The Hamas/Israeli conflict is stealing media coverage of the Ukraine/Russian conflict……
Closing summary
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Hungary will block the disbursement of the next tranche of military aid to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility until Kyiv provides “guarantees” that OTP bank or other Hungarian firms will not be blacklisted as “international sponsors of war”, the country’s foreign minister said.
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Russian shelling on Monday damaged a hospital and homes in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing three people and injuring at least 12, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
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Germany’s aid for Ukraine will be “massively expanded” next year, the country’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said. She said: “We will not only continue our support for Ukraine, we will continue to expand and increase it, especially on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany, not only with a view to the winter defence for the coming weeks and months, when it is clear that the Russian president will once again exploit the needs of the people in the cold winter. “Our support will also be massively expanded, especially for the coming year.”
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At least three Russian officers were killed in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in a blast Ukraine’s intelligence said was an “act of revenge” by local resistance groups.
Russian state media on Monday published and swiftly retracted reports of a withdrawal of forces from positions on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro River.
The reports quoted Russia’s defence ministry announcing troops were being transferred “to more favourable positions” on the Russian-occupied left – or eastern – side.
The stories were quickly retracted.
The Russian defence ministry blamed the “false report” on Ukraine.
Ukraine claimed the announcement was a Russian disinformation operation being carried out against it.
Monday’s hasty reversal took place almost exactly a year after Russian forces withdrew their troops from the right bank, including from the city of Kherson. The river largely continues to separate Ukrainian and Russian forces.
In the now-retracted reports, state news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti said Russia had repositioned troops to positions east of the Dnipro river, in order to “free up some of its forces, which will be used for offensive operations in other areas”.
They reflected similar language to those used in previous announcements of Russian retreats.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the incident, saying it was a matter for the military.
Ukrainian forces have escalated raids targeting Russian forces across the Dnipro in recent weeks – a key aim of its counter-offensive, which aims to slice through Russian occupied territory, severing a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed illegally in 2014.
On Friday, Russia claimed to have repelled a Ukrainian attempt to establish a beachhead – a landing position on a beach – which could have been used to bring heavy armour into the fight and would have represented a significant advance.
Still, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank, reported last week that Russian efforts to repel Ukrainian forces from the east bank had “not prevented Ukrainian forces from transferring additional personnel and materiel to positions on the east bank” of the river….