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LAST UPDATE | 19 Dec 2022
PUTIN HAS ARRIVED in Minsk today for talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, who has allowed Moscow to use Belarus as a staging ground for its offensive in Ukraine.
Footage broadcast by Russian state television showed President Vladimir Putin disembarking a plane at a freezing and snow-blanketed airport in Minsk and being warmly greeted by his close ally Lukashenko ahead of bilateral talks.
It comes as Russia has launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in Kyiv, in strikes that Ukraine said provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen regions.
The attacks came as Russia said it had shot down several US-made missiles over its airspace near Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin was due to visit neighbouring Belarus, used as a staging ground the invasion of Ukraine.
“I first heard the air raid siren howling from the street … I thought there is going to be a drone attack. For the first time, it scared me,” Natalia Dobrovolska, a 68-year-old resident of Kyiv told AFP.
She described hearing multiple explosions before power shut off in her building in western Kyiv. Officials said Russia had dispatched 35 attack drones nationwide, including 23 over Kyiv.
Ukraine said it had downed 30 of the aerial weapons, including Iranian-made “Shaheds”, which have pummelled the capital in recent weeks.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said critical infrastructure facilities were “damaged” but there were no known casualties.
Energy operator Ukrenergo said emergency electricity outages were scheduled in the capital and nearly a dozen regions.
Moscow said its air defence systems had shot down four US-made missiles over Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, in one of its first such claims in nearly 10 months of fighting.
“Four American ‘HARM’ anti-radar missiles were shot down in the airspace over the Belgorod region,” the defence ministry said on social media.
Ukraine has experienced frequent and deadly aerial attacks in the 10 months since Russia invaded in late February.
After a series of battlefield setbacks and lost territory this summer and autumn, Moscow stepped up its aerial campaign to target the country’s energy grid.
With winter setting in, missile and drone attacks have plunged cities around the country into darkness, and severed water and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians.
After a major Russian assault aiming more than 70 missiles on cities last Friday, the national electricity operator was forced to impose emergency rolling blackouts as it raced to repair the battered energy grid.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as of yesterday evening, nine million people have had their energy restored. Ukraine has an estimated population of 40 million.
Zelenskyy also described the situation on Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus as a “constant priority”.
“We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he had recently discussed border regions with military commanders.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, is a long-time Kremlin ally and allowed Russian troops to use Belarusian territory as a launchpad for Moscow’s invasion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was already in Minsk this morning, alongside Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
With Putin now having also arrived, Russia announced its forces were running military drills with Belarusian forces.
The defence ministry released footage of drills in Belarus, showing soldiers conducting tank manoeuvres, and practising artillery and sniper fire at a snow-dusted training ground.
“From the morning until the evening twilight – there is not a single second of silence at the training grounds of Belarus,” the ministry said.
In October, Belarus announced the formation of a joint regional force with Moscow with several thousand Russian servicemen arriving in the ex-Soviet country.
It did not say where the drills were taking place or how long they will last.
The deployment of Russian troops in Belarus had raised fears that Belarusian troops could join them in their offensive in Ukraine.
In fighting that has spilled over into Russian regions bordering Ukraine, one person was killed, and others were wounded Sunday in Belgorod following attacks that the local authorities blamed on Kyiv.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian strikes left around 14,000 people without power in a district of the Belgorod region.
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Over €350,000 per home! Could they not have done something different or in a different area for alot cheaper?
@The Bob: ffs…sell the prime city centre site..add the sale money to the 20 million and build out in the suburbs..would get much better value and more units.
@The Bob: The mates of FF/FG are carrying out the work. give them some respect ;^)
@The Bob: the scanger must always be kept as close to the city centre as possible…. Couldn’t have him on a bus or train like the people commuting from the Midlands every day, that would be simply abusive!
@The Bob: Have you seen the amount of site clearance that has o be done and the size of the complex itself. That will be a fair spend in itself.
After this place came into rack and ruin the courthouse in Kilmainham closed down, wonder would there be any connection at all, ahem.
Build, wreck, repeat. Grand when the ould clown of a taxpayer is footing the bill.
@mcgoo: exactly,it’s poor management. These should be let to people and inspected frequently and if any of the tenants let their property fall into disrepair they should be evicted( like what happens in the private market) and no other property should be offered to them.if this was properly managed word would get out that the council meant business and people might start respecting what is handed to them…….. and if each individual home is kept well, the whole place would follow suit.
So is the plan to knock the remaining four blocks and rehome the existing tenants in the new builds and in addition to build new social homes and private homes , although it will take some marketing to sell private homes in an estate with a history, it might be better to rename the whole development,
@Honeybee:
In the present crisis, they will sell the private ones alright but if trouble starts again (it would only take one or two families) the private owners will sell up, the only buyers will be there Council and eventually we will be back to square one.
@Honeybee: It’s bizzare, why would I want to buy a house in a development while my neighbour gets the exact same house for nothing? It just can’t see myself being a slave to a mortgage, getting up early to go to work and paying down 40 years of debt while my neighbour has all day parties every time the sun’s out. Go ask my bollox.
@Jayo Breathneach: id love one if they are free.
@Honeybee: Don’t worry they will get some sort of fancy name for the development like Lime Avenue or Madison Square
@Bingobango: So people in council houses do not work. Strange I know loads of people in council houses who work and damn hard.
Poor Leo decided to miss the photo opportunity….
@Keith Wizzy: He’s afraid the media would ask him about what he said in the “private” soiree in New York. Or he has the hump with them.
@wattsed: Was deffo the Trump incident that lost him this planned candid camera moment. Evidenced by his quick cozying up for the press update in his Dail Chitchat soundbite instead.
@wattsed: Anyway I’m going to stop bashing Leo for the rest of the day. I don’t want to be a gay perceived as homophobic. Though I would use a piece of the anatomy to describe him but deffo not in a gay way :)
@wattsed: His big mistake what he said would have been held inside the four walls of the room
His big mistake
357K a unit? Really?
@Ronan Sexton:
Anything built to council specs will cost way more.
The council put in a new bathroom for the parents in law, cost €6500. I did my parents, identical standard, less than €3000
Looks lovely, be sure to keep it to those standards.
Move all the uneployed out and give the houses to nurses and local teachers. Plenty of empthy houses in Letrim
@james foley: So by train of thought then, everybody who lives in a council house is unemployed! Moving unemployed people away from their community and friends and extended family, to a county with unemployment issues of its own is your solution.
Would culling them not be better and more cost effective?
@james foley:
Surprised you were not accused of ethnic cleansing.
More election photo shouts, It’s Paschal Donohoe electoral area after all. Such blatant use of public money by a minister for possible electrical gain. Nothing ever changes only the faces. Eoghan Murphy’s was elected just over the quays so its a double win for ministers, no wonder Leo cancelled his attendance. His guff in New York would have rained on this parade. Also I see the bald head of Councillor Ray McAdam stand behind Paschal, such bravery not wearing a cap. Risking cancer for a photo shoot.
Inchicore and Coolock never had a chance when such FG heavy weight owe there power to this area. Any chance some journalist could ask what mathematical equation was used to priories this redevelopment. FG have outplayed all other political parties taking credit for any good news.
“As the economy picked up during the Celtic Tiger, Dublin City Council pledged to regenerate the flats and again looked for help from a private developer. A plan was developed to tear down the flats and build more than 800 new units.” why are we now getting a quarter less units than the old plan, with the housing crisis worse than ever? The crisis cant be solved without addressing the extremely poor utilisation of land…
Horrendously poor management, policing and total disregard for where they live caused the place to fall into ruin in the first place. No problem with the idea of people needing homes to be provided for them but for christs sake I’d love to see some of these people gifted free homes take some actual pride in where they live and look after the place! Otherwise we’ll just be knocking the whole lot again in 20-30yrs!
600 units is a waste of space, the site is massive, at least 1000 units could comfortably fit on that site. Heights should be at least 10 floors.
have your say