Ukraine Daily Summary - Wednesday, November 9

Pentagon confirms 2 NASAMS air defense systems delivery to Ukraine -- Fierce fighting continues in Donetsk Oblast -- US quietly asks some banks to keep working with Russia -- Ukraine's intelligence may have proof Iran supplied drones to Russia after Feb. 24 -- and more

Ukraine Daily

Wednesday, November 9

Russia’s war against Ukraine

KI-Inline_09-11-22

Ukrainian woman Liudmyla Trekushenko mourns on the graveside of her deceased husband, who was killed by a Russian strike on Izium, Kharkiv Oblast, on Sept. 19, 2022. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Pentagon confirms 2 NASAMS air defense systems delivery to Ukraine. Ukraine’s Armed Forces previously completed training in operating and maintaining these weapons held by the U.S. in Europe, according to U.S. Defense Department spokesman Patrick Ryder.

Zelensky: Fierce fighting continues in Donetsk Oblast. In his daily evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that while there is a lot less news from the front, “it does not mean less intense fighting.” “The situation is difficult on the entire front. In some areas, brutal positional battles continue, as before, and it is especially difficult in Donetsk Oblast,” Zelensky said. He said that Russian forces suffer heavy losses, but they still try to fulfill the order to reach the administrative border of Donetsk Oblast.

UK intelligence: Russia builds ‘dragon’s teeth’ anti-tank structures in occupied Mariupol. Russia has started constructing defensive pyramidal anti-tank structures known as dragon’s teeth around the occupied southern city of Mariupol, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry. Moscow “is making a significant effort to prepare defenses in depth behind their current front line” to try to forestall any rapid Ukrainian advances, the ministry wrote.

Governor: Russia strikes Kramatorsk, injures a child. Russian troops hit the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast on Nov. 8, wounding an eight-year-old boy and damaging a local school and residential buildings nearby, according to the oblast governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Macron: Ukraine-Russia negotiations should resume under Kyiv’s conditions. French President Emmanuel Macron said at the COP27 climate summit that it would be necessary to return to Russia-Ukraine negotiations “at some point,” adding that it should be done “under conditions and at a time chosen by Ukraine,” according to TFI INFO.

Bloomberg: US quietly asks some banks to keep working with Russia. The U.S. Treasury and the State Department have reportedly asked major American banks, including JPMorgan and Citigroup, not to refuse to cooperate with “certain strategic Russian companies” to minimize the adverse effects of sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 7.

PM Shmyhal: Ukraine has enough resources to get through the heating season. As of Nov. 8, there are about 14.6 billion cubic meters of gas in Ukraine’s storage facilities, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Sky News: Russia sent to Iran 140 million euros, Western weapons seized in Ukraine in exchange for kamikaze drones. A Russian military aircraft covertly delivered 140 million euros in cash and three models of captured U.K. and U.S. weapons to an airport in Tehran on Aug. 20, Sky News reported, citing an unnamed source from security services. In return, Iran provided Russia with over 160 drones, including 100 Shahed-136 ones, according to the source.

Ukraine’s intelligence may have proof Iran supplied drones to Russia after Feb. 24. Representatives of the Ukrainian intelligence found information that might indicate Iran supplied Russia with kamikaze drones after Feb. 24. “(Some parts for the) Mohajer-6 drone were manufactured only in February 2022. Only manufactured. And it took some time to deliver (drones) to Russia,” an unnamed representative of the Defense Ministry’s Directorate for Intelligence told Suspilne.

ISW: Iran aims to show deepening cooperation with Russia. The Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment that Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev arrived in Iran on Nov. 8, likely to talk about the supply of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia. The ISW suggests that the public announcement of Patrushev’s arrival aims to draw the attention of an international audience to the deepening partnership between Moscow and Tehran and “to implicitly highlight that a high-ranking Russian official turned to Iran for help in Ukraine.”

Read our exclusives here

Ukraine war latest: Zelensky to speak at G20 meeting as West encourages peace talks with Russia.

While Kyiv denied facing pressure from the West to resume negotiations with Moscow, there appears to be a shift in its “hard no” stance toward peace talks.

Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images

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Ex-Navy captain: Ukraine’s drone attack in Sevastopol ‘has no equivalent in the history of naval warcraft.’

The low cost of the drones has led to the attack on Sevastopol being described as a revolutionary moment in the development of modern naval warfare.

Photo: Benjamin Pittet/Twitter

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US Ambassador to UN: Russia will be held accountable for its war crimes.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told journalists that Russia would ultimately be held accountable for its war crimes during her visit to Kyiv on Nov. 8.

Photo: President’s Office

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The human cost of Russia’s war

Ombudsman: Russia’s war has killed nearly 8,000 civilians in Ukraine, including 430 children. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 7,938 civilians, including 430 children, have been killed, and 10,897 have been injured, according to Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights.

Prosecutors find 3 bodies of killed civilians in the liberated area of Kherson Oblast. Two of them were killed by Russian shelling, and the third victim had traces of violent death, according to prosecutors.

International response

US to provide additional $25 million in winter assistance for Ukraine. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Nov. 8 that the fund is intended to help Ukrainians survive the harsh winter. “With these new funds, the United States will expand upon its existing winterization planning and response efforts, scaling up assistance to nearly 75,000 of the most affected households, primarily in eastern Ukraine where Putin’s unprovoked invasion has decimated infrastructure and essential services,” the statement read.

Bloomberg: Russia, US to discuss renewal of nuclear arms control talks. Russia and the U.S. are preparing to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the resumption of inspections of nuclear weapons facilities under the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (New START), Bloomberg reported, citing the U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Germany to provide 7.6 million euros to help find missing Ukrainians. Germany will provide 7.6 million euros for the International Commission on Missing Persons to help find Ukrainians who went missing after Feb. 24 due to Russia’s war. The German Embassy in Ukraine said on Nov. 8 that it would also help train Ukrainian forensic experts and investigators.

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