Closing summary
The European Council outlined plans to seize the profits from frozen Russian assets and direct billions of euros to support Ukraine. In a set of formal public conclusions following the culmination of the EU leaders summit, it said:
Decisive progress is needed, in coordination with partners, on how any extraordinary revenues held by private entities stemming directly from Russia’s immobilised assets could be directed to support Ukraine and its recovery and reconstruction, consistent with applicable contractual obligations, and in accordance with EU and international law.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán’s recent meeting and handshake with Vladimir Putin. In the situation we are in with Russia, we should not use these bilateral contacts to negotiate things about ourselves that would weaken our unity [on Ukraine],” Macron said after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
Russia’s top investigative body has said it had opened a criminal inquiry into the attempted murder of former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Russian figure who was reported to have been lined up by Moscow to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv after Russia‘s invasion. He is in intensive care after being shot, a Russian official said.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claimed that Russian forces have lost at least a brigade’s worth of troops attempting to advance on Ukraine’s eastern town of Avdiivka. Russia began a renewed push to encircle the embattled town in mid-October, trying to overwhelm Ukrainian positions with constant barrages of artillery and waves of troops and fighting vehicles, according to reports.
The wives and family of enlisted Ukrainian soldiers have gathered at Independence Square in Kyiv to call for the right to voluntarily demobilise after 18 months. “Our servicemen are strong, but they are not robots,” protesters shouted during the rally.
Russian forces heavily shelled the centre of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson today, injuring a number of people and damaging at least 10 buildings, a senior local official and emergency workers said.
The new Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, has told other EU leaders that €50 billion in EU aid to Ukraine should include guarantees that the funds would not be misappropriated, his office said. “Ukraine is among the most corrupt countries in the world,” he claimed.
Russian forces heavily shelled the centre of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson today, injuring a number of people and damaging at least 10 buildings, a senior local official and emergency workers said.
Pictures posted on social media showed at least three sites dotted with piles of rubble after residents were told to enter shelters.
Roman Mrochko, head of the city’s military administration, said several people had been injured and one was being treated in hospital. He said at least 10 buildings suffered damage.
“In the evening the entire city trembled,” Ukraine’s emergency services said on Telegram. “The enemy targeted the very centre of Kherson.”
The post said emergency workers had rescued two women, in their 70s and 80s, who had been blocked in a building, and brought a fire under control in a rubble-strewn area.
Russian forces captured Kherson in the early days of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but abandoned the city and the western bank of the Dnipro River late last year. They now regularly shell those areas from positions on the eastern bank.
