People on the street in the historic part of Kyiv, Ukraine, November 9, 2023 (Reuters)

Friday’s Coverage: EU To Begin Accession Talks with Kyiv But Hungary Blocks €50 Billion Fund

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1146 GMT:

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has added the head of Russia’s Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, to its wanted list.

Kirill, a loud supporter of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is accused of abetting the assault. The patriarch, who lives in Russia, is described as “an individual in hiding from the bodies of pre-trial investigation”.

Last month the SBU security service posted a document declaring that Kirill “infringed Ukrainian sovereignty” as “part of the closest entourage of Russia’s military and political leadership”.

Ukrainian security services have carried out raids on some Orthodox churches and arrested clerics, accusing them of providing money and literature to support the 21 1/2-month invasion.

UPDATE 0813 GMT:

Russian authorities have continued their crackdown on the country’s scientists with the arrest of Vladislav Galkin on suspicion of treason.

Galkin is an associate professor of physical and mathematical sciences at Tomsk Polytechnic University. His co-author Valery Zvegintsev, the chief researcher at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, has also been accused of treason.

Their research has contributed to the design of air intakes for supersonic aircraft, with the creation of the Kinzhal, Zircon, Avangard, and Sarmat missiles.

At least 16 members of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, known for its expertise in physics and mathematics, have been subjected to criminal prosecution. One of them is the former head of the branch, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Aseev.

Dmitry Kolker, head of the laboratory of quantum optical technologies at Novosibirsk State University, died in a Moscow pre-trial detention center shortly after his arrest by officers of the State security service FSB.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s air defenses have repelled Russia’s drone attacks on Kyiv, with all UAVs destroyed and no casualties or major damage.

The drone assault was the sixth since the start of December, after a two-month pause in the strikes.

Serhiy Popko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said, “UAVs attacked in groups, waves, and from different directions….All targets were destroyed by air defense capabilities.”

For the second consecutive assault, the drones were not accompanied by missiles fired from strategic bombers.

Military officials said a total of 31 drones were launched against 11 regions, and 30 were downed.

From October 2022 through last spring, Russia pursued an “energy war” trying to break Ukraine’s infrastructure for electricity and heating. At one point, the attacks knocked out half of Ukraine’s grid. However, air defenses — bolstered by international support — held out and most of the system was repaired by April.

Moscow’s attacks this autumn have been far less intense than those last year, in which more than 100 missiles as well as dozens of drones attacked in a single night. But Ukraine’s officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have warned that Vladimir Putin could still pursue another energy war through the winter.