Europa, Deutsche Welle, Inglês – Russian missile attack on Kyiv kills one – DW – 12/20/2024

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he wants to keep talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone, after reinitiating contact last month.

“I have spoken to the Russian president and will speak to him again,” Scholz said during a press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal in Berlin on Friday.

He said the aim of such calls would “always be to make clear that his contribution to ending the conflict is to end his aggression and withdraw troops.”

Scholz held a call with Putin in mid-November for the first time in more than two years. The move attracted strong criticism from Kyiv and other Western leaders, including Michal. 

Michal told journalists on Friday that he doubted Putin could be persuaded to back down with phone calls. He said he believes Russia would have to be forced to come to the negotiating table by greater Western backing for Ukraine.

Scholz reiterated that Germany would “not let up our support” for Ukraine.

He added that “Russia must not win this war,” and that there must be continued efforts to secure a “sustainable, durable peace.”

Poland‘s Interior Ministry on Friday announced that nearly 1 million Ukrainians had officially registered as war refugees since Russia invaded their country nearly three years ago. 

In all, some 1.5 million Ukrainians have resettled in Poland during that time and 988,000 of these have applied for official refugee status.

That status gives holders temporary protection in Poland. An Interior Ministry spokesperson said that refugees’ personal income covers an average of 76% of what they earn, with many working in jobs they are overqualified for to make ends meet.

Most refugees are women according to government statistics. Ukrainian refugees in Poland do not receive basic income, though they are entitled to child benefits, old-age and disability pensions and are also afforded access to Poland’s education and healthcare systems.

Some 20% of those Ukrainians who fled to Poland after the Russian invasion say they are considering resettling permanently, that number jumps to more than half when answered by Ukrainians who were already living in Poland when the war started.

Russia‘s Investigative Committee says a Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region has left “dead and wounded.”

The committee did not give a precise toll for the attack.

“Fighters from the Ukrainian army … launched a missile attack on the town of Rylsk … According to preliminary information, there are dead and wounded,” it said in a statement.

The governor of the region, which lies on Russia’s border with Ukraine, said Kyiv had used US-supplied HIMARS rockets in the attack.

An unconfirmed report by the Mash Telegram channel, cited by Reuters, said seven people were killed, including one child.

Russia has handed over the bodies of 503 fallen soldiers to Ukraine, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in Kyiv.

It said most of the soldiers were killed in battle in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

Ukraine’s armed forces are currently in retreat in Donetsk, where Russia has continued to make gains in recent months.

Doctors are expected to confirm the identity of the dead before they are returned to their relatives. 

It was not clear whether the remains of any fallen Russian soldiers had been handed over in return.

Six diplomatic missions located in the same building in Kyiv were damaged in a Russian missile attack on the center of the Ukrainian capital, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

The ministry said the missions of Albania, Argentina, North Macedonia, Palestine, Portugal and Montenegro were damaged.

In a post on X, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the “heinous Russian attack” that damaged embassies in Kyiv and said that “Putin’s disregard for international law reaches new hights.”

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas stressed that no diplomatic mission should ever be targeted or even compromised.

“This is another barbaric attack by Russia on civilian targets that shows no willingness for peace. I extend my full solidarity to diplomatic staff,” she wrote.

Portugal also strongly condemned Russian strikes. In the absence of the Russian ambassador in Lisbon, the charge d’affaires of the Russian Federation has been summoned to be presented with a formal protest, the Portuguese government said.

Russian forces have taken control of two more settlements in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Uspenivka and Novopustynka, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military confirmed that its forces had withdrawn from the area around the villages of Uspenivka and Trudove in the Donetsk region to avoid encirclement by advancing Russian troops.

Moscow has been on the march in eastern Ukraine for months, pressing its advantage against Ukrainian soldiers who are overstretched and outgunned. It has captured new villages almost daily this month.

Turkey has received a waiver for gas payments to Russia after the United States imposed sanctions on Gazprombank, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told Reuters.

The US imposed new sanctions on Russia’s Gazprombank in November. The move created an obstacle for buyers of Russian gas who had used the bank to make payments.

Turkey imports almost all of its gas needs. Russia is its top supplier, providing more than 50% of the country’s pipeline imports. Ankara’s pipeline gas imports from Russia amounted to 21.1 bcm last year.

In talks with US officials, Turkey had requested a waiver to continue paying for Russian natural gas imports through Gazprombank.

At least one person was killed and nine others injured in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, officials said.

The attack cut off heating for 630 buildings, 16 medical facilities, and 30 schools and kindergartens, and falling missile debris caused damage and fires in three districts.

Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted five short-range Iskander ballistic missiles that were fired at the city.

“We ask citizens to immediately respond to reports of ballistic attack threats, because there is very little time to find shelter,” the air force said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike was in response to a Ukrainian missile attack on Russia’s Rostov border region two days earlier. 

That attack used six American-made Army Tactical Missile System missiles, known as ATACMS, and four Storm Shadow air-launched missiles provided by the United Kingdom, it said.

dh/lo (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)