Ukraine’s state electricity operator Ukrenergo said blackouts would occur in Kyiv and seven other neighboring regions, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv. The move comes after Russian forces launched a series of deadly attacks in Ukraine, destroying power plants, water supplies and other civilian targets. Later on Saturday, Ukrenergo said planned outages for limited periods of time would not be enough and that emergency shutdowns were needed, which could last indefinitely. Ukraine has been facing blackouts and water cuts since Russia launched massive missile barrages and suspected drone attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure last month. Moscow said it was in response to alleged Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, the territory Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine denies these allegations.
2. Judge in Russian-occupied Donetsk shot dead
A judge in Donetsk, annexed by Russia in late September, was shot on Saturday, leaving him in serious condition, local authorities said. The judge, Alexander Nikulin, came from the Supreme Court of the Donetsk Republic (DNR) in southeastern Ukraine. He presided over the panel of judges who convicted foreign fighters who fought alongside Ukraine, including two Britons and a Moroccan. “On the evening of November 4, 2022, the Ministry of the Interior… received a message about an assassination attempt in the city of Vougleguirsk,” the self-proclaimed republic’s Interior Ministry announced. “The victim sustained bullet injuries,” they said, adding that he was “in serious condition” and “fighting for his life.” The ministry did not elaborate on how the gun attack worked or why it took place. Nikulin’s condition was “serious,” said another senior official at the Russian-backed authority, Denis Pushilin. He added that the judge “sentenced Nazi war criminals,” referring to the Kiev government, an echo of Kremlin rhetoric that claims Ukraine is ruled by the far right.
3. Georgia is booming as Russians flee Putin’s war
The influx of Russians leaving their country’s partial mobilization has sparked an economic boom in Georgia, Reuters reports. The small nation wedged under Russia in the Caucasus is set to become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year, thanks to the arrival of more than 100,000 Russians since the war began in February. But locals have complained that the influx is driving them out of the property market and pushing up the prices of basic goods, in a country already plagued by high levels of poverty. Protests along the Georgia-Russia border erupted in September, with protesters claiming the Russians pose a threat to national security and the economy. Georgia, home to 3.7 million people, is expected to see economic growth of 10 percent in 2022 due to a consumption-driven boom, according to international organizations. This growth rate is in sharp contrast to recessions predicted in other parts of the world. “Economically, Georgia is doing very well,” Vakhtang Buchrikidze, CEO of the country’s largest bank TBC, told Reuters in an interview at its headquarters in Tbilisi. “There is some kind of explosion,” he added. “All industries are doing very well from SMB to corporate. I can’t think of any industry that is struggling this year.” At least 112,000 Russians have migrated to Georgia this year, according to border crossing statistics, with a large wave arriving after Putin announced nationwide mobilization in September.
4. Iran admits it sent drones to Russia for the first time
Iran’s foreign minister acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that his country supplied Russia with drones, claiming the transfer took place before Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Kyiv claims Russia is using Iranian drones to attack its energy and civil infrastructure, which have caused large-scale blackouts across the country.
Iranian authorities have previously denied arming Russia.
“We gave a limited number of drones to Russia months before the Ukraine war,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdolakhian told reporters Saturday after a meeting in Tehran.
Iranian officials have previously denied supplying weapons to Moscow’s armed forces.
Earlier this week, Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani called these claims “completely baseless” and argued that Iran was a neutral party to the conflict.
Western governments have called for a UN investigation into the use of Iranian-made drones in the Ukraine war, arguing they are being deployed with disastrous consequences.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has boasted in the past that it supplied weapons to some of the world’s top powers.
Acknowledging the arms shipments, Amirabdollahian claimed on Saturday that Iran did not know its drones were being used in Ukraine. He said Iran remains committed to peace.
“If (Ukraine) has documents that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine, it should provide them to us,” he said. “If it is proven to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue.”
5. Only diplomacy can solve war in Ukraine, former world leaders claim
An end to the bloody war in Ukraine can only be achieved through diplomacy, a group of former world leaders said on Friday.
The group, known as The Elders, said outright victory on the battlefield was impossible for either warring side and that they should continue dialogue to end the months-long conflict.
Founded by Nelson Mandela, the prominent former world leaders delivered the message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a visit to Kyiv this summer, according to Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland, who chairs the group.
“We need to encourage more thinking about how it’s going to end in order to understand that this has to end, as opposed to building up military arsenals on both sides and destroying the population in Ukraine,” he said.
The Elders condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it “a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and a reckless, unjustified act of aggression that threatens to destabilize global peace and security.”
The United Nations Charter, signed after World War II, obliges all member states to maintain international peace and security, among other things.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, a former UN human rights commissioner, agreed that diplomacy and negotiation were the only way out of the war.
He emphasized that this does not mean that Ukraine is being asked to cede its sovereignty, as it was the victim of unprovoked Russian aggression.
Ukraine has categorically rejected the possibility of ceding territory or control to Moscow, with Zelensky saying in July that this was “not an option”.
Ra’ad al-Hussein hinted that resolving the conflict could be helped if Russia received a concession “from another direction,” possibly referring to NATO or the US.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long complained that the Western military alliance has advanced on Russia’s borders, citing this as justification for the invasion.
