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Russia Ukraine war latest: Kyiv fires British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia as US reopens Kyiv embassy

Remains of car that exploded in Sevastopol killing Russian naval officer

The US embassy in Kyiv will resume normal operations today after it was shut down yesterday due to threat of a significant air attack.

This follows Ukraine firing American longer-range ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia after US president Joe Biden removed restrictions after months of pressure from Kyiv.

A US government source said the embassy closure yesterday was “related to ongoing threats of air attacks”. The Italian and Greek embassies said they too had closed their doors, while the French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.

This comes as Ukraine has fired British long-range Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time, The Independent understands, as momentum builds in the West’s military support for Kyiv’s war effort.

The British-made missile – which Kyiv has been lobbying to use beyond Russia’s borders for months – was fired at Russia on Wednesday, with images published by Russian military bloggers purporting to show Storm Shadow fragments in Russia’s Kursk region, beyond Ukraine’s northeastern border.

The US also announced yesterday it would allow Ukrainian military to use anti-personnel landmines, as it seeks to slow down Russian advances.

The US is sending anti-personnel land mines to Ukraine – here’s what it means

The US decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians. And it reflects another in a long line of American policy shifts on the controversial issue in the past 30 years.

US officials say the mines are needed to help Ukraine stall Russian progress on the battlefield, where Moscow’s forces are moving in smaller ground units on the frontlines rather than in more heavily protected armored vehicles.

The defence department has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout the war. Defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the new policy will give Ukraine “nonpersistent antipersonnel land mines” that are safer because they lose the ability to detonate over time.

Arpan Rai21 November 2024 04:07

Photos: Ukrainians shelter at subway as Russia rains missiles

Air raid alarms continued to blare in Ukraine yesterday in the war-hit country, sending people into shelter zones. The fears grew after the US embassy in Kyiv warned of a “potential significant air attack” and shuttered its doors yesterday, following Russia’s vow to respond after Ukraine fired longer-range US missiles at its territory for the first time.

Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv
Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv (Getty Images)
Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv
Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv (Getty Images)
Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv
Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv (Getty Images)
A woman uses her laptop as she takes shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv
A woman uses her laptop as she takes shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv (Getty Images)

Arpan Rai21 November 2024 03:58

Ukrainian colonel ‘hoping to inflict a lot of damage’ on Russian troops and arms depots

Asked about Joe Biden’s decision on using US long-range missiles, a Ukrainian colonel – with close links to the army’s top brass – told The Independent: “Hopefully we will be able to upset Russia’s plans by inflicting a lot of damage on troop concentrations and arms depots.”

He added: “It’s better late than never and a positive development.

“But a key issue is how many ATACMS will the US provide? The US can [also] programme the range the missiles can fly – so another important step is what distance they will allow the missiles to strike.”

Askold Krushelnycky has more details:

Andy Gregory21 November 2024 03:46

US embassy in Kyiv to resume operations today

The US embassy in Kyiv will resume normal operations today after it had shut for the day yesterday due to threat of a significant air attack. A day earlier, the US had given nod to Kyiv to fire US’s ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia.

Russia had described the strike by US missiles on an ammunition depot in Bryansk as an escalation in the 1,000-day-old war, while Ukraine‘s military spy agency said Russia was trying to sow panic by circulating fake online messages about a looming missile and drone attack.

“@USEmbassyKyiv has resumed services following a temporary shelter-in-place suspension earlier today,” US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink wrote on X.

“We continue to encourage US citizens to remain vigilant, monitor official Ukrainian sources for updates, and be prepared to shelter in place if an air alert is announced.”

The US State Department had earlier said it expected the Kyiv embassy to resume normal operations today.

The initial State Department statement on the embassy’s website said the embassy would be closed “out of an abundance of caution”. Embassy employees, it said, were being instructed to “shelter in place”.

“The US Embassy recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”

The Kremlin said it had no comment.

A US government source said the embassy closure was “related to ongoing threats of air attacks”. The Italian and Greek embassies said they too had closed their doors. The French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.

Arpan Rai21 November 2024 03:07

Zelensky says Crimea can only be restored to Ukraine through diplomacy

Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the Crimea peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, would have to be restored to Ukrainian sovereignty through diplomacy.

Mr Zelensky, interviewed by Fox News on a train in Ukraine and broadcast yesterday, said his country could not afford to lose the number of lives that would be required to retake Crimea through military means.

He again rejected any notion of ceding any territory already occupied by Moscow’s forces, saying Ukraine “cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian.”

“I was already mentioning that we are ready to bring Crimea back diplomatically,” Mr Zelensky told Fox News through an interpreter.

“We cannot spend dozens of thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming backa… and still it’s not a fact that we can bring it back with the arms in our hands. We understand that Crimea can be brought back diplomatically.”

Arpan Rai21 November 2024 02:57

Zelensky visits injured Ukrainian soldiers to award them with state honours

Zelensky visits injured Ukrainian soldiers to award them with state honours

Andy Gregory21 November 2024 02:43

Putin’s foreign minister’s chilling warning to West after Ukraine fired US-made missiles into Russia

On the sidelines of the G20 summit, Sergei Lavrov said: “If long-range missiles are going to be applied from Ukraine into Russian territory, it will also mean that they are operated by American military experts and we will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia and will react accordingly.”

Putin’s foreign minister’s chilling warning to West after US-made missiles hit Russia

Andy Gregory21 November 2024 01:40

Scrapping of former Royal Navy flagships ‘shows just how tight resources are in MoD’, says analyst

The UK government’s decision to axe two former Royal Navy flagships, a frigate and 14 Chinook helicopters shows “just how tight resources must be” in the Ministry of Defence, an analyst has said.

Matthew Savill, military sciences director at RUSI, the world’s oldest defence think-tank, said: “These are mostly capabilities that are approaching retirement anyway, have been at low levels of readiness or aren’t worth further refits or investment.

“But the fact that Defence either can’t crew them, or is prepared to cut them to make very modest savings over five years in the current international environment is an indication of just how tight resources must be in the MOD right now.

“In particular, the Defence Review will be under pressure to set out the future role of the Royal Marines; how the Navy will bring into service and sustain more escorts, which are the workhorses of the fleet; and the impact upon helicopter capacity and procurement.”

Andy Gregory21 November 2024 00:44

Exclusive: Japan nuclear bomb survivor warns Putin he has no idea destruction they cause

A survivor of the atomic bomb attack on Japan’s Nagasaki during the Second World War has warned Vladimir Putin that he has no idea of the destruction and pain such weapons cause as he threatens the West with the prospect of nuclear war.

Terumi Tanaka, one of a diminishing number of survivors of the US attacks on Japan in 1945, said the use of nuclear weapons would spell “the end of the human race” and that leaders like Mr Putin “don’t realise the extent of the damage that can be done”.

Mr Tanaka’s warning, made during a sit-down interview with The Independent in campaign group Nihon Hidankyo’s small but bustling Tokyo office, came at a time of escalating nuclear sabre-rattling from the Russian leadership.

Mr Tanaka, 92, said civilisation as we know it faces an “imminent danger” and a nuclear war appears to be “not far away”, adding: “I’m very scared about it.”

The Independent’s Asia editor Adam Withnall has the full exclusive report:

Japan nuclear bomb survivor warns Putin he has no idea destruction they cause

Exclusive: Terumi Tanaka, co-chair of a group representing survivors of the US atomic bomb attacks in 1945 which was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, tells Adam Withnall in Tokyo that civilisation as we know it is in imminent danger as Russia ramps up its sabre-rattling against the West over the invasion of Ukraine

Andy Gregory20 November 2024 23:59

Voices | Nobody can stop the juggernaut of war – not even Putin

In this opinion piece for Independent Voices, historian and author Mark Almond writes:

The announcement that the US embassy in Kyiv – and some EU embassies – are shutting for fear of Russian airstrikes adds to the mood of growing crisis over Ukraine.

If the Kremlin was to deliberately target foreign embassies in Ukraine, it would be a huge breach in the taboos protecting diplomatic installations even in wartime. Diplomatic immunity is not the only taboo that could fall.

More immediately and widely effective is Washington’s decision to send anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine to slow Russia’s slow but steady advances across the front in eastern Ukraine.

One thing the US has in common with Russia – not to mention China and the world’s “pariah” regimes like Iran, or states without functioning governments like Libya – is its refusal to join the 1997 anti-personnel landmine treaty. The treaty bans their use by most of the world, including the UK and America’s European allies and even Ukraine itself.

Russia, of course, broke the taboo against aggression – in force since Nuremberg in 1945 – by invading Ukraine in the first place. But if Kyiv reneges on its treaty obligation – arguing military necessity – it will be another nail in the coffin of well-meaning attempts to limit the horrors of war.

What is the next shibboleth to fall? How long before WMD become battlefield necessities justified by the actual state of the war on the ground?

Andy Gregory20 November 2024 23:12

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