Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 11-09-2024

The celebration comes amidst fears that democracy is under attack around the world

Germany marked 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the theme “Preserve Freedom!,” against the somber backdrop of war in Gaza and Ukraine, and fears that democracy is under attack around the world. 

The liberal ideals of 1989 “are not something we can take for granted,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, just days after the his governing coalition collapsed.

The Ivan Mazepa is equipped with modern weapon systems that significantly enhance its combat capabilities.

What is planned to be the future flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the corvette ‘Ivan Mazepa,’ displayed “excellent performance” in its trials, Ukrainian Navy Commander Oleksii Neizhpapa stated in a Facebook post Saturday.

“During artillery exercises, it showcased excellent performance, accurately striking air, sea, and ground targets,” Neizhpapa said.

Electric wires fell on and killed two passers-by – a man and a woman. Efforts are underway to identify them.

A Russian airstrike Saturday on Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, resulting in the deaths of two individuals and injuries to another, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported.

“A pre-trial investigation established that on Nov. 9, at around 11 a.m., the Russian Armed Forces carried out an airstrike on Kupyansk. Private homes, apartment buildings, and outbuildings were damaged, 15 garages were destroyed, etc. A 61-year-old man was injured,” the post reads.

Mes died on Aug. 26, while piloting an F-16 defending against a massive Russian missile and drone attack.

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) is reportedly beginning a pretrial investigation into the crash of a newly received F-16 fighter jet – which resulted in the death of Ukrainian Air Force pilot Oleksii Mes.

Eleven forensic experts have been appointed to investigate, Suspilne reported.

President Yoon Suk Yeol said this week that Seoul is now not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons directly to Ukraine, given Pyongyang’s military support of Moscow.

North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea, Seoul’s military said.

The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.

Russian forces reportedly targeted a wide range of locations in Kherson, including an educational institution, a penitentiary, and a store, while also damaging residential buildings.

Russian shelling on the Kherson region on Friday, Nov. 8, left two people dead and two others injured, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the region’s military administration, in a post on Telegram.

“In the past 24 hours, enemy fire and airstrikes targeted Sadove, Stanislav, Inzhenerne, Novodmytrivka, Bilozerka, Shyroka Balka, Oleksandrivka, Mykilske, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Beryslav, Ukrainka, Mykhailivka, Dudchany, Kachkarivka, Zolota Balka, Odradokamianka and Kherson,” Prokudin said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that German fuel prices are awful because Berlin and Europe stopped buying cheap Russian gas. But the data clearly dispels her claims.

Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, issued an official comment on a looming no-confidence vote in Germany’s Bundestag. She said that Germany’s economic problems are the result of the big error of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government in rejecting Russian energy imports, which has led to German fuel prices spiking disastrously.

Official EU and independent data on automotive and natural gas fuel prices in Germany and elsewhere in the EU directly contradict Zakharova’s assertion that cheap Russian fuel is the key to European economic strength. Indeed, the data points toward the possibility she just made it up, Kyiv Post fact checks found.

Trump should call Putin’s bluff

It is quite extraordinarily how the fortunes of President elect Trump and President Putin of Russia have changed since they last met back in 2019.

Back then at the G20 summit in Canada, Trump was still poleaxed by domestic legal proceedings, the Mueller report and accusations of him being the Moscow Candidate, an image not helped by the  disastrous prior year summit meeting with Putin in Helsinki.

Russia’s reportedly lost approximately 20,000 personnel since the start of Ukraine’s counter-invasion

Russian forces reportedly lost 20 military vehicles in the Kursk region in October due to minefields laid by Ukrainian engineering troops.

In nearly three months of the Ukrainian forces' operation in the Kursk region, Russia has reportedly lost over 20,000 personnel – with 7,905 killed, 12,220 wounded, and 717 captured.

During the election campaign, Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in just 24 hours if elected president, but gave no indication of how he intended to keep this promise.

During the election campaign, Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in just 24 hours if elected president, but gave no indication of how he intended to keep this promise. Europe's media examine the next US president's options for bringing about a peace deal and what consequences it could have.

Kyiv wouldn't have had it much easier with Harris

The drones disrupted ammunition production – part of systematic strikes on military facilities in Russia.

Drones from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and Special Operations Forces (SSO) struck the Alekseyevsky Chemical Plant in Russia’s Tula region late Thursday night, an SBU source told Kyiv Post Saturday.

The plant, part of the Russian “Rostec” corporation, manufactures gunpowder, other ammunition, and materials for the Russian military-industrial complex, the source said.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Approximately 2,000 One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA UAVs) were launched by Russia against Ukraine over the month of October 2024, exceeding September's numbers by approximately 700, and increasing significantly for the third month in a row.
• With continuing Russian investment in a range of OWA UAVs, diversification of supply, and expansion of launch-sites, firing rates have been trending consistently upwards since mid-2024.

Through the first week of November Russian firing rates remained high and in-line with recent weeks. With launch sites being reasonably simple and easy to re-establish if targeted, should production remain uninhibited, the primary limiting factor for Russian OWA UAV operations is likely human resource relative to launch capacity. It is likely that the high figures seen through September and October to date will become normal.

Borrell said that now is the time for Europe to become stronger and more united.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived Saturday in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing in the first visit by a top Brussels official after Donald Trump’s poll win. 

The volatile Republican’s victory in the United States election has set nerves jangling in Ukraine and Europe that Trump could end Washington’s support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion. 

Multiple buildings and vehicles were on fire from the drone attack.

A nighttime drone attack by Russian forces on Odesa has left one woman dead and 13 people injured, including two children, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported Saturday morning.

“According to the investigation, on the night of Nov. 9, the Russian Armed Forces carried out a massive attack using UAVs on Odesa and its suburbs. As a result of the attack, a local resident was killed, and 13 people were injured, among them two boys aged four and 16. Information regarding other victims is being clarified,” the statement on Telegram said.

NATO reiterated its commitment to working with its partners, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.

NATO strongly condemned Russia’s and North Korea’s expansion of Russia’s Ukraine invasion in a statement Friday.

NATO highlighted that, along with providing ballistic missiles and millions of rounds of ammunition, North Korea is now deploying combat troops.

Since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has significantly increased its purchase of American LNG, though it has not fully severed its energy ties with Moscow.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that she proposed to former US President Donald Trump that the US could increase its supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the EU, potentially replacing energy imports from Russia.

With Trump poised to return to the White House after a campaign focused on threats of steep tariffs on foreign goods, the EU is keen to avoid a trade war with its top ally, AFP reported.

Zelensky reportedly thanked Musk for the Starlinks.

Elon Musk took part in a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President-elect Donald Trump after his election victory, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP Friday.

“I confirm it,” the presidency official who asked to remain anonymous told AFP, saying that the claim in a report by US news site Axios about the call on Wednesday was accurate.

The US had not officially permitted defense contractors to work in Ukraine previously.

The United States aims to send a “small number” of contractors to Ukraine to help maintain advanced weapons like the warplanes and air defense systems provided to Kyiv, a US defense official said Friday.

Washington has been a key military backer of Ukraine, committing more than $60 billion in security aid since February 2022, but had not permitted defense contractors to work in the country after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

As Ukraine weighs nuclear weapons options, LENR technology presents a potential path to powerful weapons with a deterrence effect without violating international treaties.

As Ukraine weighs nuclear weapons options, LENR technology presents a potential path to powerful weapons with a deterrence effect without violating international treaties.      

On Oct. 17 Zelensky once again discussed the possibility of Ukraine becoming nuclear again, referring to the failure of the Budapest Memorandum to ensure Ukraine’s security.

Kyiv Post examines the threat Ukraine faces from waves of Russian kamikaze drones and other aerial weapons and what Kyiv and its Western allies can do to counter them.

Russia has consistently used Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV – drones) to attack Ukraine since they first acquired them from Iran in September 2022. In recent weeks the stream of attacks on Kyiv and other cities has become a torrent. Previously used as an adjunct to cruise and ballistic missile strikes, they are now used as a stand-alone method of attack in ever increasing numbers.

Shahed strikes that previously happened two or three times a week involving a dozen or fewer UAVs are now a daily occurrence, dispatched in waves over several hours sometimes involving up to 100 of the machines.

The acting chairman of Ukraine’s energy transmission operator said winter will be challenging, but the company expects no blackouts at present if there are no further attacks on energy facilities.

Ukraine currently expects no blackouts, Oleksii Brekht, acting chairman of the management board of Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s energy transmission operator said on Thursday. 

Brekht, who was joined for a discussion panel by other energy representatives at the Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) on Nov. 7, said the energy situation this winter remains challenging before adding that no blackouts are expected thanks to efficient restoration – unless Russian attacks cause new damage to energy facilities.