A summary of today's developments
The British Ministry of Defence, in its latest intelligence estimate, pointed to signs from an independent Russian media outlet that public support in Russia for the military campaign was “falling significantly”.
The US expects “reduced tempo” in fighting to continue over the winter months, the top US intelligence chief Avril Haines has said.
Haines, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, also alluded to past allegations by some that advisers to the Russian president Vladimir Putin could be shielding him from bad news – for Russia – about war developments, and said he “is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia”.
Russia will not sell oil that is subject to a western price-cap even if it has to cut production, Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on Sunday. The G7 and Australia agreed to the price-cap on Friday.
OPEC+ has agreed to stick to its oil output targets at a meeting on Sunday. OPEC+, which comprises the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, angered the US and other western nations in October when it agreed to cut output by 2m barrels a day (bpd), about 2% of world demand, from November until the end of 2023.
A draft resolution is circulating at the United Nations in New York for a Nuremberg-style tribunal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for crimes of aggression in Ukraine.
More than 500 Ukrainian localities remained without power on Sunday following weeks of Russian airstrikes on the electric grid, an interior ministry official said.
Ukraine is imposing sanctions on 10 senior clerics linked to a pro-Moscow church on the grounds they agreed to work with Russian occupation authorities or justified Moscow’s invasion, the security service said.
A top Ukrainian presidential aide criticised Twitter owner, Elon Musk, for the billionaire’s “magical simple solutions,” citing ideas put forward by the billionaire on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Twitter content moderation. Mykhailo Podolyak listed “exchang(ing) foreign territories for an illusory peace” and “open(ing) all private accounts because freedom of speech has to be total”, as examples of such suggestions.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has just tweeted about the issue of misinformation being spread during the conflict.
Last spring, russian propaganda about genetically-modified Ukrainian pigeons. Now, conspiracy theories about “cloned” Ukrainian soldiers. Next will be “super soldiers”genetically modified in secret biolabs.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 4, 2022
Captain Ukraine? Nope. Every soldier of 🇺🇦 Armed Forces is a superhero.
