Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti is reporting that President Vladimir Putin will make a decision on whether to attend the next G20 summit in person by the end of the week. It cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will not attend if Putin does. The summit in Bali is due to begin Tuesday 15 November.
Speaking on Sky News earlier today, Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, echoed the Kyiv mayor’s words that it might become necessary to evacuate the city if Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power supplies continue. Prystaiko told viewers:
I hope it won’t come to this, and we’re still trying to renew all electric facilities, generating stations, the transformations, all of it. If it comes to it, we’ll have to move them back to west west of Ukraine, Lviv and all the places closer to the European Union. That’s a huge number of people to be located but Ukrainian winters can become quite harsh. We have to think how we do it.
He said that in terms of power generation there was not a problem, as there are many households who have already been evacuated so are bot using electricity, and the economy is not running at full tilt, however transmission and the damage to power lines was the problem.
Where will it all end? The conflict in Ukraine appears further than ever from resolution. Nuclear threats, mass graves, the sense that both sides are “all in”. With correspondents on the ground on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border, in Kyiv, Moscow, Brussels and other European capitals, the Guardian is well placed to provide the honest, factual reporting that readers will need to understand this perilous moment for Europe, the former Soviet Union and the entire world. Free from commercial or political influence, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power.
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Reuters reports that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media on his daily call today that while Russia remains “open” to talks, it is unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to its refusal to hold talks with Russia.