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On the night of November 17, the Ukrainian military launched a drone strike on the Dzhankoi air base in Crimea, according to Fighterbomber, a credible Telegram channel for Russian air force pilots. The air base is reported to function as usual.
The AFU also shelled a Russian air base in the community of Chaplynka in the left-bank part of the Kherson Region. According to the pro-Russian Telegram channel Rybar, some of the missiles were taken down by air defense systems. Upon withdrawal from Kherson, the Russian army transferred its helicopters off the air base, as confirmed by Planet Labs satellite images, according to Censor.NET.
Overall, the Kherson sector did not feature active fighting, as reported by the ISW. The territory marked blue on the map shows areas liberated by the Ukrainian troops.
Nova Kakhovka is still under the full control of Russian troops. However, a few days back, locals reported the presence of individual groups of Ukrainian fighters, who withdrew after several skirmishes. They were most likely special ops or reconnaissance, writes War Monitor.
General Oleksii Hromov, Deputy Chief of the Main Operative Directorate of the General Staff of the AFU, reported that Ukraine's defense forces had launched an offensive reaching the Dnipro and liberating up to 5,580 square kilometers of land and 198 settlements. As he stated, the Russian military is now transferring the most fighting-fit troops off the right bank of the Dnipro to other sectors of the front. They may be used as reinforcement in the Donetsk Region or for the groupings in Zaporizhzhia or the Luhansk Region. Alternatively, Russia may use them for its next offensive from the direction of Belarus if this plan gets the green light.
Social media features a video of a recent friendly fire incident on the Inhulets River. When withdrawing to their river bank, Russian troops decided to destroy the watercraft, but their comrades mistook them for an enemy sabotage reconnaissance group and opened fire on them, reports Gray Zone, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner PMC.
In the Donetsk sector, according to Russian “patriotic” channels, “DPR” troops from the 100th People's Militia Brigade captured Bassein, a major Ukrainian strongpoint outside Nevelske. This development may enable Russian forces to establish fire control over the supply route from Krasnohorivka to Pervomaiske and Avdiivka and proceed to storm Nevelske.
The Rybar Telegram channel recounts that the Russian troops attacked the strongpoint in three groups: one approached from the north, cutting the supply of the long-term AFU position through the forest, while the other two breached the line of trenches. According to the channel, combat action in other sectors is limited to positional fighting, with Russian troops attempting to capture the northern reaches of Opytne and the eastern part of Vodiane.
As Ukrainian military expert Roman Svitan explained to The Insider, the capturing of the Bassein strongpoint is “too minor an event for a strategic breakthrough”. According to him, while the fortified locality indeed offers control over the road from Krasnohorivka, it gives no serious advantage to the Russians.
Using target coordinates provided by Ukrainian guerrilla fighters and deeply inserted special ops agents, the Ukrainian military launched a precision strike on the command units of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army stationed in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia, writes Chuck Pfarrer, military correspondent and former US Marine, in his Twitter. Reported casualties reach 100 troops.
On November 17, Russian troops continued their missile warfare across the territory of Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Apart from strikes conducted by rocket artillery and S-300 surface-to-air missiles on cities along the frontline, Russian strategic Tu-95MS jets also launched a mission from the Volgodonsk District of Rostov Region. A total of nine missile-carrier bombers fired up to 18 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles, targeting an industrial facility in Dnipropetrovsk Region and gas extracting facilities. According to the Center Operative Command, four of the Russian cruise missiles were shot down.
In central Ukraine, the Ukrainian military destroyed five Shahed drones incoming from Belarus.
In the south sector, the air defense systems of the South Air Force Command destroyed two Kh-59 guided aircraft missiles.
In all, according to the AFU, Russia has fired almost 150 missiles at Ukraine over the last six days, with 111 launched on November 15. Since November 11, the AFU has destroyed 102 airborne targets, reports General Oleksii Hromov.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration has released data on the liberated Ukrainian settlements as of November 15. A total of 943 communities have been deoccupied across the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.
Over 23,000 people have already been evacuated from the liberated Kharkiv Region, reported Iryna Vereshchuk, the Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, at the briefing. She remarked that the number included almost 2,500 minors and 452 individuals with impaired mobility. Vereshchuk added that residents are being evacuated from other endangered regions as well and that the evacuation was strictly voluntary, provided by the government as an option.
Ukraine’s Supreme Rada has reported on the consequences of the massive blow delivered to Ukraine's energy infrastructure on November 15. Fifteen energy infrastructure facilities sustained damage, leaving 10 million Ukrainians without electricity. Janez Lenarcic, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management also took stock of the scope of the damage.
“The destruction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure is reaching a critical point. The EU is working uninterruptedly to help sustain its electricity supply,” he wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, as CNN reports, citing its sources, the US is facing a shortage of particular weapons and munitions requested by Kyiv. Primarily it concerns the stock of 155-mm artillery ammunition and Stinger anti-aircraft shoulder-fired missiles. CNN’s sources assert that challenges may arise in the manufacturing of other weapons as well, including Javelin anti-tank missile systems and HARM and GMLRS rockets. In September, Pentagon reported having sent over 806,000 155-mm artillery rounds to Ukraine.
Late on November 16, several countries at the seventh meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (the Rammstein format) committed to more weapons supplies, reports US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
· Canada will provide aid worth $34 million, in particular, winter equipment for military personnel, drone cameras, and satellite imaging.
· Sweden will provide Ukraine with €287 million worth of military aid, including air defense systems.
· Spain will submit two additional Hawk air defense systems and missiles.
· Greece will supply 155-mm ammunition.
· Germany will continue to supply air defense systems, artillery, and munitions.
· Poland will supply artillery, anti-tank weapons, and air defense systems.
“The free world stands with us until we overcome. Ukraine’s strength today lies in the increase of its economic potential, the best possible training of the Ukrainian army, and modern logistics, We thank our partners for the support of our new initiatives,” tweeted Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov.