Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 621

Summary for Monday, 6th November 2023 - DAY 621

Good morning

• The Ukrainian army has confirmed soldiers from its 128th Mountain Assault Brigade were killed in a Russian missile strike during what media described as a medal-awarding ceremony. A Ukrainian soldier said on social media that 22 people were killed and criticised commanders for having held the event in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. Local media reported 20 deaths – figures that could not be independently verified.
  
  
• “This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said of the soldiers’ deaths. “A criminal investigation has been registered into the tragedy. The main thing is to establish the full truth about what happened and to prevent this from happening again.”
  
  
• Ukrainian cruise missiles damaged a warship docked at the occupied Crimean peninsula, Russia admitted on Sunday, a day after Ukraine announced the strike. Ukraine launched 15 cruise missiles at the BE Butoma shipyard based in the east coast city of Kerch on Saturday, with air defences shooting down 13, Russia’s defence ministry said. Ukrainian attacks have progressively been making Crimea untenable for Russia’s Black Sea fleet to use. Ukraine said the damaged warship was one of Russia’s most advanced, able to fire Kalibr cruise missiles. Online observers named the ship as the Askold.
  
  
• Zelenskiy said the cost of letting Russia win the war would be further conflict involving ground troops from Nato countries, as he urged US lawmakers on NBC’s Meet the Press to increase war funding. Zelenskiy also said he was “not ready” for talks with Russia unless its invading troops withdraw. The US “know I am not ready to speak with the terrorists, because their word is nothing”, he said. “They have to go out from our territory, only after that the world can switch on diplomacy.”
  
  
• Zelenskiy also urged Donald Trump to visit Ukraine, where he said it would take minutes to show the war-sceptic former US president his errors about the conflict.
  
  
• Tensions simmered between the civilian and military wings of Ukraine’s leadership as the president’s office publicly rebuked top military commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi for his comments that the war was at a stalemate. The office of Zelenskiy said Zaluzhnyi’s words were helpful to Russia and stirred panic.
  
  
• Zelenskiy said the war in Gaza was distracting focus from Ukraine’s war against Russia as humanitarian, diplomatic and media attention shifts to the Middle East.
  
  
• Russian casualties climbed to more than 305,000 dead or injured, Ukraine said, with the US estimating 120,000 Russian deaths and 180,000 injured in the invasion.
  
  
• Ukraine’s Col Oleksandr Shtupun said Russian forces were following “cannon fodder” tactics, referring to fighting in the Tavria region.
  
  
• Fake Russian propaganda linking the Gaza and Ukraine wars is spreading online, with a fabricated Israeli promotional video claiming to show Ukrainians fighting in Israel exposed by the news organisation Ukrinform.
  
  
• Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed they would be restricting the supply of crude oil until the end of this year, in efforts to raise the price of oil worldwide.
  
  
• The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Saturday that Ukraine had “made excellent progress” towards EU accession, as she visited Kyiv and affirmed EU support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.
  

Air-raid warning issued throughout Ukraine due to MiG-31K take-off

An air-raid warning was issued across Ukraine on 6 November due to the take-off of a MiG-31K fighter jet.

Russian forces hit civilian business in Kherson Oblast, injuring 3 people

Russian drone attacks on Odesa late on Sunday evening left at least five people injured, set grain trucks on fire and damaged one of the city’s principal art galleries

“On November 6, the Odesa National Art Museum turns 124 years old,” Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, of which the Odesa city is the administrative centre, said on the Telegram messaging app. “On the eve of November 6, the Russians ‘congratulated’ our architectural monument with a missile that hit nearby.”

The walls of the building were damaged, some windows and glass were broken, he said. Kipper later said that 15 Russia-launched drones were destroyed over the city. Several high-rise residential buildings were damaged and warehouse and trucks with grain caught fire, which was promptly extinguished.

It was not clear whether the buildings and the trucks were hit by the drones or falling debris. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Ukraine says 19 soldiers killed by Russian airstrike at awards ceremony on Friday

Ukrainian officers investigated for holding awards ceremony struck by Russia, killing 19 soldiers

Ukraine on Monday launched a criminal investigation into military officers who organized a troop-honoring ceremony that was hit by a Russian missile strike, killing 19 soldiers in one of the deadliest single attacks reported by Ukrainian forces.
The State Bureau of Investigation said it aims to hold military officials accountable for the Rocket Forces and Artillery Day event held Friday near the front line in Zaporizhzhia, where Russian reconnaissance drones could easily spot the crowded gathering.
The carnage sparked a wave of criticism among Ukrainians who questioned on social media the planning of an event so close to the battlefield. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lamented the deaths of the men of the 128th Separate Mountain-Assault Brigade of Zakarpattia as a “tragedy that could’ve been avoided.”
The investigation announcement came as officials said Russian drone and missile strikes in the city of Odesa wounded eight people and damaged an art museum that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, and satellite photos showed damage done by a Ukrainian missile strike to a Russian naval ship.
Odesa’s National Art Museum said seven exhibitions, most featuring the work of contemporary Ukrainian artists, were damaged by a strike that left a large crater outside the museum, which was celebrating its 124th anniversary.
Photos and video showed shattered windows, doors, and some paintings lying on the floor amid debris strewn across the galleries.
The attack followed reports by the Russian Defense Ministry that Ukrainian cruise missiles aimed at the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch, a city in the east of the Moscow-held Crimean Peninsula, had struck one of its vessels.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to a Russian navy corvette moored off Kerch.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered an appeal filed by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) against the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend its membership

 In its appeal to the CAS, the ROC requests that the Challenged Decision be set aside and that it be reinstated as a NOC recognised by the IOC, benefiting from all rights and prerogatives granted by the Olympic Charter.
The CAS arbitration proceedings have commenced. In accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration (the CAS Code), the arbitration rules governing CAS procedures, the parties are exchanging written submissions and the Panel of arbitrators that will decide the matter is being constituted.

Odesa’s National Art Museum said seven exhibitions, most featuring the work of contemporary Ukrainian artists, were damaged by a Russian strike late last night that left a large crater outside the museum celebrating its 124th anniversary.

Deputy foreign minister Emine Dzheppar said Kyiv was “deeply outraged” by the attack and urged the UN’s Paris-based heritage agency Unesco to condemn the strike.

The overnight Russian strikes also targeted the southern region of Kherson. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin posted footage of a five-storey building with most of its windows shattered and its walls partially collapsed.

Former Wagner fighters training in Chechnya, regional leader says

Putin to remain president until at least 2030 - Reuters sources

Polish Carriers Start Blocking Ukrainian Border Hampering Movement at Three Checkpoints

Dozens of Polish carriers have begun blocking the three border crossings with Ukraine in Hrebenne, Dorohusk and Korczowa. The key demand of Polish carriers is to bring back the system of issuing permits for Ukrainian carriers to work in the EU.
As reported by RMF 24, the blockade participants are demanding the introduction of commercial permits for Ukrainian carriers and a reduction in their number to the level that existed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Drivers of cars, buses and vehicles transporting live animals, as well as humanitarian and military aid, are promised to be allowed to pass.

Michał Wawer/Twitter (Х)


Rafał Mekler/Twitter (Х)


Rafał Mekler/Twitter (Х)

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has already said that the movement of freight transport in the direction of the Yahodyn-Dorogusk, Krakivets-Korczowa, and Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne checkpoints will be hampered. Traffic is likely to be hampered both when entering and leaving Poland.
"The organisers of the protest plan to let one truck per hour through, as well as trucks carrying security and humanitarian goods, those transporting animals, perishable food, etc.," the statement said.
The key demand of Polish carriers is the return of the system of issuing permits for Ukrainian carriers to operate in the EU.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union took unprecedented steps to support the Ukrainian economy and cancelled the need for Ukrainians to obtain these permits for a year. And this summer, the EU extended this rule until June 2024.
Now, Polish carriers are demanding that this privilege be cancelled at all and that the old permit system be brought back.
Another requirement is to tighten the rules for transport under the EICMT, a certificate issued by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport.
Kyiv plans to discuss this issue not only with the Polish authorities but also with the European Commission.

Radio Free Europe has claimed that it believes Russia may have taken one of its journalists “hostage” for a potential prisoner swap with the US and is appealing to Moscow not to treat her cruelly

 My view is when she entered the country last May they saw her as a potential hostage and they wanted to watch and wait and listen and learn. And then suddenly, they escalated, they arrested, and they published a very vivid video of her in handcuffs being carted off.
They published the photo page of her passport, and they published the address of her mother. It was a quick acceleration, very brazen, very aggressive.

Explosions reported at Russian ammunition depot near Mariupol

A video circulating on social media showed two loud explosions at a Russian ammunition depot near Mariupol, and a local official reported that “a third of the warehouse is now destroyed.”

The BBC has cited a Ukrainian news outlet which says it has spoken to comrades of soldiers in the deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian military ceremony.

Traitor who leaked locations of Special Operations Forces during occupation of Kherson sentenced to 15 years

A collaborator who was leaking locations of secret bases of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces during the occupation of Kherson was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Odesa.

Two internationally important wetlands in Ukraine almost destroyed

Over one-fifth of Ukraine’s protected natural areas, spanning 120,000 km2, have suffered damage due to Russia’s invasion.The scale almost equals the size of England.

Closing summary

• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the deaths of at least 19 soldiers in a Russian missile strike on a military ceremony was a “tragedy that could’ve been avoided”. Other reports suggest the death toll could be much higher, while defence chiefs are under pressure over the staging of the event in a frontline village vulnerable to attack.
  

• Vladimir Putin has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until least 2030, as he is said to feel he must steer Russia through its most perilous period in decades, sources told Reuters.
  

• Radio Free Europe has said that it believes Russia may have taken one of its journalists “hostage” for a potential prisoner swap with the US and is appealing to Moscow not to treat her cruelly, the broadcaster’s acting president said.
  

• Several dozen owners of transport companies have today blocked three major Polish border crossings with Ukraine in protest at what they say is unfair competition from the neighbouring country’s businesses.
  

• Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen by almost a third compared with last year, agriculture ministry data shows. The figures show that Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen to 9.8m tonnes so far in the 2023-24 July-June marketing season. The ministry said that by this point last year, Ukraine had exported 14.3m tonnes.
  

• Odesa’s National Art Museum said seven exhibitions, most featuring the work of contemporary Ukrainian artists, were damaged by a Russian strike late last night that left a large crater outside the museum, which is celebrating its 124th anniversary. Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzheppar, said Kyiv was “deeply outraged” by the attack and urged the UN’s Paris-based heritage agency, Unesco, to condemn it.
  

• Solar panels removed from high-rise blocks of flats in London after the Grenfell tower fire have been sent to Ukraine, in an initiative designed to help the country’s reconstruction.