On the 283rd day of the Russia-Ukraine War, let’s take a look at the key developments.
This is the situation on Saturday, December 3rd:
Battle
- Three people have been killed and seven injured in Russian shelling of the Kherson region in the past 24 hours.
- The regional capital of Kherson, recaptured in mid-November, and other parts of the region have been bombed 42 times in the same period, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevich 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 talks are not currently in place, the White House said.
- The Group of Seven and Australia agreed on a $60 per barrel price cap for Russian sea crude after European Union members overcame Poland’s opposition and reached an agreement.
- The head of Russia’s lower house of parliament foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said the EU was jeopardizing its own energy security with the cap.
- Putin told Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call that Western moves in Ukraine were “destructive” and urged Berlin to reconsider its approach.
- Scholz urged Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the war as soon as possible, “including a withdrawal of Russian troops.”
- Several Ukrainian embassies have received “bloody packages” containing animal eyes, the foreign ministry said, after a series of letter bombs were sent to locations in Spain, including the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid.
- Russia’s foreign ministry said it was “outraged” by a statement by the French foreign ministry backing plans to set up a tribunal into possible crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
- Germany is preparing to deliver seven Gepard tanks to Ukraine, in addition to the 30 anti-aircraft tanks already deployed against the Russian army.
Business
- Russia’s economy is expected to contract by 2.5 percent next year, on top of a 3 percent contraction in 2022, with stubbornly high inflation leaving the central bank limited scope for rate cuts.
- Ukraine’s grain exports so far in the 2022/2023 season fell 29.6 percent from the same period last year to 18.1 million tons after a six-month blockade caused by the Russian invasion.
- A group cut a Banksy mural from a battle-hardened wall in Ukraine, but 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 Kyiv region governor said.