Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “some territories will be recovered and we will continue to advise residents who would like to embrace Russia.” Putin last week signed treaties that aim to absorb Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions into Russia. The move followed Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” in Ukraine, which the Ukrainian government and the West have dismissed as illegal. Peskov did not specify which additional Ukrainian territories Moscow is considering for attempted annexation, and would not say whether the Kremlin planned to hold more such “referendums.” Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would stabilize the situation in the regions, an implicit acknowledgment of the challenges it faces in asserting its control. Ukrainian soldiers fire mortars from their position on the front line with Russian troops in the Donetsk region on Wednesday. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images) The Russian moves come as the momentum in the war has clearly shifted in Ukraine’s favor since early September. Thousands of Russian troops have abandoned their positions after the front line collapsed — first in the northeast and, since the start of this week, in the south. “We proceed from the fact that the situation will stabilize, we will be able to calmly develop these territories,” Putin said in televised remarks. WATCHES | Ukraine makes rapid gains in territory annexed by Russia:
Ukraine makes rapid gains in Russian annexed territories
Ukrainian troops are advancing rapidly not only in the east of the country, but also in the south, seizing territory that only days ago Russia unilaterally claimed as its own through a series of annexations. The Russian leader, speaking at the teachers’ award ceremony, also said that he has great respect for the Ukrainian people. “Always, and even today, despite the current tragedy, we have great respect for the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture, language, literature and so on,” Putin said. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes and country since Putin ordered the invasion of Russia on February 24.
The largest annexation since World War II
The annexation is Europe’s largest since World War II and represents up to 18 percent of Ukraine, some of which Moscow’s forces do not control. If Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, is added, Moscow claims 22 percent of Ukraine, although it has yet to specify where all the borders will be. Putin has vowed to defend Russia’s territory — including annexed territories — with every means at his military’s disposal, including nuclear weapons. Peskov rejected the idea that battlefield losses undermined the annexation plan. Meanwhile, Kyiv has said it will never accept an illegal imperial-style land grab and has reclaimed hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of its own territory in recent weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on his Telegram channel shortly after Putin signed the annexation law that “the useless decisions of the terrorist country are not worth the paper they are signed on.” Zelensky responded to the annexation by announcing Ukraine’s fast-track application for NATO membership. In a decree released on Tuesday, he also ruled out negotiations with Russia, saying Putin’s actions made it impossible to talk to the Russian leader.
Alleged torture chamber
In the eastern region of Kharkiv, more disturbing images emerged from areas recently reclaimed from Russia. Serhiy Bolvinov, who heads the investigative department of the national police in the region, said authorities were investigating an alleged Russian torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski. Ukraine’s general prosecutor also spoke about new evidence of torture and killings found on Wednesday in the Kharkiv region. On the ground, Russia and Ukraine gave conflicting assessments on Wednesday of a Ukrainian counterattack in the Russian-held Kherson region. A regional official based in Moscow insisted that Ukrainian advances had stalled. A Ukrainian soldier smokes a cigarette Monday after finding and identifying the dead body of a comrade in the recently recaptured city of Liman. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press) However, the Ukrainian military said the Ukrainian flag had been raised over seven villages in the Kherson region previously held by the Russians. In neighboring Mykolaiv Oblast, the governor said Russian troops had begun withdrawing from Snihurivka, a town of 12,000 that Moscow seized early in the war and annexed along with Kherson Oblast. A Russian official in Snihurivka, Yury Barbashov, denied that Russian troops had lost control of the town, a strategic rail hub, but said Ukrainian forces were advancing. In central Ukraine, multiple explosions rocked Bila Tserkva, a town about 80 kilometers south of the capital Kiev. The explosions caused fires in designated infrastructure facilities, regional leader Oleksiy Kuleba said on the Telegram messaging app.
Suicide drones are a new problem for Kyiv
Early indications were that the city was attacked by so-called kamikaze or suicide drones, he said. Russia has increasingly used suicide drones in recent weeks, posing a new challenge to Ukrainian defenses. Unmanned vehicles can stay aloft for long periods of time before swooping down on targets and detonating their payload at the last moment. A local resident looks at a damaged building through a fence after an airstrike by Iranian-made Russian drones hit Bila Tserkva, southwest of Kiev, on Wednesday. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images) Zelensky chaired a meeting of Ukraine’s top military officials on Wednesday morning in which they discussed countering new types of weapons being used by Russia, a possible reference to drones. Meanwhile, a different battle was taking place in energy markets. European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to impose a price cap on Russian oil and other new sanctions.
OPEC+ could raise gas prices again
Diplomats reached the deal in Brussels, which also includes restrictions on exports of EU aircraft parts to Russia and restrictions on steel imports from the country, according to an official statement from the Czech rotating presidency. The 27-nation bloc will impose a ban on shipping Russian oil to other countries above the price ceiling desired by the Group of Seven rich nations until December 5, when the EU embargo on most Russian oil comes into effect. . For its part, Moscow, which has cut gas supplies to Europe, blaming Western sanctions and technical difficulties, is withdrawing gas from a pipeline to Europe and redirecting it to Russia, Denmark said, citing a statement from the Russian natural gas company gas Gazprom. Also, the OPEC+ oil-exporting alliance decided on Wednesday to sharply reduce the amount of crude it sends to the global economy – a move that could help Russia deal with an impending European ban on oil imports and boost its prices. gasoline for American drivers. of the national mid-term elections. Energy ministers from the OPEC cartel, led by Saudi Arabia, and allied non-members including Russia are meeting in person at the group’s headquarters in Vienna for the first time since early 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic -19.
Other war news
In a dispute over control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company said he was taking responsibility and urged workers not to sign any documents with the Russian occupiers. Energoatom chief Petro Kotin made his comments in a video address posted on the Telegram messaging app after Russia announced plans to monitor the plant’s operations. Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who is accused of spreading fake news after organizing a series of lone protests against the war in Ukraine, said Wednesday that she escaped house arrest because she had no case to answer. “I consider myself completely innocent and since our state refuses to comply with its own laws, I refuse to comply with the restraining order imposed on me from September 30, 2022 and be released from it,” he said.
Ukrainian soldiers sit in an armored vehicle as they drive on a road between Izium and Lyman in Ukraine on Tuesday. (Francisco Seco/The Associated Press)
