Residents of Kherson city celebrate their liberation from an eight-month Russian occupation, November 12, 2022 (Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP/Getty)

Tuesday’s Coverage: Nearly 9 Million Ukrainians Without Power — Zelenskiy

Source: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1917 GMT:

European gas prices, already at their lowest price since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have dropped further to €76.78 per megawatt hour on the Dutch TTF futures market.

On February 23, the eve of the Russian invasion, the TTF price was almost €89 per MWh. On August 26, it peaked at more than €340 per MWh.

Vladimir Putin hoped to send the price soaring by cutting gas supplies to Europe, breaking international support for Kyiv. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev predicted a level of $4,000 or even €5,000 this winter.

But through the autumn, European countries built up supply lines, and Germany and the Netherlands opened their first floating liquefied natural gas terminals. European gas storage is about 83% full, above the five-year seasonal average, and the winter has been relatively mild across the continent.

See also Ukraine War, Day 304: Europe Gas Prices At Lowest Point Since Before Russian Invasion

UPDATE 1911 GMT:

Ship insurers are cancelling war risk cover across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from January 1.

Reinsurers, who insure the insurers, said they will not renew 12-month contracts with insurance clients from the start of the year.

The UK P&I [Protection and Indemnity] Club, said, “The Club’s reinsurers are no longer able to secure reinsurance for war risk exposure to Russian, Ukrainian or Belarus territorial risks.

American P&I announced on December 23 that it had received a “notice of cancellation” for the region from its war risk reinsurers.

UPDATE 1856 GMT:

A human rights activist in Russian-occupied Crimea has been given a 7-year prison sentence.

Iryna Danilovich was sentenced by a Russian proxy court, which found her guilty of carrying an explosive device.

Activists said the charge was “trumped-up” and “illegal”. Volodymyr Chekryhin, deputy head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, summarized:

The entire so-called ‘investigation’ against her was comprised of illegal methods: having been kidnapped, Iryna was kept in the basement of the [Russian State security] FSB office and faced with various forms of pressure and intimidation, even torture – she was beaten and strangled….

[The] so-called trial completely deprived Iryna Danilovich of her right to a fair trial and was a cynical pageant.

Danilovich, a nurse and citizen journalist, was detained in late April while on her way home from work. Members of a Russian special police unit, wearing balaclavas searched her house and took laptops and phones.

Gulnoza Said of the Cpmmittee to Protect Journalists said at the time:

Iryna Danilovich’s alarming disappearance prompts fears of yet another clampdown on independent reporting in Russian-occupied Crimea, which is already an extremely restrictive environment for the press.

UPDATE 1846 GMT:

Residents of Kherson have been advised to evacuate amid persistent Russian shelling which has killed scores of civilians since the city’s liberation on November 9.

City council member Dmytro Poddubniy explained:

I’m telling these people that Kherson is one of the most dangerous cities right now. So I ask them to imagine that they are going on vacation for a couple of weeks. It may be easier for them to decide to move this way. But still, a lot of people are staying in the city.

But some residents say they have to remain because elderly or sick parents.

Last Saturday Russian attacks killed at least 11 civilians and injured 64.

UPDATE 0912 GMT:

At least one civilian has been killed and five injured by Russian shelling of the town of Oleshky in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

The casualties were in a high-rise building struck in the attack. Kiosks on the town’s market were damaged.

In Kherson city, a maternity hospital was attacked.

Russia attacked the Kherson region 50 times on Tuesday, said Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych.

UPDATE 0905 GMT:

Italy is holding out against supply of advanced air defense systems to Ukraine.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said, “If we give air defense missiles to Ukraine, we must take them from our stocks and we have to do that without depleting them, and being sure about the quality.”

Crosetto said earlier this month that the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defencs system is among the military aid that Kyiv has requested.

On Tuesday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, that Rome was considering the supply of the systems.

UPDATE 0727 GMT:

The UN High Commission for Human Rights says it has confirmed the killing of 6,884 civilians, including 429 children, in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.

Another 10,947 civilians have been injured.

The UNHCR issued its standard statement that the actual toll is likely to be “considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: President Voldoymyr Zelenskiy has spoken of “a crucial year” ahead as Ukraine continues to push back Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy said:

We continue to prepare the defense and security forces of Ukraine for the next year. It must be a crucial year. We understand the risks in the winter. We understand what we have to do in the spring.

Last spring Ukraine defeated the first phase of the invasion, preventing the fall of Kyiv and the Zelenskiy Government and forcing the withdrawal of Russian forces from northern Ukraine.

In the autumn, Ukrainian counter-offensives began liberating territory in the northeast and south seized by the Russians. In September, almost all of the Kharkiv region in the northeast was reclaimined. By November, much of the Kherson region in the south had been liberated, including a symbolic and strategic victory in Kherson city.

Zelenskiy noted on Tuesday, “We managed to establish a system to not only return repaired equipment to the battlefield, but also to take trophy equipment from the battlefield and put it at the service of our country.”

But Putin is trying to break Ukrainian energy infrastructure and will with waves of missile and drone strikes, and fighting is intense in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.

Zelenskiy summarized:

We are entering the next year and must retain a common understanding of our national goals. This is the liberation of our land from the enemy, as well as the restoration of Ukraine, the return of our people home, the further rapprochement of our state with key partners, the opening of new opportunities for Ukraine in the world.

These are all tasks for the near future. And not only for the state, but also for each and every one of us.