Russia-Ukraine news latest: Fears Putin will try to recruit people of annexed regions

A Russian air strike that hit a major thermal power station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine on Wednesday has caused “quite serious” damage, the region’s governor said on Thursday.

“Unfortunately there is destruction, and it is quite serious,” Svitlana Onyshchuk, Ivano-Frankivsk’s governor, said on Ukrainian television.

Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs posted a tweet listing estimated losses of the Russian armed forces since the start of the war in February.

The ministry estimates that 66,650 Russian soldiers have so far been killed.

Russia has declared its intention to increase its targeting of Ukraine’s power, water and other vital infrastructure in the latest phase of the nearly eight-month-old war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow’s forces have destroyed 30% of the country’s power stations since October 10.

But Ukrainians are vowing to stand firm despite the attacks that threaten cuts in electricity, water and heat.

Many people in the country have stockpiled torches, candles and firewood, and also stored canned and preserved vegetables as well as bottled water and warm clothes.

One Ukrainian energy official said on Wednesday that 40% of the country’s electric power system had been severely damaged.

The attacks have come at a critical time, with winter approaching. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that Thursday marks the start of the heating season for Kyiv, which like most urban centres in Ukraine and even Russia uses a Soviet-era central system controlled by the city that provides heat for apartment buildings and businesses.

Following a meeting between Mr Zelensky, government ministers, members of energy enterprises and some local officials, presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko said there would be power supply restrictions across Ukraine from 7am to 11am beginning on Thursday, along with the use of street lights being limited in some cities.

In Kherson, the only regional capital Russian forces have captured since their invasion eight months ago, the Russian-appointed administration prepared an evacuation.

Images of people using boats to flee the strategic southern city were broadcast by Russian state TV, which portrayed the exodus on the Dnipro river as an attempt to evacuate civilians before it became a combat zone.

About 50,000 to 60,000 people would be moved out in the next six days, said Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed chief of Kherson.

Staff at Kherson’s Russian-backed administration were also being relocated to the eastern side of the Dnipro, Saldo said, although he said Russia had the resources to hold the city and even counter-attack if necessary.

Kherson is arguably the most strategically important of four regions Russia claimed to have annexed in recent weeks. It controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro, the 2,200 km-long (1,367-mile) river that bisects Ukraine.

In eastern Ukraine bordering Russia, Moscow’s forces focused their main attempt to advance on the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, the Ukrainian military said.

Bakhmut is the focus of Russia‘s slow advance through the Donetsk region. Forces trained tank and artillery fire on at least 10 towns in the area, including Bakhmut, Soledar and Bilohorivka, the Ukrainian military said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin demanded an all-Russia war effort and declared martial law on Wednesday in areas of Ukraine occupied by his forces.

Zelensky warned Ukrainians in occupied areas against any Russian attempts to draft them into the army, saying they should try to leave.

“If you cannot do this and find yourself in Russian military structures, at the first opportunity try to lay down your weapons and come to Ukrainian positions,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russia’s military will try to recruit locals in more occupied Ukrainian territories in the coming days.

“In the near future, the occupiers will try to recruit men into their army. Everywhere is the same as in Donetsk and Luhansk,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address yesterday, referring to people in “temporarily” occupied areas of southern and eastern Ukraine.

“Please avoid it as much as you can. Try to leave the occupied territory,” he urged the population in the Russian-held territories which fell within the ambit of Moscow’s illegal referendum earlier this month.

The Ukrainian government has placed restrictions on electricity usage nationwide for the first time since Russia‘s invasion following a barrage of attacks on power plants just before the winter sets in.

Power supply will be restricted between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., government officials and the grid operator Ukrenergo said, and temporary blackouts were possible if people did not minimise their use of electricity, a presidential aide said.

“We do not exclude that with the onset of cold weather we will be asking for your help even more frequently”, Ukrenergo said, referring to the restriction that is limited to Thursday.

Russia has intensified its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine‘s power and water infrastructure in recent days.

“There is new damage to critical infrastructure. Three energy facilities were destroyed by the enemy today,” president Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Wednesday night video address.

“We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of enemy missiles and drones,” said Zelensky, who earlier in the week said a third power stations had been hit by Russian air strikes.

Ukraine‘s military tightened the noose around Russian forces occupying the southern city of Kherson on Thursday as the government ordered nationwide curbs on electricity use because of Russian missile and drone attacks on power plants.

In Kherson, the only regional capital Russian forces have captured since their invasion eight months ago, the Russian-appointed administration began an evacuation of a city that controls the only land route to the Crimea peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro river.

On Wednesday, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-backed administration in Kherson, wrote on Telegram that Ukraine had launched an offensive towards Novaya Kamianka and Berislav in the Kherson region.

While Ukraine remained tight-lipped about its operations, its military said in an early Thursday update on the Kherson region said 43 Russian servicemen had been killed and six tanks and other equipment destroyed.

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

A Russian attack has struck a school in the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, reported The Kyiv Independent citing an official.

The school in the Komyshuvakha settlement came under attack in the early hours today, said the deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.

The extent of damage from the attack and casualties are not immediately clear.

Russia is now likely looking to extract its troops and heavy equipment from the area west of Dnipro river in anticipation of a tough battle in the Kherson area.

“On 18 October 2022, recently appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, told Russian media that ‘a difficult situation has emerged’ in the Kherson area,” the British defence ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

It added that the top Russian official endorsed the previously announced plans of the occupation authorities to evacuate the civilian population.

“As the overall operational commander, Surovikin’s announcement highlighting negative news about the ‘special military operation’ is highly unusual,” it said.

The “negative news” likely indicates that the Russian authorities are seriously considering a major withdrawal of their forces from the area west of the Dnipro river, the ministry said.

“A key challenge of any Russian withdrawal operation would be extracting troops and their equipment across the 1000m wide river in good order,” it said.

With all the permanent bridges severely damaged, the ministry has claimed that “Russia would highly likely rely heavily on a temporary barge bridge it completed near Kherson in recent days, and military pontoon ferry units, which continue to operate at several locations.”