Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv shuts parliament after Putin launches new ballistic missile attack

Ukrainian lawmakers have been asked to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district

Remains of car that exploded in Sevastopol killing Russian naval officer

Ukraine shut down its parliament today over security concerns, a day after Vladimir Putin launched a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile to attack a Ukrainian military facility.

“On 22 November, plans called for a session of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), which included questions to the government, but this was cancelled for reasons of potential security issues,” public broadcaster Suspilne reported.

Ukrainian lawmakers have been asked to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and the next sitting is not scheduled until December.

This comes within a day of Mr Putin firing his experimental ballistic missile on Ukraine’s Dnipro as the visuals showed a multiple reentry attack on the site.

Ukrainian air defence forces said the missile – which has a range of more than 3,400 miles and can be used to carry nuclear warheads – was fired from Russia’s Astrakhan region, on the Caspian Sea.

Nato has doubled down on its backing for the war-hit country and said that “deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato allies from supporting Ukraine”.

Key Points

• Ukrainian parliament postpones sitting today over security risk
• Vladimir Putin says Russia tested hypersonic mid-range ballistic missile in Ukraine ...
• ... And claims Russia entitled to hit British and US military facilities
• Volodymyr Zelensky urges world to condemn Putin’s ‘severe escalation of brutality’
• Britain now directly involved in Ukraine war, Russian ambassador says

[22 November 2024 05:09 · Arpan Rai]

UN chief calls for de-escalation in Ukraine war after Putin fires new missile

The United Nations chief has called on all parties in the Ukraine war to de-escalate the conflict after Russian president Vladimir Putin fired a new missile in Dnipro.

Russia’s use of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile was “yet another concerning and worrying development,” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson said.

“All of this [is] going in the wrong direction,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said as he called on all parties to de-escalate the conflict and “to protect civilians, not hit civilian targets or critical civilian infrastructure”.

[22 November 2024 05:01 · Arpan Rai]

Nato says Putin’s new missile won’t deter West’s support for Kyiv

Russia is seeking to “terrorise” civilians and intimidate Ukraine’s allies with its new missile, Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said .

“Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter Nato allies from supporting Ukraine,” Ms Dakhlallah said.

[22 November 2024 05:00 · Barney Davis]

UK signs security pact with Moldova

The UK has signed a new security and defence partnership agreement with Moldova, as Ukraine’s western neighbour anxiously eyes Russia’s nearby invasion and accuses Moscow of meddling in its elections.

Pro-European president Maia Sandu won re-election last month, but by a smaller margin than expected, as a tiny margin of Moldovan voters backed a referendum to alter the constitution to include provisions on integration with the European Union, presented by premier Dorin Recean on Wednesday.

A UK government statement said the security partnership was aimed at “building on extensive cooperation between the two countries and strengthening Moldovan resilience against external threats”. Foreign secretary David Lammy said: “With Ukraine next door, Moldovans are constantly reminded of Russia’s oppression, imperialism and aggression.”

The deal included £2m to bolster Moldova’s protection against cyberattacks and a £5m grant to improve health services for refugees, as well as an agreement to ensure the return to Moldova of its nationals illegally staying in Britain.

[22 November 2024 04:43 · Arpan Rai]

Ukrainian parliament postpones sitting today over security risk

Ukraine’s parliament has postponed a sitting due to have taken place today out of security concerns, public broadcaster Suspilne reported last night, quoting sources.

“On 22 November, plans called for a session of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), which included questions to the government, but this was cancelled for reasons of potential security issues,” Suspilne said.

It said the order told members to keep their families out of Kyiv’s government district and quoted parliamentarians as saying that, for the moment, the next sitting was not scheduled until December.

The postponement occurred after Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said Russia had struck the central city of Dnipro with a new medium-range hypersonic missile in response to Ukrainian use of Western missiles on targets in Russia.

Mr Putin suggested more could follow “in case of escalation of aggressive actions”.

[22 November 2024 04:30 · Arpan Rai]

Military experts decode Putin’s new missile Orshenik: ‘Taunting his enemy’

Russia was sending a message by attacking Ukraine with an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of releasing multiple warheads at extremely high speeds, even if they are less accurate than cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles, said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

“Why might you use it therefore?” Mr Savill said. “Signaling — signaling to the Ukrainians. We’ve got stuff that outrages you. But really signaling to the West ‘We’re happy to enter into a competition around intermediate range ballistic missiles. P.S.: These could be nuclear tipped. Do you really want to take that risk?’”

Military experts say that modern inter-continental ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles are extremely difficult to intercept, although Ukraine has previously claimed to have stopped some other weapons that Russia described as “unstoppable,” including the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

David Albright, of the Washington-based think tank the Institute for Science and International Security, said he was “skeptical” of Mr Putin’s claim, adding that Russian technology sometimes “falls short.”

He suggested Mr Putin was “taunting the West to try to shoot it down... like a braggart boasting, taunting his enemy.”

[22 November 2024 04:21 · Arpan Rai]

Orshenik: All you need to know about Putin’s new missile

Vladimir Putin announced the Kremlin fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile named “Orshenik” at Ukraine on Thursday in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.

Orshenik, Russian for hazelnut tree, he said flies at ten times the speed of sound and the US air defence systems will be powerless to stop the new missiles.

Mr Putin said it could be used to attack any Ukrainian ally whose missiles are used to attack Russia. The Russian leader said he will issue advance warnings if Moscow launches more strikes with the Oreshnik against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate to safety — something Moscow hasn’t done before previous aerial attacks.

[22 November 2024 04:00 · Barney Davis]

Two lions from wartorn Ukraine arrive at their new home

Two lionesses which were rescued from a conflict zone in Ukraine have arrived at their new home in Scotland.

Luna and Plusza, both aged four, arrived at the Five Sisters Zoo, West Calder, West Lothian, on Wednesday night.

The lionesses were rescued from an area affected by heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine in 2022, before being moved through Kyiv, Poland, and Belgium to reach the safety of Scotland.

[22 November 2024 03:59 · Arpan Rai]

North Korean leader says past diplomacy only confirmed US hostility

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward Pyongyang and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats, state media said Friday.

Mr Kim spoke on Thursday at a defence exhibition where North Korea displayed some of its most powerful weapons systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said. While meeting with army officers last week, he had pledged a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program.

[22 November 2024 03:27 · Arpan Rai]

Zelensky says Putin escalating war with ‘deranged ambitions’

Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin is escalating the war, testing Ukraine’s partners and contradicting peace efforts by China, Brazil, the US and European allies. The Ukrainian leader said Mr Putin “must feel the cost of his deranged ambitions” and forced into real peace.

“Today, Putin admitted to taking a second step this year toward escalating and expanding this war. A new ballistic missile was used. Putin struck our city of Dnipro, one of Ukraine’s largest cities,” Mr Zelensky said, calling it “a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war”

“Let me emphasise: this is already Russia’s second step toward escalation this year. The first was involving North Korea in the war against Ukraine with a contingent of at least 11,000 soldiers,” he said.

“Putin has taken both of these steps while ignoring everyone in the world who is calling for no further expansion of the war. He disregards calls from China, Brazil, European countries, the United States, and others. Putin alone started this war—an entirely unprovoked war—and he is doing everything to prolong it, now for over a thousand days,” he said in post on X.

Putin said he fired a new missile Oreshnik yesterday which struck a well-known missile factory in Dnipro. He also said Russia would issue advance warnings if it launches more strikes with the Oreshnik against Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate to safety — something Moscow hasn’t done before previous aerial attacks.

[22 November 2024 03:10 · Arpan Rai]

North Korean general injured in Ukraine’s British Storm Shadow missile attack – WSJ

A high-ranking North Korean General is reportedly injured in a recent Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Kursk region, Western officials said yesterday.

This is the first casualty of a senior North Korean military officer in the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to the Western officials, reported The Wall Street Journal. Ukraine launched at least 10 British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Kursk on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

It is not immediately clear how the senior North Korean officer was wounded or his identity.

The US had declared that the North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine will become “fair game and fair targets for the Ukrainians” in October, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council had said last month after the troubling intelligence confirmed Pyongyang was sending its troops to fight in the war.