Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv and Moscow. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made a visit to the newly liberated city of Kherson, where he spoke to troops. “We are moving forward,” he told them. “We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.” He also thanked Nato and other allies for their support in the war against Russia.
The US president, Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war “should never be fought”, the White House said. Beijing’s readout from the long-awaited meeting in Bali differed slightly and did not mention the pair agreeing on opposing Russia’s threat of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.
Biden said Kherson was a significant victory for Ukraine and that he was confident Russia would not occupy Ukraine as it intended. The US president said it was hard to tell at this point what the victory would mean, but that the US would continue to support Ukraine.
According to Russian media sources, the Ukrainian army has entered the city of Herois’ke, in the Kinburn peninsula in the southern part of Kherson, after an amphibious operation, as heavy fighting continues across the region.
The UN’s general assembly has approved a resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia “must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts”, the resolution read.
There was confusion after it was reported that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had been hospitalised after arriving in Bali for the G20 summit. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the claim as “the height of fakery” and posted a video of Lavrov sitting reading documents at his hotel. The governor of Bali said that while Lavrov was in good health, he had been in hospital for a checkup.
The White House confirmed that the CIA director, William J Burns, was in Ankara in Turkey on Monday to speak with his Russian counterpart. A White House official said Ukraine was briefed in advance about the visit, that Burns was not conducting any kind of negotiations, and was conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability.
Rishi Sunak called Russia a “pariah state” on the eve of the G20 summit in Indonesia. The UK prime minister said he would take every opportunity at the talks to confront Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who is attending in Vladimir Putin’s absence.
The US has announced fresh sanctions, targeting a transnational network that has been working to procure technology to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. The latest sanctions target 14 individuals and 28 entities, including family members of the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as people that it says worked as financial facilitators in Kerimov’s network.
Russia’s foreign ministry has announced it has banned entry to 100 Canadians in the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures. They include the actor Jim Carrey and the author Margaret Atwood.
The EU and its member states have so far provided weapons and military equipment worth a total of at least €8bn (£7bn) to Ukraine, according to the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
A pro-Russia tank gunner who was accused of firing into residential buildings in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason, according to Ukraine’s state security service (SBU). The pro-Russia militant, nicknamed “Phil”, had fired “at least 20 shots at residential high-rise buildings in Mariupol”, the SBU said in a statement.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thank you for following along. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
UN votes to hold Russia accountable for reparations in Ukraine
The UN’s general assembly has approved a resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, including by making reparations to Kyiv.
The resolution, supported by 94 of the assembly’s 193 members, recognises that Russia must be held accountable for violations of international law in or against Ukraine.
Russia “must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts”, the resolution reads.
Adopted✅
— 🇪🇺EU at UN-NY (@EUatUN) November 14, 2022
Today @UN General Assembly recognizes Russia must be held accountable for its aggression against Ukraine.
Adopted by 94 to 14 votes, the #UNGA resolution recommends the establishment of a registry of damages & recognizes the need for compensation for damages caused. pic.twitter.com/cZihN60o7V
Ukraine’s state railway service, Ukrzaliznytsia, has begun repairing damaged rail tracks and infrastructure on the Kherson line, according to the country’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov.
The @Ukrzaliznytsia, @SESU_UA have already started repairing the damaged rail tracks & infrastructure. We expect to restore rail service w/ #Kherson within 10 days. We’re launching a direct railway connection btw Kyiv & Mykolaiv. The first train will leave this evening pic.twitter.com/YxVAtjh1iy
— Oleksandr Kubrakov (@OlKubrakov) November 14, 2022
Updated
Family members of a former Russian prison inmate who defected to Ukraine after being recruited by the Kremlin-linked private military group Wagner have expressed “horror” after a gruesome video emerged on Friday that showed him being killed by repeated blows with a sledgehammer.
Footage of the killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin was posted over the weekend by the Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone. In the video, Nuzhin was shown lying down with his head taped to a brick wall as an unidentified man in combat clothing hit him with a sledgehammer.
Nuzhin, 55, had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for a murder he committed in 1999, but was freed in July and conscripted into Wagner, a notorious military group run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a powerful Russian businessman and a close ally of Vladimir Putin.
Following his capture by Ukrainian forces in September, Nuzhin gave a series of interviews in the country, in which he said he had joined the Wagner group to get out of prison and that he had quickly hatched a plan to surrender to Ukraine.
In the interviews, he also criticised the Russian leadership and expressed his desire to join the Ukrainian forces and fight against Moscow.
Ilya Nuzhin, Yevgeny’s son, confirmed to the Guardian on Monday that the man in the video was his father but declined to give further comments, citing “security concerns”.
Updated
EU has sent €8bn worth of weapons and equipment to Ukraine, says Borrell
The EU and its member states have so far provided weapons and military equipment worth a total of at least €8bn (£7bn) to Ukraine, according to the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels, he said this was about 45% of what the US has supplied to Kyiv.
Borrell added that the EU would “continue isolating Russia internationally” and continue imposing “restrictive measures” against Russia’s economy.
Updated
Rishi Sunak has called Russia a “pariah state” on the eve of his first meeting of the G20 in Indonesia, where he has vowed to confront Moscow’s representative in public and on the sidelines of the summit.
The UK prime minister said he would take every opportunity during the summit to confront Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who is attending in Vladimir Putin’s absence, and said that would be not only in the hall itself but at any opportunity if the two came face-to-face.
“Russia is becoming a pariah state and he’s [Putin] not there to take responsibility for what he’s doing,” Sunak told reporters on the plane before the meeting in Bali, where he will meet Lavrov for the first time.
But I’m going to use the opportunity to put on the record my condemnation of what they’re doing. I will do that in the hall, I will do that if I see him elsewhere, and that’s the right thing to do.
Sunak said his opening words at the G20 would be to condemn Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine and said there was no suggestion the Russians were prepared to restart peace negotiations.
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry has announced it has banned entry to 100 Canadians, including the actor Jim Carrey and author Margaret Atwood, in the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures.
In a statement, it said the Canadians added to its sanctions list included officials, business leaders and people involved with “media and financial structures that are directly involved in the formation of an aggressive anti-Russian course”.
The list includes Danielle Smith, the premier of the province of Alberta; journalists at the public broadcaster CBC; and several members of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.
The announcement comes after Canada announced a new round of Russia-related sanctions on police officers, investigators, prosecutors and judges.
The Russian ministry said it had decided on the new round of sanctions “in response to the practice, implemented by Justin Trudeau’s regime, of imposing sanctions against the Russian leadership, politicians and parliamentarians, business representatives, experts and journalists, cultural figures”.
Updated
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has said he is “hopeful” Russia will extend the Black Sea graininitiative.
The UN is “working non-stop” to renew the “essential” deal that gives safe passage to Ukrainian grain shipments, Guterres said during a press conference at the G20 summit in Bali.
Talks over the last week had delivered “a lot of progress” on the deal, which is set to expire on Saturday, he added.
He said:
We need urgent action to prevent famine and hunger in a growing number of places around the world. The Black Sea grain initiative, and efforts to ensure Russian food and fertilisers can flow to global markets, are essential to global food security.
Updated
The US has announced fresh sanctions targeting a transnational network that has been working to procure technology to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The sanctions target 14 individuals and 28 entities, including family members of the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as people that it says worked as financial facilitators in Kerimov’s network.
In a statement, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said:
The United States will continue to disrupt Russia’s military supply chains and impose high costs on President Putin’s enablers, as well as all those who support Russia’s brutality against its neighbour.
The US treasury department also blacklisted Milandr, a Russian microelectronics company that it says is part of Moscow’s military research and development structure.
It has also imposed sanctions on major military industrial companies in Russia. The US commerce department has cut off exports of American-made components and US technologies that have been used in some of Russia’s military hardware.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It’s 6pm in Kyiv and Moscow. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made a visit to the newly liberated city of Kherson, where he spoke to troops. “We are moving forward,” he told them. “We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.” He also thanked Nato and other allies for their support in the war against Russia.
Some people waved Ukrainian flags and others had the flag draped over their shoulders as Zelenskiy addressed the crowd. “I’m really happy, you can tell by the reaction of the people, their reaction is not staged,” said Zelenskiy, who was flanked by heavily armed security guards. “The people were waiting for the Ukrainian army, for our soldiers, for all of us.”
The US president, Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war “should never be fought”, in a long-awaited meeting in Bali earlier today, the White House said. The pair shook hands in front of the US and Chinese flags before the three-hour meeting on the resort island and “spoke candidly” about a range of issues, including key regional and global challenges, the White House said in a statement.
China’s readout from the meeting differed slightly, with the New York Times reporting: “Unlike the White House’s account, the Chinese account did not mention Xi and Biden agreeing on opposing Russia’s threat of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.”
In remarks to the media after his meeting with China’s president, Biden said that Kherson was a significant victory for Ukraine. Biden said it was hard to tell at this point what the victory would mean, but that the US would continue to support Ukraine. He said he was confident that Russia would not occupy Ukraine as it intended.
According to Russian media sources, the Ukrainian army has entered the city of Herois’ke, in the Kinburn peninsula in the southern part of Kherson, after an amphibious operation, as heavy fighting continues across the region.
Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said on Sunday.
A pro-Russia tank gunner who was accused of firing into residential buildings in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason, according to Ukraine’s state security service (SBU). The pro-Russia militant, nicknamed “Phil”, had fired “at least 20 shots at residential high-rise buildings in Mariupol”, the SBU said in a statement.
There was confusion after it was reported that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had been hospitalised after arriving in Bali for the G20 summit. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the claim as “the height of fakery” and posted a video of Lavrov sitting reading documents at his hotel. In the video, Lavrov says: “This is a kind of game that is not new in politics. Western journalists need to be more truthful – they need to write the truth”. However, the governor of Bali said that while Lavrov was in good health, he had been in hospital for a checkup.
The White House confirmed that the CIA director, William J Burns, was in Ankara in Turkey on Monday to speak with his Russian counterpart. A White House official said Ukraine was briefed in advance about the visit, that Burns was not conducting any kind of negotiations, and he was conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability.
Updated
The Kremlin has confirmed talks between US and Russian officials took place in Ankara today, Russian state-owned news agency Tass has reported, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Here are some more images from the newly liberated city of Kherson that have been sent to us over the newswires.
Updated
Zambia has asked Russia to explain how one of its citizens who had been serving a prison sentence in Moscow ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine where he was killed, Zambia’s foreign affairs minister said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Stanley Kakubo said in a statement that Russia had notified Zambia about the death in September of the 23-year-old, but did not provide details.
The Zambian student was serving a jail sentence at a medium security prison on the outskirts of Moscow after being convicted of contravening Russian law, Kakubo said, without specifying the offence that occurred in April 2020.
“The Zambian government has requested the Russian authorities to urgently provide information on the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen, serving a prison sentence in Moscow, could have been recruited to fight in Ukraine,” Kakubo said.
It was not clear how the prisoner was recruited and by whom. Reuters could not independently verify the details surrounding his death. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Canada will provide Ukraine with a further $500m (£425m) in additional military assistance in addition to sanctions on nearly two dozen more Russians, prime minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on Monday as the G20 summit began.
Reuters reports the funding is additional to the $3.4bn Canada has given to Kyiv so far for its defence against Russia’s invasion and will help fund military, surveillance and communications equipment, fuel and medical supplies, the statement said.
Monday’s sanctions target 23 Russian individuals “involved in gross and systematic human rights violations against Russian opposition leaders”, including police officers, prosecutors, judges and prison officials, Trudeau’s office said.
Updated
Chris Buckley at the New York Times is reporting that China’s readout of the meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping differs slightly for the US account. Buckley writes:
Unlike the White House’s account, the Chinese account did not mention Xi and Biden agreeing on opposing Russia’s threat of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.
According to the Chinese account, Xi said that “China is highly concerned with the current situation in Ukraine”. Xi also said that “a complicated issue does not have a simple solution,” and that “confrontation between major powers must be avoided.”
Updated
In remarks to the media after his meeting earlier with China’s president, Xi Jinping, the US president, Joe Biden, has said that Kherson is a significant victory for Ukraine. Biden said it is hard to tell at this point what the victory will mean, but that the US will continue to support Ukraine. Reuters reports he said he is confident that Russia will not occupy Ukraine as they intended.
Updated
The White House has confirmed that the CIA director, William J Burns, is in Ankara in Turkey to speak with his Russian counterpart. Reuters reports that a White House official said Ukraine was briefed in advance about the visit, and that Burns was not conducting any kind of negotiations.
A national security council spokesperson told CNN:
We have been very open about the fact that we have channels to communicate with Russia on managing risk, especially nuclear risk and risks to strategic stability. As part of this effort, Bill Burns is in Ankara today to meet with his Russian intelligence counterpart.
He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine. He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability. He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained US citizens.
Updated
Biden and Xi ‘condemn Russian threats of nuclear weapons use in Ukraine’
US president Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war “should never be fought” in a long-awaited meeting in Bali earlier today, the White House said.
The pair shook hands in front of the US and Chinese flags ahead of the three-hour meeting on the resort island and “spoke candidly” about a range of issues, including key regional and global challenges, the White House said in a statement. It said:
President Biden raised Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and Russia’s irresponsible threats of nuclear use. President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
The two leaders held their first face-to-face talks since Biden took office on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
The US and China shared the responsibility to show the world that they can “manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming conflict”, Biden said.
Updated
Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak, who is in Bali for the G20 summit, said he would use the opportunity to “unequivocally condemn” Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He told broadcasters:
I’m going to use this opportunity to unequivocally condemn Russia’s hostile and illegal war in Ukraine. And I know that other allies will as well because it’s right that we highlight what is going on and hold Russia to account for that and I won’t shy away from doing that you accept.
Sunak appeared to acknowledge that the G20 was divided on the issue of explicitly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine:
The G20 is a very different forum to the G7 for example. The G7 is a group of like-minded liberal democracies with similar values. The G20, we have to acknowledge, is a different grouping. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be engaged in it.
We should make our voices heard and constructively work with people where we can to make a difference for people at home as well. And you saw that recently, when it came to migration, the ability to talk to other countries can have benefits for people at home and that’s what I’m here to deliver.
Updated
A pro-Russian tank gunner who was accused of firing into residential buildings in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason, according to Ukraine’s state security service (SBU).
The pro-Russian militant, nicknamed “Phil”, had fired “at least 20 shots at residential high-rise buildings in Mariupol”, the SBU said in a statement.
The statement said:
The Security Service of Ukraine collected indisputable evidence of crimes committed by the militant of the ‘DPR’ [Donetsk People’s Republic] terrorist organisation nicknamed ‘Phil’. The evidence allowed the court to imprison him for 12 years.
The man was captured by Ukrainian forces near the eastern village of Rivnopil in April after his tank came under attack.
He was found guilty of high treason and the “creation of unauthorised armed groups or participation in its activities”, the SBU said.
'We are moving forward', says Zelenskiy as he visits newly liberated Kherson
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spent 30 minutes on Monday morning visiting Kherson, days after Russian troops withdrew.
Addressing Ukrainian soldiers in front of the administration building in the main square, Zelenskiy said:
We are moving forward. We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.
The president sang the Ukrainian national anthem as the country’s blue and yellow flag was hoisted in the southern city.
Updated
According to Russian media sources, the Ukrainian army has entered the city of Herois’ke, in the Kinburn Peninsula, following an amphibious operation, as heavy fighting continues across the region.
After Unconfirmed Reports yesterday that Ukrainian Forces had launched an Amphibious Operation on the Kinburn Peninsula, Russian Media Sources are now reporting that AFU Units have entered the City of Herois'ke as Heavy Fighting continues across the Peninsula. pic.twitter.com/8YSk7Dvmwm
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 13, 2022
On Sunday, there were “unconfirmed reports’’ that Ukrainian forces were about to launch a “small-scale amphibious operation” on the peninsula, in Biloberezhia Sviatoslava national park, which connects to Russian-occupied territory on the eastern side of the Dnipro River.
Ukrainian troops are likely to continue consolidating control of the western bank in the coming days.
Updated
A draft resolution by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, seen by Reuters, calls on Russia to cease all actions against Ukraine’s nuclear facilities including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The draft of what would be the third resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors reads:
(The board) calls upon the Russian Federation to abandon its baseless claims of ownership of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, to immediately withdraw its military and other personnel from the plant, and to cease all actions against, and at, the plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine.
The wording of the draft is similar to that of the two previous resolutions passed in March and September. Both resolutions were passed with large majorities, with only Russia and China opposing them.
We have just arrived in a small, coastal village, named Kobleve, in the region of Mykolaiv, facing the vast Black Sea. Crimea is “only’” 140km away from here.
Just yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested that Crimea, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, is an active Ukrainian military target and that, after the liberation of Kherson, the Ukrainians could try to take it back.
“We will definitely reach our state border – all sections of the internationally recognised border of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
The beach and sea are infested with hundreds of mines placed by both sides in Russia’s war on Ukraine, posing a serious threat to people. The Ukrainian government has banned coastal bathing. Experts agree it will take years to de-mine the Black Sea.
Updated
Stoltenberg: Putin’s aim is to ‘leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter’
The Russian president Vladimir Putin’s aim is to “leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter”, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said.
Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson demonstrates the “incredible courage” of Ukraine’s armed forces, the military alliance chief said during a press conference with members of the Dutch government in The Hague.
It is up to Ukraine to decide what terms are acceptable for negotiations to bring an end to the war, he said, adding Nato’s role was to support Kyiv.
Stoltenberg said:
We should not make the mistake of underestimating Russia. The Russian armed forces retain significant capabilities, as well as a large number of troops and Russia has demonstrated the willingness to bear significant losses. They have also shown extreme brutality.
He added:
The coming months will be difficult. Putin’s aim is to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter. So we must stay the course.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, has shared a video showing the Ukrainian president singing the national anthem as the flag of Ukraine is raised over the city of Kherson.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) November 14, 2022
Kirill Stremousov was in the mood for a chat.
A political marginal on the fringes of society just six months ago, he was clearly relishing the newfound attention he was receiving as the public face of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s Kherson region.
“I am on a constant high,” the Moscow-installed official told the Guardian in a phone interview in August.
We have won. I am living in a dream. Russia is in Kherson for ever.
That “for ever” ended abruptly on Wednesday, when Stremousov, 45, was killed in a car crash as he was speeding away from Kherson.
By that time, he was already fully aware that his dream of a Russian Kherson would soon be torn apart as Ukrainian troops were closing in to liberate the city.
On Friday evening, in remarkable scenes, crowds of jubilant residents greeted Ukraine’s armed forces as they reached the centre of Kherson.
Stremousov’s rise and fall is a story of how one man’s ruthless opportunism and ideological fantasies can play out in a war-torn country. It also serves to demonstrate how thuggish and unsavoury characters thrive in Russia today as the country’s leadership embraces anti-western hysteria.
Updated
On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. He said:
Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered.
After two nights of jubilation after the liberation of their city, on Sunday Kherson residents began to assess the extent of the damage wreaked by eight long months of Russian occupation, with many homes still without electricity and water.
A Turkish official has declined to comment on a report that Russian and US delegations were holding talks in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that officials from the two countries were meeting today, citing a source. The paper claimed that Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency, was reportedly part of the Russian delegation.
The Kremlin said it could neither confirm nor deny the story.
Hello everyone. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy spent 30 minutes on Monday morning visiting the newly liberated city of Kherson, days after Russian troops withdrew from the city over the River Dnipro to the southern portion of the Kherson region. Addressing troops in front of the administration building in the main square, the president said: “We are moving forward. We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.”
Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before retreating, Zelenskiy had said in his nightly address. Russia troops “destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity”, he said. Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread. Zelenskiy said authorities had dealt with nearly 2,000 mines, tripwires and unexploded shells left by Russian troops.
Ukrainians hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city and restore power across the region. In the formerly occupied villages of Pravdyne and Snihurivka, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced returning troops and their neighbours, some unable to hold back tears. “Victory, finally!” one said.
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area. Speaking from Kherson city in a video poster to social media, Yaroslav Yanushevych said that while de-mining was carried out, a curfew had been put in place and movement in and out of the city had been limited. Zelenskiy added that 226 settlements in the Kherson region will be restored, encompassing more than 100,000 local residents. Ukraine can “feel the approach of our victory” he added in his latest national address.
Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said on Sunday.
There was confusion after it was reported that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had been hospitalised after arriving in Bali for the G20 summit. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the claim as “the height of fakery”, and posted a video of Lavrov sitting reading documents at his hotel. In the video, Lavrov says: “This is a kind of game that is not new in politics. Western journalists need to be more truthful – they need to write the truth”. However, the governor of Bali said that while Lavrov was in good health, he had been in hospital for a check-up.
The EU’s top diplomat has said Ukraine will decide when to enter talks with Russia, amid growing speculation that western capitals will pressure Kyiv into negotiations. Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said: “Ukraine will decide what to do. Our duty is to support them.” He was arriving for the monthly meeting of EU foreign ministers, which will be focused on the war in Ukraine. Borrell said the Russian retreat and recapture of Kherson by Ukraine was “very good news” and showed the EU’s strategy of military support was the right one.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back with you later on. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you shortly.
Updated
Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters this morning that the Russian president would not be going to Bali to the G20 summit because “circumstances dictate the priority of the president being in the Russian Federation”, according to a report from the state-owned Tass news agency.
Updated
Zelenskiy on visit to Kherson: important to show support for residents
The Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, spent 30 minutes on Monday morning visiting the newly liberated city of Kherson, days after Russian troops withdrew from the city over the River Dnipro to the southern portion of the Kherson region.
Reuters reports that he addressed troops in front of the administration building in the main square. He said: “We are moving forward. We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.”
He thanked Nato and other allies for their support in the war against Russia and said the delivery of high-mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars) from the US had made a big difference to Ukraine’s war effort.
Parents with children, some pushing baby strollers, also gathered in the main square in front of the administration building that until recently was occupied by Russian forces.
Some people waved Ukrainian flags and others had the flag draped over their shoulders.
“I’m really happy, you can tell by the reaction of the people, their reaction is not staged,” said Zelenskiy, who was flanked by heavily armed security guards. “The people were waiting for the Ukrainian army, for our soldiers, for all of us.”
He said it was important to visit Kherson to show support for residents who endured about eight months of Russian occupation and to demonstrate to them that “we are really returning, we really raise our flag”.
Asked by reporters where Ukrainian forces might advance next, he said: “Not Moscow … We’re not interested in the territories of another country.”
Kherson is one of the regions of Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex, despite not controlling the territory.
On his official Telegram channel, Zelenskiy posted a series of images from the trip, accompanied with the simple messages “Kherson – Ukraine 🇺🇦” and “Our heroes 🇺🇦”
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted a series of photographs of his visit to Kherson on his Telegram channel with the simple message “Kherson – Ukraine 🇺🇦” in Ukrainian and English.
Updated
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has tweeted that the EU is increasing the amount of money it is devoting to supporting food security, saying: “Putin’s war is bringing millions to the brink of starvation.”
Putin’s war is bringing millions to the brink of starvation.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) November 14, 2022
The EU continues to support food security worldwide.
Today we are further increasing our food assistance by €210 million.
This brings our investments to make food systems stronger close to €8 billion until 2024.
Updated
Here is a short video clip of the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kherson.
President @ZelenskyyUa in liberated Kherson today.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 14, 2022
This video was released after he left the city. pic.twitter.com/GSQe4gSx8a
Updated
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has just posted a video to her Telegram account that appears to show Sergei Lavrov working at a table outside his hotel suite in Bali and reacting to the news that he is reported to be in hospital.
Lavrov at his hotel in Bali. Says reports about his health are a "political game" https://t.co/OddllPDgq7 pic.twitter.com/GKu0Ffo1st
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) November 14, 2022
Reuters reports that in the video, Lavrov says: “This is a kind of game that is not new in politics. Western journalists need to be more truthful – they need to write the truth.”
However, the governor of Bali has said that Lavrov was in good health, and had been in hospital for a check-up.
Updated
While there continues to be some confusion about Sergei Lavrov in Bali, it is definite that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited Kherson, and we have just received some images from his trip.
Updated
According to Reuters, it is Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova who has dismissed the claim that Sergei Lavrov was hospitalised in Bali. “This, of course, is the height of fakery,” Reuters report her saying.
Updated
Reuters is reporting that the Russian foreign ministry has dismissed the earlier Associated Press claim that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was hospitalised in Bali as “fake news”.
More details soon …
Updated
Russian media including RIA Novosti and Tass are this morning carrying allegations of mistreatment of Russian prisoners of war by their Ukrainian captors. In particular, they are carrying quotes from the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in which a Russian soldier alleges he was buried alive as part of an interrogation. According to the RIA report, the committee alleges:
One of the released soldiers said that the Ukrainian servicemen tied his hands and feet, put a bag over his head and did not take it off for several days. During this time he was beaten. In addition, due to dissatisfaction with the answers to their questions, the nationalists put a gun to his head and threatened to shoot and bury him.
“They fulfilled the last threat by throwing the prisoner to the bottom of the trench and covering it with earth. The threat of deprivation of life was so real that only after lying in this position for about five hours did he realise that he would live,” the department noted.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Zelenskiy visits newly liberated city of Kherson, thanks Nato and allies for support
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited the newly liberated city of Kherson, days after a Russian troop withdrawal from the southern Ukrainian city after months of occupation, a Reuters witness said.
“We are moving forward,” he told troops. “We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.”
He thanked Nato and other allies for their support in the war against Russia.
Updated
Associated Press have a quick snap to say that according to Indonesian officials, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was taken to hospital after arriving for the G20 summit in Bali.
More details soon …
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited the newly liberated city of Kherson.
More details soon …
Updated
Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv, has posted to Telegram to say that in the last week de-mining efforts in the region had removed 377 explosive objects. The Chernihiv region is to the north of Kyiv, and was one of the areas Russia attacked in February from Belarus in its failed attempt to capture Ukraine’s capital city.
Updated
Borrell: 'Ukraine will decide what to do' with regard to any talks with Russia
Jennifer Rankin reports for the Guardian from Brussels:
The EU’s top diplomat has said Ukraine will decide when to enter talks with Russia, amid growing speculation that western capitals will pressure Kyiv into negotiations.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said: “Ukraine will decide what to do. Our duty is to support them.”
He was arriving for the monthly meeting of EU foreign ministers, which will be focused on the war in Ukraine. Borrell said the Russian retreat and recapture of Kherson by Ukraine was “very good news” and showed the EU’s strategy of military support was the right one.
He claimed that EU military support was greater than some reports suggested, amid growing frustration from EU capitals that the bloc’s efforts are not being recognised vis-a-vis US aid. “I think it’s very important to put the right figures on the table,” Borrell said, promising further details later.
EU foreign ministers are set to agree further sanctions against prominent Iranians, in response to the violent crackdown on human rights and will also discuss Teheran’s role in supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Borrell said the bloc had no evidence Iran was supplying Russia with missiles, although there is some concern this may be the case. Last month, the EU sanctioned four Iranians involved in supplying lethal drones used by Russia to attack Ukraine.
Updated
Here are some more images from the newly liberated city of Kherson that have been sent to us over the newswires.
Updated
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, reports that overnight in the areas of the region controlled by Ukraine, two people were injured, and that one house, seven high-rise buildings, a kindergarten and an administrative building were damaged by shelling from pro-Russian forces.
Donetsk is one of the regions of occupied Ukraine that Russia has claimed to annex following a “referendum”, despite not fully controlling the territory.
In the FT this morning, Henry Foy and Mercedes Ruehl have a bleak assessment of the likelihood of unity over the war in Ukraine at the G20 summit in Bali this week. They write:
“This really is the first G20 to take place after the end of the post-cold war era. You know, this is a new world,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think-tank. “We’re back in a global landscape in which there is militarised rivalry between the west and Russia. And that rivalry is now extending to China. And as a consequence, the ability of the G20 to function as a co-operative body is very much called into question.”
“I would not want to be the Indonesians in the sense that you really are hosting a meeting that is taking place against the backdrop of a level of ideological and geopolitical division that we haven’t seen since the Berlin Wall came down,” said Kupchan, who was special assistant to former US president Barack Obama.
“There will be no agreement on language condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine,” said a senior German official of the G20, echoing downbeat assessments from other western delegations. In closed-door meetings to draft the summit communiqué, China has maintained its strong support for Russia, stymying efforts by western officials to include language condemning the war.
Updated
Hanna Arhirova is in Kherson for Agence France-Presse, and she has spoken to 73-year-old Yevhen Teliezhenko. He and his wife have been driving around the city, flying their Ukrainian flag and asking the soldiers who liberated them to autograph it.
“They were fighting for us. We knew we were not alone,” he said. “Finally freedom!” said 61-year-old Tetiana Hitina, Teliezhenko’s wife. “The city was dead.”
Karina Zaikina, 24, said that in the final days before they finished their pullout last week, Russian troops grew increasingly nervous and rumours flew around the city
“They were stealing and morally pressuring us,” she said. “It was clear that they were scared because they all walked only in groups.”
“I woke up calm today,” she added. “For the first time in many months, I wasn’t scared to go to the city.”
The UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, interviewed on Sky News, has absolutely ruled out normalising the country’s relationship with Russia during the course of the G20 summit.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
Winter to bring new challenges to conflict conditions: UK MoD
Winter will bring a change in conflict conditions, including fewer offensives and more static defensive frontlines and a greater risk of weapon malfunctions, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
Changes to daylight hours, temperature and weather will present unique challenges for fighting soldiers. A reduction in daylight hours will result in fewer offensives and more static defensive frontlines, the latest British intelligence report suggests.
Night vision capability will also be a precious commodity, further exacerbating the unwillingness to fight at night.
As temperatures drop, forces lacking in winter weather clothing and accommodation are highly likely to suffer from non-freezing cold injuries, the ministry adds.
Additionally, the “golden hour” window in which to save a critically wounded soldier is reduced by approximately half, making the risk of contact with the enemy much greater.
An increase in rainfall, wind speed and snowfall will provide additional challenges to the already low morale of Russian forces and also present problems for kit maintenance.
Basic drills such as weapon cleaning must be adjusted to the conditions and the risk of weapon malfunctions increase.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 14 November 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 14, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/XkaDUtCMFV
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/HyQ3c9kxSv
Updated
New Zealand will send a further 66 defence force personnel to the UK to help train Ukrainian soldiers.
New Zealand has a team of 120 defence force (NZDF) personnel training Ukrainians in the UK but this deployment was due to end. The deployment will run from 30 November until July 2023, a government statement said.
“I am pleased the NZDF infantry can offer the skills and experience for further training. This deployment also provides an opportunity for NZDF personnel to gain valuable experience,” said Peeni Henare, minister of defence, on Monday.
NEWS 📢 We will continue deployments to the United Kingdom and Europe in support of Ukraine’s self-defence into 2023.
— New Zealand Army (@NZArmy) November 14, 2022
Read more: https://t.co/vNN4apFNqr#NZArmy #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/kRntmQKtm0
The New Zealand government has also said it would extend the NZDF’s existing intelligence contribution, redeploy four NZDF staff to help with the logistics hub in Europe and provide eight people to support those deployed in the region. No NZDF staff will be sent into Ukraine.
The government said it will donate NZ$1.85m ($1.13m) to the World Food Programme to help address global food security and NZ$1.85m to the Nato Trust fund.
Updated
Images of local residents embracing returning Ukrainian soldiers as they celebrated the liberation of towns and villages throughout Kherson have emerged on our newswires today.
Many were reunited for the first time since Russian troops occupied the region in southern Ukraine.
US to apply sanctions to military procurement network aiding Russia
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has said the US will impose fresh sanctions on a transnational network of individuals and companies that have been working to procure military technologies for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Yellen told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali the sanctions would target 14 individuals and 28 entities, including financial facilitators, but she declined to provide details on where they were located. She said the announcement was scheduled for later on Monday, according to Reuters.
This is part of our larger effort to disrupt Russia’s war effort and deny equipment it needs through sanctions and export controls,” Yellen told reporters.
She declined to provide details on which technologies the sanctions would target in an effort to cut off Russian purchases.
The US Treasury has sanctioned major military industrial firms in Russia and the Commerce Department has cut off exports of American-made components and US technologies that have been used in some of Russia’s military hardware.
Updated
Landmine kills family of four in Kherson - reports
A family of four, including an 11-year-old child, has reportedly been killed after the car they were travelling in run over a landmine in the Kherson region.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, reported the deaths on Sunday evening in a post on his Telegram channel.
Tymoshenko said the family hit a landmine in the village of Novoraisk on Sunday, resulting in the fatal explosion.
Updated
Russian forces destroy key infrastructure before Kherson retreat
Ukrainian authorities are scrambling to return basic services to those living in Kherson after the retreating Russian army blew up all major infrastructure, leaving residents without electricity and water.
Russian troops “destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his latest national address.
Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread while Zelenskiy said authorities were dealing with thousands of mines, tripwires and unexploded shells left by Russian troops.
Roman Golovnya, an adviser to the city’s local administration, said: “Russian occupying forces and collaborators did everything possible to make those people who remained in the city suffer as much as possible during these days, weeks and months of waiting.”
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area.
Speaking from Kherson city in a video poster to social media, Yaroslav Yanushevych said that while de-mining was carried out, a curfew had been put in place and movement in and out of the city had been limited.
Retreating Russian forces reportedly destroyed Kherson city’s communications, electricity, water, heat, a 100-metre-tall TV tower and at least four bridges.
Ukrainians also accused Russians of blowing up dozens of schools across the province, further damaging the prospects of children who have already missed nine months of lessons.
Zelenskiy added that 226 settlements in the Kherson region will be restored, encompassing more than 100,000 local residents.
Zelenskiy accuses Russia of Kherson war crimes
On Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson.
Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
Ukrainian authorities are scrambling to de-mine the strategic southern city of Kherson and restore power across the region after the retreating Russian army blew up all major infrastructure, leaving residents without electricity and water.
Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread while Zelenskiy said authorities were dealing with thousands of mines, tripwires and unexploded shells left by Russian troops.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy also accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” the Ukrainian president said.
For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.
If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before retreating, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Russia troops “destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity”, he said in his latest national address. Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread. Zelenskiy said authorities had dealt with nearly 2,000 mines, tripwires and unexploded shells left by Russian troops.
Ukrainians hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city and restore power across the region. In the formerly occupied villages of Pravdyne and Snihurivka, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced returning troops and their neighbours, some unable to hold back tears. “Victory, finally!” one said.
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area. Speaking from Kherson city in a video poster to social media, Yaroslav Yanushevych said that while de-mining was carried out, a curfew had been put in place and movement in and out of the city had been limited. Zelenskiy added that 226 settlements in the Kherson region will be restored, encompassing more than 100,000 local residents. Ukraine can “feel the approach of our victory”, he added in his latest national address.
Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said on Sunday.
Significant new damage to the major Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, which the Russians attempted to blow up during their withdrawal from nearby Kherson, was seen via satellite imagery from US company Maxar. Ukrainian authorities are trying to assess the damage and it is not clear if the structural integrity of the reservoir is at risk. With a water volume of 18.2 cubic km, the reservoir could flood a huge area, including the city of Kherson, if destroyed.
Pro-Moscow forces are putting up a fierce fight in the eastern Donetsk region. “Battles in Donetsk region are just as intense as they have been in previous days,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “The level of Russian attacks has not declined. And the level of our resilience and courage is at its highest. We will not allow them through our defence.”
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said some sanctions on Russia could remain in place even after any peace agreement with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. Yellen said that any eventual peace agreement would involve a review of the penalties the US and its allies have imposed on Russia’s economy, according to the Journal. “I suppose in the context of some peace agreement, adjustment of sanctions is possible and could be appropriate,” Yellen said in an interview in Indonesia, where she is attending the G20 summit.
Russia’s education minister, Sergey Kravstov, has said that military training will return to Russian schools next September, according to the latest update by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The programme is supported by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, which states that no less than 140 hours per academic year should be devoted to this training.
Ukraine will decide on the timing and contents of any negotiation framework with Russia, according to a readout of a meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at the Asean summit in Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
Vladimir Putin has spoken to his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, by phone and both leaders placed emphasis on deepening political, trade and economic cooperation, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday. The discussion of “a number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda” also including the transport and logistics sector, the Kremlin said. It did not say when the phone call took place and made no mention of Iranian arms supplies to Moscow.
Russia said there was no agreement yet to extend a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea, repeating its insistence on unhindered access to world markets for its own food and fertiliser exports, Reuters reported.
Ukraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to address how Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction.
Updated
