It was a rough night in Ukrainian airspace. This Saturday, November 11, Ukraine declared having shot down approximately two thirds of a wave of 31 combat drones launched during the night. “Nineteen Shahed-136/131 attack drones were destroyed,” the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that Russia also used several missiles. Military officials clarified that “the Russian occupiers sent most of the attack drones towards the frontline areas.”
Two explosions heard in central kyiv
In parallel with this massive air attack in eastern Ukraine, two strong explosions were heard this Saturday morning in the center of kyiv, regularly targeted by Russian missiles. Shortly after, air warning sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital, AFP noted. “According to preliminary information, air defense worked against ballistic weapons,” city mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. “No casualties have been reported so far,” he added later. The councilor however clarified that “the alert continues, stay in the shelters”.
Russians persist in trying to surround Avdiivka
The Russian army, which has been attacking Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine for a month, is still trying to surround it and seize a strategic factory, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army announced on Friday. , Oleksandre Chtoupoun. “Not only are they fighting for the factory, they are not giving up on surrounding Avdiivka,” the official told Ukrainian television. “The coking plant is important for” Russian soldiers, he added, specifying that it remained under Ukrainian control for the time being.
This spokesperson also clarified that the attacks continue to affect the local population. “Two civilians, a man and a woman, died yesterday evening due to a strike on a residential building,” he said. Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday they expected a third Russian assault on Avdiivka since October 10.
Russian-Ukrainian agreement for the repatriation of an orphan
Kiev and Moscow announced on Friday an agreement for the repatriation of a 17-year-old Ukrainian orphan, transferred to Russia from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after its occupation by the Russian army, following a bloody siege.
This announcement comes following the appeal for help that this teenager addressed to President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a short video published by his Ukrainian lawyer on social networks. In March, he tried to flee Russia to return to Ukraine before being arrested by Russian law enforcement near the Belarusian border. “Bogdan Yermokhine will soon be in Ukraine,” the Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, Dmytro Loubinets, announced on Telegram on Friday, reporting an “agreement” on his repatriation.
Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said on Telegram that the two countries had agreed that the young man would be reunited with his cousin, his legal guardian in Ukraine, “in a third country” on the day of her 18th birthday on November 19. She is accused, alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, of war crimes for the “illegal deportation” of thousands of Ukrainian children by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Accusations rejected by Moscow.
Moscow confirms that its prisoners are serving their sentences at the front
Russian convicts recruited in Ukraine within the Russian army in exchange for a future amnesty “are expiating their crime with blood”, said Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, on Friday. He then responded to a question about Vladislav Kaniouss, a man sentenced to 17 years in prison for the sordid murder of his ex-partner, who, according to some Russian media, was released after fighting on the Ukrainian front. “Those convicted, including those for serious crimes, atone for their crime with blood on the battlefield,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
A strategy criticized by NGOs but which the Kremlin has accepted since its implementation last year, alongside the mobilization of several hundred thousand reservists, civilians therefore, in the fall of 2022.
Russian inflation continues to accelerate in October
If President Vladimir Putin repeats that Russia has stood up to international sanctions, the conflict in Ukraine has weighed heavily on Russian finances and the economy since the end of February 2022.
According to figures released Friday by the national statistics agency Rosstat, inflation continued to accelerate in October in Russia, with prices rising 6.7% year-on-year. An average increase in consumer prices which had already reached 6% in September. The upward trend observed since the spring continues, increasingly eating away at the purchasing power of Russians.