“We have suggested to all residents of the Kherson region, if they wish, to protect themselves from the consequences of the missile attacks … to go to other areas,” Kherson administration chief Vladimir Saldo said in a video message. People should “leave with their children.” The offer applies mainly to residents on the west bank of the Dnipro River, he said. That includes the regional capital, the only major city in Ukraine that Russia has captured intact since the invasion in February. The first civilians to flee Kherson were due to arrive in Russia’s Rostov region on Friday, the TASS news agency reported. Kherson is one of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces Russia claims to have annexed in recent weeks, and arguably the most strategically important. It controls both the only land route to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro, the 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile-long) river that bisects Ukraine. Important events Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
According to reports, a rocket fell near a railway station in the Belgorod region.
Rail operations were suspended early Friday near Novyi Oskol, a town in Russia’s Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, after debris from a missile fell near the railway, Reuters reported, citing regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov . Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app that anti-aircraft defenses shot down rockets near Novyi Oskol, a town of about 18,000 people located about 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the border with Ukraine. “The power lines are damaged. Trains have been temporarily suspended,” Gladkov said, adding that there were no casualties. Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports and there was no immediate reaction from Kyiv. On Thursday, the city’s governor claimed that a residential building had been hit by shelling from Kiev forces. Mykhaylo Podolyak, Ukraine’s senior presidential adviser, denied that Kiev’s military was responsible and said Russia tried to bomb Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv on the border “but something went wrong.”
Ukraine requires the Red Cross to visit the Olenivka prison camp within three days
Ukraine has accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of inaction in defending the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and urged it to undertake a mission to a camp in the Russian-held east of the country, Reuters reports. In the latest in a series of Ukrainian criticisms of the ICRC, Zelensky said the Red Cross had yet to visit Olenivka – a notorious camp in eastern Ukraine where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners died in an explosion and fire in July. The Red Cross tried to secure access to the camp last month but said it was refused by Russian authorities, the BBC reports. “I don’t understand why the Red Cross mission hasn’t reached Olenivka yet. We simply cannot waste any more time. Lives are at stake,” Andriy Yemak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, tweeted late Thursday, announcing that the Ukrainian government had given the ICRC three days to send a mission to the facility. He discussed the matter during a teleconference with representatives of the ICRC and other international organizations. I don’t understand why the Red Cross mission hasn’t reached Olenivka yet. We simply cannot waste any more time. Human lives are at stake. pic.twitter.com/LyFpZyXNmf — Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) October 13, 2022
Zaporizhzhia residents urged to evacuate as strikes continue
At 5.20 am local time on Thursday, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, urged residents to stay in shelters as Russia launched strikes on the city of Zaporizhzhia. “Attention! Enemy missile attack on regional center. Head for shelters. Stay here!” he said in a Telegram post.
Kyiv says 600 settlements have been liberated this month
Ukraine’s armed forces liberated more than 600 settlements from Russian occupation last month, including 75 in the highly strategic Kherson region, Ukraine’s Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said. Some 502 settlements have been liberated in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where Ukrainian forces last month advanced deep into Russian lines, the ministry said late Thursday. People cross the Oskil River on the ruins of a bridge that has been heavily damaged by fighting between Ukrainian and Russian occupation forces on October 13, 2022 in Kupiansk, Kharkiv Region, Ukraine. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images The ministry said 43 settlements were liberated in Donetsk region and seven in Luhansk region. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine’s military or President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, and the Guardian has not independently verified reports on the battlefield. “The area of liberated Ukrainian territories has increased significantly,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
The inhabitants of Kherson begin to arrive in Russia
Evacuees from Ukraine’s southern Kherson region were expected to start arriving in Russia on Friday, Reuters reports, after an official based in Moscow suggested residents flee for safety, a sign of Moscow’s weakening control over territory it claims. that he has attached. “We have suggested to all residents of the Kherson region, if they wish, to protect themselves from the consequences of the missile attacks … to go to other areas,” Kherson administration chief Vladimir Saldo said in a video message. People should “leave with their children.” The offer applies mainly to residents on the west bank of the Dnipro River, he said. That includes the regional capital, the only major city in Ukraine that Russia has captured intact since the invasion in February. The first civilians to flee Kherson were due to arrive in Russia’s Rostov region on Friday, the TASS news agency reported. Kherson is one of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces Russia claims to have annexed in recent weeks, and arguably the most strategically important. It controls both the only land route to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro, the 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile-long) river that bisects Ukraine.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I will update you on the latest for the next few hours. Evacuees from Ukraine’s southern Kherson region are expected to begin arriving in Russia on Friday, Reuters reports, after an official based in Moscow suggested residents flee for safety, a sign of Russia’s weakening in territory it claims to have attach. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s armed forces liberated more than 600 settlements from Russian occupation last month, including 75 in the highly strategic Kherson region, Ukraine’s Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories said late on Thursday, Reuters reports. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine’s military or President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, and the Guardian has not independently verified reports on the battlefield. “The area of liberated Ukrainian territories has increased significantly,” the ministry said in a statement on its website. We’ll have more on these developments soon. In the meantime, here’s a summary of key recent news:
Russia has announced it will evacuate residents from Kherson following a call from the region’s Russian-installed chief, raising fears that the occupied city in the heart of the southern Ukrainian region will become a new frontline. Ukraine’s military boasted of territorial gains near the city of Kherson on Wednesday as NATO allies, including the United Kingdom, delivered new air defense systems in the wake of recent Russian missile attacks across the country. The city of Mykolaiv, 60 miles northwest of the city of Kherson, was hit by Russian missiles, with one hitting a five-story apartment building killing a 31-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman. Five more people are said to still be under the rubble. Mykolayiv regional governor Vitaly Kim said an 11-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble after six hours and rescue teams were searching for seven other people. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow that its forces would be “annihilated” by a Western military response if President Vladimir Putin used nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, did not discuss ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine at their bilateral meeting on Thursday, state news agency RIA reported, citing the Kremlin. Instead, Putin courted Erdogan with a plan to pump more Russian gas through Turkey that would turn it into a new “supply hub” in a bid to maintain Russia’s energy leverage in Europe. Russia said it had summoned diplomats from Germany, Denmark and Sweden to protest that representatives of Moscow and Gazprom had not been invited to participate in an investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline ruptures. “Russia will obviously not recognize the false results of such an investigation unless Russian experts are involved,” the Foreign Ministry said. Russia will run out of supplies and weapons before the West does, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has claimed. He said there were procurement processes in place between allies in the West, which would ensure the international community could continue to arm Ukraine for many years. Ukrainian officials have claimed that Iranians in Russian-held parts of Ukraine have been training Russians in how to use the Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone, which can conduct air-to-ground attacks, electronic…
