Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russians told not to travel to West as Putin could use new missile in ‘coming days’

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has led to questions over Russia’s ability to sustain its military adventures abroad. Russia had supported Assad militarily for over a decade, building on long-standing ties between Moscow and Damascus. But the rapid advance of anti-government forces this month saw Russia apparently powerless to influence the situation beyond a number of airstrikes (as always, apparently mostly delivered on civilian targets) in support of government forces.

That has inevitably led people to draw conclusions about Russia’s ability to project power overseas, and what it may mean for the course of the war in Ukraine.

But hasty comparisons should be avoided. There is a world of difference between a distant operation in support of a friend of Moscow clinging to power and a major war on Russia’s own borders for territory which Vladimir Putin has declared should be Moscow’s to rule.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and chief of staff Andriy Yermak have been listed amongst Politico’s annual list of the most influential people in Europe.

The list was divided into “dreamers”, “doers” and “disrupters”.

Mr Zelenskyy topped the dreamers for “changing the course of history.... with the power of words” and Mr Yermak as a runner-up doer as “the mastermind behind Kyiv’s push to engage with developing countries”.

Syrian fighters received about 150 drones as well as other covert support from Ukrainian intelligence operatives last month, weeks ahead of the rebels’ advance that toppled Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, according to the Washington Post.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities, the Post late on Tuesday said Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 drone operators and about 150 first-person-view drones about four to five weeks ago to aid Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Ukrainian intelligence is keeping eyes open for other fronts where it can bloody Russia’s nose and undermine its clients, the Post reported.

While Kyiv’s aid played “only a modest role in overthrowing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad”, it was a “notable as part of a broader Ukrainian effort to strike covertly at Russian operations in the Middle East, Africa and inside Russia itself”, the report added.

Russia’s foreign ministry had earlier said, without providing evidence, that the rebels had received drones from Ukraine and training in how to operate them, an accusation that Ukraine‘s foreign ministry at the time said it “categorically” rejected.

A former al Qaeda affiliate, HTS has moved to install an interim administration after Syria’s 13-year civil war tore apart a country that has existed as one of the most oppressive police states in the Middle East under five decades of Assad family rule.

Rescue crews working through the night have pulled two Ukrainian women from rubble more than seven hours after a Russian missile struck a private medical clinic in southern Zaporizhzhia city, killing six people and injuring 22 others, Ukraine’s emergency services said.

The women called rescue services on their mobile phones to say they were buried under the rubble after the attack late on Tuesday.

Deadly Russian strikes on civilian areas have been a feature of Vladimir Putin’s almost three-year war.

Ukraine’s western allies are sending more aid to help it keep fighting Russia’s invasion, but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the Zaporizhzhia strike showed that his country still needs more air defence systems.

The US transfer to Ukraine of $20bn backed by frozen Russian assets was “simply robbery”, Russia’s foreign ministry said yesterday.

The US Treasury said it had transferred the $20bn US portion of a $50bn G7 loan for Ukraine to a World Bank intermediary fund for economic and financial aid to Kyiv.

“The provision by the US Treasury Department...of $20 billion using income from operations of ‘frozen’ Russian sovereign assets essentially stolen by the G7 countries is simply robbery,” the statement on the Russian foreign ministry website said.

It claimed that president Joe Biden’s administration was trying “in a Russophobic frenzy to introduce as many anti-Russian sanctions as possible before it transfers power to president-elect Donald Trump’s team on 20 January”.

“No pseudo-legal machinations, abundantly seasoned with hypocrisy and double standards will go unanswered,” the statement said.

The ministry suggested Moscow could seize Western assets on its territory “to enhance industrial potential”.

“Russia possesses sufficient capabilities and levers for a retaliatory seizure of Western assets within its jurisdiction, which in such a case would be used to enhance industrial potential and implement infrastructure projects in Russian regions.”

Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, Kyiv’s military said yesterday, as Moscow bears down on the strategic logistics hub that is home to a unique Ukrainian coking mine.

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he had visited a marine unit in the Pokrovsk sector and noted the conditions servicemen faced against “an enemy superior, primarily, in terms of manpower”.

“Unconventional decisions must be made to enhance the resilience of our defence and ensure more effective destruction of the occupiers,” he wrote on Facebook, without mentioning when the visit took place.

“The battles are exceptionally fierce. The Russian occupiers are throwing all available forces forward, attempting to break through our troops’ defences.”

After months of accelerating advances towards Pokrovsk, Moscow’s forces are now as close as 3km (1.9 miles) from the southern outskirts of the city, according to Ukraine’s DeepState, which maps the frontlines using open sources.

“As a result of prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed, one was lost. Currently, measures are being taken to restore positions,” Nazar Voloshyn, Ukraine’s military spokesperson for the eastern front, said in televised comments.

Just over 44 per cent of Ukrainians trust US president-elect Donald Trump, around 10 points less than president Joe Biden, a survey by New Europe Center showed.

In comparison, a separate June poll by the Pew Research Center suggested that Hungaraians trusted Mr Trump the most at 37 percent, followed by Britain at 30 per cent and then France with 16 per cent of the population trusting him.

“This high level of support is likely due to the expectation of a clearer and more decisive policy towards Ukraine from the new US administration,” New Europe Center researchers said.

Just over 70 per cent of Ukrainians support gradual Nato accession akin to West Germany’s model, a survey by the Kyiv-based New Europe Center found.

This invitation would cover Ukraine, but the alliance’s defensive umbrella would only extend to occupied territories after liberation.

Different Nato accession pathways are gaining traction in both the West and Kyiv as Russia holds a military advantage on the battlefield and the prospect of liberating occupied territories militarily remains slim.

Russian forces have increased the pace at which they are taking territory in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv’s troops struggle to hold back a much larger and more heavily armed military.

Along the 1,000 km frontline, Moscow has focused its attacks on towns and villages around the transport hub of Pokrovsk, the seizure of which could severely disrupt Ukraine’s ability to supply its forces.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst from the Finland-based Black Bird Group, which studies footage and satellite images from the frontline, told Reuters that Russian gains in Ukraine had accelerated in recent months.

He estimated the following monthly territorial gains by Russia:

• August - 403 sq km
• September - 422 sq km
• October - 491 sq km
• 1-18 November - 363 sq km

In Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in August, Kyiv now holds approximately 500 sq km of territory, Paroinen estimated, down from a maximum of around 1,200 sq km.