Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has replaced the commander of Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Forces, which have played an important role in helping defend the country since Russia’s invasion. A presidential order published on Monday announced the appointment of Maj Gen Anatoliy Barhylevych as the new commander. A separate order announced the removal of Gen Ihor Tantsyura, who had been in the post since May 2022. No reason was given for the decisions. Barhylevych, 54, had since last year been serving as chief of staff of troops in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has been heavy.
Zelenskiy has appealed at the Nato parliamentary assembly for the international rule of law to unite and deal with terrorism, comparing the attack by what he called a “terrorist organisation” on Israel with the similar tactics used by Russia, which he said was a “terrorist state”. Speaking via video link he said that Hamas and Russia had used the same tactics, and that Israeli journalists who had been in Ukraine and witnessed the aftermath of atrocities there were now seeing the same thing happen in their home nation.
In what might be considered coded criticism aimed at Republicans in the US congress, Zelenskiy said: “This is not the time to withdraw from the international arena into internal disputes. This is not the time to stay silent”. Ulraine’s president added that people should not pretend that terrorism on one continent would not affect the rest of the world.
Zelenskiy had expressed his “solidarity” with Israel in a call with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. “I spoke with Netanyahu to affirm Ukraine’s solidarity with Israel, which suffers from a brazen large-scale attack, and to express condolences for the multiple victims,” Zelensky said on social media.
Speaking at the same event, Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen made an appeal to the west not to get “war fatigue”, saying “Brave Ukrainian men and women are fighting on the battlefield. They are the face of right against wrong, of good against evil. We must be with Ukraine to the bitter end. None of us can claim war fatigue while Ukraine continues its tireless fight.”
Russia has claimed to have thwarted five attacks by Ukrainian armed forces near Lyman and Torske. Russian forces in occupied Luhansk claim to have killed 50 members of Ukrainian service personnel in the process.
Ukraine has claimed its armed forces repelled a Russian attack in Novoprokopivka in the Zaporizhzhia region, and had “partial success” in nearby Verbove.
Over the summer, Ukraine has “almost certainly liberated at least 125 sq km of territory” in an eastern area of the country, according to a British intelligence update by the Ministry of Defence. The Velyka Novosilka sector west of the Donetsk Oblast town of Vuhledar has “become relatively quiet over the last four weeks” the MoD said.
Ukraine’s air force expects a record number of Russian drone attacks on its soil this winter, its spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on Sunday, as Kyiv girds for a second winter of mass bombardment of its energy facilities. Ihnat said that data for September showed the use by Russia of Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones would smash last year’s figure.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world’s attention and works in their favour. Duda argued in an interview with private broadcaster Polsat News on Sunday that conflict in the Middle East distracts international scrutiny away from Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and may result in new migration pressures on Europe.
A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia’s governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, has called for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop “America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet”.
Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.
