Wagner Group fighters linked to attack that killed at least 13 following major military operation
Russian mercenaries in Mali have been accused of a new massacre of civilians following a major military operation in the centre of the unstable country.
At least 13 civilians were killed on Sunday in the region of Mopti by Malian troops supported by “white soldiers”, local elected officials and an official of a community association told the Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Discovery of Iranian kamikaze drones last month stirred huge outcry over Iran’s involvement in the conflict
Every day, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) issues an operational briefing. Today, it claims that one person was killed and six people were injured on the Ukrainian territory that it occupies. It also claims that “three civilian infrastructure facilities” were damaged in shelling that affected eight areas it occupies. The claims have not been independently verified. The so-called DPR is one of the areas that the Russian Federation claims to have annexed. Russia, Syria and North Korea were the only UN member states to recognise the DPR as any sort of legitimate authority.
This is Martin Belam taking over the blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Energy boss says ‘virtually all’ non-nuclear power stations hit by Russian attacks
Ukraine faces a winter humanitarian crisis unless it can prevent a collapse in its electricity supply caused by the relentless campaign of Russian bombing, the chief executive of the country’s national grid said.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of Ukrenergo, said “virtually all” large non-nuclear power stations in the country had been hit, as well as more than 30% of the network’s routing substations.
Continue reading...Oleg Tinkov, who has previously spoken out against the conflict, says he ‘won’t be associated with a fascist country’
The billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he has previously criticised.
“I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing innocent people daily,” Tinkov said.
Continue reading...The country’s judiciary says those marching against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini will be tried
Iran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he was shocked by the number of innocent protesters who were being illegally and violently arrested. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has already announced that she is to ask the European Union to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
Continue reading...His bombs may not break Ukrainian resolve, but Vladimir Putin knows their damage will drive up the west’s costs
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Russia’s cynical decision to target Ukraine’s network of hydroelectric power stations on Monday represents a further, dispiriting, escalation in its efforts to destroy the country’s power supply.
The electricity network is reeling from three weeks of attacks focused on coal- and gas-fired power stations and, above all, the electricity substations that link up different parts of the grid. Power cuts are the new normal as winter looms.
Continue reading...UK’s James Cleverly says Russian president taking things out ‘on the poorest people in the world by threatening their food supplies’
US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on a call on Sunday and discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and the threats it poses to global security and economic stability.
Blinken also discussed with his Chinese counterpart on the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage US-China relations, the US department of state said in a statement.
As a result of strikes on critical infrastructure facilities, part of the capital was cut off. There is no water supply in some areas. All services are working. More details – later.”
Continue reading...As winter looms, Moscow escalates missile attacks on vital utilities such as hydro plants, substations and dams
A wave of Russian missiles slammed into hydroelectric plants and other critical energy and water infrastructure across Ukraine on Monday, with explosions reported near the capital, Kyiv, and in at least 10 other regions.
Hydro plants, substations and heat generation facilities were all hit, Ukraine said, while the ministry of defence in Moscow said it had targeted “energy systems” in a devastating morning raid carried out using long-range cruise missiles.
Continue reading...Kremlin pulls out of grain deal after drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea flagship vessel in Crimea; UN and US call on Moscow to reverse its decision
Continue reading...Russia blames Ukraine for attack on Saturday; calls grow for Moscow to rejoin grain deal as US accuses Kremlin of weaponising food
More on the reported Russia-Ukraine exchange of prisoners of war on Saturday: officials in Moscow and Kyiv said both sides had returned about 50 people each.
Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate reported the return of 52 detainees, among them soldiers, sailors, border guards, national guard members and doctors.
We remember all those who are held captive in Russia and on occupied territory and will do everything to ensure that each and every one is returned.
Continue reading...Risk of soaring food prices and global food crisis after Moscow’s decision to end export corridor following drone attack on its fleet
The United Nations, Nato, European Union and US have all urged Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea, amid fears of a global food crisis.
Moscow announced it was suspending the UN-brokered arrangement in response to a dramatic attack in the early hours of Saturday by Ukrainian airborne and underwater drones on its naval base of Sevastopol in Crimea.
Continue reading...Admiral Makarov possibly disabled by Ukraine as investigators say frigate one of three Russian ships to be hit in Sevastopol
Russia’s Black Sea flagship vessel, the Admiral Makarov, was damaged and possibly disabled during an audacious Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, according to an examination of video footage.
Open-source investigators said the frigate was one of three Russian ships to have been hit on Saturday. A swarm of drones – some flying in the air, others skimming rapidly along the water – struck Russia’s navy at 4.20 am. Video from one of the sea drones shows the unmanned vehicle weaving between enemy boats.
Continue reading...International condemnation after Russia suspends grain deal; Russia claims it has identified the drones used to attack its Black Sea fleet
There has been international condemnation of Russia’s decision to suspend the UN brokered Black Sea Grain initiative, a move described by US president Joe Biden as “purely outrageous” and which would increase starvation.
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Russia was weaponising food.
The European Union called on Russia to reverse its decision. “Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risk the main export route of much needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Twitter.
UN secretary-general António Guterres is “deeply concerned” about the Black Sea grain deal and has delayed his travel to Algiers for the Arab League summit by a day to focus on the issue. a spokesperson said.
Nato called on Moscow to urgently renew the deal. Nato spokesperson, Oana Lungescu, said: “President Putin must stop weaponising food and end his illegal war on Ukraine.”
Turkey’s defence minister is in talks with counterparts in Moscow and Kyiv to try to revive the UN- brokered deal for exports of Ukrainian grain, the ministry said on Sunday.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had recovered and analysed the wreckage of drones used to attack ships from Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea on Saturday. It claims that the drones were equipped with Canadian-made navigation.
The ministry has said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea fleet near Sevastopol with 16 drones early on Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” had helped coordinate what it called a terrorist attack, a claim Britain has denied.
Ukrainian officials have suggested that Russia itself may have been responsible for the explosions, which it has used as a pretext to pull out of the grain deal.
Poland said that together with its European Union partners it is ready to provide Ukraine with further help in the transportation of essential goods after Russia pulled out of the grain deal.
The Russian army repelled attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Luhansk regions, Russian news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying on Sunday.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific airways will resume using Russian airspace on some flights, the airline said on Sunday, restarting flights it had stopped after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February. Cathay Pacific will begin flying from New York to Hong Kong using the popular “polar route” from Tuesday.
Continue reading...Breach discovered during Tory leadership in summer but details suppressed, the Mail on Sunday reports
The government has been urged to launch an urgent investigation after reports that Liz Truss’s phone was hacked.
The breach was discovered when Truss, then the foreign secretary, was running for the Tory leadership in the summer, but details were suppressed by the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Continue reading...Move comes after assault by airborne and underwater drones in which flagship may be been damaged
Russia has said it will pull out of a UN-brokered grain export deal after a dramatic attack by Ukrainian airborne and underwater drones on its Black Sea naval base of Sevastopol in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Social media showed footage of explosions both near and in the Crimean harbour, and Russia’s defence ministry said there had been an attack by “nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous sea drones” that began at 4.20am.
Continue reading...Citizen-spotters can report missiles at the push of a button with ePPO on their mobiles
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
A simple mobile phone app has been developed by Ukrainian volunteers to allow civilians to report sightings of incoming Russian drones and missiles – and, it is hoped, increase the proportion shot down before they hit the ground.
The app, ePPO, relies on a phone’s GPS and compass, and a user only has to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a single button for it to send a location report to the country’s military.
Continue reading...Moscow plans expedited Kherson withdrawal, says MoD; Guterres calls for west to help remove blocks to Russian grain exports
Speaking during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent to Ukraine.
Shoigu added that Russia was no longer recruiting people for its armed forces, saying that “citizen notification has been discontinued”.
Continue reading...Russia says mobilisation of reserves is over; power cuts hit 4 million Ukrainians; Ukraine demands Iran stop arming Russia with drones
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has said the partial mobilisation of reservists announced in September “has been completed” and “no further measures are planned”. Speaking at a meeting with Vladimir Putin broadcast on state television, Shoigu said 82,000 mobilised recruits were in the conflict zone and a further 218,000 in training in barracks. His statement reflects what the west called a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counteroffensive with poorly trained troops.
About 4 million people across Ukraine are being hit by power cuts from rolling blackouts due to Russia’s bombing campaign, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Agence Frence-Presse quoted energy company DTEK, the operator for the Kyiv region, as saying it would have to introduce “unprecedented” power cuts to prevent a complete blackout.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he had received a phone call from his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Friday and had demanded Tehran stop sending weapons to Russia. Ukraine and western allies accuse Iran of sending “kamikaze” drones to Russia that have been used to devastating effect against Ukrainian infrastructure. Iran denies the charge.
At least four people were killed and 10 wounded when several towns neighbouring the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant were hit by shelling, a statement from the Ukrainian presidential office said.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces had repelled attempted Ukrainian advances in the east and had destroyed a Ukrainian military factory near the town of Pavlograd.
The US will provide $275m in additional military assistance to Ukraine, including arms, munitions and equipment from US defence department inventories, the secretary of state has said. “We are also working to provide Ukraine with the air defence capabilities it needs with the two initial US-provided Nasams ready for delivery to Ukraine next month,” Antony Blinken said. “And we are working with allies and partners to enable delivery of their own air defence systems to Ukraine.”
Assets belonging to Russian and Belarusian individuals seized by Ukraine could be used for the huge postwar reconstruction effort, the Ukrainian finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, has been quoted as saying. The government has frozen Russian and Belarusian assets in Ukraine worth about 44 billion hryvnias ($1.21bn) since the start of Moscow’s invasion, according to the Economic Security Bureau, a state agency.
The European Union has appointed a Polish general, Piotr Trytek, to lead a new training operation with Ukrainian troops. Trytek, 51, was chosen as part of the EU’s pledge to step up military support for Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s first deputy chief of staff has visited the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Kherson. Sergei Kiriyenko stopped at a ferry port where hundreds of people were being removed by order of Russian authorities.
A Russian official’s threat to strike western satellites aiding Ukraine has raised concerns among space lawyers and industry executives about the safety of objects in orbit. No country has carried out a missile strike against an enemy’s satellite.
UN nuclear inspectors are expected to reach a conclusion soon on Russia’s claims of the possible production of a “dirty bomb”. Investigators are being sent to two locations in Ukraine where Russia alleged the activities were taking place.
Continue reading...Man posing as Brazilian academic José Assis Giammaria thought to have used his time in the country to build up a deep-cover identity
A suspected Russian spy who posed as a Brazilian academic before his arrest this week by Norway’s domestic security agency spent years studying at Canadian universities with a focus on Arctic security issues.
The man, who called himself José Assis Giammaria, worked as researcher at the University of Tromsø and was arrested on suspicion he had entered Norway under false pretences. On Friday, prosecutor Thomas Blom named the man as Mikhail Mikushin, adding that Norway’s domestic security agency was “not positively sure of his identity, but we are quite certain that he is not Brazilian”.
Continue reading...Ministry of Defence says Russia relying on ‘poorly trained force’ as Kremlin seeks to consolidate gains
Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Russia’s defence minister said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent to Ukraine, reflecting what the west called a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counter offensive with poorly trained troops.
Sergei Shoigu told president, Vladimir Putin, that a further 218,000 were being trained in barracks, and that the controversial “partial mobilisation” had concluded, although it was not possible to verify the figures cited.
Continue reading...