By This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine on November 3, 2023.
Russia launched a huge drone attack in the early hours of Friday morning, striking critical infrastructure in parts of southern and western Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
The air force said on Telegram that it had shot down 24 “Shahed” drones out of “four dozen” launched from Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, while a Kh-59 guided air missile had also been launched from occupied Kherson.
Drone strikes hit civilian targets in and around Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the early hours of Friday morning, according to Ukrainian officials.
Oleh Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, wrote on Telegram that attacks damaged civilian infrastructure shortly after midnight in the northeastern city along with a nearby village, according to a Google translation. He also shared video and images of a fire blazing in Kharkiv city and said eight residents received medical attention on the spot, but nobody was injured.
The U.S. government on Thursday imposed sweeping new sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, with almost 100 new measures targeting energy production, mining and defense. It also included new measures to clamp down on sanctions evasion in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China.
“Russia is dependent on willing third-country individuals and entities to resupply its military and perpetuate its heinous war against Ukraine and we will not hesitate in holding them accountable,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.
In a Twitter post and accompanying video late Thursday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that he has “no doubt that Ukraine will win.”
Ukrainian advances are “relatively static” between the two main lines of Russia’s defensive positions, while a large-scale Russian assault has “floundered” on Ukrainian defenses, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday in an intelligence update posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A major factor has been “the relative side-lining of tactical air power,” the ministry said.
Both sides have maintained their air defenses, preventing combat jets from providing effective air support for assaults, while the geographic size of the conflict has “hampered” offensives by both Russia and Ukraine.
“Both sides have struggled to assemble uncommitted striking forces capable of a breakthrough because most of their mobilised troops are needed to hold the 1,200km line of contact,” the update said.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video conference on Friday, in which they discussed the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a German government readout.
The two leaders reiterated that “a nuclear war must not be waged and can never be won.”
Xi will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco next month, the White House announced on Tuesday, as Washington seeks to repair ties with Russia’s most powerful financial ally and a key pillar of support for its war effort.
– Elliot Smith
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Fridays said that Russia has learned to adapt to Western sanctions, after the U.S. imposed a wave of new measures on Thursday.
Though acknowledging that sanctions did cause additional problems, Peskov said Moscow had “learnt to overcome them,” according to Reuters.
Russia launched a huge drone attack in the early hours of Friday morning, striking critical infrastructure in parts of southern and western Ukraine, according to an update from the Ukrainian air force.
The air force said on Telegram that it had shot down 24 Iranian-make Shahed drones out of “four dozen” launched from Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, while a Kh-59 guided air missile was also launched from occupied Kherson.
“Shaheds were launched in waves and headed in different directions in small groups. An air alert was announced in most regions, and air defense was in operation,” the air force said, according to a Google translation.
Missile warnings were announced throughout the morning across multiple regions of Ukraine.
CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.
– Elliot Smith
Russia on Friday shrugged off a new round of sanctions announced by Washington.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian state television that the sanctions were a “continuation of the policy of inflicting, as they call it, a strategic defeat on us,” according to a Reuters translation.
“They will have to wait in vain forever before that happens.”
— Elliot Smith
In a Twitter post and accompanying video late Thursday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that he has “no doubt that Ukraine will win.”
Zelenskyy also gave an update on Ukraine’s fledgling export shipping corridor in the Black Sea.
“I am grateful to all those who are fighting and working to ensure Ukraine’s access to the global market,” he said.
“The results are good. Russia is gradually losing control of the Black Sa and retreating to the eastern part of the waters. We will reach them there as well.”
— Elliot Smith
Russian drone strikes hit civilian targets in and around Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the early hours of Friday morning, according to Ukrainian officials.
Oleh Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, wrote on Telegram that attacks damaged civilian infrastructure shortly after midnight in the northeastern city along with a nearby village, according to a Google translation.
He also shared video and images of a fire blazing in Kharkiv city and said eight residents received medical attention on the spot, but nobody was injured. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the fire was in the process of being contained, but did not elaborate.
— Elliot Smith
Ukrainian drones are increasing the threat of nuclear disaster, Russia’s defense ministry said, according to a Google translation of a report by state media outlet TASS.
Russian forces intercepted nine Ukrainian drones close to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and then described the attacks as having “the aim of creating the threat of a man-made disaster.”
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
The U.S. government extended its list of sanctions against Moscow, the Treasury said in a press statement Thursday, with almost 100 new measures targeting energy production, mining and defense.
The list of measures also includes a crackdown on sanctions evasion in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China.
“Russia is dependent on willing third-country individuals and entities to resupply its military and perpetuate its heinous war against Ukraine and we will not hesitate in holding them accountable,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has begun to recruit fighters again several months after the death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to Russian media reports.
After halting recruitment following Prigozhin’s failed military uprising in June, and his subsequent death in a plane crash in August, recruitment is again taking place in at least two regions months, the Moscow Times reported, citing other media outlets in Russia.
“According to the online news outlets 59.ru and NGS.ru, the private military company has started to recruit fighters as part of Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardia) in the central Perm region and the Novosibirsk region in Siberia,” the English-speaking news outlet said.
“The emblems and symbols remain the same,” an anonymous Wagner spokesperson was quoted as saying by 59.ru, while the Novosibirsk outlet NGS.ru was told by another Wager source that the new “contracts are signed not with the Defense Ministry, but Rosgvardia.”
Prigozhin’s 25-year-old son Pavel is reportedly heading the new National Guard unit under the nominal title of “Wagner,” the Moscow Times said.
The Wagner Group’s mercenaries had been fighting alongside regular Russian units in Ukraine but Prigozhin rejected plans announced earlier this year by the Russian Defense Ministry, of which he was highly critical, to force Wagner fighters to sign contracts with the ministry.
Russia rejected accusations that it had a role in Prigozhin’s death and said it was investigating the plane crash in which he died.
— Holly Ellyatt
Kyiv tries to rally troops, urging them to resist burnout as Russian attacks intensify
