Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin’s troops ‘pushed back miles’ after major Kyiv breakthrough on Dnipro River

Ukrainian forces say they have pushed Russian troops three to eight kilometeres back on the banks of the key Dnipro River.

If confirmed, it would be the first meaningful advance by Kyiv’s forces months into a relatively slow counteroffensive.

“Preliminary figures vary from three to eight kilometres, depending on the specifics, geography and landscape design of the left bank,” army spokeswoman Natalia Gumenyuk told Ukrainian television, without specifying whether Ukraine’s military had complete control of the area or if the Russians had retreated.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been entrenched on opposite sides of the vast waterway in the southern Kherson region for more than a year, after Russia withdrew its troops from the western bank last November.

Ukrainian forces have staged multiple attempts to cross and hold positions on the Russian-controlled side - with officials in Kyiv finally reporting a “successful” breakthrough last week.

After securing multiple footholds on the eastern bank, the Ukrainian military claimed to have repelled 12 attacks over the weekend. Mr Putin has lost around a brigade’s worth of forces there in a month, claims Kyiv.

Key Points

• Ukrainian army pushing Russian forces back at Dnipro river

• Russia launches waves of drone strikes on Kyiv for second night

• Cluster bombs in battle for Avdiivka fuelling stalemate on frontline, says UK

• Ukraine establishes 'several bridgeheads' on eastern bank of Dnipro

Nato concerned by secessionist rhetoric and Russian influence in Bosnia

11:58 , Andy Gregory

Jens Stoltenberg has said Nato is concerned by secessionist rhetoric and Russian influence in Bosnia, after months of Serb leaders increasingly saying they want to split and join Serbia.

Bosnia emerged from civil war in 1995 with a federal structure uniting a Serb-dominated republic and a federation of Croats and Bosniak Muslims. But the leader of Serbian entity, Milorad Dodik, has increasingly said in recent months that he aims to secede and join neighbouring Serbia.

“We are concerned by secessionist and divisive rhetoric as well as ... foreign interference including Russia,” the Nato chief told reporters in Sarajevo, during a tour of the western Balkans region.

“This undermines the stability and hampers reform,” Mr Stoltenberg said, adding that all political leaders must work to preserve unity, build national institutions and achieve reconciliation.

Nato had deployed about 60,000 troops in Bosnia after the war, which were replaced by an EU peacekeeping force in 2004. Last year, the EU almost doubled its size to 1,100 troops, amid fears that instability from the Ukraine war could spill over to the western Balkans.

Putin to address G20 summit this week, Kremlin says

11:15 , Andy Gregory

Vladimir Putin will set out Russia’s view of what it sees as the “deeply unstable world situation” when he addresses an upcoming virtual G20 summit, the Kremlin has said.

Russian state TV presenter Pavel Zarubin said on his Telegram channel on Sunday that it would be the “first event in a long time” including both the Russian president and Western leaders.

According to the state RIA news agency, the G20 virtual summit will be held on Wednesday.

Russia relying on penal recruits to stem increase in deserters on Donetsk frontline, Ukraine claims

11:06 , Andy Gregory

Growing numbers of Russian soldiers are deserting the frontline in Donetsk, Ukraine’s military has claimed as it braces for a long-awaited “third wave” of attacks by Moscow’s forces in Avdiivka.

The Institute for Study of War think-tank cited Ukrainian Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun as saying that Russia may soon intensify artillery preparations for the new wave of assaults on the strategically key city.

Moscow’s forces have not actively used heavy military equipment Avdiivka in recent days, have decreased aviation use in the area, and are increasingly using infantry, he said, claiming that Russia’s significant losses mean only 10 to 15 percent of some detachments’ original personnel remain.

In remarks on Sunday, Mr Shtupun claimed there were growing numbers of Russian deserters and personnel who refuse to conduct offensive operations, leading Russian commanders to use physical force and barrier troops to push Russian forces to fight, with an increased reliance on mobilised reservists and penal recruits.

EU sanctions tend to have ‘boomerang effect’, Russia claims

10:54 , Andy Gregory

The Kremlin has claimed that European Union sanctions tend to have a “boomerang effect”, as Moscow faces the prospect of an EU ban on imports of Russian diamonds.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that such a move had been anticipated for a long time, but was likely to backfire.

“As a rule, it turns out that a boomerang effect is partially triggered: the interests of the Europeans themselves suffer. So far, we have been able to find ways to minimise the negative consequences of sanctions,” he claimed.

EU diplomatic sources told Reuters last week that the proposal under discussion was to ban direct diamond imports from Russia from 1 January, and to implement a traceability mechanism by March which would prevent imports of Russian gems processed in third countries.

Exclusive: Andriy Shevchenko urges the world not to forget Ukraine

10:29 , Andy Gregory

On the morning of 24 February 2022 – a date etched in every Ukrainian’s mind – Andriy Shevchenko was woken by a phone call from his mother. She told him through tears that Russia was invading. Shevchenko was in London, where he lives with his wife and four sons; his mother and wider family were in Ukraine, under attack.

Shevchenko has barely slept since. “It’s almost impossible,” he says. “It’s going to be almost two years since the full war started, and every day I wake up, check the phone – what’s the news? Are we going to be attacked in Kyiv? Are we going to be attacked in a different city? How many drones? How many rockets? Where have the rockets hit? And then, talking to my friends – who’s dead? It’s a normal day for us.”

Shevchenko is using his platform as one of Europe’s greatest footballers, a Ballon d’Or winner and a Chelsea cult hero to keep the spotlight on Ukraine at a time when the world’s attention has turned to the Middle East. In the West, the initial shock caused by Russia’s invasion has subsided, and a sense of normalisation has crept in. He is understandably worried that Ukraine’s cause might be forgotten.

“I hope not,” he says. “Because for us, it’s everything. For us, it’s exist or not exist.”

Our senior sports writer Lawrence Ostlere has the full exclusive interview here:

Andriy Shevchenko on Ukraine: ‘Every day I wake up, check the phone. Who’s dead?’

Kremlin ‘deeply regrets’ Finland’s border closures

10:08 , Andy Gregory

The Kremlin has said it deeply regrets Finland’s decision to close crossings along the two countries’ vast border on Saturday.

Finland closed four crossings on Saturday in a bid to halt the flow of asylum-seekers, having accused Moscow of funnelling migrants to the frontier in retaliation for Helsinki’s ascension to Nato and increased Western military cooperation since the invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied Finland’s accusation on Monday and insisted that Russian border guards were carrying out their duties in line with the rules.

Asked about the closure of the four crossings, Mr Peskov told reporters: “This causes nothing but deep regret, because we had long-standing, very good relations with Finland, pragmatic, based on mutual respect.

“And of course, we regret that these relations were replaced by such an exclusively Russophobic position, which the leaders of this country began to espouse,” he said.

Moscow protest shows lengthy Russian deployments to frontline ‘unsustainable’, says UK

09:44 , Andy Gregory

Protests in Moscow by the wives of Russian soldiers show that their lengthy deployments to the front line are increasingly viewed as unsustainable, Britain’s Ministry of Defence suggested.

Russian wives and mothers have been making daily online appeals protesting against the conditions of their loved ones’ service since the invasion of Ukraine last February.

“However, Russia’s draconian legislation has so far prevented troops’ relatives from coalescing into an influential lobbying force, as soldiers’ mothers did during the Afghan-Soviet War of the 1980s,” said the ministry”.

But on 7 November, they held a rare street protest in Moscow’s central Teatralnya Square, unfurling banners demanding the rotation of their partners away from the frontline.

Police broke up the protest within minutes, according to the ministry, which added: “However, the protestors’ immediate demand is notable.

“The apparently indefinitely extended combat deployments of personnel without rotation is increasingly seen as unsustainable by both the troops themselves and by their relatives.”

US defence secretary’s visit to Kyiv is his first since early months of war

09:21 , Andy Gregory

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has made an unannounced visit to Kyiv today, as he pushes to keep money and weapons flowing to Ukraine.

Mr Austin travelled by train from Poland, and is scheduled to meet with senior Ukrainian officials.

It marks his second trip to Kyiv – with his first having taken place in April 2022, just two months after Russia’s invasion.

Two killed in Kherson after Russia shells parking lot, officials say

08:55 , Andy Gregory

Two people have been killed this morning after Russian forces shelled a parking lot in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to officials.

Regional prosecutors said they had opened a war-crimes investigation into the artillery strike, which occurred at around 9am and injured one other person.

Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the two dead were drivers for “a private transport business”.

Images posted on Telegram showed firefighters dousing cars that had been blasted apart, one day after a separate strike on the city wounded five people, including a 3-year-old girl.

Russian forces have regularly shelled Kherson from across the Dnipro River since the city was liberated last November by Ukrainian troops – who are now seeking to push Moscow’s troops away from the river after establishing a foothold on the opposite bank.

Second drone in as many days shot down near Moscow as Russia and Ukraine exchange attacks on capitals

08:29 , Andy Gregory

Russia and Ukraine sent drones targeting each other’s capital cities over the weekend in signs of renewed intensity for their aerial warfare, my colleague Arpan Rai reports.

Drones were shot down on both Saturday and Sunday in areas around Kyiv and Moscow. Air defence systems for both sides intercepted attacks and no casualties were reported.

Multiple drones that were heading for Moscow and Russia’s border areas on Sunday were downed by Russian air defence systems over the weekend, officials said.

Kyiv has promised to wage a major drone campaign against Russia this winter, as bad weather conditions make it difficult to conduct operations on the ground.

Russia under Ukraine’s drone attack for two nights in row as Moscow remains on target

Zelensky dismisses Ukraine’s military medical chief

08:11 , Andy Gregory

Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Major General Tetiana Ostashchenko as the commander of Ukraine’s medical forces, as he demanded rapid changes in the operations of the country’s military medical system.

“In today’s meeting with defence minister [Rustem] Umerov, priorities were set,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address on Sunday. “There is little time left to wait for results. Quick action is needed for forthcoming changes.”

He added: “The task is clear, as has been repeatedly stressed in society, particularly among combat medics, we need a fundamentally new level of medical support for our soldiers.”

A wide range of improvements are needed, Mr Zelensky said – from better tourniquets, to improvements in digitalisation and communication.

Ms Ostashchenko was replaced by Major General Anatoliy Kazmirchuk, head of a military clinic in Kyiv.

US defence secretary arrives in Kyiv

07:45 , Andy Gregory

US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin has arrived for a visit in Kyiv.

Two killed as grenade explodes in Kyiv apartment

07:26 , Andy Gregory

A Ukrainian soldier and a woman died when a grenade exploded in an apartment in Kyiv, injuring a second man, police said.

Explosives technicians and investigators were working at the scene of Sunday’s explosion in the Dniprovskiy district, Kyiv police said in a statement.

“A citizen contacted the police with a report that an explosion rang out in a neighbouring apartment,” they added.

Earlier this month, an aide to Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, died when a grenade given to him as a birthday gift blew up.

An orphaned teenager who was taken to Russia early in the Ukraine war is back home with relatives

07:00 , Holly Evans

An orphaned Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia last year during the war in his country returned home after being reunited with relatives in Belarus on his 18th birthday Sunday.

Bohdan Yermokhin was pictured embracing family members in Minsk in photographs shared on social media by Russia’s children’s rights ombudswoman, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, confirmed that Yermokhin had arrived back in Ukraine and shared a photo of him with a Ukrainian flag. Yermak thanked UNICEF and Qatari negotiators for facilitating Yermokhin’s return.

Read the full article here

An orphaned teenager who was taken to Russia early in the Ukraine war is back home with relatives

Putin could face new war crime case as evidence suggests starvation of Ukraine was pre-planned

05:30 , Holly Evans

Russia was actively preparing to steal grain supplies and starve the Ukrainian population of food for months before Vladimir Putin ordered last year’s invasion, according to new evidence compiled by human rights experts.

When Russian tanks did roll across the border on 24 February 2022 they deliberately targeted grain-rich areas and food production infrastructure first, the new report by international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance found.

GRC found that Russia’s defence contractor began purchasing trucks to transport grain, as well as three new 170-metre bulk carrier cargo ships, as early as December 2021, evidence of advance planning for the pillage of Ukrainian food resources “on an unprecedented scale”.

Read the full article here

Putin could face new war crime case over ‘planned’ starvation of Ukraine

Wife of twice-poisoned Briton held in Kremlin prison fears ‘time is running out’

04:30 , Holly Evans

The wife of a British-Russian national held in a Krelimn prison says she fears time is running out, and has called for the UK to take more urgent action to free him.

Vladimir Kara-Murza survived two near-fatal poisonings, in 2015 and 2017, which resulted in organ failure and polyneuropathy, a condition that causes nerve damage.

The Vladimir Putin critic was jailed for 25 years in April this year on charges of treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Read the full article here

Wife of twice-poisoned Briton held in Kremlin prison fears ‘time is running out’

Zelensky calls for rapid operation changes and sacks commander

03:30 , Holly Evans

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday demanded rapid changes in the operations of Ukraine’s military and announced the dismissal of the commander of the military’s medical forces.

Zelensky’s move was announced as he met Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, and coincided with debate over the conduct of the 20-month-old war against Russia, with questions over how quickly a counteroffensive in the east and south is proceeding.

“In today’s meeting with Defence Minister Umerov, priorities were set,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “There is little time left to wait for results. Quick action is needed for forthcoming changes.”

Zelensky said he had replaced Major-General Tetiana Ostashchenko as commander of the Armed Forces Medical Forces.

“The task is clear, as has been repeatedly stressed in society, particularly among combat medics, we need a fundamentally new level of medical support for our soldiers,” he said.

This, he said, included a range of issues -- better tourniquets, digitalisation and better communication.

Umerov acknowledged the change on the Telegram messaging app and set as top priorities digitalisation, “tactical medicine” and rotation of servicemen.

Plight of one Ukraine village illustrates toll of Russia’s invasion

02:30 , Holly Evans

Kamianka lies in a charming valley of bright flowers and lush trees. It used to be portrayed as a model village for a contented life in rural idyll. It was also a place of archaeological and geological lure, with its rare bronze age and Scythian sites and Jurassic limestone cliffs attracting visitors from afar.

The settlement, set in a sleepy hollow, was established in the 18th century by a count from the Tsar of Russia’s court who had returned from Britain with new methods of farming and an English bride. Keen to put his new knowledge into practice, he allocated land, built a mill, constructed roads and funded a church and a school.

But Kamianka, in eastern Ukraine, also has a dark history of violence.

Read the full article from Kim Sengupta here

Russia’s plan B in Ukraine is working – now is not the moment for the West to turn away

01:30 , Holly Evans

hen Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was fooled recently by two well-known Russian “comics” – surely paid-up Kremlin agents – into saying she was “tired” of the war in Ukraine and that everyone would soon be looking for a “way out”, too many of her counterparts in the West would have tacitly agreed (and perhaps sympathised: she is hardly the first to be pranked by these two).

But Ms Meloni deserves no sympathy. She thought she was talking to the head of the African Union Commission so this should have been a chance to exercise statecraft and reason with the supposed representative from the Global South and argue that Russia’s war in Ukraine is nothing if not colonialist itself – a desperate attempt to maintain its empire.

Russia, with an abundance of chutzpah and an absence of shame, claims that it is the West that is being colonialist in forcing its designs on Kyiv (even supposedly “Nazi-ruled Kyiv”). You have to apply to join Nato and the EU, of course, but facts like these are irrelevant.

Read the full article from James Nixey here

Russia’s plan B in Ukraine is working – the West must not turn away now

Moscow mayor says air defence units intercept drone targeting city

00:30 , Holly Evans

Air defence units in Moscow intercepted a drone targeting the city on Sunday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said units in the Elektrostal district in the capital’s east had intercepted the drone.

According to preliminary information, falling debris resulting from the operation had caused no casualties or damage, Sobyanin said.

UK defence ministry say ‘few immediate prospects’ for change along front line

Sunday 19 November 2023 23:30 , Holly Evans

Russian drones have targeted Kyiv as the British Defence Ministry said there were “few immediate prospects” for major change along the Ukrainian front line as the war enters its second winter.

Russia launched 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones overnight, targeting the Ukrainian capital and the Cherkasy and Poltava regions, according to a military statement.

Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems shot down 15 of the drones.

The overnight strike on Kyiv is the second attack on the Ukrainian capital in 48 hours, said the city’s Military Administration spokesperson, Serhii Popko.

He said that the drones attacked Kyiv from different directions in waves that were “constantly changing vectors”.

Preliminary reports indicated no casualties or critical damage, he said.

Around 3,000 trucks stuck at Ukrainian border due to Polish drivers' blockade

Sunday 19 November 2023 22:30 , Holly Evans

bout 3,000 mostly Ukrainian trucks were stuck on the Polish side of the border as of Sunday morning due to a more than 10-day blockade by Polish truckers, Ukrainian authorities said.

Polish truckers earlier this month blocked roads to three border crossings with Ukraine to protest against what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials said last week Kyiv and Warsaw had again failed to reach an agreement to stop the protest.

“For over 10 days, Ukrainian drivers have been blocked at the Polish border. Thousands of people are forced to live in difficult conditions with limited food, water and fuel,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Ukraine’s Prime Minister, said on X, formerly Twitter.

He said trucks were backed up more than 30 kms (18.6 miles)towards the Yahodyn crossing, more than 10 kms towards Rava-Ruska, and more than 16 kms towards the Krakivets crossing.

Russia and Iran call for ceasefire in Gaza

Sunday 19 November 2023 21:30 , Holly Evans

Russia and Iran’s foreign ministers on Sunday called for a ceasefire in Gaza and said that urgent assistance must be given to the civilian population there.

Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian at the request of Tehran.

“During the conversation, main attention was focused on the current situation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Ukrainian teen returns to Ukraine after being taken to Russia from occupied Mariupol

Sunday 19 November 2023 20:39 , Holly Evans

Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia from the occupied city of Mariupol during the war and prevented from leaving the country earlier this year returned to Ukraine on Sunday.

Bohdan Yermokhin, who turned 18 on Sunday, appealed to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this month to help bring him back to Ukraine. In March, he tried to leave Russia for Ukraine via Belarus, but was stopped and sent back.

“I believed I would be in Ukraine, but not on this day,” Yermokhin told Reuters while eating at a petrol station after crossing into Ukraine.

“This is a very pleasant gift, to put it in the right way. The emotions are overwhelming, all good, with the notion that Ukraine needs me.”

Zelenskiy welcomed Yermokhin’s return in his nightly video address.

“Many attempts were made to help him. I am happy everything worked out,” he said, expressing thanks to Ukrainian officials, international organisations, and particularly the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and authorities in Qatar for help in mediation.

Hungary’s Orban says Ukraine ‘light years away’ from joining EU

Sunday 19 November 2023 19:30 , Athena Stavrou

Hungary’s prime minister has said Ukraine is “light years away” from joining the European Union, further signalling that his government is likely to present a roadblock to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the bloc.

Speaking at a biannual congress of his nationalist Fidesz party, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he and his government would “resist” talks scheduled for mid-December on whether to formally invite Ukraine to start membership negotiations.

Admitting a new country requires unanimous approval from all existing member countries, giving Mr Orban a powerful veto.

Mr Orban said afterwards that standing in the way of Ukraine joining the EU would be one of his government’s top priorities in the coming months.

“Our task will be to correct the mistaken promise to start negotiations with Ukraine, since Ukraine is now light years away from the European Union,” Mr Orban said.

ICYMI: In Russia, more Kremlin critics are being imprisoned as intolerance of dissent grows

Sunday 19 November 2023 18:45 , Athena Stavrou

Russia under President Vladimir Putin has been closing in on those who challenge the Kremlin. Protesters and activists have been arrested or imprisoned, independent news outlets have been silenced, and various groups have been added to registers of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations.”

The crackdown has been going on for years.

Full report:

In Russia, more Kremlin critics are being imprisoned as intolerance of dissent grows

Ukraine ‘preparing for winter attacks'

Sunday 19 November 2023 18:00 , Athena Stavrou

Ukraine is preparing for further attacks on their energy grid this winter.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Ukrainian president Zelensky said that the “closer we are to winter, the more Russians will try to make the strikes more powerful.”

Zelenksy has previously raised concerns over Russian attacks on Ukraines energy grid - which became a prime target last year.

Volodymyr Kudrytskiy, the head of energy firm Ukrenergo, told local media: “All of us energy workers and defence forces are preparing to repel possible Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure this winter.”

Thousands of Ukrainian children forcefully taken to Belarus via Russia, study finds

Sunday 19 November 2023 17:15 , Athena Stavrou

Thousands of children from Ukraine aged between six and 17 years old have been forcefully transferred to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia‘s invasion last year, a study by Yale University has found.

The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health found that the transfer of 2,442 children was “directly overseen” by Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko – a key ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Full report:

Thousands of Ukrainian children forcefully taken to Belarus via Russia, study finds

Ukrainian teen who was taken to Russia from occupied Mariupol returns to Ukraine

Sunday 19 November 2023 16:30 , Athena Stavrou

A Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia from the occupied city of Mariupol during the war and prevented from leaving the country earlier this year returned to Ukraine on Sunday.

Bohdan Yermokhin, who turned 18 on Sunday, appealed to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this month to help bring him back to Ukraine. In March, he tried to leave Russia for Ukraine via Belarus, but was stopped and sent back.

Ukraine says 20,000 children have been illegally transferred to Russia since the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, with some being put up for adoption. Kyiv says this is a war crime, an allegation denied by Russia, which says it was protecting children in a war zone.

Yermokhin, an orphan from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that was captured by Moscow’s troops during the first year of the war, was taken to Russia and placed in a foster family in the Moscow region.

On Sunday, Reuters correspondents at Kortelisy, a Ukrainian village near the border with Belarus, saw Yermokhin driven into Ukraine from the border in a van. Asked if he was glad to be back in Ukraine, Yermokhin said “yes”.

Putin to take part in G20 summit

Sunday 19 November 2023 15:45 , Athena Stavrou

Russian president Vladimir Putin is expected to take part in a virtual G20 summit next week, according to local media.

The conference is set to be hosted by India and happen on Wednesday, as reported by Russian news agency TASS, citing the TV channel ‘Russia-1’.

Putin did not attend the last two G20 meetings in India in September and Indonesia last year. He has taken few trips outside Russia since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader over the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.

Latest pictures from Ukraine

Sunday 19 November 2023 15:03 , Athena Stavrou

Russia’s plan B in Ukraine is working – now is not the moment for the West to turn away

Sunday 19 November 2023 14:20 , Athena Stavrou

Despite slow progress, the War in Ukraine has not reached a stalemate.

Ukraine’s forces can only win if the West shows a renewed commitment to forcing Russia out, James Nixey writes:

Russia’s plan B in Ukraine is working – the West must not turn away now

Around 3,000 trucks stuck at Ukrainian border

Sunday 19 November 2023 13:19 , Athena Stavrou

About 3,000 mostly Ukrainian trucks were stuck on the Polish side of the border as of Sunday morning due to a more than 10-day blockade by Polish truckers, Ukrainian authorities said.

Polish truckers earlier this month blocked roads to three border crossings with Ukraine to protest against what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials said last week Kyiv and Warsaw had again failed to reach an agreement to stop the protest.

“For over 10 days, Ukrainian drivers have been blocked at the Polish border. Thousands of people are forced to live in difficult conditions with limited food, water and fuel,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Ukraine‘s Prime Minister, said on X, formerly Twitter.

He said trucks were backed up more than 30 kms (18.6 miles)towards the Yahodyn crossing, more than 10 kms towards Rava-Ruska, and more than 16 kms towards the Krakivets crossing.

Ukrainian grain brokers said last week Ukraine‘s shipments of food by road decreased 2.7% in the first 13 days of November due to difficulties on the Polish border caused by a drivers’ strike.

Ukrainian army pushing Russian forces back at Dnipro river

Sunday 19 November 2023 12:05 , Athena Stavrou

The Ukrainian army said on Sunday that it has pushed Russian forces back “three to eight kilometres” from the banks of Dnipro river.

If confirmed, it would be the first meaningful advance by Kyiv’s forces months into a disappointing counteroffensive.

“Preliminary figures vary from three to eight kilometres, depending on the specifics, geography and landscape design of the left bank,” army spokeswoman Natalia Gumenyuk told Ukrainian television Sunday, without specifying whether Ukraine’s military had complete control of the area or if the Russians had retreated.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been entrenched on opposite sides of the vast waterway in the southern Kherson region for more than a year, after Russia withdrew its troops from the western bank last November.

Ukrainian forces have staged multiple attempts to cross and hold positions on the Russian-controlled side -- with officials in Kyiv finally reporting a “successful” breakthrough last week.

‘Greater fighting capacity' of Ukrainian recruits trained by UK

Sunday 19 November 2023 11:54 , Athena Stavrou

A Ukrainian military spokesperson has said recruits trained in the UK’s Interflex training course have a “greater fighting capacity”.

Operation Interflex was launched by the UK Armed Forces in June 2022 to develop and better prepare Ukrainian soldiers. Recruits spend five weeks in the UK receiving intense training.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that 30,000 Ukrainians have been trained through Op Interflex.

They shared a comment from a Ukrainian armed forces spokesperson that said: “We notice the greater fighting capacity of the servicemen and women of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who completed the Interflex training course.”

Five hurt in Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine says

Sunday 19 November 2023 10:56 , Athena Stavrou

Five people including a 3-year-old girl were injured in Russian artillery shelling of Kherson on Sunday morning, Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

“All of them sustained shrapnel wounds. The child and the grandmother were walking in the yard. Enemy artillery hit them near the entrance,” Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

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.

Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

Ukrainian forces work to push back Putin’s troops on key river

Sunday 19 November 2023 10:15 , Athena Stavrou

Ukrainian troops worked to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnieper River, the military said Saturday.

It comes a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the country’s partially occupied Kherson region.

Ukraine’s establishment of footholds on on the Russian-held bank of the Dnieper represents a small but potentially significant strategic advance in the midst of a war largely at a standstill.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said its troops there had repelled 12 attacks by the Russian army between Friday and Saturday.

The Ukrainians now were trying to “push back Russian army units as far as possible in order to make life easier for the (western) bank of the Kherson region, so that they get shelled less,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command, said.

The Russian military said on Saturday it had heavily bombed Ukrainian forces around the River Dnipro in southern Ukraine and killed up to 75 Ukrainian soldiers.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield claim.

Jailed Russian nationalist Girkin 'wants to run for president'

Sunday 19 November 2023 09:49 , Athena Stavrou

Pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who is in custody awaiting trial for inciting extremism, has said he wants to run for president in the March 2024 election, his supporters said, citing a letter from prison.

A presidential election in Russia is set to take place in March 2024 with current president Vladimir Putin expected to also run once again.

Girkin has repeatedly warned that Russia faces revolution and even civil war unless Putin’s military top brass fight the war in Ukraine more effectively.

Oleg Nelzin, co-chairman of the Russian movement supporting Strelkov, read out a letter from Girkin in which he asked supporters to start work on putting him forward to run in the March election.

A picture of Girkin, 52, above a slogan “Our president - Igor Ivanovich Strelkov - ‘24,” was projected on a screen behind Nelzin as he spoke. Applause followed at the meeting, a clip of which Girkin’s supporters posted on Telegram.

Russia has cracked down on nationalist critics, who have called for a much tougher approach to fighting the war including martial law and a country-wide mobilisation, after the failed June mutiny by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Russia ‘considering bringing Soviet-era aircraft back into service'

Sunday 19 November 2023 09:10 , Athena Stavrou

Russia is likely considering bringing a Soviet-era aircraft back into service, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

In their latest defence intelligence update, the UK said the M-55 MYSTIC B high altitude reconnaissance aircraft may come back into service.

With an operating ceiling of over 70,000 feet, the aircraft has been recently employed as an earth-sciences research platform. However, it has been observed carrying a military reconnaissance pod, developed for employment on Russian fighter aircraft.

The defence ministry added that it was “almost certain” that the aircraft will conduct missions against Ukraine from the “relative safety of Russian airspace”.

Zelensky issues sanctions for 108 people

Sunday 19 November 2023 08:38 , Athena Stavrou

Ukrainian Presidenty Zelensky has sanctioned 37 Russian groups and 108 people including a former prime minister and a former education minister.

“We are increasing the pressure of our state onto them and each of them must be held responsible for what they have done,” he said in his nightly video address on Saturday, after his office issued corresponding decrees with his signature.

Zelenskiy did not associate specific individuals or groups with particular wrongdoings. The decrees showed a range of 10-year penalties against individuals and five-year penalties against non-profit groups including one named in English as the “Russian Children’s Foundation.”

Zelenskiy said in his address that the list included “those involved in the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territory” and individuals who “in various ways help Russian terror against Ukraine.”

Dmytro Tabachnyk, a former minister of education and science who had his Ukrainian citizenship stripped from him in February, and ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov were also included in the sanctions.

With former President Viktor Yanukovich, Azarov previously had assets and property frozen among other penalties. The two men fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 after a crackdown on street protests that killed more than 100 demonstrators in Kyiv.

Russia launches waves of drone strikes on Kyiv for second night

Sunday 19 November 2023 07:48 , Andy Gregory

Russia launched several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv for the second night in row, stepping up its assaults on the Ukrainian capital after several weeks of pause, the head of the city’s military administration has said.

“The enemy’s UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were launched in many groups and attacked Kyiv in waves, from different directions, at the same time constantly changing the vectors of movement along the route,” Serhiy Popko said.

“That is why the air raid alerts were announced several times in the capital.”

According to preliminary information Ukraine’s air defence systems hit close to 10 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones in Kyiv and its outskirts, Mr Popko said.

There have been no initial reports of “critical damage” or casualties, he added.

Plight of one Ukraine village illustrates toll of Russia’s invasion

Sunday 19 November 2023 06:00 , Holly Evans

Kamianka lies in a charming valley of bright flowers and lush trees. It used to be portrayed as a model village for a contented life in rural idyll. It was also a place of archaeological and geological lure, with its rare bronze age and Scythian sites and Jurassic limestone cliffs attracting visitors from afar.

The settlement, set in a sleepy hollow, was established in the 18th century by a count from the Tsar of Russia’s court who had returned from Britain with new methods of farming and an English bride. Keen to put his new knowledge into practice, he allocated land, built a mill, constructed roads and funded a church and a school.

But Kamianka, in eastern Ukraine, also has a dark history of violence. Its strategic position on the banks of the Siversky Donets River made it a battleground for armies over the ages.

Read the full story from Kim Sengupta here

Bombs and betrayal: Plight of one Ukraine village highlights toll of Russian invasion

In Russia, more Kremlin critics are being imprisoned as intolerance of dissent grows

Sunday 19 November 2023 05:00 , Holly Evans

Russia under President Vladimir Putin has been closing in on those who challenge the Kremlin. Protesters and activists have been arrested or imprisoned, independent news outlets have been silenced, and various groups have been added to registers of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations.”

The crackdown has been going on for years.

But it increased within days of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when Russia adopted a law criminalizing the spreading of “false information” about the military, effectively outlawing any public expression about the war that deviated from the official narrative. Scores of people have been prosecuted under the new law, and those implicated in high-profile cases have been given long prison terms.

Read more here

In Russia, more Kremlin critics are being imprisoned as intolerance of dissent grows

The Lazarus Project star says series predicted Russia-Ukraine war

Sunday 19 November 2023 04:00 , Holly Evans

The Lazarus Project star says series predicted Russia-Ukraine war

Former Bank of Russia deputy placed on Moscow’s wanted list

Sunday 19 November 2023 03:00 , Holly Evans

Russia’s interior ministry has placed former Bank of Russia deputy governor and senior politician Sergei Aleksashenko on its wanted list, Russian state news agencies have reported.

Mr Aleksashenko, who has criticised Russia’s war in Ukraine, has been living in exile in the United States after falling out with President Vladimir Putin’s government and had already been designated a “foreign agent”.

Tass reported that Mr Aleksashenko had been added to the interior ministry’s wanted list on an unspecified criminal charge. Mr Aleksashenko said on Telegram that he had been listed on the database for five years already, but suggested that being added to the wanted list was a new development.

Earlier this week, Vasiliy Piskarev – who leads the Duma’s committee on investigating foreign interference – accused Mr Aleksashenko and economist Sergei Guriev of being engaged in shaping sanctions against Russia through their involvement with Stanford University’s international working group on Russian sanctions.

The world's attention is on Gaza, and Ukrainians worry war fatigue will hurt their cause

Sunday 19 November 2023 02:00 , Holly Evans

When Tymofii Postoiuk and his friends set up an online fundraising effort for Ukraine, donations poured in from around the globe, helping to purchase essential equipment for Ukrainian armed forces.

As the fighting with Russia wore on and war fatigue set in, the donations slowed down, but money continued to come in steadily. Then the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7.

With the start of another major conflict, social media networks including X, formerly known as Twitter, were flooded with news from the Middle East. “Our fundraising posts and updates simply get lost in between those tweets,” Postoiuk said.

Read more here

The world's attention is on Gaza, and Ukrainians worry war fatigue will hurt their cause

Thousands of Ukrainian children forcefully taken to Belarus via Russia, study finds

Sunday 19 November 2023 01:00 , Holly Evans

Thousands of children from Ukraine aged between six and 17 years old have been forcefully transferred to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia‘s invasion last year, a study by Yale University has found.

The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health found that the transfer of 2,442 children was “directly overseen” by Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko – a key ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president in March, accusing him and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Read more here

Thousands of Ukrainian children forcefully taken to Belarus via Russia, study finds

Ukraine pushes back Russian troops from Dnieper River

Sunday 19 November 2023 00:00 , Holly Evans

Ukrainian troops worked to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnieper River, the military said Saturday, a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the country’s partially occupied Kherson region.

Ukraine‘s establishment of footholds on on the Russian-held bank of the Dnieper represents a small but potentially significant strategic advance in the midst of a war largely at a standstill.

The General Staff of Ukraine‘s armed forces said its troops there had repelled 12 attacks by the Russian army between Friday and Saturday. The Ukrainians now were trying to “push back Russian army units as far as possible in order to make life easier for the (western) bank of the Kherson region, so that they get shelled less,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine‘s Southern Operational Command, said.

In response, the Russian military used “tactical aviation,” including Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones, to try to pin down Ukraine‘s troops, Humeniuk said.

The harrowing Ukraine war doc '20 Days in Mariupol' is coming to TV. Here's how to watch

Sunday 19 November 2023 00:00 , Holly Evans

The visceral documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” about Russia’s early assault on the Ukrainian city, will soon reach its widest audience yet.

The 94-minute film, a joint production by The Associated Press and PBS “Frontline,” has been met with critical acclaim and an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.

AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov directed the movie from 30 hours of footage shot in Mariupol in the opening days of the war. Chernov and AP colleagues Evgeniy Maloletka, a photographer, and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko were the last international journalists in the city before escaping.

Ukraine says it is pushing Putin’s forces back in ‘successes’ on Dnipro River’s east bank

Saturday 18 November 2023 23:00 , Holly Evans

Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers out of positions on the eastern bank of the River Dnipro in the occupied Kherson region, Kyiv’s military said on Friday.

Crossing the Dnipro and transporting heavy military equipment and supplies over the river could allow Ukrainian troops to open a new line of attack in the south on the most direct land route to Crimea, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Ukrainian marines said that they had had a series of “successes”, established several bridgeheads and conducted other operations on the river’s eastern side. Russia conceded for the first time this week that Kyiv’s troops had crossed the Dnipro.

Read the full story here

Ukraine says it is pushing Russia back in ‘successes’ on Dnipro River’s east bank

Two dead in Russian strikes near front line

Saturday 18 November 2023 22:00 , Holly Evans

At least two people have died and several more were injured after Russian strikes hit a village near the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian police said.

The strikes occurred in the village of Komyshuvakha.

“As a result of the first two strikes, four local residents were injured and a fire broke out in a residential building,” Ukrainian police said in a statement.

“When the police and rescuers arrived at the scene, Russians conducted another strike. Two emergency service workers were killed, and three more were injured.”

The Moscow Times is declared 'foreign agent’

Saturday 18 November 2023 21:00 , Holly Evans

Russia‘s Justice Ministry on Friday added The Moscow Times, an online newspaper popular among Russia’s expatriate community, to its list of “foreign agents” in the country’s continuing crackdown on critical news media and opposition.

The “foreign agent” designation subjects individuals and organizations to increased financial scrutiny and requires any of their public material to prominently include notice of being declared a foreign agent. The label is seen as a pejorative aimed at undermining the designees’ credibility.

Read more here

The Moscow Times, noted for its English coverage of Russia, is declared a 'foreign agent'

Dozens of migrants wait at Finland-Russia border after Helsinki blocks crossings

Saturday 18 November 2023 20:00 , Holly Evans

Dozens of migrants stood behind barriers at two crossings on Finland’s border with Russia on Saturday, the Finnish Border Guard said, after Helsinki erected barricades to halt a flow of asylum seekers it says was instigated by Moscow.

The Finnish government has accused Russia of funnelling migrants to the crossings in retaliation for its decision to increase defence cooperation with the United States, an assertion dismissed by the Kremlin.

The Finnish Border Guard erected barriers from midnight on Friday at the Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala border posts in southeast Finland, which account for most of the traffic between the two countries.

Hungary’s Orban says Ukraine ‘light years away’ from joining EU

Saturday 18 November 2023 19:00 , Holly Evans

Hungary’s prime minister has said Ukraine is “light years away” from joining the European Union, further signalling that his government is likely to present a roadblock to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the bloc.

Speaking at a biannual congress of his nationalist Fidesz party, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he and his government would “resist” talks scheduled for mid-December on whether to formally invite Ukraine to start membership negotiations.

Admitting a new country requires unanimous approval from all existing member countries, giving Mr Orban a powerful veto.

Mr Orban said afterwards that standing in the way of Ukraine joining the EU would be one of his government’s top priorities in the coming months.

“Our task will be to correct the mistaken promise to start negotiations with Ukraine, since Ukraine is now light years away from the European Union,” Mr Orban said.

Aftermath of a Russian drone attack in Zaporizhhzia region

Saturday 18 November 2023 17:52 , Jabed Ahmed

Pictures below show firefighters working at the site where houses were damaged by a Russian drone strike, in the Zaporizhzhia region on Friday night.

Ukrainian police said Russia fired a series of rockets at the village of Komyshuvakha, close to the frontline in Zaporizhzhia, which Russia annexed last year.

Two first responders were also killed by the rocket attacks.

Russian doctors call for release of imprisoned artist who protested Ukraine war

Saturday 18 November 2023 17:30 , Jabed Ahmed

More than 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter today that demands the immediate release of Sasha Skochilenko, an artist and musician who was sentenced to seven years in prison for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war slogans.

The letter calling for the artist to be freed was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned that time in prison could lead to a “significant deterioration” in the 33-year-old artist’s health.

Skochilenko was “diagnosed with a number of severe chronic diseases that require proper medical supervision and a special diet,” states the letter, which also notes the doctors’ anger at the “obvious injustice of the verdict.”

Sasha Skochilenko, 33, a self-described pacifist, appeared in a St Petersburg court on 17 November after 19 months of pre-trial detention.

She was charged last April with discrediting Russia’s armed forces and spreading misinformation about the “special military operation”.

"The Russian army bombed an arts school in Mariupol. Some 400 people were hiding in it from the shelling," one replaced price tag read. Another said, "Russian conscripts are being sent to Ukraine. Lives of our children are the price of this war."