Ukraine Update…281 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• The pledges are contributions “that can be mobilized immediately, between now and the winter months,”French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said in a news conference. The participating countries, which are mostly Western, also included a number of Asian nations, which French President Emmanuel Macron said was “tangible proof that Ukraine is not alone.” Countries pledged at least $67 million for food and water in Ukraine, $18 million for the country’s health sector and $23 million for its transportation networks.
• In an interview, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk called the Paris conference “a success,”highlighting the presence of countries such as India and Indonesia. “The hope would be that countries, many countries across the world, not just in Europe, really step up and help the Ukrainian people,” Turk said. “And I think we made some progress on that front at this meeting.”
• A U.S. shipment of power equipment was on its way to Ukraine on Tuesday, with a handover expected in Poland, as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to help rebuild Ukraine’s battered electrical grid. Two additional planes with equipment will depart from the United States this week. The aim, Turk said, was to get “a first tranche over there as quickly as we possibly can to show the partnership, to show the resolve — not only from the Department of Energy and the U.S. government but from U.S. industry and all of society.”
• More than $440 million of the total aid pledged is expected to be directed to Ukraine’s energy network. French officials said the final amount probably would rise. In a video Tuesday address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the international community to make maintaining the country’s energy supply a priority, calling for at least $850 million in aid for the sector.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged practical support at the conference. The bloc of 27 nations is “working to increase the amount of electricity we can trade between Ukraine and Moldova, and the rest of Europe,” she said, adding that “we need to keep the Ukrainian grid functioning, despite the Russian bombs.”

• The plan to send the Patriot missile system to Ukraine, not yet approved by President Biden or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, would represent the administration’s most significant step so far to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses. The system could be sent soon, two senior U.S. officials told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive internal deliberations.
• According to new polling data, Russians narrowly support negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but they also overwhelmingly reject the return of annexed regionssuch as Crimea or Donbas. The findings, from a joint surveyconducted in November by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Moscow-based Levada Center, were released Tuesday and suggest that even if Russians are tired of the war, peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow could face significant constraints.
• In a statement Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency committed to maintaining a continuous presence at nuclear power plants controlled by Ukraine, including the defunct Chernobyl site, and to work to establish a presence at and safe zone around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest. “While we are not yet there and more work is required, I’m increasingly optimistic that such a zone — which is of paramount importance — will be agreed and implemented in the near future,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement. “I will continue my high-level consultations in the coming days — both with Ukraine and Russia — with the clear aim to get this done as soon as possible. We can’t afford to lose more time.”

• Overnight shelling hit buildings in the central-eastern Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, according to the head of the local administration. Writing on Telegram early Tuesday, Valentin Reznichenko said no casualties were reported but added that dozens of homes were damaged in the city of Nikopol, while power lines were hit in another part of the region.
• The head of the self-proclaimed pro-Moscow Donetsk People’s Republic has spoken of the difficulties his forces face on the front line. In comments that Russian news agency RIA Novosti published Tuesday, Denis Pushilin acknowledged that the situation was “difficult” and said progress was slower than he had hoped. Donetsk was one of four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia after staged referendums in September.
• Russian forces appear to have used cluster munitions against civilian areas of Kherson at least three times since they retreated from the southern Ukrainian city in early November, leading to civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Tuesday. “Residents of Kherson survived eight months of Russian occupation, and are finally free from fear of torture, only to be subjected to new indiscriminate attacks, apparently including cluster munitions,” the organization’s associate crisis and conflict director, Belkis Wille, said….

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