Ukraine war latest: Putin’s forces suffering mass casualties ‘well behind the front line’

The shelves at Moscow supermarkets are full of fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat. But many of the shoppers look at the selection with dismay as inflation makes their wallets feel empty.

Russia’s Central Bank has raised its key lending rate four times this year to try to get inflation under control and stabilize the ruble’s exchange rate as the economy weathers the effects of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions imposed as a consequence.

The last time it raised the rate – to 15 per cent, doubled that from the beginning of the year – the bank said it was concerned about prices that were increasing at an annualised pace of about 12 per cent. The bank now forecasts inflation for the full year, as well as next year, to be about 7.5 per cent.

Although that rate is high, it may be an understatement.

“If we talk in percentage terms, then, probably, (prices) increased by 25 per cent. This is meat, staple products — dairy produce, fruits, vegetables, sausages. My husband can’t live without sausage! Sometimes I’m just amazed at price spikes,” said Roxana Gheltkova, a shopper in a Moscow supermarket.

Ukrainian long-range precision strikes are inflicting mass casualties among Vladimir Putin’s forces gathering in large groups “well behind the frontline”, as lengthy deployments to the front leave commanders with “an acute dilemma” of whether to keep troops separate or arrange events to boost morale, the UK has claimed.

“Russian forces in Ukraine continue to suffer mass casualties from Ukrainian long-range precision strikes well behind the front line,” said Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

“On 10 November 2023, likely over 70 Russian troops were killed in a strike on a convoy of trucks 23km behind the front line in the village of Hladkivka, Kherson Oblast. Subsequently, on 19 November 2023, a strike on Russian troops attending an award ceremony or concert in Kumachove, 60km inside Russian-controlled territory, likely caused tens of casualties.

“Ukraine has also suffered similar incidents: a Russian ballistic missile killed 19 members of Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade at a medal ceremony on 3 November 2023.

“Deployed soldiers are typically well aware of the ranges of their adversary’s weapons systems. However, faced with the reality of very long combat deployments, commanders face an acute dilemma.

“They must balance the best practice of keeping the troops dispersed, and less vulnerable to strikes, and the day-to-day requirement to gather units together to conduct administration and to maintain morale.”

Vladimir Putin has reportedly pardoned two Russian men convicted of cannibalism after they deployed to the frontline in the war with Ukraine.

One of the men, Denis Gorin, was recruited into a private military company after signing a contract with the Russian ministry of defence but is known to have been convicted thrice for murdering at least four people between 2003 and 2022. He was also convicted of eating the remains of his victims along with his brother, reported Sibir Realii, a news outlet aligned with Radio Free Europe.

Another man, Nikolai Ogolobyak, was convicted of ritual murders, according to the Russian media reports.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2019 for murdering four teenagers and then consuming their remains. The 33-year-old man was reportedly pardoned this week by the Russian president for fighting in the invasion of Ukraine.

My colleague Arpan Rai has the full report here:

Estonia has accused Russia of weaponising immigration on Europe’s eastern borders amid a rise in the number of asylum seekers trying to enter its territory and Finland.

Speaking during a meeting in Stockholm of Nordic and Baltic defence ministers, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defence minister, claimed the hundreds of people who had arrived at the borders of the two countries in recent weeks were a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow.

Latvia’s defence minister, Andris Sprūds, went a step further, blaming the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who he described as the “puppet master”.

The Ukrainian embassy in Poland appealed to Warsaw to end a haulers’ blockade at the Polish-Ukrainian border after a second trucker died while waiting in the line, Ambassador Vasyl Zvarych said.

Polish protesters have been blocking the movement of cargo vehicles at several border crossings with Ukraine since early November in a protest against the EU’s liberalization of transport rules for Ukrainian trucks.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) plans to deploy 50 border guard officers and other staff, as well as equipment, to Finland amid a growing migrant crisis on the border with Russia, the agency announced on Nov. 23.

November saw an unusually high number of third-country asylum seekers coming to the Finnish border from Russia.

Helsinki accused Moscow of orchestrating the migrant influx as retribution for the country’s entry to NATO and moved to close all but one border crossing with its eastern neighbor.

Ukraine has introduced economic sanctions against more than 300 companies around the world, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.

A number of energy companies from across Russia have been targeted by five-year sanctions, while sanctions lasting 10 years were imposed on 87 individuals, among them Ukrainian citizens.

A separate decree imposed 10-year sanctions on Swiss, Cypriot, British, Uzbek, and Russian citizens, as well as companies based in Malta, China, Turkey, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has wished Americans a happy thanksgiving and said Ukraine was “grateful” for the country’s support.

“On behalf of all Ukrainians, Olena and I wish all Americans a happy Thanksgiving. We thank you, the people of America. We know how many of you sincerely sympathize with our struggle and wish Ukraine victory.

“We saw how many of you took to heart the illegal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine and felt that it was also an attack on your values.

“Thanks to American support and global leadership, millions of Ukrainian lives have been saved. Ukraine is grateful to you!

“And we have faith that the unity of the free world will always overcome any threats to freedom. Freedom must not, and will not, fall. We guarantee it together,” Zelensky said on X.

The UK has trained 30,000 Ukrainian recruits since June of last year, the UK ministry of defence said.

It has been aided by military personnel from “10 partner nations”, it added.

Those include Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Australia and New Zealand.

The wartime leader, speaking from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, said the volume of attempts had turned him almost numb to the danger. He compared the later attempts to catching the Covid-19 infection.

“The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid,” he said in a new interview. The first attempt carried panic, he added.

“First of all people don’t know what to do with it and it’s looking very scary,” he told The Sun. “And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you that one more group came to Ukraine to [attempt] this.”