Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia intensifying assault on Avdiivka, says Ukraine military | Ukraine

Sometimes, if the situation allows on Ukraine’s brutal eastern frontline, Yaroslav Pilunskiy will fly his drone to “a place I know where the Russians are constantly shelling over a lake, against a beautiful sunset”.

Moscow’s expenditure on the munitions represents a movie budget that Pilunskiy, 51, could only dream about in his former life as one of Ukraine’s most respected cinematographers. “When the command staff ask what I’m doing, I say: ‘When else will I be able to film these pyrotechnics?’”

On 23 February 2022, on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was working in Rome, colour-editing a film with a big international team. His only contact with drones, at that point, had been flying a simple model to scout movie locations.

Now he is a crack military drone operator for the armed forces of Ukraine.

Read more here:

Ukraine’s general staff reported its military repelled Russian assaults in widely separated sectors of the front.

Russian forces have been bearing down since mid-October on the shattered town of Avdiivka, known for its coking plant and its position as a gateway to the city of Donetsk, 20km (12 miles) to the east.

Ukraine’s general staff, in its latest evening report, said its forces had repelled 11 attacks near Avdiivka, 15 in the nearby Maryinka sector and 22 further north-east in Bakhmut, a town seized by Russian in May. Six attacks were repelled further north near Kupiansk, where Russian forces have been active.

Russia’s investigative committee, in an account of Thursday’s fighting, said Ukrainian forces shelled the town of Skadovsk in a Russian-occupied area of southern Kherson region. Ukrainian news reports and online observers said the target was a base of the Russian FSB security service in Skadovsk. Dead and wounded were reported. Anton Gerashchenko, from Ukraine’s internal affairs ministry, said of the strike on Skadovsk: “So the occupiers are well aware they not safe, that they are being watched and can be destroyed at any time. Ukraine uses high-precision western weapons for these strikes.”

Russia’s defence ministry reported strikes on Ukrainian troops and equipment near Bakhmut, the Reuters news agency said, adding it could not independently confirm reports from either side.

Hello, this is the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Let’s start with some of the key developments

• Russian troops are intensifying their attacks on the key eastern town of Avdiivka, Ukrainian officers have said. Oleksandr Borodin from the third separate assault brigade said Russian forces were launching major infantry attacks, while trying to keep equipment intact, telling Espreso TV: “It is not just infantry advancing but also parallel work of artillery, drones, aviation, the same air bombing and more.”

• Russian forces, Borodin told Espreso, were unable to replenish supplies quickly and Ukrainian defensive positions were solid, with the Russians recording “no serious successes”. Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, told Espreso that Russian forces were shelling “round the clock” but rain-soaked ground was holding them back. “Once the ground dries, they will definitely advance.”

• A Ukrainian strike on occupied Skadovsk in the Kherson region reportedly hit a base for the FSB, Russia’s federal spy service. Reuters reported that five people were killed in the attack on Thursday. Various reports said high-ranking Russian officers were killed. Anton Gerashchenko, from Ukraine’s internal affairs ministry, said: “So the occupiers are well aware they not safe, that they are being watched and can be destroyed at any time. Ukraine uses high-precision western weapons for these strikes.”

• The UK Ministry of Defence said Russia’s military was being overextended by the war in Ukraine. In its latest daily intelligence update, the MoD said that the likely need for Russia to reallocate surface-to-air missile (Sam) systems from distant parts of its territory to maintain coverage over Ukraine showed the conflict was straining its military.

• Russian-installed health officials in illegally occupied Crimea say private clinics have “voluntarily” stopped providing abortions, which leaves them available only in state-run medical facilities. The move comes amid a wider effort in Russia to restrict abortion under the increasingly conservative regime of Vladimir Putin who has curried favour with the Orthodox church.

• A Ukrainian diplomat said a global peace summit for Ukraine may take place next year. The Ukrainian president’s top diplomatic adviser, Ihor Zhovkva, said it might take place in February 2024.

• Ukraine said queues were growing at its border with Poland as Polish lorry drivers continued to block crossings for a fourth day. The protests, which started on Monday, involved the drivers blocking three border crossings with Ukraine. They are protesting against competition from Ukrainian drivers.

• Ukraine told its western allies that giving it the interest accrued from frozen Russian assets would not be enough to compensate for damage sustained by the war and that it hoped to receive the assets in full. Ukraine’s deputy justice minister, Iryna Mudra, said Kyiv’s partners were considering introducing a tax on income or investment of frozen Russian assets, an idea she said Kyiv welcomed but saw as insufficient.

• Germany issued new defence policy guidelines for the first time in over a decade. The 19-page document details the implications for Germany’s military of the Zeitenwende, the major shift of policy the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

• Hungary said the EU should not start membership talks with Ukraine. EU leaders are expected to decide next month whether to accept the European Commission’s recommendation to invite Kyiv to begin membership talks with the bloc, but Hungary prefers a form of “privileged partnership” for Ukraine, rather than full membership.

• Ukraine will be able to overcome Hungary’s political opposition to its progress on EU membership, according to Kyiv’s minister for European integration, Olga Stefanishyna. “We understand that there is a such a statement, but we also understand there is a dialogue with Budapest,” she said.

• The Kremlin is moving to absorb former Wagner soldiers into Russia’s military structures, the Guardian’s Russian affairs reporter Pjotr Sauer writes.