Editor's note: The story was updated with comments from Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Leonid Slutsky.
Senior Russian lawmakers threatened on Nov. 17 that outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russian territory with ATACMS missiles could lead to World War III and the loss of Ukrainian statehood.
"This is a very big step towards the start of World War III," lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov said, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS state news agency.
Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for strikes inside Russia, marking a significant shift in U.S. policy, several media outlets reported on Nov. 17.
Ukraine will likely initially use the missiles against Russian and North Korean forces in Kursk Oblast, but Washington could also authorize their use elsewhere, undisclosed official sources told the New York Times.
The decision has not been publicly confirmed by Kyiv or Washington, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that the "missiles will speak for themselves."
"The West has decided on a level of escalation that could end with the remnants of Ukraine completely losing their statehood," Andrei Klishas, a member of Russia’s Federation Council, wrote on his Telegram channel.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party, said the step would "inevitably lead to a serious escalation, threatening serious consequences."
Government-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper called it "one of the most provocative and uncalculated decisions" by the Biden administration that could lead to "catastrophic consequences."
The Kremlin has yet to comment officially on the latest reports. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that long-range strikes against Russia with Western arms would mean NATO's involvement in the war, adding that Moscow is preparing "various responses" to such a step.
Russia has repeatedly set supposed "red lines" on Western assistance for Ukraine, sometimes accompanied by veiled or overt nuclear threats.
The policy change follows Biden's previous hesitance to provide such weapons out of concern for escalating tensions with Russia.
While U.S. officials do not expect this move to "change the overall course of the war," Biden reportedly aims to help Ukraine target critical Russian and North Korean military assets and send a deterrent message to Pyongyang, the New York Times wrote.
Proponents of the decision have long argued that this authorization would significantly enhance Ukraine’s defense capabilities, especially with Russia ramping up military offensives on many fronts and intensifying drone and missile attacks in recent months.
A rocket attack on a residential area of Odesa killed 8 people and injured 20. According to preliminary data, the occupiers attacked the city with Iskander missiles.
As a result of a rocket attack by Russian troops on a residential area of Odesa, the number of victims has increased to 20 people. This was reported by the head of the Odesa RMA, Oleh Kiper, during a telethon, UNN reports .
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“In total, there are currently 20 victims, 8 people have died. Rescuers are now working at the scene to extinguish the fire,” Kiper said.
He noted that the information that one of the missiles was stuck in the school is not true.
“I will refute that, because it is most likely some part of the missile that exploded over Odesa. As for the missiles (fired by the Russians – ed.), they are preliminary Iskanders,” Kiper added.
Recall
A rocket attack by Russian troops on a residential area of Odesa killed 8 people.
Editor's note: The story was updated with the latest casualty numbers from Sumy.
Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 18 civilians and injured at least 113 over the past day, including children, regional authorities reported on Nov. 18.
Ukrainian forces shot down eight of the 11 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force said. Russian forces also reportedly attacked Sumy Oblast with two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and a Kh-59 aerial guided missile.
Russia launched multiple missile attacks on the city of Sumy overnight, targeting residential areas. Eleven people were killed, including two children, the regional military administration reported.
Eighty-four people were injured in Russian overnight attacks against the city, including 11 children, authorities said.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, two people were killed, and six people were injured during the day on Nov. 17, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.
Attacks against the Nikopol district with drones and artillery killed a 58-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman. Three women aged 67, 72, and 57, and two men aged 40 and 32 were injured.
A high-rise building, a transport company building, a medical facility, and other buildings and civilian infrastructure sites were damaged.
A 45-year-old man was also injured and hospitalized with shrapnel wounds following a Russian attack against the Synelnykove district, Lysak said.
Russian attacks against Donetsk Oblast injured one person in the town of Siversk, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported.
Three people were injured during Russian attacks against Kharkiv Oblast, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. An 84-year-old man was injured in the village of Hlushkivka, and two women aged 50 and 65 were injured in the town of Kupiansk.
Four people were killed, and 10 were injured in Russian attacks overnight and on Nov. 17 in Kherson Oblast, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. One more person – a 46-year-old man – was killed during an attack in the morning of Nov. 18, according to the governor.
In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, three women aged 52, 55, and 61, as well as a 59-year-old man, were injured during attacks against the Polohy district, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv oblasts also came under attack, but no casualties were reported.
Guerrillas damaged the railroad track between Kalchyk-Malovodne stations in the north of Mariupol district. As a result of the sabotage, two locomotives collided and power lines were damaged.
Near the temporarily occupied Mariupol, guerrillas damaged a railroad track used by the occupiers. This was reported by the Mariupol City Council, UNN reports.
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It is reported that guerrillas damaged the railroad track in the area of the stretch between Kalchyk-Malovodne stations in the north of Mariupol district. As a result, two locomotives collided and power lines were damaged.
The city council also noted that the Russians began laying railroad tracks near the village of Malovodne in May of this year. It was in this town that the occupiers sought to connect the new Russian railroad with the Ukrainian Mariupol-Volnovakha branch.
Recall
The Ukrainian movement "ATESH" destroyed a relay cabinet on the railroad near the village of Urozhayne in Zaporizhzhia region. The sabotage disrupted the supply of military equipment and fuel for the Russian occupiers between the stations of Velykyi and Verkhnii Tokmak.
Occupants in Donetsk region use civilian trucks to transport weapons – guerrillasNov 4 2024, 07:22 PM • 31381 view
Russia has lost 722,440 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Nov. 18.
This number includes 1,560 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 9,365 tanks, 19,059 armored fighting vehicles, 29,428 vehicles and fuel tanks, 20,586 artillery systems, 1,252 multiple launch rocket systems, 999 air defense systems, 369 airplanes, 329 helicopters, 19,073 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
A Russian missile strike on a residential neighborhood in Sumy killed 11 people, including two children. 63 people were injured, including 10 children.
In Sumy, as of Monday morning, 11 people were killed and 63 wounded in the Russian Federation's strike the day before. This was reported by UNN with reference to the Office of the Prosecutor General.
As of 8:30 a.m., 11 people were killed, including 2 children: A 9-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, as a result of an enemy rocket attack on a residential neighborhood in Sumy on November 17
– the OGP said in a statement.
There are also 63 victims, including 10 children.
Recall
Russian troops launched a missile attack on a nine-story building in Sumy. There are dead and wounded, including children, and the rescue operation continues.
Russian air defense intercepted multiple drones on the outskirts of Moscow, the city's mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, said overnight on Nov. 18.
At least one drone was shot down over the Ramensky district of the city, while another was downed over the Pavlovsky Posad district around 4:30 a.m. local time, Sobyanin claimed.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify Sobyanin's claims, and Ukraine's military has not yet commented on the attack.
The alleged attack on the Russian capital comes one night after Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on different cities across Ukraine, leaving seven civilians dead and at least 19 injured.
In recent months, Russia has continued to increase its use of attack drones, targeting cities and towns across Ukraine on a near daily basissince the start of September. The Ukrainian Air Force previously said that Russia launched at least 4,300 Shahed-type attack drones and similar UAVs imitating Shaheds against Ukraine between August and October 2024.
On Nov. 10, Russian air defense shot down 70 Ukrainian drones, including 34 in Moscow Oblast, in Ukraine’s largest drone attack on the Russian capital. At least one person was reported injured in Moscow Oblast in that attack.
The day before the largest attack on Moscow, Russia launched its own largest overnight drone attack on Ukraine on Nov. 9-10, with 145 drones entering Ukrainian airspace.
In the Black Sea, there are 2 Russian ships with Kalibr missiles with a total of 8 missiles. There are 3 ships with 24 missiles in the Mediterranean, and no enemy ships in the Sea of Azov.
On Monday morning, November 18, two enemy ships were spotted in the Black Sea. Both are carriers of Kalibr cruise missiles with a total volley of up to 8 missiles. This was reported by the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, UNN reports.
There are 2 enemy ships in the Black Sea, of which 2 are Kalibr cruise missile carriers with a total volley of up to 8 missiles, while there are no enemy ships in the Sea of Azov,
– the message says.
It is noted that there are 3 enemy ships in the Mediterranean Sea, 3 of which are Kalibr cruise missile carriers with a total volley of up to 24 missiles.
Within 24 hours, the passage through the Kerch Strait was completed in the interests of Russia:
4 vessels sailed to the Black Sea, of which 3 continued to the Bosphorus;
10 vessels sailed to the Azov Sea, of which 1 was sailing from the Bosphorus.
Kerch bridge is guarded by a large number of air defense systems, but there is no protection from the sea – PletenchukNov 15 2024, 11:00 AM • 17598 views
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Nov. 17, leaving at least seven civilians dead and at least 19 injured across multiple regions.
Multiple loud explosions were reported in the capital, Kyiv, between 6:30 and 7:15 a.m. local time, according to a Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground.
Russia's latest barrage of missile strikes marks the first mass missile attack on Kyiv in over 2 months, with Russia instead utilizing more frequent drone strikes in recent months to attack the capital.
Further explosions were also heard in the cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, as well as in the Khmelnytskyi and Volyn oblasts.
Russia targeted "power generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine," according to Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko.
"The transmission system operator has urgently introduced emergency shutdowns," Halushchenko said. Officials have been warning that Russia may resume strikes on the energy grid as temperatures drop, mirroring the strategy used in the spring and summer of this year and in the autumn-winter season of 2022-2023.
An apartment damaged in Kyiv's Percherskyi district as a result of falling drone debris. Russia laucnhed a mass missile, drone attack against Ukraine in the early hours of Nov. 17, 2024. (State Emergency Service / Telegram)An apartment damaged in Kyiv's Percherskyi district as a result of falling drone debris. Russia laucnhed a mass missile, drone attack against Ukraine in the early hours of Nov. 17, 2024. (State Emergency Service / Telegram)An apartment damaged in Kyiv's Percherskyi district as a result of falling drone debris. Russia laucnhed a mass missile, drone attack against Ukraine in the early hours of Nov. 17, 2024. (State Emergency Service / Telegram)
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said that as a result of falling drone debris, an apartment on the fourth floor of a five-story residential building caught fire in the Pechersk neighborhood of the city. One person was hospitalized as a result of the attack, while one other person received medical treatment on-site.
Debris was also reported in the Holosiivskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Several residential and commercial buildings, a club building, and a library were damaged in the capital.
A 45-year-old woman was injured in Kyiv Oblast, suffering a head wound, Governor Ruslan Kravchenko reported. Fallen debris damaged industrial facilities, 21 houses, and other buildings across the region.
In addition to the attack on Kyiv, at least two people were killed and seven injured, including two children, in the city of Mykolaiv amid Russia’s mass drone and missile attack, regional governor Vitalii Kim reported.
In the city of Dnipro, a 42-year-old man suffered shrapnel wounds as a result of the attack. High-rise buildings, an educational institution, and a car were damaged, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.
Russia also struck a railway depot in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing two railway workers and injuring three, Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) said on its Telegram channel. It is not immediately clear whether the number of injured includes the 42-year-old man reported previously by the governor.
Critical infrastructure facilities were hit in the Vinnytsia, Odesa, and Volyn oblasts, leading to power outages and emergency shutdowns, regional authorities said. Odesa also faced problems with the water supply.
Infrastructure facilities were also targeted in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Two people were reported injured in the regional center, the city of Zaporizhzhia. A 59-year-old man was hospitalized, and an 18-year-old man received medical assistance on the spot, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
In Lviv Oblast, 12 garages caught fire due to fallen missile debris. A 66-year-old woman was killed in her car by the debris in the Sheptytskyi (formerly Chervonohrad) district, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi reported. Two more people were injured.
Two people were killed, and a 17-year-old boy was injured in Odesa Oblast, Governor Oleh Kiper reported. One civilian was reportedly hospitalized with serious injuries in Poltava Oblast.
An outbuilding and a house were damaged in Zhytomyr Oblast. Regional authorities also reported that a critical infrastructure site was damaged in Rivne Oblast, and a house was damaged by fallen debris in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.
"Cruise, ballistic, and air-launched ballistic missiles, Zirkons, Iskanders, Kinzhals. In total, around 120 missiles and 90 drones (were launched by Russia)," President Volodymyr Zelensky said following the attack.
This makes it one of the most massive strikes launched at Ukraine throughout the full-scale war.
"Our air defenses destroyed more than 140 aerial targets… We are grateful to our air defense forces involved in the attack, our aviation – F-16, Sukhoi, and MiG pilots – mobile fire groups, electronic warfare units, everybody worked in an organized manner," Zelensky said.
In response to the mass attack, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces scrambled fighter jets to protect the country's own airspace. "Ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness," the Operational Command added.
The aftermath of a Russian attack on Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, on Nov. 17, 2024. (State Emergency Service/Telegram)The aftermath of a Russian attack on Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, on Nov. 17, 2024. (State Emergency Service/Telegram)The aftermath of a Russian attack on Lviv Oblast, Ukraine, on Nov. 17, 2024. (State Emergency Service/Telegram)
Ukraine's Air Force issued air raid alerts across all regions of the country around 6 a.m. local time, warning of the attack. The alert ended in much of Ukraine at around 9:30 a.m.
Ukraine's Air Force reported earlier in the night that Tu-95 strategic bombers took off from the Russian airfields of Olenya in Murmansk Oblast. Later in the night, the War Monitor Telegram channel reported that a total of 17 Tu-95 strategic bombers were in flight, with seven taking off at the Engels airbase in Saratov Oblast.
In recent months, Russia has primarily focused on large-scale drone attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses in cities across the country. The Ukrainian Air Force previously said that Russia launched at least 4,300 Shahed-type attack drones and similar UAVs imitating Shaheds against Ukraine between August and October 2024.
While missile attacks are a common occurrence in Ukraine's eastern oblasts, most Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, have largely been spared from large-scale Russian missile attacks on infrastructure in recent months — with the last large-scale missile attack occurring in late August.
Elina Valtonen called on Western leaders not to compete for the Kremlin's attention and to stop having phone conversations with Putin. She emphasized the need for coordinated communication with Russia together with Ukraine.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen asked Western leaders to refrain from calling Putin and called for coordinated communication with the Kremlin. She said this on the air of the German broadcaster ARD, UNN reports.
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Valtonen emphasized that European leaders should refrain from having telephone conversations with the Russian dictator.
The most important thing is to understand that we should not compete for the Kremlin's attention. It will not make sense if European leaders make coordinated or uncoordinated calls to Putin,
– said Valtonen.
The minister emphasized that a joint response is needed, not only from the United States, but primarily in coordination with Ukraine.
She also added that new sanctions against Russia, including restrictions on its so-called "shadow fleet," will be discussed at a meeting of foreign ministers on Tuesday.
Recall
For the first time in almost two years, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a telephone conversation with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
During a telephone conversation with Putin , Scholz called on him to end the war against Ukraine and start peace talks.
“No one will stop Putin with phone calls” – TuskNov 17 2024, 03:34 PM • 18621 view
The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek
