Spain suspects letter bombs linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine
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- Three people have been killed and seven wounded in Russian shelling of the Kherson region over the past 24 hours.
- The regional capital of Kherson – recaptured in mid-November – and other parts of the region were bombarded 42 times in the same period, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych 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 speak to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about ending the Ukraine war as conditions for such discussions currently do not exist, the White House said.
- The Group of Seven and Australia agreed on a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil after European Union members overcame resistance from Poland and hammered out an agreement.
- The chair of the Russian lower house’s foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said the EU was jeopardising its own energy security with the cap.
- Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call Western moves on Ukraine were “destructive” and urged Berlin to rethink 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 sites in Spain, including Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid.
- Russia’s foreign ministry said it was “outraged” by a statement from the French foreign ministry that supported plans to create a tribunal on possible crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
- Germany is preparing to deliver seven Gepard tanks to Ukraine, adding to the 30 air-defence tanks already in use against the Russian army.
Economy
- Russia’s economy is set to shrink 2.5 percent next year, on top of a 3 percent contraction in 2022, with stubbornly high inflation giving the central bank only limited room to cut interest rates.
- Ukraine’s grain exports so far in the 2022/2023 season are down 29.6 percent from the same stage a year earlier to 18.1 million tonnes after a six-month blockade caused by the Russian invasion.
- A group sliced a Banksy mural off a battle-scarred wall in Ukraine, but the 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 governor of Kyiv region said.
Source : Aljazeera
