Stabilization Measures in Krasny Liman, the “Forbidden” Donetsk Village, Ukraine, as Revised by Cherevatyi

There is a group of Russian people in the area. The settlements of Yampil, Novoselivka, and Shandryholove are no longer standing. Stabilization measures are ongoing there,” Cherevatyi said in a televised press conference on Saturday morning.

“In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines,” the ministry said on Telegram, using the Russian name for the town of Lyman.

Russian state media said the reason for Russia’s withdrawal was because the enemy used Western-made weaponry.

— The Ukrainian military said Sunday that fierce clashes were taking place around the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have claimed some recent territorial gains. The general staff didn’t acknowledge a loss of territory, but said that the tense situation had arisen around those two cities.

Ukrainian forces said earlier Saturday that they had entered Stavky, a village neighboring Lyman, according to Serhii Cherevatyi, the military spokesperson for the eastern grouping of Ukrainian forces.

“[The liberation] of Lyman is important, because it is another step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas. This is a good chance to go further to the other side of the country. It is psychologically important in turn, he said.

The head of Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Hayday also revealed Saturday further details of the Lyman offensive, suggesting Russian forces had offered to retreat, but to no avail from the Ukrainian side.

“Occupiers asked [their command] for possibility to retreat, and they have been refused. Accordingly, they have two options. No, they actually have three options. Hayday said to try to break through, or everyone will die.

“There are several thousand of them. Yes, about 5,000. There is not an exact number yet. Five thousand is still a colossal grouping. There has never been such a large group in the encirclement before. All routes for the supply of ammunition or the retreat of the group are all completely blocked,” he added.

Yurii Mysiagin, Ukrainian member of Parliament and deputy head of the parliament’s committee on national security, referenced the move into Stavky on Saturday by publishing a video on Telegram showing a Ukrainian tank moving up the road with a clear sign indicating the region of Stavky. CNN could not independently verify the original source or the date.

A video posted on social media, and shared by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, shows two Ukrainian soldiers standing on a military vehicle attaching the flag with tape to a large sign with the word “Lyman.”

Kadyrov’s “illegal detention” of Murashov in a nuclear power plant attack on the Kharkiv governor

In a statement Ramzan Kadyrov said it was time for the Kremlin to make use of every weapon at their disposal.

“In my personal opinion we need to take more drastic measures, including declaring martial law in the border territories and using low-yield nuclear weapons,” Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel. “There is no need to make every decision with the Western American community in mind.”

If the existence of the Russian state were threatened by an attack on them, then it was permissible to use nuclear weapons, as was discussed by former Russia president Dmitry Medvedev, on his Telegram channel this week.

The announcement was dismissed as illegal by the United States and many other countries but the fear is that the Kremlin will argue that attacks on those territories constitute attacks on Russia.

The Russian leader made reference to nuclear weapons in his speech, saying that the United States had been the only country to use them on the battlefield.

Russian forces seized the director-general of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in a bid to gain control over the newly annexed territory, according to the Ukrainian state nuclear company.

The director-general was taken out of the vehicle and blindfolded while on his way from the plant. There isn’t much information on his fate for the time being.

“Murashov is a licensed person and bears main and exclusive responsibility for the nuclear and radiation safety of the Zaporizhzhya NPP,” Kotin said, adding, that his detention “jeopardizes the safety of operation of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency director-general was urged to take all possible immediate actions to save Murashov.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly” condemned Murashov’s “illegal detention,” calling it a “another manifestation of state terrorism from the side of Russia and a gross violation of international law.”

“We call on the international community, in particular the UN, the IAEA and the G7, to also take decisive measures to this end,” the ministry said in a statement.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said 24 civilians were killed in an attack this week on a convoy trying to flee the Kupiansk district. He called it “сruelty that can’t be justified.” The dead are 13 children and a pregnant woman.

The cars were shot by the Russian army on September 25 “when civilians were trying to evacuate,” it said in a Telegram post, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

Russia has suffered a series of setbacks nearly eight months after invading Ukraine in a campaign many thought would be short-lived. In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have staged a counteroffensive, retaking areas in the south and east, while Moscow’s decision to call up more troops has led to protests and an exodus of tens of thousands of Russians.

“There are many things Russia can do to make the war personal, not just for people of Ukraine but around Europe, to try to force pressure on governments to remove their support for Ukraine,” Giles said.

As long as the weather stays warm, the U.S. intelligence agencies think that Ukraine can re-take territory it lost to Russia early in the war. But the agencies cautioned against expecting outright Russian defeat, or even the kind of headlong retreat seen last month in the Kharkiv region in the east.

Crimean Airfields in Kiev and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: A Report on Kadyrov’s Retrenchment

The leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has blamed the retreat on one general being covered up for by higher-ups in the General Staff. He called for “more drastic measures.”

Meanwhile, on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, the governor of the city of Sevastopol announced an emergency situation at an airfield there. Explosions and huge billows of smoke could be seen from a distance by beachgoers in the Russian-held resort. At the Belbek airfield, authorities said that a plane rolled off the runway and that the fuel on board caught fire.

In the past few days, the Russian bombardments have intensified as Moscow moved quickly with its annexation and ordered a mass mobilization at home to bolster its forces. The Russian call-up has proven unpopular at home, prompting tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country.

The fighting has centered on the north of the peninsula. The Ukrainian president wrote on Telegram that he was sad at the latest attack.

Photographs of the attack on the convoy were posted by the Security Service of Ukraine. At least one truck appeared to have been destroyed, with corpses in its bed. A vehicle in front of the convoy was on fire. There were bodies on the side of the road or in the vehicles which had been hit by bullets.

In the western part of Russia, air defense systems shot down at least a minimum of 16 missiles from the Ukrainians. Russian authorities in border regions say that civilians have been wounded by Kyiv’s shooting at their territory. The attackers haven’t claimed responsibility nor commented on the attacks.

A part of the region currently in Russian control is home to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Fighting has repeatedly imperiled the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, and Ukrainian authorities shut down its last operating reactor last month to prevent a radiation disaster.

The region of Zaporizhzhia has been annexed by Russia despite the fact that 20% of it remains under Ukrainian military control.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to Ukraine and the crisis in the Zaporizhzhia region criticized by the European Central Bank

More than $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to the war-torn country was added to the bill signed by the president on Friday.

The strikes came just hours after Ukraine’s president announced that the country’s military had retaken three more villages in one of the regions illegally annexed by Russia.

A girl was taken to the hospital after being rescued from multi-storey buildings, Governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on his Telegram channel.

There is a high risk of storming the nuclear power plant by Ukrainians, according to Rogov, who said that there was a large number of militant in the Zaporizhzhia direction.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to talk with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move. He will also discuss efforts to set up a secure protection zone around the facility, which has been damaged in the fighting and seen staff including its director abducted by Russian troops.

Meanwhile, leaders from more than 40 countries are meeting in Prague on Thursday to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and prosperity across the continent, a day after the Kremlin held the door open for further land grabs in Ukraine.

Pesevsky did not specify which more Ukrainian territoriesMoscow is interested in, or if it was planning to organize more of the “referendums” in Ukraine that the United States and others have dismissed as illegitimate.

The precise borders of the areas Moscow is claiming remain unclear, but Putin has vowed to defend Russia’s territory — including the annexed regions — with any means at his military’s disposal, including nuclear weapons.

The Ukrainian flag had been raised over seven Kherson region villages which had been occupied by the Russians. The nearest village to the city of Kherson is Davydiv Brid, which is 100 kilometers away.

Russian military medics lacked supplies and there were too many wounded Russian soldiers, according to the deputy head of the Ukrainian regional government. Once they are stabilized, Russian soldiers are being sent to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

During the occupation, it was heavily damaged as Ukrainian soldiers fought to regain control of it. Mykola, a 71-year-old man who gave only his first name, was among about 100 residents who lined up for aid on Wednesday.

The Nightmare of February 24: A Complete Disaster in Enerhodar, Russia, a Day after Ukraine’s Invasion

He wants the war to end so that the shops, hospitals and pharmacy are able to work again. We haven’t got anything yet. Everything has been pillaged, a complete disaster.

In his nightly address, a defiant Zelenskyy switched to speaking Russian to tell the Moscow leadership that it has already lost the war that it launched Feb. 24.

Crews restored power and cellular connection in Enerhodar, the city near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is currently under Russian control, a senior official said Sunday.

“Water supply will be restored in the near future,” Rogov, a pro-Russian leader in the regional Zaporizhzhia government, wrote in a telegram post Sunday

“Ukrainian authorities tried to deliver humanitarian supplies with food, hygiene products, and so on to the city, but that Russian forces have not let humanitarian aid through,” Orlov said.

KYIV and DNIPRO, UKRAINE, and MOSCOW — Explosions rocked several cities across Ukraine in the most extensive attack on the country since the early days of Russia’s invasion in February. The attacks came only hours after Russia blamed Ukraine for a weekend explosion that partially damaged a strategic bridge that connects Russian-occupied Crimea to mainland Russia.

The strikes began after the attack on the Kerch bridge damaged the only crossing between the annexed Crimean peninsula and Russia. The blast that the Kremlin used to justify the Monday attack gave Ukraine a great strategic boost and bruised the Russian mindset.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, said Saturday that the Zaporizhzhia plant has since lost its last remaining external power source as a result of renewed shelling and is now relying on emergency diesel generators.

Russia is doing what it takes to protect itself and its citizens from attacks on Ukraine’s Kerch Bridge, a key infrastructure site for Russian operations in Crimea

Putin blames the Ukrainians for the attack on the bridge, but they have not claimed responsibility. He said Monday’s strikes were in response to the attack, but Ukrainian intelligence says the strikes had been planned since early last week.

Putin signed a decree late Saturday tightening security for the bridge and for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia, and put Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, in charge of the effort.

Surovikin — who has overseen the mass bombardment of Ukrainian cities since taking over — accused Kyiv of targeting civilians and said Russia’s focus was now on saving lives.

In May of last year, Putin drove a truck across the Kerch Bridge to show Moscow’s claim on the peninsula. The bridge, the longest in Europe, is vital to sustaining Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine.

Cars and trains were able to cross the bridge again on Sunday, even though traffic had been temporarily suspended after the blast. Russia also restarted a car ferry service.

Russian tourists love visiting the peninsula, which is home to a Russian naval base. 50,000 people were in Crimea on Saturday according to the Russian tourist association.

“We have already established the route of the truck,” he said, adding that it had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar — a region in southern Russia — among other places.

Explosions in Dnipro, southern Ukraine, kill 12 people and injure 20 others, and de-escalate the Ukrainian government

Explosions rocked civilian areas of Dnipro, a major southern city. One site hit was a bus stop, nestled between high rise apartment buildings. The bus was destroyed by a missile just a few feet in front of it, as well as the windows in the nearby apartments, when it was on its way to pick up commuters.

Mucola Markovich said there was one explosion and then another. His apartment on the fourth floor was taken care of in a few moments.

About 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in another neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike, the dog’s leg blown away by the blast.

Abbas Gallyamov, a political analyst and former speechwriter for Putin, said that the Russian president did not respond forcefully enough to appease the angry war hawks. The attack and response, he said, has “inspired the opposition, while the loyalists are demoralized.”

“Because once again, they see that when the authorities say that everything is going according to plan and we’re winning, that they’re lying, and it demoralizes them,” he said.

— In the devastated Ukrainian city of Lyman, which was recently recaptured after a months-long Russian occupation, Ukrainian national police said authorities have exhumed the first 20 bodies from a mass burial site. Initial indications are that around 200 civilians are buried in one location, and that another grave contains the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The military members were buried in a 40-meter trench while the civilians were buried in single graves, according to police.

Kremlin-backed separatist authorities have accused Ukraine of numerous strikes on infrastructure and residential targets in the occupied regions using U.S.-supplied long-range HIMARS rockets.

In a video filmed outside of his office Monday, a defiant President Volodymyr Zelensky said that many of the missile strikes across Ukranian were aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure. At least 11 important infrastructure facilities in eight regions and the capital have been damaged; some provinces are without power, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

China and India also call for de-escalation: After the strikes, China expressed hope that the situation in Ukraine will “de-escalated soon.” India has said it is “deeply concerned” by the escalation of the conflict and said that “escalation of hostilities is in no one’s interest,” urging an “immediate cessation of hostilities” and return to the “path of dialogue. The attack was condemned by other European leaders.

President Zelenskyy said in a video posted to social media that the strikes disproportionately targeted civilian infrastructure in 11 of Ukraine’s 25 regions, including power plants and water heating facilities.

“It’s a tough morning when you’re dealing with terrorists,” said Zelenskyy in the video, which recalled the selfie he took the night Russia invaded in February. “They’re choosing targets to harm as many people as possible.”

Explosions hit Kyiv and other cities: The 81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko was watering on a balcony

In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A nearby strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal, delaying trains during this morning’s rush hour, according to Ukraine’s National Railway.

“This happened at rush hour, as lots of public transport was operating in the city,” said Ihor Makovtsev, the head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council, as he stood by the wreckage. The bus driver and four passengers are in the hospital with serious injuries.

“All of our transportation is only for civilian purposes, so we don’t have a reason to work on the so-called artillery work,” Makovtsev said.

81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko looked out from what once were the windows of his first floor balcony, just next to the bus stop. There is shattered glass on the ground. He said he had been watering the plants on his balcony just minutes before the blast, but went to his kitchen to make breakfast.

“The explosion blew open all of my cabinets, and nearly knocked me to the ground,” he said. I’d been on the balcony, full of glass, five minutes before.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/10/1127794708/explosions-hit-kyiv-and-other-cities

The Crimes of Crime in Ukraine: A High-Dimensional View from the Counter-attacks on the Kerch Straw Bridge

Ukraine’s top brass released a statement that said that the country’s air defenses took down at least 40 incoming air attacks, but several dozen more got through. Ukrainian officials blamed Iranian-made suicide drones launched from Belarus and the Black sea for many of the attacks. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has allowed Russia to use his country as a staging ground for attacks on Ukraine, and after today’s attacks requested further assistance from the Russian government in anticipation of Ukrainian retaliation.

Ramzan Kadyrov was a loyalist to Putin and he wrote that Russia hadn’t really started yet.

Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

Even amid irrepressible jubilation here in Ukraine in the aftermath of a massive explosion that hit the hugely strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend, fears of retaliation by the Kremlin were never far away.

The strikes on central Kyiv are significant and close to the government quarter. It is being crossed as a red line this 229th day of the war.

As of midday local time the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet between air raid sirens, with reports of three missiles and five drones being shot down. At this time of the day, restaurants nearby would be filled with customers and chatter of upcoming weddings and parties.

The scenes of the war when Russian forces neared the capital were reminiscent of what happened in the early days. Large amounts of people took cover on the platforms in the metro station as a group of people performed patriotic songs.

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.

Inspiral of Russian citizens into a dangerous country: a response of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister in Kherson to the opening of the Kerch bridge

It seems that the tendency of dictators is hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive infrastructure projects. Putin drove a truck across the Kerch bridge in order to personally open it. The world’s longest sea crossing bridge was built when Beijing reclaimed the former Portuguese and British territory of Hong Kong. Two years of delays resulted in the opening of the road bridge.

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many shared their jubilation through text messages.

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, toldUkrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that they needed to enter Crimean by the end of the year.

Washington and other allies need to use urgent telephone diplomacy to get China and India to resist the urge to use more deadly weapons.

High tech defense systems are needed to protect energy infrastructure around the country. With winter just around the corner, the need to protect heating systems is urgent.

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

Putin will continue his violence and spread a humanitarian crisis throughout Europe if these measures aren’t adopted. The Kremlin will take a weak reaction as a sign that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.

The Russian Deputy Prime Minister made an announcement shortly after the head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help moving residents out of harm’s way.

Saldo claimed cities throughout Kherson, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed to have annexed in violation of international law, were being hammered by dangerous airstrikes.

If residents in the Kherson region have a wish to protect themselves from missile strikes, they should leave and bring their children with them.

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson region’s military administration, denied that the civilian transports were an “evacuation.”

Stremousov has been critical of decision-makers in Moscow, especially on the battlefield. He said last week that the military setbacks were caused by incompetent commanders who have not been held accountable.

The War with Ukraine, Is It Already Already Here? Observational Implications for Operations and Security in the Era of the November 11 Christmas Bridge Explosion

This week, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the international community just how much money his country currently needed to rebuild and keep its economy afloat: $57 billion. He gave that figure to the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Mr. Zelensky said that $17 billion would be needed to rebuild schools, hospitals, transport systems and housing, with $2 billion going toward expanding exports to Europe and restoring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The images captured hundreds of cargo trucks backed up and waiting to cross from Crimea into Russia by ferry, some five days after the bombing. The images, captured on Wednesday by Maxar Technologies, show a big backup at the port in Kerch and a line of trucks miles away at an airport that is apparently being used as a staging area.

A senior Russia analyst at the International Crisis Group said long lines for a ferry crossing had been made more difficult by security checkpoints set up after the bridge explosion

For the first time, the war is about to go into a new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

With the cold months nearing and likely bringing a slowdown in ground combat, experts say the next weeks of the war are now expected to be vital, and another potential spike in intensity looms over Ukraine as each side seeks to strike another blow.

“What seemed a distant prospect for anything that could be convincingly described as a Ukraine victory is now very much more plausible,” Giles said. “The response from Russia is likely to escalate further.”

These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking just like it is, it will be a huge success for the Russians.

If a major blow in the war in the wartorn Donbas happens, it will send a powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve their position before the cold weather arrives, and the impact of rising energy prices will be felt around Europe.

“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself are always going to be a test of resilience forUkraine and its Western backers.

NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine regardless of how long the war takes, but several European countries – particularly those that relied heavily on Russian energy – are staring down a crippling cost-of-living crisis which, without signs of Ukrainian progress on the battlefield, could endanger public support.

Russia is struggling on the ground and has failed to achieve supremacy in the air but Monday’s attacks might have accomplished one goal, sending a signal of strength towards the growing list of Putin’s internal critics.

The energy minister in Ukraine said 30% of the energy infrastructure in his country was damaged by Russian missiles on Monday and Tuesday. The minister said that this was the first time since the beginning of the war that Russia had targeted energy infrastructure.

Experts believe that Russia’s aerial bombardment will not form a pattern, but they can’t say if Moscow has the capacity to keep it up.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.

“Russia’s use of its limited supply of precision weapons in this role may deprive Putin of options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives,” the ISW assessed.

The success rates against Russian cruise missiles have risen significantly since the start of the invasion, said a military expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

“The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage, because the Russians don’t have the stocks of precision munitions to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future,” Puri said.

Any further Belarusian involvement in the war could also have a psychological impact, Puri suggested. “Everyone’s mind in Ukraine and in the West has been oriented towards fighting one army,” he said. Putin wants the war to be about reunification of the lands of ancient Rus states, so joining the invasion would be a way of doing that.

Giles said that the reopening of a northern front would be a new challenge for the country. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

Zelensky will hope for more goods in the short-term as he tries to drive those gains. In a second wave of strikes on Tuesday, the leader claims that more than half of the missiles and drones launched atUkraine were brought down.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

“These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles [this week] were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said.

The NASAMS expected from the United States was among the badly needed modern systems that have arrived this week in Ukranian.

The Donetsk rocket attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: Russian intelligence and France’s military training

Experts suggest that the coming weeks are crucial for both the battlefield and Europe. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. The failure of Western countries to challenge and deter Russia is the reason for the country’s attitude.

KYIV, Ukraine — Pro-Kremlin officials on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in Donetsk, a city controlled by the separatists, while Ukrainian officials said Russian rocket strikes hit a town across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, among other targets.

The key areas on the front line areneighboring towns. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday that extremely heavy fighting continued in Soledar and Bakhmut.

Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted.

According to Zelenskyy’s office, Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east, and there was also fighting in the southern Kherson region.

The rockets at Nikopol, across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, damaged power lines, gas pipelines, and a raft of civilian businesses and residential buildings, Ukrainian officials said. The nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest, has been the subject of accusations from Russia and Ukraine. It’s run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

A mass shooting on a military range in a former Soviet republic on Saturday, in which 11 people were killed and 15 were wounded, resulted in an investigation being opened by Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.

France, in order to puncture perception that it has not supported Ukraine as much as it should, confirmed it will be providing air-defense missiles and military training. Up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in logistics and other needs, and training on equipment supplied by France, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview published in Le Parisien.

— The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, accused Moscow late Saturday of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians,” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

It referenced statements made this week by Russian authorities that claimed that thousands of children from a southern region would be placed in rest homes and children’s camps. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.

Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

The Ukrainian military accused pro-Kremlin fighters of evicting civilians in occupied territories to house officers in their homes, an act that it described as a violation of international humanitarian law. The evictions took place in the eastern Luhansk region. It didn’t provide evidence for its claim.

The latest developments from the investigation of a Russian attack on a Ukrainian bridge to Crimea: Update on the Russian-backed response to the U.N. General Assembly

The international was looking for Girkin over his involvement in the downing of the plane which killed almost 300 people. He is the most famous suspect in a Dutch court, with a verdict expected in November.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. A $100,000 reward is on offer for anyone who captures him.

Nuclear deterrence exercises will be held by NATO. NATO said that they would not allow nuclear weapons to be used onUkraine, but that the “Steadfast Noon” drills were a yearly activity.

Russian agents detained eight people on Oct. 12 suspected of carrying out a large explosion on a bridge to Crimea, including Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens.

Russia has been condemned by the United Nations General Assembly as well as by the Ukrainian government. In the Oct. 13 session, four countries voted alongside Russia, but 143 voted in favor of Ukraine’s resolution, while 35 abstained.

Here you can read past recaps. More in-depth stories and context can be found here. NPR’s State of Ukraine is available for updates throughout the day.

The Russian-backed authorities began to evacuate civilians from the occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Mariupol on Wednesday in a sign that Moscow’s hold over the territory might be in serious danger.

The Russian government would give housing vouchers to people moving further from the fighting if they took the option of relocation offered by Saldo.

“We will not surrender the city, and we will fight to the end,” he said, adding that residents whose homes might be damaged from shelling could receive compensation from the Russian government.

“It’s tough” for Russia, says Surovikin, the commander of the Ukrainian forces in Kherson and Enerhodar

Earlier in October, Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region pushed the Russian line back by 20 miles, according to the President’s office and Deep State, an independent monitoring group.

In his first interview since being appointed to lead Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine Oct. 8, General Sergei Surovikin called the situation in Kherson “very difficult” and refused to rule out “the hardest decisions.”

The goal is to maximize the safety of civilians and our soldiers. That is our priority,” Surovikin said to the Zvezda channel, a state media outlet funded by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

TheInstitute for the Study of War, a research group based in Washington, has reported that Russian authorities seemed to be preparing people for a retreat from parts of the Kherson region. According to American officials, President Putin refused to allow commanders from Russia to retreat across the Dnipro.

There is evidence that the Russian authorities are considering leaving the western bank of Dnipro, according to a British intelligence report.

There were conflicting reports on Thursday about the status of the town of Enerhodar, located on the east bank of the Dnipro, which is under Russian occupation. Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces were leaving, but The Times could not confirm that, nor was it clear whether such a departure would indicate withdrawal or simply a routine rotation of troops.

Viktor pulled a suitcase out of the car he rode to Zaporizhia, which is 25 miles from occupied territory. “The madness.”

His house is outside Kherson. They raised their three daughters there. The Russians broke into their house within hours of them leaving, Viktor says a neighbor told him.

Artyom’s frustrations about a woman’s choice of middle name at a Zaporizhzhia shelter

At a Zaporizhzhia shelter, a volunteer who asks that he be called by his middle name, Artyom, helps care for Kherson evacuees as if they were his own family. Artyom asked that we not use his full name to protect his relatives in Kherson.

His wife is usually home as much as she can. But to earn money, she sells potatoes and vegetables she grows in her own garden at a local street market.

Artyom says it’s not good. He counts his fingers as he lists off his various fears: He worries that the Russians will stop his wife. He wonders if she will get sick. She’s four months’ pregnant. He’s worried about the baby.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134465380/kherson-ukraine-russia-battle-looms

Working in Kyiv: The impact of Russian forces across the Antonivsky Bridge on Kherson city in the early days of the Cold War

Some of them are called collaborators by the man who is living in Kyiv. And he says some are people who just can’t leave. Many are older. Others have few resources. Their lives right now are “intense,” he says.

What little public interaction there is now in the city revolves mostly around the local street markets that popped up since the war began. Local farmers and bakers have been selling their products at the street markets since most of the stores in Kherson are closed.

“You can buy most things from beginning with medicine and ending with meat,” says Natalyia Schevchenko, 30, who fled Kherson this summer. “But it’s terrible to observe. On one car, they sell medicine on the hood and on the side they cut meat.”

The volunteer at the Side-by- Side group is still in contact with the people in the city. She says her grandmother, who refused to leave, gives her regular updates.

Artyom and his wife talk whenever they can get a decent connection. They worry that Russians are listening in and try to keep their conversations light.

It’s scary but they agree it’s a good thing. Artyom might be able to return to his hometown soon because they think it means the Ukrainians are getting closer.

The exiled Ukrainian head of the Kherson regional military administration blamed Russian troops for the damage to the power lines.

He said the Russian forces placed mines around water towers in Beryslav, less than 50 miles from Kherson city and just north of a critical dam.

Some 250,000 people lived in the city before the war. Ukrainian activists estimate that 30,000 to 60,000 people remain, but it is impossible to know how accurate such guesses are.

When Russian forces stormed across the Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro River in March and into Kherson city, a major port and a former shipbuilding center, it marked their biggest success of the early days of the war. Mr. Putin wanted to take the Kherson region as a bridgehead for a drive to the port city of Odesa.