Civilians have been told to evacuate the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Kherson “as quickly as possible” as Ukrainian forces encircle the area. Ukrainian troops “will soon launch an offensive against the city of Kherson,” said Kirill Stremusov, deputy head of the Russian-settled Kherson region, which Russia partially controls. Russian forces in Kherson have been pushed back 20-30 kilometers in recent weeks and are in danger of being pinned down on the right or west bank of the Dnipro River. “I ask you to take my words seriously and take them as meaning: the fastest possible evacuation,” he said in a late-night Telegram post. Elsewhere, the new Russian commander in Ukraine made a rare admission that Vladimir Putin’s troops are under pressure amid a sustained Ukrainian counteroffensive. “The situation in the Special Military Operation area can be described as tense,” Sergei Surovikin, the Russian air force general who now commands Moscow’s invasion forces, told state-run Rossiya 24.
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Russian-based authorities send text messages urging Kherson residents to evacuate
Authorities installed by Russia in occupied Ukraine are reportedly sending text messages urging residents of the southern city of Kherson to evacuate, amid the approach of Ukrainian forces. Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Wednesday that a message said “there will be shelling of residential areas by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” although there was no independent verification of that claim. The message promised “buses from 7am . on the left bank” of the Dnieper River, towards Russia. Kherson, with the capital of the same name, is one of four regions illegally annexed by Russia last month. It was one of the first Ukrainian cities to be seized in the February 24 Russian invasion. The Moscow-appointed head of the region, Vladimir Saldo, said on Tuesday that Russian troops were building “large-scale defensive fortifications”. On Friday, Saldo also urged residents of Kherson to evacuate to Russia. Russian authorities are promising free travel and accommodation to those fleeing. Russian-backed officials have said the evacuations from the occupied territories are voluntary. In many cases, the only route is to Russia. Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 09:52 1666167384
Continued attacks in eastern Ukraine, Moscow official warns
Russian troop positions in Kupiansk and Lyman in eastern Ukraine and the area between Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih in Kherson province were reported by Surovikin as under constant attack. He appeared to concede that there was a risk of Ukrainian forces advancing on the city of Kherson, which is near the mouth of the Dnipro on the west bank. Russia captured the city in the first days of the invasion, and it remains the only major Ukrainian city Moscow’s forces have captured intact. Kherson, one of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces that Russia claims to have annexed, controls both the only land route to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro. After holding referendums called by Moscow in September, which Kyiv and Western governments denounced as illegal, Putin declared the border provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – together known as Donbas – as well as Kherson and Zaporizhia as full regions of Russia. Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Russian-settled Kherson region, said the risk of an attack by Ukrainian forces had led to the decision to evacuate some civilians from four towns. “The Ukrainian side is gathering forces for a large-scale attack,” Saldo said in a video statement. The Russian military was preparing to repel the attack, he said, and “where the military is operating, there is no room for civilians.” Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 09:16 1666166413
Russia is attacking Ukraine’s energy and water supplies
The airstrikes have cut off electricity and water supplies to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, part of what the country’s president has called a widening Russian campaign to plunge the nation into cold and darkness and make peace talks impossible. President Volodymyr Zelensky said nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations had been destroyed in the past week, “causing massive blackouts across the country.” “There is no room for negotiation with the Putin regime,” he tweeted. Depriving people of water, electricity and heat as winter begins to bite, and the expanded use of so-called suicide drones launched at targets, have opened a new phase in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war. The shelling appears to be aimed at wearing down the remarkable resilience Ukrainians have shown in the nearly eight months since Moscow’s invasion. Meanwhile, along the front line, things remain “very difficult” for Russian troops in the southern region and city of Kherson, according to Russia’s new commander, Sergei Surovikin. He told reporters in Moscow that the Russian military would help evacuate civilians ahead of an expected Ukrainian attack. Maryam Zakir-Hussain October 19, 2022 09:00 1666165376
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure are war crimes – EU’s von der Leyen
Russia’s missile and drone attacks on power plants and other infrastructure in Ukraine are “acts of pure terror” that amount to war crimes, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. “Yesterday we saw again Russia’s targeted attacks against civilian infrastructure. This marks another chapter in an already very bitter war. The international order is very clear. These are war crimes,” von der Leyen told MEPs in the European Parliament. “Targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure with the clear aim of cutting off men, women, children from water, electricity and heating with the coming of winter, these are acts of pure terror and we must call it as such.” Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 08:42 1666164015
Luhansk’s governor says progress in “recapturing” the region has been slow
The governor of Luhansk, Ukraine, said that progress in “recapturing” the region was slower than in other regions annexed by Moscow, as “all those soldiers who left Kharkiv Oblast have gathered in our region.” . In a message on Telegram, Serhai Haidai added that Ukrainian forces fighting to retake Luhansk are facing “freshly mobilized Russians, prisoners and a lot of equipment and air defenses [that] have reached the Luhansk region.” The governor said that “the armed forces of Ukraine have developed a clear occupation plan and are clearly following it. When our army enters the liberated settlements, we will offer the population evacuation for the winter season, and we will also work to provide people with heat, water and communication.” Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 08:20 1666163115
Defense Ministry says Russia’s leadership ‘increasingly dysfunctional’
The Ministry of Defense said that “significant elements of Russia’s military leadership are increasingly dysfunctional.” In the latest update, he said: “At the tactical level, there is almost certainly a worsening shortage of competent Russian junior officers to organize and lead the newly mobilized reserves.” Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 08:05 1666162215
‘Evacuation’ tells Kherson residents, official stationed in Russia
Civilians should evacuate the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Kherson as quickly as possible because Ukrainian forces could launch an offensive at any time, a Russian-deployed official said. Russian forces in Kherson have been pushed back 20-30 kilometers (13-20 miles) in recent weeks and are in danger of being pinned down on the right or west bank of the Dnipro River. Ukrainian forces “will soon launch an offensive against the city of Kherson,” said Kirill Stremusov, deputy head of the Russian-settled Kherson region, which Russia partially controls. “I ask you to take my words seriously and take them as meaning: the fastest possible evacuation,” he said in a late-night Telegram post. In a later post, he said that as of Wednesday the situation on the front was stable, but that civilians should leave for the left bank. “Move as quickly as possible, please, to the left bank,” he said. Civilians in Kherson were receiving messages from the Russian administration telling them to leave the city, the RIA news agency reported. Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 07:50 1666161315
Russia says it repelled Ukraine’s attempt to seize nuclear plant -RIA
Russia says Ukrainian forces tried to retake the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, but their attempt was repulsed after hours of fighting, state news agency RIA reported on Wednesday. “After the bombing of the city, a landing attempt was launched, including an attempt to seize the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The battle continued for several hours, at least three to three and a half hours,” Russian official Vladimir Rogov was quoted as saying by RIA, adding that the attack was “repulsed.” Reuters was unable to independently verify the report. Maryam Zakir-Hussain 19 October 2022 07:35 1666160523
Ukraine says 12 drones shot down in Mykolaiv
Ukrainian forces shot down 12 Iranian Shahed-136 drones in the area of Mykolayiv district on Wednesday night, governor Vitaly Kim said. The governor added that 11 kamikaze drones were shot down by air defense while one was shot down by National Guard troops. Alisha Rahaman Sarkar19 October 2022 07:22 1666159499
More than 100 Ukrainian women were freed in a prisoner exchange
A total of 108 Ukrainian women have been freed in an “emotional” prisoner of war swap with Russia. On Monday, Moscow and Kyiv held one of the largest prisoner-of-war exchanges since the invasion of Ukraine began in February. A total of 218 arrested were…
