War in Ukraine, day 618 | Ukraine says it hit Crimean shipyard

(Kyiv) Ukraine claims to have struck a shipyard in Russian-occupied Crimea in the port of Kerch on Saturday.

Ukraine says it struck a shipyard in Russian-occupied Crimea in the port of Kerch on Saturday.

“On the evening of November 4, the Ukrainian armed forces successfully carried out strikes against the maritime and port infrastructure of the Zaliv shipyard in the temporarily occupied city of Kerch,” the Ukrainian army announced, without further details in a first time.

Since launching its counter-offensive against Moscow’s forces this summer, Kyiv has intensified its attacks against the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.

The governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksionov, installed by Moscow, declared that Ukraine had fired missiles at a shipyard in Kerch, ensuring that they had been shot down.

“There are no victims,” he said on social media.

Near Kerch, the Crimean bridge leading to the Russian mainland, already targeted by Ukrainian forces in the past, was briefly closed on Saturday, without explanation.

Ukrainian and Russian attacks around the Black Sea have intensified since Moscow’s withdrawal from the grain agreement which allowed the passage of civilian grain transport ships.

In September, Ukraine launched a missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

“We are not at an impasse”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also disputed on Saturday that the war between his country and Russia was at a “stalemate”, after a high-ranking Ukrainian commander said this week that the two armies were trapped in a war of attrition and positions.

“Time has passed today and people are tired […] But we are not at an impasse,” Zelensky said during a press conference in Kyiv with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Since June, Ukraine has been leading a slow counter-offensive to try to liberate the occupied territories in the East and South.

But so far, progress has been very limited. The front line, more than 1000 km long, has barely moved for almost a year and the liberation of the city of Kherson in November 2022.

The Kremlin also assured Thursday that the conflict in Ukraine was not at an “impasse”, disputing comments by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zalouzhny, in an interview with The Economist.

“Just like during the First World War, we have reached a technological level such that we find ourselves in an impasse,” Mr. Zalouzhny told the British weekly. “There probably won’t be a magnificent and profound breakthrough,” he added.

President Zelensky on Saturday denied any pressure from Western countries to begin negotiations with Russia.

He admitted that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had “diverted attention” from the war between Ukraine and Russia.

“It is obvious that the war in the Middle East, this conflict, is distracting attention,” he commented.

“We have already found ourselves in very difficult situations when there was almost no focus on Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky noted, adding “I am absolutely sure that we will meet this challenge.”

Ukraine’s backers, particularly the United States, repeat that they will provide military and financial aid to Kyiv until Russia is defeated.

Prosecution against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church

Ukraine announced on Saturday that it had initiated criminal proceedings against Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in absentia, for having “justified” the Russian invasion of its territory.

Patriarch Kirill, a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin, called Russia’s offensive against Ukraine a battle against “evil forces.”

Ukrainian authorities said in a statement that they had “collected evidence against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Gundyaev[connu sous le nom de Kirill]”.

He is a “member of the inner circle of senior military and political leaders of Russia and […] one of the first to publicly support the war against Ukraine.”

Kirill undermined Ukraine’s territorial integrity by justifying armed aggression, according to Ukrainian authorities.

“Steps will be taken to bring him to justice for the crimes committed against our state,” they added.

Ukraine, a predominantly Orthodox country, cut ties with Orthodox institutions linked to Russia after the start of the war.

In October, Ukraine’s parliament voted to ban a Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), accusing its members of collaborating with Russia.

Once the most popular in Ukraine, this Church has lost its followers for years as Ukrainian national sentiment has gained popularity in the face of former power Russia.

This process accelerated with the creation in 2018 of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Moscow.