Russia has lost 717,590 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. 15.
This number includes 1,520 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 9,330 tanks, 18,968 armored fighting vehicles, 29,167 vehicles and fuel tanks, 20,492 artillery systems, 1,252 multiple launch rocket systems, 999 air defense systems, 369 airplanes, 329 helicopters, 18,886 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
The Center for Countering Disinformation reports that russia's offensive in the kursk region has resumed, with the use of equipment and night maneuvers. Earlier, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled five attacks on novoivanivka, destroying 18 pieces of enemy equipment.
The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Kovalenko, said that the enemy's active offensive in the kursk region had resumed.
The enemy is again conducting offensive actions in kursk region. They are using equipment and trying to move actively at night
– he wrote.
Add
Earlier, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on russian attempts to advance deeper into the territory under Ukrainian control in the kursk region and displace Ukrainian troops.
DeepStat reported that only during the russian army's attempts to capture the village of novoivanovka in the kursk region, 18 units of enemy equipment were destroyed, and enemy losses could reach 300 people.
Russians have become more active in 3-4 areas of the Kursk regionNov 10 2024, 09:01 AM • 42467 views
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at a Mar-a-Lago event in Florida on Nov. 14 that his administration will focus on the Russia-Ukraine war.
"We’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It’s gotta stop. Russia and Ukraine’s gotta stop," Trump said at an event in Florida on Nov. 14, according to CNN. "Whether they’re soldiers or they’re people sitting in towns, we’re going to work it."
Trump secured victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, adding further uncertainty for Ukraine regarding the future of Western military aid, and its defense against the ongoing Russian full-scale invasion.
Earlier, Trump announced that he may "soon" appoint a Ukrainian peace envoy to lead negotiations on ending Russia's war, Fox News reported on Nov. 13.
"You're going to see a very senior special envoy, someone with a lot of credibility, who will be given a task to find a resolution, to get to a peace settlement," one of the sources said, adding that the appointment will happen "in short order."
Kurt Volker held a similar position and served as the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine on a volunteer basis from 2017 to 2019. The post of Ukrainian peace envoy is also expected to be unpaid.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released data on the occupiers' losses over the past day. The enemy lost 1520 soldiers, 11 tanks, 21 armored personnel carriers and other equipment.
Over the past day, the aggressor has lost 1520 soldiers. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to UNN.
Details
Enemy combat losses for the period from 02/24/22 to 11/15/24:
– Personnel: 717 590 (+1520).
– Tanks: 9330 (+11).
– Armored combat vehicles: 18968 (+21).
– Artillery systems: 20492 (+20).
– RSVP: 1252.
– Air defense equipment: 999 (+2).
– Airplanes: 369.
– Helicopters: 329.
– UAVs of operational and tactical level: 18886 (+34).
– Cruise missiles: 2641 (+1).
– Ships/boats: 28.
– Submarines: 1.
– Automotive equipment and tank trucks: 29167 (+77).
– Special equipment: 3645 (+16).
156 combat engagements in the frontline: where is the hottest spot and what is happening – General StaffNov 13 2024, 12:20 AM • 58691 view
A renowned Russian chef known for his strong criticism of Russia's war against Ukraine was found dead during a visit to Serbia's capital. The death of Alexei Zimin, who has lived in London for years, is the latest in a series of deaths involving Russian expatriates critical of the war.
A source close to the investigation told AFP that Zimin's body was discovered late on Nov. 12 in a rented apartment in Belgrade, where he was staying while promoting his latest book, "Anglomania."
Zimin co-founded the ZIMA restaurant in London, contributed as a senior writer for various magazines, and co-authored multiple books. Serbian authorities informed the BBC that there were "no suspicious circumstances" surrounding his death, and that both an autopsy and toxicology report were in progress.
Born in Russia in 1971, Zimin established several restaurants in Moscow before departing after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Zimin's restaurant in London, Zima, confirmed the chef's death on Instagram. "For us, Alexei was not only a colleague, he was our friend, a close person with whom we were lucky to go through a lot – both good, kind and sad," the restaurant said.
The US State Department has downgraded the risk level for nine western regions of Ukraine from fourth to third. This is the first change in travel advisories since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The U.S. Department of State has changed its recommendations for American citizens to visit Ukraine. This was reported on the official website of the department, UNN reports.
Details
According to the information, the agency has designated some Ukrainian territories as lower-risk regions due to their air defense capabilities and remoteness from active combat zones.
The State Department has downgraded the risk from level four (do not travel) to level three (consider traveling) for several regions of Ukraine: Volyn, Lviv, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, and Zhytomyr.
At the same time, the Department strongly advises all U.S. citizens to:
Closely monitor U.S. government communications and local and international media for information on changing security conditions and warnings to shelter in place. The security situation in Ukraine remains unpredictable
– the message says.
This is the first time the agency has made such changes since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Three-quarters of Americans believe Russia's war against Ukraine is important to U.S. national interests – pollFeb 20 2024, 08:53 AM • 26140 views
Ukraine is developing a 10-point "internal resilience plan" that will be presented next week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Nov. 14.
In late October, Zelensky instructed the National Security and Defense Council to prepare a plan to strengthen Ukraine, covering the front line, the military-industrial complex, economy and finance, regional development, and other strategic sectors.
The government's latest plan will focus on internal solutions and is not an alternative to a victory plan oriented toward Kyiv's partners.
"There are 10 points in total, which will be presented next week, and for each point, together with Ukrainian civil society, together with everyone who is ready to add rational ideas, with business, we will prepare a basic, doctrinal document for Ukraine, for our sustainability," Zelensky said.
"With clear applications. Step by step."
The Ukrainian government on Nov. 14 focused on drafting a plan for internal plan security that would include every community in the country, according to Zelensky.
"The Interior Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine have good practices. We will implement everything," he said.
"We have already worked out points, in particular, on energy — everything is prepared in detail — and on weapons: our production, our cooperation with partners."
The government has also developed a clause on cultural sovereignty, Ukraine's cultural heritage, cultural diplomacy, and the production of Ukrainian content.
"There are things that neither politicians, nor public figures, nor the information space can convey to others. But emotions do it, art does it," Zelensky said.
Facing Russian military advances and increasingly uncertain Western support, Zelensky previously pitched to Ukraine and its allies a five-step victory plan, containing steps that should supposedly end the war by 2025.
Some points of the plan met with a lukewarm response from partners, with the White House still refusing to permit long-range strikes on Russian territory and several countries resisting a NATO invitation for Ukraine. The New York Times reported on Oct. 29 that, according to undisclosed U.S. officials, the request for Tomahawk missiles with a range of 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) was part of the secretive "non-nuclear deterrence package" included in Ukraine's victory plan.
According to DeepState, enemy forces occupied the village of Rivne and expanded their presence in several frontline areas.
The invaders occupied Rivne and advanced in several settlements in eastern Ukraine. This is reported by DeepState, according to UNN.
Details
The occupiers continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine, expanding their presence in some areas of the frontline regions. According to the latest reports, enemy troops captured the village of Rivne. In addition, the enemy advanced towards several settlements, including Plekhove, Nova Illinka, Novodmitrivka, Petrivka, Antonivka, Voznesenka and Novoselydivivka.
Recall
According to the General Staff, enemy forces conducted a series of air strikes on the territory of Ukraine, using 87 guided bombs. In addition, the aggressor activated more than 400 kamikaze drones and fired more than three thousand artillery rounds at Ukrainian military positions and civilian settlements.
Occupants seize Illinka and advance in several areas in the east – DeepStateNov 13 2024, 11:57 PM • 48661 view
Marharyta Koldanova was standing at a bus stop in a residential area in Kyiv when a sudden loud noise went off, prompting her to take out a tourniquet from her bag and prepare to quickly apply it in case she got injured by an aerial attack.
"I was overwhelmed with adrenaline and stress," Koldanova told the Kyiv Independent.
The air raid alarm that usually alerts Ukrainians of a threat of a Russian drone or missile strike wasn’t on. The sound she heard wasn’t a weapon exploding but the noise coming from a local thermal power plant — a regular buzz for a big city like Kyiv.
Yet for Koldanova, whose daily life has been disrupted by Russian aerial attacks for 2.5 years, even a regular loud noise comes with an immediate sense of danger.
Like thousands of other Ukrainians struggling with mental health issues due to the war, Koldanova has developed a hypersensitivity to sounds, anxiety, and insomnia. Since Russian strikes happen most often at night, they have been robbing millions of Ukrainians of proper sleep.
To target cities far from the front line, Russia has been employing a combination of missiles and drones, often launched in large-scale coordinated attacks. However, in the past couple of months, Moscow’s forces have changed tactics, launching barrages of drones nearly every night, and largely avoiding missiles.
In October alone, over 2,000 drones attacked Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian military. These drone barrages aim to exhaust and locate the country's air defenses ahead of a larger campaign of strikes targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this winter, experts say.
Though not as destructive as missiles and bombs, drone attacks often stretch on for many hours and can be launched far more frequently since drones are cheap and easy to produce.
For long-range drone strikes, Russia’s weapon of choice is the Iranian-designed Shahed, which can travel up to 2,500 kilometers, reaching any settlement in Ukraine.
Since Moscow first employed Shaheds in October 2022, these killer drones have contributed to the deteriorating mental health of Ukrainians, and the destruction of critical infrastructure and homes, putting an additional burden on the Ukrainian military tasked with the defense of the Ukrainian skies.
"If I fall asleep before the air alarm, I often wake up to explosions, panicking and confused," Koldanova, a 32-year-old copywriter, told the Kyiv Independent, describing how her nights have been lately. "If the alarm starts when I'm awake, I can't go to sleep until the threat is over. I just sit and wait for the all-clear."
Sometimes, this wait stretches until early morning.
Living close to a Kyiv air defense site, Koldanova hears explosions close-by and sees flashes of the defense system firing at drones and missiles from her window. She's too afraid to spend 10 minutes to run to a nearby shelter, fearing debris could fall nearby and injure her, so she hides in her corridor with her dog, watching red flashes and listening attentively to every sound.
"Every time I hear an explosion, I think how close it was to me and whether (the next one) could hit my house."
Running on just 3-4 hours of sleep, Koldanova finds it hard to concentrate at work the next day. Many Ukrainians struggle with low productivity, as experts say sleep deprivation hampers decision-making, memory, and performance.
"Sleep deprivation makes even minor dangers feel extreme, creating the feeling that danger is literally at every step and not letting you relax for a moment," explains Nika Bielska, a sleep consultant and geneticist. "This makes it difficult to study, work, and just live your everyday life, strains family relationships, and heightens the risk of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)."
Ukrainian firefighters work to put out a fire in a high-rise residential building after being reportedly hit by a drone in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 25, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Oleksii Filippov / AFP via Getty Images)Residents stay outside an apartment block in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv hit by a Russian drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on Oct. 25, 2024. (Serhii Chuzavkov / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Already in fall 2022, over 70% of Ukrainian business leaders cited the deterioration of employee mental health as the main challenge for their companies. Fatigue and tension are now the dominant feelings for Ukrainians, according to a June 2024 survey by Gradus Research.
Chronic sleep loss can lead to anxiety and depression and increase risks for physical health, including cancer and diabetes, says Volodymyr Voloshyn, a Ukrainian crisis psychologist and the head of the Institute of Health Psychology. He suggests Russia may be using sleep deprivation to make Ukrainians more vulnerable to manipulation and disinformation, important tools of modern warfare.
Bielska adds that the longer sleep deprivation persists, the harder it becomes to relax, creating a "vicious cycle" of lack of sleep.
Even when Kyiv gets a rare quiet night, free from Russian attacks, any loud noise can deprive local residents of sleep due to the developed hypersensitivity to sounds.
"When there's a thunderstorm and rain, I can't sleep," says Koldanova. "I wake up panicking and check the news to make sure it was not an explosion."
Overnight on Oct. 8, during yet another Russian drone attack against Ukraine, debris hit Kira Rodkina’s residential building in Chornomorsk, a small southern city on the Black Sea coast.
A fire engulfed one of the apartments where a family with children lived. Luckily, all of them survived the attack. Rodkina's apartment got off with broken windows and a burned ceiling. She had previously moved to Odesa when her husband joined the Ukrainian army in 2023, so she learned that her building had been hit by local news.
"(When I saw the photos), I felt rage, and I already said goodbye to it (the apartment) in my mind. I thought it was completely burned, and I would come and see the ashes," Rodkina, a 30-year-old volunteer who has been raising money for Ukraine’s Armed Forces since the start of the full-scale invasion, told the Kyiv Independent.
Kira Rodkina's residential building in Chornomorsk, Odesa Oblast, damaged by a Russian drone attack overnight on Oct. 8, 2024. (Odesa Oblast Prosecutor's Office/Telegram)
Since Russian troops started using Shahed drones against Ukraine in the autumn of 2022, Ukrainian forces have become skilled at shooting down the loitering munitions before they reach densely populated areas. Therefore, some Ukrainians have developed a perception of Shaheds as less dangerous weapons, often neglecting to go to the shelter amid drone attacks.
However, kamikaze drones like Shaheds, while flying much slower than missiles, are still capable of causing serious damage to buildings and endangering civilians as they are estimated to weigh about 200 kilograms and carry around 45 kg of explosives, with upgraded Shaheds reportedly having twice as heavy warheads.
A Russian drone strike against Kharkiv on Feb. 10, 2024, caused a fire that engulfed 15 homes andkilled seven people, including afamily with three children, as well as led to a fuel leak contaminating over 10,000 square meters of land.
An exterior view of a business center building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov.7, 2024. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)A man with dogs looks at a damaged multi-story apartment building after a Russian drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on Oct. 29, 2024. (Tanya Dzafarowa/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, over 50% of the housing stock “in a significant number” of Ukrainian cities and towns has been damaged or destroyed, the Kyiv School of Economics estimated in July. Drone attacks account for a fraction of the damage, but it’s hard to calculate how many exactly.
Rodkina was "lucky" — nobody was at her home during the attack on Chornomorsk, and her apartment can be repaired — but it's still painful for her to comprehend that her home came under attack.
"So many parties were held on that balcony, so many memories and warmth! So much life and emotions!" Rodkina wrote on Instagram under the photo of her apartment building the day after the drone strike.
"But I can't say there was despair (following the attack). My husband had gone to war, his mother has cancer, and my father had been hospitalized after a heart attack," Rodkina says. "These were very difficult times for the family. The apartment incident felt like, 'it can’t get any worse.'"
Rodkina's family is waiting for a special state commission to evaluate the damage done to their apartment so they can receive financial support from the state. She and her husband still plan to move back to their apartment in Chornomorsk after the war is over.
Ukraine's drone hunters
While civilians take shelter, hoping their loved ones stay unharmed and their homes remain intact, Ukrainian service members work tirelessly to destroy Russian drones before they can cause any trouble. One of them is Dmytro from Ukraine’s 117th Territorial Defense Brigade, who is identified in this article only by his first name due to security reasons.
He commands three mobile air defense squads, who are based in the northeastern Sumy Oblast that borders Russia. Sumy Oblast faces swarms of drones nearly every night launched from across the Russian border. The Ukrainian military created these special units to quickly shoot down Russian drones using small arms and avoid depleting expensive interceptor missiles provided by Western allies.
Dmytro says his 12-member team has downed 19 drones in the past three months, compared to only seven throughout 2023. Due to a dramatic increase in workload and shortage of personnel, Dmytro’s team is currently on constant duty, with no rotations.
They take turns resting so that at least one person from a group is watching the sky at any given moment to avoid missing a potential threat. Besides drones, Sumy Oblast is regularly targeted by bombs and missiles.
"We are exhausted, but we hold on… If we leave, something will surely hit (the city), leaving people without heat, electricity, or water, and we cannot allow that," Dmytro says in a phone call with the Kyiv Independent.
Ukrainian military members of an air defense rapid response group track down Russian drones while on night duty in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine on March 1, 2024. (Zinchenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
In September, for the first time since the full-scale invasion, Russia launched drone attacks on cities and towns across Ukraine every day for an entire month. Russian troops used 1,334 drones that month, compared to 75 in March 2023, according to a recent report by Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital. Meanwhile, the number of missiles launched by Russia was almost twice as low as in August, the report shows.
In October, drone attacks intensified even more. Russia launched 2,023 Shaheds and other kinds of attack drones at civilian and military facilities in Ukraine, out of which 1,185 were intercepted, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces wrote on Nov. 1. Russia is now using 10 times more Shahed drones than last autumn, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 4.
Ukrainian officials anticipated that Russia would begin a renewed campaign of large-scale missile strikes on the country's energy infrastructure with the onset of the heating season, which started mid-autumn. After a pause of more than two months, on the morning of Nov. 11, Ukrainians across the country received warnings of a mass missile attack, but it later turned out to be a Russian aviation training exercise.
Russia's recent strategy of daily mass drone barrages may be aimed at depleting Ukraine's air defense systems ahead of an intensified missile campaign, according to experts interviewed by the Kyiv Independent last month. Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), suggested that this tactic could also force Ukraine to expose its air defense network when intercepting drones.
As Ukrainians across the country are bracing for mass missile attacks in the near future, Dmytro’s team keeps spending their nights in the field hunting for Russian drones. Their primary motivation is protecting native Sumy, where their families live. However, the soldiers urgently need more trained and highly motivated personnel and additional weapons to keep up with the escalating workload.
"It hasn't become easier, it's only getting harder. Russians won't go anywhere," Dmytro concludes. "We can't just hope this will end on its own. We need to destroy them (the Russian troops), and only then will it end."
As a result of the massive shelling in Odesa, 8 people were injured, including a 9-year-old child. Residential buildings, cars, and a heating main supplying heat to 220 apartment buildings were damaged.
In Odesa, a 9-year-old boy in stable condition and a 22-year-old man who was seriously injured after an enemy strike are among the wounded. This was reported by the head of the Odesa RMA, Oleh Kiper, UNN reports.
Details
On November 14, a massive enemy shelling took place in Odesa, injuring at least 8 people. There is a child among the wounded. All the victims are receiving the necessary medical care in the city's hospitals.
The attack destroyed one of the apartment buildings in the city center and set several apartments on fire. The fire also engulfed about 30 cars and partially damaged a two-story building and the territory of a public institution.
In addition, the shelling damaged a pipeline supplying heat to a large part of the city. As a result, a boiler house that provided heating for 220 apartment buildings and several schools and kindergartens was temporarily shut down. The boiler house also served a maternity hospital with 28 women and 22 newborns at the time of the attack. Fortunately, thanks to the backup systems in place, the facility was able to provide the required level of heat independently.
All emergency services – rescuers, utilities and law enforcement – are working at the scene.
In Odesa, as a result of a terrorist strike, the number of victims increased to 8 people, one woman was killedNov 14 2024, 10:38 PM • 1383 views
The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk
