Step to ban Moscow Patriarchate, new missile attacks: last night's highlights

A step to ban the Moscow Patriarchate

The National Security and Defense Council instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill to ban religious organizations affiliated with Russia. The connection of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Moscow Patriarchate will be checked, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

In addition, the legal grounds and conditions for using the property of the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve will be checked. Now part of the territory of the reserve is leased by the UOC (MP).

US wants to move NASAMS from the Middle East to Ukraine

The United States is working with Middle Eastern countries to move several advanced NASAMS air defense systems from the Middle East to Ukraine. The U.S. aims to do this over the next three to six months, Politico writes. NASAMS buyers in the region are Oman and Qatar.

Cap on price for Russian oil

The countries of the European Union have tentatively agreed to set the price threshold for Russian oil at $60 per barrel. It will also be regularly adjusted so that the threshold price is 5% below the market price. The document should be officially approved by all EU governments today, December 2.

New missile attacks

At night, Russian troops struck the city of Zaporizhzhya, which resulted in a fire in the building of an infrastructure facility. The blast wave shattered windows in nearby houses. The relevant services are already working on the ground. Information about the victims and destruction is being clarified.

Russian missiles also hit a high-rise building in the village of Kluhyno-Bashkyrivka, Kharkiv Oblast. As a result, apartments on the top floor of the building were partially destroyed. It is preliminarily known about one wounded woman.

Over the previous day, the occupiers fired 180 shells and mines at Sumy Oblast, resulting in destruction. In one community a fire broke out, in another — a granary and power lines were damaged.

And in Kherson from November 20 to December 1, 119 hits were recorded as a result of Russian shelling. In less than a fortnight, 19 people died in the city. Another 37 were injured, including one child.

Is Biden's dialogue with Putin on the cards?

U.S. President Joe Biden said he would be ready to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin only if he concludes that Moscow is interested in ending the war against Ukraine. But so far this is not happening, he noted.

Meanwhile, the United States and its allies should support the Ukrainian people, Biden added. According to him, there is one rational way to end this war: for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

In other news:

• Representatives of Rosatom are embezzling funds intended to pay for the work of Ukrainian personnel at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Ukrainian intelligence said.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to a petition calling for the demobilization of the military who have served for one year. He noted that under martial law, the relief of mobilized persons from military service on such grounds is not provided, but instructed Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to work on this issue.
• A third of Kazakhstanis are influenced by Russian propaganda and believe in the Kremlin's version of the invasion of Ukraine, the survey shows. Most of them are people over 60 years old.
• Prosecutor's Office of the Netherlands decided not to appeal the court decision in the case of the downed Boeing flight MH17 over Donbas, although one of the four defendants was declared not guilty.
• The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that the power outage in Moldova is allegedly the fault of Chisinau. The Moldovan Foreign Ministry responded that each of their citizens knows the real culprit.