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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
10:45 p.m.: QatarEnergy has signed a 27-year deal to supply China's Sinopec with liquefied natural gas in the longest such LNG agreement to date as volatility drives buyers to seek long-term supplies, Reuters reported.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, competition for LNG has become intense, with Europe in particular needing vast amounts to help replace Russian pipeline gas that used to make up almost 40% of the continent's imports.
"Today is an important milestone for the first sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for North Field East project, it is 4 million (metric) tons for 27 years to Sinopec of China," QatarEnergy chief Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters.
"It signifies long-term deals are here and important for both seller and buyer," he said in an interview in Doha, adding that the deal was the LNG sector's largest single sales and purchase agreement on record.
The North Field is part of the world's biggest gas field that Qatar shares with Iran, which calls its share South Pars.
8:42p.m.: Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he is suing his maximum security prison for not giving him winter boots, as temperatures in Russia drop below freezing, Agence France-Presse reported.
"I am suing my colony and demanding to be issued winter boots," Navalny said on Twitter.
The 46-year-old is serving a nine-year sentence outside Vladimir, a town around 230 kilometers east of Moscow, where temperatures Monday dipped to -6 degrees Celsius.
Navalny said the prison switched to winter clothes weeks ago, but guards had refused to give him boots.
He said Monday that he had recently received "a lot of letters lately about depression, gloom and apathy." He called on Russians to "cheer up."
"Finish your pumpkin latte and go do something to bring Russia closer to freedom," he wrote, in his usual tongue-in-cheek style.
7:50 p.m.: There are no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine despite shelling over the weekend that caused widespread damage, the U.N. atomic watchdog said after its experts toured the site, Reuters reported.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has four of its staff based at Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, said there had been some of the heaviest shelling in recent months there, though it added that key nuclear safety and security systems had not been hit.
"They (IAEA experts) were able to confirm that – despite the severity of the shelling – key equipment remained intact and there were no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement issued on Monday evening.
"The status of the six reactor units is stable, and the integrity of the spent fuel, the fresh fuel and the low, medium and high-level radioactive waste in their respective storage facilities was confirmed," the IAEA said, adding that there was "widespread damage across the site."
That damage included "several impacts on the main road along the plant's reactors," shrapnel hitting a pressurized air pipeline, "minor visible damage to a sprinkler charging pipeline" and damage to the roof of what it called a special auxiliary building.
6:33 p.m.:
5:26 p.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday condemned the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine and said other nuclear plants at Rovno and Khmelnitski as well as the Nova Kakhovka dam had also been targeted, Reuters reported.
Macron, in a statement after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also said Zelenskiy had thanked France for its continuous support for the Ukrainian army via the delivery of supplies, a 200-million-euro purchasing fund for Ukraine and the French contribution to European peace efforts.
4:20 p.m.: The United Nations reported Monday that its humanitarian colleagues successfully delivered a new inter-agency convoy of vital supplies to the people of Kherson, spokesperson Farhan Haq said, in addition to supplies delivered last week. VOA's Margaret Besheer reports from the U.N.
Monday's 13-truck, inter-agency convoy, the second to reach Kherson in a week, prioritized the most urgent humanitarian needs of the more than 100,000 people who remain in the city, he said.
Hospitals in Kherson will now have enough medical kits to treat 100,000 patients for three months, and additional supplies for women and girls’ reproductive health. The convoy also brought supplies for surgery, chronic diseases, and trauma.
The convoy also brought one week’s worth of food for nearly 2,500 people, water for more than 10,000 people, blankets, sleeping bags and other supplies to nearly 500 families. They delivered nearly 2,300 solar lamps, which will help people in Kherson to have light at home as the city is cut off from energy supply, as well as hygiene items.
3:37 p.m.: Washington's envoy for war crimes said on Monday the United States was monitoring allegations of Ukrainian forces summarily executing Russian troops, and said all parties should face consequences if they commit abuses in the conflict, Reuters reported.
Russia's defense ministry on Friday cited videos circulating on social media that allegedly showed Ukrainian soldiers executing Russian prisoners of war.
"We are obviously tracking that quite closely," Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, told reporters during a telephone briefing.
Ukraine's deputy prime minister has reportedly said Ukraine will investigate the incident. The country's commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said the videos appeared to show "a staged capture" where Russian forces were not truly surrendering.
2:30 p.m.:
2:05 p.m.: A bloody battle continues to grind on for control of Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine's Donetsk region. On the front line, Ukrainian troops protect their skies with man-portable air-defense systems, also known as MANPADS. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Maryan Kushnir spoke with Ukrainian soldiers about how they defend against Russian aerial assaults in the Donbas.
1:55 p.m.: The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday that its team of experts had made an assessment of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which came under heavy fire over the weekend, and determined that there was no serious damage to essential equipment, nor any immediate safety risk.
1:40 p.m.: NATO allies Poland and Germany have agreed to deploy additional Patriot missile launchers near the Polish border with Ukraine following an offer from Berlin, Reuters reported Monday, quoting Poland's defense minister.
"The German Defense Minister confirmed her willingness to deploy the Patriot launcher at the border with Ukraine," Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.
"The version of the system remains to be determined, as does how quickly they will reach us and how long they will be stationed."
1:25 p.m.:
1:00 p.m.: The World Health Organization on Monday warned that the upcoming winter would be "life-threatening" for millions of Ukrainians after a series of devastating Russian attacks on the country's energy grid, Agence France-Presse reported.
“Put simply – this winter will be about survival,” said Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe.
12:35 p.m.:
12:10 p.m.: Moldova warned its people on Monday to brace for a harsh winter as it was facing an "acute" energy crisis which risked stoking popular unrest with Russia's war in Ukraine threatening its energy supplies and prices surging, Reuters reported.
About 50 countries and institutions met in Paris on Monday to pledge aid for the country as fears mount that it could be further destabilized by the conflict in Ukraine.
"This war is endangering the supply of electricity and gas. We are not certain we can find enough ... to heat and light our homes, and even if we do, the prices are unaffordable for our people and economy. This could jeopardize our social peace and security," President Maia Sandu told delegates in a speech.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the donor conference, announced an additional international aid package worth more than 100 million euros ($103 million) for the eastern European nation.
He said much of that aid would have to be focused on helping Moldova deal with an energy crisis that is the consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
11:40 a.m.: The charity group Save the Children on Monday tweeted a report from Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson where civilians have been queueing up for assistance with basic supplies, including clean drinking water. The group estimated it could take more than a month before vital services are restored to city residents.
11:15 a.m.: Retired U.S. General Ben Hodges, who commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe from 2014 until 2017, told Reuters that civilian infrastructure is an essential pillar of military strategy, and cyber protection is just as important as missile defense systems to guard the German North Sea ports.
A cyber attack on the German ports of Bremerhaven or Hamburg would severely impede NATO efforts to send military reinforcements to allies, Hodges said. The European Commission proposed an action plan to bolster cyber defense earlier this month.
Russia has recently increasingly targeted communications and electricity infrastructure in Ukraine, and in October warned "quasi-civilian infrastructure" may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike against countries aiding the eastern European country which it invaded in February.
The German defense ministry in Berlin declined to comment on Hodges' security concerns. Hamburg port operator HHLA said it constantly examines software, guidelines and methods to identify and eliminate weaknesses as quickly as possible.
10:50 a.m.: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday there has been an important discussion within the NATO Parliamentary Assembly about its role in supporting Ukraine and also how to strengthen NATO preparedness.
10:30 a.m.: Diplomats are drumming up money and other support Monday for Europe’s poorest country, Moldova, which is suffering massive blackouts, heavy refugee flows and potential security threats from the war in neighboring Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Monday’s international aid conference in Paris is aimed at “concrete and immediate assistance” for the land-locked former Soviet republic, according to the French Foreign Ministry. Two previous conferences for Moldova this year raised hundreds of millions of euros, but as the war drags on, its needs are growing.
10:10 a.m.:
9:55 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged NATO members on Monday to guarantee the protection of Ukraine's nuclear plants from Russian sabotage, a day after the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant was rocked by heavy shelling, Reuters reported.
"All our nations are interested in not having any dangerous incidents at our nuclear facilities," Zelenskiy said in a video address to NATO's Parliamentary Assembly in Madrid.
"We all need guaranteed protection from Russian sabotage at nuclear facilities," he added.
The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was shelled on Saturday and Sunday, raising concern about the potential for a serious accident just 500 km (300 miles) from Chornobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.
9:25 a.m.: The head of Russia's state-run atomic energy agency, Rosatom, warned on Monday there was a risk of a nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, following renewed shelling over the weekend, Reuters reported.
Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations of shelling the facility for months since Russian forces took control of it in March, shortly after invading Ukraine. Renewed shelling on Sunday triggered fresh fears of a possible disaster at the site.
"The plant is at risk of a nuclear accident. We were in negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) all night," Interfax quoted Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev as saying.
Rosatom has controlled the facility through a subsidiary since President Vladimir Putin in October ordered Russia to formally seize the plant and transfer Ukrainian staff to a Russian entity. Kyiv says the transfer of assets amounts to theft.
The IAEA has called for the creation of a security zone around the plant.
9:05 a.m.: The Elders, a group of independent global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights, said on Twitter Monday that they are concerned about security at the Zaporizhizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, following intensified fighting in the area over the weekend. They said they agree with the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, that a safety and security zone around the area needs to be put in place immediately.
9:00 a.m.: There will be many more defense procurement proposals heading to the German parliament for approval this year, said a defense ministry spokesperson on Monday, as the war in Ukraine has put renewed focus on bringing the country's military up to speed.
Germany is struggling to ramp up defense procurement or even just replace arms and munitions it has supplied to Kyiv, several sources told Reuters, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged 100 billion euros to bring the military up to speed in February.
8:30 a.m.: NATO allies may decide to aim to spend more on defense than their current target of 2% of national output when they meet for their next summit in Vilnius in July 2023, the chief of the alliance said on Monday, Reuters reported.
"I expect that, in one way or another, even though perhaps the 2% will be kept, it will be kept more as a kind of floor than a ceiling for defense spending," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Spain.
8:10 a.m.: Europe is waking up to a new need to defend itself since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a special report published by Reuters Monday.
As children in Lithuania headed back to class this autumn, some of their schools were marked with new stickers: Hundreds have been designated as bomb shelters. In Finland, defense forces have been assembling modular military fortifications and practicing landing jets on the highways.
Planners from the Baltics in the north to Romania in the south are scrutinizing potential military reinforcement routes, planning to fortify bridges and adding military transport functions to civilian airports, more than three dozen military and civilian officials across eight European states told Reuters.
After 25 years of fighting conflicts abroad, the NATO alliance suddenly needs to show the enemy it can respond to a threat anywhere along its border, its top military adviser told Reuters.
It is not ready, he said.
“In many, many nations — not only the eastern flank — but in many, many nations, there are shortfalls in infrastructure,” said Rob Bauer, a Dutch admiral who chairs NATO’s Military Committee.
The European Union said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased the urgency of making Europe’s transport infrastructure fit for dual civil and defense use, and it is speeding up funding for projects that support military mobility.
7:40 a.m.: Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from the recently-liberated areas of the Kherson region and the neighboring province of Mykolaiv, fearing that damage to the infrastructure is too severe for people to endure the upcoming winter, The Associated Press quoted officials saying on Monday.
Residents of the two southern regions, regularly shelled in the past months by Russian forces, have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and and western parts of the country, said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
The government will provide “transportation, accommodation, medical care,” she said.
The evacuations come more than a week after Ukraine retook the city of Kherson and areas around it. The liberation of the area marked a major battlefield gain, while the evacuations now highlight the difficulties the country is facing following heavy Russian shelling of its power infrastructure as winter weather sets in.
7:15 a.m.: Russia's leading war hawks rallied behind the humiliating decision for Moscow's forces to retreat from the Ukrainian city of Kherson this month, but the commander who argued in favor of the move is now under growing pressure to prove it was worth it, Reuters reported Monday.
Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, on November 9 recommended Moscow's forces quit Kherson and the west bank of the River Dnipro where they were dangerously exposed.
Surovikin, a 56-year-old veteran of wars in Chechnya and Syria who has been decorated by President Vladimir Putin, argued the withdrawal, completed two days later, would allow Moscow to save equipment and redeploy forces there — estimated by the United States at 30,000-strong — to offensives elsewhere.
Some of those troops have since been moved from southern to eastern Ukraine, where fierce fighting is raging, and the Hero of Russia recipient is under pressure on the cusp of winter to show his bet was the right one.
6:30 a.m.: Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak says Warsaw will accept an offer from Germany to deploy additional Patriot missile launchers, and will propose deploying them near its border with Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
6:00 a.m.: Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, was rocked by shelling on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the U.N. nuclear watchdog which said such attacks risked a major disaster.
Repeated shelling of the plant in southern Ukraine has raised concern about the potential for a grave accident just 500 km (300 miles) from the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.
Reuters has this round up about what is known about the incident, and the risks posed by the power plant being part of the battleground in Ukraine.
5:30 a.m.: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska paid respect to Heavenly Hundred heroes in Kyiv Monday as the part of Freedom and Dignity Day commemoration, The Associated Press reports.
The "Heavenly Hundred" is what Ukrainians in Kyiv call those who died during months of anti-government protests in 2013-14.
The presidential couple laid candles at the memorial in the center of Kyiv where many protesters were shot dead.
Political upheaval that started in November of 2013 drove out then-president Viktor Yanukovych.
5:10 a.m.:
5:00 a.m.: The Kremlin said on Monday it was not discussing calling up more Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine through a second round of mobilization, Reuters reported.
Russia called up more than 300,000 reservists to support what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine in a controversial mobilization drive launched in September.
The move prompted hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid being conscripted, and sparked the largest anti-Kremlin protests across the country since Moscow sent in its troops in February.
Asked by reporters if Russia was planning a new round of mobilization, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "I can't speak for the defense ministry, but there are no discussions in the Kremlin about this."
4:50 a.m.:
4:15 a.m.: The situation in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other major cities has deteriorated drastically following the missile attacks on the country’s power grid, The Associated Press reports. Ukrainian state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported that 40% of Ukrainians were experiencing difficulties, due to damage to at least 15 major energy hubs across the country.
Warning that electricity outages could last anywhere from several hours to several days, the network said that “resilience and courage are what we need this winter.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after last week's strikes that more than 10 million Ukrainians were left without electricity; by Sunday, he said some areas had seen improvements.
A sharp cold snap and the first snow have significantly complicated the situation in Kyiv, where temperatures are often below freezing in winter months.
"We understand that winter can be long, cold and dark, but we are ready to endure," Kyiv resident Anastasia Pyrozhenko said. “We are ready to live without light, but not with the Russians."
3:44 a.m.: Italy's government will ask parliament to pass a new law on military and civilian supplies to Ukraine throughout 2023, Reuters reports.
The Rome government can send aid to Ukraine without seeking parliamentary authorization each time on the basis of a decree that expires at the end of the year.
"The Defense (ministry) will shortly propose to renew that same measure, extending it to all of 2023," Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Il Foglio newspaper.
2:21 a.m.:
12:47 a.m.:
12:05 a.m: At least 437 children are among the more than 8,300 civilians who have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February, the country’s prosecutor general said on Saturday, The New York Times reported.
Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said that in addition, more than 11,000 civilians had been injured. But he added that the true numbers were likely to be far higher. Ukrainian officials do not have access to areas occupied by Russian forces in the south and east of the country that Russian forces.
In a report published on Nov. 14, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said that 408 children were among 6,557 people killed since the invasion began and 750 others were among 10,074 injured, though it, too, said the true figures were “certainly higher.” Its data showed that March had been the conflict’s deadliest month.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
