Closing summary
The Ukraine live blog is coming to a close. Below is a summary of the day’s events:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine had seized the initiative from Russia in the Black Sea and forced Russia’s naval fleet to pull back in the eastern part of the sea.
The foreign secretary, David Cameron, met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a trip to Kyiv, pledging continued military support and a refocus on Ukraine as conflict continues in the Middle East.
At least one person was killed and two injured during Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian Kherson region, the local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
The Ukrainian military shot down 16 out of 18 attack drones launched by Russia as well as one missile during overnight strikes, Kyiv’s air force said.
Rescuers cleared rubble from a Russian strike on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove the previous day, and one more body was recovered, taking the death toll to three, an emergency service said.
Russian forces have continued attacks in the contested town of Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence. In the latest intelligence update, the MoD said: “Russia is almost certainly attempting a pincer movement to encircle the town.”
The European Commission has proposed a 12th round of sanctions against Moscow, including restrictions on scores of individuals apparently including the son of former president Dmitry Medvedev and a relative of Vladimir Putin’s.
Finland will close four of the nine crossing points on its border with Russia to stem a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, the prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said on Thursday.
The Kremlin has said that the Czech Republic’s decision to freeze Russian state-owned properties was illegal and that Moscow may retaliate against what it called a hostile step.
The Russian financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has placed three lawyers for the jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny on a list of “terrorists and extremists”.
A Russian court has found the artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko guilty of knowingly spreading fake news about the Russian army’s behaviour in Ukraine and sentenced her to seven years in a prison colony. Amnesty International has declared 33-year-old Skochilenko – who replaced supermarket price tags with messages calling for an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine – “a prisoner of conscience”.
Russia has sustained casualties of 300,000-400,000, western officials say
Russia has sustained casualties of between 300,000 and 400,000 killed and wounded in the war in Ukraine so far, and in the heaviest fighting at Avdiivka is losing between 500 and 1,000 a day according to a briefing by western officials.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, nevertheless acknowledged that Ukraine's counter offensive on the Zaporizhzhia front has essentially culminated, although "three brigades" are believed to have made it across the Dnipro river near Kherson.
"Neither side is capable of mounting a decisive operation on land," one of the officials said, and it appeared that "a prolonged conflict" was likely to follow in which long term US and European military aid would be crucial.
A significant force, described as three brigades, had established a position across the Dnipro that the Russians have proved unable to dislodge, although it was unclear, they said, how much armour the Ukrainian military had been able to get across the river.
But despite the cross-river success, the officials said they expected that Ukraine would most likely only be able to make incremental "village at a time" progress, a similar pace to summer efforts south of Orikhiv and Velyka Novosilka.
The US has issued a new round of Russia-related sanctions targeting three Liberian-flagged crude tankers, among others, according to a notice posted on the US treasury department website on Thursday, Reuters reports.
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Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, met Edgars Rinkēvičs, the president of Latvia, on Thursday where they discussed giving Ukraine more support.
Welcomed @edgarsrinkevics back to #NATO & congratulated him on his appointment as President of #Latvia. We addressed #Ukraine, where the difficult situation on the battlefield is an argument for even more support. We also look forward to welcoming #Sweden as an Ally very soon. pic.twitter.com/npOHO5bBeG
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) November 16, 2023
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The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has said the government will back British defence companies that “help nations like Ukraine” against efforts to defund the industry due to “so-called ethical investing rules”.
British defence companies keep us safe, help nations like Ukraine defend their freedom & act as global champions for the UK.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) November 16, 2023
We’ll back them all the way against those who want to defund the industry due to so-called ethical investing rules that are not only immoral but dangerous pic.twitter.com/IA1uX5pOj1
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Summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Here in brief are some of the main developments:
Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty
The foreign secretary, David Cameron, met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a trip to Kyiv, pledging continued military support and a refocus on Ukraine as conflict continues in the Middle East.
At least one person was killed and two injured during Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian Kherson region, the local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
The Ukrainian military shot down 16 out of 18 attack drones launched by Russia as well as one missile during overnight strikes, Kyiv’s air force said.
Rescuers cleared rubble from a Russian strike on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove the previous day, and one more body was recovered, taking the death toll to three, an emergency service said.
Russian forces have continued attacks in the contested town of Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence. In the latest intelligence update, the MoD said: “Russia is almost certainly attempting a pincer movement to encircle the town.”
The European Commission has proposed a 12th round of sanctions against Moscow, including restrictions on scores of individuals apparently including the son of former president Dmitry Medvedev and a relative of Vladimir Putin’s.
Finland will close four of the nine crossing points on its border with Russia to stem a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, the prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said on Thursday.
The Kremlin has said that the Czech Republic’s decision to freeze Russian state-owned properties was illegal and that Moscow may retaliate against what it called a hostile step.
The Russian financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has placed three lawyers for the jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny on a list of “terrorists and extremists”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine had seized the initiative from Russia in the Black Sea and forced Russia’s naval fleet to pull back in the eastern part of the sea.
A Russian court has found the artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko guilty of knowingly spreading fake news about the Russian army’s behaviour in Ukraine and sentenced her to seven years in a prison colony. Amnesty International has declared 33-year-old Skochilenko – who replaced supermarket price tags with messages calling for an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine – “a prisoner of conscience”.
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Russia’s state nuclear power corporation has reported that turbine blades broke at a plant where the company has installed two reactors of a type it is also building in Turkey and plans to construct in Hungary.
Rosenergoatom, which runs Russia’s nuclear power stations, said it was not clear what caused the blades to break, forcing the shutdown of a unit at the Leningrad nuclear power plant west of St Petersburg on Sunday.
“The main thing now is to understand the reason for the destruction of the blades. This is a new phenomenon,” said Alexander Shutikov, the head of Rosenergoatom. He said repairs should be completed by 22 December.
The unit where the problem occurred was built in 2018 with a next-generation VVER 1200, a pressurised water reactor. Units of this type are being built by Russia at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey and are planned for the Paks-2 plant in Hungary. Russia has already supplied them to Belarus.
Shutikov said the blades that failed were part of a 1,200MW high-speed steam turbine. The turbines are produced by the businessman Alexei Mordashov’s Power Machines company.
Power Machines said turbines of the same type had operated without problems since 2016 at four power units. It said it was taking all steps to restart the affected unit as soon as possible and working with specialists from the plant to investigate the causes and identify defects.
“Based on the results, conclusions will be drawn and compensatory measures will be determined,” it said in reply to a request for comment from Reuters.
Rosatom, the parent of Rosenergoatom, said similar turbine models are in operation at another unit of the Leningrad plant and in the southern Voronezh region. The company said it always investigates and corrects any malfunction.
“Since turbines are not part of the ‘nuclear island’ of the plant, their malfunctioning has no impact on nuclear safety, as all reactor equipment is functioning as intended,” it said.
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At least one person was killed and two injured during Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian Kherson region, the local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Thursday.
“The enemy fire damaged residential buildings and a grocery store. A critical infrastructure facility was also destroyed,” Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reports.
Russian troops abandoned Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River in the region late last year, but now regularly shell those areas from positions on the eastern bank.
The Guardian could not independently confirm the report.
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Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
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A Russian court on Thursday found the artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko guilty of knowingly spreading fake news about the Russian army’s behaviour in Ukraine and sentenced her to seven years in a prison colony.
Skochilenko, 33, replaced price tags in a supermarket in her native St Petersburg on 31 March 2022 with small pieces of paper urging an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine and criticising the authorities.
She denied the formal charge of knowingly spreading false information about the army.
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David Cameron has travelled to Kyiv for his first trip as UK foreign secretary in an unannounced visit just days after his surprise appointment.
As he met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Cameron pledged that long-term British support for Ukraine would continue. The meeting came amid concern in Ukraine around global support, with the conflict in the Middle East taking attention away from the country, and longer-term questions about western financial support as the US heads into an election cycle
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Russian authorities on Wednesday detained two senior employees from Carlsberg’s Russian subsidiary, Baltika Breweries, over allegations of fraud, and made similar claims against several others, the Danish brewer Carlsberg said on Thursday.
The company said in a statement the allegations were “fake”.
Moscow in July took control of Carlsberg’s stake in Baltika through a presidential decree, saying it would put the foreign-owned stake under “temporary management”.
CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen last month said Russia had “stolen” its business, adding the group had cut all ties with its Russian business and refused to enter a deal with Russia’s government that would make its seizure of the assets look legitimate.
“It is appalling that the efforts of the Russian state to justify their illegal takeover of our business in Russia has now evolved into targeting innocent employees,” Carlsberg said in a statement.
The Vyborgsky district court on Wednesday ruled that Denis Sherstennikov and Anton Rogachevsky be remanded in custody on charges of large-scale fraud, accusing them and other unidentified people of having used their position at Baltika to transfer some intellectual property rights to Carlsberg as the Russian state assumed control of the brewer.
The two men could not immediately be reached for comment. According to their Linkedin profiles, Sherstennikov is CEO of Baltika Breweries and Rogachevsky is vice-president, legal.
“The allegations reported in Russian media are fake,” Carlsberg said.
Large-scale fraud can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Police in St Petersburg and Baltika did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Baltika is suing Carlsberg in Russia, seeking to retain the right to use the Danish brewer’s trademarks. On Wednesday, a St Petersburg court granted Baltika’s request to hold proceedings behind closed doors, citing the need to protect trade secrets, Russian news agencies reported.
Carlsberg has informed Baltika that the licence agreements enabling it to produce, market and sell all Carlsberg Group products, including international and regional brands, have been terminated.
Executives have told Reuters that repercussions for local staff were among the top concerns for companies trying to negotiate an exit from Russia.
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Ukraine has claimed initiative in Black Sea and forced Russian navy to pull back, Zelenskiy says
The president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Thursday that Ukraine had seized the initiative from Russia in the Black Sea and forced Russia’s naval fleet to pull back in the eastern part of the sea.
“For the first time in the world, it was in the Black Sea that a fleet of naval drones began to operate – a Ukrainian fleet,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram.
“I would also like to note that now – as one of the main results of our actions – Russia is unable to use the Black Sea as a springboard to destabilise other regions of the world.”
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The Russian financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring has placed three lawyers for the jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny on a list of “terrorists and extremists”, Reuters reports.
The three lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser, were placed in custody on 13 October. They are being investigated on suspicion of belonging to an “extremist group”.
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Finland will close four of the nine crossing points on its border with Russia to stem a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, the prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said on Thursday.
“The government has today decided that Finland will close some eastern border crossing points. The eastern border for that part will close on the night between Friday and Saturday,” Orpo told a press conference.
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Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
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EU plans fresh Russia sanctions including against son of Dmitry Medvedev
The European Commission is proposing a 12th round of sanctions against Moscow, including restrictions on scores of individuals apparently including the son of the former president Dmitry Medvedev and a relative of Vladimir Putin’s.
Among the 47 individuals the commission wants added to existing sanctions lists are Putin’s cousin Anna Tsivileva, who chairs the “defenders of the fatherland” foundation which supports Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Also on the extended list is Ilya Medvedev, whose name and date of birth match those of the former president’s only son. He is targeted for allegedly orchestrating a disinformation and propaganda campaign in Ukraine.
The inclusion of the relatives of senior officials, including the Putin family, will provoke anger in the Kremlin.
Read more from Lisa O’Carroll and Andrew Roth here:
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Rescuers cleared rubble on Thursday from a Russian strike on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove the previous day, and one more body was recovered, taking the death toll to three, an emergency service said.
“Body of third victim of Russian missile strike had been found,” the state emergency service said on the Telegram message service.
One person is believed to be trapped under the rubble, the spokesperson for a rescue service was quoted as saying by the Suspilne media outlet.
Three people were injured in the strike, officials said.
Russia fired four S-300 missiles at the town on Wednesday, damaging six apartment buildings and 20 homes, police said.
Images showed about half of an apartment block destroyed by a missile that tore out a gaping hole in the building.
Russia denies targeting civilians but Ukraine has regularly reported that Russian missile and drone strikes have killed and wounded civilians and damaged civilian infrastructure in the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.
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Slovak truckers will stage a symbolic one-hour blockade of the country’s main crossing with Ukraine on Thursday to support Polish calls for restrictions on the number of Ukrainian trucks entering the EU.
The haulers’ union Unas said on Facebook the blockade would be at the Vysne Nemecke crossing, from 1pm on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Unas said:
Our aim is support of Polish colleagues as well as all freight haulers in the EU … We will request that the European Commission … immediately introduces licences for shipments for Ukrainian vehicles because European companies are falling on their mouth and cannot compete.”
Polish drivers have been blocking roads to three crossings with Ukraine for over a week, citing government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. They insist on the return of a limited number of licenses for Ukrainian truckers, a demand Kyiv said it would not consider.
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A Russian artist who replaced supermarket price tags with messages calling for an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine is expected to learn her fate in court on Thursday with a state prosecutor asking for her to be jailed for eight years.
Critics say the case of Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, is part of a crackdown on anyone who speaks out against Russia’s “special military operation” that has led to nearly 20,000 detentions and more than 800 criminal cases.
After it sent troops into Ukraine, Russia tightened its laws on dissent to try to silence critics. Skochilenko, an artist and musician known as Sasha to her friends, has admitted replacing price tags in a supermarket in her native St Petersburg on 31 March 2022 with small pieces of paper urging an end to the war and criticising the authorities.
Skochilenko, who has already spent over a year and a half in prison, denies the formal charge of knowingly spreading false information about the Russian army.
A state prosecutor has asked the presiding judge to give her an eight-year jail term and ban her from using the internet for three years for what he had called a serious crime committed out of hatred for Russia. Her lawyers have told the court their client had only acted on her conscience, had committed no crime, and would not survive jail because of pre-existing health problems.
Skochilenko is due to make a final statement on Thursday to a court in St Petersburg which is expected to deliver a verdict on the same day.
Amnesty International has declared Skochilenko “a prisoner of conscience” – someone who is imprisoned solely because of who they are or what they believe.
One of her lawyers, Yana Nepovinnova, told the court on Monday that her client should be acquitted. “You should never punish people for thinking and feeling differently. You should never punish people for objective criticism of the authorities and their decisions.”
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The Kremlin said on Thursday that the Czech Republic’s decision to freeze Russian state-owned properties was illegal and that Moscow may retaliate against what it called a hostile step.
The Czech government said on Wednesday it had frozen Russian state-owned properties on its territory, expanding its sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the Czech move was illegal from the point of view of international law and that Moscow would analyse it.
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The Ukrainian military shot down 16 out of 18 attack drones launched by Russia as well as one missile during overnight strikes, Kyiv’s air force said on Thursday.
Authorities also said civilian infrastructure in the eastern region of Kharkiv had been damaged by S-300 missiles, but that no deaths or injuries had been reported.
Central Asian migrants are leaving Russia because of the Ukraine war, Agence France-Presse is reporting this morning. After living and working in Russia for the last decade, Tajik construction worker Zoir Kurbanov is one of those who decided it was time to head home. Wages are falling and men face a danger of being sent by Moscow to the front.
Kurbanov got an offer for jobs on building sites in Mariupol and Donetsk – cities in occupied Ukraine. “I refused,” the 39-year-old said. He decided to take a huge pay cut and return to Tajikistan, taking up a construction job.
Russia is increasingly trying to lure central Asian migrants to work in the parts of Ukraine it occupies, or trapping them into fighting for its army. On the pretext of uncovering some kind of offence – real or fabricated – Russian authorities sometimes offer migrants a stark choice: prison or go to the front.
“The Russian police were checking me everywhere, asking if I had done my military service,” said Argen Bolgonbekov, a 29-year-old who served in the Kygryz border force.
In the end he was deported back to Kyrgyzstan for irregularities with his documents. “It’s a good thing, because over there you couldn’t walk around in peace anymore,” he said, speaking at a textile workshop in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Russian lawmaker Mikhail Matveyev has even called for central Asians who have recently been granted Russian citizenship to be drafted instead of ethnic Russians. “Why are they not mobilised? Where are the Tajik battalions? There is a war going on, Russia needs soldiers. Welcome to our citizenship.”
Despite the pressure, Russia remains a priority destination for central Asian workers – they can go without a visa, speak the Russian language and earn money. Kurbanov, the Tajik construction worker, said: “If the war ends tomorrow, I’ll go back to Russia the day after.”
Finland’s coast guard said on Thursday that Russia has completed repairs of a Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable that was damaged six weeks ago around the same time that a gas pipeline and other communications cables were broken.
“No violations of the Economic Zone Act or permit conditions were detected in the surveillance operation and the related inspections of the repair work,” the Finnish coast guard wrote on X on Thursday.
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Russian forces have continued attacks in the contested town of Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
In the latest intelligence update on Thursday, the MoD said: “Russia is almost certainly attempting a pincer movement to encircle the town.
“Avdiivka has been fought over for nearly a decade and holds political importance to Russia given its proximity to Donetsk city … The plant dominates the main road into Avdiivka and, if Russian forces were to secure it, resupplying the town would become increasingly difficult for Ukraine.”
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Foreign secretary David Cameron makes first visit to Ukraine
The foreign secretary, David Cameron, met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a trip to Kyiv, pledging continued military support and a refocus on Ukraine as conflict continues in the Middle East.
In a video posted by the Ukrainian president on X, Cameron said:
What I want to say by being here is we will continue to give you the moral support, the diplomatic support, the economic support, but above all the military support that you need, not just this year, and next year, but however long it takes.”
With mention to previous disagreements with his “friend”, the former prime minister Boris Johnson Cameron said Johnson’s support for Ukraine was the “finest thing”, adding that Thursday’s meeting was important to “make sure the attention is here”.
“Now you know the world is not focused on the situation on our battlefield in Ukraine and it’s dividing focus really doesn’t help, and we are thankful that you always supported Ukraine,” said Zelenskiy.
Cameron’s Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, said their talks “proved” the two nations are determined to work together “toward victory”.
The UK remains steadfast in providing Ukraine with weapons, increasing their co-production, and ridding the Black Sea of Russian threats,” Kuleba wrote on X.
The Ukrainian statements did not say when the talks took place. Strict security measures in place because of the war mean details of visits by foreign dignitaries are sometimes released only some time after they have happened.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. First things first, here in brief are some of the main developments:
Ukraine’s military has described as “fairly fluid” the situation on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro River at Kherson. It comes after Russia admitted for the first time that Ukrainian troops have been able to cross over to the left (eastern) bank and establish themselves.
Natalia Humeniuk from the Ukrainian southern command said: “The pushback from our side is taking place on a line from three to eight kilometres along the entire bank from the water’s edge. For now, we will ask for informational silence ... which would allow us to report later on great successes.”
Ukrainian military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko told media outlet RBK Ukraine that the growing area of contested control on the eastern bank “significantly reduces the mobility and capability of the Russian occupiers”.
A report in the Wall Street Journal said Ukrainian marines were reinforcing positions in three villages on the eastern bank of the Dnipro, including emplacing armoured Humvees and at least one infantry fighting vehicle, and had cut off one road that Russians used to resupply troops in the area.
A Russian artist who replaced supermarket price tags with messages calling for an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine is expected to learn her fate in court on Thursday with a state prosecutor asking for her to be jailed for eight years. Amnesty International has declared Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, “a prisoner of conscience”.
The Czech Republic has frozen property owned by Russia on Czech soil, it was announced. Jan Lipavský, the Czech foreign minister, said: “At my suggestion, the government today approved the freezing of Russian state assets in the Czech Republic. The commercial activities from which Russia finances the murder of Ukrainians ends here.”
Russia said that Ukrainian accession to the US-led Nato military alliance would be unacceptable, according to Reuters. “Whether in parts or in any form, Ukraine’s accession to Nato is unacceptable for Russia,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, told reporters.
A Russian missile killed two emergency workers in southern Ukraine as they put out a fire from an attack only minutes earlier, Ukrainian officials said. At least seven other people were injured in the strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region, in which Russian forces fired three missiles in about half an hour, according to the regional governor, Yuriy Malashko.
The EU has proposed banning the export of machine tools and machinery parts that Russia uses to make weapons targeting Ukraine, documents seen by Bloomberg reveal. The proposal is contained in the EU’s 12th sanctions package, which also includes a ban on diamonds, the outlet reported.
Ukraine’s state railway said it had restricted grain deliveries to Odesa, one of the country’s key Black Sea ports, because of repairs.
Nato has announced it will buy six Boeing aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Awacs surveillance planes, bolstering the alliance’s capabilities to track the threat from Russia, AFP reported.
Hungary has sought a review of the EU’s policy towards Ukraine, disagreeing with Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Ireland, who backed bringing Kyiv closer to the bloc more quickly and granting it more aid.
Pope Francis has called on the faithful to pray regularly for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and all other war-torn places.
Vladimir Putin is likely to announce his presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
