World Briefing: November 17, 2024
This morning’s massive Russian attack on Ukraine was one of biggest to date with close to 120 rockets and 90 drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Air defense systems destroyed about 140 targets. A DTEK thermal power plant was badly damage as widespread emergency blackouts occur nationwide. Rockets struck as far west as Rivne, closer to Poland. In response, the operational command of Nato-member Poland’s armed forces posted that Polish and allied jets had been scrambled “due to the massive attack by the Russian Federation using cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles on objects located, among others, in western Ukraine”. Odesa contacts say there’s no power and, in some cases, no water. Damage to residential infrastructure in Kyiv, and deaths and injured were reported in Mykolaiv. With night time temperatures set to drop to near freezing tonight in some oblasts, the impact will be felt much more. The last major attack on power infrastructure was in late August. Ukraine is currently running on somewhere between a third and a half of its pre-2022 energy generating capacity, BBC reported.
Military cooperation between Russia and North Korea amid Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is feared to have a serious impact on security conditions in East Asia, including Japan. There is a possibility that North Korea will learn techniques of modern-day warfare and Russia could provide technologies related to nuclear weapons and missiles to the country. The North Korean troops who have entered Russia are believed to be elite soldiers of special operation units. It is assumed that they will engage in urban warfare in Seoul or other large cities should a military contingency occur in the Koran Peninsula. According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the North Korean troops are now learning how to control unmanned aircraft in Russia, among other things. South Korea and North Korea are only in a truce. Thus, South Korea is wary that the North’s troop deployment to Russia may help strengthen North Korea’s military capabilities - The Japan News
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday agreed that any decision to use nuclear weapons should be controlled by humans, not by artificial intelligence. It's the first time that China has made this statement, and it comes at a time when Biden is getting ready to leave office. But Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the agreement was an important first step for the two nuclear powers to address a long-term strategic risk. Biden's goal in the meeting — his last with Xi before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January — was to emphasize the importance of stability in the relationship during the transition of power, and to try to cement gains he had made with Xi on issues like counternarcotics and climate. Biden expressed concerns over China's support for Russia's defense industrial base, and urged Xi to use his influence over North Korea to stop that country from sending more troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine - NPR
Russia told Austria it will suspend gas deliveries via Ukraine on Saturday, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow's last gas flows to Europe. Russia's oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it will not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom (GAZP.MM), opens new tab in order to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow's suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia will now only supply significant gas volumes to Hungary and Slovakia, in Hungary's case via a pipeline running mostly through Turkey. In contrast, Russia met 40% of the European Union's gas needs before Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Gazprom's notice of ending supplies was long expected and Austria has made preparations. "No home will go cold ... gas-storage facilities are sufficiently full," he told reporters - Reuters
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight killed 12 people, Palestinian medical officials said Sunday. Israeli police meanwhile arrested three suspects after flares were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea. In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut after the military warned people to evacuate from at least seven buildings. The Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence in the area, known as the Dahiyeh, and the strikes came as Lebanese officials are considering a United States-brokered cease-fire proposal.
Georgia's Central Election Commission (CEC) on November 16 validated the results of last month's disputed elections, despite weeks of protests by the opposition and accusations of widespread fraud and Russian interference. The Moscow-friendly ruling Georgian Dream party won 53.93 percent of the vote against 37.79 percent garnered by an opposition alliance, the CEC announced during an unruly session that was briefly interrupted after opposition representative Davit Kirtadze splashed a black liquid on CEC chief Giorgi Kalandarishvili and called him a "dark spot." “Unfortunately, the CEC, under your leadership, your direct involvement, and your unfair decisions, instead of leading the country toward Europe, is moving it towards Russia," Kirtadze told Kalandarishvili after throwing the black liquid on him. Kirtasze’s protest was intended to refer to the ink from voters' pens that was visible through the thin paper on the other side of some ballots. The opposition says this compromised secrecy in the disputed voting on October 26 - RFE/RL
