KYIV — The leaders of Baltic allies Lithuanian and Latvia visited Kyiv on November 24, expressing continued assist for the battle in opposition to the Russian invasion, whereas Ukraine struggled with disruptions to its electrical energy provide brought on by Russian strikes and dangerous climate.
”At my first cease in Kyiv right now, I paid respects to women and men who sacrificed their lives defending probably the most elementary rights of a nation: to exist and to dwell in freedom,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte wrote on X, previously Twitter, along with a photograph of herself laying a wreath at a memorial devoted to the Ukrainians fallen defending their nation in opposition to Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful invasion.
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”They gave their lives to additionally defend all of us,” Simonyte wrote. ”The one technique to obtain lasting and simply peace is by serving to Ukraine win as quickly as doable, regain its full territorial integrity, serve worldwide justice, and rebuild stronger.”
Lithuanian media on November 23 reported that Simonyte will spend 4 days in Ukraine, with out elaborating on her schedule.
Individually, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated he met with Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics, with talks specializing in Kyiv’s defensive wants and the potential for Ukraine becoming a member of Latvia as a member of the EU.
In a joint information convention with Rinkevics, the Ukrainian president stated Kyiv wanted ”three main victories” that ”will stimulate it to combat the Russian Federation.”
Zelenskiy stated the ”first victory” would be the choice of the U.S. Congress to supply help to Ukraine. The second would be the assist of the European Union. Particularly, he stated, Ukraine ought to obtain an assist package deal value 50 billion euros ($55 billion).
The ”third victory” is the opening of a dialogue on Ukraine’s future membership within the EU, Zelenskiy stated.
In the meantime, Russian shelling and drone strikes on civilian and vitality infrastructure continued on November 24, regional authorities and the navy stated.
Russia used three Iranian-made drones and two Kh-59 guided missiles within the assault, Ukraine’s air protection stated, including that every one drones had been shot down.
It didn’t give particulars in regards to the areas that the assaults focused.
Within the western area of Khmelnitskiy, the deputy regional governor, Serhiy Tyuryn, stated air defenses opened hearth in opposition to incoming drones.
Tyuryn stated there have been no speedy studies of casualties or harm.
In the meantime, in southern Ukraine, Russian shelling on the morning of November 24 destroyed a kids’s library in Kherson metropolis, however there have been no casualties, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin stated on Telegram.
”Kids’s library. Six within the morning. A direct hit by a projectile. The barbarians destroyed the Kherson library, which for years delighted the youngest guests and their mother and father,” Prokudin wrote.
In Beryslav, in the identical area, a civilian was wounded when a Russian drone dropped explosives on him, native authorities stated.
Russian forces have repeatedly focused Kherson from throughout the Dnieper River since they withdrew from town one 12 months in the past within the face of the Ukrainian advances.
WATCH: RFE/RL traveled with a Ukrainian demining crew as they tried to clear roads in territory retaken from Russian forces close to Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk area.
Ukraine’s Vitality Ministry, in the meantime, stated that Russian assaults and more and more dangerous climate had left 635 settlements with out electrical energy throughout Ukraine.
Sturdy winds left 158 settlements with out electrical energy within the Lviv, Volyn, and Ivano-Frankivsk areas. Within the southern Dnipropetrovsk area, nearly 46,000 folks had been briefly left with out energy attributable to technical causes, the Ministry stated.
The state-owned Ukrenerho energy grid operator stated in a press release that it had ”activated emergency help from neighboring Romania with a complete quantity of 1,200 megawatts per hour” to make up for the shortages.
In Russia, the Protection Ministry stated on November 24 that its air defenses in a single day shot down 16 Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea and the Volgograd area.
”Air-defense programs on responsibility destroyed 16 UAVs, 13 of which over the Crimean Peninsula and three over the territory of the Volgograd area,” the ministry stated on its Telegram channel, with out offering particulars.
The declare couldn’t be independently verified. Ukraine has not commented.