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Putin’s troops attacked Kupiansk outskirts in four waves and used troops disguised as Ukrainian soldiers
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Russian troops disguised themselves as Ukrainian soldiers as they launched new attacks in the outskirts of the northeastern city of Kupiansk, Kyiv said while confirming a frontline breach.
The Russians attacked in four waves and used troops disguised as Ukrainian soldiers but were repelled from the city, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
“They partially entered the suburbs, the industrial zone, and were destroyed by our troops,” the city’s military administration chief Andriy Besedin said. “There were assault actions using heavy armoured vehicles, there were attempts to bring in infantry.”
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days after the February 2022 invasion but liberated by Ukraine in a counteroffensive a few months later. The Russians are now making a renewed bid to recapture the region.
The attack came as Russia signalled it was open to negotiations mediated by US president-elect Donald Trump to end the Ukraine war.
Gennady Gatilov, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, said any talks would have to be based on the realities of Russian advances, a claim pushed by Vladimir Putin for territory grab in Ukraine.
A London-based exiled Russian television chef has been found dead in Serbia.
Alexei Zimin, 52, was an outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s Crimea annexation. He was found dead in a hotel room in Belgrade earlier this week, according to Russian media. He was travelling to the Serbian capital to promote his new book on Britain, entitled Anglomania.
According to the Serbian authorities, there were “no suspicious circumstances” in Zimin’s death. An autopsy and toxicology investigation was underway, according to BBC News.
Zimin spent his final years in exile in the UK and ran a cookery show on the Russian NTV channel. But the show was stopped after he issued anti-war messages on social media in the wake of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazrom will cut off supplies to Austria’s OMV utility today Austria’s chancellor said.
He added that his country’s underground gas storage was full and that it had alternative, non-Russia supplies.
The cutoff follows OMV’s announcement that it would stop paying for Gazprom gas to its Austrian arm to offset a £192m arbitration award it won over an earlier cutoff of gas to its German subsidiary.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer said yesterday that Austria has a secure supply of alternative fuel and that “no one will freeze this winter, no home will be cold.”
More here.
Austria’s chancellor says Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazrom will cut off supplies early Saturday to Austrian utility OMV
After months spent occupying a swathe of territory in Russia in the wake of a daring summer assault, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Ukraine is now engaged against a force of 50,000 troops amassed by Vladimir Putin in the border Kursk region.
The Ukrainian incursion was the largest on Russian soil since the Second World War and succeeded in taking Moscow – and even Kyiv’s closest allies – by surprise.
But despite Ukrainian troops’ success in bedding into positions deep into Kursk, the offensive received a mixed reaction from analysts, with some questioning the wisdom of drawing vital defensive power away from the fight in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Mr Putin’s forces have been making steady, grinding gains for months.
Andy Gregory and Tom Watling report.
Experts tell Andy Gregory and Tom Watling that the real question is how much Kyiv’s troops are able to inflict casualties on the Russians as the price for taking the territory back
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s war against Ukraine will “end sooner” after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office next year.
“It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House,” he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne yesterday.
“This is their approach, their promise to their citizens.”Mr Trump has attempted to foster relations with both the Ukrainian and Russian presidents since he defeated vice president Kamala Harris at the ballot this month.
Deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s war against Ukraine is a “grave escalation” of the conflict, German chancellor Olaf Scholz told Vladimir Putin during their first phone call in nearly two years.
German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Mr Scholz urged Mr Putin in the hour-long call to withdraw his troops and end the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
The Kremlin said the conversation between the two leaders was “detailed and frank” on the situation in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military say the hottest fighting along the roughly 640-mile frontline is taking place along multiple points in Donetsk
Russian forces have breached the outskirts of Ukraine’s northeastern city Kupiansk, part of a region it briefly held after first invading Ukraine, military officials said.
Moscow’s forces attacked the region in four waves and used soldiers disguised as Ukrainian troops but were repelled from the city by Kyiv’s forces, Ukraine’s General Staff said. But why does the control of Kupiansk, a significant rail hub in the area, matter?
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of the February 2022 invasion and then liberated by Ukraine in a counteroffensive months later.
Vladimir Putin’s forces deployed 15 pieces of hardware in their assault on Kupiansk, including tanks and armoured vehicles, as they attempt to expand offensive operations on a sprawling more-than-1,000km front, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
The Russian attack looked opportunistic and Kyiv appeared to have isolated and destroyed most of the Russian forces that penetrated the outskirts of Kupiansk, Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group, said.
“However, a penetration like that certainly signals confusion and weakness in Ukrainian defences in that area, which could prompt the local Russian commanders to increase their efforts to squeeze or cut off the Ukrainian salient,” he added.
He said the coming days would likely indicate whether the Kremlin was going to react to this by ramping up attacks there further.
A French military task force with the festive name “Champagne” is wrapping up a mission that’s no party
Ukraine is fighting to liberate all territory captured by Russia in the last decade, and any claim that Kyiv is shifting its focus in the war to prioritise security over land is false, the country’s defence minister has said.
“Territorial integrity is part of our values,” Rustem Umerov told a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo.
When asked about reports that Ukraine is shifting its focus in the war, Mr Umerov said this was false and part of Russian propaganda efforts.
“Our priority is still to protect people, protect the nation, to liberate people from almost 10 years of temporary occupation, so Crimea and Donbas [are] part of Ukraine,” he said, adding that people living in territories held by Russia are all waiting to be liberated.
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