Troops anticipating onslaught in eastern theatre of war as winter approaches
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approaches, saying that troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern theatre of the war.
His comments came on Sunday as a military spokesperson said Russian attacks on the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka had eased in the past day, but were likely to intensify.
Continue reading...Wagner arm likely led by son of Yevgeny Prigozhin, killed in plane crash after fighters marched on Moscow, says UK defence ministry. This blog is now closed
Parts of city of Donetsk have lost power following two projectile strikes in the northwestern part of the city.
Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, said on Telegram that there are partial power outages in the Voroshylovskyi, Kyivskyi, Kirovskyi, Kuibyshivskyi, and Leninskyi districts.
Continue reading...Former Nato leader suggests Ukraine could join alliance without occupied Russian territories; senior Kyiv official played key role in sabotage of Nord Stream pipeline, media report says
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, posted on Telegram today an apparent response to a proposal put forth by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, to have Ukraine join the alliance without its currently Russian-occupied territories. Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chair of Russia’s security council, used Russia’s oft-touted and inaccurate rhetoric that Ukraine is not a country, and therefore cannot join Nato.
Three Russian guard officers were killed in an explosion carried out by the local resistance in Russian-occupied Melitopol, Ukraine’s defence intelligence said today.
In Kyiv, veterans and family of Ukrainian servicemen held a rally calling for legislation regulating the length of active military duty in Ukraine.
Large elements of the Wagner mercenary group have likely been assimilated into the command structure of Russian national guard (Rosgvardiya), the UK defence ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing. The Wagner arm in the Rosgvardiya is likely being led by Pavel Prigozhin, son of the late Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash shortly after Wagner fighters captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow – acts that Vladimir Putin declared “treason”.
A senior Ukrainian military official played a key role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, according to a joint investigation by the Washington Post and Der Spiegel published Saturday. Roman Chervinsky, a colonel in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role told the US and German newspapers.
Russian investigators have determined that the freight train that was derailed yesterday in Russia’s Ryazan oblast was caused by a homemade bomb on the railway line. Authorities have opened a terrorism investigation into the derailment. While Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident, but Russian officials have previously blamed pro-Ukrainian saboteurs for several attacks on the country’s railway system.
Three people were killed in Russian attacks on the Donetsk oblast overnight, acting regional governor Ihor Moroz said on Telegram. Two people were killed in Toretsk, wehre 30 houses, an infrastructure facility and an administrative building were damaged in Russian attacks. One person was killed in Minkivka.
A 64-year-old man was killed and his wife hospitalised this morning after the Russian shelling of Dnipro district of the city of Kherson, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
Parts of city of Donetsk have lost power after two projectile strikes in the north-western part of the city. It’s unclear if the strikes came from Ukrainian or Russian forces.
Russia has accused Kyiv of attacks on border regions. On Sunday, Russia said there had been a series of attacks in the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, damaging five train carriages and causing one injury.
Russian forces have ramped up attacks in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to gain ground near two key frontline cities. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, said that Russian troops had begun a push to regain territory near Bakhmut.
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday that Russian forceshad repelled five Ukrainian attacks over the previous day near Klischiivka and Kurdyumivka, two small settlements lying south of Bakhmut.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here
That’s all from today’s shorter-than-usual Ukraine live blog.
Here is a summary of the day’s main events so far:
Blasts were reported across Kyiv on Saturday morning, as the city came under Russian attack for the first time since September
A former Nato secretary general has put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance but stripped of the territories occupied by Russia
The UK’s Ministry of Defence says Russia is ramping up its attempt to weaponise history
Trains carrying cargo in Russia’s Ryazan region were derailed Saturday morning due to “unauthorised interference”
Continue reading...Former secretary general says partial membership would warn Russia it cannot stop Ukraine joining the alliance
A former Nato secretary general has put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance but stripped of the territories occupied by Russia.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen has long worked alongside Andriy Yermak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, particularly ahead of the last Nato summit in Vilnius this year that ended with no invitation for Ukraine to join.
Continue reading...Amid talk of stalemate, long waits for western weapons and attention diverted to Gaza, experts say the conflict could last into 2025
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has stalled, with progress on the two principal axes on the southern front modest since it began on 4 June. Kyiv’s forces have advanced about 10km south of Velyka Novosilka and 9km south of Orikhiv and there appears no prospect of a breakthrough as the weather turns.
Last week, the reality was acknowledged by Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Kyiv’s military. “Just like in the first world war, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he said in an interview with the Economist, while in a related essay he added that the war, after nearly 21 months of fighting, “is gradually moving to a positional form”.
Continue reading...Ukrainian naval drones sink two Russian landing boats in Crimea; Russian forces attempting to surround town of Avdiivka, Kyiv says
Continue reading...Cinematographer Yaroslav Pilunskiy and film editor Ivan Bannikov are part of drone unit fighting Russians in Donetsk
Sometimes, if the situation allows on Ukraine’s brutal eastern frontline, Yaroslav Pilunskiy will fly his drone to “a place I know where the Russians are constantly shelling over a lake, against a beautiful sunset.”
Moscow’s expenditure on the munitions represents a movie budget that Pilunskiy, 51, could only dream about in his former life as one of Ukraine’s most respected cinematographers. “When the command staff ask what I’m doing, I say: ‘When else will I be able to film these pyrotechnics?’”
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Alongside Moldova, Ukraine is officially on the path to EU accession – what does that mean for the future of both countries and the continent?
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning. Ukraine has been hoping for EU membership for decades, but the prospect of it actually happening only became likely after Russia’s invasion posed an existential threat to Europe for the first time since the second world war. Weeks after the war erupted in February last year, Ukraine and Moldova applied for membership of the EU; in June they were both granted candidate status.
After waiting just under 18 months, the European Commission announced yesterday that it was recommending that formal talks begin on Moldova and Ukraine joining the European Union.
Conservatives | Suella Braverman has launched a full-throated attack on policing “double standards” after the head of the Metropolitan police gave the go-ahead for a pro-Palestine march on Saturday, Armistice Day.
Israel-Hamas war | The US, for the second time in recent weeks, has carried out strikes against a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said was used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and affiliated groups, as fears grow that the Gaza war could spread in the region.
Strikes | The RMT union has reached a possible deal with train operators to resolve their long-running national rail dispute, allaying fears of a repeat of last year’s Christmas strikes.
Environment | Japan has gained another island to add to its already impressive collection, after an undersea volcanic eruption 1,200km south of Tokyo created a new landmass.
US news | Hollywood actors are set to end their nearly four-month strike, the Sag-Aftra union announced on Wednesday, bringing to a close a historic work stoppage that had brought the film and television industry to a standstill for months.
Continue reading...Russian missile kills one on civilian vessel at Odesa, says Ukraine military; Ukraine intelligence confirms role in car bomb killing of Russia-backed official
Continue reading...Unverified footage from state media shows captured soldiers swearing allegiance to Russia as part of new battalion
Russia is sending Ukrainian prisoners of war to the frontlines of their homeland to fight on Moscow’s side in the war, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti has reported.
Video from RIA Novosti released on Tuesday showed the Ukrainians swearing allegiance to Russia, holding rifles and dressed in military fatigues to fight in a battalion named for medieval nobleman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, seen as a national hero in Russia for bringing parts of Ukraine under Moscow’s control in the 15th century.
Continue reading...Invasion of Ukraine has fast-tracked timetable for the countries to join bloc after years of ‘economic warfare’
Long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow had already been accused of launching an economic war against its neighbours. With bullying, cajoling and outright threats, the Kremlin’s campaign to warn its former Soviet subjects away from the EU involved telling them they would be blocked from the Russian market and its own customs union, and face cutoffs of crucial supplies of natural gas.
Wednesday’s recommendation by the European Commission to open EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova marks the latest casualty of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine: its own war for economic domination, or at least competitiveness, in eastern Europe.
Continue reading...National security council spokesperson says US has used majority of funds it has allocated for Ukraine
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, hosted a top Chinese general and defence delegation in Moscow on Wednesday for talks to “deepen” military cooperation with Beijing as Russia’s troops fight on in Ukraine.
Shoigu welcomed Zhang Youxia, a high-ranking general and vice-chair of Beijing’s central military commission, in a red carpet ceremony in Moscow.
We, unlike some aggressive western countries, are not creating a military bloc. Relations between Russia and China are an example of strategic cooperation, based on trust and respect.
I am sure that today’s meeting will be another step to deepen the multi-profile links between our countries and military departments.
Patrushev is the secretary of the security council. He is part of the Kremlin. And his statements are statements from the Kremlin.
As for the Russian Federation, we have a doctrine where everything is clearly spelled out. There are no changes. This is confirmed by the president.
Continue reading...Negotiations with Kyiv should formally be launched when it fulfils conditions in areas such as fighting corruption, report says
The European Commission has recommended that formal EU membership negotiations should begin with Ukraine and Moldova in a move its president, Ursula von der Leyen, described as a response to “the call of history”.
In a 1,200-page report on future enlargement of the 27-member bloc, the EU said talks should formally be launched once Kyiv satisfied remaining conditions related to stepping up the fight against corruption, adopting a law on lobbying in line with EU standards and strengthening national minority safeguards.
Continue reading...EU Commission president says there is ‘sense of urgency to unite European family’ as Ukraine and Moldova take first step towards joining
“The neighbourhood, our neighbourhood has to choose where they want to go,” the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in her press conference.
“And the western Balkans, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine chose very clearly where they want to go,” she added.
If you look into the report and you see the list of reforms, it shows determination, the steadfastness and the political will of the population the people.
I’m very confident that Moldova will move on because your track record is impressive under very difficult circumstances.
Continue reading...Ukrainians bracing for new Russian assault on Avdiivka; US Congress wrangles over aid to Kyiv
Ukraine’s military said its troops had repelled Russian assaults in widely separated sectors of the war and were braced for a fresh attempt to capture the key frontline eastern town of Avdiivka. Russia is engaged in a slow-moving campaign in eastern areas of the 1,000km frontline. Ukraine has registered limited progress in a counteroffensive launched in the east and south in June.
Ukraine’s general staff, in its Tuesday evening report, said its forces had beaten back 15 attacks near Kupiansk in the north-east and 18 attacks near Maryinka. Nine attacks were repelled in and near Avdiivka, where Moscow launched the latest of several drives in mid-October.
“The third wave [attack on Avdiivka] will definitely happen. The enemy is regrouping after a second wave of unsuccessful attacks,” said Vitaliy Barabash, head of the Avdiivka military administration.
There was a powerful explosion on Tuesday at Taganrog airport in Russia’s Rostov oblast which houses military aircraft, Ukrainian news sources, Russian officials and online observers said.
The heads of the US treasury, defence and state departments have called on Congress to fund $11.8bn in Ukraine aid as part of President Joe Biden’s supplemental spending request, according to a letter released on Tuesday. Senate Democrats blocked a Republican effort to win quick approval for a bill providing emergency aid to Israel that passed the US House of Representatives last week but provides no assistance for Ukraine.
The EU is expected to fire the starting gun on the process of Ukraine becoming a member state, with a report expected to recommend formal negotiations on accession on Wednesday. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that his country was “preparing our next steps” to join the bloc, including by strengthening its institutions, although he acknowledged that this would require work by Kyiv to “adapt to EU standards”.
A newly built Russian naval corvette was “almost certainly” damaged after being struck in Crimea, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update. The Ukrainian attack on 4 November hit the Askold cruise missile ship, which had not yet entered service. “Ukraine’s capability to hit Crimean shipbuilding infrastructure will likely cause Russia to consider relocating farther from the frontline, delaying the delivery of new vessels,” the update said.
The Netherlands sent its first five F-16 fighter jets to Romania on Tuesday for use in the training of Ukrainian pilots, Reuters reported.
Russia formally withdrew from a security treaty that limited key categories of conventional armed forces, blaming the US for undermining post-cold war security with the enlargement of the Nato military alliance. Nato allies said that as a consequence, they intended to suspend the operation of the treaty as long as necessary.
The US army needs Congress to approve $3.1bn to buy 155mm artillery rounds and expand production to quickly replace stocks depleted by shipments to Ukraine and now Israel, an army official said.
The US has accused Russia of financing a Latin America-wide disinformation campaign that feeds media contacts with propaganda aimed at weakening support for Ukraine and boosting anti-American and anti-Nato sentiments, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that Ukraine has deployed more western air defence systems, as it braces for a second full winter of Russian attacks on energy facilities.
G7 support for Ukraine in its war with Russia will not be affected by the intensifying Middle East conflict, Japan said as the group’s foreign ministers prepared to hold virtual talks with Kyiv during a meeting in Tokyo.
Ukrainian drones attacked over the Black Sea and the annexed Crimean peninsula on Tuesday, Moscow’s defence ministry said.
Continue reading...Key report will be first official stocktake of progress of nations in aligning themselves with the bloc
The EU is expected to fire the starting gun on the process of Ukraine and Moldova becoming member states, with a report expected to recommend formal negotiations on accession.
Moldova’s deputy prime minister, Nicolae Popescu, said such a move would be a big milestone for his country. “It will be a truly historical achievement and a truly historical chance to make sure that Moldova consolidates its place in the EU,” he said.
Continue reading...Russia withdraws from treaty of conventional armed forces in Europe, which was aimed at preventing cold war rivals from massing forces at borders
A Russian ship was “almost certainly” damaged after being struck in Crimea, says the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
In a defence intelligence update, the MoD said a newly built Russian naval corvette was damaged on 4 November, which was earlier reported by Ukrainian and Russian sources.
Continue reading...Bomb in birthday present kills Ukrainian major who advised commander-in-chief; Russian attack damages Odesa museum; Ukraine grain exports fall
A close military adviser to the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s army has been killed after a booby-trapped birthday present he was given exploded. “Under tragic circumstances, my assistant and close friend, Major Gennadiy Chastiakov, was killed … on his birthday,” Gen Valery Zaluzhny wrote online. Chastiakov leaves a wife and four children, he said.
Zaluzhny said Chastiakov had been “fully devoting his life to the armed forces of Ukraine and the fight against Russian aggression”. Attacks targeting Ukrainian officials have been relatively rare since Moscow invaded. There have been attacks on Russian nationalists, which Russia has blamed on Ukraine. In April, a blast from a statuette rigged with explosives killed the 40-year-old pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the deaths of at least 19 soldiers in a Russian missile strike on a military ceremony was a “tragedy that could’ve been avoided”. Other reports suggest the death toll could be much higher, while defence chiefs are under pressure over the staging of the event in a frontline village vulnerable to attack.
Zelenskiy has said it is irresponsible to talk of holding an election in Ukraine in wartime and called for unity to avoid pointless political discussions. “We need to recognise that this is a time for defence, a time for battle, upon which the fate of the state and its people depend … I believe that elections are not appropriate at this time.” Elections are banned under martial law in force in Ukraine, but Zelenskiy had been considering whether to invoke special provisions to stage them. He has said he would like to run for a second term if a vote took place.
In the US, some senate Republicans have released a sweeping set of US border security proposals as a condition for sending more aid to Ukraine, laying out a draft plan that includes resuming construction on parts of the Mexico border wall.
Vladimir Putin has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that would keep him in power until least 2030, as he is said to feel he must steer Russia through its most perilous period in decades, sources told Reuters.
Radio Free Europe has said that it believes Russia may have taken one of its journalists “hostage” for a potential prisoner swap with the US and is appealing to Moscow not to treat her cruelly, the broadcaster’s acting president said.
Several dozen owners of transport companies blocked three major Polish border crossings with Ukraine in protest at what they say is unfair competition from its businesses.
Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen by almost a third compared with last year, agriculture ministry data shows, to 9.8m tonnes so far in the July 2023-June 2024 season. The ministry said that by this point last year, Ukraine had exported 14.3m tonnes.
Odesa’s national art museum said seven exhibitions, most featuring the work of contemporary Ukrainian artists, were damaged by a Russian strike that left a large crater outside the museum, which is celebrating its 124th anniversary. Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzheppar, said Kyiv was “deeply outraged” by the attack and urged the UN’s Paris-based heritage agency, Unesco, to condemn it.
Continue reading...War-torn country will complete reforms required by bloc within two years, says Olga Stefanishyna before leaders’ summit
Ukraine will have completed the reforms required to get membership of the EU within two years, the deputy prime minister has said, insisting the country does not want a sympathy vote at a looming leaders summit to decide on enlargement of the bloc.
A review published on Wednesday is expected to reveal the European Commission position on whether negotiations should open or not with those countries most advanced with their accession reforms.
Continue reading...