Ukraine has claimed initiative in Black Sea and forced Russian navy to pull back, Zelenskiy says

The president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Thursday that Ukraine had seized the initiative from Russia in the Black Sea and forced Russia’s naval fleet to pull back in the eastern part of the sea.

“For the first time in the world, it was in the Black Sea that a fleet of naval drones began to operate – a Ukrainian fleet,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram.

“I would also like to note that now – as one of the main results of our actions – Russia is unable to use the Black Sea as a springboard to destabilise other regions of the world.”

Germany’s support for Ukraine is to be ‘massively expanded’ next year, says foreign minister

Ukraine will be top of the agenda alongside the Israel-Gaza war at the summit of EU ministers in Brussels today.

One of the issues is whether the EU can deliver its promise to supply quantities of ammunition.

Arriving at the summit Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said:

As strong as the current crisis is in the Middle East, it is also important to face up to the geopolitical challenges here on the ground … Putin is rejoicing in view of the dramatic situation worldwide.

“We will not only continue our support for Ukraine, we will continue to expand and increase it, especially on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany, not only with a view to the winter defence for the coming weeks and months, when it is clear that the Russian president will once again exploit the needs of the people in the cold winter.

“Our support will also be massively expanded, especially for the coming year.”

Summary of the day so far

• Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, posted on Telegram today an apparent response to a proposal put forth by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, to have Ukraine join the alliance without its currently Russian-occupied territories. Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chair of Russia’s security council, used Russia’s oft-touted and inaccurate rhetoric that Ukraine is not a country, and therefore cannot join Nato.

• Three Russian guard officers were killed in an explosion carried out by the local resistance in Russian-occupied Melitopol, Ukraine’s defence intelligence said today.

• In Kyiv, veterans and family of Ukrainian servicemen held a rally calling for legislation regulating the length of active military duty in Ukraine.

• Large elements of the Wagner mercenary group have likely been assimilated into the command structure of Russian national guard (Rosgvardiya), the UK defence ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing. The Wagner arm in the Rosgvardiya is likely being led by Pavel Prigozhin, son of the late Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash shortly after Wagner fighters captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow – acts that Vladimir Putin declared “treason”.

• A senior Ukrainian military official played a key role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, according to a joint investigation by the Washington Post and Der Spiegel published Saturday. Roman Chervinsky, a colonel in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role told the US and German newspapers.

• Russian investigators have determined that the freight train that was derailed yesterday in Russia’s Ryazan oblast was caused by a homemade bomb on the railway line. Authorities have opened a terrorism investigation into the derailment. While Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident, but Russian officials have previously blamed pro-Ukrainian saboteurs for several attacks on the country’s railway system.

• Three people were killed in Russian attacks on the Donetsk oblast overnight, acting regional governor Ihor Moroz said on Telegram. Two people were killed in Toretsk, wehre 30 houses, an infrastructure facility and an administrative building were damaged in Russian attacks. One person was killed in Minkivka.

• A 64-year-old man was killed and his wife hospitalised this morning following the Russian shelling of Dnipro district of the city of Kherson, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

• Parts of city of Donetsk have lost power following two projectile strikes in the northwestern part of the city. It’s unclear if the strikes came from Ukrainian or Russian forces.

• Russia has accused Kyiv of attacks on border regions. On Sunday, Russia said there had been a series of attacks in the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, damaging five train carriages and causing one injury.

• Russian forces have ramped up attacks in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to gain ground near two key front line cities. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, said that Russian troops had begun a push to regain territory near Bakhmut.

• A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that Russian forces over the previous day repelled five Ukrainian attacks near Klischiivka and Kurdyumivka, two small settlements lying south of Bakhmut.

Kyiv under attack, mayor says

For the first time since September, Ukraine’s capital has been the target of a Russian attack.

Kyiv came under air attack this morning and big explosions were heard, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

There was no immediate information on if there were any casualties.

Strong explosions were heard on in the left bank of the capital. Preliminary, air defence was working against ballistic (missiles).

Air alerts for Kyiv and a nearby region were announced just minutes before the explosions were heard. City authorities urged residents to stay in shelters.

Russia has attacked Ukrainian energy system 60 times ahead of winter, says ministry

Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Wednesday that Russia had attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure with different weapons 60 times in recent weeks.

In a statement, the ministry said:

After each new attack, the need for energy equipment grows, and therefore the help of partners for the Ukrainian energy sector is very important.

Nato allies condemn Russia’s withdrawal from key cold war-era security treaty

Nato allies have condemned a decision by Russia to withdraw from a key cold war-era security treaty (see earlier post at 08.22), saying they now intend to suspend its operation for “as long as necessary”.

Most of Nato’s 31 allies have signed the treaty of conventional armed forces in Europe, which was aimed at preventing cold war rivals from massing forces at or near mutual borders.

It was signed in November 1990, but not fully ratified until two years later.

In a statement, Nato said:

Allies condemn Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE), and its war of aggression against Ukraine which is contrary to the treaty’s objectives.

Russia’s withdrawal is the latest in a series of actions that systematically undermines Euro-Atlantic security.

Therefore, as a consequence, allied states parties intend to suspend the operation of the CFE Treaty for as long as necessary, in accordance with their rights under international law.

This is a decision fully supported by all Nato allies.

Russia’s foreign ministry announced earlier on Tuesday that Moscow had finalised its withdrawal.

Russia said the US push for enlargement of Nato had led to alliance countries “openly circumventing” the treaty’s group restrictions, and added that the admission of Finland into Nato and Sweden’s application meant the treaty was dead.

Ukraine says 19 soldiers killed by Russian airstrike at awards ceremony on Friday

Ukraine’s 128th assault brigade said on Monday a Russian airstrike killed 19 of its soldiers in the frontline Zaporizhzhia region on Friday, Reuters reports.

Ukrainian authorities ordered an investigation into the attack after receiving reports that soldiers were killed during an awards ceremony in a village close to the frontlines in the south-east.

Zelenskiy’s office rebukes top military commander for saying war at ‘stalemate’, saying it helped Russia and stirred ‘panic’

A rift has emerged in Ukraine’s leadership, the New York Times is reporting, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office on Saturday chastising Ukraine’s top military commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Gen Zaluzhnyi said in the Economist that the war was at a stalemate – with Zelenskiy’s office saying the comments could help Russia.

More from the Times here:

It was a striking public rebuke that signaled an emerging rift between the military and civilian leadership at an already challenging time for Ukraine.

Speaking on national television, a deputy head of the office of the president, Ihor Zhovkva, said Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s assertion that the fight against Russia was deadlocked “eases the work of the aggressor,” adding that the comments stirred “panic” among Ukraine’s Western allies.

At the same time, Mr. Zelensky disputed the general’s characterization of the fighting. “Time has passed, people are tired, regardless of their status, and this is understandable,” he said at a news conference on Saturday, adding: “But this is not a stalemate, I emphasize this once again.”

The public censure of General Zaluzhnyi came a day after the president’s office replaced one of his deputies, the head of special operations forces, who after his firing said he had been blindsided by the dismissal. It was unclear whether General Zaluzhnyi, the overall commander of Ukraine’s forces, knew in advance of the planned dismissal.

The emerging fissure between the general and the president comes as Ukraine is struggling in its war effort, militarily and diplomatically. Its operations along the roughly 600-mile-long trench line have failed to produce any advances, while resulting in high casualties on both sides, and Ukraine is facing intensified Russian attacks in the East.

At the same time, skepticism about Ukraine aid has increased in some European capitals and among members of the Republican Party in the United States. Ukraine’s leadership is also worried that the attention of Western allies has shifted to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and away from its war with Russia.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, visit an artillery training centre, at an undisclosed location in Ukraine last week. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

EU to stand by Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’, pledges Von der Leyen

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said the EU will stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.

She posted on X: “I’m here to discuss Ukraine’s accession path to the EU. The EU’s financial support to rebuild Ukraine as a modern, prosperous democracy.”

Von der Leyen reportedly added that her sixth visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion would also involve conversations around a fresh EU sanctions package against Russia, set to include a ban on Russian diamonds.

She will meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, amid concerns that the EU and the US may have lost the enthusiasm to provide the country long term funding to keep it afloat while funding the war effort.

The Financial Times reports that the message she is sending through all of this is that Brussels will continue to prioritise the country while supporting its western aspirations.

“Of course the enlargement topic will be at the top of the agenda but also our financial and military support,” Von der Leyen told reporters. “The most important message is reassuring that we stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Summary of the day so far …

• Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine for weeks early on Friday, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 24 “Shahed” drones out of 40 launched by Russia, with Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv among the targets.

• Ukraine’s air force said the latest drones were launched in several waves and flew to different regions in small groups. Air alerts in some regions lasted for several hours during the night. No casualties were reported, but Lviv’s governor said an infrastructure facility had been hit five times during the attacks on his region, a military facility was hit in Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kharkiv’s governor said drones had hit civilian infrastructure and caused fires in and near the city of Kharkiv.

• Officials say Ukraine is bracing for a second winter of Russian air strikes on the energy system, which they warn is more vulnerable than it was last year as it has less excess capacity and little in the way of spare equipment. “We realise that as winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to do more damage. We will respond to the enemy,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of the attack.

• In Russia, the foreign office spokesperson Maria Zakharova has dismissed the latest round of US sanctions against Russia. On state television, Reuters reports she said: “This is a continuation of the policy of inflicting as they call it – a strategic defeat on us. They will have to wait in vain forever before that happens”. On Thursday, the US state department imposed new sanctions targeted at Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and the manufacture of suicide drones. The Biden administration added a dozen Russian companies to a trade blacklist, and announced a crackdown on sanctions evasion in the UAE, Turkey and China.

• Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, criticised Russia for leaving the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and called on Moscow to commit not to test. “Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force” of the treaty, Blinken said in a statement.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Mattha Busby will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.