Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kiev recovers defective artillery shell, UK denies spying allegations against British diplomats

Locals in Kiev were going about their daily lives shortly after Russia launched 188 drones in night air raids over most of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Air Force announced that this was a record number of drones deployed in a single attack. The Air Force said many of the drones were intercepted, but critical infrastructure such as apartment complexes and the country’s power grid were damaged.

No casualties were immediately reported in the 17 targeted areas.

Three people were injured in a Russian drone attack on Kiev, two of whom were hospitalized, authorities in the Ukrainian capital announced today.

Debris falling from the destroyed drone damaged non-residential buildings in Kiev’s Dniprovsky district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Kyiv military administrator Serhiy Popko said air defense forces were operating in the city after midnight.

The scale of the attack was not immediately clear. The airstrikes came after Russia launched a record number of drones targeting Ukraine yesterday, knocking out power in large parts of western Ternopil and damaging residential buildings in the Kiev region.

Officials said Ukraine was withdrawing defective 120mm mortar shells from its front lines after receiving multiple reports of them failing to explode.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense announced that the supply of defective shells was being investigated by an interministerial committee and that approximately 100,000 Ukrainian-made 120mm rounds would need to be withdrawn from the battlefield.

Several complaints and videos shared on social media showed mortar shells not exploding or hitting their targets. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense confirmed the bulk withdrawal of ammunition and announced that it will provide imported shells to the Ukrainian military in the future.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian soldiers said the bullets did not explode, remained lodged in their launchers, or missed their targets.

In a statement released yesterday, the FSB said: “During a counterintelligence operation, the Russian Federal Security Service discovered the presence of a hidden and undeclared British intelligence service in the embassy in Moscow.

The new ballistic missile that Russia launched into the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week had multiple warheads but no explosives, two Ukrainian government officials said. The highly lethal missile caused little damage when it landed on a target in eastern Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin said the Oleshnik medium-range ballistic missile attack was successfully tested and reached its target, a missile and defense company in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Their comments appear to confirm the Kremlin’s own account that the weapon was used last Thursday as a warning to the West after the United States and Britain authorized Ukraine to fire missiles at Russia. is.

Two sources provided further details about the new weapon as Western experts seek to learn more about what U.S. officials say is an experimental intermediate-range missile.

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles are typically intended for use in long-range nuclear strikes against targets thousands of kilometers away. One of the officials said the missile was equipped with a dummy warhead and said the damage was “fairly small.”

A second source said: “In this case, there was no explosive (in the missile)… There was no explosion of the kind that we were expecting. There was something, but it wasn’t that big. did.”

Russian forces are advancing into Ukraine at the fastest pace since the beginning of the invasion in 2022, capturing an area half the size of London in the past month, analysts and war bloggers say.

After taking control of all of Ukraine in early 2022, Russian forces have been pushed back to the east and south. The 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front had been largely stationary for two years until the latest small advance began in July.

“Russia has set a new weekly and monthly record for the area of ​​occupied territory of Ukraine,” Russian independent news organization Agent Stovo said in a report.

Russian forces announced last week that they had captured about 235 square kilometers (91 square miles) in Ukraine, a weekly record for 2024.

It added that Russian forces had captured 600 square kilometers (232 square miles) in November, citing data from the deep state, which studies combat footage and provides forward maps.

Russian and some Western officials say the war is entering its most dangerous stage, with Russia using North Korean troops in Ukraine and Kiev currently fighting a counterattack into Russia. It is reported that they are using missiles supplied by the West.

Like North Korea, the Russian government neither admits nor denies having troops there, but it used hypersonic intermediate-range missiles in Ukraine last week, and Ukraine yesterday announced Russia’s largest-ever unmanned attack on its territory. Reported a plane attack.

The momentum of the advance is in the Donetsk region, with Russian troops advancing towards the towns of Pokrovsk and Krahov. Russian analysts say Russia is increasingly encircling the territory and then attacking Ukrainian forces with artillery and glide bombs.

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Sergei Naryshkin said yesterday that Russia has complete strategic control on the battlefield.

Neither side has released exact figures on their losses, but Western intelligence estimates casualties number in the hundreds of thousands, and large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine have been turned into wasteland.

According to media reports, a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is visiting South Korea to seek weapons for use in the war against Russia.

The Dong-A Ilbo reported today, without citing sources, that the delegation met with South Korean National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik and exchanged views on the Ukraine conflict.

Speaking in an interview with South Korean broadcaster KBS in October, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kiev would send a detailed request to Seoul for weapons support, including artillery and air defense systems.

The South China Morning Post also reported this week, citing sources, that a Ukrainian delegation is scheduled to visit South Korea to request arms aid.

According to reports, the group plans to meet with South Korean participants as early as today.

Asked earlier this month whether South Korea would send arms to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s support for Russia, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol said that all possible scenarios were being considered and that South Korea would send weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s support for Russia. He said he would closely monitor the level of military participation. And what North Korea received from Moscow in return.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Shahed drones that Russia launched into his country on Monday night each contained 85 foreign-made parts, and that the Russian government obtained them by circumventing international sanctions. he pointed out.

“For sanctions to work and for Russia to stop this war, more joint efforts are needed,” he said on the messaging app Telegram.

Russia’s Shahid drones spread across Ukraine late Monday, keeping the Kyiv region under nighttime air raid warning for more than seven hours.

Military analysts say Russia is trying to destabilize civilians and weaken their will to resist the war.