President Vladimir Putin on Thursday doubled down on Russia’s assaults on vital civilian infrastructure in Ukraine forward of the winter season. Putin admitted to focusing on Ukraine’s power grid and accused Kyiv of frightening the strikes, asking, “Who started it?”
His feedback got here as WNBA star Brittney Griner was set to land within the United States after she was freed in a prisoner change with infamous Russian arms seller Viktor Bout. Griner, who spent 10 months in Russian custody, is predicted to be reunited together with her household at a medical facility in San Antonio.
Here’s the most recent on the conflict and its ripple results throughout the globe.
4. From our correspondents
War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating area for democratic change: Over two days in October, eight Russian cruise missiles screamed out of the sky and obliterated tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ price of vital equipment at a hulking coal-fired energy plant within the metropolis of Burshtyn. The assaults have been designed to depart Ukraine chilly and darkish this winter. But additionally they deepened a monetary disaster for the plant’s proprietor, Rinat Akhmetov, the nation’s richest man.
The conflict has diminished the facility of a bunch of fewer than 20 rich Ukrainians who held outsize affect within the nation and have been accused of corruption, The Washington Post’s Kevin Sullivan, David L. Stern and Kostiantyn Khudov report. Experts are optimistic it might portend a extra democratic postwar society for Ukraine.
