Russia-Ukraine updates: Kyiv experts ‘at site of Poland blast’

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that along with facing physical safety risks, the country’s economy was in danger as long as the war in Ukraine continued.

“The rule is that if there is a war in your neighbourhood, you cannot feel safe, either. You can’t feel physically safe. Look at the deaths of two Polish people who had nothing to do with this war. And the industrial facility that allowed us to bring oil from Russia to Hungary via Ukraine has been shot up. So not only is our physical safety at risk, but the security of our economy is also lacking,” Orban said.

Earlier today, Hungary’s prime minister had said he would not support a European Union plan to provide Ukraine with an aid package next year.

Poland will not grant visas to a Russian delegation so they may attend an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) meeting being held in Lodz next month, the Polish foreign ministry said.

“We are not giving them visas,” spokesman Lukasz Jasina said.

Poland is hosting the annual meeting of the world’s largest regional security body this year on December 1-2.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and they congratulated each other for the extension of an UN-brokered grain deal, Erdogan’s office said.

Erdogan told Zelenskyy the grains deal and prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine were positive experiences and that the “extension of this understanding to the negotiation table” would benefit all parties.

With Russia continuing to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the approaching cold is posing questions about the military capabilities of both sides.

Now, whichever army is more skilled at fighting at night will have the advantage. But that does not take away from the fact that weapons commonly malfunction during temperatures below freezing.

Read more about the winter military options.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he discussed security and energy cooperation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and assured him that Ukraine would remain a guarantor of global food security.

On Twitter, Zelenskyy wrote, “In a phone call with [President Erdogan], we praised the extension of the grain deal. I thanked for supporting our #GrainfromUkraine initiative and assured that Ukraine will remain a guarantor of food stability. Security and energy cooperation were also discussed.”

In a phone call with President @RTErdogan we praised the extension of the grain deal. I thanked for supporting our #GrainfromUkraine initiative and assured that Ukraine will remain a guarantor of food stability. Security and energy cooperation were also discussed.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 18, 2022

French President Emmanuel Macron urges Asian countries to join the “increasing consensus” against the conflict in Ukraine, telling them the war was “your problem”, too.

Macron told business leaders on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit that France was trying to “create an increasing consensus in order to say this war is also your problem, because it will create a lot of destabilisation”.

Ukraine says almost half of the country’s power infrastructure needs repair following waves of Russian aerial attacks that have disrupted electricity supplies for millions of Ukrainians.

“Only on November 15, Russia fired about 100 missiles at Ukrainian cities. Nearly half of our energy system has been disabled,” Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said while appealing to Ukraine’s European allies for support.

The Russian defence ministry accuses Kyiv of executing more than 10 war prisoners and of “war crimes”, the latest allegation of abuses after nearly nine months of fighting.

In response to videos allegedly showing killed Russian servicemen who had reportedly surrendered, the ministry said, “No one will be able to paint the deliberate and methodical murder of more than 10 restrained Russian soldiers … who were shot in the head, as a ‘tragic exception’.”

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is interested in working closely with Qatar to ensure stability in the global gas market during a call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Kremlin said.

Putin congratulated Qatar on hosting the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which kicks off this weekend.

FIFA banned Russia, which hosted the previous tournament in 2018, from participating in its competitions earlier this year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The EU’s energy policy chief told the Reuters news agency that the European Union expects to have its regulations completed before introducing a G7 plan to cap the price of Russian crude oil on December 5.

The EU will ban Russian crude imports from that date and Russian oil products from February 5.

EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said, “Our sanctions will cover crude for EU member states, so we will not buy Russian crude oil starting from December 5 and we covered the possible oil price gap for international buyers with our eighth package of sanctions.”

“If the G7 will decide the exact price cap level, we also will need a council mandate for that,” she said on the sidelines of the COP 27 climate summit in Egypt this week.”

In addition, a G7 plan, intended as an add-on to the EU embargo, will allow shipping services providers to help to export Russian oil, but only at enforced low prices.

This is also set to take effect on December 5.

The Netherlands has summoned the Russian ambassador after Moscow accused a Dutch court of a politically motivated verdict in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

“In doing so, Russia discredits the Dutch constitutional state. That is absolutely unacceptable,” the Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement to AFP, a day after the court sentenced three men to life imprisonment.

Russia said on Thursday that the Dutch court’s decision to convict two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader for shooting down the Malaysian airliner “neglected impartiality”. All 298 people on board were killed.

Foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said these remarks by Russia, which invaded Ukraine nine months ago, were “utterly despicable” and totally removed from reality.

Ukrainian experts have arrived at the scene of an explsion in Poland after a missile hit a border village that left two dead.

Ukraine’s Minister of Defence Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, “Ukrainian experts are already working at the site of the tragedy in Przewodów caused by Russian missile terror against Ukraine.

“I am grateful to the Polish side for granting them access. We will continue our cooperation in an open and constructive manner, as closest friends do.”

Ukrainian experts are already working at the site of the tragedy in Przewodów caused by Russian missile terror against Ukraine. I am grateful to the Polish side for granting them access. We will continue our cooperation in an open and constructive manner, as closest friends do.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) November 18, 2022

NATO and Poland believe, after initial investigations, that the missile that hit Poland likely came from Ukraine’s air defence system.

Al Jazeera updates these four maps daily, charting the latest war developments.

A senior official said that a railway link between the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the recently reclaimed city of Kherson will restart on Friday, a week after a Russian retreat.

“The first train departs today at 10:14pm [20:14 GMT] from Kyiv and will arrive in Kherson at approximately at 09:00am [07:00 GMT] tomorrow,” the deputy head of the Kherson region Sergiy Khlan.

Russia will wait until a full damage assessment to the Nord Stream gas pipelines is done before deciding on any repairs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“The very fact that data has already begun to come in, in favour of confirming a subversive act or a terrorist act … once again confirms the information that the Russian side has,” Peskov told reporters.

“It is very important not to stop, it is very important to find the one behind this explosion.”

Swedish investigators have found traces of explosives at the site of the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, confirming that gross sabotage had occurred.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement “Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the objects that were recovered.”

Adding that, the findings establish the incident as “gross sabotage”.

Russia is strengthening its position on the Crimean peninsula as Kyiv’s forces reclaim territory in the neighbouring Kherson region.

“Fortification work is being carried out on the territory of Crimea under my control with the aim of guaranteeing the security of all Crimeans,” the Moscow-appointed governor of the region, Sergei Aksyonov, said.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in the wake of nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations that led to the removal of Ukraine’s former Kremlin-friendly president.

The move was later used as a launching pad in February for what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the idea of creating a Turkish “gas hub” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone.

Putin first proposed creating a gas base in Turkey in October to redirect supplies from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines and export them to the European market, an idea that Erdogan has supported.

The Kremlin said the two sides also discussed the agreed extension of the Black Sea grain deal, an agreement that Turkey helped broker to ensure the safe passage of grain exports from blockaded Ukrainian ports.

“Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasised the importance of a comprehensive and complete implementation of this ‘package’ agreement,” the Kremlin said.

European Union trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis is visiting Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on EU support for Ukraine.

“Arrived in Kyiv to discuss EU’s support to Ukraine, focus on emergency financial support and our plans for 2023,” Dombrovskis, one of three executive vice presidents among the EU’s 27 commissioners, wrote on Twitter.

“I’ll also discuss with Zelenskyy and Denys Shmyhal concrete steps for closer economic integration between EU and Ukraine.”

Good meeting @ZelenskyyUa in Kyiv.

I reaffirmed EU's solidarity with #Ukraine as Russia continues its brutal war, killing 🇺🇦 citizens and destroying infrastructure.

We also discussed 🇪🇺 emergency financial support to further Ukraine’s economic integration&EU accession process. pic.twitter.com/3brk2PIyrI

— Valdis Dombrovskis (@VDombrovskis) November 18, 2022

Senior EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and several EU member states’ leaders have also shown solidarity with Ukraine by visiting Kyiv since the start of the war.

EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said on Thursday the bloc would also provide temporary cold-weather shelter, generators and electricity grid-repair kits for Ukraine to help it through winter following Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

A UN senior official voiced optimism that Russia and Ukraine would agree on terms to resume exports of Russian ammonia via a pipeline to the Black Sea.

A deal aimed at easing global food shortages by helping Ukraine export its agricultural products from Black Sea ports was extended for four months on Thursday, but ammonia exports via the pipeline were not part of the renewal.

“There are elements of that agreement (on ammonia) that have to happen between the two countries,” said Rebeca Grynspan, the secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

“We have reason to believe that there is interest for that to happen.”

“We are optimistic that this is being discussed and that it could happen,” she added without giving further details.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called EU sanctions against Russia “a step towards war”, describing the bloc’s Russia policy as dangerous.

Although Budapest didn’t block EU sanctions against Russia after obtaining key exemptions, it has blamed soaring energy bills and sky-high inflation in Hungary on Brussels’ measures.

“It’s a step towards war, if someone intervenes economically in a military conflict,” Orban said during a radio interview, adding that “taking a stand” could quickly amount to “becoming an actual belligerent”.

He added that by “supplying destructive weapons, training Ukrainian soldiers on our own territory, sanctioning energy”, the EU was endangering itself.

Orban has sought to take a neutral position since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, refusing to send Kyiv military aid and opposing an $18.6bn EU support package for Ukraine.