Day 669 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours: At least 4 dead after shelling of Kherson by Russia last night Putin wants an end to the war, but to make it look like a victory for Russia, according to the New York Times Ukraine is preparing for its first Christmas on December 25 German Foreign Minister: Putin wants to destroy Ukraine Former Russia minister says its ‘no coincidence’ Putin critic Alexei Navalny is missing Russia is experiencing a shortage of about 4.8 million workers this year; the crisis will continue, Russian experts warn At least 4 dead after shelling of Kherson by Russia last night At least four people were killed and nine were wounded in Russian strikes last night on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, shelled almost daily by Moscow’s army, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. According to him, there is also a child among the wounded. “Last night, the Russian army shelled the center of Kherson,” Prokudin wrote on the Telegram platform. He specified that a projectile hit a residential building, killing an 87-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife, and a 54-year-old resident of Kherson received a skull injury. Elsewhere in central Kherson, emergency services found the body of a man while clearing debris. “The Russian army struck residential areas, medical facilities, a school and basic infrastructure in Kherson,” the regional governor also announced, without giving more details about the extent of the damage. Kherson, located on one bank of the Dnieper River, which is the natural front line, has been under almost daily bombardment by the Russian military since Ukrainian forces returned there in November 2022 after several months of Russian occupation. In its daily briefing, the Ukrainian Air Force announced today that it had intercepted 14 of the 15 kamikaze drones sent overnight by Russia. Putin wants an end to the war, but to make it look like a victory for Russia, according to the New York Times Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled through diplomatic channels that he is ready for a ceasefire in Ukraine, but only if the conflict freezes on the current front lines, the New York Times reported. According to the media, the message has been sent since at least September. Putin’s condition is that the ceasefire and reaching an agreement to end the war look like a victory for Russia, the NYT also writes. The New York Times lists several possible motives for Putin: Russia’s upcoming presidential election next March, his desire to “leave his options open” to find a way out of the war and take advantage of perceived waning Western support for Ukraine, as well as the “distraction” from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement “Hamas”, BTA quotes. All of these motives reflect temporary reasons why Putin may seek a temporary cease-fire that would benefit Russia by buying it time to prepare for renewed aggression against Ukraine. According to Western officials, Putin was interested in a ceasefire, and an ideal time to present the status quo as a victory would be the presidential election in March. Ukraine is preparing for its first Christmas on December 25 Ukrainians are preparing to celebrate their first Christmas under the new calendar, another step towards erasing all traces of Russian influence as the army repels the Kremlin’s encroachment. Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, and the country’s main church agreed this year to move away from the traditional Julian calendar, which is used in Russia and celebrates the holiday on January 7. Moscow’s attack in February 2022 united the country and led many Ukrainians to reject the Russian language and culture, among other historical ties to the one-time ruler of Kyiv. “Everything that was related to Russia and everything that Russia did in the same way that we did caused disgust among people,” said Mykhailo Omelyan, an Orthodox priest in Kyiv. Ukraine has also expressed interest in joining the European Union, and many here see membership as a crucial confirmation of what they say is their country’s historic place in Europe. “It turns out that Ukrainians celebrated Christmas on December 25, just like the rest of Europe,” said Tetyana, a 25-year-old believer who said she would celebrate on December 25 for the first time. Standing outside Kyiv’s gold-domed St Michael’s Monastery, she added that it would feel “a bit unusual” but was “the right thing to do”. Near the front lines of the Russian invasion, soon to enter its second year and showing no sign of abating, soldiers were also preparing to make a switch on December 25. “Just like it was before January 7 was imposed on us,” said Bogdan, a serviceman stationed in eastern Ukraine. On a recent Sunday morning, Ukrainian soldiers crammed into a small makeshift church for mass, singing hymns as incense drifted in the air. At another front-line church, Mykolaj, a chaplain with Ukraine’s 95th Air Assault Brigade, said he expected the troops to be in better spirits as they celebrated. “Basically, we understand that the enemy is godless, so this is just another day of war,” he said. Ukrainian authorities have also stepped up a campaign to rename streets and settlements, as well as to remove statues and monuments associated with the Tsarist and Soviet past. German Foreign Minister: Putin wants to destroy Ukraine German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reaffirmed her country’s commitment to continue supporting Ukraine, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to “destroy” the country during his invasion that began almost two years ago, DPA reported. “The fact that Putin’s original plan to take Kyiv and kill, displace or subjugate over 40 million people failed is due to the incredible courage of Ukrainians who are determined to defend their country,” Baerbock told the German newspaper Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten in an interview published today. This is also due to “our support, as well as the support of so many other countries that do what is humane: They help the victim instead of turning a blind eye, which would help the aggressor,” the German minister added. According to Baerbock, the current situation in the Russian-occupied territories and unprotected places in Ukraine illustrates what would have happened to the whole country, as well as to neighboring countries such as Moldova, if the European Union and the majority of the international community had not stood firmly on the side of Ukraine. “Putin is deliberately attacking power plants, power distribution centers and power lines so that the water supply freezes at minus 10 degrees Celsius and people die of thirst and freeze,” she warned. “He wants to destroy Ukraine and that is why we will support it as long as it needs us.” On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After the Russian forces initially managed to advance all the way to the outskirts of Kyiv, the Ukrainians managed to repel them and now the fighting is concentrated mainly in the eastern part of the country, DPA recalls. Former Russia minister says its ‘no coincidence’ Putin critic Alexei Navalny is missing Former Russian deputy energy minister Vladimir Milov said the timing of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s disappearance was ‘no coincidence’, as he pointed to President Vladimir Putin’s announcement to run again in the elections scheduled in 2024, CNN reported. Russian Opposition leader Navalny, who has been missing for 17 days now, was absent from two scheduled court hearings conducted via video link on Friday, according to a statement from his team. Navalny was imprisoned in a penal colony east of Moscow and was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August after he was found guilty of creating an “extremist community, financing extremist activities” and numerous other crimes. “I think it is a deliberate tactic. It is no coincidence that Navalny disappeared exactly the moment when the so-called sham presidential elections were announced and that Putin announced that he was going to be running again,” Milov said. “Putin is really willing to show that he is going to enter the Kremlin for another term through intimidation, through repression, through pressure on society, and that is clearly a blackmail on all the opposition forces,” Milov added. Navalny’s team said the prominent politician has now been missing for 17 days, with his current whereabouts unknown. “Today Alexey was supposed to have two trials. He was again not brought to the meetings. Navalny has never been hidden for so long,” Navalny’s team said in a Telegram post. The unprecedented duration of Navalny’s absence from public view has also sparked concerns about his well-being and safety, according to CNN. With Navalny missing for days now, his aides have restated a plea for information, offering a cryptocurrency reward for complete and reliable details about his current location or status. Asked repeatedly last week about Navalny’s absence, the Kremlin reported, “neither the intention nor the ability to monitor the fate of prisoners and the process of their stay in the relevant institutions.” According to CNN, Navalny posed one of the most serious threats to Putin’s legitimacy during his rule, which has spanned more than two decades. The dissident was taken from Russia to Germany in 2020 after he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Navalny had to be airlifted from the Siberian city of Omsk and arrived comatose at a hospital in Berlin. Navalny was immediately incarcerated upon his return to Russia in January 2021, on charges of violating the terms of his probation related to a fraud case brought against him in 2013, which he also dismissed as politically motivated, CNN reported. He has also campaigned from prison against Russia’s war against Ukraine and has even attempted to mobilize public opposition to the war. Russia is experiencing a shortage of about 4.8 million workers this year; the crisis will continue, Russian experts warn This year, Russia is experiencing a shortage of about 4.8 million workers, and the acute labor problem will persist in 2024, the Russian newspaper “Izvestia” reported today, quoted by Reuters. The newspaper refers to experts and research of the Institute of Economics at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said last month that Russia’s labor shortage is leading to acute labor shortages and threatening economic growth as Moscow pours fiscal and physical resources into the military, Reuters noted. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left the country since the start of the “special military operation”, as the Kremlin defines its war in Ukraine, that started in February 2022, including highly qualified specialists in the field of IT. Those who fled either disagreed with the war or feared being called up to fight in it. The outflow intensified after President Vladimir Putin, who earlier this month boasted of a historically low unemployment rate of 2.9 percent, announced a partial military mobilization of about 300,000 new recruits in September 2022. Putin said that for now no one sees the need for a new wave of mobilization, the intelligence agency recalls. According to the author of the study, Nikolay Ahapkin, quoted by “Izvestia”, the labor shortage has sharply increased in 2022 and 2023, with drivers and workers in commercial establishments being especially in demand. Official data cited by the newspaper showed that the number of job vacancies of the total labor force rose to 6.8% in mid-2023, up from 5.8% a year earlier. “If we extend the data presented by Rosstat (the state statistics office) to the labor force as a whole, it can be predicted that the shortage of workers in 2023 will number 4.8 million people,” the newspaper quoted the study as saying. According to Labor Minister Anton Kotyakov, acute labor shortages are felt in production, construction and transport, which forces companies to raise wages in an attempt to attract more employees, Izvestia reports. The newspaper quotes Tatiana Zakharova from the “G. V. Plekhanov” University of Economics, according to which the labor shortage will probably persist in the next year, and it will be quite difficult to fill vacancies for workers in production enterprises, engineers, doctors, teachers, and other professions. Among the reasons for the labor shortage, she pointed to the bad demographic situation and “migration of the population”. Novinite is still the only Bulgarian media that publishes a summary of events and highlights related to the conflict, every single day. Our coverage began on day one – 24.02.2022 and will not stop until the war has concluded. Despite the pressure, our independent media will continue to provide its readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Thank you for your support! #stayinformed Follow Novinite.com on Twitter and Facebook Write to us at editors@novinite.com Информирайте се на Български – Novinite.bg
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