Enlarge image
War damage near Kyiv (on December 4)
Photo:
DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
That says Kyiv
With a view to the cold season, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkyj has appealed to the population for stamina and resilience.
"The enemy very much hopes to use the winter against us: to make the winter cold and hardship part of their terror," he said in his daily video message on Sunday evening.
"We must do everything we can to survive this winter, no matter how hard it is." To endure this winter means to endure everything.
Russia does have an advantage with missiles and artillery.
“But we have something the occupier doesn't have and won't have.
We protect our home, and that gives us the greatest possible motivation,” emphasized Zelenskyj.
The Ukrainian people are fighting for freedom and defending the truth, he said.
"To get through the winter, we need to be more resilient and united than ever," Zelenskyy appealed to Ukrainians.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has denounced a "dramatic increase" in sexual violence by Russian soldiers.
As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, all genders and age groups are affected, children as well as the elderly, Kostin told the Funke media group and the French newspaper Ouest-France.
Russian soldiers used sexual violence in a targeted manner - as a "war method to humiliate Ukrainians," he said.
Kostin told the newspapers that four months ago only 40 cases of sexual violence were registered, but now there are more than 110 cases.
"Strongly increasing tendency." There is also a high number of unreported cases.
»In many cases people are raped, tortured and then killed by Russian soldiers.
Rapes often take place in front of relatives and children,” said Kostin.
Occupied areas are particularly affected.
According to Kostin, Russian commanders often ordered rapes or at least supported them.
The information provided by the Attorney General could not initially be independently verified.
The Germany director of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, Wenzel Michalski, also spoke of a system of violence.
"Atrocities against civilians are part of the war tactics of the Russian soldiers in Ukraine," Michalski told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
»The violence of the soldiers, including the rapes, is not punished by the top Russian politicians and the military.
On the contrary: forces that act particularly brutally are still awarded,” he said.
The violence is at least accepted by the leadership.
According to Kostin, nearly 8,500 civilians, including 440 children, have been killed in Ukraine since the war began a good nine months ago.
More than 11,000 civilians were injured.
The Attorney General's office has so far taken 50,197 cases of war crimes, he told the newspapers.
Moscow says so
According to insider information, the government in Moscow plans to ban Russian companies from trading with countries that adhere to the price cap imposed on crude oil exports by sea.
In essence, such a decree would ban the export of petroleum and petroleum products to countries and companies that apply the cap, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The oil price cap of the G7 and the EU countries as well as Australia should apply from Monday.
On Friday, the G7, the EU and Australia agreed on a cap of 60 dollars (57 euros) per barrel (159 liters) for oil transported by sea from Russia.
The price cap is intended to make it more difficult for Moscow to circumvent the sanctions imposed because of the Ukraine war by selling to third countries outside the EU or the G7.
From Monday, an EU embargo will also apply to Russian crude oil transported by ship.
This affects around two-thirds of the EU's Russian oil imports.
There is still an exception for imports via pipelines because some Member States rely heavily on them.
humanitarian situation
Because of the ongoing Russian war of aggression, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) expects displacement within Ukraine to increase rather than large numbers of people fleeing towards EU countries.
"The most likely scenario is further displacement within Ukraine," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told SPIEGEL.
"I hope there won't be another large movement of refugees." At the same time, he qualified: "But war is unpredictable."
He worries that those who are still able to flee abroad will most likely need more support.
"Those who have stayed in Ukraine up to now either had fewer contacts in Europe or were less mobile," Grandi continues.
He was confident that the EU states could also take in additional refugees from Ukraine if necessary.
"Europe can withstand the challenge for a while longer," he said.
Looking ahead to the winter, Grandi said: »Unlike in spring, more publicly run accommodation will be needed this time, and funds will be needed for this.« Therefore, countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, which would have to bear a particularly heavy burden, should be given financial support, he demanded.
In view of the winter weather and ongoing Russian attacks on the country's civilian infrastructure - especially on electricity and heat supply facilities - there have been repeated fears that many more Ukrainians could now flee to the EU.
To this end, the German ambassador in London, Miguel Berger, made a statement on Sunday.
"We are very concerned about this because these attacks on energy infrastructure mean many people could be forced to leave Ukraine in the freezing temperatures."
The diplomat further told the British TV channel Sky News: "We expect a further wave of refugees in the coming weeks."
Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the end of February has led to the largest displacement of people in decades, according to the UNHCR.
It was only at the beginning of November that Grandi said in New York that around 14 million people had been driven from their homes since the beginning of the war.
According to the UNHCR, almost eight million have sought protection abroad, one million of them in Germany.
what is happening today
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock begins a two-day visit to India.
In the capital New Delhi, the Green Party politician wants to talk to the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar about the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
India takes a neutral stance: it maintains close ties with both Russia and the West.
The nuclear power with more than 1.4 billion inhabitants does not support Western sanctions against Russia.
India abstained from United Nations resolutions on the war in Ukraine.
jok/dpa/Reuters