Russian forces suffer mass casualties from long-range strikes, UK says
“Russian forces in Ukraine continue to suffer mass casualties from Ukrainian long-range precision strikes well behind the front line,” the British ministry of defence said in an intelligence update published this morning.
The update also noted:
On 10 November 2023, likely over 70 Russian troops were killed in a strike on a convoy of trucks 23km behind the front line in the village of Hladkivka, Kherson Oblast.
Subsequently, on 19 November 2023, a strike on Russian troops attending an award ceremony or concert in Kumachove, 60km inside Russian-controlled territory, likely caused tens of casualties.
Ukraine has also suffered similar incidents: a Russian ballistic missile killed 19 members of Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade at a medal ceremony on 3 November 2023.
Key events
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the idea of creating a military equivalent of a Schengen zone in Europe as a development of the alliance’s confrontation with Russia and that such intentions increase tension in Europe, Tass reported.
Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian prime minister, said “there are no irregularities at our border at present” after Finland closed its Russia border stations, Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s defence ministry has released night footage of a mobile fire group.
Night work of the mobile fire group.
We are preparing. To defend Ukrainian cities and effectively shoot down the enemy’s “Shaheds”.
📸: 91st Separate Okhtyrka Operational Support Regiment pic.twitter.com/ssvAyRDCuZ
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 24, 2023
Germany’s ambassador to Ukraine, Martin Jaeger, has underscored Berlin’s support for Ukrainian EU membership.
“Ukraine is part of Europe, and its place is in the EU,” he said in an interview with Ukrinform, published today.
He added:
We see great opportunities for both parties in this membership. As for economic cooperation, we believe that Ukraine’s membership in the EU will have great advantages for both Germany and Ukraine.
One country’s veto of Ukraine’s aspirations ‘would be irresponsibility of the others’, deputy PM says
The European Commission has recommended that the EU Council open accession negotiations with Kyiv, and all eyes are now on a key summit of EU leaders in December. But there are fears that Hungary will block the decision.
In her speech at the German Council on Foreign Relations, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna addressed the issue:
It’s about talking to each other, convincing each other and helping those who [are] still in doubt or who are trying to veto the future of Europe, speaking to them and taking the responsibility of this veto.
Because speaking of the veto of one country on 15 December, this will not be a veto of one country. This would be the irresponsibility of the others – those who are not building this consensus, who are not working on focusing on a bigger picture on the future of Europe. So I guess we all understand what I’m referring to and this is how we read it, this is how we treat it.
Speaking at the German Council on Foreign Relations this morning, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister for European integration, Olha Stefanishyna, said Ukrainians understood that the longer the war lasted, the more questions were raised.
Nothing had changed in Ukraine, she said. Its people were still dying, its resolve was still the same, the deputy prime minister emphasised.
In Ukraine, things were not changing – what was changing, was that from Kyiv they watched how the narrative abroad was changing, the deputy prime minister said.
It’s really important to keep focused on things that needed our attention, she said, adding that for Ukraine the focus had not changed – and it needed to win.
Summary
Hello, this is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. It is day 639 of the full-scale invasion. Here is a selection of the most recent developments.
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On Thanksgiving, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has thanked the US for its support, saying that with “American support and global leadership, millions of Ukrainian lives have been saved”.
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Russia has sentenced a Ukrainian man to 18 years in prison for trying to blow up buildings in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol. According to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, Dmitri Golubev said: “I am Ukrainian, I was defending Ukraine.”
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Ukraine’s national seed bank, one of the world’s largest, has been successfully moved from the frontline eastern city of Kharkiv to a safer location, said Crop Trust, a non-profit organisation.
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Russia has claimed it is succeeding in selling almost all of its oil above a western-imposed price cap of $60 a barrel. The EU, G7 countries and Australia introduced the price cap on Russian oil in December 2022.
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A leading Russian politician and supporter of Vladimir Putin has denied a report that he adopted an infant who had been forcibly taken from an orphanage in Ukraine.
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The bulk of Ukrainian crops have entered the winter season in predominantly good condition, analysts APK-Inform quoted the state weather forecaster as saying. Ukraine is a grower of winter wheat, winter barley and winter rapeseed. Ukraine’s grain exports so far in the 2023-24 season that started in July are running 28% below the year-earlier volume, according to agriculture ministry data.
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A Russian attack using cluster munitions killed three people in a suburb of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Thursday, a Ukrainian official said, bringing to six the number of civilians to die in a single day. Russian shelling also killed two people in the Donetsk region, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
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Ukraine has not reached a stalemate in its war with Russia because the west can help by “dropping five more queens on the board”, according to Timothy Snyder, a Yale professor and influential historian of eastern Europe.
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Armenia did not take part in a summit held by a Russia-dominated security grouping, because the country has been irked by what it sees as a lack of Russian support over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
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Ukraine has said it cannot produce enough electricity to meet growing demand for heating and is turning to neighbouring EU countries for help, amid fears of Russian strikes on energy facilities.
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Russia is throwing “waves” of soldiers towards the embattled Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, suffering massive losses in their attempt to capture strategically important territory on the eastern frontlines, Ukrainian soldiers say.
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence reports that a group of former Wagner mercenary soldiers have been recognised officially as Russian military veterans, after speculation over how they would be treated following their mutiny against Russia and death of their leader.
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Ukraine said that it wants its export routes via Poland unblocked before it holds talks with Warsaw and the European Commission aimed at ending protests by Polish truckers that are reducing Ukrainian exports.
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Finland said it would close all but one crossing point on its border with Russia in an effort to halt a flow of asylum seekers, as Estonia accused Moscow of mounting “a hybrid attack operation” on Europe’s eastern border.
Gazprom said that it would send 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine today, Reuters reports.
Russian forces suffer mass casualties from long-range strikes, UK says
“Russian forces in Ukraine continue to suffer mass casualties from Ukrainian long-range precision strikes well behind the front line,” the British ministry of defence said in an intelligence update published this morning.
The update also noted:
On 10 November 2023, likely over 70 Russian troops were killed in a strike on a convoy of trucks 23km behind the front line in the village of Hladkivka, Kherson Oblast.
Subsequently, on 19 November 2023, a strike on Russian troops attending an award ceremony or concert in Kumachove, 60km inside Russian-controlled territory, likely caused tens of casualties.
Ukraine has also suffered similar incidents: a Russian ballistic missile killed 19 members of Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade at a medal ceremony on 3 November 2023.
