As the Russian-Ukrainian war enters its 283rd day, we look at the main developments.
Here is the situation as it stands on Saturday, December 3:
Fighting
- Three people were killed and seven wounded in Russian shelling of the Kherson region during the last 24 hours.
- The regional capital of Kherson – recaptured in mid-November – and other parts of the region were bombed 42 times in the same period, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said.
- Russian-installed officials in Donetsk said three people died after Ukrainian forces shelled the eastern Ukrainian city.
diplomacy
- US President Joe Biden does not intend to talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about ending the war in Ukraine because the conditions for such discussions do not currently exist, the White House said.
- The Group of Seven and Australia agreed to a $60-a-barrel price cap for Russian offshore oil after European Union members overcame resistance from Poland and hammered out a deal.
- The chairman of the Russian lower house’s foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said the EU was jeopardizing its own energy security with the cap.
- Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call that Western moves on Ukraine were “destructive” and urged Berlin to rethink its approach.
- Scholz urged Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the war as soon as possible, “including the withdrawal of Russian troops”.
- Several Ukrainian embassies received “bloody packages” containing animal eyes, the foreign ministry said after a series of letter bombs were sent to locations in Spain, including Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid.
- The Russian foreign ministry said it was “outraged” by a statement by the French foreign ministry, which backed plans to create a court on possible crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
- Germany is preparing to deliver seven Gepard tanks to Ukraine, adding to the 30 anti-aircraft tanks already in use against the Russian army.
Economy
- Russia’s economy is set to shrink by 2.5 percent next year, on top of a 3 percent contraction in 2022, with stubbornly high inflation giving the central bank only limited room to cut interest rates.
- Ukraine’s grain exports so far in the 2022/2023 season have fallen by 29.6 percent from the same stage a year earlier to 18.1 million tons after a six-month blockade caused by the Russian invasion.
- A group cut down a Banksy mural from a battle-scarred wall in Ukraine, but the people were spotted and the image of a woman in a gas mask and dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher was under police protection, the governor of Kyiv region said.
