Russia Ukraine war: Mystery as Putin’s state media removes updates on forces ‘regrouping’ in south

Ukrainian military intelligence said two amphibious Russian ships loaded with armoured vehicles had been hit by naval drones overnight.

One of the boats was identified as an Akula class vessel, while the other landing vessel was a Serna class.

“The results of intelligence conducted on 10 November 2023 near Vuzka Bay in temporarily occupied Crimea show that after an attack by naval drones, two small Russian landing ships have been destroyed,” a Ukraine military report said.

“As a consequence of the attack, both vessels went to the bottom, the Akula straight away and the Serna after attempts to save it.”

Battle cries pierce the smoke and rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire as Ukrainian soldiers fight through and take enemy trenches and dugouts that hide gruesome, bloody remains.

“Grenade!” one screams in Ukrainian. Another yells: “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

This time, no lives or limbs were lost. Because this time, the rounds fired were blanks and the “enemy” troops were, in fact, French soldiers whose intention was not to kill the Ukrainians but instead to help shape them into better, more lethal warriors.

But soon, the war games these troops played in the mud in France will become all too real, when the Ukrainians return home and are sent to the front lines against Russia’s forces.

Three Russian officers have been killed in an “act of revenge” in an occupied Ukrainian city, said Kyiv’s intelligence officials.

A blast struck a Saturday meeting attended by Russian National Guard and FSB intelligence service officers in occupied Melitopol, said the Ukrainian intelligence’s main unit.

“This act of revenge, carried out by representatives of the local resistance movement, took place in the (post) offices seized by the Russians,” the Ukrainian defence ministry’s intelligence department said on Sunday.

Russian forces have established their headquarters in Melitopol, a city in southwestern Ukraine that was captured in the early days of the war.

“As a result of the explosion at least three National Guard officers were killed at the headquarters,” officials said.

Germany‘s aid for Ukraine will be “massively expanded” next year, the foreign minister said Monday as Kyiv heads into its second winter since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Germany has become one of Ukraine’s top military suppliers since the war started in February 2022, sending material that includes tanks, armored personnel carriers, air defense systems and Patriot missile systems.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said as she arrived Monday at a meeting with European Union counterparts that, even as Europe grapples with the war between Israel and Hamas, it’s still important to “face the geopolitical challenge here.”

The former prime minister is re-entering frontline politics during a tumultuous time. Chris Stevenson looks at what he will need to tackle first and where his instincts may take him.

“We are almost halfway through November and we must be prepared for the possibility that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes against our infrastructure. Russia is preparing for winter,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address on Sunday.

“And in Ukraine, all our attention should be focused on defence, on response to terrorists, on everything Ukraine can do to make it easier for our people to get through this winter and to increase the capabilities of our troops.”

Western countries on Monday repeatedly called on Russia to end domestic repression of dissident voices and end its war in Ukraine — and human rights violations related to it — as Russia came under a regular review at the U.N.’s top rights body.

A delegation from Moscow, led by State Secretary and Deputy Justice Minister Andrei Loginov, defended Russia’s right to ensure law and order by restricting some forms of protest or voices that might threaten domestic security. He also said Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine had “no relation to the subject matter” at issue in the review.

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky has been formally notified that he is suspected of treason for allegedly spreading misinformation about the political leadership and cooperation with Russia’s military intelligence, officials said on Monday.

Ukraine‘s security service, the SBU, on Monday said on the Telegram messaging app that a politician was under suspicion, but did not name the suspect.

Lawmaker Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, first deputy head of the parliamentary committee on anti-corruption policy and lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko both named Dubinsky, also on Telegram.

“Dubinsky received a (notice of) suspicion of state treason. He was searched today,” Honcharenko said.

In his own post on Telegram, Dubinsky called the notice of suspicion fabricated and “based on the absolute lies of top state officials”.

The lawmaker was expelled from the ruling Servant of the People party in 2021 after he was put on a U.S. sanctions list over alleged election meddling. He denied those accusations and continued to work in parliament.

The SBU said the suspect was a member of a criminal organisation, financed by Russia’s military intelligence.

The criminal organisation was created in 2016 and included as well an ex-lawmaker, their aide, and an ex-prosecutor.

You can listen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s nightly address below.

The Ukrainian leader delivers a speech every night. The video has been given English subtitles.

European Union officials are finalising the “last details” of a proposed 12th package of sanctions on Russia that will include a diamond ban, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Borrell said the European Commission, the EU executive, could approve the proposed package on Wednesday. It would then go to the Council of the EU, comprising the bloc’s 27 member countries, for discussion and approval.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already applied 11 packages of sanctions against Moscow to diminish the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war. The measures span across sectors and include some 1,800 individuals and entities.

“This twelfth package will include … new export bans, among them … diamonds, actions to tighten the oil price cap, in order to decrease the revenue that Russia is getting from selling its oil – not to us but to others – (and) fighting against circumvention,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

EU diplomats told Reuters last week said the 27-nation bloc had been waiting for a G7 green light to move ahead with the diamond ban. An EU official said the current timing for a European Commission proposal for the package, that would then be debated by the EU’s 27 governments, was “early next week”.

“We are finalising the last details of this package,” Borrell said.