Summary
It’s slightly past midnight in Kyiv. Here’s a look at the biggest developments throughout the day:
UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the UN security council on Wednesday that an exchange of 35 Russian and 36 Ukrainian prisoners was a positive development amid the “dark news” of Russian strikes on Ukraine. DiCarlo encouraged the parties to continue prisoner releases and follow international humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of war, Reuters reports.
A Russian court on Wednesday extended by six months the detention of opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who risks being jailed for 10 years for denouncing president Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine. The 39-year-old Moscow city councillor is in the dock as part of an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Russia, with most opposition activists either in jail or in exile. He faces up to 10 years behind bars, if convicted.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it had faith in the “success” of its offensive in Ukraine. “The future and the success of the special operation are beyond doubt,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on a visit to Armenia, using the official Moscow term to describe Russia’s assault, Agence France-Presse reports.
European cities were urged to send spare generators to Ukraine to help the country through the winter in the face of Russia’s attacks on electricity infrastructure. Ukraine’s power grid came under bombardment again as the European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, launched an appeal to get generators to Ukraine.
Dozens of Russian missiles were launched against Ukraine on Wednesday morning, with explosions heard in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Russian forces launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” Ukraine’s armed forces said. Air raid alerts were heard across all over the country.
At least seven people have been killed – including a 17-year-old girl – and 36 injured after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, according to officials. Oleksii Kuleba, head of the regional military administration, said the entire Kyiv region was without electricity after Moscow’s airstrikes targeted critical infrastructure.
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, has said the entire western Ukrainian city is “without light” after Russian strikes. Sadovyi warned that there would be “interruptions” with the city’s water supply and that he was awaiting additional information from energy experts.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, has said power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were switched off after Russian missile strikes across the country. In a statement, it said “due to a decrease in frequency in the energy system of Ukraine” emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants.
The European parliament came under “sophisticated cyber-attacks” officials said, hours after it voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, said a pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack on the European parliament’s website.
The European parliament has declared Russia “a terrorist regime” over its brutal war on Ukraine. In a non-binding resolution approved by a large majority of MEPs, the European parliament urged the EU’s 27 member states to make the same designation “with all the negative consequences this implies”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the declaration.
The US has announced a new $400m (£332.5m) aid package to Ukraine which will include weapons, munitions and air defence equipment. The package also includes more than 200 generators to help Ukraine deal with power outages caused by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the UN security council on Wednesday that an exchange of 35 Russian and 36 Ukrainian prisoners was a positive development amid the “dark news” of Russian strikes on Ukraine.
DiCarlo, addressing a meeting of the council requested by Ukraine, encouraged the parties to continue prisoner releases and follow international humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of war, Reuters reports.
Updated
A Russian court on Wednesday extended by six months the detention of opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who risks being jailed for 10 years for denouncing president Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
The 39-year-old Moscow city councillor is in the dock as part of an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Russia, with most opposition activists either in jail or in exile.
He faces up to 10 years behind bars, if convicted.
Yashin refused to leave after Putin sent troops to Ukraine on 24 February and regularly took to his YouTube channel, which has 1.3 million subscribers, to condemn his country’s offensive.
Yashin insisted in court that he would not flee the country, but the judge extended his detention by six months.
I love my country and in order to live here I am ready to pay with my freedom,” he said, adding, “I am a Russian patriot,” Agence France-Presse reports.
Prosecutors argued that Yashin should be kept in detention because he had “inflicted considerable damage to Russia” and “increased political tensions during the special military operation” – Russia’s term for its invasion of Ukraine.
One of the opposition activist’s lawyers, Vadim Prokhorov, said that extending Yashin’s detention until 10 May was against the law.
The next hearing is expected to take place on 29 November.
Yashin is an ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and was close to Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015.
Updated
France and Spain on Wednesday lambasted the European Commission’s proposed price cap on wholesale natural gas, set so high that critics have questioned if it would ever be used.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The EU executive on Tuesday unveiled a gas “safety ceiling” of 275 euros per megawatt hour as the bloc grapples with high energy prices spurred by Moscow’s war in Ukraine and supply cuts.
But the conditions meant the cap would only kick in when EU gas prices breach that threshold for two weeks running, calculated on advance purchases through the bloc’s main gas price benchmark, TTF.
The cap was also contingent on the TTF price for liquefied natural gas – an easily transportable form of gas that can be shipped worldwide – exceeding 58 euros for 10 days within that same two-week period.
The only time the TTF gas price has gone above the 275-euro limit was between August 22 and 29 this year.
It was running at around 120 euros in trading on Tuesday.
Spanish ecological transition minister Teresa Ribera called the commission’s proposal a “joke”, saying it would cause steeper price hikes and hamper efforts to tame decades-high inflation.
The French energy transition ministry criticised an “insufficient” scheme that “does not respond to the reality of the market”.
“The commission must propose an operational text, not simply a text that is political grandstanding and may have negative or no effects,” it said.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it had faith in the “success” of its offensive in Ukraine.
The future and the success of the special operation are beyond doubt,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on a visit to Armenia, using the official Moscow term to describe Russia’s assault, Agence France-Presse reports.
He spoke to reporters as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was set to address an urgent meeting of the UN security council later on Wednesday and after the European parliament recognised Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
Peskov did not address the symbolic political step of the European legislators.
But Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova earlier in the day said on messaging app Telegram:
I propose designating the European parliament as a sponsor of idiocy,” she said.
Updated
European cities were urged to send spare generators to Ukraine to help the country through the winter in the face of Russia’s attacks on electricity infrastructure.
Ukraine’s power grid came under bombardment again as the European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, launched an appeal to get generators to Ukraine.
Millions of Ukrainians are facing blackouts as Russian forces bombard key infrastructure.
Ukrainians are currently without electricity as a result of Russia’s attacks on critical civilian targeted infrastructure,” Agence France-Presse reported Metsola saying.
Dario Nardella, the mayor of Florence, Italy, heads a network of local authorities in Europe and said he was looking to coordinate a group of 200 European cities to send generators they have in storage to Ukraine.
We’ve got the potential of sending several hundred, even industrial-sized, generators which will be able to produce quite a lot of power,” Nardella said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Dozens of Russian missiles were launched against Ukraine on Wednesday morning, with explosions heard in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Russian forces launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” Ukraine’s armed forces said. Air raid alerts were heard across all over the country.
The UN’s security council will hold an urgent meeting on Wednesday on Russia’s latest strikes at the request of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy said Ukrainians are “unbreakable” and that the country will rebuild damaged infrastructure and “get through all of this”.
At least seven people have been killed – including a 17-year-old girl – and 36 injured after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, according to officials. Oleksii Kuleba, head of the regional military administration, said the entire Kyiv region was without electricity after Moscow’s airstrikes targeted critical infrastructure.
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, has said the entire western Ukrainian city is “without light” after Russian strikes. Sadovyi warned that there would be “interruptions” with the city’s water supply and that he was awaiting additional information from energy experts.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, has said power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were switched off after Russian missile strikes across the country. In a statement, it said “due to a decrease in frequency in the energy system of Ukraine” emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants.
Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure caused blackouts across half of neighbouring Moldova, the deputy prime minister of Moldova said. Moldelectrica, the state-owned energy firm, is working to reconnect more than 50% of the country to electricity, Andrei Spînu, said. Moldova’s foreign affairs minister, Nicu Popescu, said he has asked for Russia’s ambassador to be summoned.
A newborn baby was killed after an overnight Russian rocket attack struck a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine. Ukraine’s state emergency service said that a woman with her two-day-old baby and a doctor had been in the facility in the town of Vilniansk, close to the city of Zaporizhzhia, that was destroyed.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said warned the Ukrainian capital faces “the worst winter since World War II” after Russian attacks on the city’s energy infrastructure. Residents in Kyiv had to be ready for the “worst case scenario” of widespread power cuts at low temperatures in which parts of the capital would have to be evacuated, he said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild.
A Ukrainian security official has said suspected Russian citizens, cash and documents were seized in a raid on a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv and other Orthodox sites. The raid, which took place on Tuesday, was part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the national security and defence council, said.
The European parliament came under “sophisticated cyber-attacks” officials said, hours after it voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, said a pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack on the European parliament’s website.
The European parliament has declared Russia “a terrorist regime” over its brutal war on Ukraine. In a non-binding resolution approved by a large majority of MEPs, the European parliament urged the EU’s 27 member states to make the same designation “with all the negative consequences this implies”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the declaration.
The US has announced a new $400m (£332.5m) aid package to Ukraine which will include weapons, munitions and air defence equipment. The package also includes more than 200 generators to help Ukraine deal with power outages caused by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Germany has angrily dismissed claims by Boris Johnson that in the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine it said it would be better for Ukraine to fold than to become embroiled in a long war. Johnson, interviewed by CNN, also claimed that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was in denial about the threat of invasion, and that Italy, led at the time by Mario Draghi, said it could not help because it was so dependent on Russian hydrocarbons.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog met a Russian delegation in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the watchdog said. The Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion, was again rocked by shelling at the weekend, leading to renewed calls from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to create a protection zone around it to prevent a nuclear disaster.
The UK is sending helicopters to Ukraine for the first time, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced. Three Sea King helicopters will be provided, with the first already in Ukraine, according to PA Media. Wallace also said an extra 10,000 artillery rounds were being sent to help Ukraine secure the territory it has recaptured from the invading forces in recent weeks.
Russia has probably launched a number of Iranian manufactured uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine since September, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said. It’s also likely that Russia has nearly exhausted its current stock of Iran-made weapons and will seek resupply, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update.
Updated
A German government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, rejected Boris Johnson’s claim that Berlin wanted Ukraine to fold and give in to Russia.
Hebestreit told reporters:
I’m tempted to switch to English and say it’s ‘utter nonsense’ what Boris Johnson said.
Taking a swipe at the former prime minister, he added that Johnson has his “own relationship with the truth”.
Updated
According to the Kyiv mayor, 21 of the 31 cruise missiles fired at the capital were intercepted. One of the 10 which evaded the defences hit an apartment block in Vyshgorod, a northern suburb of Kyiv, killing three people and wounding 15.
There was a kindergarten in the lower ground floor of the building, but it was evacuated just in time after the air raid sirens went off. The blast left a 3 metre crater just in front of the building, destroying the apartments around it, blowing the tops off nearby trees and leaving a children’s playground a charred wreck filled with debris.
“It flew right over us. We heard a whistling sound and then it came round down on the building,” Ruslan Vorona, a local resident, said. He and his eight-year-old son, Oleksii, were sheltering and charging their phones in an insulated tent set up by the emergency services.
“There were a few explosions. Two were quieter and one was louder, and one of the missiles went straight over my head,” a 28-year-old local man, Oleksandr, who would not give his last name, said.
Rescue workers were last night trying to salvage the remaining household possessions of the families left homeless by the blast, tying what they could find in sheets and throwing them to the ground from the four-storey brick building. There was not much left, but the emergency workers had made promises they would save what they could and they risked serious injury clambering through the wreckage to keep their word.
Updated
The death toll from today’s Russian strikes across Ukraine has risen to seven, according to officials.
Oleksii Kuleba, the head of Kyiv region military administration, said four people had died in the Kyiv region.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least three people had died after the attack on the capital.
Updated
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head office of Ukraine’s president, said each new Russian attack “only strengthens our character”.
The Kremlin “still does not know a damn thing about Ukraine” if it believes that power outages caused by Russian strikes will make Ukrainians “overthrow government and beg for mercy”, Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
If Moscow really believes that power outage will make Ukrainians overthrow government and beg for mercy, then after 9 months of war Kremlin still does not know a damn thing about 🇺🇦. Each new attack only strengthens our character. RF feels it on a battlefield. We will add more…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) November 23, 2022
The UN’s security council will hold an urgent meeting later today on Russia’s latest strikes across Ukraine at the request of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
A spokesperson for the US mission to the UN said the US, Albania and Ukraine requested the meeting to discuss “Russia’s massive missile strikes today damaging critical civilian infrastructure across Ukraine”.
The meeting is scheduled for 9pm UK time.
Updated
US to send additional $400m in new military aid for Ukraine
The US has announced a new $400m (£332.5m) aid package to Ukraine which will include weapons, munitions and air defence equipment.
In a statement, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said:
The artillery ammunition, precision fires, air defence missiles, and tactical vehicles that we are providing will best serve Ukraine on the battlefield.
The Pentagon said the package included additional munitions for Nasams air defence systems, high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars), plus heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights to counter Russian drones, and more than 20m rounds of small arms ammunition.
The package also includes more than 200 generators to help Ukraine deal with power outages caused by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Pentagon press secretary, Brig Gen Pat Ryder, said the generators are “intended to support both civilian and military power needs … to ease the pressure on the grid”.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked President Joe Biden for the new package and vowed his country “will not be scared by cowardly inhumane terrorist attacks of Russian war criminals”.
Ukraine will not be scared by cowardly inhumane terrorist attacks of Russian war criminals. Thank you @POTUS and 🇺🇸 people for standing with Ukraine and responding with a new PDA package which would allow us to save lives and continue our fight for Ukraine! Together we win!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 23, 2022
Updated
Families of drafted Russian soldiers accuse Putin of snubbing them
Two months after mobilising tens of thousands of Russian men, the Kremlin has said that Vladimir Putin will grant some of their mothers and wives an audience to quell fears over the mass call-up.
But advocates for soldiers’ families have said they were passed over for the meeting and are expecting it to be a whitewash covering up the Kremlin’s disregard for its own soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Valentina Melnikova, a veteran advocate for soldiers’ families going back to 1989, said in an interview with the Guardian that she had not been approached about the meeting with Putin, which is expected to take place later this week.
“Of course they didn’t invite us and we of course don’t want to go,” she said.
She said it would be one thing to go alone and meet the Russian president as representative of the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, which she says has received thousands of complaints, more than in the years of the Russian war in Chechnya.
But she said that, like other rights activists who have not been chosen to take part in the meeting, she believed the Kremlin would handpick its representatives or perhaps even fill out their ranks with planted audience members, in order to stage Putin’s meeting with the “public”.
To go together with the relatives of mobilised [soldiers] who are agreed to their husbands and sons dying on the front is not comfortable for us. We have somewhat different interests and different problems.
The head of Ukraine’s football association, who served on Fifa’s disciplinary body until 2020, has been accused of fraud and money laundering related to the construction of an artificial grass factory.
Andriy Pavelko was served with papers by Ukraine’s national police on Tuesday, notifying him that he was suspected of abuse of power and conspiracy to misappropriate and launder funds.
When approached by the Guardian, Pavelko, who has been president of the Ukrainian FA (UAF) since 2015, denied any wrongdoing.
The UAF issued a statement in which it said that a previous national anti-corruption agency investigation had cleared Pavelko and other individuals. They accused pro-Russian forces of being behind the current investigation.
The statement said:
The real reason for the criminal pressure on the leadership of the UAF is the attempt of pro-Russian politicians to force the association to stop the fight against the Russian Federation, as well as to block the process of Ukraine’s preparation to participate in the role of organiser in the 2030 World Cup.
Pavelko, who has been president of the Ukrainian FA since 2015, was photographed with his face covered as he emerged from the public prosecutor’s office in Kyiv on Tuesday.
A leaked police document said Pavelko was suspected of “taking possession of someone else’s property by abuse of his official position as an official, committed on a particularly large scale by prior collusion by a group of persons”.
Russia launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in 'large-scale attack on critical facilities', says armed forces
Russian forces launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” Ukraine’s armed forces said.
Ukrainian defence forces shot down 51 of the Russian cruise missiles launched across the country today, as well as five attack drones, according to the top general Valeriy Zaluzhniy.
A total of 21 out of 31 missiles targeting Kyiv were downed by defence forces, according to the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukrainians are “unbreakable” after new Russian strikes across the country.
Ukraine will rebuild infrastructure damaged by today’s attacks and “get through all of this”, he said in a video address posted to Telegram.
Zelenskiy said:
Today, the European parliament recognised Russia as a terrorist state … And then Russia proved that all this is true by using 67 missiles against our infrastructure, our energy grid, and ordinary people.
He also said Ukraine will request an urgent meeting of the UN’s security council to discuss the latest Russian strikes against power-generating facilities.
I have instructed our Ambassador to the UN to request an urgent meeting of UNSC following today’s Russian strikes. Murder of civilians, ruining of civilian infrastructure are acts of terror. Ukraine keeps demanding a resolute response of international community to these crimes.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 23, 2022
Updated
Kyiv mayor warns city facing ‘worst winter since WWII’
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said warned the Ukrainian capital faces “the worst winter since World War II” after Russian attacks on the city’s energy infrastructure.
Residents in Kyiv had to be ready for the “worst case scenario” of widespread power cuts at low temperatures, he said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild.
Parts of the capital would have to be evacuated in this scenario, he said.
Klitschko said:
We must also prepare for the worst scenario. That would be if there were widespread power cuts and the temperatures were even colder. Then parts of the city would have to be evacuated, but we don’t want it to come to that.
He accused Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, of trying to intimate people and force them out of the city by ordering shelling on civilian infrastructure.
He said:
Putin wants to terrorise people, make them freeze, without light. But that won’t happen. My impression is that people will only get angrier, more determined. We will not die or flee as Putin wants.
Updated
At least six people killed in Russian strikes, says police chief
The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, said six people were killed and 36 wounded following a fresh wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine.
The actual number of casualties is expected to be higher, he added.
⚡️Russia's bombardment of Ukraine kills 6, injures 36.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 23, 2022
National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said that Russia's Nov. 23 bombardment of Ukraine killed six people and injured 36.
He added that the actual number of casualties is expected to be higher.
The number of people injured in today’s missile attack in Kyiv has risen to nine, according to its mayor Vitali Klitschko. Three people were killed, he said.
The International Rescue Committee has condemned an overnight Russian rocket attack that struck a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a newborn baby.
In a statement, the IRC’s vice president for emergencies, Bob Kitchen, said this morning’s attack on the town of Vilniansk, close to the city of Zaporizhzhia, was part of a “dangerous global trend of increasing attacks on health in conflict”.
He said:
The tragic images of rescuers working at the site of a maternity ward we saw this morning illustrate that women and children continue to pay the highest price for this war.
No child should be born under a barrage of missile strikes. No child should die buried in rubble remaining from hospitals, where their mothers seek safety and protection.
Health facilities are protected under international law and should be “safe havens in times of crisis and conflict”, he added.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, has shared an image of 36 of his country’s servicemen who have returned after being held captive in Russia.
Among those who were returned in a prisoner-of-war exchange with Russia were fighters at the Azovstal steelworks of the southern port city of Mariupol, he added.
Returned 36 our citizens from the Russian captivity, one civilian and 35 military personnel.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) November 23, 2022
Among them are Mariupol and "Azovstal" defenders, as well as national guards captured at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in early days of the invasion. pic.twitter.com/q8eX5NCICz
Here are some of the images we have received from the aftermath of the Russian missile strikes across Ukraine today.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, has said power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were switched off after Russian missile strikes across the country.
In a statement, it said “due to a decrease in frequency in the energy system of Ukraine” emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants.
Energoatom added:
Currently, they (power units) work in project mode, without generation into the domestic energy system.
European parliament under cyberattack by pro-Kremlin group, says official
The president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, has confirmed that it came under “sophisticated cyberattacks, hours after MEPs voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack on the European parliament’s website, she said.
She added that IT experts were “pushing back” against the cyberattack and protecting their systems. She added:
My response: #SlavaUkraini
The @Europarl_EN is under a sophisticated cyberattack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility.
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) November 23, 2022
Our IT experts are pushing back against it & protecting our systems.
This, after we proclaimed Russia as a State-sponsor of terrorism.
My response: #SlavaUkraini
Boris Johnson’s claim that Germany wanted Ukraine to quickly “fold” after Russia’s invasion has been dismissed as “utter nonsense” by Berlin.
PA media reports:
The former prime minister, who was in office when Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded in February, said Germany wanted Ukraine to quickly lose, rather than have a lengthy war, for “all sorts of sound economic reasons”.
But German government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, on Wednesday sharply refuted his comment.
“We know that the very entertaining former prime minister always has a unique relationship with the truth; this case is no exception,” he said, according to German media.
Berlin swiftly decided to send arms to Ukraine after Moscow launched its invasion, chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesperson said, noting the “facts speak against [Johnson’s] claims”.
Switching to English, Hebestreit added: “This is utter nonsense.”
Germany’s ambassador to the UK tweeted the official’s rejection of Mr Johnson’s claim, which will not have helped UK-German relations.
Johnson earlier told US broadcaster CNN: “The Germans, for all sorts of sound economic reasons, really didn’t want it to … I’ll tell you a terrible thing – the German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster, then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly and for Ukraine to fold.
“I couldn’t support that. I thought that was a disastrous way of looking at it, but I could understand why they thought and felt as they did.”
The ex-PM also said France was in denial “right up until the last moment” when Russian forces crossed the border.
“This thing was a huge shock. We could see the Russian battalion tactical groups amassing but different countries had very different perspectives,” he said.
“Be in no doubt that the French were in denial right up until the last moment.”
This is from Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK.
"We know that the very entertaining former Prime Minister always has a unique relationship with the truth. This case is also no exception."
— Miguel Berger (@GermanAmbUK) November 23, 2022
🇩🇪 Government spokesperson @RegSprecher rejects @BorisJohnson’s claims about Germany’s position regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
For more live updates from the UK, do follow my colleague Andy Sparrow’s UK politics blog.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Dozens of Russian missiles were reportedly launched against Ukraine on Wednesday morning, with explosions heard in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Air raid alerts were heard across all over the country as Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, urged people to stay in shelters.
At least three people have been killed – including a 17-year-old girl – and six injured after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, according officials. Three people have died and at least 11 injured from the strikes, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Oleksii Kuleba, head of the regional military administration, said the entire Kyiv region was without electricity after Moscow’s airstrikes targeted critical infrastructure.
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, has said the entire western Ukrainian city is “without light” following Russian strikes. Sadovyi warned that there would be “interruptions” with the city’s water supply and that he was awaiting additional information from energy experts.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, reported that a number of units were shut down at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. “Everything is fine with the station. There is nowhere to generate electricity,” a spokesperson said.
Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure caused blackouts across half of neighbouring Moldova, the deputy prime minister of Moldova said. Moldelectrica, the state-owned energy firm, is working to reconnect more than 50% of the country to electricity, Andrei Spînu, said. Moldova’s foreign affairs minister, Nicu Popescu, said he has asked for Russia’s ambassador to be summoned.
A newborn baby was killed after an overnight Russian rocket attack struck a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine. Ukraine’s state emergency service said that a woman with her two-day-old baby and a doctor had been in the facility in the town of Vilniansk, close to the city of Zaporizhzhia, that was destroyed.
A Ukrainian security official has said suspected Russian citizens, cash and documents were seized in a raid on a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv and other Orthodox sites. The raid, which took place on Tuesday, was part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said.
The European parliament was hit by a cyber-attack, officials said, hours after it voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. In a non-binding resolution approved by a large majority of MEPs, the European parliament urged the EU’s 27 member states to make the same designation “with all the negative consequences this implies”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the declaration.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog met a Russian delegation in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the watchdog said. The Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion, was again rocked by shelling at the weekend, leading to renewed calls from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to create a protection zone around it to prevent a nuclear disaster.
The UK is sending helicopters to Ukraine for the first time, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced. Three Sea King helicopters will be provided, with the first already in Ukraine, according to PA Media. Wallace also said an extra 10,000 artillery rounds were being sent to help Ukraine secure the territory it has recaptured from the invading forces in recent weeks.
Russia has probably launched a number of Iranian manufactured uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine since September, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said. It’s also likely that Russia has nearly exhausted its current stock of Iran-made weapons and will seek resupply, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update.
Good afternoon from London, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still here with all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
EU parliament ‘hit by cyber attack’ after declaring Russia a sponsor of terrorism
The European parliament was hit by a cyberattack, officials said, hours after it voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
Jaume Duch, a spokesperson for the EU parliament said its website was down due to a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack.
🚨The availability of @Europarl_EN website is currently impacted from outside due to high levels of external network traffic.
— Jaume Duch (@jduch) November 23, 2022
This traffic is related to a DDOS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) event.
EP teams are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
Russia’s defence ministry said 35 prisoners of war who had been held captive in Ukraine were returned after talks.
In a statement, it said:
On November 23, as a result of the negotiation process, 35 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime, who were in mortal danger in captivity.
The servicemen will be transported by air to Moscow “for treatment and rehabilitation at medical institutions of the Russian defence ministry”, it said.
They will be given medical and psychological assistance, it added.
Updated
A 17-year-old girl is among those killed in Russian airstrikes on Kyiv this afternoon, mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said.
Three people have died and at least 11 injured from the strikes, he said.
Updated
A top Ukrainian security official has said that suspected Russian citizens and cash documents were seized in a raid on a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv and other Orthodox sites early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said there was an ongoing investigation into what had been going on in the network of catacombs.
The SBU website said the agency had found pro-Russian literature, over $100,000 in cash, and “dubious” Russian citizens.
“We are not going to talk about money right now,” Danilov told the Guardian.
There’s certain documents were found there. And certain citizens were found there … most likely citizens of the Russian federation. And now we’re trying to find out what they do in there and why they were there.
Located south of the city centre, the sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – is the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church that falls under the Moscow patriarchate, as well as being a Ukrainian cultural treasure and a Unesco world heritage site.
The raid on Pechersk Lavra was part of a broad sweep of the church’s property. The SBU said in all, about 850 people had their identities checked and 50 underwent “in-depth counterintelligence interviews”, including with the use of a polygraph. More than 350 church buildings were searched including two other monasteries and the headquarters of the Moscow patriarchate’s diocese in western Ukraine, the agency said.
Read the full story by my colleagues Julian Borger and Lorenzo Tondo here:
Updated
Rescuers work at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv today.
Moldova’s foreign affairs minister, Nicu Popescu, says he has asked for Russia’s ambassador to be summoned after strikes on Ukraine left his country “in the dark, again”.
Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have left Moldova in the dark, again.
— Nicu Popescu (@nicupopescu) November 23, 2022
Massive blackouts across the country, including Chisinau and the @MoldovaMFA building.
I instructed that Russia’s ambassador be summoned for explanations.
Updated
Entire city of Lviv 'without light', says mayor
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, has said the entire western Ukrainian city is “without light”.
Sadovyi warned that there would be “interruptions” with the city’s water supply and that he was awaiting additional information from energy experts.
Updated
Ukraine’s nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, has reported that a number of units were shut down at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
An Energoatom spokesperson said:
Everything is fine with the station. There is nowhere to generate electricity.
At least three killed in Russian strike on Kyiv, says city official
At least three people have been killed and six injured after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, according to the city administration.
Oleksii Kuleba, head of the regional military administration, said the entire Kyiv region was without electricity after Moscow’s air strikes targeted critical infrastructure.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, also reported on Telegram that the city’s water supply had been cut off.
Updated
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has said Russia is trying to “punish Ukraine for daring to be free” by launching “cruel” new strikes across the country.
America will stand with Ukraine, she said.
More cruel missile strikes across the country as Russia tries to punish Ukraine for daring to be free. I have seen the strength of the people of Ukraine, and I know Russia’s attempt to dominate Ukraine by plunging it into the cold and dark will fail. We stand with Ukraine.
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) November 23, 2022
‘Massive' blackout in Moldova after Russian attack, says deputy PM
Andrei Spînu, Moldova’s deputy prime minister, has reported “massive” power outages in his country following Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Moldelectrica, the state-owned energy firm, is working to reconnect more than 50% of the country to electricity, he added.
Massive blackout in 🇲🇩 after today's Russian attack on 🇺🇦 energy infrastructure. Moldelectrica, 🇲🇩 TSO, is working to reconnect more than 50% of the country to electricity.
— Andrei Spînu 🇲🇩🇪🇺 (@AndreiSpinu) November 23, 2022
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called for his country to get “all necessary air defence systems ASAP” after fresh Russian strikes across Ukraine.
Moscow launched “new missile terror” against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities to “celebrate” the European parliament’s recognition of Russia as a terrorist state, Kuleba said on Twitter.
Russia celebrates its recognition as terrorist state with new missile terror against Ukraine’s capital, other cities. Should be clear to those who still had doubts: Russia must be recognized as terrorist state worldwide and Ukraine must get all necessary air defense systems ASAP.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) November 23, 2022
Updated
At least one person killed by Russian strike on Kyiv, say city officials
Authorities in Kyiv said at least one person was killed by the latest Russian attack on the capital.
Another person was also injured by the strike, which damaged a two-storey building, according to the city’s military government.
Updated
Russia launches fresh strikes across Ukraine
My colleague Lorenzo Tondo reports for us from Kyiv:
According to preliminary information, in the Kyiv region, Russian strikes hit a residential area and critical infrastructure objects, said Ukrainian authorities.
Explosions were also heard in Lviv and Kremenchuk, in the Poltava oblast.
Power outages have been reported across Ukraine.
An air raid alert was issued across Ukraine and Ukrainian media carried reports of air defence systems in action in several parts of the country.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Guardian correspondents in Kyiv heard several explosions. Emergency power outages began in Kyiv, a local energy provider said.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app:
(Missiles) Hit one of the capital’s infrastructure facilities. Stay in shelters! The air alert continues.
He gave no details of what infrastructure was hit. But Russian forces have increasingly targeted Ukrainian critical infrastructure in recent weeks as they faced setbacks on the battlefield following their 24 February invasion.
At least one person has been injured by the latest Russian attack on Kyiv, according to the city’s military administration.
⚡️Authorities: At least one person injured by Russian attack on Kyiv.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 23, 2022
The information was provided by the Kyiv city military government.
Russia has launched new missile strikes on Ukraine, hitting at least one critical infrastructure target in Kyiv with explosions heard echoing across the capital.
An air raid alert was issued across the country. Ukrainian media reported air defence systems in action in several parts of the country.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of the southern Mykolaiv oblast, said Russian forces had launched five missiles in the region.
Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said Russian forces have launched five missiles in the region. Suspilne media outlet said that explosions have been reported in Poltava Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 23, 2022
Explosions have also been reported in Lviv.
⚡️Explosions are reported in Lviv
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) November 23, 2022
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head office of Ukraine’s president, said a new “massive attack” on the country’s infrastructure facilities was under way.
While someone is waiting for World Cup results and the number of goals scored, Ukrainians are waiting for another score – number of intercepted Russian missiles. A new massive attack on 🇺🇦 infrastructure facilities is underway. In NASAMS, IRIS-T and Air Defense Forces we trust.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) November 23, 2022
Emergency power outages began in Kyiv, a local energy provider said. Lviv’s mayor has also reported power outages in the whole of the city.
Updated
Russian strikes 'hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv' amid reports of several explosions
My colleague Lorenzo Tondo reports from Kyiv:
A series of explosions were heard in Kyiv a few minutes ago, as Russia has unleashed another wave of rockets across Ukraine.
Explosions heard in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Some impacts have been reported. Ukraine’s air defence took out some of them.
Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed a strike on critical infrastructure. Explosions followed by power outages.
Updated
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, has shared a video showing a Russian rocket flying over Kharkiv region.
Russian rocket flying over Kharkiv region.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 23, 2022
Ukrainians often see this in the skies. It's horrifying.
I hope we will receive modern planes and air defense systems. pic.twitter.com/XOQspWX1GM
The Kyiv Post’s Jason Jay Smart has also posted a video reportedly showing missiles flying over Dnipro in central Ukraine.
Missiles flying over Dnipro 🇺🇦 (turn on audio).
— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) November 23, 2022
Unclear what has been hit, but explosions in multiple 🇺🇦cities. Smoke rising from civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine🇺🇦 already has lost 50% of electric energy. It has been expected that Russia🇷🇺 would seek to knock-out the other 50% pic.twitter.com/2pPz0LX4AI
Updated
The Kyiv Independent’s Illia Ponomarenko writes that a Russian missile has just been heard over Bucha, in Kyiv Oblast.
International institutions are finally facing the reality - Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism.
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) November 23, 2022
And right now Ukraine is combating yet another missile attack. One of the Russian missiles has just been heard over my neighborhood in Bucha.
An air raid alert has been issued across almost all of Ukraine, according to reports.
Almost throughout the territory of Ukraine was
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 23, 2022
an air alert has been issued. pic.twitter.com/WM2IhcCZkL
Officials in at least two Ukrainian regions said local air defences were in operation against Russian missiles, according to Reuters.
A large number of Russian cruise missiles have been reported heading towards Kyiv, a Ukrainian military source has told Jimmy Rushton, a freelance security and foreign policy analyst.
Contact in Ukrainian military intelligence tells me there are currently a large number of Russian cruise missiles heading towards Kyiv.
— Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) November 23, 2022
Head to the shelters if you’re in the city.
Updated
The European parliament has declared Russia “a terrorist regime” over its brutal war on Ukraine and called on democracies around the world to follow suit.
In a non-binding resolution approved by a large majority of MEPs, the European parliament said Russia was “a terrorist regime as a consequence of its deliberate physical destruction of civilian infrastructure and mass murder of Ukrainian civilians with the aim of eliminating the Ukrainian people”. It urged the EU’s 27 member states to make the same designation “with all the negative consequences this implies”.
The vote was passed by 494 MEPs, with 58 votes against and 44 abstentions.
The parliament, which often takes bold foreign policy stances, cannot compel EU governments or the European Commission to follow its policy recommendations, which include changing EU law to allow states to be designated as a sponsor or perpetrator of terrorism.
MEPs say this legal step would allow the EU to widen its sanctions against Russia, to target its political, legislative, military and executive bodies as well as holding it responsible for the crime of military aggression. MEPs have also called for Russia to be excluded from the UN security council.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the EU has adopted sanctions against 1,241 individuals and 118 organisations, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, his leading ministers and allies, many Russian oligarchs and Russian Duma deputies.
Five EU countries - Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states - have already declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, while the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe - which is not part of the EU - has also declared the current Russian regime “a terrorist one”.
The resolution listed Russia’s “terrorist acts”, including supplying weapons to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and deliberate atttacks on Syrian civilians; the poisoning of the Skripals and the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, which killed 298 people.
In Ukraine, the resolution said that Ukrainian authorities had documented more than 34,000 war crimes committed by Russian and proxy troops. More than 90 % of these attacks were against civilian population and, or are with the aim of destroying civilian facilities.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has welcomed the decision by the European parliament to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Russia must be “isolated at all levels” so that it will “end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe”, he urged.
I welcome @Europarl_EN decision to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state which uses means of terrorism. Russia must be isolated at all levels and held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 23, 2022
Air raid alert issued across Ukraine amid reports of explosions
Air raid alerts have been heard across all of Ukraine amid reports of explosions in southern and eastern regions of the country, according to Reuters.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, said Russia had launched another rocket attack and urged people to stay in shelters.
⚡️Russia launched yet another rocket attack on Ukraine. Air raid alert is spreading over Ukrainian regions.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 23, 2022
All Ukrainians are advised to stay in shelters.
More to follow.
Updated
EU parliament declares Russia a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’
The European parliament has voted to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
In a largely symbolic vote, MEPs argued that Russia’s military strikes on civilian targets such as energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools and shelters violate international law.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said he was grateful to the European parliament for this “crucial step which strengthens the international isolation of Russia and rightfully confirms its pariah status”
Today, the European Parliament recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state which uses means of terrorism. I am grateful to @Europarl_EN for this crucial step which strengthens the international isolation of Russia and rightfully confirms its pariah status.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) November 23, 2022
The European parliament’s vice-president, Dita Charanzová, called for President Vladimir Putin to be held accountable for his crimes.
European Parliament has just recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Putin’s regime must be held accountable for their crimes. pic.twitter.com/4cUQqWA7Sv
— Dita Charanzová (@charanzova) November 23, 2022
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Tom Ambrose to bring you all the latest developments from Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary
The time in Kyiv is 1pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines so far:
An overnight rocket attack struck a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a newborn baby, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday. The child’s mother and a doctor were pulled alive from the rubble. The region’s governor said the rockets were Russian, AP reported. The strike in the city of Vilniansk adds to the gruesome toll suffered by hospitals and other medical facilities – and their patients and staff – in the Russian invasion entering its tenth month this week.
The UK is sending helicopters to Ukraine for the first time, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced, in an escalation of support for Kyiv’s resistance against Vladimir Putin. Three Sea King helicopters will be provided, with the first already in Ukraine, according to PA Media. They are the first piloted aircraft to be sent by the UK since the Russian invasion began in February.
Russia has probably launched a number of Iranian manufactured uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine since September, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said. It’s also likely that Russia has nearly exhausted its current stock of Iran-made weapons and will seek resupply, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog met a Russian delegation in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the watchdog said. The Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion, was again rocked by shelling at the weekend, leading to renewed calls from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to create a protection zone around it to prevent a nuclear disaster, Reuters reported.
The Russian foreign ministry criticised Ukraine as “godless”, “wild” and “immoral” on Wednesday for raiding an old Orthodox Christian Monastery in Kyiv. Ukraine’s SBU security service and police raided the 1,000-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services,” the SBU said.
Special “invincibility centres” will be set up around Ukraine to provide electricity, heat, water, internet, mobile phone connections and a pharmacy, free of charge and around the clock, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly video address on Tuesday. Russian attacks have knocked out power for long periods for up to 10 million consumers at a time. Ukraine’s national power grid operator said on Tuesday the damage had been colossal.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has come under pressure to apologise after posting a video of himself at a football match wearing a scarf that depicted historical Hungary, including parts of Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on Tuesday Kyiv would summon Hungary’s ambassador “who will be informed of the unacceptability of Viktor Orbán’s act”.
Moldova will pay for gas withheld in Ukraine, Moldova’s deputy prime minister Andrei Spinu said on Wednesday. Accusing Ukraine of keeping volumes of gas that were destined for Moldova, Gazprom said it could start reducing gas supplies to Moldova via Ukraine from 28 November.
The Group of Seven nations are set to soon announce the price cap on Russian oil exports and the coalition will probably adjust the level a few times a year rather than monthly, a senior US Treasury official said on Tuesday. The G7, including the United States, along with the EU and Australia are slated to implement the price cap on sea-borne exports of Russian oil on 5 December, as part of sanctions intended to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
In Crimea, Russian air defences were activated and two drone attacks were repelled on Tuesday, including one targeting a power station near Sevastopol, the regional governor said. Sevastopol is the home port of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Russian-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev called for calm and said no damage had been caused.
I’ll be back in a few hours but my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The UK is sending helicopters to Ukraine for the first time, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced, in an escalation of support for Kyiv’s resistance against Vladimir Putin.
Three Sea King helicopters will be provided, with the first already in Ukraine, according to PA Media. They are the first piloted aircraft to be sent by the UK since the Russian invasion began in February.
“Our support for Ukraine is unwavering. These additional artillery rounds will help Ukraine to secure the land it has reclaimed from Russia in recent weeks,” Wallace said during a visit to Norway.
The defence secretary also said an extra 10,000 artillery rounds were being sent to help Ukraine secure the territory it has recaptured from the invading forces in recent weeks.
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that Ukrainians today were suffering from the “martyrdom of aggression” and compared the war to the “terrible genocide” of the 1930s, when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin inflicted famine on the people there.
He was speaking at the end of his general audience before thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog met a Russian delegation in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the watchdog said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion, was again rocked by shelling at the weekend, leading to renewed calls from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to create a protection zone around it to prevent a nuclear disaster, Reuters reported.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the plant in recent months that has damaged buildings and knocked out power lines supplying the plant that are crucial to cooling the six reactors’ fuel and avoiding a nuclear meltdown.
“IAEA Director General @rafaelmgrossi met a Russian delegation led by Rosatom DG Alexey Likhachev in Istanbul today, for consultations on operational aspects related to safety at #Zaporizhzhya NPP in Ukraine & on urgently establishing a nuclear safety & security protection zone,” the IAEA tweeted.
IAEA Director General @rafaelmgrossi met a Russian delegation led by Rosatom DG Alexey Likhachev in Istanbul today, for consultations on operational aspects related to safety at #Zaporizhzhya NPP in Ukraine & on urgently establishing a nuclear safety & security protection zone.
— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) November 23, 2022
Grossi has been warning for months of the risk of a potentially catastrophic accident because of the shelling.
The nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest, provided about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s invasion, and has been forced to operate on back-up generators a number of times.
Strike on Ukrainian maternity hospital kills newborn - reports
An overnight rocket attack struck a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a newborn baby, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday. The child’s mother and a doctor were pulled alive from the rubble.
The region’s governor said the rockets were Russian, AP reported. The strike in the city of Vilniansk adds to the gruesome toll suffered by hospitals and other medical facilities – and their patients and staff – in the Russian invasion entering its tenth month this week.
They have been in the line of fire from the outset, including a 9 March airstrike that destroyed a maternity hospital in the now-occupied port city of Mariupol.
Updated
The Russian foreign ministry criticised Ukraine as “godless”, “wild” and “immoral” on Wednesday for raiding an old Orthodox Christian Monastery in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s SBU security service and police raided the 1,000-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services,” the SBU said.
The site is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church that falls under the Moscow Patriarchate, Reuters reported.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said there was no justification for the raid and compared the “Kyiv regime” to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine whose name is often associated in Russian with immoral mayhem, chaos and revelry.
“This is just some kind of total godless Bacchanalia. There is no justification or explanation for this. And there cannot be,” Zakharova said on Sputnik radio.
“This is another part of the absolutely immoral and wild actions of the Kyiv regime.”
Russia’s Orthodox church said on Tuesday the search was an “act of intimidation”.
Updated
Russia has probably launched a number of Iranian manufactured uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine since September, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.
It’s also likely that Russia has nearly exhausted its current stock of Iran-made weapons and will seek resupply, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter.
The Russian attacks have been a combination of UAVs and traditional reusable armed systems, it added.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 November 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 23, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/Eog9qjtRCF
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/0uv6zeo9jU
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Tom Ambrose will take you through the rest of the day’s news.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has come under pressure to apologise after posting a video of himself at a football match wearing a scarf that depicted historical Hungary, including parts of Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on Tuesday Kyiv would summon Hungary’s ambassador “who will be informed of the unacceptability of Viktor Orbán’s act”.
“The promotion of revisionism ideas in Hungary does not contribute to the development of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and does not comply with the principles of European policy,” Nikolenko wrote on Facebook. “We are waiting for an official apology from the Hungarian side and a refutation of the encroachments on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian media showed images of Orbán meeting a Hungarian footballer wearing a scarf which the outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported depicted a map of “Greater Hungary” including territory that is now part of the neighbouring states of Ukraine, Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia and Serbia.
Romania’s foreign ministry also responded angrily, saying it had submitted to the Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest its “firm disapproval of the gesture:
Updated
Special “invincibility centres” will be set up around Ukraine to provide electricity, heat, water, internet, mobile phone connections and a pharmacy, free of charge and around the clock, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.
Russian attacks have knocked out power for long periods for up to 10 million consumers at a time. Ukraine’s national power grid operator said on Tuesday the damage had been colossal.
“If massive Russian strikes happen again and it’s clear power will not be restored for hours, the ‘invincibility centres’ will go into action with all key services,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said this week that 8,500 power generator sets are being imported to Ukraine daily.
The first snow of the winter has fallen in much of the country over the past week.
Authorities have warned of power cuts that could affect millions of people to the end of March – the latest impact from Russia’s nine-month invasion that has already killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions and pummelled the global economy.
Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities follow a series of battlefield setbacks that have included a retreat of its forces from the southern city of Kherson to the east bank of the Dnipro River that bisects the country.
Updated
Britain sending helicopters to Ukraine
The Ministry of Defence has announced it will send helicopters to Ukraine for the first time since the war began.
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said it will be the first time piloted aircraft were sent to the war-torn nation since Russia’s invasion.
According to the BBC, three former Sea King helicopters will be provided. The first of which has already arrived in Ukraine.
Wallace, who made the announcement from Oslo where he is meeting allies to discuss ongoing military support for Kyiv, added that the UK will also send an additional 10,000 artillery rounds.
It comes after Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, used a visit to the Ukrainian capital to set out a new 50m package of defence aid which included 125 anti-aircraft guns and equipment to counter Iranian-supplied drones.
Moldova will pay for gas withheld in Ukraine, Moldova’s deputy prime Minister Andrei Spinu said on Wednesday.
Accusing Ukraine of keeping volumes of gas that were destined for Moldova, Gazprom said it could start reducing gas supplies to Moldova via Ukraine from 28 November.
“Gazprom accuses Ukraine and Moldova of something that is not happening. All gas supplied to the right bank of Moldova will be paid by Moldova,” Spinu said on messaging app Telegram.”
Here are photos of the aftermath of the attack, posted by Zaporizhzhia governor Oleksandr Staruk, via the Kyiv Independent:
⚡️Russia strikes maternity ward in Zaporizhzhia, newborn baby killed.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 23, 2022
A Russian missile struck the maternity ward of the Vilnianska Hospital near Zaporizhzhia early on Nov. 23, Governor Starukh wrote on Telegram. A newborn baby was killed in the attack.
📸 Starukh/ Telegram pic.twitter.com/O0b41fvAdh
Zaporizhzhia regional governor says newborn killed in Russian attack on maternity ward
Zaporizhzhia governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram in the early hours of Wednesday morning that a Russian missile strike on a maternity ward in the Zaporizhzhia oblast city of Vilniansk has killed a newborn baby.
“Grief fills our hearts,” he said.
Summary
Hello, this is the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next while.
Zaporizhzhia governor Oleksandr Starukh said on Telegram in the early hours of Wednesday morning that a Russian missile strike on a maternity ward in the Zaporizhzhia oblast city of Vilniansk has killed a newborn baby.
“Grief fills our hearts,” he said.
The Guardian has not been able to verify the claim independently, but if true, it would not be the first strike by Russian forces on maternity wards in Ukraine.
In March, Russian bombs destroyed a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol, killing three people and injuring 17. A pregnant woman who was in the hospital when it was attacked died later, after being taken to another hospital, as did her baby.
We’ll have more on the strike in Zaporizhzhia as it comes in. In the mean time, here are the other key recent developments:
The Group of Seven nations are set to soon announce the price cap on Russian oil exports and the coalition will probably adjust the level a few times a year rather than monthly, a senior US Treasury official said on Tuesday. The G7, including the United States, along with the EU and Australia are slated to implement the price cap on sea-borne exports of Russian oil on 5 December, as part of sanctions intended to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainians needing basic services if Russia knocks out power stations and other facilities this winter can turn to special “invincibility centres,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday. Thousands of centres spread across the country will offer electricity, heat, water, internet service, mobile phone connections and a pharmacy, free of charge and around the clock.
Ukrainians are likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said, as the government started free evacuations for people in Kherson to other regions.
Kyiv will summon the Hungarian ambassador to protest that prime minister Viktor Orbán went to a football match wearing a scarf depicting some Ukrainian territory as part of Hungary, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Ukrainian media showed images of Orbán meeting a Hungarian footballer wearing a scarf which the outlet Ukrainska Pravda said depicted a map of “Greater Hungary” including territory that is now part of the neighbouring states of Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine.
Russia’s Gazprom has threatened to cut its gas flows to Europe via Ukraine as early as next week. In a statement, the Russian state-owned energy giant said some gas flows being kept in Ukraine were actually meant for Moldova, and accused Kyiv of obstructing the delivery of 52.52m cubic metres from transiting to Moldova.
In Crimea, Russian air defences were activated and two drone attacks were repelled on Tuesday, including one targeting a power station near Sevastopol, the regional governor said. Sevastopol is the home port of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Russian-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev called for calm and said no damage had been caused.
The Polish president spoke to a hoax caller pretending to be France’s Emmanuel Macron on the night that a missile hit a village near the Ukrainian border, his office has admitted. “Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful,” Duda tells the caller in a recording of the call posted on the internet. “I don’t want to have war with Russia and believe me, I am extra careful, extra careful.”
