Kyiv administration says power restored – DW – 11/27/2022

Military administration in Ukrainian capital reported Sunday that power had been “almost completely” restored in he city as of 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), according to a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Repair work on the power grid is now in its “finale phase,” authorities said.

Water, heat and mobile networks have also been restored in the capital, according to the Telegram post.

Kyiv authorities said that “planned outages” and “local power failures” were still possible.

Russia has increasingly been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over the past weeks, with a series of strikes on Wednesday leaving millions of people without light, water or heat.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 6 million households across the country had been affected by power cuts following Wednesday’s strikes, with around 600,000 affected in Kyiv.

On Friday, Zelenskyy criticized Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko for doing what he said was a poor job at setting up emergency heat shelters.

Here are the other main headlines from the war in Ukraine on Sunday, November 27:

Ukraine nuclear boss sees signs Russia may leave Zaporizhzhia plant

The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm said there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to leave Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

“One gets the impression they’re packing their bags and stealing everything they can,” Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, said on Ukrainian television.

The plant, Europe’s largest, was seized by Russian forces in March.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Friday of risking catastrophe by shelling the nuclear power facility.

Last weekend, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said that whoever was responsible for the attacks was “playing with fire.”

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has repeatedly called on both sides to implement a nuclear safety and security zone around Zaporizhzhia.

“There are a very large number of reports in Russian media that it would be worth vacating the [plant] and may be worth handing control (of it) to the IAEA,” Kotin said.

Russia has not indicated a withdrawal but has previously said it would hand over control of the plant to the IAEA if Ukraine drops any plans to retake the area.

Russia intensifies bombings in Kherson

Russian forces have shelled the Kherson region more than 50 times over the weekend, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of the region, said owns along the north-western bank of the Dnipro River had been targeted.

Russian forces were dug in on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river after withdrawing from the city of Kherson and other settlements on the western bank.

At least 32 people have been killed in intense shelling since the withdrawal, police said on Saturday.

Only around 5% of the city residents had power in their homes after Russian forces shelled the power lines that connect the city.

NATO chief Stoltenberg praises German support for Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praised Berlin’s support of Ukraine in comments published by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

“Germany’s strong support is making a decisive difference,” Stoltenberg said, adding that German weapons were saving lives in Ukraine.

“We must all maintain our support for Ukraine and increase it,” he insisted.

Stoltenberg made the comments two days ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest, Romania.

Russian navy, air force still powerful — Estonian Defense Minister

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said that Russia has not been significantly weakened in the war in Ukraine.

“We have to be honest and clear: The Russian navy and air force are more or less as big as they were before the war,” Pevkur told Germany’s dpa news agency. 

Pevkur said that although Russia’s land forces had lost strength, they would “sooner rather than later” return to their previous size.

“We have no reason to believe that the threat from Russia is somehow reduced or that the threat to NATO is reduced,” he said.

The minister warned against “war weariness” in Western countries, arguing that “this is exactly what Russia wants to achieve.”

“Russia is ready to suffer longer,” he said.

Tallinn plans to spend 2.84% of GDP on defense in 2023 and 3.2% in 2024, Pevkur said. The general target for NATO countries is 2%.

Russian strikes hit Kryvyi Rih

A Russian airstrike has hit the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, according to local authorities.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said in a Telegram post that the strike destroyed transport infrastructure, without giving further details.

The region’s military administration urged residents to hide in bomb shelters.

Also in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian authorities reported heavy artillery and grenade fire in the city of Nikopol.

More coverage of the war in Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged aid to help expedite Ukrainian grain shipments in the face of a global food crisis, as Kyiv commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine.

sdi/wmr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)