Ukrainian soldiers ride an APC in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Oct. 20, 2022. (AP)Russia-Ukraine War News Highlights: Britain, France and Germany on Friday called for a UN probe into Russia’s alleged use of Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine, violating the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231. “We would welcome an investigation by the UN Secretariat team responsible for monitoring the implementation of UNSCR 2231 and stand ready to support the work of the Secretariat in conducting its technical and impartial investigation,” the three nations, a group collectively known as the E3, said in a letter circulated to U.N. Security Council members and seen by Reuters.
Ukraine has accused Russia of planning to destroy a hydropower plant in the eastern Kherson region — which Moscow has illegally annexed and subjected to martial law. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Friday called on the West to warn Russia not to blow up the dam as it would flood a swath of southern Ukraine. In a television address, Zelenskyy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the huge Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir that dominates much of southern Ukraine, and were planning to blow it up to cover their retreat.
Ukrainians faced their first large-scale nationwide disruptions to electricity on Thursday as officials sought to restrict supply to allow energy companies to repair power facilities that have been pounded by Russian air strikes. The president’s office told Ukrainians late on Wednesday that they should minimise their use of electricity from 7 am to 11 pm and prepare for temporary blackouts if this was not done.
Firefighters help a local woman evacuate from a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 17, 2022. (Reuters)
"Tehran bears full responsibility for the destruction of relations with Ukraine," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Russian troops spent weeks searching for Mariya, the 65-year-old common-law wife of a serving Ukrainian army officer.
Twice, she said, they ransacked her cottage in a village outside the town of Balakliya, Ukraine, and when they did eventually detain her months later, they tortured her repeatedly under interrogation, using electric shocks and threats of rape.
The recapturing by Ukrainian fighters of much of the Kharkiv region a month ago is now revealing what life was like for thousands of people living under Russian military occupation from the early days of the war. For many, there were periods of calm but almost no food or public services. For those like Mariya, accused of sympathizing with or helping the Ukrainians, it was pure hell. Read more
Russia has been barred from participating in future projects of global terror financing and money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Addressing a press conference in Paris, FATF chairperson T Raja Kumar said the move comes in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Kumar said Russia’s actions continued to violate FATF’s core principles, which aim to promote security, safety and integrity of financial systems.
“As a result of Russia’s continuing actions, the FATF has decided to impose additional restrictions on the country’s remaining role, including by barring them from participating in current and future FATF projects,” he said. Read more
Britain, France and Germany on Friday called for a U.N. probe of accusations Russia has used Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine, allegedly violating U.N. Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231.
"We would welcome an investigation by the UN Secretariat team responsible for monitoring the implementation of UNSCR 2231 and stand ready to support the work of the Secretariat in conducting its technical and impartial investigation,” the three nations, a group collectively known as the E3, said in a letter circulated to U.N. Security Council members and seen by Reuters. (Reuters)
President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen on Friday said Ukraine will need Europe’s support “for as long as it takes”.
Speaking at the European Council in Brussels, she said, "Ukraine needs our support for as long as it takes, starting with the needs for next year. We discussed how to meet Ukraine’s increasing needs, and tasked finance ministers to develop the appropriate mechanism."
Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Friday it would start issuing local bonds on Oct. 24 to replace a euro-denominated Eurobond due in 2023. It said the bonds would replace the Eurobond due on Nov. 17, 2023, , which has a coupon of 3.25%.
The replacements are due to be completed on Nov. 8. President Vladimir Putin signed a law in July that gave companies until the end of 2022 to issue bonds in a simplified procedure on the local market.
Proposed by the central bank, the "replacement bonds" would be a substitute for Eurobonds that Russian companies can no longer service due to sanctions connected to Moscow's actions in Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russia's partners in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a post-Soviet trade bloc, should have a choice of currencies with which to pay for natural gas rather than be restricted to the Russian rouble, a senior Kazakh official said on Friday.
The move is a fresh example of Central Asia's former Soviet republics increasingly standing up to Moscow, aware of their new-found leverage as Russia looks to their markets and trade routes in a bid to circumvent Western sanctions. The EEU is discussing the creation of a single market for oil and gas and Russia has proposed using the rouble as the currency of payment, Kazakh Energy Minister Bulat Akchulakov told a briefing.
Moscow, facing sanctions from the West over its invasion of Ukraine, demanded this year that Western customers pay roubles for its energy supplies, a move that protects the money from being frozen by foreign banks and is also aimed at reducing the role of the dollar in global trade. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the West to warn Russia not to blow up a huge dam that would flood a swath of southern Ukraine, as his forces prepare to push Moscow's troops from Kherson in one of the war's most important battles. In a television address, Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the huge Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir that dominates much of southern Ukraine, and were planning to blow it up to cover their retreat.
"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said. Russia accused Kyiv earlier this week of planning to rocket the dam. Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said Ukrainian forces had already used U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles against it in what Ukrainian officials called a sign Moscow could be planning to blow it up and blame Kyiv.
Neither side produced evidence to back up their allegations. The vast Dnipro bisects Ukraine and is several km wide in places. Bursting the dam could send a wall of water flooding settlements below it, including much of the city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces hope to recapture in a major advance. Damage to the dam would also wreck the system of canals that irrigates southern Ukraine, including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014. (Reuters)
The Kremlin on Friday sidestepped a question about whether or not President Vladimir Putin had given an order for Russian forces to withdraw from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred the question to Russia's defence ministry.
In a conference call with reporters, when asked directly whether Putin had ordered a withdrawal, Peskov said: "This question concerns the conduct of the special military operation, I recommend you address it to the defence ministry."
Russian-installed officials are currently evacuating tens of thousands of residents from the Western side of the Dnipro river which splits the region, and have said the situation remains "tense" in the face of Ukrainian advances. (Reuters)
Since President Vladimir Putin shifted tactics last week to mount air strikes on infrastructure targets across Ukraine, Moscow has ramped up its use of two main weapons: long-range cruise missiles and so-called “suicide drones”.
Both are types of aircraft that fly to a target and explode when they get there, but they pose different threats.
Missiles, each costing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, fly fast, are hard to shoot down and carry a huge explosive payload. But for now the bigger threat may come from the drones — small, slow, cheap and easy to shoot down, but so plentiful that they come in swarms. (Read more)
A series of blasts rocked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia on Friday, authorities said, after Russian forces stepped up missile strikes on Ukraine in the past few weeks, targeting electric power facilities.
Missiles hit an industrial facility in Kharkiv on Friday, its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said, adding that rescuers had yet to assess the damage and determine if there were casualties.
Separately, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said five people had been wounded. The information on the Zaporizhzhia blasts was provided by regional governor Oleksandr Starukh. No further details were immediately available. (Reuters)
?? The Ukrainian foreign minister said he had discussed in detail Kyiv's request for air and missile defence systems and technology with Israel's prime minister.
?? UN chief Guterres has "spoken up very clearly" about Russia's war in Ukraine and has not stopped communication with Moscow, a UN spokesman said after Russia signalled cooperation with UN officials could be at risk.
?? NATO allies will act if Sweden or Finland come under pressure from Russia or another adversary before they become full members of the alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. (Reuters)
Four people were killed when Ukrainian rocket artillery struck a ferry crossing in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Kherson late on Thursday, Moscow-appointed deputy regional governor Kirill Stremousov said Friday.
Authorities in the region which Russia proclaimed as annexed last month said this week they planned to evacuate around 50,000-60,000 people over the next six days amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive. (Reuters)
Russia’s foreign ministry on Thursday welcomed the departure of British Prime Minister Liz Truss, saying she was a disgrace of a leader who would be remembered for her “catastrophic illiteracy”.
“Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a social media post.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter in English: “Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce”, referring to the British Daily Star tabloid’s days-long livestream asking whether Truss’ troubled premiership would outlast the shelf-life of a lettuce. (Read more)
Russian and Ukrainian troops appeared Thursday to be girding for a major battle over the strategic southern industrial port city of Kherson, in a region which Russian President Vladimir Putin has illegally annexed and subjected to martial law.
Fighting and evacuations were reported in the Kherson region as Moscow tried to pound the invaded country into submission with more missile and drone attacks on critical infrastructure.
Putin declared martial law in the Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions on Wednesday in an attempt to assert Russian authority in the annexed areas as he faced battlefield setbacks, a troubled troop mobilisation, increasing criticism at home and abroad, and international sanctions. (AP)
The exit of Liz Truss as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after just 45 days in office only adds an extra element of uncertainty in a region that was already in deep crisis. For the 27 heads of European Union nations gathered in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day meeting, post-Brexit Britain’s continuing woes, which they see as just desserts for its decision to leave the EU, are a side show. On their agenda is the war in Ukraine, and the energy crisis that has sent their own economies reeling.
Massive economic pain
Since the beginning of the war, Europe has undergone a massive strategic evolution, unthinkable until nine months ago. European nations buried deep differences and stood united as liberal democracies against Vladimir Putin’s aggression. They are now more committed to strengthening NATO and its premise of collective security and to the transatlantic partnership with the US than at any other time after World War II. Finland and Sweden are set to join the security grouping. (Read more)
The International Committee of the Red Cross has conducted at least five visits to Ukrainian prisoners of war since Russia invaded Ukraine, a Russian diplomat said Thursday while insisting that “practical arrangements” were holding up a trip to a prison where dozens of POWs died.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia's ambassador in Geneva, said it was unreasonable to think Red Cross teams could visit all 6,000 Ukrainian POWs. Some critics say the Geneva-based ICRC has not done enough to try to obtain access to Russian detention centers. The humanitarian organisation said Sunday that it has an 11-person team ready to visit any POWs in separatist-held areas of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, including those held at the Olenivka prison.
Russian and Ukrainian authorities accused the other of a July 29 attack that destroyed a barracks at the separatist-run prison. At least 53 Ukrainian POWs died and dozens more were wounded, according to Russian and separatist authorities. (AP)
Russia said on Thursday that the West's supplies of advanced weapons to Ukraine were finding their way onto the black market and then into the hands of extremist and criminal groups in the Middle East, central Africa and Asia. Since Russia launched its war with Ukraine on Feb. 24, the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War Two, Western powers have sent Ukraine an array of weapons in an attempt to help forces fighting Russian troops.
Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, said that NATO members had in total sent at least 700 artillery systems, 80,000 missile systems, 800,000 artillery shells and 90 million rounds of ammunition.
"A considerable part of these weapons have already entered, or will soon enter, the black market," Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. "Now the world community is facing this." She did not say what evidence her assertion was based on.
"The NATO military cargos are ending up in the hands of terrorists, extremists and criminal groups in the Middle East, central Africa and southeast Asia," Zakharova added.
Russia has long warned that weapons destined for Ukraine could find their way into the hands of criminals, though without providing details of where the weapons might be ending up. Western leaders say they want to help Ukraine defeat Russia, though U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to prevent a direct NATO-Russia confrontation. Ukraine is asking for more weapons from the United States and its allies. Some security officials, though, are concerned. (Reuters)
A Russian fighter jet released a missile near an unarmed British spy plane patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea on Sept. 29, UK defence minister Ben Wallace said, in an apparent accident and not a deliberate escalation of tensions. Britain has condemned Russia for invading Ukraine and hit Moscow with punitive sanctions while giving military and civil support to Kyiv, and relations between the two countries are at historic lows.
Wallace told parliament he had expressed the government's concerns over the incident to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, and in reply Russia on Oct. 10 said they had investigated and blamed it on a technical malfunction. "We don't consider this a deliberate escalation by the Russians, our analysis would concur it was a malfunction," Wallace told parliament.
"However, it is a reminder of quite how dangerous things can be when you choose to use your fighters in the manner that the Russians have done over many periods of time." He said Russia acknowledged that the incident took place in international airspace, adding that patrols have now resumed, and British aircraft were now being accompanied by fighter aircraft escorts. (Reuters)
Russian troops fought Thursday to regain lost ground in areas of Ukraine that President Vladimir Putin has illegally annexed while Moscow tried to pound the invaded country into submission with more missile and drone attacks on the country's critical infrastructure.
Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions near Bilohorivka, a village in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. In the neighboring Donetsk region, fighting raged near the city of Bakhmut. Kremlin-backed separatists have controlled parts of both regions for 8 1/2 years.
Putin declared marital law in Luhansk, Donetsk and southern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions on Wednesday in an attempt to assert Russian authority in the annexed areas following a string of battlefield setbacks and a troubled troop mobilization. The unsettled status of the illegally absorbed territory was especially visible in the Kherson region's capital, where military officials have replaced Kremlin-installed civilian leaders amid a mass evacuation and an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive. (AP)
Russia's finance ministry on Thursday said it was drawing down 1 trillion roubles ($16.25 billion) from the country's National Wealth Fund (NWF) to help cover the government's budget deficit this year.
Russia is expected to post a budget deficit of around 2% of GDP this year, as the fallout from Western sanctions and the costs of Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine weigh on the economy and the government's finances. (Reuters)
($1 = 61.52 roubles)
The Czech presidency of the EU on Thursday said that the European Union members have agreed on new measures against Iran over its supply of drones to Russia.
Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday its forces continued to hit military and energy targets in Ukraine over the last 24 hours.
It also said Russian forces had repelled a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region, from which local Russian-installed officials are currently evacuating tens of thousands of residents. (Reuters)
Ukrainians faced their first large-scale nationwide disruptions to electricity on Thursday as officials sought to restrict supply to allow energy companies to repair power facilities that have been pounded by Russian air strikes.
The president's office told Ukrainians late on Wednesday that they should minimise their use of electricity from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and prepare for temporary blackouts if this was not done.
There was no schedule announced for outages but major cities such as the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the northeast announced curbs on the use of electric-powered public transport such as trolleybuses and reduced the frequency of trains on the metro. (Reuters)
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will make a statement to parliament on Ukraine later on Thursday, the House of Commons said on Twitter. (Reuters)
The Iranian Shahed-136 drone was designed to explode on impact, and on Monday, Russian forces launched dozens of them at targets across Ukraine. One hit an apartment building in Kyiv, the capital, killing four people, including a woman who was six months pregnant.
As the war enters its ninth month, the Shahed is among dozens of types of drones, including remote-controlled surveillance types and programmable flying bombs, being used on battlefields in Ukraine. They also include military drones produced by the United States, Turkey and Russia and commercial-grade drones made in China. (Read more)
Friday afternoons at the Chop-Chop Barbershop in central Moscow used to be busy, but at the beginning of a recent weekend, only one of the four chairs was occupied.
“We would usually be full right now, but about half of our customers have gone,” said the manager, a woman named Olya. Many of the clients — along with half of the barbers, too — have fled Russia to avoid President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to mobilise hundreds of thousands of men for the flagging military campaign in Ukraine.
Many men have been staying off the streets out of fear of being handed a draft notice. As Olya came to work last Friday, she said, she witnessed the authorities at each of the four exits of the metro station, checking documents. (Read more)
?? Russia said it will reassess cooperation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres if he sends experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that Western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a UN resolution.
?? Britain's Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin urged the international community to remain united against what he called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "deeply irresponsible" nuclear rhetoric.
?? The European Parliament on Wednesday awarded the people of Ukraine its annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to honour their fight against Russia's invasion.
?? Israel offered to help Ukrainians develop alerts for civilians under air attack, signalling a softening in its policy of non-military intervention after Kyiv appealed for counter-measures against Iranian-made drones used by Russia.
?? European Union governments have provisionally agreed to impose sanctions on eight people and entities over the alleged use of Iranian-made drones in Russian strikes on Ukraine.
?? The EU Commission head called Russia's attacks on power stations and other infrastructure in Ukraine "acts of pure terror" that amount to war crimes. (Reuters)
The Indian embassy in Ukraine has asked Indian nationals to leave the country at the earliest in view of a fresh wave of hostilities.
In an advisory, the mission also called upon Indian nationals not to travel to the Eastern European country.
"In view of the deteriorating security situation and recent escalation of hostilities across Ukraine, Indian nationals are advised against travelling to Ukraine," the embassy said. (Read more)
?? A Russian missile strike hit a major thermal power station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine, the region's governor said, the latest in a wave of attacks on infrastructure ahead of winter.
?? In a package of moves apparently intended to counter battlefield defeats by Ukrainian troops, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a new special coordinating council to work with Russia's regions to boost Moscow's war effort.
?? He also declared martial law in four partially occupied regions of Ukraine that Russia claims as its own and restricted movement in and out of regions near Ukraine.
?? Russian-installed authorities in the region of Kherson plan to evacuate about 50,000-60,000 people over the next six days. (Reuters)
Some residents of the Russian-held city of Kherson were shown leaving by boat on Wednesday after Moscow-installed officials told them it was not safe and said they were relocating their own staff in the face of a looming Ukrainian assault.
The images of people fleeing were broadcast by Russian state TV which portrayed the exodus – from the right bank of the Rover Dnipro to its left bank – as a calculated attempt to clear the city of civilians before it became a combat zone.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the local Russia-backed administration, made a video appeal after Russian forces in the area were driven back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks. They risk being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-km (1367 miles) -long Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine. (Read more)
The Russian-installed leader of the annexed Ukrainian region of Kherson said that authorities plan to evacuate around 50-60,000 people over the next six days amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Speaking on an online broadcast of "Soloviev Live", Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said authorities were moving civilians to the left bank of the Dnipro in order to "keep people safe" and allow the military to "act resolutely". (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was introducing martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow last month claimed as its own territory.
In televised remarks to members of his Security Council, Putin also instructed the government to set up a special coordinating council under Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to work with Russia's regions to boost Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.
The Russian-installed leader of the annexed Ukrainian region of Kherson said Wednesday that authorities plan to evacuate around 50-60,000 people over the next six days amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Speaking on an online broadcast of "Soloviev Live", Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said authorities were moving civilians to the left bank of the Dnipro in order to "keep people safe" and allow the military to "act resolutely".
"I drove through the regional centre this morning. On the exterior, there was nothing to suggest there was a lot of pressure," Saldo said. (Reuters)
Russia's dependence on Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian targets exposes Moscow as "bankrupt" both politically and militarily, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.
Using Iranian weaponry amounted to an acknowledgement of failure by the Kremlin, he added.
"For decades, they spent billions of dollars on their own military industrial complex. And in the end, they bowed down to Tehran in order to secure quite simple drones and missiles," Zelenskyy said in a nightly video address. Ukraine says Russia's latest attacks on infrastructure have relied on Iranian-made Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones. Iran denies supplying unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia. (DW)
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian ex-premier who has a longtime friendship with Vladimir Putin, has been caught on audiotape boasting that he had recently reconnected with the Russian president and exchanged gifts of vodka, wine and “sweet” letters over his recent birthday.
Italy’s LaPresse news agency published what it said were comments by Berlusconi, 86, to his center-right Forza Italia lawmakers during a meeting this week in the lower Chamber of Deputies.
“I have reconnected with President Putin,” Berlusconi was heard saying. “He sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a really sweet letter for my birthday. I responded with 20 bottles of Lambrusco (a sparkling Italian red wine) and a similarly sweet letter.” The occasion was Berlusconi’s 86th birthday on Sept. 29, four days after the right won the most votes in Italy’s national election. (AP)
?? Ukraine's foreign minister said he was proposing a formal cut in diplomatic ties with Iran after a wave of Russian attacks using what Kyiv says are Iranian-made drones.
?? Iran has denied supplying drones and Russia has denied using them.
?? But senior Iranian officials and diplomats told Reuters that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles as well as drones.
?? The United States, Britain and France plan to raise alleged Iranian arms transfers to Russia at a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, diplomats said.
?? NATO said Ukraine would receive anti-drone defence systems in coming days.
?? Russia's Duma has indefinitely stopped broadcasting live plenary sessions to protect information from "our enemy", a leading lawmaker said.
?? Zelenskyy urged his troops to take more prisoners, saying this would make it easier to secure the release of soldiers being held by Russia. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi expects to return "soon" to Ukraine, he told Reuters on Tuesday, amid negotiations to establish a security protection zone around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Grossi has been the go-between from Moscow to Kyiv in an effort to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant, which has been hit by power outages in the past weeks due to shelling of the site.
Earlier, the IAEA said it was deeply concerned by the detention of two Ukrainian staff from the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is in one of four Ukrainian regions Russia has proclaimed as annexed but only partly occupies. (Reuters)
?? The situation in areas Russia claims to have annexed was "tense", said Sergei Surovikin, a Russian general appointed this month to take charge of its forces. Russian troops in some areas were under continuous attack, he said.
?? The Russian-appointed governor of Kherson announced the evacuation of four towns in the region.
?? Russian air strikes have destroyed 30% of Ukraine's power stations since Oct. 10, causing massive blackouts across the country, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
?? Russian strikes hit a power plant in Kyiv, killing three people, as well as energy infrastructure in Kharkiv in the east and Dnipro in the south. A man sheltering in an apartment building in the southern port city Mykolaiv was also killed and the northern Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr was without water or electricity. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Tuesday he was submitting a proposal to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to formally cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after a wave of Russian attacks using what Kyiv says are Iranian-made drones.
Russia launched dozens of “kamikaze” drones on targets in Ukraine on Monday, striking energy infrastructure and killing four people in the capital of Kyiv.
Ukraine says the attacks were carried out with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, though Tehran denies supplying the drones. (Read more)
The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine made a rare acknowledgement of the pressures they were under from Ukrainian offensives to retake southern and eastern areas that Moscow claims to have annexed just weeks ago.
In another sign of Russian concern, the Kremlin-installed chief of the strategic southern region of Kherson on Tuesday announced an "organised, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the Dnipro River.
"The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Sergei Surovikin, the Russian air force general now commanding Russia's invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel
On Kherson, Surovikin said: "The situation in this area is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson."
Russian forces in Kherson have been driven back by 20-30 km in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-km-long Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine. (Reuters)