Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in 8 regions of Ukraine

The Russian army attacked civilian infrastructure in eight regions of Ukraine last night, according to the Ukrainian military command. Moscow may be heading for a siege of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and several other regions were subjected to Russian attacks.

The city of Nikopol was shelled with Grad rockets and heavy artillery, damaging 20 residential buildings, the power grid and gas pipelines.

Two areas of Kyiv and the southern city of Kherson were left without electricity last night.

The situation in Donetsk region remains tense. The regional governor reported a civilian casualty in Soledar and four more wounded throughout the region.

According to British military intelligence, Russia is preparing to lay siege to the city of Bakhmut, which could give it a strategic advantage in an offensive against Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Ukraine's UNIAN news agency released television footage of an apocalyptic scene from Bakhmut after six months of continuous fighting.

The intense artillery fire does not stop near Svatovo, Luhansk region.

On the Russian side, it was reported that Ukrainian forces shelled Donetsk this morning. Two civilians were injured in a Ukrainian attack on a village in the Luhansk region.

Restoration work continues in Kherson region, improving access to lighting, heating, healthcare and social services. The evacuation of Ukrainians from settlements on the left bank of the Dnieper, who have not yet managed to return to Kherson, was announced.

Britain's #1 diplomat warned to be careful with "peaceful" talks with Putin

Peace talks with Russian troops in Ukraine could be used by Vladimir Putin to reequip his army before launching another attack, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has warned.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Cleverly said there was a risk the ceasefire could be used by Putin to train additional troops, produce more ammunition and rearm combat units.

James Cleverly’s warning comes after US President Joe Biden said he was willing to talk to Vladimir Putin as long as he was honest about ending the war.

French President Emmanuel Macron has also expressed willingness to speak with the Russian leader in an effort to prevent further escalation of the conflict and achieve concrete results such as ensuring the security of nuclear power plants.

However, the British foreign minister, who was in a meeting with his NATO colleagues in Bucharest, expressed serious doubts about Putin's display of "good will".

Placing the word "peaceful" in quotes for the talks, Cleverly warns that the world should be very wary of such initiatives by Putin.

If the Russians use the ceasefire only to rearm, the consequences will be even more brutal, added Cleverly.

He also notes that Vladimir Putin has an elaborate formula of actions, because it was assumed that the aggression against Georgia, Crimea and Eastern Ukraine would be single acts, but in practice it becomes a norm of behavior.

EU countries set a price of $60 per barrel of Russian oil

The G7 and Australia reached an agreement on a ceiling on the price of Russian oil transported by sea. The measure will come into effect on December 5. The European Union has already unanimously set an upper limit of 60 dollars per barrel. Offers ranged between $30 and $70 per barrel.

The key move aims to reorganize the global oil market. The agreed price will be reviewed every two months based on the situation in the energy sector. In response, Russia has already announced that it will not sell oil to countries that have imposed a price ceiling.

Kyiv: Russia's economy will be destroyed by the oil price ceiling

Russia's economy will be destroyed after the upcoming introduction of a ceiling on Russian oil prices of $60 per barrel, which was agreed upon by the EU countries, the G7 and Australia, the Ukrainian presidency said, quoted by AFP.

"We will achieve our goal and Russia's economy will be destroyed, the Kremlin will pay and bear responsibility for all crimes," the head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, wrote in Telegram.

"Nevertheless, (the ceiling) should have been lowered to $30 in order to destroy it faster," he added, quoted by BTA.

Russia will face a $60-a-barrel price cap on its oil on Monday after the European Union, the G7 and Australia agreed to limit Moscow's revenue used to finance the war in Ukraine.

The consensus on a maximum price of US$60 per barrel for Russian crude oil transported by sea was reached yesterday.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen welcomed the announcement, which she said "is the culmination of months of effort by our coalition."

Germany distanced itself from Russia's lies and barbarism not only because of the Holodomor

"Tragedy", "great famine", "artificial famine" or "genocide": when it comes to the starvation of millions of Ukrainians 90 years ago, the choice of words is not scientifically or politically justified, it is a matter of worldview. When they talk about "famine" or "tragedy" in Moscow, they reduce the significance of these events to an annoying consequence of unsuccessful collectivization. This is not just a euphemism, but a criminal lie, which the Kremlin persistently defends internationally.

Moscow succeeded for the last time in pushing the word "tragedy" into UN documents from 2003 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the famine. Since then, Kyiv has made serious efforts to ensure that the memory of the millions of victims in the minds of the international community is not defiled by lies. Because these people didn't die of drought or political mistakes - they were killed just because they were freedom-loving Ukrainian peasants whom the Kremlin feared.

Hunger as a tyrant's weapon

By starving millions of Ukrainians, the dictator Stalin hoped to achieve two goals at the same time - to destroy the Ukrainian identity, whose support in the "granary of Europe" was the farmers, and to make the currency needed for industrialization work. While Ukrainians were dying of hunger in the villages, factories were being built in the cities with the money earned from grain exports. To them they bring the future proletarians from the entire Soviet empire - the new "Soviet people" without a national identity.

The lawyer Raphael Lemkin called this crime "genocide" already 70 years ago - he is the author of the term "genocide", which subsequently entered international criminal law. Lemkin calls the Holodomor a genocide mainly because the mass killing of Ukrainian peasants was only the culmination of the policy of destroying the Ukrainian identity. It was preceded by mass shootings of the Ukrainian intelligentsia - of writers, scientists, teachers.

It's time to call a spade a spade

However, politicians in Berlin refused to use the word "genocide" for years. In 2018, Germany joined the declaration within the framework of the United Nations, which talks about "artificial hunger". The explanation is formal: that there were no grounds for genocide to be designated as a crime committed before the establishment of this crime in international law in 1951. The current historic Bundestag resolution only underscores that this was a cheap excuse in the context of the decade-long mantra of German policy - to be friends with Ukraine so as not to irritate Russia.

Berlin comes to its senses only on February 24, 2022, when a large-scale offensive war shakes Europe for the first time since Hitler. Apparently, it was necessary for the German television channels to tell about the atrocities of the Russian military in Ukraine for months, as well as - that "someone" blew up the gas pipeline with the Russian gas, in order to turn the "artificial famine" into genocide. In this case, it is better to say late than never, recalling that Estonia, for example, recognized Holodomor as a genocide as early as 1993, immediately after its liberation from the Moscow yoke.

The Germans, like no other nation in Europe, know from the dark pages of their own history how important it is not to forget the victims of mass murder, while also naming their killers. The decision of the Bundestag makes the Holodomor a part of the common European memory for the victims of totalitarian regimes, which is one of the foundations of common European values. This is an important sign of solidarity and respect towards the Ukrainian people, who today are once again experiencing the terror of Moscow. Today, the Kremlin is killing Ukrainians with rockets, endangering their survival, depriving them of light and warmth for the same reasons it starved them 90 years ago.

A signal for Putin

The recognition of the Holodomor as a genocide is also an important signal for Vladimir Putin. There will come a time when historians, politicians and perhaps even judges will assess his criminal actions accordingly. In its resolution, the Bundestag calls on the German government to counter Russia's false historical narratives, as well as to continue supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression.

In the resolution adopted by the Bundestag, the parallels between the Holodomor, the Russian lie about it and Russia's modern crimes are no less important than the word "genocide". Condemning the 90-year-old crimes is also a reminder that Stalin and Putin have one main thing in common - for both of them, human life is of no value. Recognizing the inhumanity of the crimes of Stalin and his associates against the Ukrainian people, German politicians mostly distanced themselves from the barbarism inherent in today's Russian government.

Spreading the truth about the Holodomor is the right response to those who, amid inflation and higher gas prices due to the war, want Kyiv to negotiate peace with Moscow as soon as possible. It's as if the Kremlin is really concerned with geopolitics or the specter of Ukraine's membership in NATO, rather than trying to destroy the Ukrainian nation or at least contain it.

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