Closing summary
Russia sent waves of kamikaze drones into Ukraine on Saturday in what Kyiv claimed was the most intensive drone attack since the start of the war. Five people were wounded by falling debris, while several buildings were damaged as about 17,000 people in the Kyiv region were left without electricity. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 74 of the 75 drones launched in the attack.
Russia has brought down at least 24 drones over the Moscow region and three other provinces to the south and west, as well as two Ukrainian missiles over the Azov Sea. One person was injured in the city of Tula, south of Moscow, when an intercepted drone hit an apartment building.
The Russian military death toll in Ukraine has reached almost 325,000, according to unverified estimates by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As of 26 November, 324,830 troops have been killed since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began – including 1,070 over the past day.
Russian troops continue attempts to advance near Avdiivka, with Kyiv’s forces repelling attacks to the north-east, west and south-west of the city over the past 24 hours. According to reports by the Ukrainian general staff, Russia has conducted airstrikes in support of ground operations geared toward encircling the city on the outskirts of Donetsk.
About 2,100 vehicles are unable to get into Ukraine because of a Polish blockade. According to an update by Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry reported by the Kyiv Independent, the flow of traffic at the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing – usually 680 lorries a day – is now down to a few dozen every 24 hours.
Ukraine’s arms industry boss has called for country to turn itself into the “arsenal of the free world” and provide weapons for export. Oleksandr Kamyshin aims to revive state sector and coordinate private enterprises to boost export of weapons.
Updated
Switzerland is to make a significant donation to the Grain from Ukraine initiative
The country’s president, Alain Berset, confirmed the news at an international food security summit in Kyiv.
During food security summit in Kyiv, President of 🇨🇭 Alain Berset announced that Switzerland would contribute towards helping those affected by transferring 3 million francs to the @WFP
— Swiss Embassy Kyiv (@SwissUA) November 26, 2023
As a result of RF war of aggression, around 11 million people in 🇺🇦 are dependent on food aid pic.twitter.com/tcb35JEl6j
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Latvia offers assistance to end Polish border blockade
Latvia’s foreign minister, Krišjānis Kariņš, has offered to help negotiate a deal to unblock the Polish border with Ukraine, according to reports by the Kyiv Independent.
The flow of traffic at Ukraine’s Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing continues to be slowed by protests by Polish lorry drivers, who believe a relaxing of EU transport rules is allowing Ukrainian drivers entering Poland to undercut local businesses.
During a phone call on 25 November, Kariņš told Poland’s EU affairs secretary, Szymon Szynkowski, that Latvia was on hand to help “provide assistance in seeking solutions” to resolve the impasse.
More than 2,000 vehicles are stuck at the border, and two lorry drivers are known to have died in the protests.
Updated
Russian troops continue attempts to advance near Avdiivka
Kyiv’s forces have repelled attacks to the north-east, west and south-west of Avdiivka over the past 24 hours, according to reports by the Ukrainian general staff.
Over the past day, Russia has conducted airstrikes in support of ground operations aimed at encircling the city on the outskirts of Donetsk.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, has assessed that Russian troops are likely trying to cut off Ukrainian supply lines into Avdiivka to isolate the city. However, Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their positions and have beaten back 23 Russian assaults.
According to further reporting by Euromaiden, Russian units have undertaken infantry assaults near the settlements of Stepove, Pervomaiske and Novokalynove to block key access roads to Avdiivka.
So far, these attacks have not achieved breakthroughs, with Ukrainian troops still in control of the main highways leading into the city.
Updated
About 2,100 vehicles unable to get into Ukraine because of Polish blockade
The flow of traffic at Ukraine’s largest cargo crossing continues to be slowed by Polish lorry drivers protesting against the liberalisation of EU transport rules for Ukrainian trucks.
According to an update by Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry reported by the Kyiv Independent, as of today about 2,100 vehicles are unable to get into Ukraine.
The flow of traffic at the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing is usually 680 lorries a day. The ministry says this is now down to a few dozen every 24 hours.
Protesters started blocking three border crossing points on 6 November, complaining that the high number of Ukrainian drivers entering Poland is undercutting local businesses by hauling goods from Poland to other countries.
Although the protesting truckers said that the blockade would apply only to non-essential goods, Ukrinform reported on 20 November that trucks carrying humanitarian aid or fuel and other essential goods had been on standby at the border for days. Two truckers are known to have died.
On 16 November the EU warned Poland that it must take action to stop the border blockade protest.
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Oleksandr Kamyshin, the man tasked with reviving Ukraine’s domestic arms industry, has a dream for his country’s future. Even when the war with Russia is over, he believes, Ukraine should focus on arms production, turning itself into the “arsenal of the free world” and providing weapons for export, writes Shaun Walker in Kyiv
“For the next decades, defence should be the major industry in Ukraine. After the war it should be our core export product,” said Kamyshin, in a recent interview at his office in an unmarked building in central Kyiv.
Kamyshin started the war as the head of Ukraine’s state railway network. In March, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appointed him minister of strategic industries. Before the full-scale invasion last February, Ukraine’s arms industry was a murky sector of scandals and dubious deals, and despite the years of low-grade conflict in Donbas, weapons stocks were fairly limited when the full-scale invasion came last year.
“We had a few Javelins but it was mostly Soviet stocks,” said Kamyshin. A defence source said no ammunition whatsoever was produced in Ukraine in 2021, the year before the invasion. Now, Kamyshin wants to revive the state sector, as well as coordinate the myriad small private enterprises that have sprung up to make weapons for the Ukrainian army.
Updated
Russia ‘likely’ to have moved strategic air defence systems from Kaliningrad
This move has been made to “backfill recent losses”, according to the latest update from the UK Ministry of Defence.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 26 November 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 26, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/vl9UxypsV9
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/NnriPcPoJ3
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Summary
It’s just after 2.30pm in Kyiv. Here are the day’s main developments so far:
Russia has brought down at least 24 drones over the Moscow region and three other provinces to the south and west, the Russian defence ministry and the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin have reported in a series of Telegram updates. One person was injured in Tula when an intercepted drone hit an apartment building, the region’s governor, Alexei Dyumin, said.
The spokesman for Ukraine’s ground forces, Volodymyr Fitio, has told the United News telethon that Russian soldiers “seek to reoccupy” the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.
Russia has placed the Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on a wanted list, according to the state-run TASS news agency. TASS said the Russian interior ministry had opened a criminal investigation against Stone but had not disclosed the details of the investigation or charges.
The UK government has been urged to take immediate action to disrupt supply of technology used in electronic warfare. A dossier, compiled by Ukraine and circulated to the leading countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, identifies key Russian companies involved in the development and production of electronic military equipment. It says the UK and other countries have not yet imposed sanctions on some of the firms involved.
Updated
Russia still intends to recapture the town of Kupiansk
Russian soldiers “seek to reoccupy” the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, according to the spokesman for Ukraine’s ground forces, Volodymyr Fitio.
Ukrinform has reported Fitio’s claims, reportedly made while speaking on the United News telethon.
Indeed, Russian invaders have not abandoned their intentions to attack … to advance toward the town of Kupiansk. They seek to reoccupy it. In this area, Ukrainian defenders repelled four enemy attacks. It was near Usenkivka and Ivanivka. The enemy intends to advance to the settlement of Sinkivka in order to develop their further success in the offensive on Kupiansk.
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Russia puts Meta’s spokesperson on wanted list
Russia has placed the Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on a wanted list on unspecified charges, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Sunday.
TASS said the Russian interior ministry had opened a criminal investigation against Stone but had not disclosed the details of the investigation or charges.
In March 2022 the Russian investigative committee said it had opened criminal investigation against the “illegal actions of Meta’s employees” and mentioned Stone, saying he had “lifted a ban on calls for violence against the Russian military on its platforms” and was thus inciting extremist activity.
Facebook and Instagram – both Meta platforms – were banned in Russia shortly after its invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Meta’s press office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment out of normal business hours.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:
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The Ukraine prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has expressed his appreciation for Latvia’s support following a recent presidential visit.
🇱🇻🇺🇦 Grateful to Latvian President @edgarsrinkevics for his visit to #Ukraine. We discussed the implementation of the Peace Formula and support for Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Latvia's experience is important for us. I thanked him for the help in… pic.twitter.com/jdqDRlmZvT
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) November 25, 2023
Updated
Government urged to take immediate action to disrupt supply of technology used in electronic warfare.
Updated
The Russian military death toll in Ukraine has reached almost 325,000, according to estimates.
As of 26 November, 324,830 troops have been killed since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began – including 1,070 over the past day.
These indicative figures, provided by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, have not been verified by the Guardian.
According to their estimates, Russia has also lost 5,513 tanks, 10,279 armoured fighting vehicles and 7,874 artillery systems since 4 February 2022.
Updated
Russia and Ukraine report downing of drones in overnight attacks
Russia’s defence ministry says it had thwarted a major Ukrainian drone attack with at least 20 drones shot down over Russian regions, including Moscow.
Officials said the drones were shot down over regions including Moscow, Tula, Kaluga and Bryansk. One person was injured in Tula when an intercepted drone hit an apartment building, the region’s governor Alexei Dyumin said.
Ukraine’s air force says it destroyed eight of nine attack drones launched overnight by Russia. There were no immediate reports of damage or about where the remaining drone had struck.
The attack, which the air force said was launched from the south-east, came a day after what Ukrainian officials said had been Russia’s largest drone attack of the war.
Ukraine has warned in recent weeks that Russia will target critical infrastructure in a winter aerial campaign, as it did last year.
Ukraine needs more air defences to protect grain exports, Zelenskiy says
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says his country needs more air defences to protect its grain export routes as well as regions bordering Russia.
“There is a deficit of air defence – that is no secret,” Zelenskiy said at the Grain from Ukraine summit on food security in Kyiv, which was attended by senior officials from European countries, including Swiss president Alain Berset and Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Simonyte.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine would be supplied by its foreign partners with vessels to accompany convoys of cargo ships from Ukraine’s ports to guarantee their security. “I have agreements with several countries about powerful accompaniment of convoys by Ukrainians, but using [foreign] equipment,” he said.
Zelenskiy was speaking after Russia attacked Ukraine with 75 drones overnight, the biggest drone assault of the war. The joint press conference of the three leaders was cut short by another air raid siren.
Separately, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pledged support in a letter to Zelenskiy that she shared on social media platform X, saying the Commission would make available 50m euros for “quick repairs and upgrades of infrastructure in Ukraine’s ports.”
Zelenskiy said Kyiv hoped to solve its air defence shortage through new supplies from partners and increasing its own production capacity, something on which he said there had been progress.
Ukraine, a major exporter of grain, has been exporting grain via unilateral corridors through the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew in July from a UN-brokered deal to allow grain ships through its blockade.
Opening summary
Russia’s defence ministry says it has thwarted a major Ukrainian drone strike with at least 20 drones shot down over its regions, including Moscow. One person was injured in the city of Tula when an intercepted drone hit an apartment building, the region’s governor Alexei Dyumin said.
Overnight, Ukraine’s military also reported destroying eight of nine attack drones launched by Russia. There were no immediate reports of damage.
More details shortly, here are some other key developments:
Russia sent waves of kamikaze drones into Ukraine in what Kyiv claimed Saturday was the most intensive drone attack since the start of the war. Five people were wounded by falling debris, including an 11-year-old child, the mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, said. Several buildings, including a kindergarten, were damaged and about 17,000 people in the Kyiv region were left without electricity. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 74 of the 75 drones launched in the attack.
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 served as prime minister for the first four years of Putin’s administration, now appears in the justice ministry’s register of foreign agents, a term reminiscent of the Soviet-era “enemy of the people”. He was sacked in February 2004 and he went into opposition to the Kremlin. In 2022, Kasyanov left the country and has criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland’s president, Alain Berset was in Kyiv and paid homage to the victims of the Holodomor famine that he said was “provoked by Soviet leaders”. Berset met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss “humanitarian demining, the use of frozen profits from the assets of the aggressor country and the peace formula”, according to Zelenskiy. Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, was also in Ukraine and with met the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal to discuss the progress of Ukraine’s integration into the EU.
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”.
Ukraine needs more air defences to protect its grain export routes as well as regions bordering Russia, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said as he addressed an international summit on food security in Kyiv. “There is a deficit of air defence – that is no secret,” Zelenskiy told the Grain from Ukraine summit, which was attended by senior officials from European countries, including Swiss president Alain Berset and Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Simonyte. Zelenskiy said Ukraine would be supplied by its foreign partners with vessels to accompany convoys of cargo ships from Ukraine’s ports to guarantee their security.
A Ukrainian soldier who was posthumously awarded a medal after a widely shared video showed him declaring “Glory to Ukraine” before apparently being shot dead, was commemorated with a statue in his northern home town. The video shared in March showed a man the military later named as Oleksandr Matsievskiy, a sniper with a unit from the region of Chernihiv, saying “Slava Ukraini”, a phrase more than a century old that has become a popular expression of resistance to Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Standing smoking a cigarette in a wooded area, carrying no visible weaponry, Matsievskiy is then seen slumping to the ground, apparently struck repeatedly by unseen shooters. Kyiv blamed “brutal and brazen” Russians for his death.
