LIVE – War in Ukraine: start of evacuations of civilians in Kherson, by Moscow

In its latest report on the situation in Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense stresses that the military leadership on the Russian side is “increasingly dysfunctional” on several levels. There is “certainly” a “worsening shortage of junior Russian officers capable of organizing and leading the newly mobilized reservists”, which plays on the tactical part.

The ministry also points to “poor leadership” which “probably aggravates the low morale and weak cohesion” of the Russian forces.

The Russian occupation administration in Kherson said on Wednesday it was evacuating the city in the face of advancing Ukrainian troops.

“As of today, all the power structures that are in the city, the civil and military administration, all the ministries, are also moving to the left bank” of the Dnieper river which borders Kherson, indicated Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Russian occupation administration, live on the Rossiya 24 television channel.

The Russian army “will fight to the death” in Kherson, assured a pro-Russian official this Wednesday, while the local Russian administration began to evacuate the population, in front of the advance of the Ukrainian army.

For several weeks, Ukraine has taken back ground from Russia, and the equipment abandoned by the army when it retreats. The private British intelligence institute Janes refers to the Ukrainian seizure of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery pieces, troop transport trucks, forward command vehicles and other radar and electronic equipment.

The figures are questionable, but Janes recently established the recovery of at least 200 vehicles, 40 tanks, 70 armored infantry and 30 artillery pieces.

“Many were seized in the northeast and the push from Kharkiv to Izium,” said an analyst at Janes on condition of anonymity. The Russians “seem to have considered that they could flee faster in civilian vehicles than in armored vehicles”.

On Telegram, the administration of the region has published a list of what to take with you before leaving, such as your identification documents, hygiene products, your phone or even food for 2-3 days. It is also advisable to turn off the lights before leaving, to turn off the water well and to lock the doors.

Civilians have started to be evacuated from the Kherson region, according to local authorities. “The organized transfer of residents to the other bank of the Dnieper began in Kherson,” the occupation administration of the town of Olechky, east of Kherson, said on Telegram. The Russian channel Rossiya 24 also broadcast a report showing evacuees boarding ferries to cross the river.

After saying on Wednesday that it had started summoning citizens to check their eligibility for military service, Belarus said it was not planning to mobilize for war, reports Reuters. These are “strictly routine” recordings, the Ministry of Defense said.

As of October 19, the WHO says it has counted “623 attacks against health centers” in Ukraine. “They took place between February 24 and October 10 and left 100 dead and 129 injured,” writes the organization. “Health care should never be a target.”

The Ukrainian ambassador to Kazakhstan, Petro Vroublevskiï, who declared at the end of August that it was necessary for the Ukrainians to “kill as many Russians as possible”, was dismissed from his post, according to a decree published on the website of the presidential administration. The text published Tuesday evening does not specify why the ambassador, who has since apologized for his remarks, was relieved of his duties.

But at the beginning of October, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan had declared that Petro Vroublevskiï was going to be recalled to kyiv, in agreement with Ukraine. According to the same source, Kazakhstan had received a request from Ukraine to appoint a new ambassador.

The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, located on the Ukrainian border, announced on Telegram that infrastructure in the town of Belgorrd had been hit by a shell. According to Vyacheslav Gladkov the damage is minor. This area has already been hit by gunfire.

The Russian occupation authorities in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine plan to evacuate “to evacuate 50,000 to 60,000 people to the left bank of the Dnieper”, the river that borders the city of Kherson, said the head of the local occupation administration, Vladimir Saldo. This evacuation, at the rate of 10,000 people per day, should take six days, he added, on the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel “Solovyov Live” and quoted by Russian news agencies.

The Ria-Novosti agency indicates evacuations by boat across the river have begun. Quoting another pro-Russian official, Yevgeny Melnikov, she adds that the evacuees will be able to go to Russia.

In its daily report, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry states that 66,280 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the offensive. Among the enemy losses there are also more than 2500 tanks, nearly 4000 vehicles and 1637 artillery units.

However, these figures should be taken with a grain of salt as it is very difficult to verify their veracity. The loss figures given by Moscow are much lower.

When the sirens sound in Nikopol (south), the inhabitants descend into the basements to protect themselves. Two days ago, 40 rockets fell on the city, and the shootings are daily. “It’s scary, we’re shaking,” Marina told BFMTV, “I’m scared”.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russians, is only 7 km away, on the other side of the Dnieper. “We would be the first to be irradiated, our chances of survival would be miniscule,” Oksana says.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said on Tuesday he learned that the Russian arsenal had been reduced to the point where Russian forces were using the S-300 air defense system as ordinary missiles, and that some shells Russians exploded even before reaching their target, due to their age.

“The consensus, more or less, is that it will take Russia two to four years to restore some capabilities or even capabilities similar to what they had” before the war, he said. According to him, Western sanctions have particularly affected the production of planes and the maintenance of helicopters by depriving Russia of key elements.

On the eastern front of Ukraine, Bakhmout is one of the last towns where Russian forces, elsewhere in retreat, are still advancing. The small town (70,000 inhabitants before the war) has become, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the “most difficult” point for the Ukrainian forces, which remain in this sector in a defensive position.

Ukrainian soldiers still control the western and northern half of the city, AFP journalists noted on Saturday. The separatist forces in the Donetsk region, backed by Russia and maneuvering in this battle, surged east and south, taking advantage of the proximity of their rear base to the city of Donetsk 100 km away. On Thursday, they announced that they had taken the two neighboring suburbs, Opytin and Ivangrad.

Russian General Sergei Surovikin, in charge of operations in Ukraine for ten days, claimed on the Rossiya 24 channel that the Russian army would “first and foremost ensure the safe evacuation of the population” from Kherson, without further indication.

Capital of the eponymous region occupied by Russia since the spring and annexed in September, this city is currently targeted by Ukrainian strikes on its “social, economic and industrial infrastructure”, he noted. This leads, according to him, to disruptions in the supply of electricity, water and food, therefore representing a “direct threat to the lives of the inhabitants” and therefore the need to evacuate it.

In the city of Kherson (south) the Russian troops are confronted to a particularly “tense” situation against the counter-offensive of kyiv, which denounced the numerous strikes having again targeted its energy infrastructure on Tuesday. The Russian army, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, is being harmed on all sides.

While “very difficult” in Kherson, “the situation in the area of ​​the special military operation can be called tense. The enemy does not give up its attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” said Russian General Sergei Surovikin, in charge of operations in Ukraine. “The Ukrainian regime is trying to break through our defense” by bringing together “all its reserves” for the counter-offensive in the south and east.

Welcome to this direct dedicated to the news of the war in Ukraine.