Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 291

A local resident walks past a board encouraging to join a Russian army battalion in Melitopol, Russian-controlled Ukraine [File: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]

Here is the situation as it stands on Sunday, December 11:

Fighting

• Ukraine attacked Russian-occupied Melitopol, a strategically located city in the country’s southeast. The Russian-installed administration said a missile attack killed two people and injured 10, while the exiled mayor said many “invaders” were killed.
• All non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people without electricity, officials said.
• Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for Odesa’s regional administration, has denied that any officials had called for evacuation. He said a Facebook post to that effect, which has since been deleted, was being investigated by Ukraine’s security services as “an element of the hybrid war” by Russia.

A Russian army helicopter flies above as volunteers of a newly formed battalion take part in training at a range outside the city of Melitopol, Russian-controlled Ukraine [File: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]

Diplomacy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to conquer parts of Ukraine and shows no restraint in his brutality, but it is still important to keep contacts open in case a moment arrives to end the war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
• US officials barred Russian diplomats from visiting the graves of Soviet servicemen at a cemetery on a military base in Alaska, Russian state agency TASS reported.
• Russia wants to turn Ukraine into a “dependent dictatorship” like Belarus, the wife of jailed Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski said upon receiving the prize on his behalf, speaking his words.
• Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, freed in a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner, said he wished her good luck on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi where they were exchanged on Thursday.

Economy, grain

• Traders have no plans to suspend grain shipments from Ukraine’s Odesa Black Sea ports due to the latest Russian attack on the region’s energy system, Agriculture Minister Mykola Solky said.
• A dozen countries, including Belgium, Italy, Poland and Slovenia, have made a push to “significantly” lower a planned European Union cap on gas prices, as the bloc struggles to strike a deal on the measure.
• The Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s Kherson region says it has begun changing locally circulated Ukrainian hryvnia currency into Russian roubles, with hryvnia circulation in Moscow-controlled areas of the region to end on January 1.