People walk at dusk in central Kyiv, Ukraine, November 18, 2023 (Felipe Dana/AP)

Saturday’s Coverage: Kyiv and US to Pursue Joint Arms Production

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1408 GMT:

Bogdan Yermokhin, an orphan deported from Mariupol after Russian forces seized the port city in southeast Ukraine last May, has returned to the country.

The successful negotiation for his release ensures that he cannot be conscripted into the Russian military. Authorities had issued him a draft summons, weeks before his 18th birthday on Sunday.

The deal to return him was announced on November 18. It was brokered by Qatar and the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

Ukraine Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets posted:

UPDATE 0748 GMT:

The European Commission is including a ban on the sale of oil tankers in its 12th sanctions package over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Commission is seeking to crack down on a “shadow” fleet of tankers which are circumventing the $60 per barrel cap on Russia oil transported by sea, imposed by the G7 and the European Union in December 2022.

The proposal requires that sales of tankers to third countries include contractual terms prohibiting their resale to Russia. They also cannot be used to transport Russian crude oil or petroleum products that violate the $60 cap.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: For the second night in a row and the third time in 10 days, Russia has launched Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, posted:

Approximately a dozen enemy targets were intercepted by our air defense forces over Kyiv and on the approaches to the city….According to tentative reports, no casualties or critical destruction were recorded in the city.

Popko said the drones were launched in “multiple groups”, attacking “from different directions while constantly changing their flight vectors along the route”.

The Ukraine Air Force said 15 of 20 drones were intercepted overnight in the north of the country. Three were downed over the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.

Russia also fired about a dozen Shahed drones on Kyiv late Friday and early Saturday. All were intercepted, again with no casualties or damage to infrastructure.

The Ukraine Air Force said 29 of 38 drones were shot down across the country. However, an energy infrastructure facility was hit and an administrative building damaged in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine. In the Chernihiv region in the north, two infrastructure buildings were damaged.

Before November 9’s drone wave, the Russians had last attacked the capital in September.