Russia has sent a military satellite into space. The Russian military reports successes in the Donbass – and wants to concentrate more on its nuclear forces in the future. Ukraine’s justice minister has reported 40,000 war crimes cases since the start of the war. News about the course of the war in Ukraine in the ticker.
9:05 p.m .: In the Czech Republic, parliament has cleared the way for the training of up to 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers. After the House of Representatives, the upper house of the NATO member state, the Senate, also gave its approval on Thursday. Five courses for up to 800 Ukrainian soldiers are to be offered next year. The training is to take place at the Libava military training area north-east of Olomouc (Olmütz).
The basis is an intergovernmental agreement between the Czech Republic and Ukraine. In Prague, it is hoped that the courses will be integrated into the EU’s new training program in the long term. Ukraine has been fighting a war against Russia for more than nine months.
6:15 p.m .: More than nine months after the war began, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged a total of 100 more prisoners. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow reported on Thursday that 50 Russian soldiers are now to be flown to the Russian capital for medical treatment. The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, also confirmed the exchange. “We freed 50 defenders of Ukraine,” he wrote in the Telegram news service.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Despite ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, both sides have exchanged dozens of prisoners, especially in the past few weeks.
7:30 a.m.: Russia has sent a military satellite into space. The satellite at the top of a Soyuz rocket took off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the far north of Russia on Thursday night (local time), as reported by the Tass state agency. “Cosmic devices” are on board in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense, it said.
Plesetsk is almost 800 kilometers north of Moscow. Due to its geographical location, satellites reach polar orbits from Plesetsk.
Thursday, December 1, 2022, 6:51 a.m .: According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, 40,000 cases of war crimes have now been registered. The aim is to specifically pursue two crimes: “aggression contrary to international law and genocide,” said the country’s Minister of Justice, Denys Maljuska, in an interview with “Welt” (Thursday). “Attacking another country is a criminal offense if it is unprovoked and the country attacked is shown to be resisting. We are collecting evidence for this,” Maljuska explained.
However, it would be “too complicated and lengthy to establish a connection between the individual soldier who committed these crimes and his commanders who are actually responsible”. Therefore, the investigations did not focus on each individual case, the minister said. The Ukrainian authorities took care of the on-site preservation of evidence, the International Criminal Court is investigating “persons to whom we have no access”.
This strategy aims to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin can be tried in a special tribunal. “Anything else would take too long,” Maljuska explained. And: “If the crimes he commissioned remain unpunished, they will find imitators among other dictators.”
4:56 p.m .: According to Moscow, Russian troops pushed back the Ukrainian defenders in two places during the heavy fighting in Donbass in eastern Ukraine. On the one hand, the village of Andriyivka, about nine kilometers south of the city of Bakhmut, was captured, the Russian Defense Ministry announced in Moscow on Wednesday. On the other hand, there is progress in the city of Donetsk.
Russian forces have been trying for months to capture Bakhmut, which blocks the way to the major cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Separatist units of the Republic of Donetsk, the Wagner mercenary force and regular Russian troops are deployed there. Meanwhile, Russian military bloggers reported that Andriyivka was still under Ukrainian barrage.
The Russian military also reported a successful attack on Vodyane near Donetsk. This is one of the frontline villages controlled by the Ukrainian army between the cities of Avdiivka and Donetsk. There have been battles in this area since 2014, and the positions are accordingly well developed.
2.30 p.m .: In the coming year, Russia wants to concentrate on its nuclear forces and the infrastructure required for them. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said so on television. Accordingly, work should be done to improve the combat capability of the missile units. Facilities are being built to accommodate new missile systems. With nearly 6,000 warheads, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Wednesday, November 30, 9:13 a.m .: According to its own statements, the Ukrainian army has fended off the advance of Russian troops in six locations in eastern Donbass. This was announced by the General Staff in Kyiv on Wednesday morning. All sections of the front in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions were under fire from Russian artillery, it said. However, the military information could not be independently verified. Heavy fighting has been reported from the Donbass for a long time, although the course of the front has hardly changed in recent weeks.
According to the civil Ukrainian administration, 30 Russian artillery shells were fired on Wednesday night at the city of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Nikopol is located in southern Ukraine on the Dnipro River, which forms the front line there.
10:01 p.m .: According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russia fired on numerous objects of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine on Tuesday. According to a statement from the military leadership in Kyiv, a total of 26 airstrikes and one rocket attack were registered.
“And there is still a risk that the enemy will launch missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities deep in the rear.” available”.
12.35 p.m .: There is said to be an air alert throughout Ukraine – except for the Russian-occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian authorities have previously warned of a new wave of attacks by Russian units. As the American Institute for War Studies (ISW) writes, the Russians are apparently already planning the next wave of missile attacks.
Ukraine on Monday confirmed the commissioning of a Russian missile carrier in the Black Sea. As the ISW reports, citing Russian military bloggers, the Russian sea formations would indicate a renewed series of missile attacks.
Tuesday, November 29, 2022, 7:53 a.m .: According to the authorities, the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was hit by four Russian rockets on Tuesday night. The production facilities of a “private company” were badly damaged, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Renichenko, said on Telegram. He did not provide any further information about the company. A fire broke out, but was extinguished. No one was killed or injured, Resnichenko wrote. The city of Nikopol on the Dnipro River, further south, was also shelled.
7:47 p.m .: Heavy fighting in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine continues even in the cold, sleet and rain. The Ukrainian armed forces fended off dozens of attack attempts by Russian soldiers every day, Serhiy Cherevatyy, spokesman for the Ukrainian army’s eastern group, said on Monday. The areas around Bakhmut and Avdiivka were at the center of the heaviest fighting. In addition to barrel artillery, the Russian armed forces also used rocket launchers, mortars and tanks, with the support of their combat aircraft.
On average, the Russian army conducts around 200 artillery strikes there every day. “But despite these efforts, the enemy has not been able to break through our defenses for months,” said Cherevaty.
3:27 p.m .: Five days after massive Russian rocket attacks, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is still struggling with unannounced emergency power supply shutdowns. 55 percent of households are affected, said the military administration of the three million city on Monday via Telegram. The emergency shutdowns should not last longer than five hours. The local supplier had previously announced that each customer would be able to have at least four hours of electricity per day. Repairs to the damage are ongoing.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the power supply problems would continue until spring. In Kyiv, since the start of massive Russian rocket attacks on the energy infrastructure in mid-October, electricity in many parts of the city has only been available by the hour.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
