Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 629

Summary for Tuesday, 14th November 2023 - DAY 629

• Fighting around the shattered eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka has grown more fierce, Ukraine’s military has said, with Moscow’s forces intensifying air bombardments and trying to move forward with ground forces.
  
  
• Hungary will block the disbursement of the next tranche of military aid to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility until Kyiv provides “guarantees” that OTP bank or other Hungarian firms will not be blacklisted as “international sponsors of war”, the country’s foreign minister said.
  
  
• Russian shelling on Monday damaged a hospital and homes in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing three people and injuring at least 12, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
  
  
• Xi Jinping and Joe Biden are expected to discuss Ukraine, the Middle East, North Korea’s ties with Russia, Taiwan, human rights, artificial intelligence, in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at the Apec summit.
  
  
• Germany’s aid for Ukraine will be “massively expanded” next year, the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said. She said: “We will not only continue our support for Ukraine, we will continue to expand and increase it, especially on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany, not only with a view to the winter defence for the coming weeks and months, when it is clear that the Russian president will once again exploit the needs of the people in the cold winter. “Our support will also be massively expanded, especially for the coming year.”
  
  
• At least three Russian officers were killed in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in a blast Ukraine’s intelligence said was an “act of revenge” by local resistance groups.
  
  
• US secretary of state Antony Blinken and newly appointed British foreign secretary David Cameron discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict, relations with China and help for Ukraine during a telephone call on Monday, the state department said. “Secretary Blinken and Lord Cameron underscored continuity in the US-UK special relationship and its importance to regional and global security,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a readout of the conversation.
  
  
• Blinken promised a top Ukrainian official sustained US support including help to get through the winter, with Russia expected to strike Kyiv’s infrastructure again. Blinken met Andriy Yermak, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on a brief stop in Washington in between the top US diplomat’s latest Middle East crisis tour and an Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco.
  
  
• Save Ukraine, an organisation that focuses on rescuing the country’s most vulnerable people, has said its rescuers have evacuated more than 108,880 people from the frontlines since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. It said its rescue network provided humanitarian assistance to more than 186,450 people, with its hotline operators fielding more than 161,425 calls from Ukrainians in urgent need of assistance.
  
  
• Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called for an increase in military aid to Ukraine, for decisions to be made in December on the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, and to speed up work on the 12th package of sanctions against Russia, the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine has said.
  
  
• The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said Ukraine is the bloc’s top priority and that there will be “no fatigue to our commitment” to supporting the country. The EU’s 27 foreign ministers passed a united message of support for Ukraine on Monday after welcoming Kuleba.
  

Nato to update EU on protection of undersea pipelines

We are in the process of establishing a new centre at our Maritime Command in the United Kingdom, to better coordinate efforts of allies to work with partners to work with the European Union, but also to work with the private sector to better share information and to ramp up what to do to protect critical undersea infrastructure.

Intense fighting continues. The situation on the battlefield is difficult. And that just makes it even more important that we sustain and step up our support for Ukraine because we cannot allow a president Putin to win. Ukraine must prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe and it’s in our interest to support Ukraine.

Putin approves new restrictions on media coverage ahead of presidential elections

Russian attacks are increasing around Donetsk, Kupiansk and Avdiivka

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, has said Russia has hit Nikopol with three kamikaze drones, killing one person and injuring a 72-year-old man.

A 72-year-old man was injured. He is in the hospital in a moderate condition.
Unfortunately, there is also a dead person. Condolences to the relatives … Shame on the occupiers who are fighting with the civilians.

Russian convicted over journalist's murder pardoned for fighting in Ukraine

Kyiv and Warsaw have failed to reach an agreement to stop a week-long Polish truckers’ protest at Ukraine’s border, a Ukrainian official has said.

Finland has accused Russia of funnelling asylum-seekers to its border and said it would take the necessary action to prevent a mass inflow of people and protect its national security.

It is clear that these people are helped and they are also being escorted or transported to the border by border guards.

The message from us in the government is clear in that we want to secure the safety of our eastern border.

Ukrainian troops have secured foothold in the south, senior official says

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces have secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff said on Tuesday.
Andriy Yermak's remarks were the first official acknowledgement that Ukrainian troops were established on the Dnipro's east bank in Kherson region.
"Against all odds, Ukraine's Defense Forces have gained a foothold on the left (east) bank of the Dnipro," Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute think-tank in the United States. The remarks were posted on Zelenskiy's website.
"Step by step, they are demilitarizing Crimea. We have covered 70% of the distance. And our counteroffensive is developing."
Russian forces seized Kherson region in the early days of their February 2022 invasion of Ukraine but late last year abandoned the regional capital, also called Kherson, and the Dnipro's west bank. They have since shelled Kherson and other towns from new positions on the east bank.
As Ukraine's four-month-old counteroffensive secures only incremental gains, Ukrainian officials have been cautious in describing the activities of their forces on the east bank.
A military spokesperson this month said "not bad results" had been achieved on the east bank in forcing Russian troops to reposition. Unofficial accounts have noted Ukrainian advances.
Russia's military said last week its forces had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to forge a bridgehead on the eastern bank and on nearby islands, killing around 500 Ukrainian soldiers. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield claim.
In a highly unusual incident on Monday, two Russian state news agencies published alerts saying Moscow was moving troops to "more favourable positions" east of the Dnipro River in Ukraine, only to withdraw the information minutes later.
In the past, Russia has sometimes used similar phrasing about moving troops to more advantageous positions in order to describe retreats.
In his address to the Hudson Institute, Yermak said the only certainty was that Russia had no intention of stopping the war but hoped "to outlast and out-endure the unity of democracies".
"We need weapons right now. Russia still has air superiority," he told the gathering. "It still is capable of producing missiles due to circumvention of sanctions. Not to mention the Iranian drones and North Korean artillery rounds."

The Russian army has “eliminated” almost all Ukrainian literature in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk

Russia strikes Nikopol 11 times with kamikaze drones and artillery, says governor

Reuters has more on the week-long Polish truckers’ protest at Ukraine’s border

Russia increasing use of kamikaze drones as it tries to push on east, says Ukrainian military official

Cyprus to clamp down as investigation reveals oligarchs moved assets after Ukraine invasion

Biggest ever leak of financial data from Cyprus raises concerns over EU state’s role in managing Russian fortunes

Russia has sentenced a man to six years in prison for vandalising posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine

Ukrainian troops have secured foothold in the south, says senior official

Closing summary

• 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, Reuters reported.
  
  
• A top Ukrainian military official has said Russian troops have continued simultaneous assault attempts in several directions on the country’s east, and are increasing the use of kamikaze drones, Reuters reported. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia, despite high losses, has been attacking Ukrainian positions near Kupiansk. “In addition, the enemy has increased the use of kamikaze drones,” he said on Telegram.
  
  
• Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Russia had hit 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.
  
  
• 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 said. “As a special forces fighter, he was invited to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation … When the contract expired, he was pardoned by presidential decree,” lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told AFP.
  
  
• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Russia is increasing its attacks across the frontline, AFP reported. “The military reported an increase in the number of enemy assaults,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, saying Russian forces were attacking around Donetsk, Kupiansk and Avdiivka.
  
  
• Vladimir Putin has approved changes to the law that governs presidential elections by putting new restrictions on media coverage, local news agencies reported.
  
  
• The EU will miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1m artillery shells and missiles by next March, the German defence minister 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.