Closing summary
The EU has agreed to more than quadruple its spending on training Ukrainian soldiers to battle Russia, investing close to an extra €200m (£173m), AFP reported.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, urged members of the alliance to “stay the course” in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion, Reuters reported. “It’s our obligation to ensure that we provide Ukraine with the weapons they need,” Stoltenberg told reporters as he arrived for a gathering of foreign ministers from Nato countries at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
A Ukrainian military intelligence official has confirmed that Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence head, Kyrylo Budanov, had been poisoned and had been undergoing treatment in a hospital. Her poisoning was reported earlier by Ukrainian media outlets, which cited unnamed intelligence sources.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said military and financial support for Ukraine is of “existential importance” to Europe. In a speech to parliament, he was quoted by AFP as saying: “We will continue with this support as long as it is necessary. This support is of existential importance. For Ukraine … but also for us in Europe. None of us want to imagine what even more serious consequences it would have for us if Putin won this war.”
Moscow’s Lefortovo district court extended the pre-trial detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for two months until 30 January 2024, the court’s press service said.
According to AFP, the caretaker Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is the clear frontrunner to become the next head of Nato. Multiple diplomats put the veteran well ahead of other hopefuls – including the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, and Latvia’s top diplomat, Krišjānis Kariņš – to take over next year from Jens Stoltenberg.
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EU agrees to more than quadruple its spending on training Ukrainian soldiers
The EU has agreed to more than quadruple its spending on training Ukrainian soldiers to battle Russia, investing close to an extra €200m (£173m), AFP reports.
The 27-nation bloc has so far trained 34,000 Ukrainian personnel for the frontline, making the EU the biggest provider of training for Ukraine’s military
The latest funding increased the amount from the EU’s central European Peace Facility fund for the training by €194m to €255m in total, Brussels said in a statement.
Officials say they were aiming to reach 40,000 Ukrainian troops trained by the EU in the near future.
A Russian businessman has successfully taken legal action to ban a book in Germany about the Kremlin and its spy agencies, in a case that freedom of speech groups have described as an alarming attack on public interest reporting.
Two London-based Russian journalists, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, say they interviewed the businessman, Alexey Kozlov, for their 2019 book The Compatriots because of his family’s historical connections to Soviet intelligence. He has now won a court injunction against the book’s publisher.
Index on Censorship said in a statement that it felt “intimidatory tactics” were being used to silence critics of the Russian regime living abroad. Its statement was backed by 15 other freedom of expression groups including PEN International and Article 19 Europe.
You can read the full story here:
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said that Kyiv did not feel any pressure from its partners to start peace negotiations with Russia to put an end to the 21-month-old war, Reuters reports.
Russian shells struck a residential building and private houses on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring at least five, local Ukrainian officials have said.
A five-storey building was hit in the morning in the southern town of Nikopol, the Dnipropetrovsk region governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.
“A 63-year-old man was killed. Two women, aged 65 and 63, were injured. There may be people under the rubble,” he wrote on Telegram.
In a separate attack in the afternoon, Russian shelling destroyed at least five private houses in a northern settlement just on the border with Russia, Sumy regional prosecutors reported, according to Reuters.
Two bodies had been recovered from the rubble, and a seven-year-old girl had died in hospital after a car she was in came under fire, the prosecutors said on Telegram.
These claims are yet to be independently verified.
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Nato allies have put pressure on Turkey to finally approve Sweden’s stalled bid to join the military alliance, AFP reports.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, at a meeting of alliance foreign ministers that Sweden’s application should be ratified “as soon as possible”, his spokesperson said.
“The strength and credibility of our alliance are at stake. We must not lose another day,” France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said.
Turkey and Hungary are the only Nato members yet to ratify Sweden’s bid, more than 18 months after it applied for membership.
The Turkish parliament started this month to debate Sweden’s application to join after Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, launched the process after a deal at a Nato summit in July.
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Finland will close its entire border with Russia to travellers for the next two weeks to try to halt a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic country, the government has said.
Last week, Finland shut all but one of its remaining border posts to travellers from Russia, keeping open only the northernmost crossing located in the Arctic.
But this too would now close, allowing only goods transport, the government said, according to Reuters.
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In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had made further small advances over recent days on the northern axis of a pincer movement as part of an attempt to surround Avdiivka.
Russian troops have been pressing land and air-based attacks on Avdiivka since mid-October as the focal point of their slow-moving push through eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in the 21-month war.
Posting on X, the MoD wrote:
Since the start of October 2023, Russian forces have moved the frontline forwards up to 2km in this area. Although modest, this advance likely represents one of the greatest Russian gains since spring 2023. It has cost the units involved thousands of casualties.
This operation is gradually bringing Russian troops closer to the Avdiivka coke and chemical plant, where Ukrainian forces maintain one of their main defensive positions.
Although Avdiivka has become a salient or bulge in the Ukrainian frontline, Ukraine remains in control of a corridor of territory approximately 7km wide, through which it continues to supply the town.
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Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:
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Canada’s foreign minister, Melanie Joly, has pushed back against suggestions that Ukraine needs to change its strategy as the war drags towards a third year, Agence France-Presse reports.
“We have a good strategy, and Ukraine has a good strategy, but we need to implement it,” she said.
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It is not for Nato, the EU or anyone else to decide Ukraine’s strategy to defeat Russia, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said on his way into the Nato meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.
“We have to assist their strategy. Our strategy has to be Russia losing; for the last time losing in this neighbourhood,” he said, adding that Ukraine had shown how successful it was at “pushing back the Russians”.
Landsbergis said failure to supply Ukraine with enough ammunition was not an option as the consequences would be more wars in Europe.
“If Ukraine is forced to stop for one or the other reason, because it’s not … getting enough weapons, ammunition, technological breakthrough, then it’s our choice. This is our choice … And then we will just have to just start the clock for the next conflict,” he told reporters.
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On her way to a Nato meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said it was important that Germany and the rest of the western allies in Nato and the EU continued to increase their support for Ukraine.
She said:
We are making clear here and also at the Nato meeting in Brussels that security and peace in Ukraine is also insurance for peace in Europe and this is why, we, Germany as all our other partners, keeping up increasing our support for Ukraine, because Ukraine is not only defending the peace for its own people are defending us in Europe.
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Ukraine confirms poisoning of intelligence chief's wife
A Ukrainian military intelligence official has confirmed that Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence head, Kyrylo Budanov, has been poisoned and is undergoing treatment in a hospital.
Her poisoning was reported earlier by Ukrainian media outlets, which cited unnamed intelligence sources (see earlier post at 09.25).
“Yes, I can confirm the information, unfortunately, it’s true,” Andriy Yusov, an official at the GUR military intelligence agency, told Reuters.
Budanova, who is an adviser to the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, was reportedly hospitalised after her condition deteriorated.
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Germany and France have come a long way on the FCAS fighter jet programme and MGCS tank system, and will decide who does what for the European defence projects by the end of the year, Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has said.
“We will present it in January. We’ll be very far along by then,” Pistorius was quoted by Reuters as saying about the projects.
Jens Stoltenberg urges Nato allies to 'stay the course' in supporting Ukraine
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has urged members of the alliance to “stay the course” in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion, Reuters reports.
“It’s our obligation to ensure that we provide Ukraine with the weapons they need,” Stoltenberg told reporters as he arrived for a gathering of foreign ministers from Nato countries at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
“We just have to stay the course. This is about also our security interests.”
His remarks come as the fate of a $60bn US military aid package proposed by the Biden administration is in limbo due to opposition from some Republicans in Congress.
A proposal by the EU’s foreign policy chief to allocate up to €20bn (£17bn) over four years for military aid to Ukraine has run into resistance among the bloc’s member states, which would have to provide the cash.
The backlash against the decision to allow the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to attend the OSCE meeting in Skopje is growing, with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania now saying their top diplomats will not take part.
In a joint statement, the Baltic countries’ foreign ministers said Lavrov’s planned attendance “risks legitimising aggressor Russia as a rightful member of our community of free nations”. Speaking at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels, the Estonian foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said:
Lavrov’s attendance trivialises the atrocious crimes that Russia continues to commit. Lavrov’s place is at a special tribunal, not the OSCE table.
Last year, the OSCE host Poland refused to let Lavrov attend, sparking an angry response from Russia.
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Ukraine says it will boycott the OSCE meeting in the North Macedonian capital, Skopje, after the invitation of the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who has said he plans to attend, AFP reports.
The announcement came the day after Bulgaria said it would open its airspace to the Russian minister; making a diplomatic exemption to European skies being closed to Russia over its Ukraine invasion.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, will “boycott the OSCE ministerial meeting over the decision to allow Lavrov to attend,” Kyiv’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko told AFP.
Kyiv had called for Moscow to be excluded from the organisation. “We must work together to save the OSCE from Russia,” Nikolenko said on social media. He said Russia should be removed from the OSCE as it “unleashed the largest armed aggression in Europe since the end of WWII”.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also said on Tuesday that their top diplomats would not attend the meeting in protest over the invitation to Lavrov. North Macedonia holds the rotating chairmanship of the European security body.
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The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, will underline the country’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine at his first meeting with Nato foreign ministers in Brussels today, his office said in a statement (see earlier post at 09.35 for more details on the former prime minister’s visit).
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Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said he was “confident” the US would keep up weapons deliveries to Ukraine, despite a political blockage in Washington, AFP reports.
The US has provided over $40bn in security aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion and pledged to back Kyiv for as long as necessary.
But opposition from hardline Republicans has thrown into question the future of US assistance.
“I’m confident that the United States will continue to provide support because it is in the security interest of the United States to do so and it’s also in line with what we have agreed,” Stoltenberg said at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.
“I urge allies and allies are also committed to continue to deliver support,” Stoltenberg said, pointing to €10bn (£8.7bn) pledged recently by Germany and the Netherlands.
“Even though the frontline has not moved so much, the Ukrainians have been able to inflict heavy losses on the Russian forces.”
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On Tuesday morning, almost 100,000 people were still without power on the Crimean peninsula and some still had no water supply, the Russia-installed governor said, announcing that several regions were still under a state of emergency.
Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, is a key military and logistics hub for Russia.
Winds of 67mph were forecast for today in Crimea, southern Russia and parts of north-western Russia, the state news agency Tass reported.
In the Vologda region, about 310 miles northeast of Moscow, more than 10 days’ worth of snow – about 10 inches – fell in one day, Tass said.
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Summary of the day so far...
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said military and financial support for Ukraine is of “existential importance” to Europe. In a speech to parliament, he was quoted by AFP as saying: “We will continue with this support as long as it is necessary. This support is of existential importance. For Ukraine … but also for us in Europe. None of us want to imagine what even more serious consequences it would have for us if Putin won this war.”
Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence head, Kyrylo Budanov, has been poisoned, a representative of the military intelligence agency (HUR) told the Kyiv Independent. Babel, a Ukrainian media outlet, reported earlier that Budanova had been hospitalised due to heavy metal poisoning, citing undisclosed military intelligence sources. The Guardian is yet to verify these claims.
Moscow’s Lefortovo district court extended the pre-trial detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for two months until 30 January 2024, the court’s press service said.
According to AFP, the caretaker Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is the clear frontrunner to become the next head of Nato. Multiple diplomats put the veteran well ahead of other hopefuls – including the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, and Latvia’s top diplomat, Krišjānis Kariņš – to take over next year from the alliance’s current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
Russia had carried out attacks on 10 of Ukraine’s regions over the past day, killing one person and injuring at least two people, local officials reported early on Monday, according to the Kyiv Independent.
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Ukraine military support is of 'existential importance' to Europe, says Olaf Scholz
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said military and financial support for Ukraine is of “existential importance” to Europe.
In a speech to parliament, he was quoted by AFP as saying:
We will continue with this support as long as it is necessary. This support is of existential importance. For Ukraine … but also for us in Europe.
None of us want to imagine what even more serious consequences it would have for us if Putin won this war.
Germany has been one of Ukraine’s biggest backers along with the US, Scholz said, supplying Kyiv with weapons.
But a constitutional court ruling on 15 November against a budget manoeuvre to get around Germany’s “debt brake” threw the financial plans of Scholz’s coalition into disarray.
It also indicated that his and future governments would have to stick more closely to the spirit of the brake, which limits a government structural budget deficit to 0.35% of gross domestic product, even as spending needs rise.
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Russia’s upper house of parliament will officially announce the date of the March presidential election on 13 December, the Communist party leader, Gennady Zyuganov, has said.
According to Russian law, the upper house of parliament must announce the exact date at least 100 days before the vote. Election day is widely assumed to be 17 March.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has not yet said whether he plans to run again, although it is generally expected that he will do so, and win.
“According to my information, the Federation Council will on 13 December officially announce the start of the presidential election campaign,” Zyuganov said.
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David Cameron will return to Brussels today in an official capacity for the first time since his doomed campaign for Britain to remain in the EU.
The former prime minister, who made a surprise return to frontline politics this month when he became the UK foreign secretary, will attend a Nato meeting of foreign ministers to discuss issues including ammunition supply to Ukraine and the alliance’s continued presence in Kosovo.
He is also expected to try to squeeze in a meeting with Maroš Šefčovič, the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Brexit deals, before or after the two-day summit.
You can read the full story here:
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We now have a statement from Iran’s deputy defence minister on the reported plan for Iran to buy Russian fighter jets (see earlier post at 08.51).
“Plans have been finalised for Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters, and Yak-130 jet trainers to join the combat units of Iran’s Army,” Mehdi Farahi said.
Iran’s air force has only a few dozen strike aircraft, including Russian jets as well as ageing US models acquired before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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Wife of Ukrainian military intelligence chief poisoned – reports
Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence head, Kyrylo Budanov, has been poisoned, a representative of the military intelligence agency (HUR) has told the Kyiv Independent.
Babel, a Ukrainian media outlet, reported earlier that Budanova had been hospitalised due to heavy metal poisoning, citing undisclosed military intelligence sources.
The HUR representative confirmed Babel’s report in a comment for the Kyiv Independent.
Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine's Military Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov, was poisoned, a representative of the military intelligence agency (HUR), not allowed to go public at this time, told the Kyiv Independent on Nov. 28.https://t.co/nlVA74xERM
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) November 28, 2023
“The course of treatment is now being completed, and then there will be a check-up by the doctors,” Babel’s source said.
“These substances are not used in any way in everyday life and military affairs. Their presence may indicate a purposeful attempt to poison a specific person.”
The Guardian is yet to verify the claims in the report.
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Russia might impose a ban on grain exports if its stocks fall to 10m tonnes, the Izvestia daily newspaper reports this morning, citing a government document.
Reuters said Russia’s agriculture ministry did not respond to its request to comment on the article.
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Iran has finalised arrangements for the delivery of Russian-made Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and helicopters, Iran’s deputy defence minister has told Iran’s Tasnim news agency, according to Reuters.
In June, the White House said Russia and Iran appeared to be deepening their defence cooperation.
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A major ransomware gang suspected of being involved in attacks in 71 countries across the globe has been dismantled in Ukraine, Europol has said.
More than 20 investigators from Norway, France, Germany and the US were deployed to Kyiv with 30 properties searched in the regions of Kyiv, Cherkasy, Rivne and Vinnytsia.
A 32-year-old, believed to be the ringleader, and four of his alleged accomplices were arrested.
The gang were known for specifically targeting large corporations in what has become a digital-day scourge for businesses and some government organisations.
Among those subjected to highly damaging ransomware attacks in the past few years include Ireland’s health service and Hackney council in London in 2020, which was forced to spent £12m rebuilding its technical infrastructure as a result.
Ransomware attackers penetrate organisations, encrypt their data and then seek financial compensation for its safe return.
In a statement, Europol said investigators had determined that “perpetrators had encrypted over 250 servers belonging to large corporations resulting in losses exceeding several hundreds of millions of euros”.
It added: “Those responsible for breaking into networks did so through techniques including brute force attacks, SQL injections and sending phishing emails with malicious attachments in order to steal usernames and passwords.”
The operation involved police forces and national security agencies in seven countries including the public prosecutors or police in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, and the US along with the justice department at the European Commission and Europol in The Hague.
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According to the AFP news agency this morning, the caretaker Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is the clear frontrunner to become the next head of Nato – even though a shock far-right result at the Netherlands’ elections risks tarnishing his legacy.
Multiple diplomats put the veteran well ahead of other hopefuls – including the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, and Latvia’s top diplomat, Krišjānis Kariņš – to take over next year from the alliance’s current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
Stoltenberg has had his decade-long tenure extended twice in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine. A successor is expected to be announced before a July summit in Washington. Rutte, 56, had in the past ruled himself out, but last month told Dutch media it was a “very interesting” job and he would be open to the prospect.
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Russian court extends detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich
Moscow’s Lefortovo district court has extended the pre-trial detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for two months until 30 January 2024, the court’s press service has said.
Gershkovich was arrested on 29 March in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison. The reporter denies the charges.
The WSJ said in an emailed statement:
Evan has now been unjustly imprisoned for nearly 250 days, and every day is a day too long.
The accusations against him are categorically false and his continued imprisonment is a brazen and outrageous attack on a free press, which is critical for a free society.
We continue to stand with Evan and call for his immediate release.
Gershkovich, 32, is the first American journalist to be held in Russia on spying charges since the end of the cold war.
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Ten people have died in snowstorms in Ukraine, the country’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, has said.
Icy winds and storms have swept in since Sunday, cutting power and blocking roads, particularly in the south.
“As a result of worsening weather conditions, 10 people died in Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions,” Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
“Twenty-three people were injured, including two children,” he added.
A total of 411 settlements in 11 regions had lost power, and more than 1,500 vehicles had to be rescued, Klymenko said.
Summary
It is Tuesday and this is the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Here are the top developments.
Russian forces are intensifying their drive to capture Avdiivka, trying to advance on all sides, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration. “The Russians have opened up two more sectors from which they have begun making assaults – in the direction of Donetsk … and in the so-called industrial zone. The enemy is attempting to storm the city from all directions.”
Hurricane-force winds, snowfall and flooding have lashed Russia’s southern regions of Dagestan, Krasnodar and Rostov, as well as the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea. In Ukraine, the severe weather killed at least five people and cut power to almost 1,500 towns and villages after storms dumped up to 25cm (10in) of snow in some places. A further four people were reported dead in Moldova. Freezing temperatures were forecast for Tuesday morning. Russia’s energy ministry said power cuts affected 1.9 million people.
Weather forecasts show downpours were continuing late on Monday in the Crimean port of Sevastopol and Sochi on Russia’s Black Sea coast, amid hopes the storm’s impact might deliver a setback to the Russian war effort.
The UK Ministry of Defence has described as “plausible” Ukrainian estimates of Russian casualties – the number killed or wounded – running at a daily average of almost 1,000 in November. This would, on the face of it, make November 2023 one of the most difficult months for Russian forces, with many of its losses coming from its assault on Avdiivka – although figures on Ukrainian losses were not provided.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is attending a Nato session in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will include the first foreign minister-level meeting of the Nato-Ukraine Council, a body created to improve cooperation and coordination and help prepare Kyiv for membership. “Allies will continue to support Ukraine’s self-defence until Russia stops its war of aggression,” said Jim O’Brien, the top US diplomat for Europe.
Ukraine will become a member of Nato subject to reforms after the war, the military alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. Nato states still agreed that full membership remained impossible in the midst of war, even while ways to move Ukraine and Nato closer continued, he added.
The Chechen ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov, has said another 3,000 of his fighters are ready to go to and fight in Ukraine for Russia. Kadyrov is suspected to be ill, and his soldiers are frequently derided online for appearing to be mostly concerned with posting staged videos of themselves on TikTok. There have also been several Chechen armed formations choosing to fight on the side of Ukraine rather than Russia.
Exports to Russia from Turkey of civilian goods used by the military such as microchips and telescopic sights are increasing, causing concern to the US and the EU.
Ancient Scythian artefacts from museums in Russian-occupied Crimea have been returned to Ukraine after a legal dispute over ownership rights during which they spent almost a decade in the Netherlands, a Ukrainian museum said.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, says he plans to travel to Nato member North Macedonia this week to attend a conference of the 57-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes Russia. Bulgaria, another Nato member that borders North Macedonia, said it had issued permission for Lavrov to fly through its airspace.
Moscow does not have plans to expand its territory any further in Europe, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted in response to remarks by the US defence secretary last week that Putin would not stop at Ukraine if he was victorious.
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