Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 622

Here is the situation on Tuesday, November 7, 2023.

Fighting

• The 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade confirmed that 19 of its soldiers were killed last week in a Russian air attack that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier described as “a tragedy”. The soldiers were attacked as they gathered for an awards ceremony at a village near the front line in the southern Zaporizhia region. Ukraine has opened an investigation into the incident.
• Andriy Kovalyov, a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told state television that over the past week, Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks near the village of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhia region. Kovalyov said “offensive operations” were also under way south of Bakhmut, which Russia captured in May, and that Moscow was continuing its efforts to take Avdiivka.
• Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had destroyed the Askold, a Russian cruise missile carrier, at the Kerch shipyard in annexed Crimea. Kyiv said over the weekend that it had “successfully” carried out attacks in that area. Russia said on Sunday that one ship had been damaged. It did not name the vessel.
• At least eight people were hurt after a drone and missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa. The Odesa Fine Arts Museum, in one of the city’s oldest tsarist-era palaces, was among the buildings damaged in the attack.
• Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, said a Russian missile hit four buildings, injuring a woman.
• Major Hennady Chastyakov, an assistant to Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, was killed in an explosion. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the blast happened at Chastyakov’s home as he was showing his 13-year-old son birthday gifts he had been given by colleagues, including a box of Western-manufactured grenades. Klymenko said an investigation was under way.
• Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said a large contingent of former Wagner Group mercenaries had started training with his Akhmat special forces. He did not say how many Wagner fighters were taking part in the training or whether any would stay on with Chechen forces afterwards. Wagner forces played a key role in Russia’s capture of Bakhmut earlier this year.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy said it was “irresponsible” to talk about holding elections in wartime and the country needed to focus on its efforts to push Russian forces out of its territory. “We need to recognise that this is a time for defence, a time for battle, upon which the fate of the state and its people depend… I believe that elections are not appropriate at this time,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
• Ukrainian prosecutors said a former deputy defence minister and his subordinate had been notified they were being investigated for the “embezzlement of state funds and obstruction of the lawful activities of the armed forces of Ukraine”. The nearly $28m case surrounds the acquisition of winter uniforms from a Turkish company, which Ukrainian journalists have linked to a member of Zelenskyy’s political party.
• Radio Free Europe’s acting president Jeffrey Gedmin said the broadcaster fears Russia is using its journalist Alsu Kurmasheva as a “hostage” in the hope of a potential prisoner swap with the United States. Kurmasheva, who has Russian and US citizenship, has been in Russian custody since October 18.

Weapons

• Herman Smetanin, the general director of Ukraine’s state arms manufacturer, said Ukroboronprom was developing attack drones similar to the Shahed-136 used by Russia but with a range of 1,000km (620 miles).
• French company Cybergun said it signed a contract worth 36 million euros ($39m) to supply Ukraine with weapons, including hand grenades and assault rifles.