Ukraine attacked Moscow on Sunday with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city’s major airports, and injuring at least five people.
Russian air defenses destroyed another 50 drones over other regions of western Russia on Sunday, the defense ministry said.
“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using airplane-type drones on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the ministry claimed.
Russia’s federal air transport agency said the airports of Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky diverted at least 36 flights, but then resumed operations. Five people were injured in the Moscow region, the ministry noted.
Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million, is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe, alongside Istanbul.
For its part, Russia launched a record 145 drones that same night, Ukraine said. Kyiv said its air defenses downed 62. Ukraine also said it had attacked an arsenal in the Bryansk region of Russia, which reported 14 drones had been downed in the region.
As the war enters its 994th day, another key developments include:
• Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian troops near the northeastern city of Kupiansk, Ukraine’s military has said. It added that Russian forces attacked in four waves and deployed tanks, armored vehicles and a mine-clearing system. Some of the Russian forces, it said, donned uniforms resembling those of the Ukrainian military – a practice it said is a war crime.
• Heavy military activity has been reported further south in the city of Pokrovsk, with Ukrainian forces repelling all but one of 36 attacks.
• Russia’s Defense Ministry has said its forces have taken control of the town of Rivnopil in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Ukrainian authorities have said a Russian attack killed two residents in the village of Shevchenko in the Donetsk region.
• A Ukrainian car bomb killed senior Russian naval officer Valery Trankovsky in occupied Crimea’s city of Sevastopol, in what a Kyiv security source has said is one of its highest-ranking targets to date.
• Russia launched its first missile attack on Kyiv since August, with no casualties or major damage reported. Air defenses intercepted two incoming cruise missiles, two ballistic missiles and 37 drones across the country, the air force said.
North Korean soldiers in Ukraine
South Korea’s spy agency has said it has evidence that North Korean soldiers have engaged in combat operations against Ukraine alongside their Russian allies.
The United States is concerned by Russia’s growing relationship with North Korea, especially what technology the countries may be exchanging, the top US arms control official, Bonnie Jenkins, has said. Jenkins added that “we don’t have anything definitive … in terms of nuclear technology going from Russia to the DPRK [North Korea]”.
North Korea has dispatched 10,000 troops to Russia, with most of them deployed in the western Kursk Oblast and taking part in combat, a Pentagon spokesperson said during a press briefing on November 12.
Washington is echoing earlier warnings from Kyiv that Pyongyang’s troops have been deployed in the warzone in an unprecedented escalation of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“I can confirm that over 10,000 (North Korean) soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to the far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces,” spokesperson Vedant Patel said.
“Russian forces have trained the (North Korean) soldiers in artillery, in UAV and basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, which are critical skills for front-line operations.”
According to Patel, the effectiveness of North Korean soldiers will “in large part be dictated by how well the Russians can integrate them into their military.”
Russia is mustering a force of 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, to launch a counter-offensive against a Ukrainian salient in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, the New York Times reported on November 10.
The new force comes as Russia saw its heaviest losses last month. The North Korean troops could be replacing injured and killed Russian soldiers, say some experts.
Clashes between the Ukrainian and North Korean soldiers are currently underway, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on . ‘North Korean troops have already suffered casualties,” President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on November 7, without specifying the number.
Russia preparing a 50,000-people-strong offensive in latest attempt to push Ukrainian army out of Kursk Oblast
Over the past week, Russia had been gathering forces in what appears to be preparations for a decisive push in the country’s Kursk Oblast.
“The situation is changing every day. Not long ago, we were on the offensive, and now we are on the defensive,” a 35-year-old artilleryman with the callsign Spys, fighting in the area, told the Kyiv Independent.
In light of the recent advances of Russian troops in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv oblasts, the country now faces a new challenge: defending the positions gained in the August cross-border offensive.
Ukrainian soldiers are holding off nearly 50,000 troops in Russia’s embattled Kursk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on November 11.
With no reduction in the number of personnel carrying out assaults in eastern Ukraine and an additional 10,000 soldiers reportedly deployed from North Korea, Russia is expected to initiate a significant offensive from the north. This move could potentially escalate beyond the now non-existent border, further intensifying the conflict.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
