Ukraine-Russia war: Germany to supply Ukraine with 20,000 more shells in £1.1bn aid package

That’s it for our live coverage of the war in Ukraine today. Thank you all for reading and commenting, please check back with us again tomorrow.

• German defence minister Boris Pistorius and European Council president Charles Michel made surprise visits to Kyiv
• The US sanctioned Russian officers for Bucha and Andriivka war crimes
• Ukraine has expanded its control of the Dnipro river’s left bank, the ISW said
• The MoD said Russia is stockpiling cruise missiles for a winter bombardment of Ukrainian infrastructure
• US will send more Himars to Ukraine as part of a new $100m aid package
• Germany announced a new $1.4billion aid package for Ukraine
• Ukraine’s defence minister denied a decision has been made to sack two more generals
• Ukrainian soldiers said they feared losing a “war of exhaustion” to Russia because of stretched frontline manpower 

Ukrainian soldiers fear they will lose a “war of exhaustion” with Russia as their frontline units deplete in strength.

Units fighting at the front are between 20 and 40 per cent below strength and “those remaining are tired,” retired Ukrainian lieutenant general Ihor Romanenko told the Wall Street Journal.

“We don’t have a chance playing war of exhaustion with Russia,” said Private Bohdan Lysenko of the 47th Brigade, whose unit is defending Avdiivka with just 20 men, down from a peak in the summer of 120.

“They’re not stupid. It’s a strategy… We don’t have enough ammunition, but they [the Russians] have enough people,” added Corporal Mykhailo Kotsyurba, who is in the same company as Pvt Lysenko.

Britain and the US both estimate that Russia has lost more than 300,000 killed and wounded soldiers during the war so far.

“They treat us as waste material,” said Andrei Bednyaev, a Russian infantryman being held captive by the Ukrainians.

The frontline has become increasingly stationary in recent months amid growing fears that the West cannot provide enough funding and arms for Ukraine to break through.

Ukraine’s defence minister has insisted a rumoured decision to sack two more generals has “not yet been made”.

“I must say that the decision has not yet been made, but we are doing everything possible to improve efficiency,” Rustem Umerov told reporters.

Media reports emerged last week that Ukraine would sack Lt Gen Serhii Naiev, who is joint forces commander, Maj Gen Tetiana Ostashchenko, commander of the medical forces, and Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who leads the southern Tavria command.

The reports were denied but Maj Gen Ostashchenko was then sacked on Sunday night, sparking speculation that Lt Gen Naiev and Brig Gen Tarnavskyi would follow.

Charles Michel, one of the EU’s most a senior officials, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday at a time when the Ukrainians are looking for Europe for support more than ever before, reports Joe Barnes, our Brussels Correspondent.

Funding from the United States is starting to dwindle and the route into Nato is closed as long as fighting continues.

This leaves Ukraine with limited avenues to find large international organisations willing to support it with new funds and not just rhetoric. The EU is seen as perhaps the last viable option on the table.

And with war waging between Israel and Hamas, Washington has increasingly pressured Brussels to take up the mantle of supporting Ukraine. 

The pledges made by European governments – including by Germany, which has announced a doubling of military support – are starting to reflect this shift. 

Mr Michel, the European Council’s president, will play a key role in this assistance when he chairs talks in December over whether Ukraine can start accession negotiations with the EU and receive a €20billion military aid package. 

Neither of those are certainties. 

“When I say this will be a difficult European summit, this is a fact”, Mr Michel said. “I will spare no effort to have a positive decision in December, but can’t predict what happens – not everything is black and white.”

Germany has announced a new $1.4billion (£1.1billion) aid package for Ukraine.

Defence minister Boris Pistorius is visiting Kyiv today and said the deal will include four new IRIS-T air-to-air missile units.

“I am sure this will help you in your fight against the Russian aggression,” he said. “This underlines that we stand with Ukraine sustainably and reliably.”

The deal also includes anti-tank mines and an additional 20,000 artillery shells.

Germany is the second-largest donor of military aid to Ukraine, behind the United States.

A Ukrainian MP who sits on an anti-corruption committee in parliament has been accused of offering a $50,000 (£40,000) cryptocurrency bribe to a state official, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has said.

NABU did not name the MP and it is not clear whether he has been arrested or charged.

He is said to have made the offer to the head of the State Agency for Reconstruction and Infrastructure Development, who informed anti-graft investigators.

The agency said it had “zero tolerance for corruption”.

The MP is reported to have wanted assistance in obtaining state funds for infrastructure repairs in exchange for the bribe.

Ukraine’s secret service has detained a priest for including pro-Russian propaganda in his sermons and criticising the Ukrainian army.

The clergyman, in the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is also said to have praised Russian-backed warlords in Donetsk on his Telegram channel.

The priest served in the western city of Vinnytsia but was in hiding when he was detained, the SBU said.

Ukraine has two main Orthodox churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (Kyiv Patriarchate).

It has accused the former of aligning with Russia during the war, which the church denies.

The US is sending more Himars rockets to Ukraine as part of a new $100million (£80million) aid package, defence secretary Lloyd Austin announced on a surprise visit to Kyiv.

It will also send Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin anti-tank rockets and more than three million rounds of small arms ammunition.

The deal was agreed as Mr Austin visited Kyiv to “reaffirm the United States’ steadfast support for Ukraine”.

There has been months of increasing political division over support for Ukraine in the US, where Congress has refused to vote through an additional $60billion (£48.8billion) in funding requested by President Joe Biden.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier this month that Washington’s ability to support Kyiv is getting “harder and harder” with “each week that passes”.

Russia and India are holding joint naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal, Moscow’s defence ministry has said.

“The purpose of the exercise is to comprehensively develop and strengthen naval co-operation between Russia and India,” it said.

The exercises will last until Wednesday and involve ships from Russia’s Pacific fleet.

Russia is trying to boost its presence in the region and last week held drills with Myanmar.

India has not sanctioned Russia over the war in Ukraine and the US has previously voiced concerns about the possibility of joint naval drills.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine’s once “romantic dream” of joining the European Union is now a “reality”.

“Therefore, our candidate status and further accession negotiations should certainly result in Ukraine’s full membership in the EU,” he said in a video address to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the Maidan protests.

“And we are doing all this despite the war, when our people are defending themselves and Europe right now.”

The Kremlin has condemned the 2014 Maidan revolution as a “foreign coup” as Ukraine celebrates the 10th anniversary of the start of pro-European Union protests.

“The fact that it was sponsored from abroad has been acknowledged, directly and indirectly, by representatives of foreign countries,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“That is no secret to anyone.”

European Council president Charles Michel and Moldovan president Maia Sandu have both arrived in Kyiv this morning to discuss Ukraine and Moldova’s accession to the European Union.

Ms Sandu said: “On our agenda: discussing next steps in EU accession of Moldova and Ukraine, enhancing regional security, and EU’s continued support of reforms and development in our countries.”

“Good to be back in Kyiv – among friends,” added Mr Michel on X, formerly Twitter.

Russia cannot co-exist with Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine, a diplomat has said.

“The current regime is absolutely toxic, we do not see any options for co-existence with it at the moment,” Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s ambassador-at-large, told reporters in Moscow.

He accused Ukraine of war crimes against civilians and said the West would eventually lose interest in the war.

“We can resist Nato just as much as we need to fulfill the tasks that the president has formulated,” he added.

Russia has not used its “premier” cruise missiles for two months as it builds a stockpile for a winter bombardment of Ukrainian infrastructure, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

“Russia is highly likely to use these missiles if it repeats last year’s effort to destroy Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure,” it said in its latest defence intelligence update.

The MoD added that Russia has been instead using Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones to “degrade Ukraine’s air defences” before “any concerted winter campaign of strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure”.

Russia may seek compensation for the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines but will first wait for an investigation to conclude.

The pipelines under the Baltic Sea were damaged in explosions in September 2022 but no culprit has been identified yet.

“The probe is not over yet, we are waiting for its results to be presented to the (United Nations) Security Council, then we will decide what to do,” Dmitry Birichevsky, a foreign ministry official, replied to a question on compensation asked by the Russian state news agency RIA.

Sweden, Denmark and Germany are leading the investigation. Russia has blamed the US, Britain and Ukraine, which the three countries have denied.

Russian soldiers have fought off attempts by Ukraine to establish new footholds on the left bank of the Dnipro, its defence ministry has claimed.

Contradicting open source analysis and Russian bloggers, the ministry said marines, aviation and artillery were “stopping all attempts by the armed forces of Ukraine to carry out amphibious landings on the Dnipro islands and the left bank of the Dnipro river.”

It added that Ukrainian forces were suffering heavy casualties and losing equipment in these attempts.

The defence ministry also published a video which it said showed marines defeating Ukrainian soldiers. Soldiers can be seen firing a variety of weapons in the footage but the outcome of the fighting shown is not clear.

Russian strikes have killed two civilians and injured six in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.

A hospital and a coal mine in Selydove, a town in Donetsk, were struck by missiles, injuring eight, killing two and temporarily trapping 39 miners underground.

Another Ukrainian was killed by shelling in Kharkiv, its governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed the 2014 Maidan protestors as Ukraine’s “first counter-offensive” on the 10th anniversary of the pro-European Union protests.

“10 years ago, we began a new chapter in our struggle,” he said.

“10 years ago, Ukrainians launched their first counteroffensive. Against lawlessness and an attempt to rob us of our European future. Against unfreedom.

”Year after year, step by step, we make every effort to ensure that, among the other stars on the EU flag, which represents the unity of European nations, our star shines as well. The Ukrainian star.”

Ukraine has expanded its control of the Dnipro river’s left bank, the Institute for the Study of War think tank has said.

It cited reports by Russian bloggers that Ukrainian soldiers have advanced to the west of Krynky, where fighting continues.

Commandos first crossed the river in October and Ukraine has since consolidated its bridgehead, pushing Russian forces back by as many as five miles.

Securing the strategic advance would raise the prospect of further southward advances towards Crimea.

Russia is using migrants to destabilise Nato on Finland’s border, the Institute for the Study of War think tank has said.

Finland has closed four border crossings with Russia and has is considering shutting the remaining four after an influx of African and Middle Eastern migrants it says is being directed by Moscow.

The ISW said Russia is doing so as part of a “hybrid warfare tactic” and is likely planning to portray Finland’s response to the migrant crisis as Nato aggression.

“ISW has also consistently assessed that one of Putin’s goals in launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was to break up Nato – a goal he continues to pursue,” it said.

The think tank added that it was similar to the migrant crisis which Russia and Belarus created on Poland’s border in 2021 by funneling migrants towards it. 

The US has sanctioned two Russian officers who killed civilians in Bucha and Andriivka at the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, who is known as the butcher of Bucha, was the commanding officer of a Russian brigade that occupied Andriivka and Bucha, north of Kyiv, in early 2022.

He killed, beat, dismembered, burned and conducted mock executions of civilians in Bucha, the US state department said. He was awarded Russia’s highest honour by Vladimir Putin in July 2022.

Corporal Daniil Frolkin, a member of Col Omurbekov’s brigade, confessed to journalists in August 2022 that he killed a civilian in Andriivka in March 2022. He was given a suspended five-and-a-half year sentence by a Russian military court for spreading “false information” about the army in March this year.

Russian forces killed hundreds of civilians in Bucha and Andriivka.

The American sanctions bar Col Omurbekov, Cpl Frolkin and their immediate families from entering the country.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius has made a surprise visit to Kyiv.

He visited a memorial to the 2014 Euromaidan revolution on the 10th anniversary of the day it started, laying flowers in commemoration of those who died.

“I am here again, firstly to pledge further support, but also to express our solidarity and deep bond and also our admiration for the courageous, brave and costly fight that is being waged here,” he said.

Mr Pistorius is set to meet Volodomyr Zelensky and defence minister Rustem Umerov.

Germany is the world’s second-largest provider of military aid to Ukraine after the US.