Russia has pulled back forces from towns opposite Kherson, says Ukraine
Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main frontline in the south.
The statement gave only limited details and made no mention of any Ukrainian forces having crossed the Dnipro. Ukrainian officials also stressed that Russia had intensified shelling across the river, knocking out power again in Kherson where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops vacated the city and fled across the river.
Since Russia abandoned Kherson last month, nine months into its invasion of Ukraine, the river now forms the entire southern stretch of the front, Reuters reported.
Russia has already told civilians to leave towns within 15 km of the river and withdrawn its civilian administration from the city of Nova Kakhovka on the bank. Ukrainian officials have previously said Russia pulled back some artillery near the river to safer positions further away, but until now had stopped short of saying Russian forces were quitting towns.
“A decrease in the number of Russian soldiers and military equipment is observed in the settlement of Oleshky,” the military said, referring to the town opposite Kherson city, on the far side of a destroyed bridge over the Dnipro.
“Enemy troops were withdrawn from certain settlements of the Kherson oblast and dispersed in forest strips along the section of the Oleshky – Hola Prystan highway,” it said, referring to a 25-km (15-mile) stretch of road through riverside towns scattered in woods on the bank opposite Kherson city.
It said most of the Russian troops in the area were recently mobilised reservists, suggesting that Moscow’s best-trained professional troops had already left. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Key events
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron are set to give a press conference shortly, as part of the French president’s official visit to the White House.
They have issued this statement beforehand, after a meeting between the two presidents earlier on Thursday.
The presidents strongly condemn Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine and stress that intentionally targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure constitutes war crimes whose perpetrators must be held accountable.
They also condemn and reject Russia’s illegal attempted annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory, in clear violation of international law. The United States and France deplore Russia’s deliberate escalatory steps, notably its irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and its disinformation regarding alleged chemical attacks, and biological and nuclear weapons programs.
They reaffirm their nations’ continued support for Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, including the provision of political, security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine for as long as it takes.
This includes the provision of significant resources to support Ukrainian civilian resilience through the winter, including stepping up the delivery of air defense systems and equipment needed to repair Ukraine’s energy grid. The United States and France plan to continue working with partners and allies to coordinate assistance efforts, including at the international conference taking place in Paris on 13 December 2022.
They also intend to continue providing robust direct budget support for Ukraine, and to urge the international financial institutions to scale up their financial support.
The United States and France reiterate their duty to uphold applicable international obligations and the principles and purposes of the UN Charter. They also reiterate their steadfast resolve to hold Russia to account for widely documented atrocities and war crimes, committed both by its regular armed forces and by its proxies, including mercenary entities such as Wagner and others, through support for international accountability mechanisms, including the international criminal court, the Ukrainian prosecutor general, UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry, and the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, sanctions, and other means.
The United States and France remain committed to addressing the wider effects of Russia’s war, including working with the international community to build greater resilience to food and energy disruptions.
EU members are close to agreeing a $60 dollar per barrel price cap on Russian oil, diplomats said Thursday, with just Poland left to give the final nod, Agency France-Presse reports.
Europe will begin enforcing an embargo on Russian crude shipments from Monday, so the price cap will apply to oil exported by sea by Moscow to ports around the world.
Measures will be taken to prevent tankers from shipping Russian oil sold above this price, for example by refusing to allow British and EU insurers to cover vessels and shipments.
The EU was already in agreement with Washington on the need to cap the price western clients pay for Russia’s oil, to prevent Moscow profiting from price rises triggered by its own war on Ukraine.
The European Commission had suggested the ceiling along with an order that if the trading price of oil falls below $60 then the cap will be cut until it is 5% lower than the market. Poland had been pushing for it to be even lower at $30.
Isobel Koshiw
The British adventurist and TV personality Bear Grylls has become the latest celebrity to meet Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.
Grylls posted pictures with Zelenskiy on his Instagram on Thursday afternoon. He wrote that he wanted to know how Zelenskiy was coping for an upcoming programme “but got so much more.”
“Through this special programme the world will see a side to president Zelenskiy that has never been shown before.”
Word started spreading that Grylls was in Ukraine on Wednesday when he was photographed filming at a Ukrainian petrol station.
Grylls also posed for pictures on a train with the staff of Ukraine’s state railway company posted on Thursday. Ukraine has not had commercial flights since the invasion.
Sean Penn, Ben Stiller and Richard Branson are among other celebrities who have been hosted by Ukraine’s president in Kyiv since the start of the invasion.
The UK-based Royal United Services Institute defence and security thinktank published a paper on Wednesday that examined the early days of the Russian invasion in February.
A few snippets from the report’s executive summary. It believes that a Ukrainian victory is possible, but “it requires significant heavy fighting”.
The paper says that according to operational data from the Ukrainian general staff, Russia had a 12:1 advantage over the Ukrainian forces north of Kyiv in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.
The paper’s four authors said that the plan was to invade Ukraine over a 10 day period, which would have led to a full annexation by August 2022. It hoped to draw defending forces away from the capital, enabling a swift capture.
However it goes on to say: “The very operational security that enabled the successful deception, however, also led Russian forces to be unprepared at the tactical level to execute the plan effectively.
“The Russian plan’s greatest deficiency was the lack of reversionary courses of action. As a result, when speed failed to produce the desired results, Russian forces found their positions steadily degraded as Ukraine mobilised.”
It also claims that Russia planned to arrested and execute those involved in the 2014 Maidan revolution, which led to the resignation of pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych.
Rusi’s paper says that Russia underperformed tactically compared to expectations, and it was only superior weapons systems and Ukrainian troops using up their ammunition supply that has led to relative Russian successes.
The paper also paints a chaotic behind-the-scenes operation for Kremlin troops. It says the Russian army “are culturally averse to providing those who are executing orders with the context to exercise judgement”.
It also has lessons for UK and US forces. It says that it is only because of two artillery brigades that Ukrainian forces prevented Kyiv being captured, and initially it was able to match the resources of the Russians. However this has since shifted starkly in favour of Russia, and that the imbalance “must be rectified if deterrence is credible and is equally a problem for the [British] RAF and Royal Navy.”
More than1,300 prisoners returned to Ukraine since Russia invaded
More than 1,300 prisoners have been returned to Ukraine since Russian troops invaded, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
Zelenskiy was speaking after a new exchange of 50 prisoners with Russian and pro-Russian forces.
“After today’s exchange, there are already 1,319 heroes who returned home,” Zelenskiy said on Instagram, posting a photo showing a few dozen men holding Ukrainian flags.
“We will not stop until we get all our people back,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the 50 returning Ukrainians included those who had defended Mariupol and Azovstal.
In a meeting with the Red Cross in October Russia said it held about 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, said it was too early reach a verdict on talks between Poland and Germany about sending the Patriot air-defence systems from Germany to Ukraine.
“We all agree on the urgent need to help Ukraine, including with air defence systems,” Stoltenberg said at a joint news conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
However, he added, “it is important to understand that this is not only about delivering new systems but ensuring the systems that are being delivered can operate,” Reuters reports, including having enough ammunition, spare parts and maintenance.
Summary of the day so far
The time in Kyiv has just gone 6pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s stories so far:
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Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on the main frontline in the south. The statement gave only limited details and made no mention of any Ukrainian forces having crossed the Dnipro. Ukrainian officials also stressed that Russia had intensified shelling across the river, knocking out power again in Kherson where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops vacated the city and fled across the river.
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An investigation is under way into a suspected letter bomb sent to the US embassy in Madrid. It would be the sixth after five were sent to the Ukrainian embassy, Spanish politicians, a Spanish airbase and a company that makes rocket launchers on Wednesday. Spanish police confirmed to the Reuters news agency that an envelope similar to the previous letter bombs had been intercepted at the embassy.
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A private energy company in Ukraine has said that 40% of the country’s power infrastructure is damaged, as Russian attacks continue to target the supply. Millions have been without or with intermittent power since October, as Russia has focused its attacks on Ukraine’s energy system.
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As Ukrainians wake up on the first official day of winter, nearly 6 million people across a majority of Ukraine’s regions have no electricity, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday night. Ukraine’s state emergency service has said nine people had been killed in fires, after breaking safety rules in an attempt to heat their homes after Russian attacks on power facilities.
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Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was impossible to discuss nuclear arms control while the war in Ukraine continues, claiming the “western involvement” must not be ignored. Lavrov said that the US was trying to break up Russia, and that it was “naive” to think talks could take place while this happened.
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Ukraine dismissed the deputy chief engineer of its Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Thursday, accusing him of collaborating with Moscow’s forces and treason, the Energoatom state nuclear energy company said. The statement was published a day after Russia said it had promoted the engineer, Yuriy Chernichuk, to serve as the director of the vast nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine.
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The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has urged China’s top leaders to use their influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Michel, who chairs EU leader summits, held talks with Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday, in the first face-to-face encounter between the head of an EU institution and China’s top officials since the start of the pandemic.
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Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Europe should go back to its prewar “peace order” with Russia if Russian president Vladimir Putin will renounce aggression against his neighbours, according to a report in the Times of his comments at a security conference in Berlin.
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The US army awarded a $1.2bn contract to Raytheon Technologies Co for six national advanced surface-to-air missile systems (Nasams) for Ukraine on Wednesday, the Pentagon said. The United States has approved sending Ukraine a total of eight Nasams to help fend off Russian missile and drone attacks.
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Russia said on Thursday the German parliament’s move to recognise the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as a Soviet-imposed genocide was an anti-Russian provocation and an attempt by Germany to whitewash its Nazi past. In a decision welcomed by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, German lawmakers passed a resolution on Wednesday declaring the death by starvation of millions of Ukrainians – the Holodomor – was genocide.
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Another PoW exchange will take place later on Thursday between Russia and Ukraine. Fifty prisoners of war will be handed over in the latest swap between the two sides.
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The UN appealed for record funds for aid next year, AFP reports, as the Ukraine war and other conflicts, climate emergencies and the still-simmering pandemic push more people into crisis, and some towards famine. The United Nations’ annual Global Humanitarian Overview estimated that 339 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency assistance next year – a staggering 65 million more people than the estimate a year ago.
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France has become the first major western state to publicly back the creation of a special tribunal to try senior Russian officials – potentially including Vladimir Putin – for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
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Russian forces tried to advance in eastern Ukraine and trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on Kherson in the south, the Ukrainian military said, as western allies sought to buttress Ukraine and its neighbours against Moscow.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called for the EU to include Russia’s missile industry in its next sanctions package. Kuleba says it is warranted for their part in Russia’s war efforts, including those which have targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure.
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Ukraine needs the US made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said, adding he would be working with the German government on this issue. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot systems, Reuters reported.
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The UK has announced a fresh round of sanctions against 22 Russians, including those the Foreign Office says were involved in enlisting criminals to fight in Ukraine. James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said on Wednesday his department would target a new set of officials, including Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister, who is responsible for troop equipment supplies.
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US president Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, pledged on Wednesday to make the release of detained Americans a priority if she is confirmed to one of most important, and challenging, US diplomatic posts.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said Europe should go back to its prewar “peace order” with Russia if the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will renounce aggression against his neighbours, according to a report of his comments at a security conference.
The Times reports that during a panel discussion at the event in Berlin on Wednesday, Scholz was asked how Germany would act towards Russia once the war was over given the “strong partnership” that had once been in place between the two countries.
He said: “At this stage I would say it’s not about partnership, to be very honest. Russia spoilt the peace order we worked on for so many decades and we agreed there should never again be the attempt to change borders by force.
“And what Russia is doing today is going back to the imperialistic approach of the 19th, 18th, 17th century where just a stronger country thinks it could just take the territory of the neighbour, understanding neighbours as just hinterland, and some place they can give rules to be followed. And this can never be accepted.”
However, he continued: “We have to go back to the agreements which we had in the last decades and which were the basis for peace and security order in Europe.
“And for Russia this also means that it accepts that there are open-minded societies, open societies, democracies, that follow completely a different way of how they are governed and how they attract people … In the end there is no aggression coming from the member states of the European Union, there is no aggression coming from Nato, and all questions of common security could be solved and discussed. There is a willingness to do so.
“We can come back to a peace order that worked and make it safe again if there is a willingness in Russia to go back to this peace order.”
This is from our correspondents in Kyiv, Isobel Koshiw, and Brussels, Jennifer Rankin, on France backing the creation of a tribunal to try officials for crimes of aggression in Ukraine.
France has become the first major western state to publicly back the creation of a special tribunal to try top Russian officials – potentially including Vladimir Putin – for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
The French foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was working with its European partners on the proposal. The statement came after the European Union, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, lent support for the tribunal in a speech on the bloc’s plans for Ukraine.
The defendants of such a tribunal would be those with decision-making power involved in committing the crime of aggression, meaning the transgression of Ukraine’s borders by the Russian military. This would very likely mean just a handful of figures, including Putin as well as other figures such as the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.
If they were convicted, even in absentia, the sentence would set in stone current relations with Russia by labelling Putin and his team international criminals and make sitting down at the negotiating table nearly impossible.
Read more:
A Ukrainian artilleryman carries empty cartridges from 152 mm 2S3 Akatsiya (self-propelled howitzer) in a field near an undisclosed frontline position in eastern Ukraine yesterday.
Russia has pulled back forces from towns opposite Kherson, says Ukraine
Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main frontline in the south.
The statement gave only limited details and made no mention of any Ukrainian forces having crossed the Dnipro. Ukrainian officials also stressed that Russia had intensified shelling across the river, knocking out power again in Kherson where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops vacated the city and fled across the river.
Since Russia abandoned Kherson last month, nine months into its invasion of Ukraine, the river now forms the entire southern stretch of the front, Reuters reported.
Russia has already told civilians to leave towns within 15 km of the river and withdrawn its civilian administration from the city of Nova Kakhovka on the bank. Ukrainian officials have previously said Russia pulled back some artillery near the river to safer positions further away, but until now had stopped short of saying Russian forces were quitting towns.
“A decrease in the number of Russian soldiers and military equipment is observed in the settlement of Oleshky,” the military said, referring to the town opposite Kherson city, on the far side of a destroyed bridge over the Dnipro.
“Enemy troops were withdrawn from certain settlements of the Kherson oblast and dispersed in forest strips along the section of the Oleshky – Hola Prystan highway,” it said, referring to a 25-km (15-mile) stretch of road through riverside towns scattered in woods on the bank opposite Kherson city.
It said most of the Russian troops in the area were recently mobilised reservists, suggesting that Moscow’s best-trained professional troops had already left. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Russia’s foreign minister has accused the west of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying it with weapons and training its soldiers.
Sergei Lavrov also said that Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and other key infrastructure that have left millions without power, heating and water were intended to weaken Ukraine’s military potential and derail the shipments of western weapons, the Associated Press reported.
“You shouldn’t say that the US and Nato aren’t taking part in this war, you are directly participating in it,” Lavrov said in a video call with reporters.
“And not just by providing weapons but also by training personnel. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries.”
He said that the barrage of Russian missile strikes was intended to “knock out energy facilities that allow you to keep pumping deadly weapons into Ukraine in order to kill the Russians”.
“The infrastructure that is targeted by those attacks is used to ensure the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces and the nationalist battalions,” he said.
An investigation is under way into a suspected letter bomb sent to the US embassy in Madrid.
It would be the sixth after five were sent to the Ukrainian embassy and Spanish government officials on Wednesday.
Spanish police confirmed to the Reuters news agency that an envelope similar to the previous letter bombs had been intercepted at the embassy.
The road outside the embassy in the Spanish capital is closed with police on the scene.
EU leader urges China to use influence on Russia to end war in Ukraine
Jennifer Rankin
The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has urged China’s top leaders to use their influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Michel, who chairs EU leader summits, held talks with Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday, in the first face-to-face encounter between the head of an EU institution and China’s top officials since the start of the pandemic.
Speaking to reporters, Michel said the pair had met for around three hours, where they spent “a lot of time” discussing the situation in Ukraine. Michel said he had urged Xi to use its influence as a permanent member of the UN security council to convince Russia to accept international law.
Michel said:
President Xi made very clear that China is not providing weapons to Russia,” Michel said, adding that the Chinese leader had also said Russia’s “nuclear threat is not acceptable and not responsible”.
I sincerely hope that all the international community, China included, will use all possible tools and instruments to advocate in order to convince the Kremlin and Russia to end the war and to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine
The EU demands echo a similar message delivered to Xi by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, last month, when the German chancellor went to Beijing.
In a readout of the meeting provided by EU officials, it was said Michel and Xi had discussed “Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war against Ukraine”. Last month a video message for a Shanghai trade fair by Michel that used similar language was dropped from the programme by Chinese authorities.
While Michel’s message is consistent with the EU line on Ukraine, ahead of the trip diplomats had worried about political missteps from the European Council president. EU diplomats also raised eyebrows about Michel’s decision to meet Xi alone, without the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who is responsible for drafting and executing EU policy.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called for the EU to include Russia’s missile industry in its next sanctions package.
Kuleba says it is warranted for their part in Russia’s war efforts, including those which have targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure.
After meeting EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell in Poland, Kuleba tweeted: “I thanked the EU for its continued defence assistance and stressed that next EU sanctions should include those hitting Russia’s missile production industry: it must be put to a halt.”
More on the letter bombs that have been sent to officials in Spain, including at the Ukrainian embassy (see 10:46am).
Spain’s deputy interior minister, Rafael Pérez, told a press briefing that the letters do not justify raising the terror level in the country.
Reuters reports that early stages of the investigations suggest that the envelopes were sent within Spanish territory, and that the government was unaware of other letters being received in other countries.
You can find our Madrid correspondent Sam Jones’ report below.
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