Ukraine Briefly

December 02, 2022

Ukraine, Briefly

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This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the US and NATO of “directly participating” in the Ukraine war, saying that they are waging war against Russia “with the hands of Ukrainians,” USA Today reported. His remarks came on Thursday as Russian forces attempted to advance in eastern Ukraine and targeted Kherson in the south with tank, mortar, and artillery fire, Reuters added. Meanwhile, analysts predict that as the weather gets cold and returns to the frigid and muddy conditions that Russia’s invading soldiers faced at the start of the war, Moscow will face months of battle, military losses, and potential defeat, according to CNBC.

In other developments this week:

• The EU’s executive body has asked the bloc’s 27 member nations to agree to a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian oil, the Wall Street Journal wrote. The cap would keep Russian crude prices much lower than the international benchmark, Brent, which was trading at around $88 a barrel on Thursday. If the EU agrees, the Group of Seven then needs to sign it off. The seven countries and Australia hope to have it operational by Dec. 5.

• At the same time, the European Commission has proposed a special court to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Politico noted. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has once again chastised Twitter CEO Elon Musk for proposing a peace treaty with Russia, even as he invited the Tesla and SpaceX founder to visit his war-torn country, Euronews wrote. Musk sparked outrage in October when he posted proposals for Ukraine war negotiations in a Twitter poll.

• Germany’s parliament approved a resolution Wednesday recognizing the 1930s “Holodomor” in Ukraine as genocide, a famine thought to have killed more than 3 million Ukrainians during Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s harsh regime, the Associated Press reported.

• Russia’s strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure are forcing millions of Ukrainian refugees who planned to return home to instead stay abroad, prolonging their suffering and straining Europe’s ability to absorb one of the largest migration flows in more than 70 years, the Wall Street Journal said Moscow’s repeated strikes on power plants and heating infrastructure have resulted in rolling blackouts in Ukraine, robbing millions of people of power, heating, and running water in subzero temperatures.

This story originally appeared in the December 02, 2022 newsletter, New Money, Old Problems.