Meduza’s updated Ukraine combat map shows developments in Avdiivka, Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Orikhiv, and the Dnipro Like our earlier reports on the combat situation in Ukraine, this article takes stock of the recent developments in the battlefield based on open-source information. Meduza has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the very start, and our detailed military analyses are part of our commitment to objective reporting on a war we firmly oppose.

In the Donetsk region, choreographer, director and playwright Polina Menshikh was killed as a result of shelling, reported the St. Petersburg theater-studio “Portal” . According to her colleagues, this happened on November 19 right during the artist’s performance. According to TASS, Menshikh died during the shelling of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the village of Kumachovo in the Starobeshevsky district of the self-proclaimed DPR.

How the Kremlin’s ‘penance system’ for artists works — and the compromises they make to keep their jobs In the summer of 2023, Roman Bilyk from the band Zveri traveled to the self-proclaimed “DNR” to perform for the Russian military — although the artist had once spoken out in defense of director Kirill Serebrennikov, and condemned the war in February 2022.

On the eve of the mutiny, the founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, planned to speak in the State Duma criticizing the top military leadership of the Russian Federation in order to attract attention and regain the favor of Vladimir Putin. This was reported by The Moscow Times, citing anonymous sources in the State Duma, the leadership of "A Just Russia", as well as a person familiar with Prigozhin's plans.

Russian Satanist who killed four teenagers pardoned after fighting in Ukraine Content warning: This story contains descriptions of extreme violence. Nikolai Ogolobyak, who was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years in a penal colony for the ritual killing of four teenagers in Russia’s Yaroslavl region, was pardoned after fighting in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, his father told the local news outlet 76.ru. It’s true.

Updated . The US Department of Justice has officially announced that the founder of the Binance crypto exchange, Changpeng Zhao, has pleaded guilty to “the company’s failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program” under the US Bank Secrecy Act. The cryptocurrency exchange agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines to resolve the relevant investigation by the US Department of Justice, and Zhao also resigned as CEO of Binance.

A journalist from the city of Rzhev, Tver Region, Ekaterina Duntsova was summoned to the prosecutor's office after she announced her intention to nominate her candidacy for the 2024 Russian presidential elections. She herself told the Agency about this. On November 16, Duntsova published a post on VKontakte that she would participate in the presidential elections and presented her election website duntsova2024.ru .

Military expert Dara Massicot discusses Ukraine’s elusive battlefield breakthrough and the long war ahead Stanislav Krasilnikov / Sputnik / Scanpix / LETA Russian artillerymen on the front line near Lyman in the Donetsk region’s Kramatorsk district. November 18, 2023.

Your Browser Does Not Support the Audio Element. The war really has come to a standstill? Both Russia and Ukraine can no longer advance? We discuss with Dmitry Kuznets On November 21, the ABC News television channel, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official, said that after the start of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US authorities reduced the supply of artillery shells of the NATO standard to Ukraine by more than 30%.

The Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed DPR sentenced 28-year-old Ukrainian soldier Alexander Svinarchuk to life imprisonment on charges of murder and cruelty to civilians. This was reported by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee. Svinarchuk was a company commander of the 36th separate marine brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Journalist Alexander Chizhenok has been fired from his position as a professor at St. Petersburg State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The news outlet Fontanka links Chizhenok’s dismissal to a video his students made about an earlier statement signed by current students, graduates, and faculty members in support of Svetlana Drugoveiko-Dolzhanskaya, another professor who was fired in October.

The Finnish Ministry of Justice has rejected the government's proposal to further tighten restrictions on the border with Russia. The publication Yle writes about this with reference to sources. It is unclear exactly what restrictions the government proposed. However, the publication notes, the Ministry of Justice considered that there are no formal prerequisites for introducing restrictions and they deprive migrants of the opportunity to seek asylum.

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow rejected the claim of Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov demanding that he be removed from the register of “foreign agents,” Novaya Gazeta reports. At the meeting, a representative of the Ministry of Justice named Vorobiev (Novaya Gazeta does not name him) said that Muratov gave interviews to foreign media from “unfriendly” countries, which means he could not speak positively about Russia.

What is happening, no one still understands Joel Saget / AFP / Scanpix / Leta Sam Altman The board of directors of Openai, which developed ChatGPT, announced on November 17 that he fired one of the founders of the company, Sam Altman, from the post of general director. He was also excluded from the board of directors.

Alexey Navalny has released the results of a survey his team conducted to gauge the views of Russia’s political opposition regarding the country’s 2024 presidential election. The poll’s respondents included Russian politicians, journalists, and public figures; the survey was also available for anyone to complete online . The results are based on 54,130 responses.