As we enter the 636th day of the war, these are the most important developments.

Here is the situation as of Tuesday, November 21, 2023.

Battle

• Ukraine said fighting had increased over the Russian-held eastern city of Bakhmut. Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesman for Ukrainian ground forces, said Russia was concentrating its attacks on Klishchyivka, a nearby village that was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in September. “Eleven attacks were repelled in the last 24 hours,” he said. “The enemy is trying to drive our men out of the defensive positions around Klishchyivka.” The Russian Defense Ministry said it repelled more than 30 Ukrainian attacks in and around Bakhmut last week.
• According to Ukrainian authorities, three people were killed and one injured in Russian shelling in the southern Kherson and central Dnipropetrovsk regions. Some power lines and a gas pipe were also damaged.
• A soldier and a woman died when a grenade exploded in an apartment in Kiev, according to Ukrainian police. The cause of the explosion, which injured a second man, was initially unclear.
• The US State Department said it is barring Russian Colonel Asatbek Omurbekov and Russian Guard Corporal Daniil Frolkin from entering the US because of their alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the Ukrainian town of Andriivka.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine has fired its two top cyber defense officials – Yury Shchyhol, head of Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service, and his deputy Victor Zhora – amid an ongoing investigation into corruption in software purchases.

• Fox Corp Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch traveled to Kyiv, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine said the meeting was a “very important signal” of support at a time when the war between Israel and Gaza has diverted global attention from the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy said Fox News journalist Benjamin Hall, who was seriously wounded while covering the conflict last year, and Jerome Starkey, a journalist with the British tabloid The Sun, were also at the meeting.
• In an interview with The Sun, which was also published in the British newspaper Times, owned by the same media group, Zelensky accused Russia of trying to stoke tensions from the Balkans to the Middle East. “Ukraine today [is] at the center of these global risks of this Third World War,” Zelensky said. He called on Ukraine’s allies to maintain their military support, acknowledging that there was a lack of progress in some parts of the battlefield but pointing to successes in the Black Sea. “We actually deployed part of the Russian fleet,” he said told the paper. “We made it.”
• Russia has put Ukrainian singer Jamala, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, on its wanted list. Independent Russian news site Mediazona said Jamala, whose real name is Susana Jamaladinova, was charged under a law that bans the spread of fake information about the Russian military and the war in Ukraine. Jamala, a Crimean Tatar, has long been a critic of Russia and told Zelensky last year that her priority was “to remember that foreigners came to my home to kill and maim lives, to destroy my culture and to rewrite.” She responded to the Russian arrest warrant on Instagram with a facepalm emoji.
• A Japanese delegation led by senior industry and foreign ministry officials, including business representatives, visited Ukraine for talks ahead of next year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference, hosted by Japan.

weapons

• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Kiev and unveiled an additional $100 million package to supply artillery ammunition, air defense interceptors and anti-tank weapons. Austin promised Zelensky that US support would be “for the long haul.” He also met with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.