Moscow has begun the "resettlement" to Russia of civilians evacuated from the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, the Guardian writes, citing pro-Russian officials in the region.
Yesterday, pro-Russian governor Volodymyr Saldo had spoken of plans to move up to 60,000 people across the Dnipro River and into Russia over the next six days, at a rate of 10,000 people a day.
According to 007s in London, meanwhile, Russian authorities are "seriously" considering a major withdrawal of their forces from the area west of the Dnipro River.
A key challenge of any withdrawal operation by Russian forces would be the extraction of troops and their equipment across the river, which is 1,000 meters wide, points out the report released today by the London Ministry of Defense. With all bridges severely damaged, Russia would most likely rely on a temporary barge bridge completed in recent days near Kherson and vehicle ferries that continue to operate in several locations, the intelligence concludes.
Russian attacks on Ukraine have damaged numerous power plants. Internet connection has dropped to about 80 percent of ordinary levels in the Kiev region, with national power company Ukrenergo introducing rolling blackouts overnight. President Zelensky, in his usual foine-day video address yesterday, had emphasized the new damage suffered by critical energy infrastructure. "We will certainly do everything we can to restore our country's normal energy capacities, but it will take time," he said, urging everyone to pay attention to consumption starting at 7 a.m. local time today (6 a.m. in Italy). "Please do not turn on unnecessary appliances and limit electricity consumption on those appliances that require a lot of power," he asked.
Restrictions on electricity supply will in fact be introduced from today throughout Ukraine, the Kiev government had announced yesterday after a series of Russian attacks targeted the country's energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks in nine villages in the east of the country over the past 24 hours, the Armed Forces General Staff announced on Facebook, Ukrinform reported. The localities targeted by Moscow forces are Bilohorivka in Lugansk region (east) and Bakhmut, Bakhmutske, Klishchiivka, Krasnohorivka, Novomykhailivka, Nevelske, Opytne, and Marinka in Donetsk region. Hit in the early hours of this morning a school in the settlement of
Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The situation in the country has also prompted China to urge compatriots to "stay in touch" with the embassy in Kiev and "evacuate as soon as possible" and leave Ukraine. Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, on the sidelines of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party, recalled that since "the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine, the embassy has helped more than 5,200 compatriots" leave the country. Therefore, in light of the latest developments, "I take this opportunity to renew the invitation to our fellow citizens to leave as soon as possible."
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree under which martial law is introduced in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia has illegally annexed: those of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Tass reports. In his address to the Russian Security Council, Putin issued a decree restricting movement in and out of eight regions bordering Ukraine. The measures apply to the southern regions of Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov and the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, which Russia annexed in 2014, according to the Guardian.
Russian-imposed martial law may be extended to any part of the Federation's territory "if necessary." This is stipulated in the decree signed by Putin, the Guardian reported.
Kiev rejects any proposal for dialogue and so "attacks continue, civilians are dying," Putin said at the Russian Security Council meeting, as reported by Interfax. "The constitutional laws on the admission of the four new regions to the Russian Federation," he said, "have come into force. As is well known, the Kiev regime has refused to recognize the will and choice of the people and rejects any proposal for dialogue. Rather, the attacks continue. Civilians are dying," Putin said.
Russian forces eliminated the Ukrainian strike force near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, killing more than 90 soldiers and destroying 14 vessels: this was announced by top Russian military officials, stressing that there were no casualties or damage at the plant and that radioactivity levels were normal. At the same time, Russia's state nuclear power provider Rosatom let it be known that the situation at the plant is "absolutely under control." Russian authorities had earlier disclosed that they had foiled two Ukrainian attempts to take control of the plant.
Airborne alert in much of Ukraine's regions-from Kiev to Odessa. Sirens are also sounding in Mykolaiv and Poltava, Chernihiv, Zaporozhzhia, Kirovograd, and Cherkasy. This was stated by Sergei Bratchuk, adviser to the head of the Odessa regional military administration, as reported by Ria Novosti. "Alert. Everyone in shelters," Bratchuk wrote on his Telegram channel. Explosions were heard in central Kiev. This was reported by Afp's correspondent in the Ukrainian capital.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces "began an offensive in the direction of Novaya Kamenka-Berislav in the Kherson region." In the field are "up to two infantry battalions of the 128th assault brigade and a tank battalion of the 17th brigade," said the deputy head of the pro-Russian regional administration Kirill Stremousov, quoted by Interfax news agency. "Preparations preceded the offensive attack. There are many Ukrainian intermediate-range drones and a reconnaissance plane," Stremousov said.
"About 50 employees of the Zaporizhzhia power plant are prisoners of the Russians." Ukrainian operator Energoatom reported this to Afp. According to Mykolayiv regional military administration chief Vitaly Kim, "the Russians are preparing to bomb Kherson, which is occupied by them." "They are evacuating the population, they say the Ukrainian armed forces will shoot, they will hit Kherson. But knowing Russian tactics I have a feeling that the Russians are preparing to hit Kherson," Kim said, quoted by Unian.
The Russians struck the Burshtynskaya TPP thermal power plant in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of southeastern Ukraine and a fire broke out. This was claimed by Svitlana Onyshchuk, head of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional military administration, as Unian reports. "Today, our region was again hit by rockets. They hit the Burshtynskaya TPP causing a fire. All services are working, rescuers are on the spot," he said, adding that there were no casualties.
The Russian military opened fire on ambulances in the community of Dvorichna in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine. The Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine of the Kharkiv Regional Council wrote this on Facebook, as Ukrinform reports. "The enemy continues to sow terror among civilians in liberated areas of Kharkiv with rocket attacks. In today's shelling of Dvorichna district, three vehicles specializing in emergency medical services were severely damaged, some Emergency Service employees were injured."
In occupied areas, Russians are looting museums and burning Ukrainian-language books, the Ukrainian Army General Staff says in its morning report, as Ukrinform reports. "The invaders are destroying Ukrainian cultural heritage in the occupied territories, looting museums and burning Ukrainian literature books," the report reads. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has documented more than 500 cases of Russian war crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage.
"Russia's targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure are marking a new chapter in an already cruel war. The international order is clear. These are war crimes. Targeted attacks against civilian infrastructure with the clear goal of depriving men, women and children of water, electricity and heating with the coming of winter. These are acts of pure terror. And we must call them as such." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament. "Russia attacked Kiev again with nearly 30 drones, killing innocent people, including a pregnant woman. Not a day goes by without Putin and his regime giving terrible news and lies." This was stressed by EPP group leader Manfred Weber in the debate on the European Council in the Strasbourg Chamber. "Taking into account all the victims, we are not tired of saying that Putin is a war criminal. Putin must lose and Europe will never stop supporting Ukraine. Never. This message unites us," Weber remarked at the plenary, where the debate also touched on Silvio Berlusconi's words about Putin.
At least four civilians died and 12 others were wounded in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine during yesterday's Russian attacks, the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, disclosed, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. Kyrylenko specified that civilians were killed in Kurakhovo, Bakhmut, Kurdiumivka, and Siversk. In addition, the bodies of eight other civilians were found in the liberated town of Lyman.
Pro-Russian authorities in the Kherson region plan to evacuate some 50,000-60,000 people on the left bank of the Dnepr River within a week. This was stated by Acting Governor Volodymyr Saldo on Solovyov Live, as reported by Ria Novosti. The commander of the Integrated Group of Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, Army General Sergey Surovikin, said yesterday that the Russian Armed Forces were in possession of information that Kiev was preparing a massive missile attack against the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam.
Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, accused by the Kiev prosecutor's office, among others, of torture and murder, has reappeared on Telegram where he wrote: "Since October 14 active in the Russian army". Unian reports. Two days ago, Ukrainian military intelligence (Gur) put a $100,000 bounty on his head, and today, service chief Kyrylo Budanov says "Girkin has already arrived in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Nicknamed 'Strelkov-the rifleman' or 'shooter,' he played a key role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea to Russia. An international arrest warrant issued by the Netherlands weighs on him for the missile that destroyed the Malaysian Mh17 civilian plane in which 298 people died.
A third of power plants out of action due to Russian raids, with more than 1,100 locations across Ukraine still without power. The capital, Kiev, in the dark for hours under a rain of kamikaze drones. And Moscow's army, which, after more than a month on the defensive, is threatening to return to the attack starting in the Kharkiv region, a symbol of the late summer rout. Ten days after the Kremlin appointed the Kremlin's sole commander of the offensive, the scorched-earth strategy imposed by 'General Armageddon' Serghei Surovikin is hitting Ukrainian civilians harder and harder: a ruthless stamp now evident, aiming to sap the population's resistance as Russian troops regroup.
"Another type of Russian terrorist attacks: targeting energy and critical infrastructure. Since October 10, 30 percent of Ukrainian power plants have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country"-from Kiev to Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv to Dnipro, some four thousand settlements hit by blackouts in 10 days-is the tally released by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says "there is no more room for negotiations with Putin's regime." The margin for a negotiation between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, always slim, is zeroed at the moment even according to the crisis's leading mediator, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, fresh from last week's meeting in Astana with the czar, who called a direct dialogue "now impossible."
Meanwhile, the new course of the conflict has also definitely plunged the Kiev region, the scene of most of the 190 raids that have claimed more than 70 lives and wounded 240 in a week, back into terror. The latest two deaths in the capital only a few hours ago, when yet another energy facility was attacked in the Ukrainian capital, which was left dark for hours in several neighborhoods. Critical infrastructure remains the main target of Moscow's pounding with missiles, drones and artillery, setting off continuous air alerts across the country. Raids that have been roundly condemned by the international community, with the leaders of France and Britain, Emmanuel Macron and Liz Truss, denouncing "barbaric attacks against civilian areas of Ukraine."
Under new pressure, Ukraine is again calling for the delivery of long-range weapons from the West and cashing in on NATO's promise of a days' delivery of defense systems against the fearsome Iranian Shahed drones. Kiev is also intensifying its pressure on Israel, to which it has sent an official request for the delivery of an air defense system. "If Israel's policy is really to constantly counter Iran's destructive actions, then it's time for it to openly side with Ukraine," said Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who at the same time proposed to Zelensky that he break off diplomatic relations with Tehran, which sells weapons to Moscow, including missiles, but has always denied that they are used for the offensive.
On the ground, meanwhile, Putin's forces are preparing to relaunch military operations in Kharkiv oblast. Moscow Defense claimed to have regained control of the village of Gorobyevka, which would be the first to return to Russian hands since the resounding retreat in September. In the region, Kiev reported, shelling of energy infrastructure continues, while missiles fired from the Belgorod border area hit a humanitarian aid warehouse.
By contrast, no offensive movement is currently reported from Belarus, where joint Moscow and Minsk troops have been deployed. These forces, assured Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, "will not attack anyone" because their mission "is strictly defensive."
"About five million residents of the Donbass and southeastern regions of Ukraine have found refuge in Russia." This was said by Moscow Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev at the end of today's meeting of the body, chaired by Vladimir Putin, as reported by Interfax.