At least 25 killed in shelling at a market in Donetsk, say officials

The number of people killed by shelling at a market on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Sunday has been revised again.

Local officials are now saying at least 25 were killed in the strike, reports AP.

A further 20 people were injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik, including two children, said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk. He said the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military.

Kyiv has not commented on the event and the claims could not be independently verified by the Associated Press.

White House warns it is running out of money to help Ukraine fight its war with Russia

The White House has warned that the US is running out of time and money to help Ukraine fight its war with Russia. The White House budget director, Shalanda Young, issued the warning in a letter to the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and other congressional leaders on Monday, according to Reuters.

In the letter, Young wrote:

I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks. There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money – and nearly out of time.

In October, the Biden administration submitted a $106bn request to Congress to fund plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security. The urgency of the request was spelled out by White House officials in a televised address to the nation at the time.

Ukraine launches inquiry into ‘execution’ of captured soldiers

Ukraine launched an inquiry on Sunday into what it said was an “execution” by Russian forces of two unarmed Ukrainian soldiers who had signalled their intention to surrender.

The public prosecutor’s office in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk said that according to “preliminary data” the images were filmed near the village of Stepove, close to Avdiivka, an eastern town where fighting is raging.

“The video shows how a group of people in Russian uniforms shoot at close range two unarmed servicemen in the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who surrendered as prisoners,” the prosecutor’s office wrote.

“Investigators and prosecutors have started an investigation. The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva conventions and is classified as a serious international crime.”

Russia trying to quell dissent from soldiers’ wives with money and online attacks, says UK

Russian authorities are attempting to quell dissent from the wives of soldiers deployed in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.

The MoD said in its daily intelligence briefing that some were being paid off while others have been discredited online.

It comes after protests from soldiers’ wives in November.

The MoD said:

Research by independent Russia media outlets and comments by protesting wives themselves suggest that, in recent weeks, the authorities have likely offered increased cash payments to families in return for them refraining from protest.

On 27 November 2023, one prominent online group for soldiers’ wives published a manifesto against ‘indefinite mobilisation’. On around 31 November 2023, the group was pinned with a ‘fake’ warning label – likely at the instigation of pro-Kremlin actors.

The authorities are likely particularly sensitive to any protests related to those citizens mobilised in September 2022, who have now been at the front line for over a year.

No reason for Russia to change goals, Lavrov says

Speaking in Skopje today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow saw no signs that Kyiv was ready to move towards a political resolution and that there was no reason for Russia to change the goals of its “special military operation”, Reuters reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a press conference on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in Skopje, North Macedonia, December 1, 2023. Photograph: Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters

Kremlin declares former Russian PM a ‘foreign agent’

The Russian ex-prime minister and now Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov has been added to a registry of foreign agents, Russia’s justice ministry has announced.

Reuters reports that the “foreign agent” designation requires people and entities on the list to place a disclaimer on items they publish and imposes strict financial reporting and self-disclosure requirements.

Mikhail Kasyanov. Photograph: Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

Kasyanov first made his name as a foreign debt expert, rising swiftly through the finance ministry in the 1990s. As finance minister, he led negotiations to restructure massive Soviet-era commercial debts, securing a large discount and a reputation as a suave but tough negotiator.

He served as prime minister for the first four years of Putin’s administration and was sacked in February 2004, weeks before Putin was elected for a second term.

After his sacking, he went into opposition to the Kremlin. In 2022, he left the country and has criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finland shuts nearly all crossings to Russia

Finland has temporarily closed all but one of its eight passenger crossings to Russia, Reuters reports.

More than 700 migrants from countries such as Afghanistan, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, and Somalia have entered Finland over the past weeks via Russia.

Summary

• Ukrainian authorities have said the country cannot produce enough electricity to meet growing demand for heating and is turning to neighbouring EU countries for help, amid fears of Russian strikes on production facilities.

• Russia is throwing “waves” of soldiers towards the embattled Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, suffering massive losses in their attempt to capture strategically important territory on the eastern frontlines, Ukrainian soldiers say.

• A leading Russian politician and supporter of the president, Vladimir Putin, has denied a report that he adopted an infant who had been forcibly taken from an orphanage in Ukraine.

• The UK’s Ministry of Defence reports that a group of former Wagner mercenary soldiers have been recognised officially as Russian military veterans, following speculation over how they would be treated following their mutiny against Russia and death of their leader.

• Ukraine said that it wants its export routes via Poland unblocked before it holds talks with Warsaw and the European Commission aimed at ending protests by Polish truckers that are reducing Ukrainian exports.

• A Russian actor has been killed in a Ukrainian attack while performing to Russian troops in a Russian-controlled area of eastern Ukraine, according to her theatre. Ukrainian commanders said their forces had struck what they said was a Russian military award ceremony.

• Ukraine has not reached a stalemate in its war with Russia because the west can help Kyiv by “dropping five more queens on the board”, according to an influential historian of eastern Europe.

• Finland said it would close all but one crossing point on its border with Russia in an effort to halt a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, as Estonia accused Moscow of mounting “a hybrid attack operation” on Europe’s eastern border.

Russia suffering ‘heavy casualties’ but neither side making progress, says UK

In its daily intelligence briefing, the UK’s Ministry of Defence notes Russian forces are suffering “particularly heavy casualties” in fighting around Avdiivka, which is one of three areas seeing heavy ground fighting.

The other two areas are Kupiansk and Luhansk.

Despite the heavy fighting, however, the MoD said neither side was making any significant progress.

Over the last week, the most intense ground combat has been taking place in three areas: on the Kupiansk axis, in Luhansk Oblast; around Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast; and on the left bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson Oblast, where Ukrainian forces have established a bridgehead.

Neither side has achieved substantial progress in any of these areas. Russia continues to suffer particularly heavy casualties around Avdiivka.

Eyewitness reports suggest small uncrewed aerial vehicles and artillery (especially cluster rounds) continue to play a major role in disrupting the attacks of both sides.

As colder winter weather sets in earnest in eastern Ukraine, there are few immediate prospects of major changes in the frontline.

Thousands without power after Russian strikes on energy hubs, says Ukraine

Thousands of people living near the frontlines in Ukraine have been left without power after Russian strikes on energy facilities, the Ukrainian government has said.

The country’s energy ministry said in a statement that recent shelling in the southern city of Kherson had left more than 28,000 people without power. It added that 3,000 people had been without electricity in the last day alone.

It said damage to an overhead line in the eastern Donetsk region had completely cut off the city of Kostyantynivka, and that 122 settlements were still without power.

It also said a building in Kharkiv owned by a private energy supplier had been hit, cutting off another 17,600 people.

Last winter, systematic targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by Russia left millions without light or heating. Temperatures in Ukraine in the winter months routinely drop well below freezing.

President Zelenskiy said this week that western support had allowed Ukraine to improve its air defences, though added that the country did not yet have “100% protection”.