Day 270 (20 November 2022)
Ukraine has denied accusations that their troops killed Russian prisoners of war. It has been stated that soldiers are given orders to take as many POW as possible in order to exchange them for Ukrainian soldiers that have been detained. They state that the Ukrainians were defending themselves against Russians who pretended to surrender. While the entire footage has not been made public, some Russian soldiers that died appear to have died in different locations than where they were lying down to surrender. That indicates some of them had moved, and may have attacked the Ukrainians once the final Russian open fire on the Ukrainians.
Zaporizhzhia has been under attacks again with the Russians blaming Ukraine and Ukraine blaming Russia. The quite useless IAEA director (Grossi) has said he doesn’t care who attacked the power plant, but implored them to stop. Clearly the presence of the IAEA seems to make zero impact or difference to the Russians as they let Russia get away with allowing their media in during the inspection. Grossi calls on both sides to set up a safe zone again, but does he not understand that Russia has no interest, which is why they have used the plant as a military base and have moved more vehicles and personnel there? The IAEA needs to be realistic and practical rather than making statements that do nothing proactive. Russia is killing all the nuclear and energy power stations in order to freeze the Ukrainians to death.
I watched a clip of Russian state television, and they are promoting the missile attacks as trying to save the people by forcing Ukraine to capitulate. Zelesnkyy is referred to as the guy in a t-shirt, and as a terrorist, and claim that the polls saying he is popular are fake. The argument is that Ukrainians should be on the streets protesting for Zelesnkyy to be removed, yet the only protests we see are Ukrainians wanting the Russians to leave.
It’s scary watching the propaganda, as they believe that Ukraine only exists because of Russia, and they are content to watch people freeze and rot to death (from a member of the Duma), claiming the missile attacks will continue as they are doing their duty for Russia.They are not promoting attacking gas supplies, and encourage the pro-Russians to protest in the streets to oust Zelenskyy.
The New Zealand Defence Minister, Peeni Henare visited Kyiv for the first time and discussed issues with Olesksii Reznikov, his counterpart. This is the first time such a visit has been made as New Zealand has been offering support to Ukraine since the invasion began.
Ukraine is importing 8,500 generators a day to help provide heat and power to the citizens, where customs and duty on the generators are suspended so that more Ukrainians can afford to buy them.
The official Mayor of Mariupol (currently in Zaporizhzhia) is making plans to rebuild the city despite the occupation by the Russians. Vadim Boychenko has stated that the Russians will not leave until the Ukrainian army forces them out, and has been in Poland to sign a deal with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to organise what needs to be rebuilt and how much it will cost through a ‘Damage Loss and Needs Assessment.’ It will be called the Mariupol Revival Plan.
In two months Russian troops inflicted more damage on Mariupol than German troops did in two years of occupation during World War II.
In fact 90% of all city infrastructure has damage of varying severity. 11 out of 15 hospitals have been destroyed, 39 out of 63 schools have been destroyed, 25 out of 79 kindergartens have been wiped out. (Boychenko)
Horrifying to read of the damage to Mariupol and its citizens.