‘The more Russian forces destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy,’ says Volodymyr Zelenskiy
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff has acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine’s forces in the Kherson region have a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, potentially opening a new line of attack towards Crimea.
“Against all odds, Ukraine’s defence forces have gained a foothold on the left [east] bank of the Dnipro,” Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute thinktank in the US. The remarks were posted on the website of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy himself commented on Russia’s losses in their “very intense” assault on Avdiivka. “Russia is already losing men and equipment near Avdiivka faster and on a larger scale than, for example, near Bakhmut,” he said.
“The more Russian forces that are destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy and the overall course of this war.”
Here is the full report:
Key events
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
Shaun Walker
Ukrainian authorities have arrested an MP who was at the heart of efforts by Rudy Giuliani to dig up compromising material about Joe Biden and placed him in pre-trial detention.
Oleksandr Dubinsky, 42, is accused of collusion with Russia and of spreading “fake” information about Ukraine’s political and military leadership, in particular related to his claims about supposed Ukrainian interference in US political processes.
Ukrainian authorities announced the charges on Monday, and on Tuesday Dubinsky appeared in court in Kyiv, in a closed session.
Later, the politician himself published a video on his Telegram account saying he had been sent to pre-trial detention for 60 days. He faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.
Putin likely to announce presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, says the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
On 9 November, the Kremlin announced that Vladimir Putin will hold a traditional combined press conference and public phone-in before the end of the year. In 2022, the event was cancelled, probably over high-profile military setbacks in Ukraine weeks prior, the MoD said in its latest intelligence briefing.
“Kremlin planners will almost certainly see the event as an important waypoint in Putin’s anticipated campaign to secure a fifth term in office in the March 2024 presidential elections,” Wednesday’s briefing said.
“He is likely to announce his candidacy before the end of 2023.”
On 10 November, Putin visited the southern military district headquarters in Rostov on Don – seen as an increased effort “to paint himself as the ‘patriotic’ candidate ahead of the election campaign”.
Has Putin got the upper hand in Ukraine?
With the world’s attention on the Middle East, Ukraine seems to be at a stalemate – which may sound like good news for Russia, but is not so straightforward, the Guardian’s Luke Harding reports.
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This summer, hopes were high that Ukraine could use western weapons to reclaim big cities, liberate hundreds of miles of territory and maybe even cut off Russian forces inside the country. That has not happened.
Instead, the war’s progress has slowed to an agonising pace. Drones mean both sides have impressive intelligence of what their enemies are doing and breakthroughs are hard to come by. And the world’s attention being on the Middle East is a dangerous situation for Ukraine – will it lose the financial support of its western backers, such as the US?
The possible re-election of Donald Trump, who is thought to be even less keen on financing Ukrainian efforts, is looming. But, Luke Harding tells Michael Safi, morale is still surprisingly high in Ukraine. And counting them out now would be a mistake.
At least one person was killed in an overnight Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in eastern Ukraine, authorities said on Wednesday.
Five others, including a child, were rescued but at least one person is believed to be trapped under the rubble, the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack on the town of Selydove, north-west of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, heavily damaged a four-storey building, Klymenko said.
“As a result, the entrance of a four-story residential building was destroyed,” Klymenko said. “At least one person still remains under the ruins. Rescue operations are ongoing.”
Russia has carried out regular missile and drone strikes on population centres behind the frontline of its 21-month-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
‘The more Russian forces destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy,’ says Volodymyr Zelenskiy
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff has acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine’s forces in the Kherson region have a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, potentially opening a new line of attack towards Crimea.
“Against all odds, Ukraine’s defence forces have gained a foothold on the left [east] bank of the Dnipro,” Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute thinktank in the US. The remarks were posted on the website of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy himself commented on Russia’s losses in their “very intense” assault on Avdiivka. “Russia is already losing men and equipment near Avdiivka faster and on a larger scale than, for example, near Bakhmut,” he said.
“The more Russian forces that are destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy and the overall course of this war.”
Here is the full report:
Summary
Welcome again to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. It is day 630 of the illegal full-scale invasion. Here are the main developments:
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Greater losses inflicted on Russian forces near Avdiivka will make Russia’s overall position worse in its conduct of the war, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said. Russian forces were losing men and equipment faster around Avdiivka than they did during months of battles near Bakhmut, he said.
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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.
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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.
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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 discounts on insurance against military risks for Ukrainian exports, including through the Black Sea corridor, the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said. “This will make the Black Sea corridor more accessible to a wider range of exporters.”
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Russia has sentenced a man to six years in prison for vandalising posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine, AFP reported.
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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.
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A top Ukrainian military official said Russian troops were increasing the use of kamikaze drones. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia, despite high losses, has been attacking Ukrainian positions near Kupiansk.
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Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Russia hit the 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.
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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 has said.
