometown.
rs/ar (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
[ad_2]
Source link