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President Erdogan calls the belligerents again

11:17 am | Turkish President Erdogan said he would call his counterparts in Kiev and Moscow again on Sunday. He will speak, among other things, of the ‘grain pact’ with which exports of Ukrainian agricultural products through the Black Sea and the Bosphorus are kept out of the war.

According to Turkish media, Erdogan also wants to talk about Syria with Putin. High-level talks are already underway between Russia and Turkey. To this end, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal and his Russian counterpart Sergei Verashinin are in talks in Istanbul. The grain deal also guarantees free passage of Russian agricultural products across the sea, but those exports are struggling much to the Kremlin’s chagrin with insurance and financing problems due to international sanctions.

Verashinin also visits the grain deal coordination center in Istanbul. Here delegations from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations regulate the free passage of merchant ships to and from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.

A Turkish-Russian sore point is still Syria, where the two countries have supported different alignments. To Erdogan’s chagrin, Russia saved the more than fifty-year-old dictatorship of the Assad family with military intervention during the civil war. Syrian-Kurdish militias in northern Syria are also causing friction. There are Russian troops in northern Syria while Erdogan wants to intervene militarily against the Kurdish militias.

The Turkish president has been trying to mediate since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February. He has good relations with both countries and has not imposed any sanctions on Russia. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have already started, including ministerial-level consultations in Turkey.

Russian media praise Putin for prisoner exchange

10:15 am | The Russian media praise the prisoner exchange in which the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (55), sentenced to 25 years, was exchanged for the American basketball player Brittney Griner (32), who received 9 years this year prison in Russia for possession of a gram of hemp oil. She was arrested at the Moscow airport in February.

Media describe the deal as “won” by Putin’s negotiators. In 2012, four years after his arrest, the “dealer of death,” as Bout has been called, received a minimum 25-year sentence in the United States for conspiracy to kill Americans, illegal trade in anti-aircraft missiles, and support for a terrorist organization. The 2005 film Lord of War was inspired by the arms dealer’s life.

A Russian MP proudly spoke on TV about the “capitulation of America”. These sounds are also reflected in the American media. It’s a bad deal according to the New York Post, among others, because it shows how weak the United States is internationally. It also failed to get the American Paul Whelan released from Russia in exchange for the man who was once the most wanted criminal in the US after Osama bin Laden.

Putin arrested the sports star and convicted him in a mock trial to secure Bout’s release and won, according to the paper. Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump previously rejected a Russian offer to swap Whelan for Bout, according to US media. Trump claimed on social media that the Bout-Griner trade “stupidly and unpatrioticly embarrasses the United States.”

Red Cross: more host families are needed to take care of Ukrainians

08:19 | More host families are urgently needed to welcome refugees from Ukraine. At least 1,500 families would be needed in the Randstad alone, reports the Red Cross on behalf of RefugeeHomeNL.

This organization organizes the reception of Ukrainians with host families on behalf of the government and is a collaboration between the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Dutch Refugee Council and Takecarebnb.

Heleen van den Berg of the Red Cross explains the call for more host families in a message from the Red Cross. ‘People are also staying in crowded communal shelters and private homes, without the intervention of a relief organisation. It’s touching that they are so hospitable. But we notice that lately there has been an increased request for support from RefugeeHomeNL. Because not everyone can afford to continue like this.’ According to her, around 1200 people are now being treated in the Randstad region.

For them it is preferable to find a new place in the same region, according to the organization. These people “carefully started a new life there, go to school, made friends or have jobs there.” It’s best for everyone not to disrupt these positive developments by moving them to the other side of the country,’ says Takecarebnb director Robert Zaal.

RefugeeHomeNL also expects more Ukrainians to travel to the Netherlands now that winter is approaching.

Died in a huge fire in the Moscow shopping center

07:58 | A huge fire raged Friday morning in a shopping center outside the Russian capital Moscow. According to Russian media, one person died. It could be a burning fire.

According to the authorities, the fire is raging in the Khimki shopping center, a suburb north of Moscow. Emergency services report that the fire broke out in the night between Thursday and Friday and now covers an area of ​​about 7,000 square meters. The huge flames could spread quickly because the roof collapsed. Firefighters were deployed en masse to put out the blaze.

Russian state media suggest that it was an intentional arson, but in other media it is believed more likely that the fire started because fire safety in the mall was not in order.

Russian rocket launchers at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant

07:32 | Russian forces have installed multiple rocket launchers at the now-defunct nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia, the Ukrainian government said. There are fears that the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is being used by the Russians to fire on Ukrainian territory. This writes The Guardian

According to the Ukrainian state-owned company Energoatom, which owns the nuclear plant, the Russians have placed several Grad missile systems in one of the six nuclear reactors. The attack systems were built secretly by the Russians and violate “all nuclear safety regulations”. The Guardian was unable to verify the claims.

While the chance of a nuclear disaster is much less now that the nuclear power plant has been shut down, experts point out that dangerous radiation emissions are still possible.

Three times as many host families for Ukrainians needed in Randstad

05:48 | There is a threat of shortage of host families for Ukrainian refugees in the Randstad conurbation. The number of host families is rapidly to at least triple, while the organizations note that enthusiasm among the Dutch is waning significantly.

The government is also counting on the deployment of host families next year. Long-term talks are still ongoing. This is evident from the investigations of NU.nl at the Ministry of Justice and Security and the organization RefugeeHomeNL.

More than 2,500 refugees are currently connected to Dutch families via RefugeeHomeNL. More than 1,200 of them stay with around 600 host families in the Randstad. The organization wants to increase that number from 1,500 host families to 2,100 as soon as possible.

The search for host families in the Randstad does not come out of nowhere. Since the beginning of the war, this has been the region where most of the Ukrainian refugees have turned up. RefugeeHomeNL also takes into account the fact that soon more Ukrainian refugees will arrive in the Netherlands.

Bloomberg: Sanctions on Russia have not hurt the EU economy

22:22 | The sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union have done little damage to the European economy. Only a few sectors have been affected by the sanctions, according to a European Commission report, insiders tell financial news agency Bloomberg. The supply of wood and precious metals in particular suffered from the sanctions. The importation of noble gases such as neon and xenon has also plummeted.

While other sectors have also suffered from supply problems, these were not caused by the sanctions against Russia. Existing problems in supply chains, such as those related to chips, persisted. The Chinese corona lockdowns have also impacted various sectors.

The analysis was carried out at the request of EU Member States. Hungary, for example, blames its economic woes on sanctions, but the commission’s report says the criticisms are exaggerated.

The EU has now announced nine rounds of sanctions but has sought to spare some oil sales from Russia and food imports from the country. Only this week, a first oil embargo went into effect, which focuses only on tankered crude.