Russia agrees to resume grain export deal; Zelensky asks European Union to help restore electricity

The United Nations coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative welcomed Russia’s return to the deal and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s efforts to help make it happen.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the European Union to help restore electricity in his country, where the energy infrastructure has been damaged by a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks.

Key developments

• Russia resumes Ukraine grain-export deal in abrupt reversal


• Russians find refuge from Putin in Europe’s new ‘Casablanca’


• Ukraine’s plight to dominate Group of Seven gathering in Germany


• Conflict in Ukraine moves toward ‘war of drones’ as winter looms


• Europe’s calmer gas markets could be roiled again by price cap


• Nord Stream operator finds man-made craters at pipe blast site

On the ground

Russian forces launched seven missile strikes and 47 air attacks over the past day, while Ukrainian troops shot down six Shahed-136 loitering drones, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook. The city of Nikopol in the central Dnipropetrovsk region was shelled overnight, local authorities said on Telegram.

To the east, Russia conducted offensive operations in the directions of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka, and Ukrainian forces repelled assaults near 12 settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s military said.

Nord Stream operator finds man-made craters at pipe blast site  

The operator of the Nord Stream pipeline said an initial survey found man-made craters on the seabed near the damaged gas link.

Nord Stream, led by Russian gas giant Gazprom, launched a probe in the Swedish zone of the Baltic Sea last week, following the explosions in September. The blasts damaged both lines of the idled Nord Stream and one line of the twin Nord Stream 2 pipeline that failed to start operations because of earlier sanctions. 

Ukraine resumes gas drilling in areas retaken from Russia  

Ukraine’s state-run natural gas extraction firm Ukrgasvydobuvannya has regained control over drilling rigs in areas recaptured from Russia, the company said. Two have been repaired and drilling resumed in the country’s east. Rigs and drilling sites have been damaged and were subjected to looting, it said. A third rig was being repaired.  

“Drilling of new wells has the most significant and sustainable impact in terms of providing the country with its own Ukrainian gas,” said acting Ukrgasvydobuvannya CEO Oleksandr Romaniuk.

Spain sends air defence systems, anti-tank rockets to Kyiv

Spain has provided an Aspide anti-aircraft missile complex, Hawk air-defence systems, anti-tank rockets, grenades and ammunition, which are on the way to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at a press conference with his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, in Kyiv. 

Spain is also sending power generators to help cover energy needs and other humanitarian aid, including ambulances, Albares said. Spanish experts will participate in an investigation into alleged Russian crimes against humanity, he said.

North Korea covertly sending artillery shells to Russia, says US

The Biden administration accused North Korea of covertly supplying Russia with artillery shells for use in the Ukraine invasion despite previous denials that it planned to do so.

North Korea has provided Russia with a “significant number of artillery shells”, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. He said North Korea was trying to mask the shipments’ destination by making it look as if they were going to the Middle East or North Africa.

Russia reaffirms commitment not to use nuclear weapons  

Russia said it remains committed to a pledge made in January with four other nuclear powers — China, the UK, France and the US — to avoid an atomic conflict. The nation’s doctrine is governed by the principle of “the unacceptability of nuclear war, in which there cannot be any winners”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Putin last week dialled back his increasing escalation of nuclear threats, saying there was “no point, either military or political” in a nuclear strike on Ukraine.

Poland begins building fence on border with Russia

Poland will begin the construction of a barbed-wire fence on its 210km border with Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to prevent the Kremlin from sending asylum-seekers into the country, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said.

With the airport in Kaliningrad open to flights from North Africa and the Middle East, Poland sees the risk of a migration crisis similar to what happened with Belarus last year, he told reporters in northeastern Poland, near the border with Kaliningrad. The barrier will be 2.5m high, with three layers of concertina wire, and work would start as early as Wednesday, according to the minister.

UK sanctions four Russian steel, petrochemical tycoons

Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov have been targeted for their involvement in the extractive, transport and construction sectors. The business associates of Roman Abramovich previously owned major stakes in Russian steel manufacturer Evraz and are reported to have UK property investments worth about £100-million.

Airat Shaimiev and Albert Shigabutdinov were also sanctioned and, therefore, are subject to travel bans, asset freezes and transport sanctions.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK has sanctioned more than 1,200 people and 120 entities. The list includes more than 120 oligarchs with a net worth of more than £140-billion.

Estonia to strip gun rights from local Russian nationals

Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets said in a statement that Estonia cannot “risk” granting gun licences to citizens of a “hostile foreign country. They may feel in certain situations that they need to take up arms to defend the interests of their country of origin,” he said.

The government’s new rules would affect all non-EU and non-Nato nationals, but most of the 3,000 guns that would be taken away over the course of two years are held by Russian citizens and Russian-speaking residents who have opted not to take either Russian or Estonian citizenship.

Russia agrees to let grain corridor resume operations 

“The Russian Federation considers the guarantees received sufficient at the moment and is resuming the implementation of the agreement,” the defence ministry said in a statement. It said it had received “written guarantees” from Ukraine that it would not use the humanitarian corridor for military operations.

Russian military leaders ‘discussed using tactical nuclear weapons’

Senior Russian military leaders discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, though Vladimir Putin wasn’t part of the conversations, The New York Times reported, citing senior US officials it didn’t identify.

Intelligence on the conversations was circulated in the US government in mid-October, the Times said, noting that officials there still had seen no evidence Russia is moving such weapons into position or preparing for a strike.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report, accusing the US of “pumping up” the nuclear issue. While Putin has been more circumspect, other officials have publicly called for using tactical nuclear weapons in the conflict.

 

Turkey says grain shipments to resume via Ukraine grain corridor

Speaking to governing party lawmakers in Ankara, Erdoğan said shipments via the Ukraine grain corridor would resume around midday after Russia’s defence minister called his Turkish counterpart to inform him about the start to operations. Russia confirmed the move, the state-run Tass news service reported.  

Wheat futures in Chicago traded down 5.3%, erasing some of this week’s gains after Russia said it was suspending involvement in the deal over the weekend.

Zaporizhzhia plant damage exceeds $762m, says Energoatom  

A preliminary estimate of losses to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant facilities, caused by the Russian invasion, exceed 28 billion hryvnia ($762-million), plant operator Energoatom said on Telegram.

Ukraine seeks to ease pressure on grid

State-run utility firm Ukrenergo warned on Wednesday that it would continue power cut-offs to ease pressure on the electricity grid in northern and central regions including Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Poltava and Kyiv.

The government in Kyiv said on Tuesday that it wanted the EU to increase its limit on electricity exports to Ukraine to around 1,000MW to 1,500MW from 500MW, Interfax-Ukraine news service said, citing Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.

Russia’s missile attacks, which began last month, have damaged about 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. DM