Zaporizhhia: Another Crime against Residential Buildings in Crime against the International Law, as Declared by the President of Ukraine

“Twice, Zaporizhzhia.” Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” he wrote. The city had at least 19 deaths in the Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings.

Hours later, the president of Ukrainian announced that his country’s military had regained control of three more villages in the region that had been annexed by Russia.

A 3-year-old girl was taken to a hospital after people were rescued from multi-story buildings, according to the governor.

On Wednesday, President Putin annexed four regions, including Zaporizhzhia, which is home to a nuclear plant and is in violation of international laws. The city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.

The director-general of the I Atomic Energy Agency is going to speak with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move. He will also discuss efforts to set up a secure protection zone around the facility, which has been damaged in the fighting and seen staff including its director abducted by Russian troops.

An announcement by the Kremlin on Thursday urging Ukrainians to return to their homeland in Dnipro, Czech Republic – the anniversary of Russian offensive in Lyman

The leaders from more than 40 countries are meeting in a meeting in Czech Republic on Thursday to start a “European Political Community” intended to boost security and prosperity across the continent.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “certain territories will be reclaimed, and we will keep consulting residents who would be eager to embrace Russia.”

Their withdrawal east across the Dnipro cedes large swathes of land that Russia has occupied since the early days of the war, and that Putin had formally declared as Russian territory just five weeks ago.

In a message on the Telegram messaging app the Ukrainian president said that it was a historic day. “We are returning to Kherson. As of now, our defenders are on the approaches of the city. But special units are already in the city.”

Russia said Thursday its forces would help evacuate residents of occupied Kherson to other areas, as Ukraine’s offensive continued to make gains in the region. There was an announcement just minutes after the Kherson administration appealed to the Kremlin for help moving residents out of harms way.

— In the devastated Ukrainian city of Lyman, which was recently recaptured after a months-long Russian occupation, Ukrainian national police said authorities have exhumed the first 20 bodies from a mass burial site. There are preliminary indications that around 200 people are buried in one cemetery and another has fallen Ukrainian soldiers in it. The civilians, including children, were buried in single graves, while members of the military were buried in a 40-meter long trench, according to police.

Lyman sustained heavy damage both during the occupation and as Ukrainian soldiers fought to retake it. Mykola, a 71-year-old man who gave only his first name, was among about 100 residents who lined up for aid on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy’s “Outsider”: The Russian Defense Ministry has a “Massive Response” to the Feb 24 Bridge Attack

“We want the war to come to an end, the pharmacy and shops and hospitals to start working as they used to,” he said. “Now we don’t have anything yet. Everything is destroyed and pillaged, a complete disaster.”

In his nightly address, a defiant Zelenskyy switched to speaking Russian to tell the Moscow leadership that it has already lost the war that it launched Feb. 24.

The Russian Defense Ministry, in a statement cited by the state media outlets RIA Novosti and TASS, described the shootings as a terrorist attack. It said the two men who fired on the soldiers came from a former Soviet nation.

Traffic over the bridge was temporarily suspended after the blast, but both automobiles and trains were crossing again on Sunday. Russia started a car ferry service.

“We have already established the route of the truck,” he said, adding that it had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar — a region in southern Russia — among other places.

The massive Russian response seemed intended to calm Putin allies who have grown increasingly critical of the Kremlin’s military strategy as Russian forces have repeatedly ceded territory to an ongoing Ukrainian advance. Many had been lobbying to make President PutinStrikeUkraine harder.

Fighting has focused on the northern regions of the peninsula. Zelenskyy was upset about the latest attack in a Telegram post.

Rejoinders of the Moscow Bridge Explosion that Saved Two Houses, Two Homes and One Condominium: The Opposition and a Denouement

Emergency crews tried to reach the top floors of the building that was hit but were stopped in their tracks by police tape. Apartments were once situated at a chasm of at least 40 feet wide. In the next building, the missile barrage blew out windows and doors hundreds of feet away. At least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings were damaged, city council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said.

Tetyana Lazunko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took shelter in the hallway of their top-floor apartment after hearing air raid sirens. Their possessions flew into the air as the explosion shook the building. The couple looked through the damage at their home for nearly five decades.

About 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in another neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike, the dog’s leg blown away by the blast.

Abbas Gallyamov, an independent Russian political analyst and a former speechwriter for Putin, said the Russian president, who formed a committee Saturday to investigate the bridge explosion, had not responded forcefully enough to satisfy angry war hawks. He said the response has inspired the opposition, while the loyalists are demoralized.

He said that once again, they see that when the authorities say that everything is going according to plan, they’re lying and that it demoralizes them.

Petrovskii Zelensky declared Ukraine’s energy situation at the Donestk crossroads in 2018, the first step after China opened the bridge

Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive infrastructure projects is a penchant of dictators. In 2018, Putin personally opened the Kerch bridge – Europe’s longest – by driving a truck across it. That same year, one of the first things Chinese President Xi Jinping did after Beijing reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong was to connect the former Portuguese and British territories with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.

Crimea is a popular vacation resort for Russians. People trying to drive to the bridge and onto the Russian mainland on Sunday encountered hours-long traffic jams.

Bakhmut lies at a fork that points toward two other strategic towns in the Donestk region: Konstantinivka to the south-west and Kramatorsk, and Slovyansk to the north-west. Vladimir Putin has total control of the region.

— The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, said that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, had been reconnected to the grid after losing its last external power source early Saturday following shelling.

One photo shared by authorities in the Kyiv region showed the fragments of a missile in the snow, which it said the air defense system had downed. The military administration claimed that 37 of the 40 missiles were fired at the capital.

In a video filmed in front of his office, President Zelensky said that most of the missile strikes were aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure. At least 11 important infrastructure facilities in eight regions and the capital have been damaged; some provinces are without power, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

Ukrainian officials said that half of the country’s energy infrastructure had been destroyed by Russian strikes, which have been wrestled with by the US and NATO.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was found dead in the rubble of a destroyed building. Another remains trapped, Klitschko said.

The strikes started two days after the attack on the Kerch bridge which is the only crossing between the annexed Crimean peninsula and Russia. The blast that the Kremlin used to justify Monday’s attack gave Ukraine a major strategic boost.

Zelensky’s message came after Ukrainian officials said Russia had launched deadly rocket strikes into downtown Kherson on Christmas Eve, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens. Zelensky said those attacks were killed for the sake of intimidation and pleasure.

The Ukrainian culture minister says there’s heavy damage to the National Philharmonic concert halls. The main passenger terminal in Ukraine was damaged by a nearby strike, delaying trains during the morning rush hour.

“This happened at rush hour, as lots of public transport was operating in the city,” said Ihor Makovtsev, the head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council, as he stood by the wreckage. The bus driver and four of his passengers were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

Kremlin missiles, drones and Chechen leader Kadyrov: ‘We had no idea Russia had started yet’

“It’s difficult for me to find any logic to their so-called artillery work because all our transportation is only for civilian purposes,” Makovtsev said.

The windows on his first floor balcony were taken down and replaced by a bus stop. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He said he had been watering the plants on his balcony just minutes before the blast, but went to his kitchen to make breakfast.

He said that the explosion blew open all of his cabinets and nearly knocked him to the ground. “Only five minutes before, and I would have been on the balcony, full of glass.”

Missiles and drones have been launched several times since October to destroy or damageUkrainians infrastructure, part of a strategy by the Kremlin to intimidate Ukrainians and are in violation of the laws of war.

“We warned Zelenskyy that Russia hadn’t really started yet,” wrote Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a loyalist to Putin who repeatedly has attacked Russia’s Defense Ministry for incompetence in carrying out the military campaign.

Ukraine mourns as terrorists attack: CNN reports on a Russian attack on Kiev in the wake of Zelensky’s Christmas speech

Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst. The former spokesman for the Organization for Security and cooperation in Europe is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He contributes to CNN Opinion. His own opinions are expressed in this commentary. CNN has more opinion.

Recent days show sites beyond the current theater of ground fighting are not immune to attacks. It remains unclear exactly how the Kerch bridge bombing was carried out – and Kyiv has not claimed responsibility – but the fact that a target so deep in Russian-held territory could be successfully hit hinted at a serious Ukrainian threat towards key Russian assets.

As of midday local time, the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet in between air raid sirens, with reports that three missiles and five kamikaze drones were shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).

The head of the region’s military administration said there was a series of deadly Russian strikes that hit the city of Kherson hours before Zelensky delivered his Christmas address.

Residents bundled in winter coats, hats and scarves gathered in Kyiv’s underground stations as the sirens wailed. Their faces were lit by their phones while they scrolled through updates.

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.

Russia is struggling on the ground and has failed to achieve supremacy in the air, but Monday’s attacks may have achieved one goal – sending a signal of strength towards the growing list of Putin’s internal critics.

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. People shared their feelings of jubilation with text messages.

Sitting still was never an option for Putin, who was consumed by pride and self-interest. He responded in the only way he knows how, by unleashing more death and destruction, with the force that probably comes natural to a former KGB operative.

It was an act of selfishness that Putin had been placed on thin ice by the growing criticism at home.

“The Russians feel squeezed between our forces and the banks of the Dnipro, so they’re looking for ways to punish local communities,” said Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, on national television. Ukrainian commanders have set a goal to liberate Kherson by the winter.

The significance of the strikes on central Kyiv, and close to the government quarter, cannot be overstated. Western governments should see it as a red line being crossed on this 229th day of the war.

The importance of this is that the allies need to use urgent telephone diplomacy to get China and India to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.

If these are not put in place the humanitarian crisis will continue throughout Europe and Putin will have the ability to continue his violence. A weak reaction will be taken as proof that the Kremlin can continue to weaponize food, energy and migration.

The Fourth and Fifth Battles of the Ukrainian War on the Crimea, and the Status of the Kherson Region’s Militia Regime

It’s important that defense systems are high tech to protect energy infrastructure in the country. With winter just around the corner, the need to protect heating systems is urgent.

Turkey and the Gulf states that get lots of Russian tourists need to be pressured to impose trade restrictions on Russia in order to have enough impact.

Over 30 fires broke out in 12 areas and the capital, but the blazes have been put out.

“We urge the residents of the Kherson region to remain calm and to not panic. Russian troops are not going to be withdrawn from the Kherson region. “This is not an evacuation, this is an opportunity to save lives.”

In a video address, Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-installed administrator, called on residents from districts surrounding the regional capital of Kherson to evacuate across the Dnipro river — a key defense line — as Ukrainian forces continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s south.

The Kherson region’s governor reported Sunday that Russian forces had bombarded the area 71 times over the past 24 hours, including 41 attacks on the city of Kherson.

If the people of the Kherson region want to protect themselves from missile strikes, they should leave and go to other regions with their children.

However, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson region’s military administration, said that the civilian transports were not an “evacuation.”

Stremousov has been openly critical of the war’s decision-makers in Moscow and on the battlefield. He blamed incompetent commanders for the military setbacks in Kherson, because they have not been held accountable for their mistakes.

Not for the first time, the war is teetering towards an unpredictable new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

With the cold months approaching and probably bringing a halt to ground combat, experts say the next weeks of the war are expected to be vital as both sides seek to strike another blow.

It means that, as winter approaches, the stakes of the war have been raised once more. Giles said that Russia would like to keep it up. But the Ukrainian successes of recent weeks have sent a direct message to the Kremlin, too. Giles said that they’re able to do things that take people by surprise.

Since early Friday morning, unconfirmed videos and photos have surfaced online of the Ukrainian flag being raised atop the Kherson city administration building and police headquarters, as well as jubilant locals in nearby villages celebrating liberation. Several videos appeared to show a group of people tearing down Russian billboards.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

Russia will be able to replenish troops and recover defense in depth with the move to the east bank. Any attempt by Ukrainian forces to cross the Dnipro would be costly to the point of prohibitive, as Russian forces are well dug in along a stretch of the river. The trenches appeared on satellite imagery and civilians were forcibly removed from homes close to the river.

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

Giles said there was an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”

NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine regardless of how long the war takes, but several European countries – particularly those that relied heavily on Russian energy – are staring down a crippling cost-of-living crisis which, without signs of Ukrainian progress on the battlefield, could endanger public support.

According to experts, Russia will most likely not form a recurrent pattern of bombardment, while estimating military reserves of either army is a murky task, and Western assessments suggest Moscow does not have the capacity to keep it up.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.

Russia has limited availability of precision weapons that could make it difficult for Putin to disrupt the counter-offensives of the Ukrainian army.

Justin Bronk, a military expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed with that assessment, telling CNN that, “Ukrainian interception success rates against Russian cruise missiles have risen significantly since the start of the invasion in February.”

The Russians aren’t able to sustain a high-tempo missile assault in the future, so the bombarding of missile strikes will be an occasional feature for shows of extreme outrage.

There could be some help for Putin on the way. The announcement that a special group of troops will be deployed by Russia and Belarus has raised fears of deepened military cooperation between their close allies. According to some observers, a recent increase in Ukrainian threats to the security of Belarus could be related to some level of involvement by the Ukrainians.

Giles said, “The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine.” It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

By flipping the narrative of the conflict over the past two months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has achieved one of his own key objectives: showing Ukraine’s Western allies that their military aid can help Kyiv win the war.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

“These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles [this week] were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said.

The IRIS-T arrived in Ukranian this week, along with systems expected from the United States.

Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: Military training and deportations of Ukrainians, and implications for genocide prevention

The blasts, which Russia attributed to Ukrainian shelling, came a day after another sign of disarray in Russia’s once-vaunted military machine: Two men opened fire on fellow Russian soldiers at a training camp in the Belgorod region, killing 11 and wounding 15 before being killed themselves.

However, Ukrainian officials have not commented on the explosions in Crimea or in the Donetsk People’s Republic and CNN is unable to verify the cause of the blasts or the extent of the damage.

Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted.

Ukrainian officials said the rockets that crossed from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant damaged power lines, gas lines and a raft of civilian businesses. Russia and Ukraine have for months accused each other of firing at and around the nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest. It’s run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

— France, seeking to puncture perceptions that it has lagged in supporting Ukraine, confirmed it’s pledging air-defense missiles and stepped-up military training to Ukraine. Up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in logistics and other needs, and training on equipment supplied by France, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview published in Le Parisien.

— The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, accused Moscow late Saturday of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians,” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

It referenced statements made this week by Russian authorities that claimed that “several thousand” children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.

The placement of children from Russia-held areas of Ukraine who were orphans for adoption with Russian families could be in violation of the international treaty on genocide prevention.

Russian citizens who have been told to evacuate fear that those left behind could help the Ukrainian forces, according to the Ukrainian officials. The Kremlin-appointed governor of the region has warned that any civilians still there could be treated as hostile.

pro-Kremlin commentators posted on their social media that a Russian commander wanted for his role in the downing of a Malaysian airliner has been deployed to the front. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.

Girkin has been on an international wanted list over his alleged involvement in the downing of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH17, which killed 298 people. He remains the most high-profile suspect in a related murder trial in a Dutch court, with a verdict expected Nov. 17.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency said Sunday it would offer a $100,000 reward to anyone who captures him.

Kamikaze Drone Attacks in Zvezda: Defending Russia against the attack of Ukrainian civilians over the Dnipro River

A group of drones launched a series of attacks in the early hours of Monday, killing at least one person and setting off warnings for commuters headed to work.

Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are small, portable aerial weapon systems that are hard to detect and can be fired at a distance. They are designed to hit behind enemy lines, so they can be destroyed during the attack.

Saldo offered residents the option of relocating to cities “in any part of Russia,” and said the Russian government would provide housing vouchers to those who wished to move further from the fighting.

“We will not surrender the city, and we will fight to the end,” he said, adding that residents whose homes might be damaged from shelling could receive compensation from the Russian government.

The two sides are facing each other over the Dnipro river over a distance of 250 kilometers, from the area around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the edge of the Black Sea.

The withdrawal to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River is a difficult decision, but it would allow Russia to save the lives of military personnel and keep Russia’s combat capability.

The leader of the mass bombardment of Ukrainian cities said that he accused the Ukrainians of targeting civilians and that Russia’s focus was now on saving lives.

In order to maximize the safety of civilians and soldiers, we will operate with that goal in mind. The Zvezda channel is funded by the Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The emergence of a parallel universe in Bakhmut as seen by the USMC and the Lifshitz Observatories

A boom of incoming weaponry from the critical Eastern Ukrainian town shakes the notion out of the system as Ukrainian soldiers on Wednesday launched offensives to try and reclaimed positions from Russian forces.

Our guide is Ukrainian military medic, who goes by her nom-de-guerre “Katrusya.” In tinted sunglasses and fatigues, she slings our convoy into the centre of the city at breakneck speed.

We were taken to see the building that had been hit. Our car hadn’t even come to a complete halt as another artillery shell hit nearby. We tried to cover our heads as the more bombardment came down for around 20 minutes.

A handful of residents are still on on the streets of Bakhmut. There is no windows, the streets are pockmarked, and there are small pools of trash.

Those who remain seem to live in a parallel universe. They’re out on their bikes, running errands and elderly women drag their shopping trolleys behind them, though which shops are open seems a mystery.

The attack on Bakhmut, Ukraine, during the September shelling campaign by the Russian army and militarily financed combat operations in Ukraine (Ukraine)

The Russian army is shelling closer to the western side of Bakhmut than it was before. The hospital director says the town has been hit almost daily since the beginning of the month.

Katrusya says that the intense fighting has cost the lives of numerous soldiers and civilians here. “I cannot give you the number, but it is a lot… there are lot of injured from both sides and also lots of dead.”

Russian forces made small, steady gains due to the help of theWagner group, a private military company.

She says that despite their international reputation, they seem more like a bunch of soldiers for hire.

They are a group of misfits. There a few very well-trained professional fighters, but the majority of them have found themselves accidentally fighting in this war looking for money or for the ability to get out of jail,” she said.

In September, video surfaced appearing to show Prigorzycki recruiting prisoners from Russian jails in exchange for six months of combat service in Ukraine.

“The price for Ukraine will be enormous,” she acknowledges. “We will lose the best of the best, the most motivated and trained but we will definitely win we have no other choice it is our land. We will win.

Grisly videos filmed by Ukrainian drones showing Russian infantry being struck by artillery in poorly prepared positions have partly supported those assertions, as has reporting in Russian news media of mobilized soldiers telling relatives about high casualty rates. The videos are not independently verified and could not be located on the front line.

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of the Ukrainian military, said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday that Russian forces had tripled the intensity of attacks along some parts of the front. He did not say what the time frame was or where the attacks were coming from.

In addition, it was reported that the Ukrainian advance had been held back for a few days, and that military equipment on the right bank of the Dnieper was being hit by fire.

The increase in infantry in the east has not resulted in Russia gaining new ground, as was stated in an assessment from the Institute for the Study of War.

The assessment said that seeking a quick advance, the Russian Army was “wasting the fresh supply of mobilized personnel on marginal gains” by attacking before massing sufficient soldiers to ensure success. The attacks have been directed at several towns and villages, including Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

The Ukrainian military has been able to cut off supply lines and target Russian depots of long-range missiles in the northeast and south of the country.

In the south, where Ukrainian troops are advancing toward the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, the Ukrainian military said Friday morning that its artillery battalions had fired more than 160 times at Russian positions over the past 24 hours, but it also reported Russian return fire into Ukrainian positions.

The city’s residents have been preparing to survive any fighting that may befall Kherson and have been stocking up on food and fuel.

Viktor Kherson in Zaporizhia, Ukraine: A Ukrainian evacuee farmer’s wife. Is that his middle name?

“I still can’t believe that I left there,” says Viktor, while pulling a red suitcase from the black car he rode to Zaporizhia, about 25 miles from occupied territory. “The madness.”

His home is just outside Kherson. He and his wife raised their daughters there. The Russians broke into the house within hours of them leaving, says a neighbor.

At a Zaporizhzhia shelter, a volunteer who asks that he be called by his middle name, Artyom, helps care for Kherson evacuees as if they were his own family. Artyom asked that we not use his full name to protect his relatives in Kherson.

His wife stays at home as much as she can. But to earn money, she sells potatoes and vegetables she grows in her own garden at a local street market.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134465380/kherson-ukraine-russia-battle-looms

The public is important to the Ukrainians, especially the young ones – Artyom and Mikolevich Holovnya

But Artyom says it’s not fine. He counts his fingers as he fears that the Russians will stop his wife. He worries that she’ll get sick. She’s four months’ pregnant. He has doubts about the baby.

Holovnya, who is living in Kyiv, calls some of them collaborators. He says some people are too stubborn to leave. Many are older. Others do not have very many resources. He says their lives right now are intense.

What little public interaction there is now in the city revolves mostly around the local street markets that popped up since the war began. Most of the stores in Kherson are either closed or have empty shelves, so local farmers and bakers have been selling and trading items at the street markets.

“You can buy most things, from starting with medicine and finishing with meat,” says Natalyia Schevchenko, 30, who fled Kherson this summer. “But it’s terrible to observe. On one car, they sell medicine on the hood and on the side they cut meat.”

Schevchenko, who is volunteering at an Odesa nonprofit called Side-by-Side to evacuate residents from Kherson and other occupied territories, remains in contact with those in the city. She says her grandmother, who refused to leave, gives her regular updates.

Artyom and his wife talk whenever they can get a decent connection. They like to keep the conversations light but they worry that Russians are listening in.

It’s scary — but they agree it’s a good thing. Artyom may be able to go home soon because they think it means the Ukrainians are getting closer.

While state media in Russia said that Ukrainian shelling had damaged the power lines, Yaroslav Yanushevych, the exiled Ukrainian head of the Kherson regional military administration, blamed Russian troops.

Russian forces continued to fire from across the river on towns and villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian forces, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command. Two Russian missiles struck the town of Beryslav, which is just north of a critical dam, the military said. It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.

About 200 Ukrainians were killed when the Russians occupied Borodianka shortly after the invasion began on Feb. 24 until the end of March, Yerko says. The town’s prewar population of 14,000 dwindled to a little more than 1,000. It’s back up to about 9,000 despite the lack of resources.

Russia had already suffered setbacks to the war, with retreats from Kyiv, the capital, last spring and from the northeast in September. Kherson was the only provincial capital Russia had captured since invading in February, and it was a major link in Russia’s effort to control the southern coastline along the Black Sea.

The agency also urged Russian soldiers abandoned by their military leadership and still in Kherson to surrender — offering to guarantee their rights would be protected under a program called “I Want to Live.”

“Your commanders ordered you to dress in civilian clothes and try to flee Kherson independently. “You will not succeed,” the Ukrainian statement said.

The Russian withdrawal came amid reports of heavy damage to the Antonivsky Bridge — the area’s only road crossing over the Dnipro. Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies appeared to show a section of the bridge was completely sheared off.

Earlier this week, the commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, proposed plans to withdraw from Kherson during a report to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on national television.

Hours earlier, the Kremlin had issued a statement saying that the withdrawal of its forces across the Dnipro River was complete, though residents reported that there were still Russian soldiers in the city, some wearing civilian clothes.

The Russian withdrawal is thought to have been a blow to Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.

Even as its soldiers fled, the Kremlin said that it still considered Kherson — which President Putin illegally annexed in September — to be a part of Russia.

Russia still however retains control of about 60% of the Kherson region, south and east of the Dnipro, including the coastline along the Sea of Azov. So long as Moscow’s troops control and fortify the Dnipro’s east bank, Ukrainian forces will struggle to damage or disrupt the canal that carries fresh water to Crimea.

After a Russian retreat from Kherson, the Ukrainian troops entered the city on Friday.

Videos shared by Ukrainian government officials on social media showed scenes of civilians who had endured nearly nine months of occupation cheering the arrival of a contingent of Ukrainian troops.

The Ukrainian government wants to push on with its military campaign while it has Russians on the run, as well as not return to the bargaining table, which some American officials have advocated.

As he spoke, Ukrainian soldiers continued to move through towns and villages in the region, greeted joyously by tearful residents who had endured nine months occupation.

Unravelling the Russian occupation in Kherson city by a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit: “Nothing happened” to Voitsehovsky

Oleh Voitsehovsky, the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit, said he had seen no Russian troops or equipment in his zone along the front less than four miles north of Kherson city.

“The Russians left all the villages,” he said. We didn’t see a car while we looked at many villages with our drones. We don’t see how they are leaving. They retreat quietly, at night.”

The apparent final hours of the Russian occupation overnight Thursday to Friday featured several explosions and were chaotic and disorienting, according to residents of Kherson reached by telephone on Friday morning.

Serhiy, a retiree living in Kherson who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, said in a series of text messages before Ukrainian soldiers swept in that conditions in the city had unraveled overnight.

He wrote that it wasn’t possible to call the fire department because the burning building was in the center. There was no phone signal, no electricity, no heating and no water.

A CNN View of the Dnieper Effort to Clear the Kherson City. “What can we do about it?” a Russian Army spokesperson told CNN

“They will be plotting provocations, false-flag operations in the city,” he said. “There is a lot of work ahead on demining and clearing the city.” CNN spoke with residents of Kherson city who confirmed that many Russian soldiers were wearing civilian clothing.

It said that Russian forces were setting up defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro and shelling the advancing Ukrainians across the river.

Zelenskyy, along with officials and citizens, posted videos on social media of people in the street celebrating. ZSU!” — the Ukrainian initials for the country’s armed forces.

There was not a piece of military equipment left behind on the right bank. Russian servicemen moved to the left bank of the Dnieper.

Ukraine has not reported any incoming fire from the east bank Friday but said a missile attack on the city of Mykolaiv, close to the border with Kherson, killed seven people early Friday.

The southern operational command of the Ukranian military said that Russian forces had been loading into boats that looked suitable for crossing the river.

There is a video on social media that shows Ukrainian forces being greeted by residents of Tyahinka. The village is just 14 miles (20 km) west of the hydroelectric dam and bridges that stretch across the Dnieper river at Nova Kakhovka.

One video showed a Ukrainian flag flying over a World War II memorial, while another showed residents tearing down a propaganda billboards with a young girl holding a Russian flag, which read: “Russia is here forever.”

Kyiv officials had warned that retreating Russian troops could turn the regional capital of Kherson into a “city of death” on the way out, and an official in southern Ukraine warned residents Friday to be wary of quickly returning to recently liberated territory due to the threat of mines.

According to Vitaliy Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv region military administration, there are a lot of mines in the liberated territories. Don’t go there for no reason. There are casualties.

The Russian withdrawal of Ukraine has not changed: Kherson, Donbas, and Zakopane will be back in the Russian Federation (even though Ukrainian troops are still fighting in Ukraine)

Peskov stated that this was a subject of the Russian Federation. “It has been legally fixed and defined. There can be no changes here.”

The residents of Kherson have been subjected to curfews, shortages of goods, partisan warfare, and an intense campaign to force them to become Russian citizens in order to live in the city.

Their suffering hasn’t yet come into focus. For months, residents interviewed by journalists have told stories of friends being abducted, children illegally deported, relatives tortured and killed. When Russia pulled out of Ukraine, there were cases of human rights abuses.

Despite the upbeat mood in the city, Russian troops are only a short distance away, having retreated from Kherson on the west bank of the Dnipro River to the east side. The two armies remain within artillery range of each other.

The Russian withdrawal will protect the lives of people who have faced a punishing Ukrainian counteroffensive that targeted Russian armor and command posts, disrupting their supply lines.

President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed Friday as “a historic day” for Ukraine. “We are returning the south of our country, we are returning Kherson,” Zelensky said.

Success in Kherson may also allow exhausted Ukrainian units some respite, as well as allow redirected focus on Donbas, where fierce fighting continues in both Luhansk and Donetsk.

Ukranian authorities also have a massive task of reconstruction ahead in Kherson, where Russian forces destroyed critical infrastructure and left a huge number of mines behind.

On Friday, Maxar Technologies satellite images and other photos showed at least seven bridges, four of them crossing the Dnipro, have been destroyed in the last 24 hours.

There is an important dam that spans the Dnipro in Nova Kakhovka and is on the east bank of the river. For weeks, both sides have accused the other of planning to breach the dam, which if destroyed would lead to extensive flooding on the east bank and deprive the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia of water to cool its reactors.

Events in Kherson and Kharkiv have shown that the Ukrainians possess tactical agility that seems alien to the Russian way of war, as well as far superior battlefield intelligence.

He wore a military-style jacket and clothing in front of the main government building, surrounded by heavily armed security. He spoke and waved to residents as Ukraine marks one of its biggest victories of the war.

He said stabilization measures would follow due to the threat of mines. The occupiers left a lot of mines and explosives around vital facilities. We will be clearing them,” he said.

Police, rescuers, power engineers, and other people are following our defenders. Medicine, communications, social services are returning. … He said that life is returning.

“Measures on civilian lives in the liberated territories of the Kherson region,” Snihurivka (Novanovoraysk) on Saturday

The officials said on Friday it was too dangerous for people to return to their homes in the newly re-taken areas of Kherson.

In neighboring Mykolaiv region: The head of the regional military administration of Mykolaiv visited the small city of Snihurivka Friday to discuss “the restoration of life in the liberated territories of the region.”

Kim warned local residents to be careful despite the fact that the services have started moving mines in the liberated territories.

There is a lack of water in the town. There is a lack of medicine, and bread, which is not produced due to the lack of electricity. The adviser to the mayor of Kherson said that there were problems with food supplies.

The city is still not normal, with the authorities warning residents to be careful because of the presence of explosives and Russian forces nearby.

This is not the end of the struggle against the Russian occupation in the country, reports CNN’s Nic Robertson, who witnessed emotional scenes Saturday in Kherson’s central square as residents hailed their liberation.

“The terrorist country continues bringing the Russian world in the form of shelling of the civilian population. Kherson. In the morning, on Saturday, on the eve of Christmas, in the central part of the city,” he said.

The mines are a significant danger. The family was driving in the village of Novoraysk outside the city when they hit a mine, killing four people, including an 11 year old. Another mine injured six railway workers who were trying to restore service after lines were damaged. And there were at least four more children reportedly injured by mines across the region, Ukrainian officials said in statements.

Almost 2,000 “explosive items,” such as mines, trip wires, and unexploded ammunition, have already been removed from the Kherson region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned during his nightly address Saturday. Residents of Kherson were urged to be careful and not try to independently check out the buildings and objects left by occupiers.

“There are 10 groups of bomb disposal experts working in Kherson, the police are working, and there are various units of the defense forces,” Zelensky said.

Kherson, an urban opera house built by a hydroelectric project, as revealed by the CNN-Newton project on Saturday (after a Ukrainian soldier’s death)

Weather conditions are getting tougher, with sub-zero temperatures at night, CNN’s team in Kherson city reports, and no heating in the city. Ukrainian authorities have said that those who find it too hard to live in Kherson can move to other parts of the country, since they do now have freedom of movement.

CNN obtained satellite images on Friday showing water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam which is the site of a major hydroelectric project.

Speaking Saturday on the next steps for the Ukrainian military in Kherson, CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton said: “This is going to be a major urban operation. There is going to be a methodical operation to clear buildings of potential booby traps and mines.

An old neighbor wrapped her arms around his shoulders and cried as he was greeted with a bouquet of flowers.

“We’ve missed you so much,” said a villager in a black watch cap addressing the colonel and the soldiers accompanying him: Kostenko’s brother, Andriy, and their cousin, Denys.

The Russian troops had been in the house where Kostenko grew up since March and he walked into it to see them. The man walked inside after he passed a sign painted on a wall.

“The windows were broken,” Kostenko recalled in a text message with NPR. “Almost all the furniture and things were stolen,” including his body armor and medals. The Russians left a bed, wardrobe, and grenade, but all that was left was a bed.

“We pretty much denied those troops their supply chains,” says Stanislav Volovyk, a Ukrainian drone operator who helps guide the fire of howitzers. We blew up the bridges. We got their supply routes under fire control with HIMARS and artillery.”

HIMARS — or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — are high-precision, American-made rockets with a range of about 50 miles. Volovyk says that without access to their supplies, the Russians had little choice but to withdraw to the other side of the river.

A reconnaissance soldier from Kherson who goes by the battle nickname Fox said he helped target a HIMAR that flew 24 miles before killing 20 Russian soldiers hiding in a bunker — a direct hit.

In the past, Fox worked as a seaman on a cargo ship in Kherson. He fled on the first day of the war, then joined the army and became part of a reconnaissance team. He returned to his neighborhood on the weekend to a hero’s welcome. His neighbors had no idea he’d become a soldier.

“They were completely surprised,” said Fox, who arrived in full battle gear. “I didn’t tell them I had joined the army because it could’ve caused them problems as they were in Russian-occupied territory.”

Fox, who has been shuttling food into Kherson city over the weekend, said his homecoming filled him with joy: “I don’t remember such a happy moment, such a light moment, in my life as today.”

According to the local military administration, the Russians sabotaged the city’s water, electrical, and mobile communications systems before they left.

The Russians were able to fight within easy range of the city even after they retreated across the Dnieper River.

Ukraine Comes to The End of the War: Vladimir Zelensky’s Surprise Address to the City of Kherson

As the blue-and-gold Ukrainian flag fluttered on a breezy day, Zelenskyy, his entourage, and hundreds of Kherson residents stood at attention as Ukraine’s national anthem played.

Zelenskyy said in his address that Ukrainian investigators had documented over 400 suspected war crimes by the Russian forces during their occupation of Kherson.

Because the Russians took Kherson without a fight at the beginning of the war, most of the city’s buildings remain intact, unlike other urban areas that have been reduced to ruins.

Russia’s persistent and pervasive attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have, at least temporarily, left millions of civilians without electricity, heat, water and other critical services in the bitter winter months.

In contrast to Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not spoken publicly about Kherson since the Russia troops abandoned the city without a fight.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian and Russian forces traded fire on Monday from across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River that now divides them after Russia’s retreat from the southern city of Kherson, reshaping the battlefield with a victory that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared marked “the beginning of the end of the war.”

The Dnipro has become the new front line in southern Ukraine, and officials there warned of continued danger from fighting in regions that have already endured months of Russian occupation.

Through the afternoon, artillery fire picked up in a southern district of the city near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro, stoking fears that the Russian Army would retaliate for the loss of the city with a bombardment from its new positions on the eastern bank.

Mortar shells struck near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. It was impossible to assess what had been hit.

The deaths underscored the threats still remaining on the ground, even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Kherson, a tangible sign of Ukraine’s soaring morale.

“We are, step by step, coming to all of our country,” Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the city’s main square on Monday, as hundreds of jubilant residents celebrated.

Ivan Putin, an angry citizen in Skadovsk, Russia: “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for homemade vodka, which is what they do in Oleshka,” said one resident via a secure messaging app. “Then they get drunk and even more aggressive. We are so scared here.” She asked that her surname be withheld for security.

“Russians roam around, identify the empty houses and settle there,” Ivan, 45, wrote in a text message. He asked that his name not be used out of fear for his safety in Skadovsk, which is south of Kherson city. It is our mission to connect with the owners and find someone to stay in their place. So that it isn’t abandoned and Russians don’t take it.

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

At the awards ceremony, Putin continued to list alleged aggressions: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? It is an act of genocide to not provide water to a million people.

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not commented on recent explosions, which are deep within Russia. The targets are beyond the country’s declared drones.

Shell blasts and power cuts in Chern-Simons-Kosov city: a low-income rural village in the shadow of blackouts

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. Nobody has spoken about it. At all! Complete silence,” he said.

The Russian authorities in the city reported that they have seen a lot of shelling this week.

The streets outside Vyacheslav Tarasov’s home on Ukraine’s eastern frontline are pocked by shell blasts. The buildings are mostly empty.

During the week, he shares the school with nearly 1,000 students. The school also serves as a shelter, providing heat, food and water for the community when extended blackouts hit.

Power cuts could last for up to 24 hours, he says. In this agricultural region, farm equipment and warehouses were destroyed. He estimates business activity is one-third of what it was.

Borodian Ka Banksy Power Cuts: A Tale of War in Ukraine’s Central Market and the Bust of the National Poet Taras Shevchenko

The majority of people coming are from the main street. Olha, a Ukrainian volunteer who is in charge of the temporary housing, tells me that some of them were destroyed and burned down.

During an interview the lights go out, leaving her in a dark hallway. She will wait to see if the power comes back. She will turn on the generator if it gets cold. She says it is like this every day.

In the center of town is a bust of Ukraine’s national poet, Taras Shevchenko. He championed Ukraine’s independence from Russia in the 19th century. He wrote, “It’s bad to die a slave while chained up.”

A British artist well-known for his street spray-paintings, Banksy surreptitiously painted on several badly scarred walls last month, later confirming it was his work on Instagram.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/10/1141536117/russia-war-ukraine-town-borodianka-banksy-power-cuts

The Russian sky defenders are still out of business: explosions in Sevastopol and at a Russian naval barracks in the Odesa region

One image shows a young boy tossing a man to the floor. They are wearing martial arts attire. The man is widely assumed to be Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a judo enthusiast.

“People are happy we’re getting this attention. “The paintings are on buildings that were damaged or destroyed.” “We’re planning to remove the paintings and put them somewhere else.”

There were also reports of explosions in Sevastopol, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet; at a Russian military barracks in Sovietske; and in Hvardiiske, Dzhankoi and Nyzhniohirskyi

The missile attack destroyed a recreation center where people were having dinner Saturday night, according to Yevgeny Balitsky, Russia’s acting governor.

Alexei Kulemzin, head of the Russian-backed city administration, said Ukraine launched 20 Grad missiles around 5:54 a.m. local time Sunday in the direction of the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts.

The unofficial Crimean media portal “Krymskyi veter” said an explosion at a Russian military barracks in Sovietske had set the barracks on fire and there were dead and wounded.

The air defense system worked over Simferopol, said Sergey Aksenov on Telegram. All services are working as usual.

1.5 million people in the Odesa region of Ukraine were left without power due to strikes by Iranian-made drones.

He said the damage from the Ukrainian sky defenders is critical and that it will take a few days to restore electricity in the region.

“In general, both emergency and stabilization power outages continue in various regions,” Zelensky said. “The power system is now, to put it mildly, very far from a normal state.”

The Great Shelling Incident in Kiev. The story of a desperate civilian killed by a Russian soldier in Kostiantynivka

Zelensky said, “This is the true attitude of Russia towards Odesa, towards Odesa residents, and it is a deliberate attempt to bring disaster to the city.”

Ukraine on Saturday received “a new support package from Norway in the amount of $100 million” that will be used “precisely for the restoration of our energy system after these Russian strikes,” Zelensky added.

Tarasov, 48, was sheltering from the shelling in his basement where he now has to live. He bought vegetables last week so he could cook the national dish, borscht.

His face pales as he relays the graphic images still fresh in his mind. I would have died if it wasn’t for the leather jacket. I lost a lot of blood, and my guts would have been all over the place. I remember seeing it — a huge puddle.”

A Christian, Tarasov believes that an invisible power saved his life. He is also grateful to the Ukrainian soldiers who threw him in their pickup truck and drove him to a hospital in Kostiantynivka — one of the few remaining hospitals able to treat the war’s civilian wounded.

Tarasov tried to get the doctors to save his limb. “The first thing I asked was if I could have my arm sewn back on. I saw that it was completely torn off and was just hanging in the sleeve. My stomach was burning. I figured it must be the intestines coming out. There was blood everywhere.”

The power sometimes goes out, but the chief doctor is still in his scrubs. Water doesn’t come regularly or by the hour. There was no water at the weekend because there was a catastrophic shelling incident.”

Doctors hear the sound of shelling around Bakhmut and are warned that another patient might lie on the operating table.

Is Ukraine Ready to Leave Ukraine? The Probable Case of Andrei Tarasov in Kiev’s Old Industrial Heartland

The local authorities have implored civilians to leave the region for months. But for Tarasov, as for so many in Ukraine’s old industrial heartland, fleeing his home for a safer area had seemed impossible.

Tarasov says that if he had more money, he would prefer to live abroad. “But I have no money and everything I had saved up was invested there. I had no money and nowhere to go.”

“They have set a goal to leave Ukrainians without light, water and heat,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting, adding that 60 of the 76 missiles fired at Ukraine were intercepted by its air defense forces.

Ukrainian energy operator Ukrenergo said on Friday that more than half of the country’s energy capacity had been lost due to Russian strikes.

There is a large attack on Ukraine by the enemy. Increased danger. Stay in shelters,” Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, asking residents not to ignore the alarm.

CNN teams in Kyiv reported hearing blasts Friday, as well as seeing and hearing missiles. The air defense systems were working in the Ukrainian capital.

The southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia was hit by more than a dozen strikes, but it was not known what had been targeted.

The Engels air base, which is home to Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, was targeted in a drone attack in early December, according to the Kremlin, slightly damaging two planes. They have not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ukraine’s military claims that a supersonic plane with a Kinzal hypersonic missile was seen in the sky over Belarus during air attacks on Friday in Ukraine. The statement didn’t say if a Kinzal was used in the attacks.

Last Monday, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, claimed that Russia had nearly exhausted its arsenal of high-precision weapons, but that it still had enough supplies to inflict harm. John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, agreed that Iran has not delivered a missile to Russia.

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot, the US’ most advanced ground-based air defense system, to Ukraine, according to two US officials and a senior administration official. The Ukrainian government has asked for the system to help it defend itself against Russian missile and drone attacks. It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for members of the North Atlantic Treaty and America (NATO) in eastern Europe.

He declined to announce any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but said that there “will be another one” and that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.

Moscow missile attacks in Kyiv on Saturday: Two bodies and two people injured in the collapse of an apartment block in Khyvyi Rih

The water supply to the capital has been restored. Half of Kyiv residents already have heating and we are working to restore it to all residents of the city,” the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram on Saturday.

In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, rescuers have pulled the body of an 18-month-old boy from the rubble of an apartment block which was destroyed by a Russian missile on Friday, Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said Saturday on Telegram.

The boy’s parents and a 64-year-old woman were also killed, according to local officials. 13 people, including four children, were injured.

The apartment block had over 100 people in it according to the head of the city military administration. They and other people who suffered damage in neighboring homes are being looked after in a temporary place.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubv, head of the regional military administration, said “critical infrastructure facilities” were hit in Chuhuiv district on Friday.

Sections of the Ukrainian railway system in Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk region were out of power following the missile strikes, and back-up diesel locomotives were replacing some services.

Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said that nine power-generating facitilites were damaged in Friday’s attacks, and warned of more emergency blackouts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just back from his quick trip to Washington, posted photos of the wreckage on his social media accounts. He noted the destruction came as Ukrainians were beginning Christmas celebrations that for many Orthodox Christians will culminate in the traditional celebration Jan. 7.

“This is not sensitive content — it’s the real life of Kherson,” Zelenskyy tweeted. The images showed cars on fire, bodies on the street and building windows blown out.

There were 71 Russian attacks across the Kherson region on Saturday and 16 people were killed, among them three state emergency workers who were killed in demining operations. He said that another 64 people had injuries of varying severity.

He stated that 18 of the 55 people wounded were in grave condition. Dozens of others, including a 6-year-old girl, were wounded by Russian shelling a day earlier.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia, Oleksander Starukh, said that the settlement of Stepne was hit by shelling but there were no casualties.

Zelensky’s Christmas message to Ukrainians: Peace, Faith, and Faith in the midst of a dark and cold world

In a Christmas message, Zelensky said that Ukrainians needed to have “patience and faith” because of the Russian strikes that hit Kherson.

He urged the nation to stand firm in the face of a grim winter of energy blackouts, the absence of loved ones and the ever-present threat of Russian attacks.

There may be empty chairs near it. And our houses and streets can’t be so bright. The Christmas bells can not ring as loudly or as inspiringly. Through air raid sirens, or even worse – gunshots and explosions.”

He said that Ukraine had been resisting evil forces for three hundred days and eight years, however, “in this battle, we have another powerful and effective weapon. The hammer and sword of our spirit and consciousness. The wisdom of God. Courage and bravery. They incline us to do good.

Addressing the Ukrainian people directly, he said the country would sing Christmas carols louder than the sound of a power generator and hear the voices and greetings of relatives “in our hearts” even if communication services and the internet are down.

“And even in total darkness – we will find each other – to hug each other tightly. And if there is no heat, we will give a big hug to warm each other.”

Zelensky concluded: “We will celebrate our holidays! As always. We will smile and be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.”

Ukraine has traditionally celebrated Christmas on January 7 in line with Orthodox Christian customs, which acknowledge the birth of Jesus according to the Julian calendar.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/25/europe/ukraine-zelensky-christmas-message-intl/index.html

The Kremlin, the Media and the State of the Lives in Dnipropetrovsk (Kosov)

He stated on Telegram Saturday that these are not military facilities. According to the rules, this is not a war. It is terror, it is killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure.”

Putin said in the interview he was prepared to negotiate some acceptable outcomes with all of the participants of the process.

The Kremlin has said in recent months that it’s not us who refuse talks, but them as the 10-month old invasion continued to lose steam.

The think tank cited Russian military bloggers, who it said have recently acknowledged “that Ukrainian forces in the Bakhmut area have managed to slightly slow down the pace of the Russian advance around Bakhmut and its surrounding settlements.”

The city of Nikopol in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region was hit by heavy shelling overnight. No injuries have been reported.