November 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined global leaders in marking the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine in Ukraine.

“Hunger must never again be used as a weapon,” Scholz said Saturday, speaking on the memorial day for victims of the Soviet-era famine that killed millions of people during the winter of 1932-33.

In a speech in Berlin, Scholz drew comparisons between the Holodomor, or Terror Famine — which was engineered by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin by removing food stocks from Ukrainian peasants — and Russia’s current actions in Ukraine.

“We know that by targeting agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine and blocking Black Sea ports for months, Russia has exacerbated this situation,” Scholz added. 

Scholz said that Germany would provide another $15.62 million for grain shipments from Ukraine in coordination with the World Food Programme. 

“You can count on our support. Each ship that sails under this initiative doesn't just carry grain. It carries hope for the world's hungry. And it carries an important message. The message that we are united, that we will overcome this war. And that our joint humanity will prevail,” Scholz added.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday that it was “deeply shocked” by news of the death of Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei.

Makei died at the age of 64, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. On its official Facebook account, the ministry said he "suddenly passed away today” without providing more details about the circumstances surrounding his death.

“As head of the Foreign Ministry, he made a great contribution to the further strengthening of Russian-Belarusian relations,” the Russian ministry said.

“He firmly and effectively defended the interests of the Republic of Belarus on international platforms,” the ministry said, adding that “this is a heavy, irreparable loss.”

Makei was scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday, according to Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti.

Some context: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who expressed his condolences to Makei's family and friends on Saturday, is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In October, Belarus announced it would form a joint regional force with Russia and carry out exercises, setting off alarm bells in Kyiv. Makei had accused Ukraine of "impending provocations" against Belarus at that time, which Ukrainian officials vehemently denied.

At the start of the war in late February, Belarusian and Russian forces held joint exercises, with many of those Russian forces going on to cross the Ukrainian border in their ill-fated drive toward the capital.

CNN's Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post.

Twelve Ukrainians have been freed in a prisoner exchange with Russia, according to a Ukrainian official.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on Telegram Saturday that the Ukrainians included nine military personnel and three civilians, one of whom had been considered missing.

“The soldiers who defended, in particular, Mariupol, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Snake Island are going home,” Yermak said.

On the Russian side, the country's defense ministry said Saturday that nine Russian soldiers had been freed.

"As a result of the negotiation process, nine Russian servicemen who were in mortal danger were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime," the ministry said in a statement.

An attack left at least 13 people wounded in Dnipro on Saturday, according to a local official.

Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, described the assault as a “rocket attack" on Telegram.

Four of the injured remain at the hospital, including a 17-year-old boy and a woman who was pulled out from under the rubble and is in serious condition, he said.

He added that seven homes were partially destroyed and that search and rescue operations are underway.

Crews are restoring electricity to the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, where concerns about power supply and ongoing Russian shelling have forced some residents to evacuate.

An official in the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram Saturday that repair work was going "around the clock" to restore electricity.

“First of all, we supply power to the city's critical infrastructure and then immediately to household consumers,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko said, thanking crews for their efforts.

Ukraine's deputy minister for energy, Farid Safarov, added Saturday that more than 30 settlements in the Kherson region “have finally received light.”

Six million consumers across the country were without power as of Friday evening, but that the number “is decreasing thanks to the quick work of our energy workers,” Safarov said.

Earlier today, national power supply company Ukrenergo said that 75% of electricity demand is being met across Ukraine.

Millions of Ukrainians have been suffering power cuts across the country in recent weeks amid intensified Russian shelling. Last week saw some of the most devastating attacks yet on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, leaving millions in the dark.

Russia "will pay" for a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s, as well as for its current war in Ukraine, a top Kyiv official said on Saturday.

Saturday marks the 90th anniversary of the 1932-1933 Holodomor, or Terror Famine. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin engineered the famine by removing food stocks from Ukrainian peasants, leading to the deaths of millions of people.

Other leaders around the world — including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — have marked the anniversary.

Meloni's office released a statement on Saturday, saying: “On the day of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, the starvation of millions of Ukrainians by Stalin's Soviet regime, our thoughts turn to the millions of Ukrainians, mostly elderly and children, deprived of electricity, water and heating in the middle of winter from the Russian bombings that are deliberately attacking civilian infrastructures.”

United States Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink said in a video on Twitter that "Russia continues to weaponize food as it seeks to subjugate the descendants of Ukrainians who survived the forced famine."

National power supply company Ukrenergo said 75% of electricity demand is being met across Ukraine on Saturday.

However, “another 25% of electricity is still in short supply, so today, there is a consumption restriction regime across Ukraine,” the company said in a statement on Telegram.

Millions of Ukrainians have been experiencing power cuts across the country in recent weeks amid intensified Russian shelling. Last week saw some of the most devastating attacks yet on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, leaving millions in the dark.

Fifteen people in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson were killed and 35 were injured, including one child, from Nov. 20 to 25, according to an update from the Kherson Civil Military Administration on Saturday

“The enemy keeps shelling de-occupied territory round the clock,” it said.

The city of Kherson has suffered the highest number of attacks, with hospital patients and patients of the Kherson Regional Institution for Psychiatric Care evacuated.

Authorities in Kherson are urging residents to leave the recently liberated city, much of which remains without power, before temperatures plunge further.   

Russian troops renewed the shelling after Moscow's troops were forced to retreat from the west bank of the Dnipro River.

The areas of Zmiivka, Beryslav, Tokarivka, Mykilske, Antonivka, Chornobaivka, Bilozerka and Veletenske have also been impacted, Kherson authorities said.

Around 130,000 people in the Ukrainian capital remain without electricity supply following emergency shutdowns in the wake of Russian air strikes on Wednesday.

According to an update Saturday morning from the Kyiv City Military Administration, water supply has been restored across all districts with heat supply also being restored.

Cellular connection remains available in nearly all districts, though power outages may limit access, it said.

In an address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than six million customers are still without power in Ukraine, though that is half the number of those initially cut off.

The regions of Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk were facing the biggest problems with 600,000 consumers still without power, he said.