Here is the situation on Thursday, November 14:
Fighting
- Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian troops near the northeastern city of Kupiansk, Ukraine’s military has said. It added that Russian forces attacked in four waves and deployed tanks, armoured vehicles and a mine-clearing system. Some of the Russian forces, it said, donned uniforms resembling those of the Ukrainian military – a practice it said is a war crime.
- Heavy military activity has been reported further south in the city of Pokrovsk, with Ukrainian forces repelling all but one of 36 attacks.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry has said its forces have taken control of the town of Rivnopil in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Ukrainian authorities have said a Russian attack killed two residents in the village of Shevchenko in the Donetsk region.
- A Ukrainian car bomb has killed senior Russian naval officer Valery Trankovsky in occupied Crimea’s city of Sevastopol, in what a Kyiv security source has said is one of its highest-ranking targets to date.
- Russia has launched its first missile attack on Kyiv since August, with no casualties or major damage reported. Air defences intercepted two incoming cruise missiles, two ballistic missiles and 37 drones across the country, the air force said.
North Korean soldiers in Ukraine
- South Korea’s spy agency has said it has evidence that North Korean soldiers have engaged in combat operations against Ukraine alongside their Russian allies.
- The United States is concerned by Russia’s growing relationship with North Korea, especially what technology the countries may be exchanging, the top US arms control official, Bonnie Jenkins, has said. Jenkins added that “we don’t have anything definitive … in terms of nuclear technology going from Russia to the DPRK [North Korea]”.
International affairs
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels, as the outgoing Biden administration seeks to cement support for Ukraine ahead of Donald Trump’s return as president.
- Blinken assured NATO the Biden administration would bolster its support for Ukraine in the months before Trump’s return, adding that the deployment of North Korean troops in the Ukraine war “demands and will get a firm response”.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said he is “cautiously optimistic” after discussing with Blinken the possibility of conducting deep strikes on Russia and Euro-Atlantic integration.
- Trump and Joe Biden have held a cordial meeting in which the outgoing US president reportedly argued that support for Ukraine was good for national security because a stable Europe would keep America from being dragged into war.
- The US has opened a new air defence base in northern Poland, with President Andrzej Duda saying it shows Washington is a “guarantor of Poland’s security” and that the country is secure as a member of NATO.
- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin have discussed Ukraine war developments on a call, according to Saudi Arabia’s state news agency.
