Closing summary
The Czech Republic has frozen property owned by Russia on Czech soil, it was announced. Jan Lipavský, the Czech foreign minister, said: “At my suggestion, the government today approved the freezing of Russian state assets in the Czech Republic. The commercial activities from which Russia finances the murder of Ukrainians ends here.”
Russia said that Ukrainian accession to the US-led Nato military alliance would be unacceptable, according to Reuters. “Whether in parts or in any form, Ukraine’s accession to Nato is unacceptable for Russia,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, told reporters.
A Russian missile killed two emergency workers in southern Ukraine as they put out a fire from an attack only minutes earlier, Ukrainian officials said. At least seven other people were injured in the strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region, in which Russian forces fired three missiles in about half an hour, according to the regional governor, Yuriy Malashko.
Nato has announced it will buy six Boeing aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Awacs surveillance planes, bolstering the alliance’s capabilities to track the threat from Russia, AFP reported.
Hungary has sought a review of the EU’s policy towards Ukraine, disagreeing with Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Ireland, who backed bringing Kyiv closer to the bloc more quickly and granting it more aid.
Russia said for the first time that some Ukrainian troops had established positions on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro River. Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-installed governor of the part of Kherson region that Moscow controls, acknowledged in a statement that Ukrainian forces had managed to cross the river, but said they were taking heavy losses.
Ukraine’s state railway said it had restricted grain deliveries to Odesa, one of the country’s key Black Sea ports, because of repairs.
Vladimir Putin is likely to announce his presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
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Posting on Telegram, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote:
We are interested in a strategic partnership between Ukraine and the states of the African continent. Our relations should be based on mutual respect, respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty, language and traditions.
Thank you to journalists from 11 African countries for our conversation and attention to Ukraine. I believe that in defense against aggression, in defence of international law, the world majority will always be with Ukraine.
Prague freezes Russia’s property on Czech territory
The Czech Republic has frozen property owned by Russia on Czech soil, AFP reports.
“All countries that haven’t yet done so should follow suit,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Russian money should be used for Ukraine’s recovery instead of murder and destruction.”
Jan Lipavský, the Czech foreign minister, said:
At my suggestion, the government today approved the freezing of Russian state assets in the Czech Republic. The commercial activities from which Russia finances the murder of Ukrainians ends here.
Czechia has just frozen all Russian state assets. I applaud this principled step and thank my counterpart and friend @JanLipavsky. All countries that haven’t yet done so should follow suit. Russian money should be used for Ukraine’s recovery instead of murder and destruction. https://t.co/7ReaTIj3xc
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) November 15, 2023
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Here are some of the latest images coming from the newswires:
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A report in the Wall Street Journal has said that Ukrainian marines were reinforcing positions in three villages on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river, including armoured Humvees and at least one infantry-fighting vehicle, and had cut off one road that Russians used to resupply troops in the area.
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Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on Telegram that Russia attacked Nikopolshchyna in the morning, hitting the “Marganets community” with heavy artillery. He said no one died or was injured.
Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.5% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, when it shrunk 3.5%, the state statistics service Rosstat estimated on Wednesday.
Russia’s economy is on course to recover this year from a 2.1% drop in GDP in 2022, as the west imposed sweeping sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
In the first quarter of this year, GDP decreased 1.8% and grew 4.9% in the second, Reuters reports.
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The EU has proposed banning the export of machine tools and machinery parts that Russia uses to make weapons targeting Ukraine, documents seen by Bloomberg reveal.
The proposal is contained in the EU’s 12th sanctions package, which also includes a ban on diamonds, the outlet reported.
A German publisher has announced a stop to the sale of books authored by a leading journalist and Russia expert after an investigation showed he had received at least €600,000 (£522,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
Hubert Seipel, an award-winning film-maker and author, admitted receiving support for his work on two books charting the Russian leader’s rise to power and offering portrayals described as sympathetic to him.
The information emerged from the Cyprus Confidential project, based on a cache of 3.6m offshore records leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Germany’s Paper Trail Media, which shared access with the Guardian and other reporting partners.
You can read the full story here:
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Russia said that all vessels, including Russian ones, had free passage through the Baltic Sea and said that any attempt to violate international law on the free movement of shipping was dangerous, Reuters reports.
Denmark will be tasked with inspecting and potentially blocking tankers carrying Russian oil through its waters under new EU plans, the Financial Times reported (see earlier post at 13.42).
“I’ll just remind you … that all vessels, including Russian ones, have the right to free passage through the Baltic Straits,” Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, told reporters.
“Any actions that contradict this violate international law,” she said. “And you know how dangerous that is.”
Russia says Ukrainian Nato membership is unacceptable in any form
Russia has said that Ukrainian accession to the US-led Nato military alliance would be unacceptable, in part or in any other form, according to Reuters.
“Whether in parts or in any form, Ukraine’s accession to Nato is unacceptable for Russia,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, told reporters.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, has put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance without the territories controlled by Russia.
Rasmussen has said the cause of Ukraine’s Nato membership cannot be deferred again next year. He said: “The time has come to take the next step and extend an invitation for Ukraine to join Nato. We need a new European security architecture in which Ukraine is in the heart of Nato.”
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Russia’s foreign ministry has said that the EU’s 12th sanctions package against Russia is part of a “hybrid war” waged by the west, Reuters reports.
“Due to the endless sanctions flow against Russia, the EU has become Washington’s ‘useful idiot’,” Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said.
Zakharova said the US was using Europe as a “stick” in what she cast as Washington’s “anti-Russian” policy.
Zakharova said the new sanctions would achieve nothing and said the west’s sanctions had damaged the EU itself.
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Water-related violence surged to an all-time high in 2022 – driven in large part by Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israeli attacks against Palestinian water resources in the West Bank.
At least 228 water conflicts were documented in 2022 – an 87% rise since 2021, according to research by the Pacific Institute shared exclusively with the Guardian.
You can read the full story here:
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Summary of the day so far...
A Russian missile killed two emergency workers in southern Ukraine as they put out a fire from an attack only minutes earlier, Ukrainian officials have said. At least seven other people were injured in the strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region, in which Russian forces fired three missiles in about half an hour, according to the regional governor, Yuriy Malashko.
Nato has announced it will buy six Boeing aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Awacs surveillance planes, bolstering the alliance’s capabilities to track the threat from Russia, AFP reported.
Hungary has sought a review of the EU’s policy towards Ukraine, disagreeing with Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Ireland, who backed bringing Kyiv closer to the bloc more quickly and granting it more aid.
Russia said for the first time that some Ukrainian troops had established positions on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro River. Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-installed governor of the part of Kherson region that Moscow controls, acknowledged in a statement that Ukrainian forces had managed to cross the river, but said they were taking heavy losses.
Ukraine’s state railway said it had restricted grain deliveries to Odesa, one of the country’s key Black Sea ports, because of repairs.
Vladimir Putin is likely to announce his presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
Updated
Denmark will be tasked with inspecting and potentially blocking tankers carrying Russian oil through its waters under new EU plans, the Financial Times has reported, citing three unidentified sources.
Russia sends about a third of its seaborne oil exports, or 1.5% of global supply, through the Danish straits, so any attempt to halt those supplies would send oil prices higher and could trigger a confrontation with Russia.
The FT said Denmark would look for tankers carrying Russian oil that did not have western insurance, a step that would hit Russian oil export income hard while snarling up the entire Russian oil production and refinery business.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he has spoken with Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
He said they discussed defence cooperation and the need to speed up the adoption of the 12th EU package of sanctions on Russia, among other things.
I spoke with @GiorgiaMeloni to express gratitude for her and Italy’s strong support for Ukraine.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 15, 2023
Italy is demonstrating powerful leadership, and I anticipate that its 2024 G7 Presidency will yield even more important results.
We coordinated our joint efforts and agreed to start… pic.twitter.com/bdg34AwD6x
In September, Meloni told a prank caller posing as an African leader that there was “a lot of tiredness” over the war in Ukraine and that she had some ideas up her sleeve on how to “find a way out”.
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Russian missile kills two emergency workers in southern Ukraine as they put out fire, say officials
A Russian missile killed two emergency workers in southern Ukraine on Wednesday as they put out a fire from an attack only minutes earlier, Ukrainian officials said (this is an update from an earlier post at 11.48).
At least seven other people were injured in the strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region, in which Russian forces fired three missiles in about half an hour, the regional governor, Yuriy Malashko, said.
He said a civilian facility had been hit but gave no details, and said that homes and cars nearby had been damaged.
Rescue workers had rushed to the scene after the first strikes but another attack followed, the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, wrote on Telegram.
“Employees of the State Emergency Service were already at the scene in a matter of minutes. Then the [Russian] invaders struck again,” he said, adding that the two men killed were aged 31 and 34.
He said the injured included three emergency workers and four civilians. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Updated
Nato to modernise surveillance jets in face of Russia threat
Nato has announced it will buy six Boeing aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of AWACS surveillance planes, bolstering the alliance’s capabilities to track the threat from Russia, AFP reports.
“The production of the six new Boeing E-7A Wedgetail aircraft is set to begin in the coming years, with the first aircraft expected to be ready for operational duty by 2031,” Nato said.
Nato said the joint acquisition by its members represented one of the alliance’s “biggest-ever capability purchases”, but did not give the overall cost.
The jets will be operated centrally by the alliance, likely out of its Geilenkirchen airbase in Germany, with intelligence shared among the 31 members.
“Equipped with a powerful radar, the aircraft can detect hostile aircraft, missiles and ships at great distances and can direct Nato fighter jets to their targets,” the alliance said.
❝Surveillance and control aircraft are crucial for NATO’s collective defence and I welcome Allies’ commitment to investing in high-end capabilities❞
— NATO (@NATO) November 15, 2023
— @jensstoltenberg
Tap the image for info on NATO's next generation command and control aircraft, Boeing’s E-7A Wedgetail
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Hungary seeks review of the EU's policy towards Ukraine
Hungary has sought a review of the EU’s policy towards Ukraine, disagreeing with Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Ireland that backed bringing Kyiv closer to the bloc more quickly and granting it more aid.
Hungary is the main stumbling block to a decision by EU leaders next month to start formal membership talks with Ukraine once it meets all conditions, and assign €50bn in aid for Kyiv from the bloc’s budget through 2027.
Those decisions require unanimity of the 27 countries in the bloc.
But Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán – who has complained that Ukraine had curbed the rights of Hungarian minority – has since said the bloc’s strategy of sending money and military aid to Ukraine has failed, and that he opposed starting membership negotiations with Kyiv.
“We need a period of reflection and a strategic discussion on the policy of the European Union towards Ukraine,” Hungary’s European affairs minister, János Bóka, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Until such discussion, Budapest would not support any EU decisions to advance Ukraine’s accession process or further aid for Kyiv, he said.
Updated
Representatives of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine have met the delegation of the monitoring mission of the European Peace Facility.
In a Telegram post, the ministry said they discussed the ways in which EU experts monitor aid provided by EU countries, namely weapons, military equipment and “military property”.
Updated
Russia fired three missiles at Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday morning, killing one person and injuring at least seven others, the governor said.
Houses and cars near the strike sites were damaged by a blast wave and debris in an attack that lasted about half an hour and hit a civilian facility, the governor, Yuriy Malashko, said, Reuters reports.
“As of this moment, we know of one person killed and seven injured, including women,” he wrote on Telegram.
These claims have not yet been independently verified.
Updated
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has met with Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, and discussed increasing ammunition production in the EU and the resilience of “critical infrastructure”.
The German defence minister said on Tuesday that the EU will miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1m artillery shells and missiles by next March.
Thank you @NATO SG @jensstoltenberg for the good exchange on EU-NATO cooperation.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) November 15, 2023
We are providing vital support to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian agression.
We are working on increased ammunition production in the EU & the resilience of our critical infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/hXVOxeQCty
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A leading western journalist who has long been considered one of Germany’s top independent experts on Russia received at least €600,000 (£522,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, leaked files have revealed.
Hubert Seipel, an award-winning film-maker and author, was paid money in instalments, which documents suggest was to support his work on two books he wrote that chart Putin’s rise to power and offer portrayals described by many as sympathetic to the Russian president.
The case is one of the first linking an influential western journalist with significant payments in what could be seen by some as attempts by pro-Putin actors to secure positive coverage in the international media.
Read the full story here:
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Russia says Ukrainian forces have crossed the River Dnipro but face 'hell fire' and death
Ukrainian troops are trying to push back Russian forces along the Dnipro River in southern Kherson region, the military said on Wednesday, calling for operational “silence” along what it described as a “fairly fluid” frontline.
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had secured a foothold on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the vast river, for the first time confirming an advance that could open a new line of attack towards occupied Crimea.
A Russian-installed official, Vladimir Saldo, said Moscow’s military had pinned down Ukrainian forces who crossed on to the river’s eastern bank and was raining “hell fire” on them.
“Our additional forces have now been brought in. The enemy is trapped in (the settlement of) Krynki and a fiery hell has been arranged for him: bombs, rockets, heavy flamethrower systems, artillery shells, and drones,” Saldo said.
“They (the Ukrainians) are sitting in basements and run from one basement to another at night. In the last two or three days alone, total enemy losses have totalled about a hundred fighters.”
A Ukrainian advance on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro, a formidable natural barrier, would be a big setback for Russia’s occupation troops on the western side of a 1,000 km frontline.
These reports have not yet been independently verified.
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Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
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Most people in non-western countries want Russia’s war on Ukraine to end as soon as possible even if it means Kyiv ceding territory, according to a global poll published by the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“There remains a clear preference in China, India, and Turkey (and obviously Russia) that the war should end as soon as possible, even if Ukraine has to relinquish control of some of its territory. Our new poll shows that this is also the prevailing view in Brazil, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa,” according to the thinktank’s report.
“But this does not mean people in those countries think the war in Ukraine is an occasion to push against the western dominance of the world; this argument remains popular solely in Russia and nowhere else.”
The report is based on a public opinion poll of adults from September and October 2023, across 11 European countries, and 10 non-European countries. There was a total of 25,266 respondents.
“Majorities in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey believe the US and Russia are at war,” the report said.
“People in the US and Europe are joined only by those in India and Brazil in having a prevailing view that the US is not at war with Russia (though there are countries in Europe where the opposite view prevails).”
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In case you missed it, today’s Today in Focus episode looks at whether Putin has the upper hand in Ukraine:
This summer, hopes were high that Ukraine could use western weapons to claim back big cities, liberate hundreds of miles of territory and maybe even cut off Russian forces inside the country. That has not happened.
Instead the war’s progress has slowed to an agonising pace. Drones mean both sides have impressive intelligence of what their enemies are doing and breakthroughs are hard to come by. And the world’s attention being on the Middle East is a dangerous situation for Ukraine – will it lose the financial support of its western backers, such as the US?
The possible re-election of Donald Trump, who is thought to be even less keen on financing Ukrainian efforts, is looming. But, Luke Harding tells Michael Safi, morale is still surprisingly high in Ukraine. And counting them out now would be a mistake.
Updated
The Russian military has pinned down Ukrainian forces who crossed on to the eastern bank of the River Dnipro in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Saldo, a Russian-installed official, said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region.
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Ukrainian state railway restricts deliveries to Odesa 'due to repairs'
Ukraine’s state railways said on Wednesday it had restricted grain deliveries to Odesa, one of the country’s key Black Sea ports, due to repairs.
“Ukrzaliznytsia has started repairing the railway infrastructure on its network, which hinders the movement of freight trains towards the ports of Odesa region,” Valeriy Tkachov, deputy director of the commercial department at the railways, said on Facebook.
The company did not say when the restrictions would be lifted.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday the country’s exports through an alternative Black Sea shipping corridor had reached almost 4m metric tons since the route started operating in August.
Grain and other food products dominate the cargoes through the route, which runs along Ukraine’s south-west Black Sea coast, into Romanian territorial waters and onwards to Turkey.
Ukraine has traditionally used its deep-water Black Sea ports in the Odesa region to export food, metals and other commodities.
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Pope Francis has called on the faithful to pray regularly for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and all other war-torn places.
“Let us pray, brothers and sisters, for peace, in a special way for martyred Ukraine, it is suffering a lot. And then the Holy Land, Palestine and Israel, and let’s not forget Sudan,” Francis said during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday.
“Let us think [about] all places where there is war, there are many wars. Let us pray for peace, every day someone should take some time to pray for peace,” he added.
The Vatican has offered to mediate in both the Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, but its efforts have so far not been successful.
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Russian arms makers appear to have been kept a low profile at this week’s Dubai airshow, underscoring how the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sought to balance its ties with the west and Moscow.
Unlike past shows, Russian participation has been limited to the very end of the outdoor area where state arms makers are exhibiting inside their own pavilion rather than in the main hall, Reuters reports.
“We have been put a bit away, outside the main pavilion,” said a Russian arms industry executive, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The executive said they did not know why Russian firms had apparently been deliberately kept away from the main exhibition area where companies such as the US firm Lockheed Martin are present.
Still, an aerobatics display of Russian Su35S fighter jets went ahead, the Tass news agency reported on Monday.
Rostec, United Aircraft Corp and Almaz-Antey are among the Russian firms participating at the show this week.
A representative for the Dubai airshow, a major biennial commercial and defence industry showpiece, did not immediately respond to emailed questions on the Russian participation.
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We reported earlier on an overnight Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in eastern Ukraine, killing at least one person.
Iryna Shushura, a police paramedic, told Reuters on the scene that two strikes had occurred at about 1am. One hit the building and another landed about 100 metres away.
Rescuers early on Wednesday were clearing the rubble and warned residents against approaching the structure, which appeared to have been obliterated by the impact.
A large crane assisted workers in clearing a mass of loose rubble from where the top floor once had been. Many onlookers were shocked, some cried.
“There were no soldiers living there, only civilians,” said Olha, a 64-year-old woman who lives next door to the building and knew the woman who had been killed.
“People have been left with nothing.”
Russia has carried out regular missile and drone strikes on population centres behind the front line of its 21-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
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Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
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Ukrainian authorities have arrested an MP who was at the heart of efforts by Rudy Giuliani to dig up compromising material about Joe Biden and placed him in pre-trial detention.
Oleksandr Dubinsky, 42, is accused of collusion with Russia and of spreading “fake” information about Ukraine’s political and military leadership, in particular related to his claims about supposed Ukrainian interference in US political processes.
Ukrainian authorities announced the charges on Monday, and on Tuesday Dubinsky appeared in court in Kyiv, in a closed session.
Later, the politician himself published a video on his Telegram account saying he had been sent to pre-trial detention for 60 days. He faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.
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Putin likely to announce presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, says UK's MoD
Putin likely to announce presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, says the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
On 9 November, the Kremlin announced that Vladimir Putin will hold a traditional combined press conference and public phone-in before the end of the year. In 2022, the event was cancelled, probably over high-profile military setbacks in Ukraine weeks prior, the MoD said in its latest intelligence briefing.
“Kremlin planners will almost certainly see the event as an important waypoint in Putin’s anticipated campaign to secure a fifth term in office in the March 2024 presidential elections,” Wednesday’s briefing said.
“He is likely to announce his candidacy before the end of 2023.”
On 10 November, Putin visited the southern military district headquarters in Rostov on Don – seen as an increased effort “to paint himself as the ‘patriotic’ candidate ahead of the election campaign”.
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Has Putin got the upper hand in Ukraine?
With the world’s attention on the Middle East, Ukraine seems to be at a stalemate – which may sound like good news for Russia, but is not so straightforward, the Guardian’s Luke Harding reports.
Listen here:
This summer, hopes were high that Ukraine could use western weapons to reclaim big cities, liberate hundreds of miles of territory and maybe even cut off Russian forces inside the country. That has not happened.
Instead, the war’s progress has slowed to an agonising pace. Drones mean both sides have impressive intelligence of what their enemies are doing and breakthroughs are hard to come by. And the world’s attention being on the Middle East is a dangerous situation for Ukraine – will it lose the financial support of its western backers, such as the US?
The possible re-election of Donald Trump, who is thought to be even less keen on financing Ukrainian efforts, is looming. But, Luke Harding tells Michael Safi, morale is still surprisingly high in Ukraine. And counting them out now would be a mistake.
Updated
At least one person was killed in an overnight Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in eastern Ukraine, authorities said on Wednesday.
Five others, including a child, were rescued but at least one person is believed to be trapped under the rubble, the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack on the town of Selydove, north-west of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, heavily damaged a four-storey building, Klymenko said.
“As a result, the entrance of a four-story residential building was destroyed,” Klymenko said. “At least one person still remains under the ruins. Rescue operations are ongoing.”
Russia has carried out regular missile and drone strikes on population centres behind the frontline of its 21-month-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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'The more Russian forces destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy,' says Volodymyr Zelenskiy
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff has acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine’s forces in the Kherson region have a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, potentially opening a new line of attack towards Crimea.
“Against all odds, Ukraine’s defence forces have gained a foothold on the left [east] bank of the Dnipro,” Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute thinktank in the US. The remarks were posted on the website of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy himself commented on Russia’s losses in their “very intense” assault on Avdiivka. “Russia is already losing men and equipment near Avdiivka faster and on a larger scale than, for example, near Bakhmut,” he said.
“The more Russian forces that are destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy and the overall course of this war.”
Here is the full report:
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Summary
Welcome again to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. It is day 630 of the illegal full-scale invasion. Here are the main developments:
Greater losses inflicted on Russian forces near Avdiivka will make Russia’s overall position worse in its conduct of the war, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said. Russian forces were losing men and equipment faster around Avdiivka than they did during months of battles near Bakhmut, he said.
The Russian army has “eliminated” almost all Ukrainian literature in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, wrote on X.
The EU will miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1m artillery shells and missiles by next March, the German defence minister has said. Boris Pistorius’s comments, the first public admission by a senior European minister that the target would not be met, were made before a summit of EU defence ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
The German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall will supply Ukraine with 25 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks as part of an order paid for by the German government, the company has said, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine and Britain have agreed to discounts on insurance against military risks for Ukrainian exports, including through the Black Sea corridor, the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said. “This will make the Black Sea corridor more accessible to a wider range of exporters.”
Russia has sentenced a man to six years in prison for vandalising posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine, AFP reported.
Ukrainian forces have secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff was quoted as saying. Andriy Yermak’s remarks were the first official acknowledgment that Ukrainian troops were established on the Dnipro’s east bank in Kherson region.
A top Ukrainian military official said Russian troops were increasing the use of kamikaze drones. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia, despite high losses, has been attacking Ukrainian positions near Kupiansk.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Russia hit the Nikopol region 11 times on Tuesday, using kamikaze drones and artillery. He wrote on Telegram that the district centre was most heavily targeted and that a 26-year-old man died.
The former detective Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, convicted for his role in the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer has said.
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