Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 634

Summary for Sunday, 19th November 2023 - DAY 634

Good morning

• Russia launched several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv early on Sunday for the second night in row, stepping up its assaults on the Ukrainian capital after several weeks of pause, the city’s military administration said.
  
  
• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has sanctioned 37 Russian groups and 108 people including a former prime minister and a former education minister and said he aimed to fight wartime abductions of children from Ukraine and other “Russian terror”.
  
  
• Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that its armed forces shot down 29 of 38 drones in an overnight raid. More than 400 towns and villages in the south, south-east and north of the country were affected by the drone attacks, including an oil refinery that was hit in Odesa.
  
  
• Ukrainian troops are working to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnipro River, the military has said, a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the country’s partially occupied Kherson region.
  

• Ukraine’s armed forces claimed to have killed a further 620 Russian soldiers on Friday during operations. In response, Russia has said it had heavily bombed Ukrainian forces near the Dnipro River and killed about 75 soldiers.
  
  
• Two Ukrainian emergency workers were killed in the Zaporizhzhia region by Russian rocket attacks on Saturday. Ukrainian police said seven people were also injured when Russia fired a series of rocket strikes at the village of Komyshuvakha, close to the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia claimed to have annexed last year.
  
  
• In an intelligence briefing, the UK’s Ministry of Defence noted Russian forces were suffering “particularly heavy casualties” in fighting around Avdiivka, one of three areas seeing heavy ground fighting. Despite the heavy fighting, the MoD said neither side was making significant progress.
  
  
• Hungary must say no to the current Europe model built in Brussels, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a congress of his Fidesz party on Saturday, as his government continues to object to Ukraine joining the EU.
  
  
• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has called on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to take the first step towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine by withdrawing troops.
  

• More than 100 Russian doctors have signed a joint letter calling on Putin to release a woman jailed for a supermarket protest against the war in Ukraine. A St Petersburg court last week sentenced Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, to seven years in prison for spreading “false information” after she swapped supermarket price tags with slogans criticising Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
  
  
• Ukraine has been the target of nearly 4,000 cyber-attacks since the invasion began, three times higher than before, according to Ukrainian officials who oversee cyber defences.
  

Drones attacked Kyiv in waves, says head of capital's military administration

Ukrainian troops trying to push back Russian forces on east bank of Dnipro River

Five people injured in shelling on Kherson, says Ukrainian interior minister

Ukrainian army pushes Russians ‘3 to 8km’ away from Dnipro River

Pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin says he wants to run for president

Ukrainian teen taken from Mariupol returned home

Russia leaves Avdiivka in ruins, targets private residences ahead of new siege strategy — photos

Like Bakhmut and many other Ukrainian cities before it, the Russians have left Avdiivka in ruins in their wasted efforts of capture, as can be seen in photos released by Tavria operational group commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi after more than a month of intense battles.

Russian terrorists cynically destroyed the civilian infrastructure of the city and residential buildings on Nov. 19, said Tarnavskyi.
The photos reveal the consequences of shelling and bombardment as Russians continue their assault on the city.


Photo: Tarnavskyi/Telegram


Photo: Tarnavskyi/Telegram

Ukraine is anticipating a new mechanized assault on Avdiivka by the Russians, said the U.S.-based think tank Institute of War Studies (ISW) analysts in their Nov. 18 report.
Russian invaders plan to encircle Avdiivka while avoiding entering the city, aiming for a siege strategy, said Estonian intelligence.

Photo: Tarnavskyi/Telegram


Photo: Tarnavskyi/Telegram

Russia’s offensive on Avdiivka — What is known

Russian troops intensified their offensive on Avdiivka on Oct. 10, launching massive attacks on the Donbas town.
The head of Avdiiivka’s military administration, Vitaliy Barabash, said that Oct. 10 saw “probably the largest attack on the city in the entire full-scale war,” but the situation was under control.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the Russian military wants to surround Avdiivka, and is throwing a large amount of equipment and personnel into battle.
Russian troops had launched a new wave of assaults, Barabash announced on Oct. 20. The situation remains difficult, he said at that time.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive on Avdiivka, the losses of the Russian invasion forces in Donetsk Oblast amounted to 6,500 soldiers, Tavria Defense Forces spokesperson, Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, said earlier.
Russian invasion forces have eased their attacks on Avdiivka to replace their losses and regroup, Shtupun said on Nov. 2.

Zelenskyy sanctions Yanukovych-era PM Azarov along with other pro-Russian figures

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to implement NSDC (National Security and Defense Council) sanctions against pro-Russian figures, including former PM Mykola Azarov, former Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, and convicted state traitor, ex-MP Oleh Tsaryov.

The corresponding decree was posted on the President’s Office’s website on Nov. 18.

In addition to the president’s decree, the document lists eight individuals against whom sanctions have been imposed for a period of 10 years.

Individuals included in the sanctions list:

• Dmytro Sablin – Russian politician, State Duma deputy of Russia
  
• Dmytro Svyatash – former MP from the now-banned Party of Regions party, state traitor
  
• Dmytro Tabachnyk – former Education Minister, ex-member of the Party of Regions, associated with Zaporizhzhya Oblast henchman, Yevhen Balytskyi
  
• Yuriy Kot – former Ukrainian TV show host, turned pro-Russian propagandist since 2014
  
• Mykola Azarov – Prime Minister of Ukraine during the presidency of fugitive Viktor Yanukovych, collaborator
  
• Sergey Aksyonov – Russian politician, collaborator, so-called “Prime Minister” of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea
  
• Leonid Pasichnyk – former SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) employee, leader of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).
  
• Oleh Tsaryov – former Ukrainian PM from the Party of Regions, state traitor
  

Ukraine has intensified restrictions on sanctioned individuals, including asset freezing, land acquisition bans, and halting trade and transit operations. Following amendments to the sanctions law adopted in May 2022, Ukraine has the authority to seize the assets of sanctioned individuals for use in the state budget. However, for those individuals previously sanctioned, property confiscation is impossible until the NSDC re-votes on the decision. Among those requiring updated sanctions was Azarov.

The NSDC imposed the maximum sanctions against Azarov in 2021.

Russian occupiers unable to provide winter heating in Kherson Oblast, says NRC

Russian forces in occupied Kherson Oblast are unable to provide heating to locals as the winter approaches, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center (NRC) reported on Nov. 18.

Russia says Ukraine attempted to attack Bogorodsky area, near Moscow, using a drone

Photographs from a military funeral held yesterday at the Lychakiv cemetery for Ukrainian armed forces members Taras Syvenkyi, Ivan Ravlinko, and Andrii Pylypiv.

Closing Summary

• Drones attacked Kyiv in waves, says head of capital’s military administration. Serhiy Popko said on Sunday that, according to preliminary information, Ukraine’s air defence systems hit about 10 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones in Kyiv and its outskirts.
  
  
• Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces ‘three to eight km’ back from the banks of Dnipro River. “Preliminary figures vary from three to eight kilometres, depending on the specifics, geography and landscape design of the left bank,” the army spokesperson Natalia Gumenyuk told Ukrainian television, without specifying whether Ukraine’s military had complete control of the area or if the Russians had retreated.
  
  
• Five people injured in shelling on Kherson, says Ukrainian interior minister. A three-year-old girl was among those injured after artillery shelling, said Ihor Klymenko.
  
  
• The pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin said he wanted to run for president. Girkin, who is in custody awaiting trial for inciting extremism, said on Sunday he wanted to run even though he understood the March election would be a “sham” with the winner already clear.
  
  
• Russia says Ukraine attempted to attack Bogorodsky area, near Moscow, using a drone, with Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, saying later on Telegram that the foiled attack “did not cause any damage or casualties”.
  
  
• A Ukrainian orphan taken from Mariupol after Russian forces captured the Ukrainian city in the first weeks of its invasion has returned home, Kyiv said on Sunday.
  
  
• Vladimir Putin is reportedly going to attend the virtual G20 summit on Wednesday, hosted by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.