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Ukraine braced for new Russian missile strikes targeting power grid as sporadic shelling of cities continues – as it happened

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Ukraine officials say Russia is continuing to shell cities with no strategic aim other than to cause casualties as it prepares for new mass strikes. This live blog is closed

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Mon 28 Nov 2022 14.00 ESTFirst published on Mon 28 Nov 2022 01.04 EST
A woman carrying a bucket walks along the road near Bakhmut.
A woman carrying a bucket walks along the road near Bakhmut. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images
A woman carrying a bucket walks along the road near Bakhmut. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images

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Ukraine braced for new Russian missile strikes targeting power grid as sporadic shelling of cities continues

Julian Borger
Julian Borger

Ukraine is bracing for another mass missile attack this week, but in between these major salvos aimed at the power grid, the Russians are sporadically shelling cities with no apparent strategic aim other than to cause casualties.

In a district of small detached houses in Dnipro, the Reva family were sifting through the wreckage of their home today.

The house and four others around it had been destroyed by a shell or missile which had landed on Saturday, but the ruins burned right through Sunday and this was the first time they could get close.

The spot in Dnipro where Russian missile strikes hit on Saturday.
The spot in Dnipro where Russian missile strikes hit on Saturday. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

It was a fragmentation warhead, designed to inflict maximum casualties, peppering surviving walls with shrapnel and leaving two centimetre diameter holes in metal girders. The bomb fell close to a church and a school, blowing out all its windows, but amazingly no one was killed.

Vladyslav Reva does not usually work on a Saturday but had been called out to work by a client of his construction business.

“I was saved by God and my client,” he said.

His wife, Iryna, had been in the study when the bomb landed and the roof caught fire. She was trying to escape when the blast from their exploding gas heater blew her through a window. She is in hospital with concussion and heavy bruising.

The only death was the family dog, a 8 year-old American Akita called June, who has been buried in a corner of the charred garden.

Vladyslav Leva showed us a picture of the house before destruction, a handsome two-storey home painted a cheerful yellow and landscaped with a line of trees.

Aftermath of Russian shelling of a residential district in Dnipro. Clearly a fragmentation warhead designed to cause maximum casualties. Amazingly no one died, though the windows of a nearby school were blown out pic.twitter.com/HRfPEIWtoJ

— Julian Borger (@julianborger) November 28, 2022

His son Oleksii said that it was now past salvaging. “We’re not going to rebuild it,” he said. “We’re going to use a bulldozer and destroy it and then start again somewhere else.”

Could the Russian aim of such shelling be to demoralise the population? “Well, they failed,” Oleksii said quickly.

“Just the opposite,” his father said, and pointing to the charred ruins of his home, he added: “Better this than Russkiy Mir, Russia’s world.”

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Key events

Closing summary

It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:

  • Fighting around the key eastern Ukraine town of Bakhmut has descended into a bloody morass with hundreds of dead and injured reported daily. As Russia moved fresh formations to the area in recent weeks, neither Russian or Ukrainian forces were able to make a significant breakthrough after months of fighting

  • Russian forces continue to shell residential infrastructure and housing in the recently liberated city of Kherson, according to Ukraine’s military. In its latest update, the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Russian troops were digging trenches and fortifying their positions in preparation for a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive in eastern Kherson.

  • Russians are sporadically shelling cities with no apparent strategic aim other than to cause casualties. The Guardian visited a residential district in Dnipro, where a series of houses were destroyed by a fragmentation warhead, designed to inflict maximum casualties, which had landed on Saturday.

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has claimed Russia will soon launch a series of new missile strikes on his country, warning his defence forces and citizens to prepare for the attack. He gave the ominous caution in his Sunday evening address.

  • Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned that Russia will probably continue to attack Ukraine’s power grid, gas infrastructure and basic services. He said Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, was trying to use “the winter as a weapon of war against Ukraine”.

  • Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office has said 329 children are currently considered missing in Ukraine, while 12,034 have been deported to Russia. According to the Ukrainian government’s children of war portal, 440 children have been killed as a result of Russia’s war and 851 children are now reported as injured.

  • Russia has “unilaterally postponed” talks with the US aimed at resuming nuclear weapons inspections in Cairo this week, a US state department spokesperson confirmed. Talks between US and Russian officials were scheduled to begin tomorrow. The Russian foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that talks would no longer take place this week.

  • The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains under Russian control, the Russia-installed administration of the occupied city of Enerhodar has said. The announcement comes after the head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm suggested that there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to leave the occupied plant. The Kremlin has denied the reports.

  • Foreign ministers of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden visited Kyiv today to show support for Ukraine. Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Lithuanian foreign minister, vowed that Ukraine would win despite Russia’s “barbaric brutality”.

  • Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine’s prime minister, has visited Downing Street during her visit to London to discuss the prevention of sexual violence in conflicts. Zelenska met with Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and prime minister Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty.

Russia’s foreign ministry said it has summoned the Norwegian ambassador after a number of Russian citizens were arrested over the use of drones.

Nearly a dozen Russians have been arrested in Norway in recent weeks or violating the flight ban or the ban on photographing sites deemed sensitive.

The arrests, which Russia has described as “politically motivated” and Norway said were legal, comes as Oslo has heightened security following suspected sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said:

It was noted that the sentences against the Russians were politically motivated and had nothing to do with the principles of fair and impartial justice.

A spokesperson for Norway’s foreign ministry, Lars Gjemble, said after the summoning:

Our ambassador took the opportunity to inform [Russia] of Norwegian legislation on sanctions.

He added:

He also reviewed the cases that are currently being processed in Norwegian courts. The meeting was held in a good tone

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Russia has launched more than 16,000 missile attacks at Ukraine since the war began, 97% of which were civilian targets, according to Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov.

Over the past nine months, russia has launched more than 16,000 missile attacks on Ukraine.
97% of russian targets are CIVILIAN.
We are fighting against a terrorist state. Ukraine will prevail and will bring the war criminals to justice. pic.twitter.com/IGsC09G4Hr

— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) November 28, 2022
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The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkievych, has said there will be no drinking water supply to the southern Ukrainian city after Russian forces damaged a pumping station in the neighbouring Kherson region.

In a post to Telegram, he said:

During a missile attack, Russian terrorists damaged a pumping station of MKP Mykolaivvodokanal, located in the Kherson region. Therefore, for an indefinite period of time, we are forced to supply technical water to the city from the Bug estuary.

He said the city’s water supply had been repaired just one week after Kherson was liberated by Ukrainian troops, adding:

But we are dealing with real terrorists who are powerless against our military, and therefore they fight with the civilian population.

He said repair work continued on networks that were destroyed by salt water.

As soon as the security situation allows, we will promptly restore the pumping station and return drinking water to Mykolaiv.

UK ‘stands with survivors of sexual violence by Russian forces’

Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has met Olena Zelenska during her visit to London to discuss the prevention of sexual violence in conflicts.

Cleverly tweeted a photo of the pair, and praised Zelenska’s efforts to highlight the “horrific use of sexual violence by Russian forces”.

He added:

The UK stands with Ukraine, and with all survivors of these despicable crimes.

First Lady @ZelenskaUA,

Your campaigning to highlight the horrific use of sexual violence by Russian forces is an inspiration to us all.

The UK stands with Ukraine, and with all survivors of these despicable crimes.#ForSurvivorsWithSurvivors pic.twitter.com/pGyPmBzeQP

— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) November 28, 2022

The Ukrainian first lady shared a video of the pair meeting earlier this afternoon, expressing “gratitude” to Cleverly for his support of Ukraine.

To prevent new crimes, perpetrators and those who gave them orders – must be punished. That is why I called on Britain to recognize RF as a terrorist state – hope that eventually the whole world will do it. Justice begins with not being afraid to call a criminal by his name 2/2 pic.twitter.com/47cdrW8MC2

— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) November 28, 2022

To prevent new crimes, perpetrators and those who gave them orders – must be punished. That is why I called on Britain to recognize RF as a terrorist state – hope that eventually the whole world will do it. Justice begins with not being afraid to call a criminal by his name 2/2 pic.twitter.com/47cdrW8MC2

— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) November 28, 2022
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Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine’s prime minister, has visited Downing Street during her visit to London to discuss the prevention of sexual violence in conflicts.

Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, welcomed Zelenska on the pavement outside No 10 Downing Street as the pair exchanged a hug before walking inside the building.

Downing Street said Sunak briefly dropped into the meeting between his wife and Zelenska.

Olena Zelenska is greeted by Akshata Murty outside Downing Street in London. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Zelenska is expected to address MPs and peers tomorrow as part of her visit to London, where she also took part in an international conference on preventing sexual violence during conflicts.

At the conference, Zelenska spoke about sexual violence being perpetrated “systematically and openly” as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. She said:

Sexual violence is the most cruel, most animalistic way to prove mastership over someone. And for victims of this kind of violence, it is difficult to testify in war times because nobody feels safe.

This is another instrument that they’re using as their weaponry. This is another weapon in their arsenal in this war and conflict.

Russian servicemen were “very open” about using sexual violence as their weaponry, she said.

She added:

That’s why it’s extremely important to recognise this as a war crime and to hold all of the perpetrators accountable.

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Stoltenberg: We need to be prepared for more attacks on Ukraine

Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned that Russia will probably continue to attack Ukraine’s power grid, gas infrastructure and basic services.

Speaking to reporters in Bucharest ahead of a two-day meeting of Nato foreign ministers, he said:

Doing that when we enter winter demonstrates that President (Vladimir) Putin is now trying to use ... the winter as a weapon of war against Ukraine.

In his Sunday night address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians to prepare for a series of new Russian missile strikes on the country. He said:

We understand that terrorists are preparing new strikes. We know that for sure. And as long as they have missiles, they won’t stop, unfortunately.”

Fighting in Ukraine descends into trench warfare as Russia looks to break through

Peter Beaumont
Peter Beaumont

Fighting around the key eastern Ukraine town of Bakhmut has descended into a bloody morass with hundreds of dead and injured reported daily, as neither Russian or Ukrainian forces were able to make a significant breakthrough after months of fighting.

As Russia moved fresh formations to the area in recent weeks, including reinforcements previously in the Kherson region, the fighting in the Bakhmut sector has descended into trench warfare reminiscent of the first world war.

Over the weekend, images emerged of Ukrainian soldiers in flooded, muddy trenches and battlefields dotted with the stumps of trees cut down by withering artillery barrages.

A Ukrainian tank commander on the Bakhmut frontline in Donetsk. Heavy fighting with mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner corporation is continuing. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Heavy fighting continued on Monday around Soledar, with mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner private military corporation – which includes pardoned convicts – in the forefront.

Ukraine’s presidential office said on Monday that at least four civilians had been killed and 11 others wounded in the latest Russian attacks. It said intense fighting was continuing along the frontline in the east, with the Russians shelling Bakhmut and Toretsk at the epicentre of the fighting.

“People are sheltering in the basements, many of which are filled by water,” said the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko.

They have been living in catastrophic conditions without power or heating.

The focus of much of the recent fighting, however, has been the now-shattered town of Bakhmut itself, largely abandoned by its 70,000 residents, with both sides sending reinforcements for a battle that has continued relentlessly since the summer as Moscow has sought to secure a victory after a series of battlefield setbacks and retreats.

Read the full story here:

Summary of the day so far

It’s just past 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • Russian forces are continuing to shell residential infrastructure and housing in the recently liberated city of Kherson, according to Ukraine’s military. In its latest update, the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Russian troops were digging trenches and fortifying their positions in preparation for a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive in eastern Kherson.

  • Russians are sporadically shelling cities with no apparent strategic aim other than to cause casualties. The Guardian visited a residential district in Dnipro, where a series of houses were destroyed by a fragmentation warhead, designed to inflict maximum casualties, which had landed on Saturday.

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has claimed Russia will soon launch a series of new missile strikes on his country, warning his defence forces and citizens to prepare for the attack. He gave the ominous caution in his Sunday evening address.

  • Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office has said 329 children are currently considered missing in Ukraine, while 12,034 have been deported to Russia. According to the Ukrainian government’s children of war portal, 440 children have been killed as a result of Russia’s war and 851 children are now reported as injured.

  • Russia has “unilaterally postponed” talks with the US aimed at resuming nuclear weapons inspections in Cairo this week, a US state department spokesperson confirmed. Talks between US and Russian officials were scheduled to begin tomorrow. The Russian foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that talks would no longer take place this week.

  • The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains under Russian control, the Russia-installed administration of the occupied city of Enerhodar, home to the facility, has said. The announcement comes after the head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm suggested that there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to leave the occupied plant. The Kremlin has denied the reports.

  • Foreign ministers of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden are in Kyiv today to show support for Ukraine. Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Lithuanian foreign minister, vowed that Ukraine would win despite Russia’s “barbaric brutality”.

  • The US has put forward a “significant” proposal for a deal to free the jailed basketball star Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan, the chargée d’affaires of the US mission to Russia, Elizabeth Rood, said. She told Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency that Moscow had not provided a “serious response” to any of its proposals.

  • The Pentagon is considering a Boeing proposal to supply Ukraine with cheap, small precision bombs fitted on to abundantly available rockets, allowing Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines, according to a Reuters report. US and allied military inventories are shrinking, and Ukraine faces an increasing need for more sophisticated weapons as the war drags on.

Ukraine braced for new Russian missile strikes targeting power grid as sporadic shelling of cities continues

Julian Borger
Julian Borger

Ukraine is bracing for another mass missile attack this week, but in between these major salvos aimed at the power grid, the Russians are sporadically shelling cities with no apparent strategic aim other than to cause casualties.

In a district of small detached houses in Dnipro, the Reva family were sifting through the wreckage of their home today.

The house and four others around it had been destroyed by a shell or missile which had landed on Saturday, but the ruins burned right through Sunday and this was the first time they could get close.

The spot in Dnipro where Russian missile strikes hit on Saturday. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

It was a fragmentation warhead, designed to inflict maximum casualties, peppering surviving walls with shrapnel and leaving two centimetre diameter holes in metal girders. The bomb fell close to a church and a school, blowing out all its windows, but amazingly no one was killed.

Vladyslav Reva does not usually work on a Saturday but had been called out to work by a client of his construction business.

“I was saved by God and my client,” he said.

His wife, Iryna, had been in the study when the bomb landed and the roof caught fire. She was trying to escape when the blast from their exploding gas heater blew her through a window. She is in hospital with concussion and heavy bruising.

The only death was the family dog, a 8 year-old American Akita called June, who has been buried in a corner of the charred garden.

Vladyslav Leva showed us a picture of the house before destruction, a handsome two-storey home painted a cheerful yellow and landscaped with a line of trees.

Aftermath of Russian shelling of a residential district in Dnipro. Clearly a fragmentation warhead designed to cause maximum casualties. Amazingly no one died, though the windows of a nearby school were blown out pic.twitter.com/HRfPEIWtoJ

— Julian Borger (@julianborger) November 28, 2022

His son Oleksii said that it was now past salvaging. “We’re not going to rebuild it,” he said. “We’re going to use a bulldozer and destroy it and then start again somewhere else.”

Could the Russian aim of such shelling be to demoralise the population? “Well, they failed,” Oleksii said quickly.

“Just the opposite,” his father said, and pointing to the charred ruins of his home, he added: “Better this than Russkiy Mir, Russia’s world.”

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Updated at 

A US State department spokesperson has confirmed that Russia “unilaterally postponed” talks aimed at resuming nuclear weapons inspections in Cairo this week.

Talks between US and Russian officials were scheduled to begin tomorrow.

The spokesperson said:

The United States and the Russian Federation were set to convene a meeting of the New START Treaty’s Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC) in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss New START Treaty implementation on Tuesday, November 29.

The Russian side informed the United States that Russia has unilaterally postponed the meeting and stated that it would propose new dates.

Washington “is ready to reschedule at the earliest possible date” the meeting “as resuming inspections is a priority for sustaining the treaty as an instrument of stability”, the spokesperson added.

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