In Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, Ukraine accused Russia of robbing empty homes and occupying them with troops dressed in civilian clothing in order to get ready for street warfare in what both sides believe will be one of the war’s pivotal clashes.
Kherson was the first city to be taken by Russian forces during their invasion in February; as a result, Russia recently issued an order for people to leave the city in anticipation of a Ukrainian attack to retake it.
Both sides said that for the previous 48 hours, power and water had been cut off to the neighbourhood surrounding Kherson, which had a prewar population of close to 300,000. As a result, the city is now cold and dark.
Russian-installed officials accused the Ukrainians of “sabotage,” although Ukrainian officials said that 1.5 km of electricity lines had been destroyed by the Russians.
The evacuation of the region has been referred to as a war crime and forcible deportation by Kiev. Moscow claims to be evacuating residents for their own protection.
According to the Ukrainian military on Monday, some 100 crippled children were relocated from a medical centre in Dnipriany in the Kherson region to the Moscow region. It further stated that residents of an elderly home in Kakhovka were being relocated and that Russian military were assuming control of those facilities.
On the western bank of the Dnipro River, which divides Ukraine, Kherson is the only area that is still under Russian control. The main objective of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south, which has increased since then, has been to retake it since the start of October.
The situation inside Kherson could not be independently confirmed. Ukrainian forces on the nearby front line have told Reuters they anticipate fierce fighting before forcing the Russian occupiers to abandon the city.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces, “disguised in civilian clothes, occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles.”
Russian forces were “involved in looting and theft from residents and from infrastructure sites and are taking away equipment, food and vehicles to the Russian Federation,” it said in an update late on Monday.
Russian authorities were contacted by Reuters for comment on the charges made by Ukraine. Moscow denies mistreating citizens.
In an early Tuesday statement, the Ukrainian military detailed attacks on a Russian anti-aircraft plant, a storage area for munitions, and the damage of Russian armour in the Beryslav district of the Kherson region. According to the report, 32 Russian military members died.
The freshly freed settlement of Nova Kamyanka was surrounded by Ukrainian forces, who detected four nearby Russian airstrikes.
The Donetsk region in the east is still the “epicentre” of the fighting, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who stated this on Monday. Hundreds of Russians are dying there every day.
In the Donetsk region, the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka are experiencing the most intense fighting.
‘THEY CALL PEOPLE MEAT’
On the diplomatic front, senior Russian officials are speaking in private with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in an effort to reduce the possibility of a larger conflict over Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The insider claimed that the discussions have been ongoing for the past few months. The Wall Street Journal was the first to reveal the conversations, but the Kremlin declined to comment.
The war has significantly harmed the world economy and increased nuclear conflict apprehension.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated at a briefing that “we reserve the right to engage directly at top levels about issues of interest to the United States” and that the conversations had “only focused on risk reduction”.
U.S. support for Ukraine would be “unflinching and unwavering” regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s congressional elections, she said.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine was ready to negotiate with a future Russian leader but not with Vladimir Putin, after a Washington Post report that the United States had urged Kyiv to signal readiness for peace talks to ensure it retains Western support.
“Ukraine has never refused to negotiate,” Podolyak said on Twitter, adding that Russia should first withdraw forces from Ukraine. “Is Putin ready? Obviously not.”
Zelenskyy in his nightly address on Monday said Russia should be forced to participate in “genuine” peace talks.
Russia lost all of the territories it captured in northern Ukraine in the weeks after the February invasion, and in recent months has faced major setbacks in the east and south.
Putin has responded by calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists and announcing the annexation of occupied lands. He said on Monday that 50,000 newly recruited reservists were already fighting in combat units.
However, as more troops are deployed to the front and the number of losses rises, Russia’s discontent with the way the war is being fought has grown.
After Russian military bloggers published an open letter from the remaining men of the 155th marine brigade of the Pacific Fleet, Russia’s defence ministry made the extremely uncommon decision on Monday to deny that an elite unit had suffered catastrophic losses.
The marines wrote a letter to Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of the unit’s home district on the Pacific coast, stating that in just four days, their unit had lost 300 soldiers to fatalities, injuries, or disappearances, in addition to losing half of their equipment.
They accused generals who “call humans flesh” and seek for honours and bonuses.
