26 November 2024,   22:39
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299th day of war in Ukraine - the list of key events

Vladimir Putin has travelled to Belarus to meet the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, as fears grow in Kyiv that Moscow is pushing its closest ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine.

Belarus’ defence ministry said it had completed a series of inspections of its armed forces’ military preparedness, hours ahead of Putin’s visit to Minsk. Weeks of military manoeuvres and inspections have raised fears in Kyiv that Belarus, which acted as a staging post for Russia to launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, could be preparing to take a more active role in the conflict once again.

Ukraine’s forces are holding on to the heavily contested eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that Kyiv was ready for “all possible defence scenarios” against Moscow and its ally: “The Bakhmut direction is key. We keep the city, although the occupiers are doing everything so that not a single undamaged wall remains there”.

A Russian drone attack caused “fairly serious” damage in Kyiv region on Monday and three areas in the region have been left without power supply, governor Oleksiy Kuleba said. Russia unleashed 35 “kamikaze” drones on Ukraine in the early hours of Monday, hitting critical infrastructure in and around Kyiv.

Ukraine’s atomic energy agency has accused Russia of flouting nuclear safety by sending a “kamikaze” drone over part of a nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv region. Energoatom said the Iranian-made Shahed drone had been detected over the South Ukraine nuclear power plant, and called on the international nuclear community to protect atomic sites from the risks of war.

Air raid alerts were issued across Kyiv and most of Ukraine on Monday early afternoon, officials said. There were no immediate reports of attacks and the alarm was ended about 20 minutes later.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down four US-made HARM anti-radiation missiles over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, in the space of 24 hours.

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