Closing summary
Ukrainian forces have secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff was quoted as saying. Andriy Yermak’s remarks were the first official acknowledgment that Ukrainian troops were established on the Dnipro’s east bank in Kherson region, Reuters reported.
A top Ukrainian military official has said Russian troops have continued simultaneous assault attempts in several directions on the country’s east, and are increasing the use of kamikaze drones, Reuters reported. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia, despite high losses, has been attacking Ukrainian positions near Kupiansk. “In addition, the enemy has increased the use of kamikaze drones,” he said on Telegram.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Russia had hit Nikopol region 11 times on Tuesday, using kamikaze drones and artillery. He wrote on Telegram that the district centre was most heavily targeted and that a 26-year-old man died.
The former detective Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, convicted for his role in the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said. “As a special forces fighter, he was invited to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation … When the contract expired, he was pardoned by presidential decree,” lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told AFP.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Russia is increasing its attacks across the frontline, AFP reported. “The military reported an increase in the number of enemy assaults,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, saying Russian forces were attacking around Donetsk, Kupiansk and Avdiivka.
Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that governs presidential elections by putting new restrictions on media coverage, local news agencies reported.
The EU will miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1m artillery shells and missiles by next March, the German defence minister said. Boris Pistorius’s comments, the first public admission by a senior European minister that the target would not be met, were made before a summit of EU defence ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
Ukrainian troops have secured foothold in the south, says senior official
Ukrainian forces have secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff has been quoted as saying.
Andriy Yermak’s remarks were the first official acknowledgment that Ukrainian troops were established on the Dnipro’s east bank in Kherson region, Reuters reports.
“Against all odds, Ukraine’s Defense Forces have gained a foothold on the left (east) bank of the Dniepro,” Andriy Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute thinktank in the US.
“Step by step, they are demilitarizing Crimea. We have covered 70% of the distance. And our counteroffensive is developing.”
Russia has sentenced a man to six years in prison for vandalising posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine, AFP reports.
Moscow has banned criticism of its war in Ukraine and punished thousands of citizens for denouncing the military campaign.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said the man’s sentence had come into force after he was found guilty of “discrediting” the Russian army under a law used to stifle criticism and vandalism.
It did not name him, saying he is a 46-year-old “local” to the central city of Tolyatti, where the posters were damaged.
Cyprus has vowed to tighten controls on its financial sector as an investigation published by the Guardian and its reporting partners reveals oligarchs transferred hundreds of millions in assets while sanctions loomed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The role of the blue-chip accountants PwC Cyprus and other advisers in managing transactions as Vladimir Putin’s forces launched their assault has emerged from Cyprus Confidential, a cache of 3.6m files leaked by an anonymous source to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Germany’s Paper Trail Media, which shared access with the Guardian and other reporting partners.
You can read the full story here:
Russia increasing use of kamikaze drones as it tries to push on east, says Ukrainian military official
A top Ukrainian military official has said Russian troops have continued simultaneous assault attempts in several directions on the country’s east, and are increasing the use of kamikaze drones, Reuters reports.
The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia, despite high losses, has been attacking Ukrainian positions near Kupiansk.
“In addition, the enemy has increased the use of kamikaze drones,” he said on Telegram.
“North and south of Bakhmut, Russian troops are trying to seize the initiative by conducting counterattacks. However, our defenders break all the plans and attempts of invaders to seize our land,” Syrskyi added. These claims have yet to be independently verified.
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Reuters has more on the week-long Polish truckers’ protest at Ukraine’s border (see earlier post at 12.54 for more details).
Ukrainian border guard spokesperson, Andriy Demchenko, has said that 1,300 trucks had been in line from the Polish side at the Yahodyn checkpoint, and 500 trucks at both Krakovets and Rava-Ruska, where the blocking was occurring.
Congestion by about 1,100 trucks was starting at the Shehyni checkpoint because of drives changing their routes, he said.
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Russia strikes Nikopol 11 times with kamikaze drones and artillery, says governor
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region,said Russia had hit Nikopol region 11 times on Tuesday, using kamikaze drones and artillery.
He wrote on Telegram that the district centre was most heavily targeted and that a 26-year-old man died.
“A nine-storey building, 4 private houses, 2 cars and a power line were damaged,” Lyask wrote. “The occupiers also targeted Marganetska, Myrivska and Pokrovska rural communities.”
These claims have not yet been independently verified.
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The EU’s chief diplomat was also asked about sanctions on Hamas. He said it was raised at the meeting but “rather than sanctions it was [about] cutting off finances”.
He was also asked about his proposal that the EU commit a separate €20bn facility over the next four years to Ukraine, in addition to a €50bn cash and loans facility being considered by EU member states.
“Yes, that idea is still alive, but it has to be part of the overall review of the financial perspective with the ministers of finance,” he said.
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The EU’s chief diplomat has admitted that the bloc may not reach its target of providing 1m rounds of ammunition to Ukraine by April next year.
But Josep Borrell said defence ministers were strongly urged that they “have to do more and faster” to reach the target, which he said was completely viable but relied on member states putting in orders as a matter of urgency.
“Time is being measured not only by the destruction of infrastructure and houses, but measured in human lives,” he told reporters after a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels.
Questions over the EU’s capacity to deliver were raised on Tuesday morning after the German defence minister, Oscar Pistorius, said the target would not be met.
But Borrell said EU commissioner Thierry Breton’s declaration that the target could be met was correct because there was capacity in Europe’s defence system.
The target “doesn’t mean that we already have 1m shots ready by March. Maybe we will not have 1m by March. But it will depend on how quickly the call goes to the industry and how quickly the industry reacts,” he said.
“If the industry has the capacity to produce it is up to the member states to make the orders in order to ask for this production to be developed.”
Senior officials say that 300,000 rounds had already been delivered under track one of a framework agreed in March.
A further 180,000 rounds have been ordered under a second track of joint procurement while an unspecified additional quantity was being delivered by individual states from their own stockpiles in the knowledge of replenishment under the EU scheme.
Borrell also urged member states to “reroute” supplies to Ukraine, with data showing some 40% of production in the EU was going outside the bloc.
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The Russian army has “eliminated” almost all Ukrainian literature in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, wrote on X.
Russia claimed to have annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in September 2022.
The Russian army has eliminated almost all Ukrainian literature in the occupied territories of Donetsk & Luhansk reg. Acc. to the National Resistance Center, any Ukrainian books published in 1994-2021 are positioned as “extremist literature”. At the same time, in 2023, about 2.5M… pic.twitter.com/g4k8IvfriE
— Гюндуз Мамедов/Gyunduz Mamedov (@MamedovGyunduz) November 14, 2023
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The bill approving Sweden’s Nato membership will be debated by the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission on Thursday, Sky News reports.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, submitted a bill approving Sweden’s Nato membership bid for ratification last month.
Turkey had initially raised objections because of what it said was Sweden’s harbouring of groups it deems terrorist.
The bill must be approved by parliament’s foreign affairs committee before a vote by the full assembly. Erdoğan would then sign it into law.
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The German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall will supply Ukraine with 25 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks as part of an order paid for by the German government, the company has said, according to the Kyiv Independent.
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Ukraine and Britain have agreed to a special mechanism for discounts on insurance against military risks for Ukrainian exports, including through the Black Sea corridor, the Ukrainian prime minister said on Tuesday.
Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram:
It will make it possible to make a discount on the cost of insurance against military risks for exporters of all products from Ukraine.
This will make the Black Sea corridor more accessible to a wider range of exporters.
He said the mechanism involved a pool of British insurance companies, according to Reuters.
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Finland has accused Russia of funnelling asylum-seekers to its border and said it would take the necessary action to prevent a mass inflow of people and protect its national security.
The Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, told a press conference that Russia had changed its practice by allowing people access to the border without required travel documents, according to Reuters.
Orpo, of Finland’s conservative National Coalition party, said:
It is clear that these people are helped and they are also being escorted or transported to the border by border guards.
While still small, the number of arrivals from Russia had jumped this week, according to Finland’s border guard authority.
Finland adopted legislation last year that allows its border authority to exceptionally stop receiving asylum applications at certain crossing points in case it became a target of mass immigration orchestrated by another country.
Orpo added:
The message from us in the government is clear in that we want to secure the safety of our eastern border.
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Summary of the day so far
The former detective Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, convicted for his role in the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said. “As a special forces fighter, he was invited to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation … When the contract expired, he was pardoned by presidential decree,” lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told AFP.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Russia is increasing its attacks across the frontline, AFP reported. “The military reported an increase in the number of enemy assaults,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, saying Russian forces were attacking around Donetsk, Kupiansk and Avdiivka.
Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that governs presidential elections by putting new restrictions on media coverage, local news agencies reported.
The EU will miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1m artillery shells and missiles by next March, the German defence minister said. Boris Pistorius’s comments, the first public admission by a senior European minister that the target would not be met, were made before a summit of EU defence ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
Updated
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has participated in a meeting of the EU’s foreign affairs council with EU defence ministers in Brussels.
He discussed the protection of key undersea infrastructure and the importance of continued support to Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said:
The situation on the battlefield is difficult. And that just makes it even more important that we sustain and step up our support for Ukraine because we cannot allow President Putin to win.
Ukraine must prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe and it’s in our interest to support Ukraine.
You can read the full Nato press release here.
Updated
Kyiv and Warsaw have failed to reach an agreement to stop a week-long Polish truckers’ protest at Ukraine’s border, a Ukrainian official has said.
Polish drivers have been blocking roads to three crossings, in what they call a response to 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 licences for Ukrainian truckers, a demand Kyiv said it would not consider.
“Negotiations have not yet led to anything, and Polish carriers continue to block three main directions,” Ukrainian border guard spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said in televised comments, according to Reuters.
Updated
Russian convicted over journalist's murder pardoned for fighting in Ukraine
The former detective Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who was convicted for his role in the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Thousands of prisoners are thought to have been sent to fight in Ukraine since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion last February.
“As a special forces fighter, he was invited to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation … When the contract expired, he was pardoned by presidential decree,” lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told AFP.
Khadzhikurbanov was one of five people jailed over the murder of Politkovskaya, who worked for the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper before she was shot dead in the lift of her Moscow apartment block aged 48.
Politkovskaya was known for her forthright criticism of the Kremlin.
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Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, has said Russia has hit Nikopol with three kamikaze drones, killing one person and injuring a 72-year-old man.
He posted on Telegram:
A 72-year-old man was injured. He is in the hospital in a moderate condition.
Unfortunately, there is also a dead person. Condolences to the relatives … Shame on the occupiers who are fighting with the civilians.
These claims have not yet been independently verified.
Updated
Zelenskiy says Russian attacks are increasing around Donetsk, Kupiansk and Avdiivka
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Russia is increasing its attacks across the frontline, AFP reports.
Neither side has made any significant territorial gain for months, but both Zelenskiy and the Kremlin have denied the conflict has ground to a stalemate.
“The military reported an increase in the number of enemy assaults,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, saying Russian forces were attacking around Donetsk, Kupiansk and Avdiivka.
“The enemy continues to take revenge on the free Kherson, shelling the city centre without any military necessity,” he added.
Zelenskiy has said Russia is likely to increase airstrikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before winter, as it did last year.
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The US is the biggest military supporter of Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute, followed by Germany, the UK and Norway.
According to a parliamentary report presented to the French national assembly’s defence and armed forces committee on 8 November, the cost of the country’s military support for Ukraine has reached €3.2bn (£2.8bn).
German government figures show it has committed €10.5bn between next year and 2027 with €2bn contributed in 2022 and €5.4bn committed for 2023, writes the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, Lisa O’Carroll.
You can read her full story here:
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Putin approves new restrictions on media coverage ahead of presidential elections
Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that governs presidential elections by putting new restrictions on media coverage, local news agencies have reported.
The changes come ahead of the election to be held in March in which Putin, who has ruled Russia for 24 years, is expected to seek another six-year term, the Associated Press reports.
Putin, 71, has not declared whether he will run or not, saying he will only announce that after parliament formally sets the election date.
Under the amendments that he approved, only journalists contractually employed by registered media outlets will be allowed to cover electoral commission meetings, potentially barring freelancers and independent journalists.
The changes also include barring any coverage of the commission’s actions on military bases or in areas under martial law without prior permission of regional and military authorities.
Updated
Germany says EU target of 1m pieces of ammunition for Ukraine will not be met
The EU will miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1m artillery shells and missiles by next March, the German defence minister has said.
Boris Pistorius’s comments, the first public admission by a senior European minister that the target would not be met, were made before a summit of EU defence ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
“It is safe to assume that the one million rounds will not be reached,” Pistorius said. Diplomats and officials have been expressing scepticism privately for months about the goal.
The target was set in response to Ukraine’s urgent need for 155mm artillery shells.
The EU agreed earlier this year on a three-pronged approach to boost supplies as it emerged that Ukraine was burning through ammunition faster than the US and Nato could produce it.
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said as he arrived at the summit that the bloc had provided more than 300,000 artillery shells and missiles under the first track of the scheme, which involved EU member states delivering from their own stockpiles.
He said the focus was now on the second element of the scheme, in which EU countries order new shells from industry under a joint procurement initiative.
Borell suggested that an immediate issue was the export commitments of EU defence manufacturers outside the bloc. “So maybe what we have to do is to try to shift this production to the priority one, which is the Ukrainians,” he said.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry commissioner, said arms companies were making progress in increasing production and that a separate target of boosting European production of 155mm shells to a million a year would be met.
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Here are some of images from the wires of leaders at a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers at the European Council in Brussels today.
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The head of Russia’s state nuclear energy company, Rosatom, said on Tuesday that it had agreed a timetable for the construction of two new reactors at the Paks-2 nuclear plant in Hungary, Reuters reports.
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Asked if Germany’s defence minister’s claim that the EU would not meet its target of producing 1m shells for Ukraine by spring, Breton insisted it was possible.
“I’m responsible for ammunition production capacity. So I can confirm that the target of producing more than a million rounds of ammunition a year, which we set ourselves and which they [EU countries] hope to achieve from spring onwards, will be met. Now it’s up to the member states to place the orders,” he said.
Updated
Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry commissioner, has insisted that the target of producing 1m pieces of ammunition for Ukraine would be met.
He told reporters on arrival at a defence ministers’ summit in Brussels that the figure included missiles.
“This target will be met,” he said, adding that ministers would be discussing how to increase production.
His comments came shortly after the German defence minister had said the target would not be met, and the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, that challenges lay ahead to meet it because 40% of the EU’s shells were exported outside the bloc.
He said:
I have proposed to all the defence ministers that we should reflect together, I would say, on laying the foundations for a new European defence strategy to increase our capabilities together.
We are currently discussing this so that I can present the results of these negotiations and discussions in the first quarter of next year.
I’m responsible for ammunition production capacity. So I can confirm that the target of producing more than a million rounds of ammunition a year, which we set ourselves and which they hope to achieve from spring onwards, will be met. Now it’s up to the Member States to place the orders. This is not in the hands of the Commission, of course.
Updated
Russia has signed a contract to supply its Igla handheld anti-aircraft missile to India and allow production of the Igla there under licence, Reuters reports, citing a top arms export official speaking to Russia’s state news agency Tass.
Updated
Nato to update EU on protection of undersea pipelines
Nato will update the EU on protection of critical infrastructure including under ocean internet cables and gas pipelines in the Baltic sea and Ukraine neighbourhood at a summit of defence ministers in Brussels today.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the recent damage to gas and internet pipelines in the Baltic connector between Estonia and Finland had already led to an increased presence in the area with Nato vessels, aircraft and drones patrolling the area.
Estonia initially said it believed a Chinese vessel had accidentally caused the damage with its anchor, but it subsequently said it did not rule out damage from a state actor.
Stoltenberg said:
We are in the process of establishing a new centre at our Maritime Command in the United Kingdom, to better coordinate efforts of allies to work with partners to work with the European Union, but also to work with the private sector to better share information and to ramp up what to do to protect critical undersea infrastructure.
He and ministers will also discuss the “difficult” situation on the battlefield, he said.
Intense fighting continues. The situation on the battlefield is difficult. And that just makes it even more important that we sustain and step up our support for Ukraine because we cannot allow a president Putin to win. Ukraine must prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe and it’s in our interest to support Ukraine.
Updated
German defence minister questions ammunition target
The EU’s goal to supply Ukraine with 1m rounds of ammunition will not be reached, the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has said as member states meet in Brussels to discuss how to increase supplies.
“It is safe to assume that the 1m rounds will not be reached,” he told reporters arriving at the summit of defence ministers.
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the target involved stockpiles and new production but one of the issues was “40% of the production is being exported” outside the bloc.
He said ministers would be scrutinising how to boost supply to Ukraine, with one option to work on how to shift production earmarked for export back to Ukraine.
Updated
EU defence ministers will be meeting today, with Ukraine and the supply of aid and ammunition on the agenda. We’ll have more details in the live blog today.
Updated
Russian air defences destroyed four Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions, including the Moscow region, overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.
According to Reuters, the drones were destroyed in Moscow, Tambov, Orlov and Bryansk regions, the ministry said.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Below is a summary of the latest developments.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has used his regular address to pledge to meet all the recommendations set out by the European Commission to help Ukraine on its path towards EU membership.
“For Ukraine, it is a matter of principle to implement all the recommendations of the European Commission, all seven recommendations, and fulfill everything that is required at this point of our path to the European Union,” he said.
Fighting around the shattered eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka has grown more fierce, Ukraine’s military has said, with Moscow’s forces intensifying air bombardments and trying to move forward with ground forces.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun told national television: “Fighting is still going on. Over the last two days, the occupiers have increased the number of airstrikes using guided bombs from Su-35 aircraft.
“The enemy is also bringing in more and more infantry. But when they tried to deploy armoured vehicles the day before yesterday two tanks and 14 other vehicles were burned out.”
Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration, told the state news agency Ukrinform that Russian losses in the current attack on the city stood at at least 3,000-4,000 dead and a further 7,000-8,000 wounded. The Guardian has not verified his claim.
Hungary will block the disbursement of the next tranche of military aid to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility until Kyiv provides “guarantees” that OTP bank or other Hungarian firms will not be blacklisted as “international sponsors of war”, the country’s foreign minister said.
Russian shelling on Monday damaged a hospital and homes in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing three people and injuring at least 12, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Xi Jinping and Joe Biden are expected to discuss Ukraine, the Middle East, North Korea’s ties with Russia, Taiwan, human rights, artificial intelligence, in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at the Apec summit.
Germany’s aid for Ukraine will be “massively expanded” next year, the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said. She said: “We will not only continue our support for Ukraine, we will continue to expand and increase it, especially on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany, not only with a view to the winter defence for the coming weeks and months, when it is clear that the Russian president will once again exploit the needs of the people in the cold winter. “Our support will also be massively expanded, especially for the coming year.”
At least three Russian officers were killed in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in a blast Ukraine’s intelligence said was an “act of revenge” by local resistance groups.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and newly appointed British foreign secretary David Cameron discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict, relations with China and help for Ukraine during a telephone call on Monday, the state department said. “Secretary Blinken and Lord Cameron underscored continuity in the US-UK special relationship and its importance to regional and global security,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a readout of the conversation.
Blinken promised a top Ukrainian official sustained US support including help to get through the winter, with Russia expected to strike Kyiv’s infrastructure again. Blinken met Andriy Yermak, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on a brief stop in Washington in between the top US diplomat’s latest Middle East crisis tour and an Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco.
Save Ukraine, an organisation that focuses on rescuing the country’s most vulnerable people, has said its rescuers have evacuated more than 108,880 people from the frontlines since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. It said its rescue network provided humanitarian assistance to more than 186,450 people, with its hotline operators fielding more than 161,425 calls from Ukrainians in urgent need of assistance.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called for an increase in military aid to Ukraine, for decisions to be made in December on the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, and to speed up work on the 12th package of sanctions against Russia, the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine has said.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said Ukraine is the bloc’s top priority and that there will be “no fatigue to our commitment” to supporting the country. The EU’s 27 foreign ministers passed a united message of support for Ukraine on Monday after welcoming Kuleba.
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