Monday, November 18

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Police and rescuers load onto a truck a fragment of a downed Russian hypersonic missile Zircon, which struck a five-storey residential building in Kyiv during a mass missile and drone barrage on Nov.17, 2024. (Sergei Supinsky / AFP)

Biden authorizes Ukraine to target Russia with US long-range missiles, media reports. The permission should initially apply to strikes against Russian and North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast but could eventually expand to other areas, undisclosed official sources told the New York Times.

Russia launches one of the largest aerial strikes on Ukraine, targets energy grid. Russia targeted “power generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine,” according to Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko.

‘Russia shows it has no intention of ceasing its aggression’ — Kyiv’s partners condemn Russian mass attack. “As we approach 1000 days since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia shows it has no intention of ceasing its aggression,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.

Russian missile attack on Sumy kills 11, injures 68. On the evening of Nov. 17, a Russian ballistic missile hit Sumy, killing 11 people and injuring at least 68, regional authorities reported.

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Ukrainian nuclear power plants lower output following Russian strikes, IAEA reports. Ukraine’s nuclear power plants reduced their electricity production as a precautionary measure due to large-scale missile strikes targeting the country’s energy infrastructure, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Nov. 17.

Russia attacks thermal power plants, dealing ‘serious damage,’ operator says. Russia targeted thermal power plants during a mass strike on the country’s power grid on Nov. 17, dealing “serious damage,” said the country’s largest private energy company, DTEK.

‘We need peace through strength, not appeasement’ — Ukraine’s FM reacts to Russian mass attack. “This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently. We need peace through strength, not appeasement,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Nov. 17.

Russian defense plant over 1,300 km from Ukraine reportedly hit by drone strike. The factory produces air defense systems and radars for the Russian military, said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: Russia launches one of the largest aerial strikes on Ukraine, energy grid damage

Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Nov. 17, leaving at least seven civilians dead and at least 19 injured across multiple regions.

Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images

**The Week Ahead by KI Insights: What we’re watching this week

**This article is an on-site version of KI Insights’ The Week Ahead newsletter covering events from Nov. 18-Nov. 24. Sign up on our website to start your week with an agenda of Ukraine-related events, delivered directly to your inbox every Sunday.

Photo: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images

Human cost of war

2 killed, 7 injured in Mykolaiv amid Russia’s mass missile and drone attack. Two people were killed and seven injured, including two children, in the city of Mykolaiv amid Russia’s mass drone and missile attack, regional governor Vitalii Kim reported on Nov. 17.

Russian attacks on Ukraine in October killed nearly 200, injured over 900 civilians. Russian attacks on various regions of Ukraine in October led to the deaths of 183 civilians and injured a further 903 people, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported.

Russia’s record losses, Trump’s new team | Ukraine This Week

International response

Biden meets Xi, condemns North Korean troops dispatch to Russia. “President Biden condemned the deployment of thousands of (North Korean) troops to Russia, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine with serious consequences for both European and Indo-Pacific peace and security,” the White House statement read.

Musk mocks Zelensky for comments about Ukraine’s independence. The billionaire reposted a modified excerpt from Zelensky’s interview with the Suspilne broadcaster shared on X by the @visegrad24 account, which read: “The U.S. cannot force us to ‘sit and listen’ at the negotiating table. We are an independent country.”

Canada’s Trudeau signals support for Scholz-Putin call, Poland’s Tusk says phone calls won’t stop Russia. “We all understand how important it is to see an end to the violence in Ukraine, to see an end to conflicts around the world,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Bloomberg during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru, which took place between Nov. 15-16.

Russian opposition holds anti-war march in Berlin. The event’s participants are calling for Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine, the release of political prisoners, and to try Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

In other news

Ukraine’s air defense downs 102 missiles, 42 drones during mass Russian strike. Russia attacked Ukraine with a hypersonic 3M22 Zirkon missile, seven air-launched Kinzhal missiles, 85 Kh-101 and Kalibr cruise missiles, one Iskander-M ballistic missile, four anti-radar Kh-22/31P missiles, five Kh-59/69 aerial guided missiles, and 90 drones.

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