Russia-Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy welcomes MH17 court ruling
A Dutch court sentenced two Russians and one Ukrainian to life for their roles in shooting down flight MH17.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the war in Ukraine on Thursday, November 17.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the war in Ukraine on Thursday, November 17.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praises the Dutch court ruling on the MH17 flight convicting pro-Russian separatists but says “those who ordered” the attack must now face trial.
- Explosions rock several parts of the country, including the southern Odesa region, the capital Kyiv and the central city of Dnipro.
- The deal allowing Ukraine to export grain safely from its Black Sea ports has been extended, the United Nations says.
- Investigators in Kherson have uncovered 63 bodies with signs of torture after Russian forces left, said Ukraine’s interior minister.
New Russian attacks hit cities across Ukraine as winter kicks in
New Russian strikes have hit cities across Ukraine, the latest in a wave of attacks that have crippled the country’s energy infrastructure as winter sets in and temperatures drop.
Repeated barrages have disrupted electricity and water supplies for millions of Ukrainians.
As Russia pursues its full-scale invasion, the head of the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, Valentyn Reznichenko, said strikes had hit the administrative centre of Dnipro.
In the southern Odessa region, a Russian strike aimed at infrastructure and the governor warned residents of the threat of a “massive missile attack” urging them to seek shelter.
The eastern region of Kharkiv was also struck, governor Oleg Synyehubov announced, adding that Russia hit “critical infrastructure” in strikes that injured at least three people.
Zelenskyy in response described Russia as a “terrorist state” and said Moscow “wants to bring Ukrainians only more pain and suffering”.
Government energy adviser Oleksandr Kharchenko told media 50 percent of Ukrainians were experiencing disruptions and the west of the country was the worst hit.
“Unfortunately, the attacks are quite effective, and the losses are accumulating,” he was cited as saying.
IAEA board again urges Moscow to cease actions at Ukrainian nuclear facilities
The IAEA Board of Governors has passed its third resolution since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, calling on Moscow to end all actions at Ukrainian nuclear facilities, diplomats at the closed-door vote said.
The text submitted by Canada and Finland for Thursday’s vote and seen by Reuters mentioned the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as did the previous resolution passed in September.
Twenty-four countries from the 35-nation UN nuclear watchdog board voted in favour, two voted against, seven abstained and two were absent, the diplomats said.
Russia rejects court decision over 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines over Ukraine
Russia has rejected what it called the “scandalous” decision by a Dutch court to convict two of its citizens for downing a Malaysian airliner and said the proceedings had not been impartial.
Judges convicted three men of murder for their role in the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew, and sentenced them to life in prison in absentia.
The three were former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist leader.
The Dutch court also said Russia had “overall control” of separatist forces in eastern Ukraine at the time the plane was shot down.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the court had been under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the media to impose a politically motivated outcome.
“The trial in the Netherlands has every chance of becoming one of the most scandalous in the history of legal proceedings,” it said in a statement. Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for the downing of the jet.
Separately, a top Russian politician told TASS news agency that Moscow would not be extraditing Girkin and Dubinskiy.
Andrey Klishas, a member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, told TASS that the court’s decision would not have any legal consequences.
The Russian foreign ministry said prosecutors had ignored all evidence it said indicated that the missile could have been launched by Ukrainian troops from territory controlled by Kyiv.
“We deeply regret that the district court in The Hague disregarded the principles of impartial justice in favour of the current political situation,” it said.
Russian dissenter Alexei Navalny says he has been placed in a solitary cell
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he has been transferred to a solitary punishment cell, a development he said was clearly designed to shut him up.
Navalny, the most prominent domestic critic of President Vladimir Putin and a strong opponent of the war in Ukraine, is already serving prison terms totaling 11-1/2 years for fraud, contempt of court and parole violations, all of which he rejects as trumped-up charges.
Navalny said that just days before close family members had been due to arrive to see him, prison officials told him he was considered an “egregious offender” and would be transferred to a cramped cell, where long visits were not allowed.
Last month, Navalny said authorities had opened a new criminal case against him for promoting “terrorism” and “extremism”, potentially more than doubling his sentence.
‘Horrific’ scale of torture in liberated Kherson: Ukrainian ombudsman
The scale of torture discovered in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson taken back from Russian troops this month is “horrific”, a Ukrainian ombudsman has said.
“I have not seen a scale like this before,” Dmytro Lubynets said. “The scale is just horrific.”
Authorities have found “torture chambers” in the recently liberated southern Ukrainian city, where dozens of people have been reportedly been tortured, Lubynets said.
He said Ukrainians were electrocuted and beaten with metal pipes before being killed, AFP reported.
Ukrainian experts already in Poland to investigate explosion site: Warsaw
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said Ukrainian experts are already in Poland to investigate the site where a missile killed two people on Tuesday.
Ukraine and Poland “will cooperate constructively and openly” on the investigation, Kuleba said, adding that he expected the investigators to swiftly get access to the site in southeastern Poland.
I spoke to @RauZbigniew. Ukraine and Poland will cooperate constructively and openly on the incident caused by Russian missile terror against Ukraine. Our experts are already in Poland. We expect them to swiftly get access to the site in cooperation with Polish law enforcement.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) November 17, 2022
Half of Ukraine children missing out on education due to blackouts: Save the Children
One in two caregivers in Ukraine has said their children’s education suffered after reoccurring attacks on power plants in October left more than 4.5 million households without electricity, according to a survey by Save the Children.
Children’s access to education is set to drastically worsen the longer the fighting continues around urban centres and heavily populated areas such as Kyiv. The continued attacks on energy infrastructure in November have left some 10 million families across the country without electricity.
Save the Children conducted an online survey of more than 1,600 caregivers across Ukraine to find out whether emergency power cuts had disrupted children’s education. Half of them reported that between October 10-21 their children missed online classes or could not do their homework due to an absence of electricity, an internet connection, or because they needed to take shelter.
It is estimated that 2.6 million students are learning from home, as of October 22, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Whilst some schools have been able to reopen since September 1, many lack protective shelters, have been damaged or destroyed, or remain under possible threat of attacks. As a result, online education is essential for children to continue their learning.
Throughout October, there were five waves of attacks on power plants across Ukraine, that took out an estimated 40 percent of energy infrastructure in the country, according to the Ukrainian government.
US ambassador to Ukraine welcomes Black Sea grain deal extension
The US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink has welcomed an agreement to extend the Black Sea grain deal to facilitate Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports.
A deal aimed at easing global food shortages by facilitating Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports was extended for 120 days on Thursday.
The agreement, initially reached in July, created a protected sea transit corridor and was designed to alleviate global food shortages by allowing exports to resume from three ports in Ukraine, a major producer of grains and oilseeds.
Extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative will contribute to reduced prices and ensure desperately-needed food from Ukraine can feed the world. We will continue to support helping grain from Ukraine to reach global markets, particularly countries in facing severe food insecurity.
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) November 17, 2022
Ukraine likely to get access to area where missile killed two: Warsaw
Ukraine is likely to get the access it has demanded to the site in the border area of southeastern Poland where a missile killed two people on Tuesday, Polish officials have said on Thursday.
Warsaw and its Western allies say evidence from the scene points to the explosion being caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile that went astray in pursuit of a Russian missile. Kyiv denies this, saying it has evidence of a “Russian trace” in the blast.
While Warsaw and Kyiv differ on the location the missile was fired from, they and other Western allies are united in the view that ultimately Russia is at fault.
“The Russian side must be aware of the threat it poses by bombing … at a distance of literally several dozen kilometres from the Polish border, that any of the missiles, whether from the Russian side or those Ukrainian anti-missile systems, can land on the territory of a foreign state, in this case, Poland,” said Adrian Kubicki, Poland’s consul general in New York.
“So nothing here changes the assessment that the Russian Federation is responsible for what happened.”
Blinken: Russia ‘ultimately responsible’ for Poland missile incident
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said an investigation into Tuesday’s missile incident in eastern Poland is ongoing but that the US has “seen nothing so far that contradicts” Poland’s preliminary assessment that Ukrainian air defences were to blame for the border blast.
However, Blinken reiterated: “Whatever its final conclusion, we already know the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident: Russia.”
“What we are seeing every single day now is Russia raining missiles down on Ukraine, seeking to destroy its critical infrastructure, targeting the ability that Ukraine has to keep the lights on, to keep the heat going, to allow the country simply to live and move forward,” he told reporters at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok.
“Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and we are committed to supporting Ukraine.”
NATO faces new fears after explosion in Poland
After a missile exploded in a village in Poland, European countries are worried about the future of the conflict and how it might spill over.
While initial investigations into the blast have found that it was “likely” the missile came from Ukraine’s air defence system, NATO and Western powers have said responsibility ultimately lies with Russia.
But, now NATO countries are thinking of ways to bolster its eastern flank in case of further accidents.
Read more on NATO’s new challenges here.
Everything you need to know about the grain deal renewal
The landmark grain deal, which was due to expire on November 19, has been extended after assurances were granted by the UN to Russia.
Now the deal is expected to continue for 120 days.
Read more on the grain deal.
Peace is impossible until Russia withdraws from Ukraine: EU
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says peace in Ukraine will not be possible until Russia withdraws its troops, but Moscow shows no signs of being ready to do so.
“I am afraid Russia is not ready to withdraw and as far as it doesn’t withdraw, peace will not be possible,” Borrell told the Reuters news agency in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.
“It is Russia who has to make peace possible, the aggressor has to withdraw if he wants a sustainable peace,” he said.
‘Important court decision in The Hague’, says Zelenskyy
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praises an “important” court ruling after a Dutch court sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian to life imprisonment in absentia over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter, “Important court decision in The Hague. First sentences for the perpetrators of MH17 downing. Holding to account masterminds is crucial too, as the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes. We must dispel this illusion. Punishment for all RF’s atrocities then & now is inevitable.”
Important court decision in The Hague. First sentences for the perpetrators of #MH17 downing. Holding to account masterminds is crucial too, as the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes. We must dispel this illusion. Punishment for all RF's atrocities then & now is inevitable.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 17, 2022
Dutch court sentences two Russians and one Ukrainian to life
A Dutch court handed down life sentences to three suspects convicted of murder for their role in shooting down Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
The convicted men, two former Russian intelligence officers and a Ukrainian separatist leader were also ordered to pay at least 16 million euros ($16.5m) in compensation to relatives of the victims.
A fourth suspect was acquitted on all charges.
Head judge Hendrik Steenhuis said, “The court calls the proven charges so severe that it holds that only the highest possible prison sentence would be appropriate.”
While the men remain fugitives, they are all believed to be in Russia, which will not extradite them.
Finland proposes $143.4m border fence
Finland’s government proposes spending 139 million euros ($143.4m) on building fences along parts of the country’s border with Russia.
In June, the Finnish government said it would build barriers along parts of the Russian frontier in a move to strengthen preparedness against hybrid threats, such as the potential mass influx of asylum seekers.
The country’s border guard authority has said it ultimately aims to construct between 130-260km of fences, covering 10-20 percent of the overall length, focusing primarily on border crossing points and adjacent areas in southeast Finland.
Before Thursday’s spending proposal, parliament had only allocated six million euros for a trial project.
Brittney Griner taken to penal colony in Mordovia
US basketball star Brittney Griner has been taken to a penal colony in the Russian region of Mordovia, a source familiar with the case told the Reuters news agency.
Greiner was moved from a detention centre near Moscow on November 4 to be taken to an undisclosed prison location.
Russian authorities have given no information on her whereabouts for nearly two weeks, but the source said she had been taken to Female Penal Colony IK-2 in Yavas, about 500km (300 miles) southeast of Moscow.
A US Department of State spokesperson said, “We are aware of reports of her location and in frequent contact with Ms Griner’s legal team.
“However, the Russian Federation has still failed to provide any official notification for such a move of a US citizen, which we strongly protest. The Embassy has continued to press for more information about her transfer and current location.”
Inmates of Russian penal colonies must work long hours for meagre pay on tedious manual tasks such as sewing.
Former prisoners and human rights groups describe conditions there as harsh and unhygienic, with little access to medical care.
Russia will ‘examine’ Dutch court ruling on MH17 plane
Russia’s foreign ministry said it would “examine” the opinion of a Dutch court that said that a Malaysian airliner was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made missile.
When the plane was shot down, the Dutch court said that Russia had “overall control” of separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
In a briefing in Moscow, deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ivan Nechaev told reporters, “We will study this decision because in all these issues, every nuance matters. After studying the legal document, we will probably then be ready to offer a comment.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for the destruction of MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Who controls what?
Al Jazeera has four maps, which it updates daily, charting the latest war developments.
US: Russia felt world would not accept opting out of grain deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Russia felt the world would not accept if it refused to renew the Black Sea grain deal.
Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed the extension of the Black Sea grain deal for 120 days starting from November 18, without any changes to the current one.
The Kremlin agreed to the extension after being granted assurances from the UN about removing barriers to Russia’s exports of agricultural products and fertilisers.
US: Full confidence in Poland’s investigation into blast
US Secretary of State Antony Bliken says he has complete confidence in Poland’s investigation into Tuesday’s explosion.
Initial findings of the explosion that hit a village on the border of Ukraine indicated it was “likely” caused by Ukraine’s air defence system.
Blinken, who addressed reporters at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok, said, “Whatever its final conclusion, we already know the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident – Russia.”
But, Ukraine has argued that the missile came from Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “I don’t know what happened. We don’t know for sure. The world does not know. But I am sure that it was a Russian missile, I am sure that we fired from air defence systems.”
EU to supply heat generators to Ukraine
The EU will provide temporary cold-weather shelter, generators and electricity grid-repair kits to Ukraine to help in advance of winter, the bloc’s crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said.
“Winter is almost here and this is now our cardinal priority when we talk about humanitarian aid,” he told reporters, adding that the “systematic destruction by Russia of critical infrastructure in Ukraine” has made support over the winter even more crucial.
While winters in Ukraine are usually very cold, with temperatures at below zero Celsius (32F), Russia continues to target crucial infrastructures such as power, water and heating.
“You can imagine how hard this winter could be for Ukrainians when they are facing energy shortages, electricity blackouts, lack of water, lack of heating, oil,” Lenarcic said.
“All of these due to the Russian destruction of critical civilian infrastructure.”
Russia given UN assurances in new grain deal
The Kremlin says it has been given assurances by the United Nations that work will be finalised on removing barriers to Russia’s exports of agricultural products and fertilisers.
Earlier, Moscow said it had agreed to let the Black Sea grain deal roll over for another 120 days without changing its terms.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have said commitments were made to secure the removal of Western barriers, including direct sanctions on a state agricultural bank and the indirect impact of sanctions on Russia’s shipping and financial sectors.
In a conference call with reporters, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “There is an assurance from the UN that work will be finalised to ensure the export of Russian food and fertilisers.”
He said Russia had already seen progress towards easing sanctions, citing a joint statement by the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union not to sanction Russian food and fertiliser exporters, and said work was under way to “fully lift” the remaining obstacles.
Russia and Belarus suspended from Paralympics committee
The International Paralympic Committee voted to suspend the National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) of Russia and Belarus with immediate effect.
Athletes from the two countries had previously been barred from competing in the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics in March over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The IPC said in a statement: “Due to their suspension, NPC Russia and NPC Belarus lose all rights and privileges of IPC membership, in accordance with the IPC Constitution.”
“Both NPC Russia and NPC Belarus now have the right to appeal the decision.
“Should any appeal not be upheld then only the General Assembly can revoke the suspension. The next IPC General Assembly is due to take place in the final quarter of 2023 at a venue yet to be confirmed.”
Russia calls on Washington to push Kyiv to negotiations
The Kremlin accuses Kyiv of shifting the goalposts regarding possible peace talks and says it could not imagine engaging in public negotiations, calling on Washington to push Kyiv towards diplomacy.
In a briefing call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the United States could consider Russia’s concerns and encourage Kyiv to return to the negotiating table if it wanted to.
Peskov added that Ukraine had changed its position on whether it even wanted to negotiate with Moscow several times during the nine-month conflict and could not be relied upon.