Russia: Germany justifies the Nazi past
09:15 am | Russia calls the German parliament’s decision to recognize the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as Soviet-imposed genocide an anti-Russian provocation and a German attempt to justify its Nazi past.
German lawmakers on Wednesday passed a resolution classifying the starvation of millions of Ukrainians – the Holodomor – as genocide.
In November 1932, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin sent police to seize all grain and livestock from newly collectivized Ukrainian farms, including the seed needed to plant the next crop. Millions of Ukrainian peasants starved to death in the following months.
Russia rejects the claim that it was genocide and claims that millions of people in other parts of the Soviet Union, including Russia, also suffered.
“There is another attempt to justify and carry out a campaign – started in Ukraine and sponsored by the West – to demonize Russia and incite ethnic Ukrainians against Russians,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The Germans are trying to rewrite their history… by minimizing their own guilt and blurring the memory of the unspeakable nature of the myriad crimes committed by Nazi Germany during World War II,” he added.
The ministry accused the German parliament of “reviving the fascist ideology of racial hatred and discrimination and trying to exonerate itself from responsibility for war crimes” by adopting the declaration.
Great shortage of personnel in Russian companies due to the war
08:30 | Many Russian companies are facing severe personnel shortages due to the mobilization of Russians to fight in Ukraine. According to a study by Moscow’s Gaidar economic research institute, a third of Russian industrial companies are facing labor shortages.
Russia mobilized 300,000 troops to fight against Ukraine in September. At the same time, many Russian men fled abroad to avoid being sent to the front. This has ensured that companies now have far fewer staff. These include truck drivers, tractor drivers and construction workers, but also construction workers, IT specialists and garbage collectors.
Prisoners are now being deployed to fill the gaps. For example, more than two hundred prisoners were put to work at the Russian state-owned Uralvagonzavod tank factory. Older people, women and adolescents are also more often put to work, as are migrant workers.
Researchers fear that personnel shortages could worsen as the war continues. Russia is also having to contend with rapid aging and a declining population, which means that there is less and less labor supply.
US military allocates $1.2 billion for missile systems in Ukraine
08:00 | The US military on Wednesday awarded a $1.2 billion contract to arms maker Raytheon Technologies Co for six anti-aircraft systems destined for Ukraine. There are a total of eight such Nasams (Nasams of domestic advanced surface-to-air missile systems) to repel Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukraine received its first delivery of two Nasams air defense systems in November. More will be delivered in the coming months once built.
These six Nasam systems were part of the fifth package of the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) announced on Aug. 24, worth a total of $2.98 billion, according to an army statement. US funds allow the Biden administration to source weapons from industry rather than procure weapons from existing US stockpiles of weapons.
Six million people without electricity on the first official day of winter
07:25 | Nearly 6 million Ukrainians are without electricity on the first official day of winter. This was stated by Ukrainian President Zelenskyj on Wednesday evening.
According to Ukrainian authorities, nine people have died in fires after violating safety rules while trying to heat their homes. In the last day alone, 131 fires occurred in Ukraine, of which 106 were in the residential sector. Nine people died, eight were injured, the government said.
New legislation silences Kremlin critics
06:30 | Russia is today tightening its legislation which makes it easier to face criticism. This law was already signed by Vladimir Putin in July last year. Opponents of the law claim that it was invented by Putin to counter his opponents.
Another Ukraine-related letter bomb in Spain
00:30 | A letter bomb was also delivered to an arms manufacturer in Spain on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, an employee of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was slightly injured when an envelope addressed to the ambassador exploded when it was opened.
The Spanish police are investigating if and how the two cases are connected. The Zaragoza-based arms company is the manufacturer of the C90 missile launchers that Spain supplies to Ukraine. A local government spokesman told Spanish radio that the two envelopes appeared to come from the same sender, as the same email address was written on both documents.
The producer sounded the alarm when a letter from Ukraine was also delivered to Zaragoza after the incident at the Madrid embassy. When 911 was called, they found that a wire had been attached to the envelope, which would have set off an explosive if the mail item was opened. The suspect envelope was detonated in a controlled manner.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuluba called for more security measures at all Ukrainian embassies in response to the embassy explosion.
Wednesday 30 November
German Parliament: The famine in Ukraine in the 1930s is genocide
20:40 | The German parliament officially recognizes the famine in Ukraine, deliberately caused by the Soviet government some 90 years ago, as genocide. The event is also known as the Holodomor.
In 1932 and 1933, up to 4 million people in the then Soviet republic of Ukraine died of starvation. This happened under the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who wanted to control the Ukrainian peasantry with starvation.
The Bundestag voted overwhelmingly in favor of the motion recognizing the famine as genocide. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky thanked lawmakers on Twitter for the “historic decision”.
Before the vote in Berlin, sixteen other countries recognized the famine as genocide, according to the Holodomor Museum in Kiev. The Netherlands does not recognize the Holodomor as genocide.
The Holodomor was commemorated in Ukraine on Saturday. President Zelensky then drew a parallel between the famine of the 1930s and the current Russian aggression in the country.
Oslo and Berlin want NATO’s role in protecting pipelines
18:05 | Norway and Germany will ask NATO to take on a coordinating role in monitoring and protecting undersea infrastructure such as gas pipelines and telecommunications cables. This was announced by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after a meeting in Berlin.
The request to the military alliance was prompted by the explosions at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea at the end of September. They were caused by sabotage, but who is behind it has not yet been determined. The pipelines go from Russia to Germany, but no gas flows through them.
Germany has deployed ships after gas was released in explosions. Norway had its navy and air force patrolling offshore facilities and oil fields after explosions. Soldiers guard gas terminals and oil refineries. Both countries now want NATO to set up a coordination centre. “No one should think that attacks on Europe’s critical infrastructure should go unanswered,” Scholz said.
Nord Stream is largely owned by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom. That company was no longer supplying gas via Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 was never used, but there was gas in both pipelines.
It has been suggested in Western countries that Russia sabotaged gas pipelines to exacerbate Europe’s energy crisis. According to Moscow, the British navy was behind the September 26 terrorist attack. The British Ministry of Defense believes that Russia is spreading these kinds of “made up stories” to divert attention from the “disastrous” course of the war in Ukraine.