Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Photos show National Guard of Ukraine protecting the the northern occupied territories of Kharkiv region amid the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

— Sergey Bobok | AFP | Getty Images

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov “to reiterate the unwavering U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine’s ability to counter Russia’s aggression,” according to Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder.

In their call, Austin “underscored the international community’s continued support in building Ukraine’s enduring strength and safeguarding Ukraine’s ability to defend itself in the future.” Austin also highlighted U.S.-Ukraine cooperation in the wake of the Oct. 12 Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters, where both ministers were present.

The call followed Austin’s conversation with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, which marked their first call in five months.

— Rocio Fabbro

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the West to warn Russia not to blow up a huge dam that would flood a swath of southern Ukraine, as his forces prepare to push Moscow’s troops from Kherson in one of the war’s most important battles.

In a television address, Zelenskyy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the huge Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir that dominates much of southern Ukraine, and were planning to blow it up to cover their retreat.

“Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster,” he said.

Russia accused Kyiv earlier this week of planning to rocket the dam. Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said Ukrainian forces had already used U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles against it in what Ukrainian officials called a sign Moscow could be planning to blow it up and blame Kyiv.

— Reuters

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu for the first time in five months, calling for open lines of communication as the war approaches its ninth month.

“Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder.

This is only the second time Austin and Shoygu have spoken since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. In their first call on May 13, Austin urged immediate ceasefire and made the same request to maintain open lines of communication.

— Rocio Fabbro

Ukrainian forces continued to pile on the pressure on Russian positions in occupied Kherson, targeting resupply routes across the Dnieper river as Kyiv inched closer to a full-scale assault to retake the strategic southern port city.

As many as 2,000 Russian draftees have poured into the Kherson region “to replenish losses and strengthen units on the front line,” according to Ukraine’s Army General Staff.

The Antonivskyi Bridge that is on a main route from Crimea to Russian-held territories in southern Ukraine was struck late Thursday, said Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern operational command, but but only after the 10 p.m. local curfew, to avoid civilian casualties.

“We do not attack civilians and settlements,” Humeniuk told Ukrainian television after Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-installed deputy chief of the regional administration claimed that at least four civilians were killed as a result of Ukrainian strikes.

— Associated Press

Ukrainian civilians queue for humanitarian aid provided by the Red Cross as people try to survive amid the wave of Russia’s missile strikes in the eastern city of Sviatohirsk.

Russian authorities are carrying out mass evacuations of civilians from occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine, and defense analysts now believe that the movement of people is setting the scene for Moscow to withdraw its troops from a large part of the region.

Up to 60,000 civilians are planned to be evacuated in the coming days from the western part of the Kherson region to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, with residents told to then travel to other Russian-occupied regions.

Residents were told to leave Kherson after Russian-installed officials warned them that Ukraine is preparing to launch a large-scale offensive. Ukraine has decried the evacuations, likening them to deportations and telling residents not to comply.

Read the full story here.

— Holly Ellyatt

Reconstruction is underway in Izium, roughly five weeks after Russian forces withdrew from the strategic eastern city, ending its occupation in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

A video report published by the AFP news agency shows crews of Ukrainian construction workers rebuilding the badly-damaged and destroyed infrastructure, restoring asphalt and filling bomb craters on roads, and dismantling signs of Russian occupation like its ad-hoc military bridges.

Many of the residents however still rely on aid for basic necessities such as water and electricity.

The city of formerly 45,000 people in the Kharkiv region has seen the majority of its population flee due to the war, with as few as 8,000 residents remaining, according to the AFP. Mass graves were found in the surrounding woods after the Russians withdrew, with one containing at least 440 bodies.

— Natasha Turak

Kyiv vowed to retaliate forcefully if Russia destroys a major hydroelectric dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region, after its top officials warned of alleged Russian plans to attack the plant.

“Russian terrorists are agonizing. Nuclear blackmail did not work, now they are trying to scare everyone by blowing up the Kakhovska HPP,” the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Twitter referring to the dam.

“There is right response to blackmail. Harder sanctions, further de-occupation of our territories, more weapons, and an even tougher stance on each and every of Russia’s crimes. They won’t break us,” he wrote. “We will hit back even harder.”

Russian forces have occupied Ukraine’s southern Kherson region since early March. But Ukrainian forces are making substantial inroads into the territory in a counter-offensive that’s forced the Russian-imposed authorities there to begin evacuating civilians.

— Natasha Turak

Belarus’ announcement of a new Belarus-Russia Group of Forces on its territory with as many as 15,000 Russian troops and 70,000 Belarussian troops may be an exaggeration used to distract, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update.

“On 15 October 2022, the Belarussian authorities released a video claiming to show the arrival of Russian troops in Belarus. However, to date it is unlikely that Russia has actually deployed a significant number of extra troops into Belarus,” the ministry wrote in a Twitter post.

“Russia is unlikely to be able to generate combat-ready formations of the claimed size: its forces are committed in Ukraine. The Belarussian military highly likely maintains minimal capability to undertake complex operations,” it said.

The announcement, it claimed, “is likely an attempt to demonstrate Russian-Belarussian solidarity and to convince Ukraine to divert forces to guard the northern border.”

— Natasha Turak

A Russian court ordered the arrest of Marina Ovsyannikova, the TV reporter working for state news outlet Channel One Russia who made a high-profile criticism of the war on live television in March.

After spending years working for the country’s state news outlets, Ovsyannikova later said she felt “ashamed of working for Kremlin propaganda.” The act that prompted her initial house arrest was when she held up a poster during a live on-air nightly broadcast that read, in a mix of Russian and English, “No war” and “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, you are being lied to. Russians against war.”

“With regard to Ovsyannikova, the court ordered her held in custody for one month and 29 days, imposed from the moment the accused is extradited to the Russian Federation or from the moment of her arrest in the Russian Federation,” court officials said, according to local news agency Interfax.

Ovsyannikova was already under house arrest, but her lawyer said she has fled the country.

The Kremlin announced a law shortly after it began its invasion of Ukraine that outlawed any spreading of “false information” about the war, which it calls its “special military operation,” with penalties of up to 15 years in prison.

— Natasha Turak

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning that Russia may attack a hydroelectric dam in Kherson, where a growing Ukrainian counteroffensive is taking place.

Zelenskyy alleged that Russian forces have planted mines at the dam, which would threaten the entire canal network that stretches some 250 miles (402 km).

“Russia is preparing (to attack) the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plan,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “According to our information, the aggregates and dam of the Kakhovka HPP were mined by Russian terrorists.”

He warned that this would create “a catastrophe on a grand scale,” and added, “With this terrorist attack, they can destroy, among other things… supplying water from the Dnipro River to Crimea. In the event of the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP dam, the North Crimean canal will simply disappear.”

Russian forces have occupied the region in the country’s south since the early months of the war and Moscow illegally annexed the territory in early October, but its forces are now ordering civilians to evacuate as renewed conflict draws nearer.

— Natasha Turak

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on continued coordination to address the urgent security and humanitarian crises in Ukraine.

“Secretary Blinken and Secretary-General Guterres emphasized the importance of safeguarding UN principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, especially in light of Russia’s illegal attempted annexation of Ukraine’s territory,” according to a State Department readout of the call.

— Amanda Macias

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defese Minister Sergei Shoigu meet soldiers during a visit at a military training center of the Western Military District for mobilized reservists, outside the town of Ryazan.

— Mikhail Klimentyev | AFP | Getty Images