Embassies closed in Kiev: the United States, Spain, Greece, Italy, and then Kazakhstan and others have closed their offices due to a possible attack on November 20. Among the statements that have weighed on the flow of information on the social sphere, the admission of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on Wednesday the news of President Joe Biden’s decision to approve the supply of landmines to Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.
“The Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use landmines supplied by the United States,” AP reports. “They’ve asked for landmines and I think that’s a good idea,” Austin said. Let’s remember that the Russians have been complaining about the presence of landmines on Ukrainian soil since 2022 and have shown photos of the “petals.” Landmines that appear like flowers that explode when a person passes by.
The Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations has again expressed concern about the attack of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with ATACMS missiles in the Bryansk region. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that neither the United States nor NATO pose a threat to Russia, commenting on changes in Russian nuclear doctrine. The Pentagon maintains that: “A new escalation in the Ukrainian conflict does not foreshadow the outbreak of a world war,” said Sabrina Singh, Deputy Press Secretary of the Pentagon. During a briefing with journalists, she refused to comment on the attack of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with ATACMS missiles in the Bryansk region.
On the afternoon of November 20, Russian sources said that fragments of British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles were found on the streets in the Kursk region. According to initial information, “around 3 p.m. on November 20, Ukrainian time, the region was attacked by up to 12 air-launched Storm Shadow missiles.” All of them were reportedly shot down.
Adding to the tension were the words of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who said: “Putin will not stop without losing the war.” “Why is it so important that Putin does not get what he wants? Because he will have a strengthened Russia on our border, which will increase in territorial mass, increase in military capacity. And I am absolutely convinced that he will not stop there. So he represents a direct threat to all of us in the West,” Rutte stressed.
Josep Borrell said he had proposed spending the second tranche of the proceeds from Russia’s frozen assets in the spring of 2025 in Kiev to purchase weapons for Ukraine. Borrell said he was confident that a clash between Russia and European troops in Ukraine “is not foreseen.”
The Bundestag will once again consider the proposal to transfer the Taurus to Ukraine, source Tagesschau. The publication reports that the German parliament will once again consider the proposal to start supplying long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. The corresponding initiative will be put to a vote by the Free Democratic Party. SDP group leader Christian Duerr said this. According to Duerr, a proposal to this effect will be submitted to the Bundestag next week. “The US government is taking decisive steps to enable the use of ATACMS missiles. Germany should follow this example and supply Taurus to Ukraine,” he noted. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still against the delivery.
Ukrainians who remained in the country are starting to show signs of war fatigue. According to a Gallup poll: 52% of Ukrainian citizens support negotiations to end the war. Late in the evening on November 19, Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine had received permission for long-range strikes: “Now that there are appropriate decisions, not only in the media, but also in the countries concerned, it is very important to add to these decisions the number of opportunities with which we can reduce the military potential of the Russian Federation, wherever it is,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president in an interview with Fox News specified: “If the United States stops providing security assistance to Ukraine, we will probably lose the war. We have our own production, but it will not be enough to survive.”
And again according to the commander of the intelligence unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Denis Yaroslavsky: “The war could have ended in 2022 after the Kharkiv counteroffensive, but Western partners did not allow this to happen.”
Finally, the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Vitaly Lutsenko actually admitted that the West violated the control regime of missile technology by supplying Ukraine with missile components with a range of more than 300 km: “Engineers from missile design bureaus were placed in the TCC. And now there is no one to create the missiles promised by Zelensky. Several hundred engines and guidance systems were made for us abroad, but we have not managed to manufacture the hulls.”
Ukrainian resources report that the Russian Armed Forces are preparing to launch an RS-26 intercontinental ballistic missile from Kapustin-Yar in the Astrakhan region. Not only in the early afternoon of November 20, Ukrainian observers claim that the Russian Aerospace Forces have significantly increased the number of Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers at bases in the European part of the country. Another 18 were spotted at bases near Ukraine, bringing the total to 29.
Also on November 20, Sergei Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, said: “Attempts by individual NATO countries to participate in attacks deep into the Russian Federation will not go unpunished.”
Regarding talks with Trump and a possible peace deal with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Freezing the conflict in Ukraine is unacceptable for the Russian Federation, it is important that Moscow achieves the goals of the special operation.” The Kremlin is aware of Kiev’s attempts to blow up the Turkish Stream, Putin has spoken about it, Peskov told TASS, commenting on an article in Der Spiegel.
And now a look at the front line updated at 17:00 on November 20.
Russian military correspondent Pavel Kukushkin reports on the situation in the Kursk border region on 20/11/24: “The day before there was an unsuccessful attempt to break out of the surrounded group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the forests of Ol’govka: the enemy (Ukrainians – ed.) was destroyed by our heroic marines and paratroopers! The remnants of the Ukrainians are being eliminated with the help of artillery and UAVs!”. If they record battles in Novoivanovka with the aim of reaching the flag of the garrison of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Malaya Lokna, whose positions are also being attacked by Russian fighters from the north from Pogrebki.
Southeast of Sudzha, on the Cherkasskaya Konopelka-Plekhovo line, battles are also taking place. Russian fighters managed to gain a foothold in the eastern part of Plekhovo.
In the early afternoon, confirmation came that the Russians had captured and then cleared the area of Ukrainian military presence in the Olgovka Forest. A post by the Russian Defense Ministry reads: “The destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Group stuck in the Olgovka Forest Area in the Kursk Region has been completed.”
The Russian Defense Ministry has resumed using 9M723 ballistic missiles in commercial quantities against tactical targets, such as this company stronghold in the Sumy Region. Russian “Geran” stray ammunition was launched from the Kursk Region towards Ukraine.
Over the past 24 hours, Kiev has sounded an air raid siren four times, so we can say that real paranoia reigns in the city. Ukrainian resources report the take-off of three Tu-95MS strategic bombers (a combined salvo of up to 18 Kh-101 missiles) from the Olenya airfield. Note that this is probably a transfer. Seven Russian Tu-95MS bombers in flight on the afternoon of November 20. On the night of November 19, interception of Ukrainian An-196 “Lyut” ammunition in the Moscow region.
In Toretsk there are continuous battles, the Russian army attacks. Ukrainian channels recognize the advance of Russian attack aircraft in the skyscrapers of the city center.
In Chasiv Yar, battles began for the main fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of the Chasovoyarsʹkyy Promyslovyy Istoryko-Krayeznavchyy Muzey fireproof plant. The advance in the Oktyabrsky district of the city was 2 km.
In the direction of Pokrovs’k, the Russian armed forces are expanding the control zone near Yuriivka and Novooleksiivka.
A Russian flag has been installed in the direction of Kurachove in the western part of Nova Illinka, and attacks continue in two directions towards Berestky. Russian military personnel display the flag of the Russian Federation in the industrial zone at the entrance to the eastern part of the city from the center, confirming control of this part of the city. According to Russian social media channels: “Advancement of Russian armed forces up to 500 meters from the center of Kurachove”. According to the Ministry of Defense “the Russian army has taken control of the settlement of Illinka in Donbass”.
At the end of the collection we we come to know that Ukrainians have launched British Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia for the first time, Bloomberg.
Graziella Giangiulio
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