RUSSIA and Ukraine pounded each other’s forces in heavy fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk as Kyiv’s allies met in Paris to provide urgent aid to help Ukrainians survive freezing winter temperatures.
DIPLOMACY/ECONOMY
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukraine’s allies gathered in Paris on Tuesday he needed at least 800 million euros ($840 million) in urgent winter energy aid as Russian forces target civilian infrastructure across the country.\
* Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will hold talks to discuss the events of 2022 in late December, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.
* The Group of Seven (G7) economic powers said they would keep working together to bolster Ukraine’s military capabilities, with an immediate focus on air defence systems, according to a leaders’ statement released by Britain.
* Arms supplies from Italy to Ukraine will stop as soon as peace talks on ending the Russian invasion begin, the Italian defence minister told parliament on Tuesday, as lawmakers endorsed a government decision to extend military aid throughout 2023.
* Russia on Tuesday dismissed a reported three-step peace proposal from Zelenskiy, saying Kyiv needed to accept new “realities”.
* Eight ships loaded with grain left ports in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Tuesday after a pause caused by power cuts following Russian missile strikes, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry said.
* Britain on Tuesday said it had sanctioned 12 Russian military commanders implicated in missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as well as Iranian businessmen involved in the production and supply of military drones used in the attacks.
CONFLICT
* Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian artillery had hammered nearly 20 front-line settlements around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Moscow seeks to capture but which is now largely in ruins due to incessant bombardment.
* At least two people were killed and five wounded in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson after what the regional governor said was “massive shelling” by Russian forces.
* Reuters could not independently verify the reports of the attacks or deaths.
* The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council said he expected another wave of refugees from Ukraine in Europe over the winter, because of “unliveable” conditions.
* Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has launched a snap inspection of its troops’ combat readiness following an order from President Alexander Lukashenko, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
