Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said 450,000 residents in the Ukrainian capital were without power this morning. “This is one and a half times more than in previous days,” he said in a Telegram update, adding that the power system is overloaded. “Save electricity as much as possible,” he added.
4.5 million Ukrainians without power, Zelensky says
Russian attacks in recent weeks against Ukrainian energy and water supplies have hit civilians hard as winter approaches. As of Thursday night, 4.5 million Ukrainians in the capital Kyiv and ten other regions were temporarily without power, the latest outages caused by Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video clip. Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and energy facilities “do not stop for a single day,” Zelensky said. There is damage to power facilities in various areas across the country – this is the volume of electricity generation and transmission for millions of people. As of this afternoon alone, approximately 4.5 million consumers have been temporarily disconnected from consumption as part of emergency and stabilization programs.” People walk on a dark street after the lights went out due to power outages in Kyiv. Photo: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA Zelensky said that “enduring the Russian energy terror” is Ukraine’s “national duty”. The very fact that Russia resorted to terror against the energy industry shows the weakness of the enemy. They cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, and that is why they are trying to break our people in this way – to humiliate the Ukrainians, to hit the morale of our people, the resistance of our people. I believe that Russia will not succeed.” Temperatures can drop well below freezing in winter, now just a few weeks away. Another 107 Ukrainian servicemen were freed from Russian captivity in a prisoner-of-war swap on Thursday. “Many of them were injured and very seriously,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his last national address. Today we conducted another prisoner exchange. We were able to free and bring home 107 soldiers, including many WIA.🇺🇦 The government will do whatever is necessary to help each and every one of them. pic.twitter.com/t3VIsNlTMi — Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) November 3, 2022
Ukraine fears that Russia is setting a trap by pretending to withdraw in Kherson
In Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, a Russian occupation official said Moscow is likely to withdraw its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper river, marking a massive retreat that, if confirmed, would be a major turning point in the war. “Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave to the left [eastern] bank,” Kirill Stremousov, deputy political administrator of the Kherson region, settled in Russia, told Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet. Russia had previously denied that its forces planned to withdraw from the region. Ukraine said it was wary that Moscow could set a trap by pretending to withdraw from the Kherson region and argued that its forces were still fighting in the area. Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap. This could be an event of specific provocation to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they are preparing for street fighting,” he said in televised comments. We continue to fight, also in the direction of Kherson, despite the fact that the enemy is trying to convince us that they are abandoning the settlements and creating the effect of a total evacuation.” Updated at 06.04 GMT
Ukrainian forces can retake Kherson, the US defense secretary said
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he believes Ukrainian forces are capable of retaking Kherson, calling their work “methodical” and “effective”. In remarks made during a conference call Thursday with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Yong-sup, Austin said: As for the question of whether or not the Ukrainians can take the rest of the territory west of the Dnieper River in Kherson, I certainly believe they have the ability to do so. More importantly, Ukrainians believe they have the ability to do so. We saw them engage in a very methodical but effective effort to take back their dominant territory. I think you will see them continue to push until they secure the area on the west side of the river. So to answer your question, I think they have the ability.” A Western official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said some Russian military commanders had been redeployed along the river to the east. We would estimate that in Kherson, it is likely that most echelons of command have now withdrawn across the river to the east, leaving quite demoralized and often in some cases leaderless troops to face the Ukrainians on the other side,” the official said. Ukrainian soldiers work on a 2S3 self-propelled gun in the Kherson region. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/EPA Russia has been fighting for months to hang on to the pocket of land it holds on the west bank at the mouth of the Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine. Ukraine has attacked key river crossings for months, making it difficult for Russia to feed its power to the west bank. Ukrainian troops have been advancing along the river since early October, although their advance has slowed in recent days. However, accounts of the battlefield are conflicting. Ukrainian troops on the front line last week, who were visited by Reuters, said they saw no evidence of Russian forces withdrawing and believed they were in fact reinforcing. Michael Coffman, a US expert on the Russian military who has just returned from the Ukrainian side of the Kherson front, said Moscow’s intentions were unclear. “The Kherson situation is crystal clear,” tweeted Kofman, director of Russia studies at the Center for Naval Analyses. Updated at 05:47 GMT
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he believes Ukrainian forces are capable of retaking Kherson, calling their work “methodical” and “effective”. As of Thursday night, 4.5 million Ukrainians in the capital Kyiv and ten other regions were temporarily without power, the latest outages caused by Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video clip. If you have an update or any comments to share, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email or Twitter. If you’ve just joined us, here’s all the latest:
The UN nuclear watchdog said it found no sign of undeclared nuclear activity at three sites in Ukraine it inspected at Kiev’s request in response to Russian claims that work was underway on a “dirty bomb”. “Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far has not shown any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three sites,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement, adding that the environmental samples taken would be analyzed. In southern Ukraine, a Russian occupation official said Moscow is likely to withdraw its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper river, marking a massive retreat that, if confirmed, would be a major turning point in the war. “Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave to the left [eastern] bank,” Kirill Stremousov, deputy political administrator of the Kherson region, settled in Russia, told Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet. Ukraine said it was wary that Moscow could set a trap by pretending to withdraw from the Kherson region and argued that its forces were still fighting in the area. Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap. “This could be a manifestation of a specific provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they prepare for street fighting,” he said in televised comments. “We continue to fight, also in the direction of Kherson, despite the fact that the enemy is trying to convince us that they are leaving the settlements and creating the effect of a total evacuation.” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he believes Ukrainian forces are capable of retaking Kherson, calling their work “methodical” and “effective”. Ukraine has described the forced relocation of its citizens to the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions as “deportations” and “war crimes”. Russian authorities in Kherson have been evacuating civilians, claiming it is for their safety as Ukrainian forces approach. A week after Russian authorities moved 70,000 citizens from the right bank of the Dnieper River to the left bank, Russian authorities said they were moving 70,000 citizens from the left bank to “temporarily settle deep in the Kherson region, as well as in other regions of the Russian Federation ”, citing “possible damage to the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station”. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been disconnected from the power grid again after Russian bombing destroyed the remaining high-voltage lines, leaving it with only diesel generators, Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said. The plant, in Russian hands but operated by Ukrainian workers, has 15 days of fuel to run the generators, Energoatom said. The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed that UK special forces were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet. Andrei Kelin told Sky News: “We know each other very well [the] participation of British…
