Key events
The Kremlin has confirmed talks between US and Russian officials took place in Ankara today, Russian state-owned news agency Tass has reported, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Here are some more images from the newly liberated city of Kherson that have been sent to us over the newswires.
Zambia has asked Russia to explain how one of its citizens who had been serving a prison sentence in Moscow ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine where he was killed, Zambia’s foreign affairs minister said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Stanley Kakubo said in a statement that Russia had notified Zambia about the death in September of the 23-year-old, but did not provide details.
The Zambian student was serving a jail sentence at a medium security prison on the outskirts of Moscow after being convicted of contravening Russian law, Kakubo said, without specifying the offence that occurred in April 2020.
“The Zambian government has requested the Russian authorities to urgently provide information on the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen, serving a prison sentence in Moscow, could have been recruited to fight in Ukraine,” Kakubo said.
It was not clear how the prisoner was recruited and by whom. Reuters could not independently verify the details surrounding his death. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Canada will provide Ukraine with a further $500m (£425m) in additional military assistance in addition to sanctions on nearly two dozen more Russians, prime minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on Monday as the G20 summit began.
Reuters reports the funding is additional to the $3.4bn Canada has given to Kyiv so far for its defence against Russia’s invasion and will help fund military, surveillance and communications equipment, fuel and medical supplies, the statement said.
Monday’s sanctions target 23 Russian individuals “involved in gross and systematic human rights violations against Russian opposition leaders”, including police officers, prosecutors, judges and prison officials, Trudeau’s office said.
Chris Buckley at the New York Times is reporting that China’s readout of the meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping differs slightly for the US account. Buckley writes:
Unlike the White House’s account, the Chinese account did not mention Xi and Biden agreeing on opposing Russia’s threat of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.
According to the Chinese account, Xi said that “China is highly concerned with the current situation in Ukraine”. Xi also said that “a complicated issue does not have a simple solution,” and that “confrontation between major powers must be avoided.”
In remarks to the media after his meeting earlier with China’s president, Xi Jinping, the US president, Joe Biden, has said that Kherson is a significant victory for Ukraine. Biden said it is hard to tell at this point what the victory will mean, but that the US will continue to support Ukraine. Reuters reports he said he is confident that Russia will not occupy Ukraine as they intended.
The White House has confirmed that the CIA director, William J Burns, is in Ankara in Turkey to speak with his Russian counterpart. Reuters reports that a White House official said Ukraine was briefed in advance about the visit, and that Burns was not conducting any kind of negotiations.
A national security council spokesperson told CNN:
We have been very open about the fact that we have channels to communicate with Russia on managing risk, especially nuclear risk and risks to strategic stability. As part of this effort, Bill Burns is in Ankara today to meet with his Russian intelligence counterpart.
He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine. He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability. He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained US citizens.
Biden and Xi ‘condemn Russian threats of nuclear weapons use in Ukraine’
US president Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war “should never be fought” in a long-awaited meeting in Bali earlier today, the White House said.
The pair shook hands in front of the US and Chinese flags ahead of the three-hour meeting on the resort island and “spoke candidly” about a range of issues, including key regional and global challenges, the White House said in a statement. It said:
President Biden raised Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and Russia’s irresponsible threats of nuclear use. President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
The two leaders held their first face-to-face talks since Biden took office on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
The US and China shared the responsibility to show the world that they can “manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming conflict”, Biden said.
Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak, who is in Bali for the G20 summit, said he would use the opportunity to “unequivocally condemn” Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He told broadcasters:
I’m going to use this opportunity to unequivocally condemn Russia’s hostile and illegal war in Ukraine. And I know that other allies will as well because it’s right that we highlight what is going on and hold Russia to account for that and I won’t shy away from doing that you accept.
Sunak appeared to acknowledge that the G20 was divided on the issue of explicitly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine:
The G20 is a very different forum to the G7 for example. The G7 is a group of like-minded liberal democracies with similar values. The G20, we have to acknowledge, is a different grouping. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be engaged in it.
We should make our voices heard and constructively work with people where we can to make a difference for people at home as well. And you saw that recently, when it came to migration, the ability to talk to other countries can have benefits for people at home and that’s what I’m here to deliver.
A pro-Russian tank gunner who was accused of firing into residential buildings in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason, according to Ukraine’s state security service (SBU).
The pro-Russian militant, nicknamed “Phil”, had fired “at least 20 shots at residential high-rise buildings in Mariupol”, the SBU said in a statement.
The statement said:
The Security Service of Ukraine collected indisputable evidence of crimes committed by the militant of the ‘DPR’ [Donetsk People’s Republic] terrorist organisation nicknamed ‘Phil’. The evidence allowed the court to imprison him for 12 years.
The man was captured by Ukrainian forces near the eastern village of Rivnopil in April after his tank came under attack.
He was found guilty of high treason and the “creation of unauthorised armed groups or participation in its activities”, the SBU said.
‘We are moving forward’, says Zelenskiy as he visits newly liberated Kherson
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spent 30 minutes on Monday morning visiting Kherson, days after Russian troops withdrew.
Addressing Ukrainian soldiers in front of the administration building in the main square, Zelenskiy said:
We are moving forward. We are ready for peace, peace for all our country.
The president sang the Ukrainian national anthem as the country’s blue and yellow flag was hoisted in the southern city.
Lorenzo Tondo
According to Russian media sources, the Ukrainian army has entered the city of Herois’ke, in the Kinburn Peninsula, following an amphibious operation, as heavy fighting continues across the region.
After Unconfirmed Reports yesterday that Ukrainian Forces had launched an Amphibious Operation on the Kinburn Peninsula, Russian Media Sources are now reporting that AFU Units have entered the City of Herois’ke as Heavy Fighting continues across the Peninsula. pic.twitter.com/8YSk7Dvmwm
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 13, 2022
On Sunday, there were “unconfirmed reports’’ that Ukrainian forces were about to launch a “small-scale amphibious operation” on the peninsula, in Biloberezhia Sviatoslava national park, which connects to Russian-occupied territory on the eastern side of the Dnipro River.
Ukrainian troops are likely to continue consolidating control of the western bank in the coming days.
A draft resolution by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, seen by Reuters, calls on Russia to cease all actions against Ukraine’s nuclear facilities including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The draft of what would be the third resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors reads:
(The board) calls upon the Russian Federation to abandon its baseless claims of ownership of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, to immediately withdraw its military and other personnel from the plant, and to cease all actions against, and at, the plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine.
The wording of the draft is similar to that of the two previous resolutions passed in March and September. Both resolutions were passed with large majorities, with only Russia and China opposing them.
Lorenzo Tondo
We have just arrived in a small, coastal village, named Kobleve, in the region of Mykolaiv, facing the vast Black Sea. Crimea is “only’” 140km away from here.
Just yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested that Crimea, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, is an active Ukrainian military target and that, after the liberation of Kherson, the Ukrainians could try to take it back.
“We will definitely reach our state border – all sections of the internationally recognised border of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
The beach and sea are infested with hundreds of mines placed by both sides in Russia’s war on Ukraine, posing a serious threat to people. The Ukrainian government has banned coastal bathing. Experts agree it will take years to de-mine the Black Sea.
Stoltenberg: Putin’s aim is to ‘leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter’
The Russian president Vladimir Putin’s aim is to “leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter”, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said.
Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson demonstrates the “incredible courage” of Ukraine’s armed forces, the military alliance chief said during a press conference with members of the Dutch government in The Hague.
It is up to Ukraine to decide what terms are acceptable for negotiations to bring an end to the war, he said, adding Nato’s role was to support Kyiv.
Stoltenberg said:
We should not make the mistake of underestimating Russia. The Russian armed forces retain significant capabilities, as well as a large number of troops and Russia has demonstrated the willingness to bear significant losses. They have also shown extreme brutality.
He added:
The coming months will be difficult. Putin’s aim is to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter. So we must stay the course.
Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, has shared a video showing the Ukrainian president singing the national anthem as the flag of Ukraine is raised over the city of Kherson.
Pjotr Sauer
Kirill Stremousov was in the mood for a chat.
A political marginal on the fringes of society just six months ago, he was clearly relishing the newfound attention he was receiving as the public face of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s Kherson region.
“I am on a constant high,” the Moscow-installed official told the Guardian in a phone interview in August.
We have won. I am living in a dream. Russia is in Kherson for ever.
That “for ever” ended abruptly on Wednesday, when Stremousov, 45, was killed in a car crash as he was speeding away from Kherson.
By that time, he was already fully aware that his dream of a Russian Kherson would soon be torn apart as Ukrainian troops were closing in to liberate the city.
On Friday evening, in remarkable scenes, crowds of jubilant residents greeted Ukraine’s armed forces as they reached the centre of Kherson.
Stremousov’s rise and fall is a story of how one man’s ruthless opportunism and ideological fantasies can play out in a war-torn country. It also serves to demonstrate how thuggish and unsavoury characters thrive in Russia today as the country’s leadership embraces anti-western hysteria.
On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. He said:
Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered.
After two nights of jubilation after the liberation of their city, on Sunday Kherson residents began to assess the extent of the damage wreaked by eight long months of Russian occupation, with many homes still without electricity and water.
