Kherson residents told to evacuate as bombardment intensifies; Bakhmut ‘covered with blood’, says Zelenskiy – as it happened | Ukraine

It’s nearly 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:

• Ukrainian officials are urging residents to evacuate from the city of Kherson as Russian forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated southern Ukrainian city. Some residents who lived through the Russian occupation are reluctant to leave despite the bombardment, according to a local official who has been involved in the evacuation.

• Russian troops fired 33 rockets at civilian targets in a series of aerial and artillery bombardments in Kherson over the course of 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces said Wednesday morning. A maternity wing of a hospital in Kherson city was shelled by Russian forces late on Tuesday, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “only a few” civilians remain in the embattled frontline city of Bakhmut in the eastern province of Donetsk. In a Telegram post, Ukraine’s leader said “there is no place that is not covered with blood” in the Ukrainian-held city, where his troops are waging a battle that has come to symbolise the grinding brutality of the war.

• Ukraine has secured the release of 1,456 prisoners of war since Russia invaded in February, according to Zelenskiy. Ukraine’s president was speaking in an annual address to the Ukrainian parliament, where Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, cabinet ministers, foreign diplomats, military personnel and family members of fallen soldiers were reportedly present.

• The Kremlin has insisted any proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine must take into account what it calls “today’s realities” of four Ukrainian regions Moscow has unilaterally declared part of Russia. In a regular briefing with reporters, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace plan, which includes the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.

• A Crimean human rights activist has been sentenced to seven years in prison after a Moscow-installed court in the Russian-annexed peninsula found her guilty of carrying an explosive device, in a trial rights activists have described as “trumped-up” and “illegal”. Iryna Danilovich was sentenced to seven years in a general regime colony by a court in Russian-controlled Feodosia, Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, the Kyiv-based organisation Institute of Mass Information (IMI) said.

• Authorities in the city of Odesa have begun dismantling a monument to Catherine the Great, the Russian empress who founded the city in the late 18th century. Last month, the local parliament voted to dismantle the statue, as well as another to the Tsarist general Alexander Suvorov.

• Russian soldiers mobilised to fight in Ukraine will be able to store their frozen sperm in a cryobank for free, a leading Russian lawyer has said. Demographers have warned that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and its “partial” military mobilisation could further deepen Russia’s demographic crisis.

• The United Nations high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) has released a count of the number of civilian casualties in Russia’s war on Ukraine so far, saying that 6,884 people are known to have died in Ukraine, including 429 children, between 24 February 2022 to 26 December 2022. The actual figure is likely to be “considerably higher”, it added.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war live blog today. Thank you for reading.

The secret to Igor Pedin’s survival had been his invisibility, the 61-year-old had said.

With his dog, Zhu-Zhu, the former ship’s cook banked on being ignored by the trigger-happy Russian soldiers and their killing machines when he took the first step of a 140-mile journey from his home in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on 23 April, before stealing out into the badlands of Russian-occupied territories towards the relative safety in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Such were the risks that soldiers at one checkpoint had beseeched Pedin to turn back but then stuffed cigarettes in his pockets for good luck.

He did survive, against the odds, but the remarkable story has made Pedin more visible than he could ever have imagined.

Read the full story here:

Ukrainian officials are urging residents to evacuate from the city of Kherson as Russian forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated southern Ukrainian city.

Some residents who lived through the Russian occupation are reluctant to leave despite the bombardment, according to a local official who has been involved in the evacuation.

Kherson city council member, Dmytro Poddubniy, told CNN:

I’m telling these people that Kherson is one of the most dangerous cities right now. So I ask them to imagine that they are going on vacation for a couple of weeks. It may be easier for them to decide to move this way. But still, a lot of people are staying in the city.

One Kherson resident, Inna Balyoha, told the news channel she was afraid her elderly and sick mother would not be able to endure the journey.

She said:

She is very weak. She will not reach another city. Many remain in Kherson under shelling because of their parents.

Authorities have urged Kherson residents to evacuate to safer regions as Russian shelling has become “more and more frequent and large-scale”.

It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Russian forces have stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on Kherson city in southern Ukraine. Russian troops fired 33 rockets at civilian targets in a series of aerial and artillery bombardments in Kherson over the course of 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces said Wednesday morning.

• A maternity wing of a hospital in Kherson city was shelled by Russian forces late on Tuesday, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office. No one was hurt and the staff and patients had been moved to a shelter, he added. Ukraine’s healthcare minister, Viktor Liashko, said Russian forces bombed the hospital just moments after a baby was born.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “only a few” civilians remain in the embattled frontline city of Bakhmut in the eastern province of Donetsk. In a Telegram post, Ukraine’s leader said “there is no place that is not covered with blood” in the Ukrainian-held city, where his troops are waging a battle that has come to symbolise the grinding brutality of the war.

• Ukraine has bought 1,400 drones, mostly for reconnaissance, and plans to develop combat models that can attack the exploding drones Russia has used during its invasion, according to the Ukrainian government minister in charge of technology. To date, Ukraine has been coy about claiming that explosions reported within the borders of the Russian Federation have been down to military and drone activity.

• The Kremlin has insisted any proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine must take into account what it calls “today’s realities” of four Ukrainian regions Moscow has unilaterally declared part of Russia. In a regular briefing with reporters, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace plan, which includes the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.

• One of President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin aides has visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in a part of southern Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed. Sergei Kiriyenko, a Kremlin official responsible for overseeing Russia’s domestic politics and a former head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, discussed the safety of the plant, according to a Russian-installed “official”.

• Authorities in the city of Odesa have begun dismantling a monument to Catherine the Great, the Russian empress who founded the city in the late 18th century. Last month, the local parliament voted to dismantle the statue, as well as another to the Tsarist general Alexander Suvorov.

• Russian soldiers mobilised to fight in Ukraine will be able to store their frozen sperm in a cryobank for free, a leading Russian lawyer has said. Demographers have warned that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and its “partial” military mobilisation could further deepen Russia’s demographic crisis.

• The mother of an Australian man from Victoria killed fighting in Ukraine has remembered her son as a defender of freedom who was driven by empathy. The Australian department of foreign affairs and Trade (Dfat) confirmed on Wednesday that Sage O’Donnell from Melbourne had died.

• The United Nations high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) has released a count of the number of civilian casualties in Russia’s war on Ukraine so far, saying that 6,884 people are known to have died in Ukraine, including 429 children, between 24 February 2022 to 26 December 2022. The actual figure is likely to be “considerably higher”, it added.

• Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree that bans the supply of oil and oil products to nations participating in an imposed cap from 1 February 2023 for five months. The Group of Seven major powers, the European Union and Australia agreed this month to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil effective from 5 December.

Good afternoon from London, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still here with all the latest from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “only a few” civilians remain in the embattled frontline city of Bakhmut in the eastern province of Donetsk.

In a post on Telegram, Ukraine’s leader said “there is no place that is not covered with blood” in the Ukrainian-held city, where his troops are waging a battle that has come to symbolise the grinding brutality of the war.

Zelenskiy said:

Last year, 70,000 people lived there. Now only a few civilians are left there. There is no place that is not covered with blood. There is no hour when the terrible roar of artillery does not sound. Still, Bakhmut stands.

Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of 70,000-80,000, is a ghost town now largely in ruins.