Moscow’s missile and drone attack on Kyiv today could be the start of bigger attacks to come, a Ukrainian official has warned. And from the frontline in eastern Ukraine, international correspondent Stuart Ramsay says Kyiv’s forces are “in trouble” – watch his report below.
Wednesday 13 November 2024 16:38, UK
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Thank you for following our coverage of the Ukraine war today.
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Sky’s international correspondent Stuart Ramsay has spent 48 hours on the frontline with Ukrainian anti-aircraft units – read his report here:
By Ben van der Merwe, digital investigations journalist
Russia has dramatically scaled up its long-range drone attacks on Ukraine, in an effort that analysts say could be intended to grind down the country’s air defences.
New data from conflict-monitoring organisation ACLED shows the number of reported Shahed drone attacks has surged in recent weeks, and that incidents have been reported across the country.
The largest number of reported attacks have targeted the northern province of Sumy, near the border with Russia, and the capital city, Kyiv. Strikes were also reported as far west as Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne, both more than 600km from the front line.
A total of 54 separate incidents involving Shahed drones were reported in the latest week of data, up to 8 November. That’s the highest since Russia first began using the drones in Ukraine in September 2022.
Read on here:
There’s been a slump in private donations to Ukraine’s military effort amid rising financial pressures and war weariness in the country, Bloomberg is reporting.
Charity donations which help to provide everything from weapons to clothing and food for Kyiv’s armed forces surged in the early days of the war in 2022.
But Ukrainian celebrity Serhiy Prytula has reported a decrease in donations of around a fifth to his foundation, while other organisations have seen even larger falls, according to Bloomberg.
“To raise the same amount of donations we have to work three times as hard as in previous years,” he said.
Mr Prytula said economic struggles were a possible reason behind the drop in donations, while Hanna Morozova, a volunteer for charity Army SOS, said some Ukrainians had become “accustomed” to and more detached from the war.
Joe Biden has invited Donald Trump to the White House today for a meeting designed to demonstrate a smooth transition between administrations.
Biden’s press secretary has declined to confirm the discussion points between the two men ahead of the meeting – but the outgoing president may urge Trump to back Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Questions have been swirling over the future of US support for Kyiv after Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris last week.
Their meeting will be the first since Biden’s stumbling performance against Trump in a presidential debate back in June.
We’ve more detail to bring you now following our earlier report that a Russian serviceman was killed in a car explosion in Crimea (see 10.36 post).
A Ukrainian security source has told the Reuters news agency that a bomb was planted under the car and that it was a Ukrainian hit on a senior naval officer accused of war crimes.
Russia’s Investigative Committee says it is treating the incident as terrorism.
A source in Ukraine’s security service (SBU) identified the naval officer as Valery Trankovsky, a Russian naval captain who headed up a brigade of Moscow’s Black Sea missile ships.
They said the operation in Crimea was carried out by the SBU, and that the hit was legitimate.
A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for a senior International Criminal Court judge, according to a report.
Independent Russian outlet Mediazona reported that a criminal case has been opened against Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou for “illegal detention”, without providing more details.
Ms Alapini-Gansou, ICC second vice-president, was elected to the court in 2018. She was appointed earlier this year as a deputy to president Tomoko Akane, who issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March 2023 on allegations of war crimes.
Russia has also opened an investigation into Ms Akane and other judges in the ICC.
The US is working to ensure “every dollar we have at our disposal” is sent to Ukraine before Joe Biden leaves office, Antony Blinken has said.
During a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, the US secretary of state said Washington had recently “pushed out the door another $8bn in security assistance for Ukraine”.
“President Biden is committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and 20 January,” he said.
The date marks the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration into a second presidential term.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he could rapidly end the war in Ukraine and previously threatened to cut off US support for Kyiv.
Four people have been injured in a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, an official has said.
Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said the drone struck near a shopping centre in the Saltiv district this morning.
Three women and a man were hurt – two of whom where taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds, he said.
One of the victims was diagnosed with “an acute reaction to stress”, he added.
An EU court has ruled Ukraine’s border force guard cannot trademark its war slogan “Russian warship, go f**k yourself” as it is political.
The phrase, widely regarded as a symbol of Ukraine’s fight against Russia, has been the subject of a fierce trademark battle for more than two years.
It comes from early on in Moscow’s invasion, when Russian navy officers radioed Ukrainian guards stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea and told them to surrender or die.
The reply from a Ukrainian soldier, “Russian warship, go f**k yourself!”, soon became a point of pride and national slogan.
An application was made to the European Union Intellectual Property Office in the name of the soldier to trademark the phrase in 2022, but has been repeatedly denied.
The EU General Court upheld the decision today, saying the slogan is “incapable of fulfilling the essential function of a trademark” and is “only a political message”.
Russia’s combined missile and drone attack on Kyiv today could be the start of bigger attacks to come on Ukraine in the coming weeks and months, an official has warned.
Andrii Kovalenko, a senior official at the National Security and Defence Council, said on Telegram that Moscow was ready to carry out a “massive attack” and had accumulated a significant number of cruise missiles “for the winter”.
“The use of strategic aviation confirms this. All the enemy’s plans are known and understood, Ukraine will counter,” he said.
NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte warned yesterday that Ukraine is facing its “harshest winter since 2022”.
Ukrainians have been fearing a large Russian attack for months, worried it could deal a new blow to the severely damaged energy system and cause long blackouts as the coldest weather sets in.
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