2023-11-19 17:12:53
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⇒ Moscow and kyiv targeted by drone attacks during the night
⇒ The Ukrainian army says it has pushed the Russians back “3 to 8 km” deep near the Dnieper
⇒ For Joe Biden, supporting Ukraine allows the United States to avoid going to war
Putin will participate in the virtual G20 summit this Wednesday
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who skipped the meeting of G20 leaders last September in India, will participate by videoconference in the virtual summit of the Group of Twenty scheduled for Wednesday, Russian state television announced this Sunday. However, the channel did not specify in what format the Russian leader would take part.
In September, for the second year in a row, Vladimir Putin did not respond favorably to the invitation to physically represent Russia at the G20 summit, while the leader was ostracized from the international scene for the assault on his army in Ukraine in February 2022.
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Targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of war crimes for the deportation of Ukrainian children – which Moscow denies – the Russian head of state also left his Minister of Foreign Affairs , Sergei Lavrov, represented him at the Brics summit in South Africa last August. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, and even more so since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin very rarely travels abroad, as in China in October, where he spoke with Xi Jinping, his ally for counter what they present together as American hegemony.
Moscow and kyiv targeted by drone attacks overnight
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Kiev and Moscow were targeted overnight from Saturday to Sunday by enemy drone attacks, which were largely intercepted by anti-aircraft defenses and did not cause any casualties, according to the authorities. “An attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using a drone against installations on the territory of the Russian Federation has been foiled,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow were particularly frequent in the spring, ahead of and at the start of kyiv’s counter-offensive that began in June, but have become rarer in recent weeks.
Ukraine claims significant advance near the Dnieper
READ ALSO >> War in Ukraine: can kyiv’s forces defeat the Russians on the Dnieper?
The Ukrainian army said this Sunday, November 19, that it had pushed back the Russians “from 3 to 8 km” deep on the left bank of the Dnieper occupied by the Moscow army, the first numerical estimate of the advance of Kiev’s troops in this area after months of disappointing counter-offensive. “Preliminary figures vary from 3 to 8 km, depending on the specifics, geography and topography of the left bank,” army spokesperson Natalia Goumeniouk told Ukrainian television. If this advance is confirmed, it would be the biggest push by the Ukrainian army against the Russians in several months.
Natalia Goumeniouk did not, however, indicate whether Ukrainian forces completely controlled this area of the Kherson region, in the south of the country, or whether the Russian army had withdrawn in the face of attacks by Kiev troops. “The enemy continues its artillery fire on the right bank,” she detailed, estimating the number of Russian soldiers present in this area at “several tens of thousands”. AFP was unable to confirm these claims.
For Joe Biden, supporting Ukraine allows the United States to avoid going to war
In the American newspaper Washington Post, the American president spoke in a column entitled “The United States will not back down from the challenge posed by Putin and Hamas”. The tenant of the White House maintains that “the world has today reached an inflection point”. The President of the United States does not hesitate to compare Vladimir Putin and Hamas: “Putin and Hamas are fighting [chacun] to wipe a democracy off the map. And Putin, like Hamas, hopes to destroy regional stability and profit from disorder.” He adds: “America cannot and will not allow this to happen. For our own national security interests, and for the good of the world.”
Russia: doctors ask Putin to release sick artist Skotchilenko from prison
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More than a hundred Russian doctors on Saturday asked President Vladimir Putin to “immediately” release from prison the artist Alexandra Skotchilenko, sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison and who suffers from health problems, according to her supporters. The artist was convicted by a court in Saint Petersburg, in north-west Russia, for replacing price tags in a supermarket in March 2022 with messages denouncing the assault in Ukraine. In a letter signed by 112 doctors and consulted by AFP, they say they denounce the “obvious injustice” of Alexandra Skotchilenko’s conviction. “The medical community is very concerned about the health of Sasha”, the Russian diminutive of Alexandra, they also write.
Russia lost 318,570 soldiers in Ukraine, Ukraine says
Russia has lost 318,570 troops in Ukraine since its large-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported in its morning update on November 19.
The Russian army does not relax its efforts around Avdiïvka
Russian forces are preparing the third wave of the Avdiivka offensive in Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces spokesman Oleksandr Shtoupun said on national television on November 18. Russian forces intensified their ground attacks on Avdiivka and surrounding settlements in early October, aiming to encircle the town.
The campaign has been supported by heavy bombings and airstrikes, which continue to cause civilian casualties. “We are waiting for a third wave of offensive, an attempt to encircle Adviivka,” Oleksandr Shtoupun said. Ukrainian forces are holding the defense lines in the Avdiiivka axis while carrying out an offensive in the direction of Melitopol, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the Tavria group, reported on November 18. The attacks on Avdiivka, the gateway to occupied Donetsk, cost Moscow dearly.
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