This is the situation as of Tuesday, November 21, 2023.
finding
- Ukraine has announced that fighting has intensified around the Russian-occupied eastern town of Bakhmut. Ukrainian ground forces spokesman Volodymyr Ficho said Russia was focusing its attacks on the nearby village of Kryschyvka, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in September. “Eleven attacks have been repelled in the last 24 hours,” he said. “The enemy is trying to dislodge our troops from defensive positions around Kryshtyvka.” The Russian Defense Ministry said it had repelled more than 30 Ukrainian military attacks in and around Bakhmut in the past week.
- Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed and one injured in Russian shelling in southern Kherson and central Dnipropetrovsk region. Some power lines and gas pipelines were also damaged.
- Ukrainian police say a grenade exploded in an apartment in Kiev, killing a soldier and a woman. The cause of the explosion, which injured the second man, was not immediately clear.
- The US State Department has announced that Russian Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov and Russian Guard Corporal Daniil Florkin will be barred from entering the United States due to their alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the Ukrainian town of Andrievka.
politics and diplomacy
- Ukraine has fired two top cyber defense officials, Yuri Shtykhor, head of Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service, and his deputy, Viktor Zola, amid an ongoing corruption investigation into software purchases.
- Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch traveled to Kiev, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine said the meeting was a “very important signal” of support as the Israel-Gaza war diverts global attention from the war in Ukraine. Zelenskiy said Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, who was seriously injured covering the conflict last year, and Jerome Starkey of British tabloid The Sun were also present at the meeting.
- In an interview with The Sun, which was also published in the same media group’s Times newspaper, Zelensky accused Russia of trying to stoke tensions from the Balkans to the Middle East. “Today’s Ukraine [is] It is at the heart of this global risk of World War III,ā Zelenskiy said. He urged Ukraine’s allies to maintain military support and acknowledged a lack of progress in some theaters, but noted successes in the Black Sea. “We have actually deployed part of the Russian fleet,” he told the paper. “Hooray.”
- Russia has put Djamala, a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, on its wanted list. Mediazona, an independent Russian news site, reported that Jamara, whose real name is Susana Jamaladinova, was charged under a law that prohibits the spread of disinformation about the Russian military and the war in Ukraine. Jamala, a Crimean Tatar, has long been a critic of Russia, telling Zelenskyy last year that her top priority was “foreigners coming into my house, killing lives, damaging lives, destroying and rewriting my culture.” “It’s a reminder of what we’re doing.” She responded to the Russian arrest warrant with her facepalm emoji on Instagram.
- A Japanese delegation led by industry and foreign ministry officials and business representatives visited Ukraine for talks ahead of next year’s Japan-hosted Ukraine Reconstruction Conference.
weapons
- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Kiev and announced an additional $100 million package to provide artillery shells, air defense interceptors, and anti-tank weapons. Mr. Austin assured Mr. Zelensky that U.S. support would be “long-term.” He also met with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.