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Free 30 prisoners of the Ukrainian Snake Island
Another 30 Ukrainian servicemen captured from Ukraine’s Zmiinyi (Snake) Island have been released from Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner. Dmytro Lubinets confirmed that 30 prisoners of war captured from Snake Island have been released from captivity in a Facebook post on Tuesday night. Authorities are continuing to work to free the remaining soldiers from captivity, he added. During an emotional communication, representatives of different agencies said that 30 prisoners of war from Snake Island had already been released from captivity. Updated at 06:47 GMT
Russian resettled employees in Kherson continue to evacuate
The Moscow-based head of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region promised a one-off payment of 100,000 rubles (£1,424) for “each evacuated resident” who leaves and resettles in Russia. Kirill Stremousov made the announcement in a telegram update on Monday, writing: Today is the last day of organized evacuation from the right bank of the Chersona region. Most of the residents who did not leave Kherson, only now began to realize the seriousness of the situation and my warnings. Upon arrival on the left bank, the residents of the right bank of the Kherson region are picked up by buses and taken to Crimea, where the people will be met by volunteers and then the evacuees will go to other regions of the Russian Federation. In other matters of the Russian Federation, residents of the Kherson region are provided with temporary accommodation. Also, each evacuated resident of the Kherson region will be able to receive a one-time payment of 100,000 rubles and a housing certificate.” Luke Harding Things are disappearing in the Ukrainian city of Kherson at a rapid pace. Some are physical objects. Russian troops remove ambulances, tractors and stolen private cars. Cultural things also happen: archives, and paintings and sculptures from art museums and local traditions. Even the bones of Catherine the Great’s friend and lover, Grigory Potemkin, have been uprooted from a crypt in St. Catherine’s Cathedral and removed. Luke Harding reports how Russian soldiers carry this booty across the Dnieper River to the left bank of the Kherson region. They have also deported local civilians under the guise of a humanitarian rescue mission. Others refused to leave. A 24-hour curfew was imposed. No one knows how many of the 300,000 pre-war inhabitants of Kherson are left. According to relatives of those still there, the town is mostly empty, its ghostly fate likely to be decided in the coming weeks in a series of bloody battles. An elderly woman walks in Arkhanhelske village in Ukraine’s Kherson region, formerly held by Russian forces, on November 3. Photo: Bülent Kılıç/AFP/Getty Images As the Ukrainian army approaches Kherson, the Russian corps is effectively surrounded. Russian officials urged locals to leave and warned of imminent “terrorist” actions by the advancing Ukrainian army. However, locals are not convinced that Moscow will abandon the city, which it captured in early March. Read the full story below:
Ukraine prepares for “battles on the streets” of Kherson
Ukrainian forces say they expect heavy fighting before attempting to push Russian occupation troops out of the southern city of Kherson. Russia has signaled that its forces may withdraw from the area, but locals are not convinced. “It’s probably a trick,” Alyona Lapchuk told the Guardian. “Russians dress as civilians and hide in houses.” Telegram posts from villages in the area tell stories of “orks” (Russian soldiers) owning private property. Lapchuk, who fled Kherson in April, said it was more likely that Russian troops would prepare for fierce street-to-street fighting in the fall and winter. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate issued a statement Monday describing “massive looting.” There is massive looting in the right bank settlements. Specifically, in the Berislav region, the invaders are methodically looting private homes, shops and warehouses. The property of the Beryslav substation of the regional electricity network (machinery, equipment, devices, repair materials) was completely looted.” Ukraine’s military told Reuters that Russian forces, “disguised in civilian clothes, are occupying civilian facilities and reinforcing positions inside to conduct street battles.” Russian forces “have also been involved in looting and theft from residents and infrastructure sites and are transporting equipment, food and vehicles into the Russian Federation,” it said in a briefing late Monday. In recent days, Russia has ordered civilians to leave Kherson in anticipation of a Ukrainian offensive to retake the city, which was the first to be captured by Russian forces since their invasion in February.
US confirms channels of communication with Kremlin – reports
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been involved in confidential talks with senior Russian officials and confirmed that “channels of communication with the Russian Federation at the highest levels” remain open between Washington and Moscow. Speaking at an event at the Economic Club of New York on Monday, Sullivan said it was “in the interest” of the US and any country affected by the war in Ukraine to maintain contact with the Kremlin. We did it when it was necessary to clarify possible misunderstandings and to try to reduce the risk and reduce the possibility of a catastrophe such as the possible use of nuclear weapons,” he said, according to a BBC report. But he insisted officials were “clear about who we’re dealing with,” telling attendees the U.S. had an “obligation to pursue accountability” and pledged to work with international partners to “bring to justice the perpetrators of these serious and grotesque crimes war in Ukraine. for what they have done”. Russian state media agency Tass reported Sullivan as saying: We in the Biden administration have an opportunity to engage at higher levels with the Russians to communicate, to reduce the risk to convey the consequences of the potential use of nuclear weapons. We have not described the channels we have taken to protect those channels and I am afraid I cannot go any further today.’ The White House, which has been careful not to make diplomatic moves on Ukraine without Ukrainian involvement, has not ruled out talks. The comments come after the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Sullivan held talks with aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at reducing the risk that the war in Ukraine could escalate or escalate into a nuclear conflict. The paper said the senior White House official had confidential talks in recent months with Kremlin aide Yuri Usakov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a Sullivan counterpart, that were not made public. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters: We reserve the right to speak directly to senior levels about matters of concern to the United States. This has happened in the last few months. Our talks focused only on risk reduction and the US-Russia relationship.” A separate source, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said talks were ongoing.
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. Ukrainian forces say they expect heavy fighting before attempting to push Russian occupation troops out of the southern city of Kherson. Ukraine’s military claimed that Russian forces, “disguised in civilian clothes, are occupying civilian facilities and reinforcing positions inside to conduct street battles.” The BBC reports that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has taken part in confidential talks with senior Russian officials and confirmed that “channels of communication with the Russian Federation at the highest levels” remain open between Washington and Moscow, according to multiple reports of a speech he gave in New York on Monday. For any updates or comments you’d like to share, please feel free to reach out via email or Twitter. If you’ve just joined us, here’s all the latest:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has claimed that his forces are gradually pushing back Russian troops in some areas of the east and south. “We are moving forward gradually,” he said in his final speech on Monday afternoon. Zelensky added that Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region remains the center of Ukraine’s bloodiest fighting, claiming Russians are “dying by the hundreds every day”.
Ukrainians are bracing for more blackouts after the country’s grid operator told consumers to expect blackouts in Kyiv and elsewhere on Monday as it seeks to ease pressure on energy infrastructure damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks aircraft. Rolling blackouts are becoming increasingly routine following a wave of Russian attacks on power facilities that have destroyed 40% of the energy infrastructure since October 10.
Ukraine has received more air defense systems from Western allies, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced on Monday. Military assistance includes the national advanced surface-to-air missile system (Nasams) and Italian aspide air defenses. “These weapons will significantly strengthen the Ukrainian military and make our skies safer,” Reznikov said. “We thank our partners – Norway, Spain and the USA,” he added.
Ukraine accused Russian troops of…
