Tag: ukraine war

Russia claims deadly attack, but Kyiv denies anyone killed

The Russian military claimed Sunday to have carried out deadly missile strikes on barracks used by Ukrainian troops in retaliation for the deaths of dozens of Russian soldiers in a rocket attack a week ago. Ukrainian officials denied there were any casualties.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, killing 600 of them. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the strikes were retaliation for Ukraine’s attack in Makiivka, in which at least 89 Russian soldiers died.

Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, told The Associated Press that Russian strikes on Kramatorsk damaged only civilian infrastructure, adding: “The armed forces of Ukraine weren’t affected.”

The Donetsk regional administration said seven Russian missiles hit Kramatorsk and two more hit Kostyantynivka, without causing any casualties. It said an educational institution, an industrial facility and garages were damaged in Kramatorsk, and an industrial zone was hit in Kostyantynivka.

Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said two school buildings and eight apartment houses were hit overnight. Photos he posted showed no indication that it had been an attack on the scale claimed by the Russians or that anyone had been in the buildings when they were struck.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk.
Reuters

“The world saw again these days that Russia lies even when it draws attention to the situation at the front with its own statements,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“Russian shelling of Kherson with incendiary ammunition right after Christmas. The strikes on Kramatorsk and other cities of the Donbas — aimed right at civilian sites and right when Moscow was reporting the supposed ‘silence’ of its army.”

Russia had declared a 36-hour cease-fire timed to coincide with Orthodox Christmas celebrations on Saturday. Ukraine denounced the pause as a ploy.

A Ukrainian helicopter fires at the Russian positions in the frontline in the Kherson region on Jan. 8, 2023.
Ukraine’s attack in Makiivka was one of the deadliest attacks on the Russian forces since the war began.
AP

Russia said the attack on Kramatorsk was in retaliation for the Ukrainian rockets that destroyed a facility in Makiivka, also in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian soldiers were gathered in the early hours of Jan. 1. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.

Also on Sunday, the Ukrainian military claimed to have hit a residential hall of a medical university in Rubizhne, a town in the Russian-occupied eastern Luhansk region, killing 14 Russian soldiers housed there. The number of wounded was unknown, it said.

Elsewhere in the east, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was killed in strikes on Bakhmut, and eight others were wounded. The battles for Bakhmut and the nearby town of Soledar remained among the bloodiest on the front, Zelensky said.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, the town of Merefa was hit during the night, killing one person, and two other settlements in the region were shelled, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners Sunday, swapping 50 on each side, according to Konashenkov, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, and Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office.

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US helped Ukraine target Russian generals, sink Moskva: book

American intelligence agencies gave highly sensitive data to the Ukrainian armed forces that allowed them to track and kill a dozen Russian generals and sink the Russian flagship Moskva, a new book reveals — despite strident administration denials.

A “furious” President Joe Biden gave “presidential tongue-lashings” to CIA chief Bill Burns and other top aides in May after leakers told NBC News and the New York Times that Ukrainians had been given real-time intelligence from US sources.

“He didn’t like what he considered to be publicly taunting the Russians,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told author Chris Whipple in the forthcoming book “The Fight of His Life,” out Jan. 17.

The reports of secret streams of real-time battlefield intelligence drew a furious response from the Kremlin — and instant repudiation from the Pentagon, the National Security Council, and Biden’s press office.

“We do not provide intelligence with the intent to kill Russian generals,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Wilson said May 5.

President Biden was reportedly “furious” that leakers told media outlets that the US shared intelligence with Ukraine.
AP
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki denied that the US shared intelligence that helped Ukraine sink the Moskva.
LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images

“We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva,” insisted Jen Psaki, then the White House’s press secretary. “We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out.”

The Post has obtained a copy of the book, which contains a string of revelations about Biden’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan and other incidents from the first two years of his administration.

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Ukraine targeted in another Russian missile barrage

Multiple regions of Ukraine, including its capital, faced a massive Russian missile attack Thursday, the biggest wave of strikes in weeks targeting national infrastructure.

Air raid sirens rang out across the country. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia launched over 120 missiles.

Russia dispatched explosive drones to selected regions overnight before broadening the barrage with “air and sea-based cruise missiles launched from strategic aircraft and ships” in the morning, the Ukrainian air force reported.

The widespread attack was the latest in a series of Russian strikes targeting vital infrastructure across Ukraine. Moscow has launched such attacks on a weekly basis since October as its ground forces got bogged down and even lost ground.

After earlier attacks, the Ukrainian military reported shooting down incoming Russian missiles and explosive drones, but some still reached their targets, damaging power and water supplies and increasing the suffering of the population amid freezing temperatures.

A map showing where Russian missiles hit Ukraine on Thursday, Dec. 29.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

On Thursday, air defense systems were activated in the capital, Kyiv, to fend off the ongoing missile attack, according to the regional administration. Sounds of explosions were heard in the city.

At least three people were wounded and hospitalized, including a 14-year- old girl, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He warned of power outages in the capital, asking people to stockpile water and to charge their electronic devices.

Numerous explosions also took place in Kharkiv, which is located in eastern Ukraine and the country’s second-largest city, and in the city of Lviv near the border with Poland, according to their mayors.

Smoke rises from the site of a missile strike in Ukraine on Thursday, Dec, 29. in Kyiv.
via REUTERS
Rescuers workers at a house heavily damaged by a Russian missile.
via REUTERS


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About 90% of Lviv was without electricity, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram. Trams and trolley buses were not working, and residents might experience water interruptions, he said.

Ukrainian authorities in several regions said some incoming Russian missiles were intercepted.

The governor of southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv province, Vitaliy Kim, said five missiles were shot down over the Black Sea. The Ukrainian military’s command North said two were downed over the Sumy region, located on the border with Russia in the country’s northeast.

Fragments from downed Russian missiles damaged two private buildings in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, the city administration said. An industrial facility and a playground in neighborhoods located across the Dnieper River also were damaged, city officials said. No casualties were immediately reported.

A Ukrainian man, Volodymyr Dubrovsliy, lights a candle in his house. Dubrovsliy has been living with no electricity for more than four months.
AP

As the latest wave of Russian strikes began Thursday, authorities in the Dnipro, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih regions said they switched off electricity to minimize the damage to critical infrastructure facilities if they were hit.

Earlier this month, the United States agreed to give a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine to boost the country’s defense. The U.S. and other allies also pledged to provide energy-related equipment to help Ukraine withstand the attacks on its infrastructure.

Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said that Russia was aiming to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”

“We’re waiting for further proposals from ‘peacekeepers’ about ‘peaceful settlement,’ ‘security guarantees for RF’ and undesirability of provocations,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter, a sarcastic reference to statements from some in the West who urged Ukraine to seek a political settlement of the conflict.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday that his nation wants a “peace” summit within two months at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator. Kuleba said Russia must face a war-crimes tribunal before his country directly talks with Moscow. He said, however, that other nations should feel free to engage with the Russians.

Commenting on the summit proposal Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed it as “delirious” and “hollow,” describing the proposal as a “publicity stunt by Washington that tries to cast the Kyiv regime as a peacemaker.”

“It’s an attempt to give a semblance of legitimacy to a meaningless discussion that will not be followed by any concrete steps,” Zakharova said during a briefing.

Russian officials have said that any peace plan can only proceed from Kyiv’s recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over the regions it illegally annexed from Ukraine in September

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Russian missiles rain down on Ukraine towns on Christmas day

Russian forces bombarded scores of towns in Ukraine on Christmas Day as Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations, a stance Washington has dismissed as posturing because of continued Russian attacks.

Russia on Sunday launched more than 10 rocket attacks on the Kupiansk district in the Kharkiv region, shelled more than 25 towns along the Kupiansk-Lyman frontline, and in Zaporizhzhia hit nearly 20 towns, said Ukraine’s top military command.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that it had killed about 60 Ukrainian servicemen the previous day along the Kupiansk-Lyman line of contact and destroyed numerous pieces of Ukrainian military equipment.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – has triggered the biggest European conflict since World War Two and confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Despite Putin’s latest offer to negotiate, there is no end in sight to the 10-month conflict.

A Ukrainian rocket is launched in response to Russia’s latest attack on Christmas day.
REUTERS

“We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them – we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin needed to return to reality and acknowledge it was Russia that did not want talks.

“Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing citizens,” the adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, tweeted. “Russia doesn’t want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility.”

Russian attacks on power stations have left millions without electricity, and Zelensky said Moscow would aim to make the last few days of 2022 dark and difficult.

“Russia has lost everything it could this year. … I know darkness will not prevent us from leading the occupiers to new defeats. But we have to be ready for any scenario,” he said in an evening video address on Christmas Day.

Ukraine has traditionally not celebrated Christmas on Dec. 25, but Jan. 7, the same as Russia. However, this year some Orthodox Ukrainians decided to celebrate the holiday on Dec. 25 and Ukrainian officials, starting with Zelensky and Ukraine’s prime minister, issued Christmas wishes on Sunday.

Ukrainian servicemen ride in a tank on Dec. 25.
REUTERS

The Kremlin says it will fight until all its territorial aims are achieved, while Kyiv says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from the country.

Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous level, Putin on Sunday said: “I don’t think it’s so dangerous.”

Kyiv and the West say Putin has no justification for what they cast as an imperial-style war of occupation.

BELARUS MISSILES

Russian-supplied Iskander tactical missile systems, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and S-400 air defense systems have been deployed to Belarus and are prepared to perform their intended tasks, a senior Belarusian defense ministry official said on Sunday.

“Our servicemen, crews have fully completed their training in the joint combat training centres of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” Leonid Kasinsky, head of the Main Directorate of Ideology at the ministry, said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

“These types of weapons (Iskander and S-400 systems) are on combat duty today and they are fully prepared to perform tasks for their intended purpose,” Kasinsky added.

It is not clear how many of the Iskander systems have been deployed to Belarus after Putin said in June that Moscow would supply Minsk with them and the air defense systems.

The news follows Putin’s visit to Minsk on Dec. 19 amid fears in Kyiv he would pressure Belarus to join a fresh ground offensive and open a new front in his faltering invasion.

Russian forces used Belarus as a launch pad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in February, and there has been a growing flurry of Russian and Belarusian military activity in recent months.

The Iskander-M, a mobile guided missile system code named “SS-26 Stone” by NATO, replaced the Soviet-era “Scud”. The guided missiles have a range of up to 300 miles and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.

That range reaches deep into neighbours of Belarus: Ukraine and NATO member Poland, which has very strained relations with Minsk.

The S-400 system is a Russian mobile, surface-to-air missile (SAM) interception system capable of engaging aircraft, UAVs, cruise missiles, and has a terminal ballistic missile defense capability.

The interior of an apartment can be seen after a Russian missile strike destroyed part of a building on Christmas day.
REUTERS

Blasts were heard at Russia’s Engels air base, hundreds of miles from the Ukraine frontlines, Ukrainian and Russian media reported on Monday.

Russia’s governor of Saratov region, home to the Engels air-base, said law enforcement agencies were checking information about “an incident at a military facility”.

“There were no emergencies in residential areas of the (Engels) city,” Roman Busargin, the governor of the region, said on the Telegram messaging app. “Civil infrastructure facilities were not damaged.”

The air base, near the city of Saratov, about 450 miles southeast of Moscow, was hit on Dec. 5 in what Russia said were Ukrainian drone attacks on two Russian air bases that day. The strikes dealt Moscow a major reputational blow and raised questions about why its defenses failed, analysts said.

Ukraine has never publicly claimed responsibility for attacks inside Russia, but has said, however, that such incidents are “karma” for Russia’s invasion.

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Kevin McCarthy needs to show the same backbone as Zelensky and rally GOP support for Ukraine

“This struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live, and then their children and grandchildren,” Ukraine’s heroic Volodymyr Zelensky told Congress on Wednesday. “Your money is not charity, it’s an investment.”

Bravo: Ukraine’s president sharply defined the moral imperative behind US financial and material support for his nation against Russia’s invasion.

Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, ruthless assault is an all-out attack on the world order. Its success, even at a far higher price than he expected to pay, would weaken the West and its allies and embolden China, Iran, North Korea and every tyrannical power.  

And the opposition to Ukraine aid from some Republicans in Congress, against these truths, is beyond foolish.  

“I’m in DC but I will not be attending the speech of the Ukrainian lobbyist,” tweeted wild-eyed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who later called US aid “welfare payments to this foreign government.”

Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson snarked about Zelensky’s olive-drab outfit as unfit for the House floor. 
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) compared foreign aid to Americans being “raped everyday at the hands of their own elected leaders.” GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.) spent much of Zelensky’s address gazing at their phones and refused to stand to applaud him. Ohio’s Rep. Warren Davidson snarked about Zelensky’s olive-drab outfit as unfit for the House floor. 

Kevin McCarthy, the presumptive majority leader in the House, needs to take a hard look in the mirror. No matter how weak and uncertain his own position, he needs to show the same backbone Zelensky has shown and fight against this tendency within his party — not make snide remarks about no “blank checks” for Ukraine once the GOP assumes control.  

Yes, spending discipline is hugely important. But the $48 billion we’ve sent Ukraine over 2022 is not what’s driving our fiscal crisis; pretending it is to score political points as civilians die is beyond contemptible. And the childish attacks on Zelensky are proof positive his critics know they have nothing of substance to offer. 

Indeed, the GOP’s “America First” wing pretends Ukraine is somehow at fault for Putin’s war and undeserving of our help — a consensus as divorced from reality as the left’s push for a rapid negotiated end to the hostilities, even on Russia’s terms (which amount to weakening Ukraine and letting Moscow get set to take the rest later). 

Putin has already shown he has no respect for settlements and treaties — he routinely violates them at his convenience. Following his hero Joseph Stalin, he thinks “honest diplomacy is like dry water.”

Zelensky has taken the only honorable course open to him, meeting aggression with unbending resolve. The political peanut gallery here in the States could learn from him. 

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Russia launches another major missile attack on Ukraine

Ukrainian authorities reported explosions in at least three cities Friday, saying Russia has launched a major missile attack on energy facilities and infrastructure.

Local authorities on social media reported explosions in the capital, Kyiv, southern Kryvyi Rih and northeastern Kharkiv as authorities sounded air raid alarms across the country warning of a new devastating barrage of the Russian strikes that have occurred intermittently since mid-October.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram social media app that the city is without electricity. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported three strikes on the city’s critical infrastructure.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a top official in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, reported a strike on a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, warning on Telegram: “There may be people under the rubble.” Emergency services were on site, he said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in the northeastern Desnianskyi and western Holosiivskyi district, urging residents to go to shelters.

Russia is targeting energy infrastructure within Ukraine as the cold winter months get closer.
Getty Images

“The attack on the capital continues,” he wrote on Telegram.

The strikes targeting energy infrastructure have been part of a new Russian strategy to try to freeze Ukrainians into submission after several key battlefield losses by Russian forces in recent months.

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Deadly shelling of Ukraine continues as Russia prepares its long game

The frontline Ukrainian city of Kherson is again without power in the wake of deadly Russian shelling this week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday the city had been attacked 16 times in 24 hours. At least one shell struck a Red Cross aid station, killing a paramedic, Zelensky said.

That barrage came after two Ukrainians were killed Wednesday in the city center, when a nearby government building was targeted, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Zelensky’s office.

The incessant salvos have left the city without power once again, according to the provincial governor, Yaroslav Yanushevich.

The attacks on Kherson — a city surrendered by the Russians early last month as they sought to pull back across natural fortification of the nearby Dnipro River — mimic the Russian strategy throughout Ukraine.

The Kremlin, seemingly unable to recover territory retaken by Kyiv in a series of fall counteroffensives, has continued to rely on a tactic that’s been its backbone since the start of the war: bombarding cities from afar.

Smoke and debris rises as the Kherson Regional State Administration building is hit by Russian shelling.
VIA REUTERS

Ukrainian officials accuse Russian forces of intentionally targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in an effort to break Kyiv’s will to fight — a sentiment echoed by Russian lawmaker Andrey Gurulev, who declared on state-run TV in October he wanted to see Kyiv “swimming in sh_t.”

Gurulev called on Moscow to target Ukrainian infrastructure “in order to collapse the country.”

A Ukrainian war crime prosecutor inspects a residential building damaged by a Russian military strike in Kherson.
REUTERS

While Russia’s effort to take Russian-controlled territory has ground to a bitter, bloody stalemate outside the eastern city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian military said it believes the Kremlin is preparing for a long war of attrition.

“The Kremlin … is seeking to turn the conflict into a prolonged armed confrontation,” Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told reporters Thursday.

Gromov cited reports that Russia has been training and refitting troops within Belarus — a Kremlin ally on Ukraine’s northern border — as well as repositioning Russian warplanes to Belarusian airfields.

The results of a Russian rocket attack on the Kherson City Council on Wednesday.
Yaroslav Yanushevich/Kherson OVA

“[This] indicates that the enemy is building up the possibilities of delivering air strikes on the territory of Ukraine,”  he said.

Russian ground forces have also been trying to take Ukrainian territory in the province of Zaporizhzhia, home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and one of the five Ukrainian provinces the Kremlin has claimed to annex.

“They understand that if they do not stretch the front now, then this winter will be a disaster for them,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office.

Meanwhile, millions of Ukrainians remain without heat or power as Russia’s bombardment campaign rages on.

Volker Turk, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned Thursday the situation in Ukraine was fast becoming one of “extreme hardship.”

“Additional strikes could lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement,” Turk said, following a visit to the embattled country last week.

The international body estimates some 18 million Ukrainians are currently reliant on humanitarian aid as winter temperatures deepen.

With wires

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Russia possibly tried and failed to test nuclear torpedo

The Russian navy has made a possible failed attempt to test one of its new nuclear-powered “apocalypse” Poseidon torpedoes designed to trigger radioactive tsunamis from hundreds of miles away, according to US observers.

The apparently botched exercise took place in the Arctic Sea in recent weeks and involved Russia’s behemoth Belgorod nuclear submarine, a senior US official told CNN.

Over the past week, Belgorod and other Russian ships were spotted leaving the testing area without carrying out a test, suggesting that the Kremlin’s navy had run into some technical issues that caused it to pull the plug on the torpedo launch.

Russia now has a limited window of opportunity to try and test the torpedo again before the Arctic Sea ices over for the winter season.

Russia’s K-329 Belgorod nuclear submarine, the world’s largest, was said to have taken part in exercises in the Arctic Sea, which possibly involved a botched attempted to test a nuclear torpedo.
social media/ east2west news
Vladimir Putin insisted in a speech in October that his government never considered using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
AP

Measuring more than 600 feet in length, the Belgorod is the largest submarine in the world. It is capable of carrying “doomsday” Poseidon nuclear torpedo drones, which, according to Russia, could trigger 1,600-foot nuclear tsunamis in faraway coastal cities, rendering them uninhabitable.

The maneuvers involving the Belgorod come as the US and other Western nations are watching closely for any signs that Russia might be getting ready to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine, especially after this week’s embarrassing retreat from the Kherson region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech last month that his government never considered using nuclear weapons on the battlefield.

“We see no need for that,” Putin said. “There is no point in that, neither political, nor military.”

Back in September, however, Putin warned that his government was prepared to use “all the power and all the means” at its disposal to defend its territories, including the illegally annexed parts of Ukraine.

The Belgorod is capable of firing nuclear-powered Poseidon torpedoes that can trigger radioactive tsunamis.
social media/ east2west news

And during a conversation with Emmanuel Macron, Putin was said to have made a threat that invoked America’s nuclear attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, which reportedly alarmed the French leader.

“You don’t need to attack major cities in order to end a war,” the Russian leader reportedly said.

Russia’s fearsome Belgorod submarine, officially known as K-329 Belgorod, only entered service in July. It is regarded as “the epitome of a new concept of warfare,” and the Poseidon nuclear torpedo is known as the “weapon of the apocalypse.”

A US Congressional Research Service report issued in April said that Poseidons are intended as retaliatory weapons to be used in case of a nuclear strike against Russia.

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Ukrainian officials say nuclear plant disconnected from grid by Russian shelling

Russian attacks were reported across large areas of Ukraine on Thursday, with heavy shelling in numerous regions damaging infrastructure, including electricity supplies to Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Ukrainian officials said.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has again been disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling damaged the remaining high voltage lines, leaving it with just diesel generators, Ukraine nuclear firm Energoatom said.

The plant, in Russian hands but operated by Ukrainian workers, has 15 days’ worth of fuel to run the generators, Energoatom said.

Russian strikes were also reported in Kriviy Rih, in central Ukraine, and in Sumy and Kharkiv, in the northeast. Heavy fighting was ongoing in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

“The enemy is trying to keep the temporarily captured territories, concentrating its efforts on restraining the actions of the Defence Forces in certain areas,” Ukraine’s general staff said on Thursday.

Russia has said it targeted infrastructure as part of what it calls its “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military and remove what it says is a potential threat against Russia’s security.

Ukrainian nuclear firm Energoatom says the power plant is running on generators that only have 15 days of gas left.
REUTERS

As a result, Ukrainian civilians have endured power cuts and reduced water supplies in recent weeks. Russia denies targeting civilians, though the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and left some Ukrainian cities in ruins.

Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich democracies will discuss how best to coordinate further support for Ukraine when they meet on Thursday in Germany following recent Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

The attacks come after Russia said it would resume its participation in a deal freeing up grain exports from Ukraine, reversing a decision that world leaders warned would increase hunger globally.

Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, announced the reversal on Wednesday after Turkey and the United Nations helped keep Ukrainian grain flowing for several days without a Russian role in inspections.

The defence ministry justified the resumption by saying it had received guarantees from Ukraine that it would not use the Black Sea grain corridor for military operations against Russia.

“The Russian Federation considers that the guarantees received at the moment appear sufficient, and resumes the implementation of the agreement,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was important to stand up to “crazy Russian aggression that destabilises international trade”.

“After eight months of Russia’s so-called special operation, the Kremlin is demanding security guarantees from Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“This is truly a remarkable statement. It shows just what a failure the Russian aggression has been and just how strong we all are when we maintain our unity.”

Russia has control of the Zaporizhzhia power plant but is being run by Ukrainian workers.
REUTERS

The grain deal, originally reached three months ago, had helped alleviate a global food crisis by lifting a de facto Russian blockade on Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain suppliers. The prospect of it collapsing this week revived fears of a worsening food crisis and rising prices.

The prices of wheat, soybeans, corn and rapeseed fell sharply on global markets after Russia’s announcement.

Zelensky credited Turkey and the United Nations for making it possible for ships to continue moving out of Ukrainian ports with cargoes after Russia suspended participation on Saturday.

Russia suspended its involvement in the deal saying it could not guarantee safety for civilian ships crossing the Black Sea after an attack on its fleet. Ukraine and Western countries called that a false pretext for “blackmail”, using threats to the global food supply.

In the south, a Ukrainian counter-offensive has left Russian forces fighting to hold their ground around the city of Kherson, where Russian-installed authorities are urging residents to evacuate, the Ukrainian military said.

Residents who had collaborated with occupying forces were leaving and some departing medical staff had taken equipment from hospitals, it said.

Residents of the town of Nova Zburivka had been given three days to leave and were told that evacuation would be obligatory from Nov. 5.

Russian authorities have repeatedly said Ukraine could be preparing to attack the massive Kakhovka dam, upriver on the Dnipro, and flood the region. Kyiv denies that.

“Obviously, we are afraid of this. That is why we are leaving,” resident Pavel Ryazskiy, who was evacuated to Crimea, said of the possibility the dam could be destroyed.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

In Washington on Wednesday the United States said it had information that indicated North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells for the war.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby did not provide evidence but he told a briefing that North Korea was attempting to obscure the shipments by funneling them through the Middle East and North Africa.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discusses son Conor’s Ukraine military enlistment

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. opened up about having his son Conor Kennedy voluntarily head into a war zone not knowing when — or if — he’ll be back.

The 28-year-old blue blood traded the luxurious life of Hyannis Port, Mass., and the Hamptons for the trenches by bravely heading into combat for Ukraine amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war.

“He felt that he shouldn’t be arguing about it unless he was willing to have skin in the game and take his own risk,” Kennedy said on “The Megyn Kelly Show” of his son’s decision to go to the war-torn country.

Kennedy said his son signed up for the Foreign Legion at the Ukrainian Embassy and was a drone pilot before he was promoted to a “machine gunner.”

“He didn’t have any military experience and kind of talked his way into the unit,” he added. “He’s been in firefights, mainly nighttime, and a lot of artillery fights with the Russians.”

Conor Kennedy fought anonymously in Ukraine, as he kept it a secret from his father before he eventually found out.
jconorkennedy/Instagram

Conor Kennedy — the grandson of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — fought anonymously, telling only one American he was going over to fight, and one person on the ground overseas his real name.

“He had a job for a law firm, a really good law firm in Los Angeles, and I was looking forward to him living with me for the summer,” he said of his son’s initial plans.

When probing him further about Conor Kennedy’s plans, his son said, “I’m not going. I want to talk to you. I don’t want you to ask me what I’m doing.”

“I was like, ‘Um…,’” he explained. “And he said, ‘I will explain it to you at some point, but I do not want you to ask me now, and if you could just respect that it would mean a lot to me.’ So I did.”

After Conor Kennedy was no longer active on his phone, Robert Kennedy said he and his wife actress Cheryl Hines began to investigate where he could be. The pair searched for clues that could give them an idea of his whereabouts.

The worried father stumbled upon his son’s credit card bills.

“The last one we saw was in Poland and then there was one in Ukraine and then they just stopped,” he remembered. “He didn’t tell anyone where he was going or what he was doing.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky set up the International Legion in February asking foreigners to help fight Russia. According to a report, 20,000 people from 52 countries signed up within a week.

Connor Kennedy only told one American he was fighting in Ukraine, where one person on the ground looked after his real name.
jconorkennedy/Instagram

Robert Kennedy said Conor Kennedy “came back a couple of days ago.”

“I flew out to the East Coast to meet him and I heard about what he done,” Kennedy said. “I’m very glad I didn’t know what he was up to.”

Conor Kennedy announced earlier this month that he served in Ukraine, taking to Instagram to pen a poignant caption about his experience on the ground.

“I was deeply moved by what I saw happening in Ukraine over the past year. I wanted to help,” he wrote in part. “When I heard about Ukraine’s International Legion, I knew I was going, and I went to the embassy to enlist the next day.”

He also lauded his fellow warriors and the Ukrainian civilians.

“The people I met were the bravest I have ever known. My fellow legionnaires — who came from different countries, backgrounds, ideologies — are true freedom fighters. As are the citizens I knew, many of whom have lost everything in their long struggle against oligarchy, and toward a democratic system. They know this isn’t a war between equals, it’s a revolution.”



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