'No diplomatic solution' to war in Ukraine, says Memorial official

Europe 1 with AfP 8:13 p.m., December 4, 2022, modified at 8:14 p.m., December 4, 2022

THE ESSENTIAL

There is currently "no diplomatic solution" to the war in Ukraine, said Sunday Irina Chtcherbakova, who co-founded the Russian human rights NGO Memorial, dissolved by the authorities and winner of the prize. Nobel Peace Prize 2022. "I am absolutely convinced that there is no diplomatic solution with the Putin regime, as long as it is still there", declared in Hamburg Irina Chtcherbakova, who left Russia after invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces and currently resides in Germany.

"The solution that presents itself now is a military solution", even if later, diplomacy can play a role in resolving the conflict, estimated Ms. Chtcherbakova, who received the Marion Doenhoff prize in Hamburg for her years of activism in Russia. in the service of the cause of human rights.

"But these decisions, this diplomacy can only take place when Ukraine feels that it has won the war and can put an end to it," she said.

According to the Russian activist, premature calls for peace are "childish".

"Nothing will ever be the same again," she said.

More than 500 localities still without electricity in Ukraine

More than 500 Ukrainian localities were still without electricity on Sunday, following Russian strikes in recent weeks which have largely damaged the national electricity grid, said a representative of the Ministry of the Interior.

"The enemy continues to attack the critical infrastructure of the country. Currently, 507 localities in eight regions of our country are cut off from the power supply," Yevgeniy Yenin, first deputy interior minister, told Ukrainian television. .

In detail, "the Kharkiv region is the most affected, where 112 villages are isolated; in the Donetsk and Kherson regions: more than 90; the Mykolaiv region: 82; the Zaporizhia region: 76; the Lugansk: 43," he said.

On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities again urged civilians to hold on despite deteriorating living conditions.

“We have to hold on,” the governor of the Mykolaiv region (South), Vitaliï Kim, had launched on television, while, several times a day, power cuts plunged millions of Ukrainians into darkness, not to mention the cold that settles in the hearths, the temperatures being negative for several days.

Capping the price of Russian oil: insufficient for kyiv, rejected by Moscow

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deemed insufficient on Saturday the cap on the price of a barrel of Russian oil at 60 dollars, decided the day before by the countries of the EU, the G7 and Australia, considering that it was not a question of a "serious decision", kyiv suggesting a price twice as low.

Russia for its part affirmed that it "would not accept" this ceiling which must be put in place in the coming days to limit the financial means of Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.

The price of a barrel of Russian oil (crude from the Urals) is currently fluctuating around 65 dollars, barely above the European ceiling, thus implying a limited impact in the short term.

In the morning, kyiv was however satisfied with such a binding mechanism, wanting to believe sooner or later in the "destruction" of the Russian economy under the weight of international sanctions.

“It would have been necessary to lower (the ceiling price) to 30 dollars to destroy (the Russian economy) even more quickly”, had however specified the chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriï Yermak.

But in the evening, President Zelensky adopted a much more critical position towards Westerners.