Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 636

Summary for Tuesday, 21st November 2023 - DAY 636

• The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, Agence France-Presse is reporting. He arrived by train and will hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart as well as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.  Berlin is the second-biggest supplier of military assistance to Kyiv after the US and is seeking to offer reassurances after the shift in focus to the Middle East war prompted concerns about waning support for Ukraine.
  
  
• Ukraine sacked two senior cyber-defence officials, a government official said, as prosecutors announced an investigation into alleged embezzlement in the government’s cybersecurity agency. Yurii Shchyhol, the head of the state service of special communications and information protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP), and his deputy,
  Viktor Zhora, were dismissed by the government, senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk wrote on Telegram.
  
  
• Ukrainian forces were engaged in containing increasing Russian attacks on Monday around the shattered eastern town of Bakhmut, which was seized by Moscow in May, military officials said. Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesperson for Ukrainian ground forces, said Russian troops focused attacks on Klishchiivka, a nearby village on heights retaken by Ukrainian forces in September.
  
  
• Russia barred entry to a number of officials from Moldova on Monday and complained about moves by its pro-European government to block Russian media outlets ahead of local elections earlier this month. The moves were the latest in a series of acerbic exchanges between the two sides and allegations by Moldova that Russia has been exerting pressure on the ex-Soviet state’s affairs and President Maia Sandu’s drive to join the European Union.
  
  
• Zelenskiy met the Fox Corp CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, in the Ukrainian capital in what Kyiv said on Monday was a “very important signal” of support at a time when global media attention has shifted from the war in Ukraine. Media titan Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son is a leading figure in media with a US Republican-leaning audience. His visit comes as concern in Ukraine mounts over the future of vital American military and economic aid with the war with Russia showing no end in sight.
  
  
• Russia has placed a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list, state news agencies reported on Monday. The reports said an interior ministry database listed the singer Susana Jamaladinova, known as Jamala, as being sought for violating a law adopted last year that bans spreading so-called fake information about the Russian military and the fighting in Ukraine.
  
  
• Two people were killed early on Monday after Russian forces shelled a parking lot in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, authorities said. Regional prosecutors opened a war crimes investigation into the artillery strike, which injured one other person, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
  
  
• An elderly woman was also killed and a man injured in Russian artillery strike on the town of Nikopol, in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, the regional governor said. “A power line and a gas pipeline were damaged,” Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.
  

Germany’s defence chief has arrived in Ukraine on a surprise visit

Two killed by Russian shelling, Ukrainian officials say

Russia said on Tuesday that marines, aviation and artillery had scuppered more Ukrainian attempts to gain a foothold on the eastern bank of the River Dnipro and on islands at the mouth of the river in southern Ukraine

Russia is waiting for the outcome of an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines before making any request for compensation

Just like Pussy Riot, Sasha Skochilenko has incurred Putin’s wrath. But we won’t let him win

Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founder of Pussy Riot who spent two years in Russian jail as a political prisoner, has written for the Guardian about her friend Sasha Skochilenko.
A court in St Petersburg sentenced Skochilenko last week to seven years in prison for protesting against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Tolokonnikova writes: “Despite the fact that I am in a cell, it is possible that I am much more free than all of you.” These were the defiant words of the 33-year-old Russian artist Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko in the closing statement of her trial in St Petersburg last Thursday.
Two hours later the judge sentenced her to seven years in a penal colony. The charge was knowingly spreading false information about the Russian army, all for five pieces of paper with facts about the cost of the war in Ukraine, which she subversively placed in ordinary places for ordinary Russians to see – on products in supermarkets.”
In her final statement to the court, translated by Max Lawton, Skochilenko described the criminal case against her as “strange and funny”.
“Yes, I am a pacifist. Pacifists have always existed. They are a special sort of people who believe that life is the highest of all possible values. Pacifists believe that any conflict, even the most beastly, can be resolved by way of peace. I am afraid of killing even a spider, it terrifies me to imagine that it is possible to take someone else’s life. This is how I grew up, how my mom raised me.”
She added: “Despite the fact that I am in a cell, it is possible that I am much more free than all of you. I can do what I want, I can say what I want, I can quit my job if I am being forced to do that which I don’t wish to do, I can organise my free schedule of work and rest, spend as much time with my beloved and dear ones as I wish. I can dress how I want to. I can love whom I want to.
“I have no enemies. I’m not afraid to remain poor, not afraid of losing the roof over my head. I’m not afraid of seeming strange, vulnerable, weak, or funny. I’m not afraid to be unlike other people. It is possible that this is precisely why my government is so afraid of me and those who are like me – after all, it keeps me in a cage like the most dangerous of beasts.”

Dozens of Russian soldiers killed during sudden attack at Awards Ceremony

More than two dozen Russian soldiers were killed during an awards ceremony after a surprise attack in eastern Ukraine over the weekend, according to local reports.

The strike occurred while members of the 810th Marine Brigade were being honored at a ceremony near Starobesheve, a town in the Donbas region that is currently occupied by Russia.
According to a post to Telegram by Nexta, a pro-Ukrainian news outlet based in eastern Europe, at least 25 Russian soldiers attending the ceremony were killed, and another several dozen were injured.
Russian servicemembers have previously been targeted at military celebrations in occupied Ukraine. In late October, when a Ukrainian-born delivery man was charged in connection to a poisoned cake and boxes of whiskey that were gifted to a group of Russian military graduates at a celebration in Melitopol. No Russian troops were injured in the incident.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been heading toward a stalemate as both sides in the nearly 21-month war prepare for the brutal winter months. On Tuesday, Kyiv was looking to use its troops' momentum along the Dnieper River to break into areas of occupied Kherson. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the war against Moscow will not end until all territories occupied by the Kremlin's forces are retaken.
Ukrainian military commander Colonel Robert "Magyar" Brovdi also confirmed in a post to Telegram that the attack against the Russian brigade had killed members of the command staff.
He said that the strike was "revenge" for members of the Ukrainian 128th Separate Mountain Infantry Brigade who were killed during a ceremony in the southern Zapohrizhia region after a Russian missile attack earlier this month.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, at least 20 Ukrainian troops were killed in the attack on November 5, and Zelensky said that it was "a tragedy that could have been avoided."
Further reports of an attack near Starobesheve on Sunday were also confirmed by the theater where the awards ceremony took place, which said in a post to the Russian social media platform VK on Monday that Polina Menshikh, a dancer, died during a performance in the Donbas region Sunday due to shelling in the area.
Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the strike and Moscow officials have yet to acknowledge it. Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry and Ukraine's Defense Ministry via email for more information.
Kyiv officials also reported in August that two Russian officers were killed and 15 other servicemembers hospitalized in a mass poisoning at a military celebration in Mariupol, which was reportedly carried out by Ukrainian partisans.

Summary of events so far today

• The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, Agence France-Presse is reporting. He arrived by train and will hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart as well as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
  
  
• Two people were killed and six wounded in overnight Russian missile attacks and shelling in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday. Missiles hit a hospital in the Donetsk town of Selydove and a coalmine, the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on the Telegram messaging service.
  
  
• Ukraine sacked two senior cyber-defence officials, a government official said, as prosecutors announced an investigation into alleged embezzlement in the government’s cybersecurity agency. Yurii Shchyhol, the head of the state service of special communications and information protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP), and his deputy, Viktor Zhora, were dismissed by the government, senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk wrote on Telegram.
  
  
• Ukrainian forces were engaged in containing increasing Russian attacks on Monday around the shattered eastern town of Bakhmut, which was seized by Moscow in May, military officials said. Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesperson for Ukrainian ground forces, said Russian troops focused attacks on Klishchiivka, a nearby village on heights retaken by Ukrainian forces in September.
  
  
• Russia barred entry to a number of officials from Moldova on Monday and complained about moves by its pro-European government to block Russian media outlets ahead of local elections earlier this month. The moves were the latest in a series of acerbic exchanges between the two sides and allegations by Moldova that Russia has been exerting pressure on the ex-Soviet state’s affairs and President Maia Sandu’s drive to join the EU.
  
  
• Zelenskiy met the Fox Corp CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, in the Ukrainian capital in what Kyiv said on Monday was a “very important signal” of support at a time when global media attention has shifted from the war in Ukraine. Media titan Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son is a leading figure in media with a US Republican-leaning audience. His visit comes as concern in Ukraine mounts over the future of vital American military and economic aid with the war with Russia showing no end in sight.
  
  
• Russia has placed a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision song contest on its wanted list, state news agencies reported on Monday. The reports said an interior ministry database listed the singer Susana Jamaladinova, known as Jamala, as being sought for violating a law adopted last year that bans spreading so-called fake information about the Russian military and the fighting in Ukraine.
  
  
• Two people were killed early on Monday after Russian forces shelled a parking lot in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, authorities said. Regional prosecutors opened a war crimes investigation into the artillery strike, which injured one other person, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
  
  
• An elderly woman was also killed and a man injured in a Russian artillery strike on the town of Nikopol, in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, the regional governor said. “A power line and a gas pipeline were damaged,” Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.
  

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since war started, says UN

 Ten thousand civilian deaths is a grim milestone for Ukraine.
The Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine, now entering into its 21st month, risks evolving into a protracted conflict, with the severe human cost being painful to fathom.

A Slovak border crossing with Ukraine was blocked on Tuesday, police and media reported.

The European Commission said that France, Belgium, Finland and Croatia are “at risk” of breaking EU budget rules next year because of excessive spending

Russia eradicates Ukrainian literature in occupied territories, replaces it with Russian books

Russia has sent an estimated 2.5 million Russian books to the occupied Ukrainian territories in 2023, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center reported.

Closing summary

• More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with about half of recent deaths occurring far behind the frontlines, the UN human rights office said. The UN human rights mission in Ukraine, which has dozens of monitors in the country, said it expected the real toll to be “significantly higher” than the official tally since corroboration work is continuing.
  
  
• Germany will support Ukraine with another military aid package worth €1.3bn (£1.1bn) that will include an additional IRIS-T air defence unit, the country’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said.
  
  
• Russia has not used its “premier air launched cruise missiles” from its heavy bomber fleet for nearly two months, likely allowing it to build up a substantial stock of these weapons, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its latest intelligence update. Moscow is likely to use these missiles if it repeats last year’s campaign to destroy Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure, the MoD said.
  
  
• Two people were killed and six injured in overnight Russian missile attacks and shelling in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, Ukrainian officials said. These claims have not yet been independently verified.