As the war enters its 996th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Sunday, November 17:
Fighting
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Blasts were heard in Kyiv early on Sunday, reports said, after Ukraine’s air force warned of a major Russian missile attack threat. The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council reported on the Telegram messaging app that there were many missiles in the air.
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Ukraine’s military said its air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the capital. The Reuters news agency reported that a residential building was on fire after it was hit by Russia.
- Polish armed forces said the country has activated its aircraft to ensure that its airspace is secured after Russia launched a missile attack on Ukraine.
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A drone crashed into a factory workshop in west-central Russia, causing an explosion and injuring one person, the head of the Udmurt Republic said on Sunday. One person with “moderate” injuries was taken to hospital.
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Russian forces have captured the villages of Makarivka and Hryhorivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said. Moscow’s claim could not be independently verified immediately.
Politics and diplomacy
- Leaders of the Group of Seven alliance have reaffirmed support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes” as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wants to end the war through talks next year.
- In a statement marking the upcoming 1,000 days of the Russian invasion, the G7 industrialised nations said Russia is solely responsible for preventing a fair settlement to end the war in Ukraine.
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Slovakia’s state-owned energy supplier SPP said it was still receiving gas from Russia, adding that unchanged volumes continue to flow through Ukraine despite a halt to Austria.
- Political rivals of Germany’s embattled Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his phone call with Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine war had handed a “propaganda win” to the Russian president. The Christian Democratic Union party’s foreign policy spokesman, Juergen Hardt, said Scholz had “not made any concrete new proposal or even issued an ultimatum” during the call.
- Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya has warned that North Korean troops entering the Ukraine conflict would have an “extremely significant” effect on East Asian security. Iwaya, who was visiting Kyiv, said Tokyo is “seriously concerned” over the development and “strongly condemns it”.
