November 29, 2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 00:47 Shahed drones shot down: air alert over Ukraine largely lifted +++
Russia has been launching a new wave of drone attacks on Ukraine since the evening. The Ukrainian Air Force reports that Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down in the Odessa, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions, among others. The air alert has now been lifted, but there is still no all-clear in the Khmelnytskyi region.
+++ 22:32 Report: Soldiers can buy “injuries” and front-line transfers +++
The independent Russian exile media “Novaya Gazeta Europe” reports on a bribery system among Russian military units in Ukraine. For example, soldiers could be transferred to another section of the front for sums between the equivalent of around 450 euros and 2,750 euros, the online newspaper quoted an officer as saying. At least 4,500 euros would have to be paid for a vacation, and tens of thousands of euros could also be incurred for “injuries” that required hospitalization but actually only exist on paper. According to the portal, the Russian state is paying the equivalent of 31,000 euros in compensation to its soldiers wounded in Ukraine. A soldier complained in a voice message from the front that so much bribe money was being taken from his wages, the online newspaper quoted the soldier’s mother as saying. He told her that his unit was not taking part in active combat thanks to “millions of dollars in bribes.” Accordingly, he told her: “The more important the general is, the bigger the bribe. And when you only have a few days left before you go home, you want to stay alive. (…) So we have for ours Lives paid for.”
+++ 21:55 Putin’s daughter’s foundation joins drone manufacturer, according to report +++
A foundation headed by Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova is one Moscow Times report According to him, he has become a co-owner of the largest Russian drone manufacturer. Accordingly, the “National Intellectual Development Foundation” (NIDF), also known as Innopraktika, acquired a stake in the Geoscan group. It continues to produce drones for civil aviation as well as software for photogrammetric data processing. Ukraine imposed sanctions on Geoscan after the regional government of Bashkortostan announced that it would build drones for war at the Geoscan facilities. The Ukrainian online newspaper “Ukrainskaya Pravda” writes that the stake in the drone manufacturer is ten percent.
+++ 21:12 Putin sees Russia as a “great power” again +++
Kremlin chief Putin sees Russia, in his own words, as a “great power” on the world stage again after almost two years of his war of aggression against Ukraine. “We have become stronger,” Putin said in a video message to the meeting of the so-called World Council of the Russian People, an organization under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. He also highlights Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories, which was internationally condemned as a breach of international law, as a success. Modern Russia has regained and consolidated “its sovereignty as a world power,” says Putin. In contrast, the West, which imposed sanctions on Russia during the war, sees the country as economically weakened and isolated on the international stage.
+++ 9:00 p.m. air alert also in western Ukraine +++
There is an air alert in large parts of Ukraine. The south of the country as well as parts of the west and central Ukraine are affected. Alarms can also be heard again in Kiev in the evening.
+++ 20:47 Nikopol: 63-year-old killed in shelling of residential buildings +++
According to Ukrainian reports, a 63-year-old man was killed when Russian missiles hit a residential area in Nikopol. In the morning incident, a five-story building was hit, explains the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhyi Lysak.
+++ 20:12 Ukraine confirms several poisoned people and suspects Russia +++
Ukraine suspects Russia of poisoning the wife of the Ukrainian military intelligence chief. “That is the main hypothesis,” says a spokesman for the HUR military intelligence agency. It was an intentional poisoning by heavy metals, “particularly mercury and arsenic.” Accordingly, Marianna Budanova and not her husband Kyrylo Budanow was “the target”. The woman was taken to the hospital “more than a week ago.” The HUR spokesman continues that it is currently not possible to determine the exact date of the poisoning as it may have occurred over a longer period of time. He also confirms media reports that traces of heavy metals were also found in “several” military intelligence employees.
You can read all previous developments here.