Zelensky likely to join G20 summit online; Hungary blocks EU plan for €18bn Kyiv aid package

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he may expand an intervention into the economy after authorities used special wartime powers to seize control of five companies, all of which have ties to some of the country’s most powerful oligarchs. Ukraine’s power grid operator limited power supplies to consumers in seven regions and the capital, Kyiv, said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of grid operator Ukrenergo.

The European Union’s plan to provide €18-billion of aid to Ukraine next year suffered a setback when Hungary indicated it would block the necessary rules changes.

Key developments

• Ukraine may expand intervention after seizure of oligarch assets


• EU dims hopes for a price cap to contain soaring gas costs


• Europe’s energy crunch will trigger years of shortages


• Plans made to rebuild world’s biggest plane in longshot effort

On the ground

Russian forces struck a village in the Zaporizhzhia region with S-300 missiles on Tuesday morning, Governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram. Over the past day, Russian forces carried out nine missile strikes, 37 air attacks and more than 100 multiple rocket-launcher shellings, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.

Ukrainian troops repelled assaults near 10 settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the military reported. The US-based Institute for the Study of War said that Russia had “greatly depleted” its stockpiles of high-precision weapons systems, had encountered significant aviation losses and could struggle to keep up the current pace of a coordinated campaign against critical Ukrainian infrastructure.

Indian foreign minister tells Lavrov of growing concerns over war

India is “on the side of peace, respect for international law and support for the UN Charter” over the war in Ukraine, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a news conference in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, adding that the invasion was “a dominant feature” of their talks.

“We are seeing growing concerns on energy and food security from the conflict,” Jaishankar said, reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s view that it’s “not an era for war” at a September meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The Global South, especially, is feeling this pain very acutely.”

Still, he noted “significant growth” in trade between India and Russia this year and said it was essential to continue their “time-tested” defence relationship. India has scooped up millions of barrels of discounted oil shunned by Europe and the US since the war began, and Russia remains a key weapons supplier.

Hungary blocks EU plan for €18bn Ukraine package

Hungary told EU finance ministers at a meeting in Brussels that it won’t support the necessary changes to prepare an €18-billion package to support Ukraine next year, people familiar with the discussion said.

The European Commission will propose on Wednesday offering concessional loans to Kyiv in a more stable manner, but the initiative will require using the extra space available in the EU budget. Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga told his colleagues that he wouldn’t support such an option, which requires the unanimous backing of 27 governments.

Read more: EU aims to dispel criticism on Ukraine aid with €18bn plan

Zelensky seeks to extend martial law and mobilisation 

Ukraine’s president filed a decree draft to the country’s Parliament, seeking to extend martial law and mobilisation. Zelensky is seeking to extend martial law and mobilisation by 90 days, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. The Parliament approved a similar decree over the summer, extending the military measures for 90 days from August 23.

Chelsea FC sale profits yet to reach Ukraine 

The UK’s Europe minister, Leo Docherty, faced questions over whether the £3.5-billion proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club in May had reached Ukraine yet. Former owner Roman Abramovich, a sanctioned individual, agreed the funds can be sent there.

The money is “still frozen in the UK bank account”, Docherty told Parliament in London. A licence to release the funds had been applied for, he added. Opposition Labour Party MP Chris Bryant told Bloomberg News the delay was “appalling” and called on the government to “get a blasted move-on”.

Zelensky ‘likely to join G20 summit online’ 

Zelensky will take part in the G20 summit in Bali “in some kind of format,” the Suspilne TV website reports, citing presidential spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov. The president will most likely join the summit online, the website reported, citing Nykyforov. Zelensky said earlier that he won’t join the summit if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends it.

Read more: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping to attend G20 summit in Bali

US ambassador to UN visits Ukraine

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, travelled to Ukraine for a day of meetings to signal her country’s “unwavering support”, her office said in a statement.

Thomas-Greenfield was due to meet government leaders to discuss the US’s commitment and investigations into atrocities allegedly carried out by Russian forces, and to “underscore the critical need for an extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative into the coming year”.

Russia last week agreed to resume the deal that ensures safe passage of grain vessels from Ukraine’s ports, just days after suspending its involvement. The pact is set to expire on 19 November and officials have yet to verify its renewal.

Plans made to rebuild world’s biggest plane in long-shot effort 

Plans are being made to rebuild the world’s largest plane, which was destroyed by Russian forces in the early days of its invasion of Ukraine — though its manufacturer says such a goal remains far off.

Design work on a second Antonov An-225 cargo plane, also known as the Mriya — “dream” in Ukrainian — has begun, according to a statement posted on Facebook Monday by state-owned Antonov, which said exact details will only be specified once Russia’s war in Ukraine ends.

Nato’s Stoltenberg to meet UK’s Sunak

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg will meet UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday as well as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, and visit with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace a British military facility training Ukrainian soldiers.

UN counts 16,462 civilian casualties in Ukraine since Russia invaded

The Russian invasion has seen 6,490 civilians killed in Ukraine up until 6 November, according to calculations by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), shared by email. Another 9,972 Ukrainian civilians were injured. More than half of the casualties happened in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The OHCHR believes that the actual figures are “considerably” higher. Data on casualties in Mariupol, Izium in the Kharkiv region and in three towns in the Luhansk region, where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties, are incomplete.

Ukraine imposes scheduled power cutoffs in seven regions  

Ukraine’s power grid operator Ukrenergo limited power supplies to consumers in seven regions and Kyiv on Tuesday, the company said on Telegram. Regions facing scheduled several-hour power outages include northern Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kyiv, Kharkiv and central Poltava and Cherkasy.

Ukraine’s grid operator limits power supplies to various regions on a scheduled basis after Russia began systematic shelling of its energy infrastructure last month.

‘Several days’ needed to boost power supplies, says grid operator  

Several days are needed to increase supplies of electricity to consumers in central Kyiv and northern regions, as they struggle with the impact of Russian air attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of grid operator Ukrenergo. Electricity shortage in these regions including Kharkiv, Poltava and Sumy currently exceeded 1,000 megawatts, he said in a televised interview on Monday.

“I think that our power engineers will have to work for another week,” he said. “And if there are hopefully no more missile strikes — this is an important condition — we will be able to improve the situation with power supplies in the central and northern regions of our country.” He also said that Ukraine and the European Union were discussing how to arrange supplies of electricity to the country. DM