National news
• Ukraine on Dec. 3 called up the first “several hundred” army reservists for training and to ramp up Ukraine’s defenses, according to the country’s armed forces.
• Amid worries that the declaration of martial law in some areas of Ukraine might delay local elections scheduled for Dec. 23, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has submitted a bill to parliament in an attempt to resolve the matter. Martial law in Ukraine was introduced on Nov. 28, and is scheduled to end on Dec. 26.
• As Ukraine enforces an entry ban on Russian males aged 16-60, a total of 228 Russian citizens traveling via Belarus have been denied entry to Ukraine since Nov. 26, including 189 traveling by air, and another 39 people traveling by land, according to the spokesman of the Belarusian State Border Committee.
• Georgia has informed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department of the detention of six Ukrainian citizens in Tbilisi, and lawyers representing their interests have been appointed, department spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych said on Dec. 3.
Russia’s war on Ukraine
• Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin escaped all serious criticism at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in Argentina on Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, despite Russia having openly and brazenly attacked Ukraine’s navy in the Kerch Strait and Black Sea just days before, on Nov. 25, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign policy spokesman said on Dec. 3.
• As NATO foreign ministers gather in Brussels for a two-day conference on Dec. 4-5, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, briefed the press on the security challenges that will be addressed at the upcoming meeting.
Business
• A top leader of Germany’s largest political party has suggested limiting the amount of natural gas that would transit through the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline project after Russia attacked three Ukrainian boats as they attempted to cross into the Azov Sea on Nov. 26.
• European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic plans to meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Brussels on Dec. 5. While the topic of their meeting hasn’t been disclosed, Sefcovic represents the European Commission at trilateral gas talks with Russia and Ukraine.
