The invasion of Lyman by Ukraine and the emergence of a colossal group in the encirclement of the Ukrainian Donbas

The group of Russians are surrounded by the surrounding area. The settlements of Yampil, Novoselivka, Shandryholove, Drobysheve, and Stavky are liberated. There are stabilization measures in progress, Cherevatyi said during the press conference.

“In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines,” the ministry said on Telegram, using the Russian name for the town of Lyman.

Russian state media Russia-24 reported that the reason for Russia’s withdrawal was because “the enemy used both Western-made artillery and intelligence from North Atlantic alliance countries.”

Russia’s announcement comes just hours after Ukrainian forces said they had encircled Russian troops in the city, which is located in the Kramatorsk district of Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces said earlier Saturday that they had entered Stavky, a village neighboring Lyman, according to Serhii Cherevatyi, the military spokesperson for the eastern grouping of Ukrainian forces.

The liberation of Lyman is an important step in the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas. This is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Severodonetsk. It is psychologically important, that’s what he said.

The head of Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Hayday also revealed Saturday further details of the Lyman offensive, suggesting Russian forces had offered to retreat, but to no avail from the Ukrainian side.

“Occupiers asked [their command] for possibility to retreat, and they have been refused. They have a couple of options. No, they actually have three options. Hayday said that everyone will die if you try to break through.

“There are several thousand of them. About 5,000 is correct. There is no exact number yet. Five thousand is still a colossal grouping. There has never been such a large group in the encirclement before. All routes for the supply of ammunition or the retreat of the group are all completely blocked,” he added.

Yurii Mysiagin, Ukrainian member of Parliament and deputy head of the parliament’s committee on national security, referenced the move into Stavky on Saturday by publishing a video on Telegram showing a Ukrainian tank moving up the road with a clear sign indicating the region of Stavky. CNN could not independently verify the original source.

A video posted on social media, and shared by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, shows two Ukrainian soldiers standing on a military vehicle attaching the flag with tape to a large sign with the word “Lyman.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the director-general of the Zaporizhia nuclear power facility, and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog

According to Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen republic, it is time for the Russians to use every weapon in their arsenal.

In his opinion, we need to use nuclear weapons and put in place martial law in the border territories. “There is no need to make every decision with the Western American community in mind.”

Earlier this week, Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia’s President between 2008 and 2012, discussed nuclear weapons use on his Telegram channel, saying it was permitted if the existence of the Russian state was threatened by an attack even by conventional forces.

The announcement was dismissed as illegal by the United States and many other countries, but the fear is the Kremlin might argue that attacks on those territories now constitute attacks on Russia.

In his speech in the Kremlin, the Russian leader made only passing reference to nuclear weapons, noting the United States was the only country to have used them on the battlefield.

Russia did not make any comments about the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Russia told it that “the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to answer questions.”

The Director-General was put in a car and blindfolded and taken away in an unknown direction. For the time being there is no information on his fate,” Energoatom’s Petro Kotin said in a statement.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog is expected to visit Kyiv this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia facility, after Putin signed a decree that Russia was taking over. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine considered Putin’s decree to be null and void. The state nuclear operator said it would continue to operate the plant.

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency was urged to take all possible immediate actions to free him.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly” condemned Murashov’s “illegal detention,” calling it a “another manifestation of state terrorism from the side of Russia and a gross violation of international law.”

“We call on the international community, in particular the UN, the IAEA and the G7, to also take decisive measures to this end,” the ministry said in a statement.

There was an attack this week on a convoy trying to escape from the Kupiansk district in the Kharkiv region which resulted in the deaths of 24 civilians. He said that it can’t be justified. He said 13 children and a pregnant woman were among the dead.

In a Telegram post, it said that cars were shot by the Russian army when civilians were trying to leave.

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. The announcement came about a few hours after the leader of the Moscow-supported administration in Kherson requested help from the Kremlin in moving their residents out of harms way.

The Kherson and Zaporizhia attacks in Ukraine: A return to life after a series of backreactions by Putin

Monday’s attacks, and further strikes throughout the week, were evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin lashing out after a series of setbacks in the war that have put him under pressure domestically.

The city of Kherson was swept into by the forces of Ukraine on Friday, according to the military.

Writing on Telegram, Kadyrov personally blamed Colonel-General Aleksandr Lapin, the commander of Russia’s Central Military District, for the debacle, accusing him of moving his headquarters away from his subordinates and failing to adequately provide for his troops.

The governor of the city of Sevastopol announced an emergency situation at an airfield. Explosions and huge billows of smoke could be seen from a distance by beachgoers in the Russian-held resort. Authorities said a plane rolled off the runway at the Belbek airfield and ammunition that was reportedly on board caught fire.

The large-scale Russian bombardment struck several cities – including far reaches of western Ukraine close to NATO’s eastern flank – across the country almost simultaneously, propelling the conflict into a new phase and coming just as much of the country was starting to roar back to life.

Recent fighting has focused on the regions just north of Crimea, including Zaporizhzhia. In a Telegram post, Zelenskyy lamented the latest attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine, the secret police force known by the acronym SBU, posted photographs of the attacked convoy. There was burned corpses in the truck’s bed after it was blown up. Another vehicle at the front of the convoy also had been ablaze. Bodies lay on the side of the road or still inside vehicles, which appeared pockmarked with bullet holes.

The governor of the mostly Russian-occupied region said that at least five people were trapped in the city after Russian rockets slammed into residential buildings.

Infrastructure facilities in Ukranian are being repaired. Most power plants are now supplying energy to the national grid after they were temporarily shut down in late November, according to Ukrenergo, the state-run energy operator.

The region of Zaporizhzhia also was illegally annexed by Russia last month, despite the fact that some 20% of it remains under Ukrainian military control.

The debacle in Lyman, Ukraine, as seen by Biden, president Putin and European leaders meet in Prague on Thursday for a “European Political Community”

In Washington, President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday that provides another infusion — more than $12.3 billion — in military and economic aid linked to the war Ukraine.

Two days after President Putin held a grandiose ceremony to celebrate the annexation of fourUkrainian territories into Russia, the debacle in the city of Lyman heightened pressure on the Russian leadership.

In an unusually candid article published Sunday, the prominent Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that in the last few days of their occupation, Russian forces in Lyman had been plagued by desertion, poor planning and the delayed arrival of reserves.

Hours after the president announced that the military had taken back three more villages in one of the regions illegally annexed by Russia the strikes took place.

Governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on his Telegram channel that many people were rescued from the multi-story buildings, including a 3-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital for treatment.

One of the areas annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin is Zaporizhzhia, a nuclear plant that is under Russian occupation. The city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.

The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency plans to speak with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move. He will talk about the efforts to set up a secure protection zone, which has been damaged by the fighting, and the staff being kidnapped by Russian troops.

Meanwhile, leaders from more than 40 countries are meeting in Prague on Thursday to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and prosperity across the continent, a day after the Kremlin held the door open for further land grabs in Ukraine.

The Kremlin says Crimea is “a Russian Territory” and the “Chirchenko’s End” is “A Complete Disaster”

“This is a Russian region,” Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters on Friday. It has been defined and fixed. There can be no changes here.”

The precise borders of the areas Moscow is claiming remain unclear, but Putin has vowed to defend Russia’s territory — including the annexed regions — with any means at his military’s disposal, including nuclear weapons.

The move puts Kyiv on the cusp of achieving one of its most significant victories of the war and deals a bitter blow to President Vladimir V. Putin, who just a month ago declared the Kherson region a part of Russia forever.

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. Once they are stabilized, Russian soldiers are being sent to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

During the occupation and as Ukrainian soldiers battled to regain control, Lyman sustained heavy damage. A 71-year-old man named Mykola was among about 100 residents who lined up for aid on Wednesday.

He said they wanted the war to come to an end so hospitals, shops, and pharmacy would work as they used to. “Now we don’t have anything yet. Everything is pillaged, destroyed and a complete disaster.

The Russian city of Valuyki has lost the war. The enigmatic Zelenskyy in Moscow has lost it, and the ministry of defense is under control

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.

“Our Russian city of Valuyki… is under constant fire,” he said. “We learn about this from all sorts of folks, from governors, Telegram channels, our war correspondents. But no one else. The reports from the ministry of defense are still the same. They say they killed off several Nazis and destroyed 300 rockets. People know. Our people are smart. They do not want the truth to be known. This can result in a loss of credibility.

A member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, a former colonel-General in the Russian military, said that they need to stop lying. “We brought this up many times before … It seems that it isn’t getting through to individual senior figures.

The Ministry of Defense was not telling the truth aboutUkrainian cross-border strikes in Russia, as complained by Kartapolov.

Valuyki is in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine. When it comes to strike Russian targets across the border, Kyiv has generally adopted a neither-confirm-nor-deny stance.

Stremousov did not claim that the entire Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was a shadow because of traitors or incompetent commanders. “Indeed, many say that the Minister of Defense [Sergei Shoigu], who allowed this situation to happen, could, as an officer, shoot himself. The word officer is an unfamiliar word for a lot of people.

Kadyrov was a lot more forthcoming when it came to blaming Russians after the retreat from the Ukrainian city of Lyman.

The Russian information space has deviated from the narratives preferred by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense that things are under control, according to a recent analysis.

The Great Patriotic War, known in Russia as the World War II, is one of the central features of Putinism. And those in Russia’s party of war often speak admiringly of the brutal tactics employed by the Red Army to fight Hitler’s Wehrmacht, including the use of punishment battalions – sending soldiers accused of desertion, cowardice or wavering against German positions as cannon fodder – and the use of summary execution to halt unauthorized retreats.

Kadyrov – who recently announced that he had been promoted by Putin to the rank of colonel general – has been one of the most prominent voices arguing for the draconian methods of the past. He recently said in another Telegram post that, if he had his way, he would give the government extraordinary wartime powers in Russia.

Violence against Russia and Ukraine: After the Kerch bridge explosion, Russia apologized to the Kremlin and threatened to intervene in a rescue effort

The day after the award of the peace prize to human rights activists in Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine it was obvious that the criticism was not only directed towards Russia but also towards Putin.

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. The pre-occupation Ukrainian staff runs it.

Crews restored power and cellular connection in Enerhodar, the city near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is currently under Russian control, a senior official said Sunday.

“Water supply will be restored in the near future,” Rogov, a pro-Russian leader in the regional Zaporizhzhia government, wrote in a telegram post Sunday

The Ukrainian authorities have tried many times to deliver humanitarian aid to the city, but have been unable to because of the Russian military presence, Orlov said.

Some background: The reference to the bridge pertains to an explosion that took place on the Kerch bridge — which connects Crimea to Russia — on Oct. 8, when a truck crossing it exploded and caused it to be partially destroyed. The Ukrainians have never claimed to have had any responsibility, but the Kremlin pointed fingers at them. In the days following the bridge explosion, Putin said “further acts of terrorism on the territory of Russia will be harsh … have no doubt about that.” Last week, Putin appeared on the bridge while he was shown repairs, and then he drove a car across it.

In the most extensive attack on the country since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February there were multiple detonations in several cities. The attacks came only hours after Russia blamed Ukraine for a weekend explosion that partially damaged a strategic bridge that connects Russian-occupied Crimea to mainland Russia.

A bridge explosion in the Dnipro neighborhood: The perpetrators are lying and their loyalists are demoralized, a frustrated politician tells them

“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.

Dnipro is a major city with civilian areas. A bus stop is nestled between high rise apartment buildings. A missile slammed just a few feet in front of a bus, blowing out the windows and disrupting the morning commute for thousands of commuters.

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 as the building was shook by the explosion. Lazunko wept as the couple surveyed the damage to their home of nearly five decades.

Three volunteers dug a grave for a dog that was killed in the strike and its leg was destroyed, 3 kilometers away in a neighborhood ravaged by a missile.

Russian political analyst and former speechwriter for Putin Abbas Gallyamov, said the Russian president had not responded forcefully enough to appease angry war hawks when he formed a committee to investigate the bridge explosion. The attack and response, he said, has “inspired the opposition, while the loyalists are demoralized.”

“Because they see that the authorities are lying and it demoralizes them when they say everything is going according to plan,” he said.

Violation of the Ukraine’s nuclear power system and its infrastructure in the Donetsk People’s Republic triggered by a Russian missile attack on Sunday

It seems that dictators like to hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects. The Kerch bridge, Europe’s longest, was open to the public by a truck driven by Putin. 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.

The first 20 bodies were exhumed from a mass grave in the Ukrainian city of Lyman, which was recently recovered after being occupied by Russia. Initial indications are that around 200 civilians are buried in one location, and that another grave contains the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. Police said that people were buried in single graves, while the military was buried in a 40-meter trench.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant lost its last external power source early on Saturday after being hit by shelling, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

Russian officials said Sunday that Ukrainian missiles had hit several apartment buildings, a hospital and a ballet theater in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Ukrainian energy operators are used to repairing electricity substations and pylons. Zelensky said Tuesday: “Most of the towns and villages, which terrorists wanted to leave without electricity and communication, already have electricity and communication back.”

China and India want to see the situation in Ukraine calm down. India urged a cessation of hostilities and return to the path of dialogue in a statement that said it is “deeply concerned” by the escalate of the conflict. The attack was condemned by other European leaders.

The assault left a mark on the infrastructure of the cities in the country and killed many people. They were “an indication of the nature of the threat from Russia,” Giles said. “For many months now, the Russian objective has been to destroy Ukraine rather than possess it.”

“When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russian terror – missile strikes – will cease to work.”

The explosions that occurred on Monday were far away from the battles in the northeast, east and south of the country, where a powerful Ukrainian counter-offensive has pushed Russian troops back in recent weeks.

The subway system in the city was shut down for several hours on Monday. The air raid alert was lifted when rescue workers were able to get to people trapped in the rubble.

Ukrainian attacks on the Crimea bridge: “the enemy can attack us, but we will not break them” Prime Minister Putin told the Security Council on Monday

The Prime Minister said that 11 infrastructure facilities in eight regions had been damaged.

Putin held an operational meeting of his Security Council on Monday, a day after he called the explosions on the Crimea bridge a “terrorist attack” and said the organizers and executors were “Ukrainian special services.”

Sergey Aksyanov, the Russian head of annexed Crimea, claimed on Monday that Russia’s approach to its military operation in Ukraine has changed.

“I have been saying from the first day of the special military operation that if such actions to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure had been taken every day, we would have finished everything in May and the Kyiv regime would have been defeated,” he added.

The enemy can attack our cities, but they won’t break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine’s Western allies doubled down on their support for Kyiv following the strikes, with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell Fontelles tweeting that “additional military support from the EU is on its way.”

“Again, Putin is massively terrorizing innocent civilians in Kyiv and other cities,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. The Netherlands condemns the acts. Putin doesn’t seem to understand that the will of the Ukrainian people is not negotiable.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the attacks were unacceptable, and that civilians are paying the highest price.

Artillery work in Kiev and Dnipro killed in the weekend of December 24-24, Ukraine’s National Railway and Donetsk

The office of the German Chancellor confirmed to CNN that the G7 group of nations would hold an emergency teleconference on Tuesday and Zelensky said that he would give an address to that meeting.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need for more “massive” strikes for now. A number of Russians were killed in a weekend of attacks in the eastern region of Donetsk, the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A nearby strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal, delaying trains during this morning’s rush hour, according to Ukraine’s National Railway.

“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 stated that the bus driver and four passengers had been hospitalized 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.

Viktor Shevchenko: “Between Putin and Zelenskyy, Russia is using the old styles of cluster munitions against Ukraine”

81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko looked out from what once were the windows of his first floor balcony, just next to the bus stop. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He went to his kitchen to make breakfast after he had watered the plants on his balcony.

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

“Russia is extensively using the old styles, the most barbaric styles, of cluster munitions against Ukraine,” Goncharenko added. “Personally, I was a victim of this. I was under fire. We have the right to use it against them.

“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.

Ukranian response to an air attack on a historic bridge: “Glory to Ukraine!” tweeted the Mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Kerch Square,

Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst. He was a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion.

Even amid irrepressible jubilation here in Ukraine in the aftermath of a massive explosion that hit the hugely strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend, fears of retaliation by the Kremlin were never far away.

There was a video on social media showing hits near the Taras Shevenko National University and just a short walk from the Presidential Office Building. Five people were killed as a result of strikes on the capital, according to Ukrainian officials.

There were reports of missiles and drones being shot down as air raid sirens wailed in the area around my office in Odesa. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).

People on the sidewalks shouted “Glory to Ukraine!” while cars in the city center buzzed their horns. A crowd reached out to touch the soldiers as they drove past in one of the pictures.

Businesses in the Ukranian areas have been asked to shift work online as much as possible and millions of people have been told to spend most of the day in bomb shelters.

The attacks risk causing more damage to business confidence since many of the asylum seekers have returned to their home countries.

The only bridge connecting mainland Russia and Crimea is of significance to Putin. It’s possible that the attack on his 70th birthday can be seen as an added blow to an aging autocrat, who knows how to survive humiliation.

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many shared their joy through text messages.

The Ukraine Emergency Service was struck by 60 Russian missiles during a week-long security mission in the aftermath of the Ukrainian War on July 17, 2015

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.

What’s important is that Washington and other allies should use urgent telephone diplomacy to try to persuade China and India to not use more deadly weapons.

It is necessary to protect the energy infrastructure around the country with high tech defense systems. There is an urgent need for protection of heating systems.

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

Anything less than these measures would allow Putin to go on with his violence, and will make it more likely that a humanitarian crisis will happen in Europe. A weak reaction will be taken as a sign in the Kremlin that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.

The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said Tuesday that 19 people were dead and 105 others were injured in Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Monday.

Critical and civil infrastructure was hit in 12 regions and the capital, where more than 30 fires broke out, the emergency services said, adding the blazes have been put out.

Russian missiles damaged a glass-bottomed footbridge in Kyiv that is a popular tourist site, tore into intersections at rush hour and crashed down near a children’s playground on Monday. Power outages rolled across the country, in places cutting off water supplies and transport, in strikes that recalled the terror inflicted on civilians in the invasion’s early days but that had largely ebbed in recent months.

The attacks snatched away the semblance of normality that city dwellers, who spent months earlier in the war in subways turned into air raid shelters, have managed to restore to their lives and raised fears of new strikes.

The Russian attack on Monday night in Kiev: threatening to wipe out Russia and the rest of the world with advanced weapons and a campaign to destroy civilians

Above all, Putin still does not appear to have learned that revenge is not an appropriate way to act on or off the battlefield and in the final analysis is most likely to isolate and weaken Russia, perhaps irreversibly.

But the targets on Monday also had little military value and, if anything, served to reflect Putin’s need to find new targets because of his inability to inflict defeats on Ukraine on the battlefield.

The bombing of power installations on Monday appeared to be an indication that the Russian President could cause a lot of misery in winter as he retreats in face of Ukrainian troops using Western arms.

President Joe Biden Monday spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and offered advanced air systems that would help defend against Russian air attacks, but the White House did not specify exactly what might be sent.

John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, suggested Washington was looking favorably on Ukraine’s requests and was in touch with the government in Kyiv almost every day. “We do the best we can in subsequent packages to meet those needs,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

Kirby was unable to say whether the strategy of Putin was being changed from a battlefield war to a campaign to destroy the infrastructure and people of Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, or if it had already begun.

It would have been something they had been planning for a long time. Kirby said that it wasn’t a good idea to say that the explosion on the bridge accelerated some of their planning.

An onslaught on civilians would be consistent with the resume of the new Russian general in charge of the war, Sergey Surovikin, who served in Syria and Chechnya. In both places, Russia indiscriminately bombarded civilian areas and razed built-up districts and infrastructure and is accused of committing serious human rights violations.

The rush-hour attacks in Ukraine could lead to another pivot in the conflict, which was raised by the French President.

Retired Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, former director for European Affairs on the National Security Council, said that by attacking targets designed to hurt Ukrainian morale and energy infrastructure, Putin was sending a message about how he will prosecute the war in the coming months.

If we had modern equipment, we could probably increase the number of drones downed and not kill innocent civilians or injured Ukrainians.

Everything Putin has done to undermine a nation he does not believe in has strengthened and unified it.

Olena Gnes, who is a mother of three and is documenting the war on YouTube, was angry about the return of fear and violence to the lives of her people from a new round of Russian terror.

“This is just another terror to provoke maybe panic, to scare you guys in other countries or to show to his own people that he is still a bloody tyrant, he is still powerful and look what fireworks we can arrange,” she said.

“We do not feel desperate … we are more sure even than before that Ukraine will win and we need it as fast as possible because … only after we win in this war and only after Russia is defeated, we will have our peace back here.”

State television reported on the suffering and flaunted it on Monday. It showed smoke and carnage, empty store shelves and a long-range forecast that warned months of freezing temperatures in central Kyiv.

The Russian military is said to be trying to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses with dozens of missiles and drones from multiple directions.

The amount of projectiles bound to pass through the defense of Ukraine is a simple calculation for Moscow.

It is not known how much of Russia’s inventories are gone, or whether they will resort to stock of older, less accurate but equally powerful missiles.

It’s impossible to guess Russian missile inventories. President Zelensky said in May that Russia launched 2,154 missiles and had used up about one-fifth of its precision-missile arsenal. That looks like a last-minute idea.

The S-300 is being adapted by the Russians as an offensive weapon. They wreak havoc in areas such as Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv and their speed makes them difficult to intercept. But they are hardly accurate.

He stated that this was the first time since the beginning of the war that Russia had targeted energy infrastructure.

A senior Defense Department official added that work was continuing on improving Ukrainian air defenses, including “finding Soviet-era capabilities to make sure that countries were ready (and) could donate them and help move those capabilities.”

The drones were known for crashing into the targets with bombs. Russia ordered 2,400 of the Iran-made drones, which overwhelms Ukrainian air defense systems. The Air Force of Ukraine said they had shot down 11 drones.

Ukraine’s wish-list – circulated at Wednesday’s meeting – included missiles for their existing systems and a “transition to Western-origin layered air defense system” as well as “early warning capabilities.”

Speaking after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, he said such a system would not “control all the airspace over Ukraine, but they are designed to control priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”

Western systems are beginning to trickle in. The Minister of Defense said that a “new era of air defense has begun” with the arrival of the first German-made IRIS-T missile system and two US units expected soon.

This is not the end. There is an item on the agenda that is supposed to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense. Feeling optimistic.”

These are not off-the-shelf items. The IRIS-T had to be manufactured for Ukraine. Western governments have a limited inventory of such systems. And Ukraine is a very large country under missile attack from three directions.

A Comment on the Crimea Bridge, Ukraine, by Zaluzhnyi and Mykhailo Podolyak

Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.

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.

Mykhailo Podolyak, top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, believes that Russian forces planned the attack as a pretense to escalate the war.

“The Crimea bridge incident gives the Russian military a convenient alibi for all of its defeats in southern Ukraine,” Podolyak told Ukraine’s national broadcaster.

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia,” he addressed the group of soldiers receiving the awards. He admitted that they were doing the attacks. But who started it?”

“The damage is definitely consistent with an explosion in the center of a bridge span, as anything else would have caused damage to the pier,” says Barr, who specializes in analyzing blast damage in war zones.

Nick Waters from Bellingcat is an analyst who points out that the bridge’s underside shows barely any blast damage, dismissing the popular Ukrainian theory that a naval operation destroyed the bridge.

Ukraine has not taken credit for the blasts, though many in the country celebrated it as a Ukrainian victory due to the bridge’s strategic and symbolic value to Russia.

FSB published a video of an “examination of the truck” and its “X-ray”, which allegedly shows explosives. The “x-ray” had another wheel and frame missing, but the FSB didn’t specify where. pic.twitter.com/onKbOndxVO

After Russian state media posted the government’s evidence for a truck bomb — the alleged truck involved and a X-ray scan of its cargo — Ukrainian journalists pointed out that the two images showed different trucks.

He says the Crimean bridge is designed to have a single section of road floating above several piers and detached from other sections. When one span falls into the water, it pulls several other spans with it.

Based on the ways the flames repeatedly shot out from the blast site, Barr also suggests that the truck was loaded with specialized compounds that burned hot enough to ignite a passing fuel train traveling on a parallel rail bridge, severely weakening it.

The sparks and flames are believed to be consistent with a thermite bomb, according to Mika Tyry, a retired military demolition specialist. Russia’s military has been known to use thermite, though Ukraine could have recovered the substance from unexploded Russian munitions.

It was a successful attack on a guarded structure with advanced explosives and timed to coincide with the train. “That’s highly suggestive of a carefully planned military operation rather than a lone actor or other group.”

For the first time, the war is heading 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.

The next few weeks of the war are going to be crucial as both sides look to strike a blow and the cold months bring a decrease in ground combat.

Giles said it seemed like a distant prospect for anything that could be described as a victory for the Ukranians. Russia is likely to escalate their response.

The counter-offensives have changed the direction of the war and answered a suggestion from the West and Russia that it was not possible to seize ground in the war.

“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, it will be a huge success for the Russians because of the way this has been bungled.

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.

There are many reasons for the Ukrainian government to get things done quickly. The winter energy crisis in Europe, as well as the power that has been lost inUkraine, is always going to be a test of resilience for the country and its Western backers.

“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.

That conclusion was also reached by the ISW, which said in its daily update on the conflict Monday that the strikes “wasted some of Russia’s dwindling precision weapons against civilian targets, as opposed to militarily significant targets.”

Exactly how much weaponry and manpower each side has left in reserve will be crucial to determining how the momentum will shift in the coming weeks. Ukraine said it intercepted 18 cruise missiles on Tuesday and dozens more on Monday, but it is urging its Western allies for more equipment to repel any future attacks.

Some help for Putin may be on the way, however. An announcement by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that Belarus and Russia will “deploy a joint regional group of troops” raised fears of deepened military cooperation between the close allies and that Belarusian troops could formally join Russia in its invasion. Belarus has been complaining of alleged Ukrainian threats to its security in recent days, which observers say could be a prelude to some level of involvement.

“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. It would allow Russia a new route into the region which has been reclaimed by the Ukrainians, should Putin focus on regaining that territory.

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.

Ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that Ukraine needs more systems to stop missile attacks.

Russian troops in Donetsk and Ukraine: a critical test of Moscow’s war with Russia and the rest of the world on Oct. 15

Experts suggest that the coming weeks are critical for both on the battlefield and in Europe. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. Western countries failed to confront and deter Russia.

That’s not to say mobilized forces will be of no use. It would be nice if they were used in support roles like drivers or refuelers, so that the burden could be removed from the rest of Russia’s professional army. They could also fill out depleted units along the line of contact, cordon some areas and man checkpoints in the rear. They are, however, unlikely to become a capable fighting force. There are signs of discipline problems for soldiers in Russian garrisons.

The Kremlin, reticent so far to escalate the war beyond Ukraine, could also aim to directly disrupt or deter foreign military assistance to Kyiv. Such efforts might involve attacks on NATO satellites or other reconnaissance assets, jamming or “sensor blinding” them to render them temporarily or permanently inoperable. Russia could use cyberattacks against the United States and Europe, in order to hurt the people of Kyiv. The war then would no longer be confined to the borders of Ukraine.

Struggling on the battlefield in southern and eastern Ukraine, Russia felt war on its own territory on Sunday as more than a dozen explosions ripped through a Russian border region, and a series of blasts severely damaged the offices of Russia’s puppet government in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

Two men shot at Russian troops preparing to deploy to Ukraine, killing 11 people and wounding 15 before being killed themselves, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Oct. 15.

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.

The key areas in the back areneighboring towns. In a video address Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that fighting continues in Soledar and Bakhmut.

Russia is taking measures to protect itself from the enemies of Ukraine, as claimed by pro-Kremlin fighters in Kiev last week

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.

The office of Zelenskyy said Moscow was attacking towns and villages along the front line in the east on Sunday, and that there was more fighting in the southern Kherson region.

France is stepping up military training and air defense in order to puncture the perception that it has been behind in supporting Ukranian. The French defense minister Sébastien Lecornu told Le Parisien that up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded in France for several weeks of combat and specialized training, along with training on equipment supplied by France.

— 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.

Several thousand children from a southern region of Moscow were placed in rest homes and children’s camps, according to statements made this week by Russian authorities. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.

Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russia-held areas of Ukraine who are orphans, for adoption with Russian families in a possible violation of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

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

— A Russian commander wanted for his role in the downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014 has been deployed to the front, according to social media posts by pro-Kremlin commentators. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.

The downing of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH17, which killed over 300 people, has led to the issuance of an international wanted list for the man. He remains the most high-profile suspect in a related murder trial in a Dutch court, with a verdict expected Nov. 17.

Moscow’s battlefield failures have been slammed by Girkin’s social media posts. The Ukrainian defense intelligence agency said it would give a $100,000 reward for his capture.

The lines weren’t disrupted even though attacks were reported near the city’s main rail station.

The chief-of-staff of Zelenskyy called for more air defense systems from the west. “We have no time for slow actions,” he said online.

Klitshchko posted a photo of shrapnel labeled “Geran-2,” Russian’s designation for the Iranian drones, but he removed the picture after commenters criticized him for confirming a Russian strike.

State of Ukraine: NPR’s View of Ukraine’s Nuclear Deterrence and High-Redshift Heavy Ion Collision

European Union foreign ministers are scheduled to meet today in Luxembourg. Before the meeting, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters that the bloc would look into “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine.

At least one person was killed as a wave of drones flew over the Ukrainian capital early Monday, setting off warnings for commuters to stay away.

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 and be destroyed in an attack.

It’s unclear how many casualties there have been, but one person was found dead under the rubble of a destroyed building in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Another remains trapped, Klitschko said.

The nuclear deterrence exercises will be held by NATO. NATO has warned Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine but says the “Steadfast Noon” drills are a routine, annual training activity.

Russian agents detained eight people on Oct. 12 suspected of carrying out a large explosion on a bridge to Crimea, including Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens.

The UN General Assembly was unanimous in condemning Russia’s move to annex four regions of Ukraine. In the Oct. 13 session, four countries voted alongside Russia, but 143 voted in favor of Ukraine’s resolution, while 35 abstained.

You can read past recaps here. You can find more NPR’s coverage here. NPR’s State of Ukraine is where to get the latest updates throughout the day.

The scale of Russian losses in these infantry advances is uncertain. The institute described the advances as “impaling” ill-prepared units on well dug-in defensive positions of Ukraine’s battle-hardened troops. The Ukrainian military’s estimates of Russian casualties are seen to be inflated, but the relative increase in the reported numbers suggests a rising toll. More than 800 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in the 24 hours that ended on Friday, the Ukrainian military said.

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 time frame it was or where the attacks were coming from.

In a letter to General Zaluzhnyi, he wrote that they discussed the situation at the front. He said his U.S. colleague was beating back the attacks thanks to their courage and skills.

An assessment from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based analytical group, also said that the increase in infantry in the Donbas region in the east had not resulted in Russia’s gaining new ground.

“Russian forces would likely have had more success in such offensive operations if they had waited until enough mobilized personnel had arrived to amass a force large enough to overcome Ukrainian defenses,” the institute said in a statement on Thursday.

The Ukrainian military said Friday that it had fired more than 160 times at Russian positions over the past 24 hours while also reporting Russian return fire into Ukrainian positions.

The citizens of Kherson have been making contingency plans to survive a battle with the Russians and the Ukrainians, and they have been buying food and fuel.

The Kherson region’s military boss blamed Russian troops for damage to power lines, even though Russia’s state media said that Ukrainian shelling had damaged power lines.

The Russian forces have placed mines around the water towers in Beryslav, which is 50 miles from Kherson city and just north of a crucial dam, Mr.Yanushevych said.

The city had a quarter million people 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.

When Russian forces stormed across the Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro River in March and into Kherson city, a major port and a former shipbuilding center, it marked their biggest success of the early days of the war. Mr. Putin tried to use the wider Kherson region as a bridgehead for a drive farther west, but that failed.

BLAHODATNE, Ukraine — Ukraine’s troops entered the key city of Kherson on Friday, its military said, as jubilant residents waved Ukrainian flags after a major Russian retreat.

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.

Videos shared by Ukrainian government officials on social media showed scenes of civilians cheering and awaiting the arrival of a contingent of Ukrainian troops shortly after Russia said that the withdrawal of its forces across the Dnipro River was complete.

As he spoke, the soldiers from the Ukranian army continued to move through the towns and villages, greeting the residents with joy and relief after nine months of occupation.

A Ukrainian Drones Look at the Dnipro River: The End of the Russian Occupation in Kherson City, Ukraine

The commander of a Ukrainian drones unit said he had not seen any Russian troops or equipment near the Kherson city.

He said that the Russians left all the villages. We looked at hundreds of villages with our drones and didn’t see a car. We don’t see how they are leaving. They quietly retreat 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 the city who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, said in a series of text messages that conditions in the city had unraveled overnight.

He said that a building was burned in the center but it wasn’t possible to call the fire department. “There was no phone signal, no electricity, no heating and no water.”

The Ukrainians fear that Russia may have hidden a contingent of soldiers behind civilians to engage the Ukrainians in street battles or sabotage operations.

The residents of Kherson have suffered from shortages of goods, curfews, partisan warfare, and an intense campaign to force them to become Russian citizens in order to accept Moscow’s version of their culture and history.

They haven’t had time to think about the depth of their suffering. For months, residents interviewed by journalists have told stories of friends being abducted, children illegally deported, relatives tortured and killed. There are evidence of human rights abuses when Russian are out in Ukraine.

In the span of a day on Monday, Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged fire across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River that now separates them after Russia retreats from the southern city of Kherson.

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 Russian Army moved to the eastern bank after the city was lost, causing fears that they would try to retaliate for the loss of the city with a bombardment.

Mortar shells struck near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. It was not immediately possible to assess what had been hit.

Beleating and thefts at the hands of russian soldiers in Kherson: Ukraine’s war-news underscores the urgency of the country to leave

The head of the Kherson military administration urged the city’s remaining residents to leave as Ukrainian forces hunted down Russian soldiers and restored essential services.

The mines are dangerous. Four people, including an 11-year-old, were killed when a family driving in a village outside the city ran over a mine. Railway workers are trying to restore service after some lines have been damaged. And there were at least four more children reportedly injured by mines across the region, Ukrainian officials said in statements.

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.

Mr. Zelensky said in a brief appearance in the city’s main square on Monday that he and his group were coming to the country step by step.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/14/world/russia-ukraine-war-news/kherson-residents-describe-beatings-and-thefts-at-the-hands-of-russian-soldiers

Keeping Russians in the Neighborhood: A Case Study in Skadovsk, South of Kherson City. An Israeli-American resident’s story reexamined

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for samogon,” or homemade vodka, said one resident, Tatiana, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City. They become even more aggressive when they get drunk. We are so scared here.” She asked that her surname be withheld for security.

Ivan wrote in a text message that the Russian people were roaming around and found empty houses. He asked that his last name not be used because he was worried about his safety in Skadovsk. “We try to connect with the owners and to arrange for someone local to stay in their place. It is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views are his own, not of this commentary. CNN has more opinion.

The Russian Missile Attack on Poland: Where Do They Stand? Why Do They Need to Be? Why Does Putin Attempt to Build a War Machine in the Cold War? What Has He Done Recently?

Now Poland is facing the repercussions from these attacks – and it’s not the only bordering country. The Russian incident caused less uproar than the Polish one because it knocked out power to neighboringMoldova, which is not a NATO member.

One thing is clear from whatever happens with the missile. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.

But beyond these most recent missile attacks lies a laundry list of horrors Putin has launched that only seems to have driven his nation further from the pack of civilized powers that he once sought so desperately to join.

His forces have planted mines in vast stretches of territory in Kherson from which they’ve recently withdrawn – much as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia stretching back to the 1970s. Indeed, Cambodian de-mining experts have even been called in to assist with the herculean task facing Ukraine in 2022. Russian armies left behind evidence of atrocities and torture, similar to what the Cambodians did.

That said, a growing number of Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they have been asked to do and refused to fight. According to the Defense Ministry, Russian troops may be willing to shoot retreating or deserting soldiers.

The hotline and Telegram channel were launched by the Ukrainian military intelligence project, “I want to live”, in order to assist Russians who were interested in defecting.

Putin has also tried, though he has been stymied at most turns, to establish black market networks abroad to source what he needs to fuel his war machine – much as Kim Jong-un has done in North Korea. The United States has already uncovered and recently sanctioned vast networks of such shadow companies and individuals centered in hubs from Taiwan to Armenia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, and Luxembourg to source high-tech goods for Russia’s collapsing military-industrial complex.

Putin is increasingly isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state who did not attend the G20 session. After his removal from the G8 and his annexation of Crimean, it seems as though Putin’s desire to return to the G7 is over. The ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering Russia was similar to the one on North Korea.

Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. Writers, artists, journalists and some of the most creative technologists, scientists, and engineers are included.

One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/opinions/putin-poland-missile-ukraine-nato-andelman/index.html

Putin’s warning on nuclear power cuts from the Ukrenergo energy power plant: The need for reliable connections in the war against Russia

Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission spoke to the G20 on Tuesday about the need for reliable and forward looking connections after learning that it was an unsustainable dependency.

Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.

In his speech on Tuesday in the Kremlin, he continued that attempts by certain countries to rewrite and remake world history are becoming increasingly aggressive and that they want to divide our society, take away our guiding lines and weaken Russia.

In a statement, the energy company Ukrenergo said that the three nuclear power plants — Rivne, South Ukraine and Khmelnytskyi — were disconnected from the grid as a safety measure.

The company said that the nuclear reactors have been turned back on but are not connected to the national grid.

Vitaliy Kim stated that the nuclear plant in his region has been cut from the grid and that a risk has been posed for the reactor’s safety.

Ukrainian officials stress that the power cuts have the cascading effect of turning off the heat and water in many cases. And with temperatures often below freezing, the water in pipes could freeze, adding further complications.

In Moldova, President Maia Sandu wrote this about Russia on Facebook: “We can’t trust a regime that leaves us in the dark and cold, that purposely kills people for the mere desire to keep other peoples poor and humble.”

The Ukrainians Are Ready for Winter: Supporting the Security of Nuclear Forces in Ukraine with Cluster Munitions, according to a CNN Video Address

The country is getting ready for the winter. In a Tuesday night video address, Zelenskyy said that there are 4,000 centers to take care of civilians if there is an extended power cut.

He called them “points of invincibility,” saying they will provide heat, water, phone charging and internet access. Many will be in schools and government buildings.

The first Ukrainian official and another source familiar with the requests said the Ukrainians want cluster munitions compatible with both the US-provided HIMARS rocket launchers and the 155 mm howitzers, and have argued that the munitions would allow Ukrainian troops to more effectively attack larger, more dispersed targets like concentrations of Russian soldiers and vehicles.

Senior Biden administration officials have been fielding this request for months and have not rejected it outright, CNN has learned, a detail that has not been previously reported.

Cluster munitions are imprecise by design, and scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines. They also create “nasty, bloody fragmentation” to anyone hit by them because of the dozens of submunitions that detonate at once across a large area, Mark Hiznay, a weapons expert and the associate arms director for Human Rights Watch, previously told CNN.

The Biden administration has not taken the option off the table as a last resort, if stockpiles begin to run dangerously low. According to sources, the proposal has not yet been considered because of statutory restrictions on the US ability to transfer cluster munitions.

Those restrictions apply to munitions with a greater than one percent unexploded ordnance rate, which raises the prospect that they will pose a risk to civilians. President Joe Biden could override that restriction, but the administration has indicated to the Ukrainians that that is unlikely in the near term.

“The ability of Ukraine to make gains in current and upcoming phases of conflict is in no way dependent on or linked to their procuring said munitions,” a congressional aide told CNN.

The Defense Ministry told CNN it does not comment on reports regarding requests for particular weapons systems or ammunition, choosing to wait until any agreement with a supplier is reached before many any public announcement.

The M30A1 alternate warhead was replaced with the dual-purpose improved conventional munitions. The M30 A1 contains small steel pieces that do not explode and do not land on the ground. Ukrainian officials say that the Ukrainian military would benefit more from the US having the DPICMs in storage than from the M30A1.

Putin’s response to the recent anti-Russian attacks on Donetsk and a Russian drone target: “It is not an act of genocide”

He said that it won’t interfere with the missions and then he drank from his champagne glass and thanked the soldiers for listening.

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

The airfield in theKursk region is the target of a drone attack according to Russia. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not made any comments regarding the recent explosions in Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. No one has said anything about it. At all! He said that there was complete silence.

Russian Forces in Donetsk: Is this a genocide? Russian Defense Minister Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin

Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.

President Vladimir Putin made rare public comments specifically addressing the Russian military’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Thursday, while clutching a glass of champagne at a Kremlin reception.

He continued to say in the Kremlin that someone isn’t providing water to Donetsk. The act of not providing water to a city of million is genocide.

The race to restore power is hampered by strong winds, rain and sub-zero temperatures according to a statement by Ukrenergo.

A top Ukrainian official said the attacks on the country’s energy grid amount to genocide. Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin made the comments while speaking to the BBC last month.

The mayor said there had been explosions as a result of the occupation of the Christian Church in Melitopol.

The head of the Russian backed city administration said that Ukrainians had launched Grad missiles. local time Sunday in the direction of the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts.

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

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

Nonetheless, he said, the strikes, using Iranian drones, had left many in the dark. The situation in the Odesa region has been described as difficult by Mr. Zelensky. He said that it would take days, not hours, to restore power to civilians.

“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.”

Russian missile attacks and drone attacks on Odesa: a warning to stop the destruction of the energy systems and to protect itself from civilian casualties

Zelensky said that the attitude of Russia towards Odesa was deliberate attempts to bring disaster to the city.

A new support package from Norway was received by the Ukrainians on Saturday and will be used to restore our energy system, Zelensky said.

Mr. Zelensky claimed that 10 of the 15 drones used by Russia were shot down by the Ukrainians. It was not immediately possible to verify his tally.

The repeated assaults on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light have drawn condemnation from world leaders, and thrust Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.

“The power system is now, to put it mildly, very far from a normal state — there is an acute shortage in the system,” he said, urging people to reduce their power use to put less strain on the battered power grid.

“It must be understood: Even if there are no heavy missile strikes, this does not mean that there are no problems,” he continued. In different regions there are missile attacks and drones on a daily basis. Almost every day the energy facilities are hit.