Pro-Russian authorities in Kherson have urged all civilians to leave the city “immediately”. “Due to the tense situation at the front, the increased threat of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians should leave the city immediately and move to the left bank of the Dnipro,” the statement said.
The governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod has again accused Ukraine of heavy shelling of the area. Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were killed on Saturday in the border town of Schebekino. Eleven people were injured, four of them seriously.
According to Gladkow, the shelling also hit energy infrastructure. He did not give details. Around 15,000 people were temporarily without electricity, heating and water. After massive Russian rocket attacks, Ukraine also announced that hundreds of thousands of people in the country were without electricity on Saturday.
Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stressed at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Saturday that there were no “overtones” in the war in her homeland. “We are fighting for our lives,” she said in the evening at an event organized by the magazine “Brigitte”. “You have to tell the truth about what happens to us every day.” That’s what she sees as her job when she appears as First Lady.
There were air raids again in Kyiv on Saturday and her thoughts are with her children, she said. “Our planning horizon is maybe one or two days – we don’t know what tomorrow or the day after tomorrow will bring.” We’re going to the air-raid shelter.”
The Ukrainian first lady described the search for normality despite the effects of the war – for example, her daughter had started studying. “We are constantly in different places, the children have rarely seen their father, but they call every day.”
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) talks to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal on Tuesday about further possible arms deliveries from Germany. The meeting is planned in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin, a spokesman for the ministry said on Saturday. It can be assumed that “further military support from Germany will also be a topic of discussion”.
Schmyhal had previously asked Germany to deliver new ammunition to ward off Russian air raids within a few days. In the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” he also referred to the newly delivered German Iris-T SLM anti-aircraft missile system. This has “already saved a great many human lives”. However, Ukraine is “impatiently” waiting for new ammunition that the country needs “right now”. In addition, Schmyhal asked for jammers to ward off remote-controlled drones used by Russia.
Ukraine has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the face of massive Russian rocket attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. “The aggressor does not stop terrorizing our country,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Kyiv on Saturday. According to the presidential administration, around 1.5 million customers of the energy supplier Ukrenerho were without electricity in the country. Zelenskyi’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said Russia was trying to push Ukrainians into a new mass flight to Europe.
“The only way to stop a humanitarian catastrophe is to quickly deliver anti-aircraft systems and additional missiles,” Podoliak said. It is feared that because of the cold and darkness and the lack of energy, people will get into even more serious trouble than they already have and will flee.
According to Zelenskyj, Russia fired another 36 rockets at Ukraine on Saturday. Most were shot down by the air defenses. Nevertheless, Russian rockets hit some important energy plants, as a photo published by Zelenskyj showed. These are typical terrorist tactics. “The world can and must stop this terror,” said the head of state. He thanked the energy service providers who are in the process of rebuilding the infrastructure.
According to experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian withdrawal from western Kherson Oblast has begun. “Russian forces likely intend to continue this withdrawal over the next few weeks, but may struggle to retreat in an orderly fashion if Ukrainian forces decide to attack,” writes the ISW in its daily Ukraine update.
Russia’s army is said to be “quite actively” moving munitions, military equipment and unspecified units by ferry from the west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast to the east bank, the ISW reports, citing Ukraine’s Task Force South. . The retreat will be covered by 2,000 soldiers who have just been mobilized.
There are also reports on the social networks about the Russian withdrawal from Cherson. As early as October 13, a pro-Russian soldier from Luhansk posted – perhaps by mistake – a short video on a Russian social network on board a ferry at the Nowa Kakhovka dam on the journey across the Dnipro from west to east. “We swim,” he says in it.
In view of the massive destruction caused by combat drones used by Russia in Ukraine, the United States is calling for a UN investigation into allegations that the weapons are of Iranian origin. “The UN must investigate any violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and we must not allow Russia or others to prevent or threaten the UN from carrying out its stated obligations,” US Representative Jeffrey DeLaurentis said Friday at a Security Council meeting in Washington New York.
Britain, France and Germany had previously sent similar requests by letter to the United Nations. In a video message distributed in Kyiv in the evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Iran of supporting Russian terror against the infrastructure and energy systems in his country by supplying weapons.
Selenskyj hopes for help with reconstruction
President Zelenskyy recently complained that Russia had destroyed 40 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. In his video message, he expressed hope for further help from the West – also at the conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine planned in Germany next week. Above all, apartments, energy systems and social facilities would have to be restored. Zelenskyi reported that Russian drone and missile attacks against the country’s civilian infrastructure continued.
At a German-Ukrainian business forum on Monday in Berlin, top representatives from both countries want to talk about the reconstruction of Ukraine. The conference will be opened by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal.
In his video message, Zelenskyi also criticized increasing problems with grain exports across the Black Sea, which were agreed with Russia in July. There is an artificial traffic jam of 150 ships because Russia is deliberately preventing their passage. “The enemy is doing everything to slow down our food exports,” the president said. He accused Russia of wanting to create a food crisis and social tensions in the world.
The US, meanwhile, sees no way to negotiate with Russia as long as the country presses ahead with its war of aggression against Ukraine. “As for diplomacy to end the war, that depends entirely on whether Russia will be interested in stopping the aggression it has started,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington on Friday. However, there are currently no indications of this, said Blinken, referring to the partial mobilization in Russia ordered by President Putin. At the same time, Blinken made it clear that the US continued to maintain diplomatic channels of communication with Russia. “Whenever we have something important to tell the Russians, we will do it.”
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich hopes, however, that the G20 summit in Bali on 15./16. November could be a forum “to sound out diplomatic initiatives” that could one day lead to an end to the war in Ukraine. “There will certainly not be a ceasefire overnight. Sometimes they only develop in individual regions at first,” said Mützenich of the editorial network Germany. “But we mustn’t ignore any chance that would make a local ceasefire, the exchange of prisoners of war and the supply of the civilian population possible.” Kremlin chief Putin has so far left open whether he will travel to the summit. His Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said that if the United States made an offer of talks from US President Joe Biden, Moscow would look into it.
Also read: The Ukraine update of 10/21. – Kadyrov’s sons bring their father prisoners of war from Donbass
The war in Ukraine is at a turning point, says military expert Carlo Masala. Ukraine is now under a lot of pressure and Putin is using drones because missiles are too expensive, according to the politics professor. The Kremlin boss could now open a second front and then offer a ceasefire, says the expert in a “Stern” podcast.
Russia wants to ramp up production of its own aircraft as quickly as possible. The state-owned company Rostec makes it clear how many planes should be delivered by 2030.
Hardly anyone “reads” Vladimir Putin and the Russians as knowledgeably as the Russian writer Viktor Erofeev, who fled to Germany. Germany’s Chancellor should meet with him. And be prepared for some uncomfortable truths.