Spanish police say blast at Ukrainian embassy injured one employee
Spanish police said an employee at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was injured on Wednesday in an explosion that occurred while he was handling a letter.
The staff member received light injuries and went to hospital under his own steam, police said.
Detectives are investigating the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators.
Ukraine’s embassy to Spain was not immediately reachable, Reuters reported.
The area surrounding the embassy has been cordoned off, the state broadcaster TVE reported.
The time in Kyiv is 8.45pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s top headlines:
A security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, and Kyiv ordered a bolstering of security at all its representative offices abroad. The security officer suffered light injuries and went under his own steam to hospital for treatment, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid. In the wake of the incident, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security, a ministry spokesperson said.
The European Commission president has proposed a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen also wants to use the proceeds of Russian funds that have been frozen under western sanctions to aid Ukraine (see 8.19 GMT). Behind each proposal, questions remain.
Ukraine needs the US made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said, adding he would be working with the German government on this issue. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot systems, Reuters reported.
The UK has announced a fresh round of sanctions against 22 Russians, including those the Foreign Office says were involved in enlisting criminals to fight in Ukraine. James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said on Wednesday his department would target a new set of officials, including Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister, who is responsible for troop equipment supplies.
Ukraine’s state emergency service has said nine people have been killed in fires in the past 24 hours after breaking safety rules in an attempt to heat their homes after Russian attacks on power facilities. The number of fires had risen, it said, with Ukrainians increasingly resorting to using emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in their homes because of power outages, Reuters reported.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has arrived in Kyiv for a three-day visit to show solidarity with the people and churches of Ukraine. Welby will meet leaders of Ukraine’s churches, refugees and internally displaced people.
The EU will try to set up a court, backed by the UN, to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, according to the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen. In a video statement, she said: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought death, devastation and unspeakable suffering. We all remember the horrors of Bucha. It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far.”
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, discussed nuclear issues and Ukraine in a meeting this month with the CIA director, William Burns, the RIA news agency reported. Elizabeth Rood, the charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Moscow, previously told RIA that Burns “did not negotiate anything and he did not discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine”.
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officials found weapons and Russian cash on Wednesday after searching properties in around Kyiv linked to a pro-Russian former politician, the agency said. In a statement, the SBU said its searches of homes and offices belonging to Yevhen Murayev, who it said was “hiding from justice abroad”, and his associates were part of a criminal investigation into treason.
Moscow has promoted the chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Yuriy Chernichuk, to become its head, according to Russia’s nuclear agency Rosenergoatom. The position has been vacant since October, when Kyiv says the plant’s boss Ihor Murashov was abducted by Russian authorities.
One person was killed and another wounded in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, the regional governor said. Yaroslav Yanushevych wrote on the Telegram messaging app that several residential buildings and medical facilities had been damaged in the city, which was liberated this month after months of Russian occupation.
Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram early on Wednesday morning that Russian strikes in the region overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.
Ukraine claims to have killed another 500 Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours, bringing the total who have died in combat since 24 February to about 88,880. The general staff of the armed forces said it had taken out three more tanks and six armoured personnel carriers.
Ukrainian forces have downed three Russian reconnaissance drones in the last 24 hours, according to its armed forces. In an early morning bulletin from Ukraine, the spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces, Alexander Štupun, said Ukraine had been subjected to a number of missile attacks from planes and artillery, including on Kivsharivka in Kharkiv and Sloviansk in Donetsk.
A teenager was killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, a presidential aide has said. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had pounded the region with artillery and mortar bombs over the past 24 hours.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he did not believe Russian president Vladimir Putin will use nuclear weapons. He made the comment while speaking by video link at the New York Times ‘DealBook’ summit in New York City. It comes as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was vital to avoid any kind of military confrontation between nuclear powers, even if it only involved conventional weapons, the TASS news agency reported.
The city council in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa has voted to remove and relocate a monument to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia that has been daubed with red paint at least twice. The statue to the city’s founder, which towers over a central square, has been vandalised repeatedly since the invasion of Ukraine that has prompted many Ukrainians to reject their country’s historical ties to Moscow, Reuters reported.
Five Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian forces on Tuesday, according to a senior government official. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted on Telegram that the five were killed in Donetsk, with 15 people also injured. The Donetsk region has continued to face shelling by Russian troops. Others were wounded in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Russia’s defence minister has said it will focus on nuclear arms infrastructure in 2023, including facilities to accommodate new missile systems. Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of the board of the department on Wednesday that it would be a priority for Russia next year. “When preparing the list of major construction facilities for 2023, special attention will be paid to construction in the interests of the strategic nuclear forces,” Shoigu was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.
The head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, spoke to Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday morning. They discussed the US’s support for the Grain from Ukraine scheme, which is running to get grain out of the port of Odesa, and its support for Ukraine over the winter months.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has highlighted Russia’s new foreign agents act in its daily update, which it says will be used to crack down on critics and dissidents. Vladimir Putin has changed the 2012 law so that personal details including the address of designated “foreign agents” can be published, meaning they could become targets of harassment. The change will come into force on Thursday.
The European Commission gave an update on Wednesday on its plans to freeze and confiscate Russian assets. Von der Leyen said: “We have blocked €300bn of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the live blog for today. Thanks following along. I’ll be back in the morning with more up-to-the-minute news of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officials found weapons and Russian cash on Wednesday after searching properties in around Kyiv linked to a pro-Russian former politician, the agency said.
In a statement, the SBU said its searches of homes and offices belonging to Yevhen Murayev, who it said was “hiding from justice abroad”, and his associates were part of a criminal investigation into treason.
Murayev’s political party and a television channel under his control were seen as vehicles for Kremlin interests in Ukraine before Moscow’s invasion, Reuters reported. The party, Nashi, was banned after Russian forces swept into Ukraine.
He had promoted views that aligned with Russian narratives on Ukraine, including that the 2014 Maidan protests in Kyiv were a western-backed coup and the Kremlin-fuelled war in eastern Ukraine that followed was an internal conflict.
Weeks before Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine this year, Britain’s foreign ministry said Russia was considering installing Murayev to lead a new puppet government, a claim denied both by him and by Moscow.
The SBU said an independent analysis of Murayev’s public statements “testify to the presence in his actions of signs” of treason.
It said the materials seized in Wednesday’s searches would be examined further.
Ukraine’s state emergency service has said nine people have been killed in fires in the past 24 hours after breaking safety rules in an attempt to heat their homes after Russian attacks on power facilities.
The number of fires had risen, it said, with Ukrainians increasingly resorting to using emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in their homes because of power outages, Reuters reported.
“Only in the last day there were 131 fires in Ukraine, 106 of them in the residential sector. Nine people died, eight were injured,” the emergency service said.
“Generators on balconies, gas cylinders in apartments, lit candles ... Due to violations of fire safety rules, the use of uncertified products for heating and cooking, incidents of fires and explosions in high-rise and private buildings have become more frequent.”
The service urged Ukrainians to take more care in their homes and to explain fire risks to children.
The UK has announced a fresh round of sanctions against 22 Russians, including those the Foreign Office says were involved in enlisting criminals to fight in Ukraine.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said on Wednesday his department would target a new set of officials, including Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister, who is responsible for troop equipment supplies.
The Russian officials join more than 1,000 others, including 120 the UK has sanctioned since the invasion of Ukraine in February, including Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian prime minister, and Roman Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea FC.
Cleverly said: “The Russian regime’s decision to partially mobilise Russian citizens was a desperate attempt to overwhelm the valiant Ukrainians defending their territory. It has failed.
“Today we have sanctioned individuals who have enforced this conscription, sending thousands of Russian citizens to fight in Putin’s illegal and abhorrent war.
“The UK will continue to use both sanctions and military aid to support Ukraine in the defence of their independence.”
James Cleverly attends the second day of the meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday. Photograph: Andreea Alexandru/AP
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has arrived in Kyiv for a three-day visit to show solidarity with the people and churches of Ukraine.
Welby will meet leaders of Ukraine’s churches, refugees and internally displaced people.
Arriving in Kyiv on Wednesday, Welby said: “The people of Ukraine have shown extraordinary courage in the face of Russia’s illegal, unjust and brutal invasion. This visit is about showing solidarity with them as they face a profoundly difficult winter.
“I look forward to meeting with church leaders and local Christians in Kyiv, and learning how we can continue to support them amid the ongoing devastation, loss and destruction of this war.
“I urge Christians in the Church of England and around the world to keep praying for the people of Ukraine in this Advent season – along with all people caught up in conflicts around the world – and offering our solidarity and support in every way we can.”
The archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP
The president of the European Commission appears to have caused some confusion on Wednesday in her speech on Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen said an estimated 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel had died as well as 20,000 civilians. Ukraine has been tight-lipped about its wartime military losses, saying figures would give Russia an advantage.
The commission later apologised, saying the speech was inaccurate and the estimate had included injured as well as dead. The sentence was then removed from the transcript on the commission’s website and edited from the video of her speech.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s general staff told Ukrainian journalists that it would not comment on the figure quoted but vowed that Russia would face punishment for its actions in Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen attends the weekly meeting of the EU Commission in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
Von der Leyen also said the EU would set up a special tribunal for the “crime of aggression” – in other words Russia’s military transgressing Ukraine’s borders.
The statement appears to have caught Ukraine off guard. Oleh Gavrysh, a spokesperson of Andriy Smyrnov, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, who is leading the effort to establish a tribunal, said they were “exploring” what Von der Leyen had said and needed to confirm if this tribunal would include removing the immunity of key Russian leaders, including the Russian president Vladimir Putin. If it did, said Gavrysh, then Ukraine would accept her proposal.
A special tribunal for the crime of aggression has been the subject of a months-long campaign by Kyiv. It would lead to Russia’s top figures prosecuted, including Putin and the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and would require little investigation as the fact that the crime of aggression was committed was something overwhelmingly accepted by the UN general assembly. But states will need to back the tribunal individually as they will be responsible for enforcing any sentencing of Russia’s leaders as international criminals (even if in absentia).
The European Commission president has proposed a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen also wants to use the proceeds of Russian funds that have been frozen under western sanctions to aid Ukraine (see 8.19 GMT). Behind each proposal, questions remain.
On the special tribunal, she said:
… while continuing to support the international criminal court, we are proposing to set up a specialised court, backed by the United Nations, to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression.
The EU wants a specialised court, because Russia has not signed the ICC treaty, leaving the court without jurisdiction over “crimes of aggression”. The ICC can only judge specific war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
EU officials are certain that Russia, a permanent member of the UN security council, will block any move to create a specialised court. Nevertheless they intend to table a resolution to the security council and when it is shot down, seek support from the general assembly of all UN members. One EU official said they expected “good enough numbers” to support the proposal.
Uncertainties also surround the proposed money for Ukraine.
Von der Leyen said:
We have blocked €300bn of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money.
In the short term, we could create, with our partners, a structure to manage these funds and invest them. We would then use the proceeds for Ukraine.
But officials do not yet know much the proceeds could be worth. For legal reasons they believe they can use only the proceeds generated from managing the assets to aid Ukraine, rather than the assets themselves.
Eventually the funds would have to be returned to their owners, although the commission proposes to offset the Russian central bank’s €300bn against any future reparations to Ukraine, made as the result of a peace agreement. But buy-in from other western allies is not yet clear.
Both ideas will be presented to a G7 taskforce next month.
Some more on that blast at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, Spain, now from the Reuters news agency.
It reports:
A security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, and Kyiv ordered a bolstering of security at all its representative offices abroad.
The security officer suffered light injuries and went under his own steam to hospital for treatment, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid.
In the wake of the incident, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security, a ministry spokesperson said.
The minister also urged Spain to “take urgent measures to investigate the attack”, the spokesperson added. The perpetrators, he added, “will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work on strengthening Ukraine and countering Russian aggression”.
Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago.
The letter, which arrived by ordinary mail and was not scanned, caused “a very small wound on the ring finger of the right hand” of the employee after he opened it in the garden of the embassy, Gonzalez said. It was addressed to ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev, she said.
Detectives were probing the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators, Spanish police said. Spain’s High Court will lead the investigation.
An officer at the embassy declined to comment. Correos, the Spanish state-run postal company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the origin of the letter.
The residential area surrounding the embassy in northwestern Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene. Reuters footage showed scores of police officers, armed with assault rifles and blocking roads with vans, in the neighbourhood around the embassy.
Police secure the area of the Ukraine's embassy in Madrid on November 30, 2022 after a letter bomb explosion. Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he did not believe Russian president Vladimir Putin will use nuclear weapons.
He made the comment while speaking by video link at the New York Times ‘DealBook’ summit in New York city.
It comes as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was vital to avoid any kind of military confrontation between nuclear powers, even if it only involved conventional weapons, the TASS news agency reported.
Lavrov also said the West was pushing Ukraine to continue fighting against Russia.
“It is necessary to avoid any military clash between nuclear powers, even with the use of conventional weapons. The escalation may become uncontrollable,” TASS quoted Lavrov as saying.
Putin has issued a series of thinly veiled nuclear threats during the course of the war in Ukraine, but several top officials have repeatedly denied Moscow plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine and have accused the West of upping the nuclear ante.
UK imposes sanctions on Russian deputy PM Manturov
The UK has imposed sanctions on another 22 Russians who it says have been behind the further mobilisation of troops in Ukraine.
Among them is the Russian deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, who oversees the Russian weapons industry and is responsible for arming soldiers.
Arkady Gostev, the director of the Russian prison service, is also on the list because of his support for the Wagner Group’s recruitment of inmates for the war effort.
A total of 10 governors and regional heads have been hit with sanctions, including those in charge of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kalmykia, from where a number of conscripts have been called up. Another 29 regional governors were already placed under sanctions in July for providing financial support to Russian proxy administrations in Ukraine.
Others include Ella Pamfilova and Andrey Burov, who helped organised referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin used as a basis to annex the regions in September.
Those under sanctions are subject to asset freezes, travel bans and transport sanctions.
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said:
The Russian regime’s decision to partially mobilise Russian citizens was a desperate attempt to overwhelm the valiant Ukrainians defending their territory. It has failed.
Today we have sanctioned individuals who have enforced this conscription, sending thousands of Russian citizens to fight in Putin’s illegal and abhorrent war.
The UK will continue to use both sanctions and military aid to support Ukraine in the defence of their independence.
The full list of those hit with sanctions by the British government can be found here.
Nine people have died in fires in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, according to the authorities, as Russian attacks on power infrastructure has caused people to resort to using emergency generators and gas cylinders.
Ukraine’s state emergency services said there had been more than 130 fires in the last day. It said eight people had been injured.
The blackouts have led to a surge in accidents “due to the violation of fire safety rules”, the service said. The number of fires and explosions in high-rise and private houses has increased, Agency France-Presse reports.
In a press conference on Wednesday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure as “barbaric”.
“Over the past several weeks, Russia has bombed out more than a third of Ukraine’s energy system, plunging millions in the cold,” Blinken said after a meeting with Nato counterparts in Bucharest.
As we are less than three weeks from Christmas, the sight of trees being erected in city squares around the world is commonplace.
It will be no different in Kyiv despite the ongoing conflict. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a 12-metre artificial tree would go up as a “symbolic Christmas tree of indomitability”.
The tree in Sofia Square will be decorated with “energy-saving” garlands that will be powered by a generator, he said in a Telegram post. After Christmas, the generator will be donated to the military.
There will also be phone charging points set up nearby. Atop the festive structure will be Ukraine’s coat of arms, and around its base will be flags of countries that have helped Ukraine.
Germany has said it will have trained 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers by the summer of 2023.
The defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, also told the Berlin security conference that Germany understood the importance of supplying weapons to Ukraine, and working with others to support the government in Kyiv.
A teenager was killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, a presidential aide has said.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had pounded the region with artillery and mortar bombs over the past 24 hours.
Russian forces pulled back from northern Ukraine weeks after its invasion but have continued shelling some areas, Ukrainian officials have said.
Spanish police say blast at Ukrainian embassy injured one employee
Spanish police said an employee at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was injured on Wednesday in an explosion that occurred while he was handling a letter.
The staff member received light injuries and went to hospital under his own steam, police said.
Detectives are investigating the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators.
Ukraine’s embassy to Spain was not immediately reachable, Reuters reported.
The area surrounding the embassy has been cordoned off, the state broadcaster TVE reported.
Vladimir Putin has focused his “fire and ire” on Ukraine’s civilian population, bombing more than a third of Ukraine’s energy system – water and electricity supply – in a strategy that will not work, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday.
“These are President Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard,” Blinken said after a Nato meeting in Bucharest.
