Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces remains intense around the town of Avdiivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, with Ukraine’s president saying Russia was experiencing more losses there than it did in Bakhmut, another war hotspot.

Similarly to Bakhmut, the town is seen as a strategic target for Russian forces looking to encircle the town, which has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian troops, and to strengthen their foothold in Donetsk. Fighting has been intense in the area for months and little remains of the town that was once home to around 32,000 inhabitants.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday evening that he had spoken to defense and security officials on the situation around Avdiivka and the surrounding area and that “Russian assaults are very intense, especially in the Donetsk region.”

“Russia is already losing soldiers and equipment near Avdiivka faster and on a larger scale than, for example, near Bakhmut. It is extremely difficult to withstand this onslaught. And each of our warriors holding the positions, each of our warriors performing combat missions there deserves our utmost gratitude,” Zelenskyy said.

“The more Russian forces are destroyed near Avdiivka now, the worse the overall situation and the overall course of this war will be for the enemy,” Zelenskyy said. CNBC was unable to verify the claims made by the president.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to announce his intention to run in the 2024 presidential election campaign during his annual press conference and public phone-in, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said Wednesday.

The Kremlin announced last week that Putin will hold the event, that sees the president answer a myriad of questions from the media and public, before the end of the year.

“Kremlin planners will almost certainly see the event as an important waypoint in Putin’s anticipated campaign to secure a fifth term in office in the March 2024 presidential elections. He is likely to announce his candidacy before the end of 2023,” the ministry said in an intelligence update on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The event was canceled in 2022, probably because Russia had suffered high-profile military set-backs in Ukraine over the preceding weeks.

On Nov. 10, Putin visited the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, meeting Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin’s second visit to the headquarters in four weeks was “likely an uptick in his continued efforts to paint himself as the ‘patriotic’ candidate ahead of the election campaign,” the ministry said.

— Holly Ellyatt

The Russian army has “eliminated” almost all Ukrainian literature in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor-general of Ukraine wrote in a social media post Tuesday.

Mamedov said that any Ukrainian books published from 1991 to 2021 had been dubbed “extremist literature,” and that Russian authorities had replaced them with around 2.5 million Russian books.

In Sept. 2022, Russia claimed to have annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

— Karen Gilchrist

German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said Tuesday that it would supply Ukraine with with 25 main battle tanks Leopard 1A5, five armored recovery vehicles (Bergepanzer 2) and two driver training tanks.

In a statement, the company said the deal had been financed by the German government in a deal valued in the “upper-two-digit million-euro range.”

It added that the deal also includes training, logistics, spare parts, maintenance and other support services.

— Karen Gilchrist

Continued and amplified support for Ukraine is crucial as fighting in the country continues, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.

“The situation on the battlefield is difficult. And that just makes it even more important that we sustain and step up our support for Ukraine because we cannot allow President Putin to win,” Stoltenberg said on the sidelines of a meeting with EU defense ministers in Brussels.

Stoltenberg also said that Ukraine needed to “prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe,” and that supporting the country was in the interests of Western allies.

 — Sophie Kiderlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved changes to legislation that placed new restrictions on media coverage ahead of next March’s presidential elections, local Russian media reported on Tuesday.

Under the adjusted law, only reporters employed by registered media outlets will be permitted to cover election commission meetings, possibly blocking freelancers and independent journalists from reporting the events.

The changes also block any coverage of the commission’s actions on military bases or in areas under martial law without the prior permission of regional and military authorities.

— Karen Gilchrist

Russian former detective Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who was convicted for his role in the killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, RBC news reported Tuesday.

“Under the first contract, Khadzhikurbanov participated in the SVO as a prisoner, then he was pardoned and now participates in the SVO as a civilian soldier, having entered into a contract with the Ministry of Defense,” Khadzhikurbanov’s lawyer Alexey Mikhalchik said.

SVO is another term for Russia’s so-called “special military operation” — the euphemistic phrase it uses to refer to its invasion of Ukraine.

Best known for her coverage of abuses in Russia’s war in Chechnya, Politkovskaya was shot dead in the lift of her Moscow apartment in 2006.

— Karen Gilchrist