Firefighters work after a drone attack on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 17, 2022. (AP, File)Russia-Ukraine War News Live Updates: 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.
Meanwhile, a Russian air strike that hit a major thermal power station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine on Wednesday has caused “quite serious” damage, the region’s governor said on Thursday. “Unfortunately there is destruction, and it is quite serious,” Svitlana Onyshchuk, Ivano-Frankivsk’s governor, said on Ukrainian television.
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.
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.
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.
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.
➡️ 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.
➡️ 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.
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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.
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)