Ukraine accuses Russia of acting like Stalin in the 1930s

• 9:32 p.m.: Russian shelling has killed at least 32 people in Kherson since its liberation

At least 32 people have been killed in Russian shelling in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine since the withdrawal of pro-Moscow troops two weeks ago, the local police chief said Saturday.

“Daily Russian shelling destroys the city and kills peaceful residents. In total, Russia has killed 32 civilians in the Kherson region since the occupation,” National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said in a Facebook post.

• 15:10: Kyiv accuses Russia of acting like a 1932 famine

On Holodomor Remembrance Day, Ukraine accused Russia of using the same ‘genocidal’ tactics used by Joseph Stalin in the famine that killed millions in the winter of 1932 -1933, following a demand imposed by the Soviet leader.

That day came this year as the country faced winter temperatures and widespread power cuts due to Russia’s bombardment of its energy infrastructure. “Once they tried to destroy us with hunger, now with darkness and cold,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “We are indestructible.”

• 1:50 p.m.: Nine Russian soldiers released in prisoner exchange with Kyiv

Nine Russian soldiers have been released as part of a prisoner swap with Kyiv, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“Following the negotiation process, nine Russian soldiers who were in a life-threatening situation in captivity have been released from the Kyiv-controlled area,” the ministry said.

• 11:38 a.m.: Power is restored in Kherson, according to the Ukrainian presidency

Power has been restored in Kherson, southern Ukraine, after being liberated from months of Russian occupation, a Ukrainian presidential official said.

“First we supply electricity to the city’s essential infrastructure and soon after to individuals,” Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote in a Telegram message.

Electricity, heating and running water were cut in Kherson when Ukrainian troops recaptured the city on November 11.

The Russian army captured Kherson soon after the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, and it is the only regional capital it has managed to control.

• 10:38 a.m.: Russia uses old nuclear cruise missiles against Ukraine, UK says

The UK Ministry of Defense reported that Russia is likely to use old cruise missiles in Ukraine, which have had their nuclear warheads stripped, in a Daily War Update posted on Twitter.

The open source image shows the wreckage of a cruise missile fired at Ukraine that was designed in the 1980s as a nuclear weapons delivery system, according to British intelligence. “These improvisations highlight the degree of exhaustion of Russia’s stockpile of long-range missiles”, assured British experts who underlined the low precision of this type of projectile.

• 10:06: Russia “will pay” for the famine masterminded by the Stalinist regime in Ukraine in the 1930s

Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Russia “will pay” for the famine masterminded by the Stalinist regime during the winter of 1932-1933 called the “Holodomor”, as well as for the war it is currently leading in Ukraine.

“Russia will pay for all the victims of the Holodomor and be held accountable for the crimes they committed today,” Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram, on the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s biggest mass crime in Ukraine.

Several European leaders traveled to Kyiv on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor. According to Polish and Lithuanian media, the Prime Ministers of the two close kyiv backers, Mateusz Morawiecki and Ingrida Simonyte, are in talks that should focus on a possible new wave of Ukrainian immigration in Europe. . Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also visited the capital, his first since the start of the Russian invasion.

Germany’s parliament voted on Friday to define the Holodomor as a “genocide”, which led to the deaths of an estimated 3.5 million Ukrainians amid the collectivization of land. Russia rejects this classification, arguing that this great famine took its toll not only on Ukrainians, but also on Russians, Kazakhs, and among other peoples.

• 8:30 am: Six million Ukrainian households are affected by the power outage

More than six million homes in Ukraine were affected by the power outages on Friday, two days after Russia’s full-scale attack on the country, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. “Tonight, the cuts continue in most regions and in Kyiv,” the head of state added in his daily address.

kyiv – with around 600,000 homes without power at night – and its region, as well as the provinces of Odessa (south), Lviv, Vinnytsia (west) and Dnipropetrovsk (Middle East), were the most affected by the cuts, he added, calling on Ukraine to save electricity in areas where electricity has been restored.

“We have to endure this winter – a winter everyone will remember,” he wrote on Facebook.

He had visited Vyshgorod earlier in the day, a city north of Kyiv where the attack left six people dead and dozens injured on Wednesday.

Engineers continued to repair the damage across the country.

In the capital, “a third of Kyiv homes already have heating, specialists are continuing to restore it. Half of the users are still without electricity,” said mayor Vitali Klitschko. “During the day, the energy company plans to connect electricity to all users in turn,” he said, when temperatures around zero degrees and rain became part of the game. .

• 08:00: 15 killed in Russian bombing of Kherson

Fifteen civilians were killed Friday by Russian bombardment of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, two weeks after the forced withdrawal of Russian troops from this strategic city.

“15 residents of the city were killed and 35 injured, including a child,” Galyna Lugova, an official of the city’s military administration, said on social media. He said several “private homes and high-rise buildings” were damaged.

“Russian occupiers shelled residential areas using multiple rocket launchers. A large building caught fire,” Yaroslav Yanushevich, governor of the Kherson region, said today. . “Due to the constant Russian bombardment, we are evacuating patients from the hospital in Kherson.”

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Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson, which Moscow hopes to base in occupied southern Ukraine, has changed the cards in this nine-month war. The city is strategically located to link the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia since 2014, and the Ukrainian port of Odessa to the west.

(By Reuters and AFP)