Issued on: 23/11/2022 – 08:40

9:14am: Britain says Russia has nearly exhausted current stock of Iran-made weapons

Russia has likely launched a number of Iranian-manufactured un-crewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine since September, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.

It’s also likely that Russia has nearly exhausted its current stock of -made weapons and will seek resupply, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter.

The Russian attacks have been a combination of UAVs and traditional reusable armed systems, it added.

9:02am: Zelensky accuses Russia of ‘terror and murder’ after maternity strike

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of bringing “terror and murder” to Ukraine after a strike on a maternity ward killed a newborn baby in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

“The enemy has once again decided to try to achieve with terror and murder what it wasn’t able to achieve for nine months and won’t be able to achieve,” Zelensky said on social media.

“Instead, it will only be held to account for all the evil it has brought to our country,” he added.

8:37am: Newborn killed in Russian strike on maternity ward in Zaporizhzhia region

A newborn baby was killed following a Russian strike that hit a maternity ward in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, according to Ukrainian emergency services.

Overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday, “in the city of Vilniansk in Zaporizhzhia region, as a result of a rocket attack on the territory of the local hospital, the two-storey building of the maternity ward was destroyed,” rescuers said on social media.

“As a result of the attack, a baby born in 2022 died, [a] woman and doctor were rescued from the rubble,” rescuers said, adding that according to preliminary information there was nobody else trapped under the debris. 

The emergency services distributed a video of rescuers working to free a man trapped waist-deep in the rubble of what appears to be the destroyed maternity ward.

8:10am: Russian foreign ministry slams Kyiv’s ‘godless’ raid on Orthodox monastery

The Russian foreign ministry criticised Ukraine as “godless”, “wild” and “immoral” on Wednesday for raiding an old Orthodox Christian Monastery in Kyiv.

Ukraine’s SBU security service and police raided the 1,000-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services,” the SBU said.

The site is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that falls under the Moscow Patriarchate.

Russia’s Orthodox Church said on Tuesday the search was an “act of intimidation”.

4:20am: ‘Dangerous rhetoric’ stoking nuclear tensions: UN chief

UN chief has warned against “dangerous rhetoric” stoking tensions among nuclear-armed rivals.

“Growing divisions are threatening global peace and security, provoking new confrontations and making it all the more difficult to resolve old conflicts,” Guterres told a meeting of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations in Morocco.

“Dangerous rhetoric is raising nuclear tensions,” he warned as Russia’s war in Ukraine neared its tenth month with no end in sight, fanning nuclear fears.

1:16am: ‘Invincibility centres’ to help provide heat and water, says Zelensky

needing basic services if knocks out power stations and other facilities this winter can turn to special “invincibility centres,” said President .

Thousands of centres spread across the country will offer electricity, heat, water, internet service, mobile phone connections and a pharmacy, free of charge and around the clock.

“If massive Russian strikes happen again and it’s clear power will not be restored for hours, the ‘invincibility centres’ will go into action with all key services,” Zelensky said in a nightly video address.

Russian attacks have knocked out power for long periods to up to 10 million consumers at a time. Ukraine’s national power grid operator said on Tuesday the damage was colossal.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)