+++ 13:14 US experts: Shoigu wants to dampen expectations +++

According to military experts, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu wants to dampen expectations of the Russian army in Ukraine by describing offensive operations as "active defense". This is what the US think tank Insitute for the Study of War writes in its latest report. According to the report, both Shoigu and Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the attempt to capture the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka as "active defense". The experts see this as deliberate misdirection. This is an attempt to disguise the fact that "despite more than two months of major Russian attacks around Avdiivka, there has been no significant Russian progress."

+++ 12:54 Ukraine plans safe sporting events with fans +++TheUkrainian ministry says it is developing a procedure to make it possible for Ukrainians to attend sporting events again. Since the Russian attack, fans are no longer allowed in stadiums. "We are developing an algorithm to make access to sporting events as safe as possible for spectators," said the Ministry of Sport. "The return of fans will help stadiums and clubs to be financially viable again", but the priority remains "the safety of spectators and athletes", says Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi.

+++ 11:55 Ukraine: Partisans blow up gas station in Melitopol +++Ukrainianresistance fighters have blown up a gas station in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, according to the Ukrainian military intelligence service (HUR), as reported by the "Kyiv Independent". According to the HUR, several Russian military personnel were killed in the attack on Friday afternoon. Military equipment was also damaged. According to the HUR, the Russian occupying forces are trying to conceal evidence of the attack from the Kremlin. Russia has occupied the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhya region since March 2022.

+++ 11:25 Ukraine alerted to power outage at Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant +++Accordingto Ukrainian sources, the Russian-occupied Zaporizhya nuclear power plant has suffered another temporary power outage. The last functioning power line was interrupted during the night, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy announced on Telegram. The nuclear power plant was supplied by emergency generators until the line was repaired almost five hours later. This was the eighth such blackout. "It could have led to a nuclear disaster", said the ministry. The plant, which has been occupied by Russia since March 2022, no longer produces electricity, but needs electricity itself to cool the reactor.

+++ 11:04 ntv reporter: "Russia has learned something new in the Black Sea" +++Russiais increasing its army. There is "an optimistic and a realistic view" of the news in Ukraine. ntv reporter Jürgen Weichert explains why the news is dividing the population and what the military situation on the Black Sea is like.

+++ 10:40 USA wants to build up a low-cost drone army +++TheUSA is planning to massively boost the production of low-cost drones. This is reported by the "Washington Post". The aim is to break China's market dominance by building up an army of many small, low-cost drones. According to the report, the Pentagon wants to produce "thousands" of drones by the end of next year through the so-called "Replicator" program. "We've learned a tremendous amount as a department about how we can mobilize the industrial base in new ways to meet the needs we see in Ukraine, for example," Doug Beck, director of the Pentagon's innovation program, said at a press conference, according to the newspaper. Ukraine is estimated to be using 10,000 drones a month in the war. Many of them are manufactured in China.

+++ 09:42 Zelenskyi's chief of staff announces reopening of Kiev airport +++Thehead of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, expects the Kiev airport to reopen. Ukraine has become stronger and will soon be able to resume airport operations, President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff told diplomats at Boryspil International Airport outside the capital.

+++ 08:49 Ukraine: Drone attacks repelled +++TheUkrainian armed forces say they have shot down ten Russian Shahed drones and a KH-59 cruise missile. This was reported by the "Kyiv Independent". The drones were launched from Russian-occupied Crimea and were intercepted over the Odessa region. According to the Ukrainian defense forces, one drone struck and caused a fire. The fire was "quickly extinguished" and no injuries were reported. The cruise missile was fired not far from the city of Dnipro, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

+++ 08:11 Report: Murderer and rapist goes to war for Russia +++Russiais also recruiting prisoners for the war in Ukraine. According to a report in the Russian exile medium "Novaya Gazeta Europe", one of them is the convicted murderer and rapist Georgy Povilayko from Vladivostok. After serving just 16 months of his 24-year sentence, he was released from prison to fight in Ukraine. Povilayko raped and murdered a mother of two children in a parking garage in August 2021. He then signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense in October 2023. The husband of the murdered woman has written to the Russian authorities with a petition demanding Povilayko's return to prison, but has not yet received a response. "If he dies a dog's death there (in Ukraine) - fine. But what if he comes back?" the newspaper quotes the husband as saying.

+++ 07:34 Ukraine quantifies Russia's losses +++Russiahas lost 331,110 soldiers since the start of the war, according to Ukrainian figures, the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces has announced. The number of dead has increased by 1070 soldiers compared to the previous day. According to the report, Russia has also lost 5571 tanks, 10,385 armored vehicles, 602 air defense systems, 5994 drones and 323 military jets.

+++ 06:41 Russia uses Ukrainian SIM cards for attacks +++Ukraine has found SIM cards of the Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar in downed Russian drones of the Shahed type, reports the news portal "Pravda". Air force spokesman Yuri Ignat confirmed that a Kyivstar SIM card was found in a Russian drone. Kyivstar is the largest mobile phone provider in Ukraine. According to the report, the company is cooperating with the law enforcement authorities. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia uses the Kyivstar network to better guide drones and hit targets more accurately.

+++ 06:12 Ukrainians complete Patriot training in Germany +++TheBundeswehr has trained a second group of Ukrainian soldiers on the Patriot air defense system. The defense of Ukrainian airspace is a central task, says the commander of the multinational training command ("Special Training Command"), Lieutenant General Andreas Marlow, during a site visit. He points out that Russian attacks are specifically directed against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. The training of around 70 men and women was about to be completed after more than six weeks.

+++ 05:42 Stoltenberg dissatisfied with NATO armaments policy +++NATO Secretary GeneralJens Stoltenberg criticizes narrow-minded national interests in European armaments policy. "We are not in a position to work together as closely as we should," he said in an interview with ARD's Brussels studio. This leads to higher costs and makes it more difficult to expand production. The problem of fragmentation in the European defense industry must be tackled, Stoltenberg demands. This is about the industry's own interests and jobs. However, the big picture and the collective interest are important. As an example of the need for improvement, the Norwegian cited the production of ammunition, which is currently the focus of particular attention due to Ukraine's high demand for defense against Russia.

+++ 04:59 Olena Selenska against her husband's second term in office +++TheUkrainian president's wife Olena Selenska does not want her husband to run for a second term in office. She tells the British "Economist" that "I don't want him to remain president for another term or two". Volodymyr Selensky decided at the beginning of November that the elections in Ukraine would be postponed due to the war. Her husband needs to find something new in his life, says the First Lady in the "Economist" podcast.

+++ 03:16 Military situation in Marinka unclear +++Controlof the eastern Ukrainian town of Marinka, remains unclear, although unofficial reports suggest that Russian forces have made some gains. The town, which once had a population of 10,000, has been almost completely destroyed in fighting that has lasted more than a year. There are no civilians left in the town. The Ukrainian General Staff announced in its evening report that the Russian forces had tried unsuccessfully to advance on villages near Marinka. The Ukrainian military spokesman Volodymyr Fitio mentions in a speech on Ukrainian television that the Russian forces are conducting attacks in many areas of the 1000-kilometer front line.

+++ 01:15 "Sheer volume overwhelms us": 38,261 fallen Russians known by name +++Withthe help of publicly available sources, the Russian independent platform Mediazona lists the names of 38,261 Russian soldiers who have been killed since the attack on Ukraine in February 2022. Since the last update on November 17, more than 1,200 new names have been added to the list of victims. Mediazona states that the actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher, as only obituaries, contributions from relatives, news in regional media and reports from local authorities could be used for the evaluation. Mediazona adds that "the sheer volume of incoming data overwhelms our processing capabilities".

+++ 23:42 Lavrov blames Kiev for the war +++Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov once again uses the OSCE meeting to blame Ukraine for the war started by Moscow. "We continue to see no signals - neither from Kiev nor from its masters (in the West) - that they are ready for any kind of political solution," said Lavrov at the end of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Skopje, North Macedonia. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister berated Western politicians for leaving without listening to his speech. (Entry at 12:27 p.m.)

+++ 22:28 Truck blockades at border: Polish and Ukrainian officials discuss measures +++Ukrainianand Polish officials have met to discuss the ongoing border blockade. They agreed on a series of measures, such as facilitating the passage of empty vehicles, as reported by the Ukrainian news agency Unian, citing Ukrainian authorities. Polish truck drivers have been protesting near several border crossings with Ukraine since the beginning of November. As the British newspaper "Guardian" reports, citing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Ukrainian truck drivers stuck at the border are planning a hunger strike if their own demands are not met. In addition, Slovakian hauliers are now also blocking the EU member state's only truck border crossing with Ukraine.

+++ 21:51 Kiev: 67 skirmishes with Russian troops within one day +++67skirmishes have taken place betweenUkrainian and Russian troops in the past 24 hours. This was reported by the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform. The situation in the east and south of the country remains difficult, according to the report by the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces. The report states that the Russians carried out two missile and 17 air strikes and opened fire 46 times with multiple rocket launchers on Ukrainian army positions and villages. According to the General Staff, the Ukrainian army is holding its positions on the left bank of the Dnipro River.

You canread all previous developmentshere.

Lesen Sie auch:

Despite the Russian Defense Minister's attempts to downplay the effectiveness of the Russian army in Ukraine by labeling offensive operations as "active defense", US experts argue that there has been no significant progress in the six-month conflict around Avdiivka.
In light of the ongoing Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu have referred to attempts to capture Ukrainian cities as "active defense", according to an Institute for the Study of War report.
In an effort to disrupt Russian military operations, Ukrainian partisans blew up a gas station in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, causing several casualties and damage to equipment.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has criticized national interests that hinder close cooperation in European armaments policy, implying that more coordinated efforts are needed to support Ukraine and counter Russia's aggression.

Source: www.ntv.de