Closing summary
Ukraine faced its biggest drone attack of the war so far last night, according to Kyiv. Five people were wounded by falling debris in the capital city, including an 11-year-old child, and the attack led to power cuts.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 71 of the 75 drones launched in the attack. “The enemy launched a record number of attack drones at Ukraine! The main direction of the attack is Kyiv,” the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, said.
The former Russian prime minister turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov has been added to a list of “foreign agents”, Russia’s justice ministry has announced. Kasyanov, who was the first head of Putin’s government in the early 2000s, now appears in the justice ministry’s register of foreign agents, a term reminiscent of the Soviet-era “enemy of the people”.
The UK Ministry of Defence reported that Russia’s Black Sea fleet is facing issues reloading its vessels with cruise missiles. Russia will, the MoD said, need to overcome such issues “in time for maritime cruise missiles to be included in any winter campaign of strikes against Ukraine”.
The Swiss president, Alain Berset, was in Kyiv to meet his Ukrainian counterpart and attend an international summit on food security. Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, was also in Ukraine – he met the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, and they discussed the progress of Ukraine’s integration into the EU.
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The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has reiterated his support for Ukraine following the drone attack. He tweeted:
Ukraine’s energy ministry said 17,000 people were without power in the Kyiv region as a result of the attack, noting that four power lines were damaged. Power was restored later during the day.
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Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, was in Kyiv when last night’s drone raid hit the city. He posted a picture of himself in a bomb shelter on X.
Rinkēvičs met Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, earlier today. In another post to X, he said they discussed Ukraine’s EU integration.
25.11.plkst. 5.10, Kijiva
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) November 25, 2023
Foto: Ilmārs Znotiņš pic.twitter.com/56vsUsMJvz
Had a very fruitful meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine @Denys_Shmyhal, discussed Ukraine’s European integration progress and EU macrofinancial assistance. I reitareted Latvia’s support to begin EU’s acccession talks with Ukraine 🇱🇻 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/AJ84oF7y5g
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) November 25, 2023
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Ukraine’s air force said it downed 74 of the 75 Russian attack drones that hit the country overnight, AFP reports.
The majority were downed over Kyiv, causing power cuts in the centre of the city as temperatures dipped below freezing.
The drone attack – the largest since Russia’s full-scale invasion according to Kyiv – came as Ukraine marked Holodomor Remembrance Day, commemorating the 1930s starvation of millions in Ukraine under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
“The enemy launched a record number of attack drones at Ukraine! The main direction of the attack is Kyiv,” the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, said.
Kyiv authorities said five people – including an 11-year-old child – were wounded in the capital, where the air raid lasted six hours.
Local resident Viktor Vasylenko said he had soothed his young daughter, who experienced “panic and nausea” during the long night-time attacks as they sheltered in a corridor.
The 38-year-old said his family always has “everything prepared” in case of such attacks but it was the first time one had hit so close.
“My wife thought that the house would collapse in half,” he said.
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Pictures show a school that was hit by Russia’s drone attack on Kyiv last night. Ukraine said the overnight drone attack was the largest of the war so far.
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Summary
It’s approaching 2pm in Kyiv. Here are the day’s main developments so far:
The former Russian prime minister turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov has been added to a list of “foreign agents”, Russia’s justice ministry has announced. Kasyanov, who was the first head of Putin’s government in the early 2000s, now appears in the justice ministry’s register of foreign agents, a term reminiscent of the Soviet-era “enemy of the people”.
Five people have been injured after Russia struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in what officials said was its largest drone attack of the war to date. The attack began hitting different districts of Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday, with more waves coming at sunrise. The air raid warning lasted six hours.
The Swiss president, Alain Berset, is in Kyiv to meet his Ukrainian counterpart and attend an international summit on food security.
The UK says Russia’s Black Sea fleet is facing issues reloading its vessels with cruise missiles.
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You can read our full report on the overnight strikes in Kyiv here:
The UK’s Ministry of Defence reports that Russia’s Black Sea fleet is facing issues reloading its vessels with cruise missiles.
It said:
Traditionally, BSF has reloaded cruise missiles at Sevastopol in Crimea. With that facility increasingly held at risk by Ukrainian long range strikes, Russia will highly likely see Novorossiysk as the best alternative site.
However, relocating and reloading the missiles would require new delivery, storage, handling and loading processes.
On 13 November 2023, the Ukrainian military claimed that Russia has paused firing maritime cruise missiles because of ‘logistical problems’ at Novorossiysk.
Russia will, the MoD said, need to overcome such issues “in time for maritime cruise missiles to be included in any winter campaign of strikes against Ukraine”.
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The Swiss president, Alain Berset, arrived in Kyiv on Saturday to meet his Ukrainian counterpart and attend an international summit on food security, he said in a post on X.
Ukraine is hosting an international summit to promote its efforts to export grain despite an ongoing Russian blockade of the Black Sea, its main export route.
Arrival in Kyiv where I will be attending the international summit on food security today and meeting President @ZelenskyyUa. The focus is on the impact of Russia’s war of aggression on 🌎 food security and Switzerland's long-term support for 🇺🇦.
— Alain Berset (@alain_berset) November 25, 2023
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Here are some of the latest images coming through from Ukraine
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Kremlin declares former Russian PM a 'foreign agent'
The Russian ex-prime minister and now Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov has been added to a registry of foreign agents, Russia’s justice ministry has announced.
Reuters reports that the “foreign agent” designation requires people and entities on the list to place a disclaimer on items they publish and imposes strict financial reporting and self-disclosure requirements.
Kasyanov first made his name as a foreign debt expert, rising swiftly through the finance ministry in the 1990s. As finance minister, he led negotiations to restructure massive Soviet-era commercial debts, securing a large discount and a reputation as a suave but tough negotiator.
He served as prime minister for the first four years of Putin’s administration and was sacked in February 2004, weeks before Putin was elected for a second term.
After his sacking, he went into opposition to the Kremlin. In 2022, he left the country and has criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine needed to secure three key “victories” abroad: the approval of major aid packages from the US Congress and the European Union, and a formal start of accession talks to join the EU, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy also announced the latest dismissals in the military – four deputy commanders in the national guard – but gave no reasons for their removal. The president and other officials have vowed to make the military’s operations more efficient and responsive to the needs of service personnel.
Twenty months into Russia’s full-scale invasion, fatigue has crept into the west’s relations with Kyiv, which heavily relies on its allies for military, economic and humanitarian aid.
“We need three victories. The first one is the victory with US Congress. It’s a challenge, it’s not easy, but Ukraine is doing everything,” Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv.
The US president, Joe Biden, asked Congress last month to approve many billions of dollars in assistance for Ukraine, but Kyiv’s funding was omitted from a stopgap spending bill passed last week, raising concerns it may not get through.
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Ukraine says overnight drone attack was largest of the war
Ukraine’s capital city took the brunt of what the country’s air force described as Russia’s largest drone attack of the war on Saturday.
Reuters reports five people were wounded as the continuing rumble of air defences and explosions woke residents.
The attack, which used Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones, began hitting different districts of Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday, with more waves coming as the sun rose.
A spokesperson for Kyiv’s city administration told public broadcaster Suspilne at least 40 drones had been downed.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on the Telegram app, said the attack had injured five people, including an 11-year-old girl, and damaged buildings in districts all across the city. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that most of the drones were shot down.
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Morning summary
Today’s Guardian live coverage of the war in Ukraine begins here.
Ukraine says Russia has launched a drone attack on Kyiv. According to Reuters, Ukraine is describing it as its biggest Shahed kamikaze drone attack yet on the country, saying it is primarily targeting Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s air force. Reuters witnesses in Kyiv heard drone engines and explosions throughout the night.
More on this shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed “efforts to maintain European unity” in a call with outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, after far-right politician Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) got the most votes in the Dutch election.
Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, said she hoped military support to Kyiv would continue but also that she was worried due to the PVV’s stance on Ukraine.
Robert Fico, Slovakia’s populist prime minister, said he considered the war between Ukraine and Russia a “frozen conflict”.
The British Ministry of Defence said Russian forces in Ukraine continued to suffer mass casualties from Ukrainian long-range precision strikes well behind the frontline.
Ukraine’s truckers’ union said hopes of a rapid end to Polish trucker protests at the border were fading.
Finland temporarily closed all but one of its eight passenger crossings to Russia.
The Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said the high flow of migrants via Russia must stop.
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, said a veto of the country’s European aspirations at an EU summit next month “would be the irresponsibility of the others”.
Plans to expand the Grain from Ukraine program further across Africa one year after its launch will be announced on Saturday by Zelenskiy, backed by the appointment of a new series of goodwill ambassadors including Charlotte Leslie, a former UK Conservative MP with deep contacts in the Middle East.
The leaders of Canada and the European Union reiterated on Friday strong support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, while pledging to deepen coordination on climate efforts, according to the AFP news agency. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the two sides said in a statement, pledging to “work to address Ukraine’s immediate military and defence needs and ensure Ukraine has the long-term security commitments needed”.
A Ukrainian sea drone attack on Russia’s Crimean bridge in July had “overturned” naval operations and forced Moscow to resort to ferries to move weaponry, the head of Ukraine’s main intelligence agency said in a video broadcast on Friday, Reuters reported. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said the second of two major attacks in August had seriously disrupted operations on the 19-km (12-mile) bridge, Europe’s longest, and dented the notion of Russian invincibility. “We have practically overturned the philosophy of naval operations,” Maliuk said in the first of a series of televised documentaries titled “SBU, the Special Operations of Victory”.
Russia views Moldova’s decision to join EU sanctions against it as a hostile step aimed at destroying ties with Moscow and will retaliate, the Russian foreign ministry said. The Russian denunciation on Friday was issued in response to a vote in Moldova’s parliament agreeing to abide by the punitive measures as part of measures to alter its legislation as required for its bid to join the European Union. “We regard this as yet another hostile step by the Moldovan leadership, which is fully integrated into the anti-Russian campaign of the ‘collective west’,” the ministry said in a statement.
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