Moscow and Kiev: The response of the Russian army to the withdrawal of Vladimir Putin’s military installations from the Donetsk city of Lyman

At least 19 people were killed and 105 others were injured in Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Monday, according to preliminary data, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said Tuesday.

The strikes came just hours after Ukraine’s president announced that the country’s military had retaken three more villages in one of the regions illegally annexed by Russia.

Governor Starukh wrote on his Telegram channel that a 3-year-old girl was taken to a hospital for treatment after being rescued from the multi-story buildings.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed in violation of international laws on Wednesday, and is home to a nuclear plant that is under Russian occupation. The city is under the control of the Ukrainians.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to talk with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move. The director of the facility was kidnapped by Russians and the facility has been damaged in the fighting.

A group of more than 40 heads of state, as well as the leaders of several other countries, will meet in the Czech capital on Thursday to forge a new political community to bolster security and prosperity across Europe.

Peskov wouldn’t say which additional Ukrainian territories Moscow is interested in, and he wouldn’t say if the Kremlin had plans to organize more of the so-called “referendums” that the Ukrainian government and the West view as illegitimate.

Putin promised to defend Russia’s territory with his military’s disposal, even if it meant using nuclear weapons.

MOSCOW and KYIV — Ukrainian forces entered the southern city of Kherson after Russia confirmed it pulled its troops from the strategic city, in a likely major setback to President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The deputy head of the Ukrainian regional government, Yurii Sobolevskyi, said military hospitals were full of wounded Russian soldiers and that Russian military medics lacked supplies. Russian soldiers are going to be sent to the annexed state of Crimea when they are stabilized.

When Russian troops pulled back from the Donetsk city of Lyman over the weekend, they retreated so rapidly that they left behind the bodies of their comrades. Some were still lying by the side of the road leading into the city on Wednesday.

Ukrainian soldiers fought to regain control of it during the occupation. Mykola, a 71-year-old man who gave only his first name, was among about 100 residents who lined up for aid on Wednesday.

Violence and destruction in Ukraine, the Russian president Vladimir V. Zelenskyy’s “massive enemy” Violation of Ukraine’s War

“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.

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 Ukrainian military said Sunday the Russians were still conducting assaults in the Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlikvka areas, all in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Other areas like Kupyansk and Lyman are also getting hit by artillery, the AFU added.

The awards of the peace prize to rights activists in the countries of Russia, Belarus and Ukranian, implicit condemnation of Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his invasion ofUkraine, took place on a day when the barrage continued.

There were several blasts in the city at an early morning time. As of 9 a.m., Kyiv had been hit four times, authorities said. One of the strikes was close to the main train station in Kyiv, and it hit an adviser to the minister of internal affairs. People have been told to stay indoors.

Russian forces are attempting to cut off our nuclear and thermal power plants, in order to damage other key energy hubs. I urge the Ukrainians to be prepared for the fact that there won’t be a quick improvement in the situation with electricity.

Local media from the Kharkiv region in the east to the Lviv region in the west report outages and downed communications. Rescue efforts across Ukraine were slowed due to repeated volleys of explosives coming from the sky.

Zelenskyy took a video of himself posing for a picture with Russia’s invasion force in February. They chose targets that would harm as many people as possible.

A bus explosion rocked Dnipro: a pedestrian’s life caught by a missile in the early stages of the morning rush hour rush hour

Sections of the Ukrainian railway system in Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk region were out of power following the strikes, and back-up diesel locomotives were replacing some services. The energy minister said that the nine power-generating facilities were damaged in Friday’s attacks and warned of more emergencies.

Explosions rocked civilian areas of Dnipro, a major southern city. There is a bus stop near high rise apartment buildings. A missile slammed just a few feet in front of a bus on its morning route to pick up commuters, destroying the bus and blowing out the windows in the nearby apartments.

“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. He added that the bus driver and four passengers had been taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

“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.

81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko looked out from what once were the windows of his first floor balcony, just next to the bus stop. The ground was covered with shattered glass. He said he went to his kitchen to make breakfast just minutes before the explosion, although he had been watering the plants on his balcony.

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

On the decision of Surovikin to leave Russia after missile attacks on a railway system in the Kherson region of Chern-Simonsk

“We warned Zelenskyy that Russia hadn’t really started yet, because the Defense Ministry had failed,” wrote Ramzan Kadyrov, who is a loyalist to Putin.

More than 30 fires broke out in the capital and other areas, and the emergency services put out all of them.

Back-up diesel locomotives were being used to provide transportation following the missile strikes on the Ukrainian railway system.

“We urge the residents of the Kherson region to remain calm and to not panic. Stremousov said Russian troops won’t be leaving the Kherson region. This is not an order to leave, this is a chance to save lives.

It’s difficult to know precisely what is happening in the city because of the cut off of most communications. But those who recently left and others with loved ones still there paint a harrowing picture of a community living in fear of the Russian occupiers, while hoping the constant shelling that keeps them on edge also means Ukrainian forces are arriving.

Saldo claimed the cities of Kherson, which was annexed by Russia, were being hit by dangerous airstrikes.

All residents of the Kherson region were urged to leave if they wished to protect themselves from missile strikes.

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

The withdrawal in Moscow was criticized by some commentators as humiliation and an embarrassment. Others who had been critical of the Defense Ministry have now accepted the move. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Surovikin had saved a thousand soldiers and “made a difficult but right choice between senseless sacrifices for the sake of loud statements and saving the priceless lives of soldiers.”

The Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk are still fighting in the industrialized Donbas region, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Russian officials said on Sunday that the Ukrainians were behind a rocket attack on the Mayor’s office in the rebel held city of Donetsk, while the Ukrainians blamed Russian strikes on a town across from a nuclear power plant.

The key hotspots areneighboring towns. Soledar and Bakhmut, where extremely heavy fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday.

Those towns and Donetsk are in the industrialized Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since 2014. The Donetsk region is among four that were illegally annexed by Russia last month.

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.

Zelenskyy’s office said Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east Sunday, and that “active hostilities” continued in the southern Kherson region.

The rockets at Nikopol, across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, damaged power lines, gas pipelines, and a raft of civilian businesses and residential buildings, Ukrainian officials said. 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.

Two men from a former soviet republic were training at a military firing range and opened fire, killing 11 and wounding 15 before taking their own lives. The Russian Defense Ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.

The French government has pledged air-defense missiles and increased military training for Ukraine, in order to puncture the perception that they have been lagging in supporting it. 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 thinks that deporting Ukrainian citizens to Russia is a pretext for the creation of Russian-annexed areas.

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. It was reported by RIA Novosti on Friday that the original remarks were made by Russia’s deputy prime minister.

Russian authorities have admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas ofUkraine who they said were orphans, in a possible violation of an international treaty against genocide prevention.

The Ukrainian military claimed that the pro-Kremlin fighters broke international humanitarian law by evicting civilians from occupied territories to house officers in their homes. It said the evictions were happening in Rubizhne, in the eastern Luhansk region. It didn’t provide evidence for its claim.

According to posts on social media, a Russian commander wanted for his role in the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine is now at 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’s the most high-profile suspect in a Dutch murder trial, which is expected to end in November.

Moscow’s battlefield failures have been lashed out at in recent social media posts. A $100,000 reward will be offered by the Ukrainian defense intelligence agency if someone captures him.

Kamikaze Drone Attacks On The Kherson Front: Russia’s First Direct Detection of the Dnipro River

A wave of kamikaze drone attacks pummeled Kyiv early Monday, killing at least one person and setting off warning sirens across the Ukrainian capital as commuters headed to work.

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

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

“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.

Now that Ukrainian forces have recaptured Kherson as far as the Dnipro river, the two sides face each other across the river over a distance of some 250 kilometers – from the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the edge of the Black Sea.

In what appeared to be carefully staged remarks, Surovikin called the decision to withdraw to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River “difficult,” but one that would allow Russia to save the lives of military personnel and preserve Russia’s combat capability.

The goal of the operation is to maximize the safety of civilians and soldiers. That is our priority,” Surovikin said to the Zvezda channel, a state media outlet funded by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia may have left a contingent of soldiers behind disguised as civilians to engage the Ukrainians in street battles or stage sabotage operations.

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 have not been independently verified and their exact location on the front line could not be determined.

Russian forces have tripled the intensity of attacks on some parts of the front according to a statement posted by the commander of the Ukrainian military. He did not say what the time frame was or where the attacks were coming from.

It also claimed that the Ukrainian advance had been held back for several days, and that “manpower and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper are being hit by fire.”

The Institute for the Study of War found that the increase in the number of infantry in the east did not result in Russia gaining new ground.

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.

Ukraine laid the groundwork for its victory in Kherson back in the summer, with relentless long-distance attacks on Russian supply depots, railway hubs and bridges. It’s using the same tactic as before.

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.

With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently preparing for battle in Kherson, and conflicting signals over what may be coming, the remaining residents of the city have been stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat.

Kherson evacuees: The Russians fleeing to Zaporizhia, where Kherson lived and worked

“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.”

The house is outside of Kherson. He and his wife Nadiya raised their three daughters there. The Russians broke into the house after they left, according to 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 generally stays 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

Artyom, his wife and the street markets in Kherson. A city filled with people who aren’t afraid of Russians

But Artyom says it’s not fine. He counts his fingers as he lists off his various fears: He worries that the Russians will stop his wife. He thinks she’ll get sick. There is a woman four months’ pregnant. He is worried about the baby.

Holovnya, who is living in Kyiv, calls some of them collaborators. Some of them are people who just can’t leave. Many of them are older. Others have few resources. He says their lives are very busy right now.

Since the war began, most of the public interaction in the city has been around the local street markets. Most of the stores in Kherson are either closed or have empty shelves, so local farmers and bakers have been selling their produce 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. It’s terrible to watch. On one car they have medicine on the hood and meat on the side.

Side-by-Side is a nonprofit that is working to evacuate residents from Kherson and other occupied territory. Schevchenko remains in contact with those in the city. She says her grandma gives her regular updates.

Artyom and his wife talk whenever they can. They try to keep the conversations light and worry that Russians are listening in.

Yukawa’s Battle in Beryslav, the Russian Central Bank, and the Crimea Crisis “I Want to Live”: A View from Kherson City

Everyone we have spoken to is aware that there are tougher days to come: that the Russians across the river could shell them here. It is also unclear whether all Russian troops have left Kherson and the wider region. There is still uncertainty behind this euphoria.

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

There are mines around the water towers in Beryslav, which is 50 miles from Kherson city, and just north of the critical dam at the front of the fighting.

Some 250,000 people lived in the city before the war. Ukrainian activists estimate that 30,000 to 60,000 people remain, but it is impossible to know how accurate such guesses are.

Russia was poised to attack the city from new positions across the river, the Ukrainian military warned. A major bridge connecting the city of Kherson to the eastern bank was blown up in a massive explosion early Friday, residents said, severing the main transit route for Russian supplies coming in from Crimea and for Russians seeking to leave Kherson city.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence agency said it would guarantee the rights of any abandoned Russian soldiers who surrendered, under a program called “I Want to Live.”

“Your commanders ordered you to dress in civilian clothes and try to flee Kherson independently. Obviously, you won’t succeed,” the Ukrainian statement said.

On Friday evening, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a night-time video of celebrations in Kherson city, where a crowd was waving flags and chanting “ZSU,” the Ukrainian acronym for the armed forces.

Russian withdrawal of troops from the Dnipro River during a joint Russian-Ukraine military operation and its consequences for the survival of Kherson

The area’s only road crossing over the Dnipro was reported to have suffered heavy damage during the Russian withdrawal. Maxar Technologies released satellite images that appeared to show a portion of the bridge sheared off.

The Russian withdrawal was ordered on Wednesday during a choreographed meeting in Moscow between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Sergey Surovikin, the commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, which was shown on Russian state media.

Hours earlier, the Kremlin had released a statement saying that the withdrawal of their troops from the Dnipro River was complete and that they were still in the city.

The withdrawal is the most significant military moment since Ukrainian forces swept through the north of the country in September.

Even as the soldiers fled, the Kremlin still believed that Kherson was a part of Russia.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Russia still maintains a legal hold over the territory following the withdrawal. “Here there isn’t any reason to change,” Peskov said Friday.

BLAHODATNE, Ukraine — Ukraine’s troops swept into the key southern city of Kherson on Friday, its military said, greeted by jubilant residents waving Ukrainian flags after a major Russian retreat.

Recapturing control of Kherson would also bolster the Ukrainian government’s argument that it should press on militarily while it has Russian forces on the run, and not return to the bargaining table, as 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.

Ukraine’s Last Night amidst the Russian Occupation: Voitsehovsky, Serhiy, and the rest of the city

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. When we looked at dozens of villages with our drones, there wasn’t a single car. 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 in the city who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, sent a series of text messages to other people that said conditions in the city had deteriorated overnight.

He wrote that it was not possible to call the fire department at night because the building burned in the center. “There was no phone signal, no electricity, no heating and no water.”

The Dnieper River is a minefield: Russia’s military deploys troops in Mykolaiv Region of Ukraine

The Russian military is putting up houses they seized and schools. In November Federov stated that military equipment was located in residential areas.

“You can see that the Ukrainians have moved to that river bank, they are now controlling that area, they will have to mop up some remaining Russian forces that did not make it out of the west bank of the Dnipro River. But those that are there will probably either surrender or in essence be eliminated from the fight.”

“Not a single piece of military equipment or weaponry was left behind on the right [west] bank,” the statement added. All Russian servicemen are on the left bank of the Dnieper.

According to the Ukrainian government there was no incoming fire from the east bank on Friday but there was a missile attack on the city of Mykolaiv that killed seven people.

Earlier Friday, the Ukrainian military’s southern operational command said Russian forces had been “urgently loading into boats that seem suitable for crossing and trying to escape” across the river.

A video circulating on social media on Friday, geolocated and authenticated by CNN, showed Ukrainian forces being greeted by residents on the main highway in Tyahinka. Nova Kakhovka lies just west of the hydroelectric dam and bridges that run across the Dnieper river.

An official in southern Ukraine warned residents Friday that they should be careful when moving back to their homes because of the danger of mines, even as officials in the Ukrainian capital warned that Russian troops could turn the regional capital of Kherson into a death trap.

“There are a lot of mines in the liberated territories and settlements,” Vitaliy Kim, head of Mykolaiv region military administration, said on Telegram. “Don’t go there for no reason. There are casualties.

The Russian Revolutionary War in Kherson During the September 29 Siege: State of the State and Prospects for the Reconstruction and Recovery of Human Rights

This is a topic of the Russian Federation according to the spokesman for the president. “It has been legally fixed and defined. There can be no changes here.”

It was a difficult time for everyone. Every Ukrainian family waited for our soldiers, for our army,” a Kherson resident told CNN on Saturday, recalling Russia’s months-long occupation.

The level of suffering hasn’t come into focus. Residents have told stories of friends being taken, children being illegally deported, relatives being tortured and killed. When Russian have pulled out elsewhere in Ukraine, evidence of human rights abuses has eventually surfaced.

Videos shared on social media by Zelenskyy and other officials and citizens showed crowds in the street celebrating and chanting “ZSU! The word ZSU means “Ukrainian” in the language of the country’s armed forces.

Ukraine’s recapture of the key southern city marked a major setback for Russia, just six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally declared the broader Kherson region and three other territories were being incorporated into the Russian Federation.

Russian troops are only a short way from the city, having retreated on the west bank of the Dnipro River to the east side. The two armies are in close proximity of each other.

Surovikin said that the withdrawal would protect the lives of civilians and troops – who have faced a punishing Ukrainian counteroffensive that targeted Russian ammunition depots and command posts, hampering their supply lines.

The Ukrainian military’s fresh success, on the heels of a lightning fast advance across much of Kharkiv in September, will help reinforce international support for Ukraine’s war effort, even as US officials are urging Zelensky to soften his rhetoric on negotiations, if not his core demands.

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.

Maxar Technologies satellite images and other photos show that at least seven bridges have been destroyed in the last 24 hours.

New damage has also appeared on a critical dam that spans the Dnipro in the Kherson region city of Nova Kakhovka, on the east bank of the river. Both sides accuse the other of planning to destroy the dam and deprive the nuclear plant of water to cool its reactor in order to cause flooding on the east bank.

The events in Kherson show that the Ukrainians have superior battlefield intelligence and tactical agility that seems different to the Russian model of war.

Locals and others have been climbing onto the top of the buildings to put up Ukrainian flags. Soldiers are welcomed with a loud cheer and asked to sign autographs.

“We were terrified by [the] Russian army, we were terrified by soldiers that can come any moment in our house, in our home – just open the door, like they are living here, and steal, kidnap, torture,” Olga said.

Katerina described the liberation as the “best day” of her life after eight months under Russian occupation. She told CNN that her street is free.

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

The team of CNN journalists were forced to travel through fields and bridges that had been damaged by anti-tank mines, during their journey through smaller towns.

The outskirts of the city, which had been occupied by Russian forces since March 3, were deserted, with no military presence except for a Ukrainian checkpoint around 5 miles outside of the city center, where half a dozen soldiers waved CNN’s crew in.

The city’s residents have no water, no internet connection and little power. The mood was great when the CNN crew arrived in the city center on Saturday.

The military presence is still limited, but huge cheers erupt from crowds on the street every time a truck full of soldiers drives past, with Ukrainian soldiers being offered soup, bread, flowers, hugs and kisses by elated passersby.

As CNN was about to stop, we saw an old man and a woman hug a young soldier with their hands on his shoulders and give him a big thank you.

With the occupiers gone, everyone wants you to understand what they’ve been through, how euphoric they feel right now, and how much they’re grateful to the countries who have helped them.

Residents of the newly liberated city of Kherson are almost without water and face shortages of bread and medicines, officials warned as they continued their efforts to remove mines and restore critical infrastructure.

Russian forces are around the Dnipro River, which is close to the city, and authorities are warning residents of the dangers of explosives in the area.

“Kherson is now a front line city,” he said. You could hear the Russian forces coming under fire in the early morning.

There are mines that are dangerous. Four people, including an 11-year-old, were killed when a family driving in the village of Novoraysk, outside the city, ran over a mine, Mr. Yanushevich said. Six railway workers were injured as they tried to repair damaged lines. Ukrainian officials said in statements that at least four more children were injured by mines.

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. He urged Kherson residents “to be careful and not try to independently check any buildings and objects left by the 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.

Revisiting the Battleground of Kherson: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Celebrates Victory of the First Ukrainian War

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.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN on Friday showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam, where a major hydroelectric project is situated.

Russian troops are focusing their efforts in the Kherson region on equipping their defensive lines on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, an operational update from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) General Staff said Sunday night.

KHERSON, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit Monday to the key southern city of Kherson to celebrate its liberation from eight months of Russian occupation.

This time he appeared openly in front of the city’s main government building, in a military-style jacket and clothing, surrounded by heavily armed security. He spoke and waved to residents as Ukraine marks one of its biggest victories of the war.

Zelenskyy, his team, and hundreds of Kherson residents watched as the blue-and-gold Ukrainian flag fluttered.

In his televised address on Sunday night, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian investigators had documented more than 400 cases of suspected war crimes by the Russian forces.

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.

The city is lacking electricity and heat, and is also in dire need of food, water and medicine. Ukrainian military and government officials are trying to restore a sense of normality in a city that had close to 300,000 residents before the war.

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.

The southern district of the city, which was near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro, was the place where the Russian Army would retaliate against the loss of the city with a bombardment from the eastern bank.

There were puffs of smoke from the mortar shells that hit near the bridge. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. There wasn’t an opportunity to assess what had been hit.

Even as Mr. Zelensky visited Kherson, the deaths underscored the threats that remain on the ground.

Hundreds of residents celebrated in the city’s main square when Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the city that he was going to come to all of the country.

A Crime Scene Scene Report on a Crime Scene in Skadovsk, a Cambodian Town Crossroads From Kherson City

One resident, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City, said that residents were robbed and exchange items for homemade vodka when they lived in the city. They get drunk and aggressive. We are so scared here.” She wanted to be kept from knowing her name 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 because of concern for his safety, he lives in Skadovsk which is south of Kherson city. They try to connect with owners and arrange for someone local to stay in their place. So that it is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.”

The G-20 summit continues in Indonesia and the war in Russia looms large. On Monday, President Biden talked to the Chinese leader about some issues. Biden is due to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday.

The U.N. Ambassador traveled to Ukranian to discuss world hunger and the need for the grain deal to be renewed. Karen Donfried, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, had gone to Ukraine the week before.

Climate conference coverage of the U.N. Climate Conference on Climate Change and Nuclear Energy Policy: NPR’s coverage of Simferopol attack on Sunday night

American basketball star Brittney Griner was moved to a Russian penal colony to begin serving out her nine-year sentence on drug smuggling charges Nov. 9.

The U.N. Climate conference dealt with the war in Ukranian. The war has caused ecocide and experts pointed out that the war is driving a new push for fossil fuels.

You can read past recaps here. More of NPR’s coverage can be found here. Also listen to NPR’s State of Ukraine radio show for updates on the state of the country.

There were reports of several blasts in the city of Simferopol on Saturday night and social media footage of the attack on Melitopol.

Yevgeny Balitsky, Russia’s acting governor of Zaporizhzhia, said the missile attack on Melitopol had “completely destroyed” a recreation center where “people, civilians, and [military] base personnel were having dinner on Saturday night.”

A Russian-backed city administration official said that a group of Grad missiles were fired by the Ukrainians. Sunday is local time in the direction of the Kalininsky and Voroshilovsky districts.

Kyiv’s air defense system was bombed in November 2001 by Russian drone attacks on the Soviet underground barracks, a protest against Kiev’s military intervention

There were dead and wounded in a Russian military barracks in Sovietske after an explosion, according to the unofficial media portal ‘Krymskyi veter’.

Sergey Aksenov, the Russian-appointed head of Crimea, said on Telegram: “The air defense system worked over Simferopol. All services are still working.

Reports have it that 1.5 million people in the region of Odesa have been left without power, following strikes by Iranian-made drones.

He said “Ukrainian sky defenders” had shot down 10 of the 15 drones, but the damage was still “critical” and he suggested it will take a few days to restore electricity supply in the region.

“This is the true attitude of Russia towards Odesa, towards Odesa residents – deliberate bullying, deliberate attempt to bring disaster to the city,” Zelensky added.

International organizations and countries pledged more than a billion dollars to help repair Ukraine’s infrastructure. The Pentagon announced last week that an additional $275 million in security assistance had been approved and would help Ukraine bolster its air defense. The US announced a $53 million package in November to repair the power system in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said that the enemy wanted to limit air defense to a certain extent. The air defense forces ofUkraine shot down 60 missiles, according to the military chief, Valeriy Zaluzhny.

Two-thirds of Kyiv residents now have power supply. The schedules of emergency power Outages are still applied. Because the shortage of electricity is significant. Power engineers ask to continue to save electricity,” Klitschko added.

The enemy is attacking Ukraine a lot. 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.

The mayor of the city said that there were explosions and three districts were struck by rockets, disrupting water supplies across the capital. He suggested residents prepare a stock of drinking water while technicians work to restore the supply, and not to leave shelters as attacks continued.

Residents in winter coats, hats and scarves gathered in underground stations as the sirens wailed. Huddled on escalators, their faces were lit by their phones as they scrolled through updates.

One photo was shared by the authorities in the Kyiv region which showed the fragments of a missile in the snow, which they said had fallen on the air defense system. Kyiv city’s military administration claimed that 37 of 40 missiles targeted at the capital were intercepted.

According to Oleksandr Starukh, chief of the regional military administration, the southeastern region was hit with more than a dozen missile strikes.

An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. But it was not clear from their statement whether a Kinzal was used in the attacks.

The head of Ukrainian Military Intelligence said last Monday that Russia still has enough weapons to harm it, even though it had nearly exhausted its arsenal. He added that Iran has not delivered any ballistic missile to Russia – analysis echoed by John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council (NSC).

Two US officials and a senior administration official say the Biden administration is preparing to deploy the US’ most advanced ground-based air defense system to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has been requesting the system to help defend against Russian missiles and drones. 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 wouldn’t give any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but he said that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.

The destruction of an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih by a missile attack on Dec. 7: The boy’s parents, an 18-month-old girl, and a woman in a Ukrainian township

Water supply and metro services have been restored in Kyiv but officials continued to work Saturday to return heating to all the Ukrainian capital’s residents, a day after a barrage of Russian missiles targeted the city.

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. Another 13 people, including four children, were injured, Reznichenko said.

More than 100 people lived in the apartment block that was struck, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih city military administration. They and residents of neighboring homes which also suffered damage are being looked after in a temporary accommodation, he said Friday.

Oleh Synie Hubv is the head of the military administration in northeastern Kharkiv and he said that “critical infrastructure facilities” were hit on Friday.

The energy minister said that nine power-generating facilities have been damaged in Friday’s attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just back from his quick trip to Washington, posted photos of the wreckage on his social media accounts. As Ukrainians were beginning their Christmas celebrations, the destruction came as Orthodox Christians were getting ready to celebrate Jan. 7.

“This is not sensitive content — it’s the real life of Kherson,” Zelenskyy tweeted. Cars on fire, bodies on the street, and building windows blowing out are some of the images shown.

The governor of the Kherson region said that the death toll in the shelling of the city has gone up from seven to 10.

He said more than 50 people were wounded and 18 of them were in grave condition. There were scores of people who were wounded by Russian shelling, including a 6-year-old girl.

Stepne, a settlement on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, was also hit by shelling but there were no details on casualties, according to the governor, Oleksander Starukh,