According to Forbes, Taiwan may have supplied Ukraine with up to 15 HAWK air defense batteries. If confirmed, Taiwan’s batteries could account for up to a third of Ukraine’s air defense forces.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, regarding possible peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, said: “We cannot negotiate ‘over the heads’ of the Ukrainians. He stressed the importance of adhering to the principle ‘nothing on Ukraine without Ukraine’.” “I think if there is anything that has become clear about this terrible war, it is that Ukraine is a European nation with a clear focus on Europe, the EU and the goals and values that we have. There is one principle that almost everyone agrees on: nothing on Ukraine without Ukraine. This must continue. We cannot negotiate over Ukraine’s head,” he said at a press conference after an informal meeting of the European Council in Budapest.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted that he does not share Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s views on resolving the Ukrainian conflict. “I do not want to hide at all that there are different positions,” Scholz said at a press conference after the informal EU summit in Budapest. His words were quoted by the German government press service. “The views expressed here on this issue by the Hungarian Prime Minister do not coincide with the position expressed by me and many other friends in Europe,” Scholz said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, immediately after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections, said on TV2: “It has brought us very close to resolving the conflict in Ukraine.” “We are not one step closer to peace, but seven miles at once,” the Hungarian Prime Minister said.
Poland intends to create an alliance in Europe to help Ukraine in connection with Trump’s rise to power in the United States, The Times reported, citing statements by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “We will very actively coordinate cooperation with countries that have like-minded views on the geopolitical and transatlantic situation, as well as on the situation in Ukraine. Nobody wants the conflict to escalate. At the same time, nobody wants Ukraine to weaken or even capitulate; this would become a fundamental threat to Poland and Polish interests,” he said.
Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky reports: “The Russian army is trying to advance into the Kursk region with tens of thousands of soldiers.” And on November 12, it was learned that Russian forces had taken the large and strategic town of Pogrebki in the Kursk region. Russia also took Mar’evka and Orlovka. Russian troops have returned to Leonidovo, with fierce fighting reported in the center of the city. Ukrainian forces now control 483 square kilometers of territory in Kursk.
But Ukraine also has a high number of soldiers in Kursk, according to El Pais: “The number of Ukrainian troops involved in the operation in the Kursk region exceeds the number of military personnel in the Donbass.” According to the Spanish newspaper, they do not always have enough weapons and equipment in the combat zone, but there are no problems with personnel. In the Kursk region, rotation occurs once every ten days, while in Kurachove in the Donbass it is an average of 25 days. According to one of the interviewed servicemen, a sergeant of the 225th separate assault battalion, the task of the troops in the Kursk region is “to continue the offensive.”
Finally, according to Ukrainian media, Russia’s winter offensive is ready to begin any day now. Russian forces will presumably go on the offensive in Sumy and northern Zaporozhye.
Meanwhile, Moscow is counting: the total cost of restoring damaged facilities in the Kursk region after attacks from Ukraine will exceed 700 billion rubles, Governor Alexei Smirnov said at an operational meeting on Monday. In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry clarified in response to Western media reports that: “The Russian military does not use or track UAV flight paths in special operations over countries adjacent to Ukraine, including Moldova.” “Kiev is trying to induce Moldova to fully participate in hostilities on the side of Ukraine and the West,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.
The aide to the President of the Russian Federation, the chairman of the Maritime College Nikolai Patrushev, said that during a recent visit to the Black Sea Fleet he was convinced of its combat effectiveness. “There is no defeat of our fleet in the Black Sea. And this despite the fact that Kiev’s aggressive actions in this region are coordinated by NATO specialists,” Patrushev said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.
“Westerners must firmly understand that Russia is firmly on the Black Sea and we will not allow our positions in this region to weaken. In addition, we will not tolerate the constant naval presence of non-Black Sea states in violation of the Montreux Convention,” Patrushev said.
And now a look at the front line as of 17:00 on November 12.
In the Kursk region, Russian assault groups advanced into the area of the settlement Daryino, Novoivanovka and adjacent forest areas with heavy fighting. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are putting up fierce resistance and throwing elite air and marine units into battle. The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched 8 strikes during the day.
13 Tu-95ms strategic bombers, on November 11, have caused a blackout in Ukraine (to avoid network overload in case of an attack). However, the expected missile attack never took place. 31 Russian drones launched against the Kiev region on November 12. 2 Russian Tu-23m bombers took off, heading northwest towards the launch location (Yalta, Crimea). Sirens in Kherson, Mikolaiev and Odessa.
Russian troops are moving deeper into the eastern part of the urban area of Kurachove, the main Ukrainian fortified area after the capture of Vuhledar in the direction of Donetsk. Kurachove is also surrounded on three sides by a large area, attacks from the south are coming to the village. In addition, from the north, the Russian army is developing its success along the Kurakhovsky reservoir, the dam of which was blown up yesterday according to the Russians by the Ukrainians and vice versa. According to Russian social sources: “This action, at best, will make it difficult to reach Kurachove from the north.”
According to another source, also Russian, the vast network of Ukrainian fortifications around Kurachove has begun to collapse. Russian troops have reached the outskirts of Dal’nje. The settlement is now under Russian control. Russian forces operating in the eastern part of Kurachove have taken the “School No. 3”. There is an attack on the village from the south. Further, which cuts not only the city, but also allows to cover the cascade of villages along the Sukhi Yaly River. “From the north after the Russian troops approached the village Sonchivka and the Ukrainian forces blew up the dam, trying to flood the area west of the Kurakhovsky reservoir”.
The troops of the Zaporozhye Front of the Russian Armed Forces, according to the spokesman for the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine, plan to begin assault operations in the coming days. At the same time, the Ukrainians claim that in the Zaporozhye direction the Russian troops outnumber the Ukrainian forces. The main target of the attack, according to the Ukrainians, is the city of Zaporozhye with a pre-war population of 710 thousand people.
According to Vladimir Rogov, governor of the Zaporizhzhye region, Kiev is preparing a massive attack on the Veselyanka dam, while on November 12, according to the governor: “As a result of an attack by a Ukrainian UAV, the Kamyanka-Dniprovs’ka gas distribution station was damaged. Due to the fire and the threat of new attacks, it is not yet possible to examine the station. 6,485 households, two hospitals, six kindergartens, 14 schools and other facilities remain without gas supply. A second UAV, presumably a suicide bomber, attacked a gas distribution panel in Kamyanka-Dniprovs’ka, in the area of the central landfill. The attack caused a fire. There were no casualties. The third UAV hit the territory of the city’s central bus station”.
Also indicative was the visit of Russian Defense Minister Belousov to the Dnieper group of troops (Kherson direction). An inspection can also indicate an assessment of the situation on the spot before making decisions.
In the Belgorod region, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used a drone to attack an oil depot in the Stary Oskol urban district. As a result of the explosion, one of the tanks caught fire. One death from IED was recorded in the region. The emergency occurred in the village of Dronovka. The attacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces also fell on the settlement of Oktyabrsky, Belgorod district. New Tavolzhanka in the Shebekinsky municipal district, the village of Balka.
In the DPR, Horlivka, a man and a woman were seriously injured when an IED was dropped by a UAV of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Graziella Giangiulio
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