Power blackouts are crippling Ukrainian economy; head of Ukraine’s armed forces expects renewed Russian attempt to capture Kyiv
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Russia faces ‘critical shortage’ of artillery shells, says UK defence chief
Tony Radakin said Moscow’s ability to conduct ground operations in Ukraine is ‘rapidly diminishing’ as a result
Russia faces a “critical shortage” of artillery shells and Moscow’s ability to conduct ground operations in Ukraine is “rapidly diminishing” as a result, Britain’s armed forces chief has said.
Adm Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of defence staff, told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) thinktank on Wednesday that the Kremlin had only planned for a short period to subjugate Ukraine, and has instead found itself embroiled in a conflict lasting nearly 10 months.
Continue reading...US ‘has no expectation’ fighting in Ukraine will stop in winter; Russian rockets hit administration building in Kherson – as it happened
White House spokesperson says war in Ukraine will continue ‘for some time’; no one reported hurt as two floors of central building damaged. This blog is now closed
The Kyiv city administration says another drone has been shot down, bringing the total number of Shahed drones downed in this morning’s attacks to 11.
In a post on Telegram, the administration said that air alerts were still in place.
Continue reading...Ukraine forces shoot down drones as Kyiv hit by multiple explosions
Officials say 13 Iranian-made drones shot down as air raid sirens sound in capital and surrounding area
The Ukrainian military shot down 13 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv and the surrounding region early on Wednesday as a series of explosions hit the capital in what authorities described as a continuation of Russia’s “energy terror” against the country.
Kyiv’s city administration said two of its administrative buildings had been damaged by the falling debris of a drone. There were no victims, the spokesperson for Kyiv’s rescue services, Svitlana Vodolaga, told Ukraine’s Suspline news.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war: US finalising plans to send Patriot missile defence system to Ukraine, reports say – as it happened
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European Union countries’ energy ministers must decide on Tuesday if they are ready to reach a deal on an EU-wide gas price cap, the Czech Republic’s industry minister, Jozef Sikela, said.
“This is now purely up to the ministers to show if they are ready to reach an agreement or not,” Sikela said on his arrival to a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels, where they aim to agree on the price cap.
Continue reading...Lingerie firm Agent Provocateur under pressure over Moscow franchise stores
Retailer among companies listed by Leave Russia project but says it does not itself operate there
In its three decades in British retail, the lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, the 1990s brainchild of Dame Vivienne Westwood’s son, has rarely shied away from controversy.
Whether it be its daring window displays or that 2001 TV advert featuring Kylie Minogue riding a velvet bucking bronco, the brand has stirred up some strong emotions. But it had not, until now, been accused of inadvertently helping to finance a war in Europe.
Continue reading...Generators ‘as important as armour’ to Ukraine surviving winter, says Zelenskiy
Ukraine president calls for more infrastructure aid to counter Putin’s ‘blackout and energy terror’
Generators are as important as armour in helping Ukraine survive Vladimir Putin’s energy terror this winter, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told an emergency conference in Paris convened to coordinate infrastructure and humanitarian aid to the country over the next four months.
The Ukrainian president said the country needed an additional €800m (£686m) to survive the winter and €1.5bn to restore the long-term damage to the energy grid.
Continue reading...Ukraine calls for Patriot missiles to defend its grid and stop rise in refugees
Prime minister Denys Shmyhal says western air defence systems needed to counter Russian attacks and stop people from fleeing
Ukraine has called for the west to supply Patriot missiles batteries and other modern air defence systems, amid growing concern that attacks by Russia on its electricity grid could prompt a new wave of refugees from the wartorn country.
The country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, speaking on Monday before a Ukraine humanitarian aid conference the following day in Paris, said Russia wanted “to trigger another wave of migration toward Europe” during the depths of winter.
Continue reading...No year-end press conference for Putin amid Russia’s faltering war in Ukraine
Kremlin says traditional event will not take place in further sign leader is becoming more remote
Vladimir Putin will not hold a year-end press conference for the first time in at least a decade, in what Kremlin-watchers view as a break with protocol due to his war in Ukraine.
The marathon press-conferences are traditionally an occasion for the Russian president to burnish his image, a campy spectacle that allows Putin to play the populist on national television each December.
Continue reading...Germany at risk of gas shortages as consumption cutting target missed
Country has scrambled to open up new sources of energy since start of Ukraine war
Germany is saving less gas than necessary to rule out shortages this winter, the head of the German grid agency has said, as the country missed its crucial target of a 20% cut in consumption last week amid dropping temperatures.
Germany, which used to draw about half of its natural gas needs from Russia before the start of the Ukraine war, has scrambled to open up new sources of energy during the last ten months.
Continue reading...Freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout joins ultranationalist party
Bout, who was released in prisoner exchange, could seek a seat in parliament, and has spoken of ‘pride’ in Putin
The Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who returned home last week in a prisoner exchange for the American basketball star Brittney Griner, has joined the pro-Kremlin far-right Liberal Democratic party (LDPR), in a move that could see him seek a seat in the Russian parliament.
In a video posted on telegram, LDPR’s leader, Leonid Slutsky, who was standing next to Bout, said: “I want to thank Viktor Anatolievich [Bout] for the decision he has made and welcome him into the ranks of the best political party in today’s Russia.”
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war live: Biden pledges to boost Ukraine’s air defence; EU and G7 leaders to meet to agree on more Russia sanctions
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A dispatch here from reporters working for Agence France-Presse in Bulgaria, as Russians in the seaside resort of Varna help Ukrainian refugees.
When Ukrainian Elena Bondarenko fled to Bulgaria after Russia invaded, she never imagined she would be taken in by a Russian there.
But that is exactly what happened to the bank clerk from Zaporizhzhia, one of many refugees fleeing the war who have been quietly sheltered by members of the country’s 17,500-strong Russian community.
We are doing everything to ensure that no strings are available to be pulled by the aggressor state that could make Ukrainian society suffer.”
Continue reading...Ukrainian strike hits Russian barracks in occupied Melitopol
Complex reportedly struck by Himars rockets may have been a stronghold of Wagner mercenary group that fights for Kremlin
Ukraine has attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties.
According to witnesses 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties.
Continue reading...Brittney Griner in Texas medical facility as political fallout over swap continues
Basketball star is being debriefed at San Antonio army facility as plight of other Americans held in Russia continues
Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who has been released from almost 10 months of detention in Russia in a prisoner swap with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, is undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist is being debriefed at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. She arrived back in the US on Friday morning and was immediately taken for what was being described as “extensive health evaluations”.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian missiles attack Russian-occupied Melitopol – live
Russian barracks hit in strategically important city and German chancellor Olaf Scholz says Vladimir Putin is determined to conquer parts of Ukraine
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.
The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
I’m not really seeing anything coming from the Russian side that gives me confidence that Vladimir Putin is entering these talks in good faith. The wider rhetoric is still very confrontational.
Any negotiations need to be real, they need to be meaningful, they can’t just be a fig leaf for Russian rearmament and further recruitment of soldiers.”
Continue reading...Neo-Nazi Russian militia appeals for intelligence on Nato member states
Move by Task Force Rusich raises fears of rogue paramilitary attacks on Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.
The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Continue reading...Biden faced internal opposition to Brittney Griner swap, reports say
Department of Justice viewed deal to exchange basketball star for Russian arms dealer as a mistake
Joe Biden has faced pressure from within his own administration, as well as his political opponents, in securing the release of basketball player Brittney Griner from Russia, according to reports.
On Thursday, Biden hailed the “intense and painstaking negotiations” that led to the release of Griner in a prisoner swap deal with the arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possession of a small amount of cannabis oil, while Bout, nicknamed ‘the merchant of death’, was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for fueling conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war – as it happened: Moscow has turned entire city of Bakhmut to ‘burnt ruins’, says Zelenskiy
Ukraine’s president says Russian shelling has ‘actually destroyed’ the city
Russian forces have “destroyed” the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while Ukraine’s military reported missile, rocket and airstrikes in multiple parts of the country.
The latest battles of Russia’s nine-and-a-half-month war in Ukraine have centred on four provinces that Russian president Vladimir Putin illegally claimed to have annexed in late September, the Associated Press reported.
Continue reading...In the ‘Bakhmut meat grinder’, deadlocked enemy forces slog it out
Ukrainians have the technical advantage but Russians persist in sacrificing troops to take an area with no strategic value
In a smothering fog cloaking the woods of the Donbas, the sound of artillery takes on a spooky, disconnected quality.
Guns crack nearby, invisible among the skeletal branches. Shells whicker in the gloom towards the Russian lines around the key city of Bakhmut, distant thuds marking when they hit their targets. When the Russian guns fire back, it’s with a different sound, the crump of incoming fire.
Continue reading...Australia imposes sanctions on Iran’s morality police and 13 Russians and Iranians
Penny Wong announces Magnitsky-style sanctions to punish Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
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The Australian government will use human rights sanctions to punish “egregious human rights violations and abuses” by Iranian and Russian perpetrators.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced the Magnitsky-style sanctions (named for the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison after exposing corruption in Russia) have been imposed on 13 Russian and Iranian individuals.
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