Kyiv Archives - Real Time News

January 26, 2023

Russia-Ukraine war live: mayor reports at least one dead in Kyiv after wave of Russian missiles | Ukraine

At least one killed, two wounded after missile attack on Kyiv – mayor

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko has posted to Telegram to say that at least one person has been killed as a result of this morning’s attacks. He writes:

As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.

Key events

In Odesa, Suspilne reports that the utility company DTEK says “due to damage to the energy infrastructure, emergency power outages may last for several days until the objects damaged by shelling are restored.”

The air alarm is gradually ending across Ukraine’s regions at the moment. Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv are among the places to have sounded the all clear.

The US ambassador to Ukraine has described this morning’s actions by Russian forces as “another cruel attack” and a “strategic failure”. Bridget Brink has posted to Twitter to say:

Another cruel attack, same strategic failure. Waves of Russian drones and missiles can’t stop Ukraine’s heroic defenders, its brave people or our determined, unified support.

Another cruel attack, same strategic failure. Waves of Russian drones and missiles can’t stop Ukraine’s heroic defenders, its brave people or our determined, unified support.

— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) January 26, 2023

Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that one person has been killed and four wounded after Russia shelled Kochubeivka, which is a settlement in the north of the Kherson oblast. Suspilne reports that the administrative building was hit.

Kherson is one of the partially-occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, despite not having territorial control of the whole area, having retreated to behind the south bank of the Dnieper River.

Germany’s recently appointed new defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Thursday he would kick off talks with the defence industry as early as next week to speed up arms procurement and ramp up ammunitions supplies.

“My primary task now is to enter into talks with the defence industry with the aim of significantly shortening procurement times,” Reuters report he told journalists on the sidelines of a military exercise in Altengrabow in eastern Germany.

“If you look at ammunition, there is also the issue of quantity. This is another topic that I will raise in my talks with the defence industry, likely as early as next week if the schedule permits it,” he added.

Maksym Marchenko, regional head of Odesa, has given more details of the damage caused by Russian attacks there this morning. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports him saying:

Due to damage to several energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa and other regions of Ukraine, there are significant problems with electricity supply. Energy workers have already started repair work, but it will take some time to repair the damage. Currently, Russian planes are in the air.

Reuters reports that the secretary of Russia’s security council has also said on Thursday that the US and Nato were parties to the conflict in Ukraine and were seeking to drag out the fighting.

Speaking a day after Germany and the US agreed to send dozens of tanks to Kyiv, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, is quoted by Tass as saying what was happening in Ukraine today was the result of a years-long “hybrid war” being waged by the west against Russia.

Kremlin: sending tanks is seen as growing ‘direct involvement in the conflict’ from US and Nato

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has today said that Moscow views sending tanks to Ukraine as “direct involvement in the conflict”.

Speaking on his regular daily press call, the BBC reports Peskov told journalists:

There are constant statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine in no way means the involvement of these countries or Nato in the hostilities that are taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree. In Moscow, everything that both the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that it is growing.

Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv, has confirmed that the region has been affected by a hack of its IT systems. He has posted to Telegram to say:

A large-scale virus attack was carried out on the authority servers yesterday. For the purpose of protection, part of the systems was disabled. The regional authority site and local authority sites are temporarily down. Specialists are working on restoring the system. This is not the first attack, there have been dozens of such attacks over the past year.

IT specialists say that this virus attack was well planned, the virus program entered the system in advance. And now it has been activated. Fortunately, we have enough means of communication and information exchange. Such attacks do not have any effect on our work, except that it takes a little more time to exchange information.

There are new reports of explosions in Kherson being carried by Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.

Energy infrastructure damaged in Odesa, no injuries, after missile strike

A wave of Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa on Thursday, the Odesa district military administration said on Telegram. Reuters reports that no injuries were cited by the authority.

A German citizen was arrested at Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly passing intelligence onto Russia, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.

Reuters reports that the man, identified only as Arthur E, was arrested on Sunday upon arriving in Germany from the United States, the prosecutor said in a statement. He is said to be an associate of Carsten L, an employee of the German foreign intelligence service (BND) who was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia.

At least one killed, two wounded after missile attack on Kyiv – mayor

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko has posted to Telegram to say that at least one person has been killed as a result of this morning’s attacks. He writes:

As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.

Wave of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine day after west agrees to send tanks

Daniel Boffey

Daniel Boffey reports for the Guardian from Kyiv:

Huge explosions shook Kyiv and raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Thursday morning during a mass missile attack 24 hours after commitments were made by the US and Germany to send advanced battle tanks.

A total of 30 missiles were said to be heading towards targets in the war-torn country, after Ukraine’s air defences shot down 24 Iranian-made Shahad “kamikaze” drones overnight.

“We expect more than 30 missiles, which have already started to appear in various territories,” said Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian military spokesperson. “Air defence systems are working.”

Another spokesperson later claimed that Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to Kyiv.

In the capital, the calm of a cold and snowy morning was broken at 10.06am local time by the sound of large explosions close to the main railway station. Further information was not readily available.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on Telegram that there had been explosions in the city.

As people rushed to cellars and bunkers for protection, local authorities sought to reassure the population that they had the means to take some of the missiles down.

The Ukrainian air force said it had successfully stopped a drone attack overnight. “Attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) were launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. According to preliminary information, the enemy used 24 Shaheds. All 24 were destroyed,” the air force said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, said on Telegram: “The first Russian missiles have been shot down.”

In the UK, on Sky News, opposition party defence spokesperson John Healey has urged the British government to publish a longer-term plan for offering support to Ukraine. He told viewers:

What is crucial now is that the western countries willing to support Ukraine – and there are more than 40 countries who are supporting Ukraine in this battle –remain united and continue their supplies for the long term.

So I’ve argued for many months now that the government needs to move beyond ad hoc announcements of military support to Ukraine – which have our full support – but move beyond those ad hoc announcements to a full plan for 2023 and beyond for the military, economic and humanitarian assistance we will provide to Ukraine. In part because that will give Ukraine greater confidence and reassurance that British support will be maintained, but also it will signal to Putin that things will get worse not better for Russia.

Asked about the significance of Germany’s decision this week to send tanks to Ukraine, Healey said:

This is a really important move by Germany. And what’s important here is not just the tanks, but also the artillery, the armoured vehicles, the ammunition.

It confronts one of the biggest miscalculations that Putin made by his brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine last year, which was he miscalculated on the determination and resolution of the western countries to stand together, to stand with Ukraine and to remain united.

And that decision by the Germans now about Leopard tanks allows other countries to move together to support Ukraine in this battle, to see off the Russian aggression, and reclaim their own country.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has reported on Telegram that there have been explosions in the city.

January 18, 2023

Helicopter crash near Kyiv kindergarten kills at least 18, including Ukraine’s interior minister

Ukrainian Primary Minister Denys Shmyhal mentioned he had purchased a unique commission to be created to guide an investigation into the instances of the incident.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Drive Command, explained the commission would consist of a selection of aviation gurus. “It is as well early to communicate about the causes of the crash,” Ihnat stated, speaking throughout a countrywide telethon.

There has been no battling noted all-around Kyiv for months, considering that Russian forces pulled again from the location following a failed assault on the money.

Officials in Ukraine and throughout Europe paid out tribute to the dead.

“Tragedy significantly from the frontline, in Brovary,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned on Twitter.

“I desire a fast restoration to people hurt. Denys Monastyrskyi and Yevhenii Yenin were near colleagues & close friends of mine, real Ukrainian patriots. Large reduction for all of us,” he reported.

Shmyhal, the primary minister, claimed it was “a fantastic decline for the govt team and the full state.”

“My sincere condolences to the families of all the victims,” he explained.

“My colleagues, my friends. What a tragic reduction,” inside ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko wrote in a tweet. “Deepest condolences to their family members.”

Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s initial girl, could also be seen daubing absent tears Wednesday morning right before attending a World Financial Forum session in Davos, Switzerland, in accordance to The Associated Push.

Firefighters work at the site where the helicopter crashed near a kindergarten on Wednesday. — Firefighters do the job at the crash internet site on Wednesday. Sergei Supinsky / AFP – Getty Photos

Forum President Borge Brende requested for 15 seconds of silence after opening the session to honor the Ukrainian officers killed in the crash.

Tributes from officials from around the world also began to pour in on social media.

The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink, reported on Twitter that she was “shocked and saddened by the terrible news from Brovary.”

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, remembered Monastyrsky as a “terrific pal of the EU.”

“We be part of #Ukraine in grief pursuing the tragic helicopter accident in #Brovary,” he wrote in a tweet giving his condolences to the households of the victims, as effectively as to Ukraine’s leadership.

This is a creating tale. Make sure you test back for updates.

Chantal Da Silva

Patrick Smith

Patrick Smith is a London-based mostly editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Artem Grudinin, Daryna Mayer and Mahalia Dobson contributed.

December 19, 2022

Russia-Ukraine war live news: drone strike on Kyiv; UK to announce new artillery package | Ukraine

Key events

Summary

The time in Kyiv is nearly 1pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s stories so far:

At least two powerful explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of Monday morning, as officials claim the city was hit by a series of Russian drones. Multiple local news sources reported the blasts in central Kyiv. Several loud blasts were also heard in the city’s surrounding regions, Reuters witnesses reported. A fire was also reported in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Ukraine’s air force says it shot down 30 out of 35 Russian-launched Shahed drones overnight. The Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones were reportedly launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, the force added.
Russia’s drone attack caused “fairly serious” damage in Kyiv region on Monday and three areas in the region have been left without power supply, governor Oleksiy Kuleba has said. Russia unleashed 35 “kamikaze” drones on Ukraine in the early hours of Monday as many people slept, hitting critical infrastructure in and around Kyiv in Moscow’s third air attack on the Ukrainian capital in six days.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down four US-made HARM anti-radiation missiles over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, in the space of 24 hours, the state-run TASS news agency has reported. One person died and several were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the region on Sunday morning, the region’s governor told Reuters.
Belarus’ defence ministry said on Monday it had completed a series of inspections of its armed forces’ military preparedness, hours ahead of a visit to Minsk by Belarus’ most important ally, the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Weeks of military manoeuvres and inspections have raised fears in Kyiv that Belarus, which acted as a staging post for Russia to launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, could be preparing to take a more active role in the conflict once again, Reuters reported.
Russian troops that were moved to Belarus in October to become part of a regional formation will conduct battalion tactical exercises, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing the Russian defence ministry.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is set to fly to Belarus on Monday amid fears he intends to pressure the former Soviet ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine and open a new front. His visit for talks with the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, will be his first to Minsk since 2019.
Russian military proxy group Wagner continues to take a major role in attritional combat around Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. In recent months, the group has developed offensive tactics to make use of the large number of poorly trained convicts it has recruited, the ministry notes in its latest intelligence report.
Rishi Sunak has touched down in the Latvian capital, where he is meeting northern European allies to discuss countering Russian aggression. He will urge fellow leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force to stand firm in their support for Ukraine, after announcing a major new artillery package for the war-torn nation.
EU countries will need to reach a compromise on a gas price cap on Monday, and the latest proposal on the table offers a good basis to do so, Malta’s energy minister, Miriam Dalli, has said. “What the presidency is proposing is a very good step in the right direction,” Dalli said before entering a meeting of the EU’s energy ministers.
Four people in the southern Russian border region of Belgorod were reportedly wounded by shelling on Sunday, the governor said. Witnesses reported loud blasts in the regional capital.
Ukraine’s forces are holding on to the heavily contested eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “The Bakhmut direction is key,” he said in his latest national address. “We keep the city, although the occupiers are doing everything so that not a single undamaged wall remains there.”

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for now. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down four US-made HARM anti-radiation missiles over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, in the space of 24 hours, the state-run TASS news agency has reported.

One person died and several were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the region on Sunday morning, the region’s governor told Reuters.

Belarus’ defence ministry said on Monday it had completed a series of inspections of its armed forces’ military preparedness, hours ahead of a visit to Minsk by Belarus’ most important ally, the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Weeks of military manoeuvres and inspections have raised fears in Kyiv that Belarus, which acted as a staging post for Russia to launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, could be preparing to take a more active role in the conflict once again, Reuters reported.

Rishi Sunak has touched down in the Latvian capital, where he is meeting northern European allies to discuss countering Russian aggression.

The UK prime minister landed in snowy Riga at 11.20am local time, stepping out of the plane into a gusty -4C, PA Media reported.

He will urge fellow leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force to stand firm in their support for Ukraine, after announcing a major new artillery package for the war-torn nation.

He will continue his whistlestop tour by flying to Estonia later on Monday, where he will meet British troops and sign a new technology partnership.

Russia’s drone attack caused “fairly serious” damage in Kyiv region on Monday and three areas in the region have been left without power supply, governor Oleksiy Kuleba has said.

Russia unleashed 35 “kamikaze” drones on Ukraine in the early hours of Monday as many people slept, hitting critical infrastructure in and around Kyiv in Moscow’s third air attack on the Ukrainian capital in six days.

EU countries will need to reach a compromise on a gas price cap on Monday, and the latest proposal on the table offers a good basis to do so, Malta’s energy minister, Miriam Dalli, has said.

“What the presidency is proposing is a very good step in the right direction,” Dalli said before entering a meeting of the EU’s energy ministers.

“It shows also the willingness to arrive at a compromise today. I’m convinced that today we will mange to compromise, I believe that the willingness is there. Today is crunch time.”

Critical power infrastructure burns after a drone attack in Kyiv this morning

Drones attacked the Ukrainian capital early on Monday, the Kyiv city military administration said, urging people to heed air alerts. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images

Ukraine’s air force says it shot down 30 out of 35 Russian-launched Shahed drones overnight.

The Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones were reportedly launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, the force added.

ЗНИЩЕНО ТРИДЦЯТЬ “ШАХЕДІВ”

У ніч з 18 на 19 грудня 2022 російські окупанти атакували Україну дронами-камікадзе іранського виробництва «Shahed-136/131».

Загалом виявлено близько тридцяти п’яти баражуючих боєприпасів. pic.twitter.com/ykAUgc4yya

— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) December 19, 2022

Russian troops that were moved to Belarus in October to become part of a regional formation will conduct battalion tactical exercises, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing the Russian defence ministry.

Interfax cited the ministry’s statement as saying:

The final assessment of the combat capability and combat readiness of the units will be given by the command at the final stage of coordination – after the battalion tactical exercises have been conducted.”

It was not immediately clear when and where in Belarus the exercises will be conducted.

Belarus defence ministry said in October that 9,000 Russian troops were moving to the country as part of a “regional grouping” of forces to protect its borders.

Putin set to fly to Belarus

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is set to fly to Belarus on Monday amid fears he intends to pressure the former Soviet ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine and open a new front.

His visit for talks with the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, will be his first to Minsk since 2019. Ukrainian joint forces commander Serhiy Nayev said:

During (these talks) questions will be worked out for further aggression against Ukraine and the broader involvement of the Belarusian armed forces in the operation against Ukraine, in particular, in our opinion, also on the ground.”

Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhniy, told the Economist last week that Russia was preparing 200,000 fresh troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus as early as January, but more likely in spring.

There has been constant Russian and Belarusian military activity for months in Belarus. Russia also used its ally as a launch pad for an abortive attack on Kyiv in February.

Moscow and Minsk have since set up a joint regional unit of forces in Belarus and held numerous military exercises. Three Russian warplanes and an airborne early warning and control aircraft were deployed to Belarus last week.

Foreign diplomats say Lukashenko, a pariah in the west who relies heavily on Russian support, understands it would be a deeply unpopular step at home for him to commit troops to Ukraine. But he has already supported Russia’s war extensively.

Some military analysts see the manoeuvring as a ploy to make Ukraine commit forces to its north so it is more exposed to Russian assaults elsewhere.

UK to announce major new artillery package for Ukraine

The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.

According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.

The prime minister will travel to Latvia for the leaders’ gathering of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) countries, including Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands, which will be addressed by Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenksiy.

From the Arctic Circle to the Isle of Wight, the UK and our European allies have been in lockstep in our response to the invasion of Ukraine, and we remain steadfast in our ambition for peace in Europe once again,” Sunak said ahead of the visit.

But to achieve peace, we must deter aggression and our deployments across the region together are vital in ensuring we are able to respond to the gravest of threats. I know this Joint Expeditionary Force summit will only underline our close friendships and unwavering support for Ukraine.”

No 10 said the meeting would also discuss intelligence sharing between JEF countries, threats to infrastructure and hybrid threats posed by Russian aggression and bolstering support to Finland and Sweden ahead of their accession to Nato. Further announcements on joint military exercises are also expected.

Sunak is then expected to fly on to Estonia, where he will meet UK and Nato troops serving on the military alliance’s eastern flank on the Russian border.

Two injured in Kyiv drone attack – reports

New information published by Ukrainian authorities suggests that Russia’s earlier drone attack on Kyiv damaged critical infrastructure and injured two people.

Kyiv’s regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, wrote on Telegram this morning:

Infrastructure objects and private houses were damaged as a result of a night drone attack in the Kyiv region … two victims. People are given help – they are under the supervision of doctors.”

Russia’s Wagner recruits likely threatened with execution if they deviate from assault plan, UK says

Russian military proxy group Wagner continues to take a major role in attritional combat around Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

In recent months, the group has developed offensive tactics to make use of the large number of poorly trained convicts it has recruited, the ministry notes in its latest intelligence report.

Individual fighters are likely issued a smart phone or tablet which shows the individual’s designated axis of advance and assault objective superimposed on commercial satellite imagery.

At platoon level and above, commanders likely remain in cover and give orders over radios, informed by video feeds from small un-crewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Individuals and sections are ordered to proceed on the preplanned route, often with fire-support, but less often alongside armoured vehicles. Wagner operatives who deviate from their assault routes without authorisation are likely being threatened with summary execution.

These brutal tactics aim to conserve Wagner’s rare assets of experienced commanders and armoured vehicles, at the expense of the more readily available convict-recruits, which the organisation assesses as expendable.”

Kyiv hit by drone strike, officials say

At least two powerful explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of Monday morning, as officials claim the city was hit by a series of Russian drones.

Multiple local news sources reported the blasts in central Kyiv. Several loud blasts were also heard in the city’s surrounding regions, Reuters witnesses reported. A fire was also reported in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district.

Ukraine’s armed forces first sounded the alarm in a Telegram alert about 2am local time, saying the military had sent air defences to protect the capital from drone attacks.

The Kyiv city state administration also sent an alert urging residents to seek shelter.

It later added that more than 20 Iranian-made drones were detected over Kyiv’s air space and at least 15 of them were shot down.

Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said air defence works were operating in the region and claimed the city was under a drone attack.

The drone attack continues,” he said.

Kyiv’s military administration later said that nine Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down in Kyiv’s airspace. In a Telegram update, the administration said:

Air alert continues in Kyiv. The enemy is attacking the capital with ‘Shahed’ barrage ammunition. Air defence is being at work.”

It was not immediately clear whether the blasts were air defence systems destroying the drones or hitting targets.

⚡️Governor: Air defense at work in Kyiv Oblast amid drone attack.

Kyiv Oblast Governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that the air defenses in Kyiv Oblast were operating “due to a Russian attack.”

Kuleba asked residents to stay in shelters as the “drone attack continues.”

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 19, 2022

Summary and welcome

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.

A series of explosions have rocked Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of this morning, according to regional officials.

Meanwhile, the UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.

For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.

If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:

The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday. According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.
Ukraine said Russian shelling targeted the southern city of Kherson on Sunday, which has faced repeated attacks since Kyiv’s forces recaptured it last month. “Another blow was delivered to the city centre. Three people were injured. They received shrapnel wounds, one wounded is in a serious condition,” deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said. Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Sunday that Moscow’s troops had carried out 54 attacks on Kherson region with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars over the previous day, leaving three dead and wounding six others.
Four people in the southern Russian border region of Belgorod were reportedly wounded by shelling on Sunday, the governor said. Witnesses reported loud blasts in the regional capital.
Ukraine’s forces are holding on to the heavily contested eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “The Bakhmut direction is key,” he said in his latest national address. “We keep the city, although the occupiers are doing everything so that not a single undamaged wall remains there.”
Power has been restored to three million more Ukrainians after the latest Russian attacks on infrastructure, bringing the total to nine million after two days, Ukraine’s president has said. “Electricity supplies have been restored to a further three million Ukrainians,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday evening video address. “That means after the terrorist strikes on Friday, we have results already for nine million of our people.” Heating has also been fully restored to Kyiv, the city’s mayor said.
Protecting Ukraine’s borders is a “constant priority” as the country readies for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus, Zelenskiy added. “Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus – is our constant priority,” he said in his nightly video address. “We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.” Zelenskiy also issued a new appeal to western nations to provide Ukraine with effective air defences.
Russia will reportedly deploy musicians to Ukraine’s frontlines in a bid to boost morale, according to its defence ministry. The “frontline creative brigade” will be tasked with maintaining “a high moral, political and psychological state [among] the participants of the special military operation,” Russian outlet RBC news cited the ministry as saying. UK defence officials said the new unit is in keeping with the historic use of “military music and organised entertainment” to boost morale as low morale continues to be a “significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force”.
Iran’s foreign ministry has said it will not “seek permission from anyone” to expand relations with Russia, dismissing US concerns over a growing military partnership between Tehran and Moscow. Iran has been accused of supplying drones to Russia, allegedly used to attack Ukraine. CIA chief William Burns said the military cooperation between Iran and Russia “poses real threats” to US allies in the Middle East. Nasser Kanani, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, called the comments “baseless” adding that Tehran “acts independently in regulating its foreign relations and does not seek permission from anyone”.
Veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger believes the time is approaching for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. “The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” Kissinger wrote in The Spectator magazine. “A peace process should link Ukraine to Nato, h owever expressed. The alternative of neutrality is no longer meaningful,” he added. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed the comments as amounting to “appeasing the aggressor” and said there could be no deal involving ceding territory. “Any agreement with the devil – a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories – will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world,” he said in a statement on Telegram.

A woman walks on an empty street in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on 18 December. Photograph: Reuters

November 22, 2022

Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv monastery raided amid Russian spying fears; Moscow ‘not aiming to change Ukraine regime’ | Ukraine

1,000-year-old Kyiv monastery raided amid Russian spy fears

Ukraine’s SBU security service and police raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”, the SBU said.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex that was raided is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church known as the Moscow Patriarchate, Reuters reported.

“These measures are being taken … as part of the systemic work of the SBU to counter the destructive activities of Russian special services in Ukraine,” the Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement.

It said the search was aimed at preventing the use of the cave monastery as “the centre of the Russian world” and carried out to look into suspicions “about the use of the premises … for sheltering sabotage and reconnaissance groups, foreign citizens, weapons storage”.

The SBU did not say what the result of the raid was. The Moscow Patriarchate did not immediately comment.

In May, the Ukrainian Orthodox church of the Moscow Patriarchate ended its ties with the Russian church over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and condemned the support of Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s church, for what Moscow calls its “special military operation”.

Key events

Summary

The time in Kyiv is 1pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s main stories so far:

Ukraine’s SBU security service and police raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”, the SBU said. The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex that was raided is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church known as the Moscow Patriarchate, Reuters reported.
Ukrainians are most likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said on Monday, as the government started free evacuations for people in Kherson to other regions. Half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been damaged by Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, leaving millions of people without electricity and water as winter sets in and temperatures drop below freezing.
Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid distribution centre in the town of Orihiv in southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing a volunteer and wounding two women, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, gave no further details of the attack on Orihiv, about 70 miles east of the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station which has been shelled in the past few days.
Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate top officials in war crimes, the US state department’s ambassador for global criminal justice said Monday. There is mounting evidence that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has been accompanied by systemic war crimes committed in every region where Russian forces have been deployed”, said ambassador at large Beth Van Schaack.
The Ukrainian government has been offering people in the recently liberated city of Kherson, which remains mostly without electricity and running water, free evacuations to regions with better infrastructure, as well as free accommodation. “Given the difficult security situation in the city and infrastructure problems, you can evacuate for the winter to safer regions of the country,” the deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia has reiterated that it is not seeking a change of government in Ukraine. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said his country “does not intend the ‘special operation’ to change the government in Ukraine”, Sky News reports.
The Kremlin said that no substantive progress had been made towards creating a security zone around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion, was rocked by shelling on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the UN nuclear watchdog which said such attacks risked a major disaster.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will in coming days meet the mothers of soldiers amid fierce fighting in Ukraine, the Vedomosti newspaper reported, citing three unidentified sources in the presidential administration. Russia celebrates Mother’s Day on 27 November. The Kremlin has not officially announced any Putin meeting with soldiers’ mothers.
Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will soon be able to add New Zealand to the list of parliaments he has addressed, after Wellington agreed to a request to do so. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the government had agreed to the request from the Canberra-based Ukrainian embassy which serves both countries.
Ukraine is to evacuate civilians from recently liberated areas of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Residents of the two southern regions have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and western parts of the country, amid fears that the damage to infrastructure caused by the war is too severe for people to endure the winter.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ukraine’s health system is “facing its darkest days in the war so far”. WHO regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, called for a “humanitarian health corridor” to be created to all areas of Ukraine newly recaptured by Kyiv, as well as those occupied by Russian forces.
Russian troops have been accused of burning bodies at a landfill on the edge of Kherson during their occupation. Residents and workers at the site told the Guardian they saw Russian open trucks arriving to the site carrying black bags that were then set on fire, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke and a stench of burning flesh.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for the time being. I’ll be back at 2pm UK time but my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to bring you all the latest news from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that no substantive progress had been made towards creating a security zone around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion, was rocked by shelling on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the UN nuclear watchdog which said such attacks risked a major disaster.

Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid distribution centre in the town of Orihiv in southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing a volunteer and wounding two women, the regional governor said.

Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, gave no further details of the attack on Orihiv, about 70 miles east of the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station which has been shelled in the past few days.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of firing the shells that fell near reactors and damaged a radioactive waste storage building at the plant, Reuters reported.

“Russian terrorists are shelling humanitarian delivery points, continuing nuclear blackmail – a pitiful tactic of military losers,” Andriy Yermak, chief of the presidential staff, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Well, for every such action there is a Ukrainian counteraction,” he added.

An image shows the destruction of Kherson International airport in Chornobaivka, located in Kherson oblast, Ukraine.

The destruction of Kherson International airport in Chornobaivka, located in Kherson oblast in Ukraine. Photograph: Jose Hernandez/REX/Shutterstock

Russia reiterates that it does not want to topple Ukraine government

Russia has reiterated that it is not seeking a change of government in Ukraine.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said his country “does not intend the ‘special operation’ to change the government in Ukraine”, Sky News reports.

A reporter asked Peskov if one of the goals of the “special military operation” was regime change in Ukraine.

“No [it is not], the president has already spoken about this,” Peskov replied.

This is in contrast to the beginning of the invasion in February, when Moscow had appeared to be aiming to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install a Russia-friendly regime.

1,000-year-old Kyiv monastery raided amid Russian spy fears

The SBU did not say what the result of the raid was. The Moscow Patriarchate did not immediately comment.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will in coming days meet the mothers of soldiers amid fierce fighting in Ukraine, the Vedomosti newspaper reported, citing three unidentified sources in the presidential administration.

Russia celebrates Mother’s Day on 27 November. The Kremlin has not officially announced any Putin meeting with soldiers’ mothers.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to deny or confirm the meeting, Vedomosti said.

The UK Ministry of Defence’s update for today reports that Russian and Ukrainian media reported an attack at an oil terminal in Novorssiysk port on Russia’s Black Sea coast on 18 November.

More on the winter energy crisis in Ukraine: the Ukrainian government has been offering people in the recently liberated city of Kherson, which remains mostly without electricity and running water, free evacuations to regions with better infrastructure, as well as free accommodation.

“Given the difficult security situation in the city and infrastructure problems, you can evacuate for the winter to safer regions of the country,” the deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians on Monday to conserve energy, saying they “should be mindful and redistribute their consumption throughout the day”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the blackouts and Russia’s strikes on energy infrastructure are the consequences of Kyiv not willing to negotiate, the state Tass news agency reported late last week.

Temperatures in some of Ukraine’s regions have already dropped below freezing, including in the capital of Kyiv.

Kovalenko said the country should be prepared for all options, including lengthy power outages.

“Stock up on warm clothes, blankets, think about options that will help you wait a long outage,” Kovalenko said. “It’s better to do it now than to be miserable.”

That’s it from me for today. My colleague Tom Ambrose will take you through the news for the next while.

The Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will soon be able to add New Zealand to the list of parliaments he has addressed, after Wellington agreed to a request to do so.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the government had agreed to the request from the Canberra-based Ukrainian embassy which serves both countries.

“The ask has been made. Happy to accommodate that,” she said, adding that it would be over to a parliamentary committee to find the time. The address is likely to be in the final week of the sitting year, which begins on 13 December.

Zelenskiy has given Ardern an invitation to visit Kyiv, which she is yet to take-up. But the defence minister, Peeni Henare, made a 10-hour trip to the Ukrainian capital last weekend.

New Zealand has given tens of millions of dollars of aid in support of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, as well as donating military equipment and levying sanctions targeting Russian elites and trade.

US state department seeing ‘mounting evidence of systemic war crimes’

Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate top officials in war crimes, the US state department’s ambassador for global criminal justice said Monday.

There is mounting evidence that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has been accompanied by systemic war crimes committed in every region where Russian forces have been deployed”, said ambassador at large Beth Van Schaack.

Evidence from liberated areas indicates “deliberate, indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks against civilian populations, custodial abuses of civilians and POWs, forceful removal, or filtration, of Ukrainian citizens – including children – to Russia, and execution-like murders and sexual violence, she told reporters.

“When we’re seeing such systemic acts, including the creation of a vast filtration network, it’s very hard to imagine how these crimes could be committed without responsibility going all the way up the chain of command,” she said.

Van Schaack represents the US to global bodies investigating war crimes and other atrocities, and called the current situation a “new Nuremberg moment”, a reference to the war crimes trials held in the German city at the end of the second world war.

She said in a briefing for reporters that Russia’s nine-month-old assault on Ukraine has sparked an “unprecedented array of accountability initiatives”, involving numerous bodies, along with the international criminal court in The Hague.

The bodies are coordinating to develop priorities and approaches “under all available jurisdictional bases”, she said.

Van Schaack declined to say specifically if the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, could be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine.

But she said prosecutors will “follow the evidence where it leads”.

Under international law, the doctrine of superior responsibility allows for prosecutions “to go all the way up the chain of command”, she said.

She also said that rights officials are looking closely at a video that emerged over the weekend that suggests Ukrainian troops may have killed Russian prisoners of war.

Blackouts likely to last until March 2023

Ukrainians are most likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said on Monday, as the government started free evacuations for people in Kherson to other regions.

Half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been damaged by Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, leaving millions of people without electricity and water as winter sets in and temperatures drop below freezing.

Sergey Kovalenko, head of the YASNO major private energy provider for Kyiv, said that workers are rushing to complete repairs before the winter cold arrives.

“I would like everyone to understand: Ukrainians will most likely live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Kovalenko said in a post on his Facebook page. He added:

The basic scenario is that if there are no new attacks on the power grid, then under current conditions of electricity generation, the power deficit could be evenly distributed across the country. This means the outages will be everywhere but less lasting.

There are also different forecasts of the development of this situation, and they completely depend on attacks Russia.”

Summary

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next while.

Ukrainians are most likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said late on Monday.

Sergey Kovalenko, head of the YASNO major private energy provider for Kyiv, said that workers are rushing to complete repairs before the winter cold arrives.

“I would like everyone to understand: Ukrainians will most likely live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Kovalenko said in a post on his Facebook page.

More on this soon. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:

Ukraine is to evacuate civilians from recently liberated areas of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Residents of the two southern regions have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and western parts of the country, amid fears that the damage to infrastructure caused by the war is too severe for people to endure the winter.
The Kremlin said it was concerned by what it claimed to be Ukrainian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control. Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, countered that the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant was a Russian tactic aiming to disrupt power supplies and “freeze Ukrainians to death”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appealed to Nato members to guarantee the protection of his country’s nuclear power plants from “Russian sabotage”.
The UN nuclear watchdog was to conduct an assessment of the Zaporizhzhia plant on Monday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the forces behind its shelling were “playing with fire” and such attacks risked a major disaster.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ukraine’s health system is “facing its darkest days in the war so far”. WHO regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, called for a “humanitarian health corridor” to be created to all areas of Ukraine newly recaptured by Kyiv, as well as those occupied by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general office has said its officials have identified four locations where Russian forces tortured detainees in Kherson city. It said Russian forces “set up pseudo-law enforcement agencies” in pre-trial detention centres and a police station before troops withdrew from the southern Ukrainian city.
Russian troops have been accused of burning bodies at a landfill on the edge of Kherson during their occupation. Residents and workers at the site told the Guardian they saw Russian open trucks arriving to the site carrying black bags that were then set on fire, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke and a stench of burning flesh.