Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro – marking one of Russia's most significant retreats and a potential turning point in the war. Read our live blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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10:32pm: Biden says Russia's evacuation of Kherson shows they have real problems
US President Joe Biden said Russia's order to evacuate troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River near the Ukrainian city of Kherson showed Moscow was having "real problems" with its military.
Biden told reporters it was interesting that Russia had waited until after the US congressional election to announce the withdrawal. "It's evidence of the fact that they have some real problems with the Russian military," he said.
He said the withdrawal would allow both sides to recalibrate their positions over the winter, but it remained to be seen whether Ukraine was prepared to compromise with Russia.
8:20pm: Russia's war hawks rally behind decision to abandon Ukrainian city of Kherson
Russia's leading war hawks on Wednesday swiftly rallied behind the decision to abandon the Ukrainian city of Kherson, putting a brave face on one of Moscow's most humiliating retreats in nearly nine months of war.
"After weighing all the pros and cons, General Surovikin made the difficult but right choice between senseless sacrifices for the sake of loud statements and saving the priceless lives of soldiers," said Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader who has frequently urged a more aggressive approach to the war and has even called for the use of low-grade nuclear weapons.
Another increasingly outspoken war hawk - Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group which is fighting for Russia in Ukraine - was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying: "The decision taken by Surovikin is not easy, but he acted like a man who is not afraid of responsibility."
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state media outlet RT, went even further, comparing the retreat to the decision by General Mikhail Kutuzov to abandon Moscow to Napoleon in 1812 for the sake of preserving his army and saving Russia.
7:56pm: UK boosts support for Ukrainian troops through winter
Britain is stepping up its support for Ukrainian soldiers through the winter, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told Reuters on Wednesday, following weeks of Ukrainian advances towards the southern city of Kherson.
Wallace joined NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to observe the training of Ukrainian troops in the southeast English town of Lydd, as Britain announced the delivery of a further 12,000 extreme cold-weather sleeping kits for Ukraine.
"Winter is approaching and that is an important challenge for both sides," Wallace said. "So we're determined ... to give Ukrainian soldiers the best basic skills because we already know that the Russian military aren't doing that."
Later, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it would soon complete the delivery of 1,000 additional surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine's armed forces. The equipment includes launchers and missiles and is capable of shooting down air targets including Russian drones and cruise missiles, it said.
7:11pm: UN officials to meet Russians Thursday on Ukraine grain deal
Senior United Nations officials planned to meet members of a high-level Russian delegation in Geneva on Friday to discuss the Ukraine grain deal, a UN spokesperson said.
"They will continue ongoing consultations in support of the efforts by the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the full implementation of the two agreements signed on 22 July in Istanbul," the spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
6:17pm: Ukraine has 'strong bipartisan' US support, NATO's Stoltenberg says
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday denied the Republicans' advance in US midterm elections would undermine Western military backing for Ukraine.
Following talks with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Stoltenberg also vowed the alliance "will continue to support [Ukraine] around Kherson", after Russia ordered its troops to withdraw from the southern city.
The NATO secretary-general said he could not comment in detail on the ongoing count from Tuesday's elections for the US Congress.
"But it's absolutely clear that there is strong bipartisan support in the United States for continued support for Ukraine," he told reporters. "That has not changed with the elections that have taken place in United States."
The US Congress committed $40 billion for Ukraine in May with support across party lines as Kyiv fights back against Russian invaders.
5:42pm: Kyiv sees 'no signs' of Russian pullout from Kherson
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhaylo Podolyak said Wednesday that Kyiv saw "no signs" that Russian forces are withdrawing from the southern city of Kherson, shortly after Moscow ordered the pullout.
"We see no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight," Podolyak wrote on Twitter, suggesting the announcement could be a ploy and calling the order from Russia's defence minister a "staged TV statement".
5:28pm: Russia's statement on Kherson a 'huge announcement'
"There's news just in, which is that the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has apparently ordered Russian forces to leave the western bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region; that means leaving Kherson city itself, so that's a huge announcement, if true," FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reported from Kharkiv.
"The Ukrainian reaction to the announcement [...] has been cautious. [...] The spokeswoman for the armed forces of Ukraine in the south told me 'the Russians always lie; we don't like the way they use these statements of theirs to pollute the information space'. That was the expression she used," Cragg went on.
"As for what the Ukrainian forces are doing, she actually said 'we are still trying to maintain an informational silence about the progress of the operation'. But these explosions of bridges in Kherson region -- it's not only the biggest one in Kherson city. Several other bridges across smaller bridges and canals were blown up today. And that very much suggests that that was the Russians deciding they don't need those bridges any more and want to make life difficult for the Ukrainians."
4:19pm: Russia orders pullout from west bank of Dnipro at Kherson
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro.
The announcement marked one of Russia's most significant retreats and a potential turning point in the war, now nearing the end of its ninth month.
In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, reported to Shoigu that it was no longer possible to keep Kherson city supplied.
"Having comprehensively assessed the current situation, it is proposed to take up defence along the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro River," said Surovikin, standing at a lectern and indicating troop positions on a map whose details were greyed-out for the TV audience.
"I understand that this is a very difficult decision, but at the same time we will preserve the most important thing - the lives of our servicemen and, in general, the combat effectiveness of the group of troops, which it is futile to keep on the right bank in a limited area."
The news followed weeks of Ukrainian advances towards the city and a race by Russia to relocate more than 100,000 of its residents by ferrying them to the opposite side of the river.
>> ‘A lot at stake politically’ for Putin in battle for Kherson
2:54pm: Russian foreign ministry says Moscow in occasional contact with US
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Moscow had contacts with U.S. officials from time to time.
She said such contacts were between specific unnamed government agencies in both countries, but said the Russian foreign ministry had not been involved.
Zakharova confirmed there would soon be US-Russia consultations on the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, the last remaining arms control agreement between the world's two largest nuclear powers.
2:53pm: Iran calls for Ukraine dialogue as it hosts Russia security chief
Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani called for dialogue to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting Wednesday in Tehran with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev.
"Iran supports any initiative leading to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialogue," Shamkhani was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.
The Islamic republic was "ready to play a role in ending the war", the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council added.
The statement comes after Kyiv and its Western allies accused Russia in recent weeks of using Iranian-made drones to carry out attacks in Ukraine. Tehran denies the allegations.
2:51pm: Moscow-installed official in Ukraine's Kherson region dies
The Russian-installed deputy head of Ukraine's region of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, has died, officials said on Wednesday.
"Kirill Sergeyevich Stremousov has died," the head of Russia-annexed Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on messaging app Telegram, calling him a "true fighter" and a "Russian patriot." Aksyonov did not specify the cause of the death.
2:36pm: Moscow denies reports that North Korea is supplying weapons to Russia
Moscow on Wednesday denied reports that North Korea was supplying weapons to Russia, saying the claims were "false from start to finish."
US National Security spokesperson John Kirby said last week that Washington had information that North Korea was covertly supplying Russia with a "significant" number of artillery shells for use in Ukraine.
1:55pm: Brussels proposes €18 billion aid package for Ukraine
The European Commission has released details of an €18 billion economic support package to get Ukraine through 2023, which it hopes will be approved by EU member states.
Under the plan, the bloc would send Kyiv 1.5 billion euros per month in the form of 35-year loans, with interest payments covered by the EU.
Funding will be supplied "in regular tranches to help recovery in the short-term and strengthen institutions", said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a Twitter post.
1:07pm: 'Massive' overnight strikes hit infrastructure in Ukrainian town and cities
The Ukrainian governor of the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region reported “massive” overnight strikes with exploding Iranian-made drones that wounded four energy company workers in the city of Dnipro.
“Attacks on civilian infrastructure are war crimes in themselves. The Kremlin is at war with Ukrainian civilians, trying to leave millions of people without water and light (for them) to freeze in the winter,” Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said on Ukrainian TV.
Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight over Snihurivka, a town about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the southern city of Kherson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy system continued early Wednesday. Two cities not far from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were shelled overnight, it said.
At least nine civilians were killed and 24 others were wounded in 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian president's office.
10:47am: US midterms won't change 'bad' Moscow-Washington relations: Kremlin
The US midterm elections will not improve the "bad" relations between Moscow and Washington, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
As results of the 2022 US Midterm elections rolled in, Peskov dismissed allegations Russia was meddling in the US vote, Russian state media reported.
Peskov's comments came just days after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the mercenary Wagner Group and close Putin ally, admitted that Russia has meddled in US elections — and will continue to do so.
Peskov also told reporters it was too early to talk about a dialogue with the US on extending the New START nuclear arms treaty.
7:58am: Russian Security Council chief arrives in Iran for talks
Russia's powerful Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev was in Tehran on Wednesday for consultations with Iranian officials on security matters, the TASS news agency reported.
"In Tehran, Patrushev will hold scheduled Russian-Iranian security consultations with the participation of Security Council experts and representatives from both countries' ministries and agencies," TASS cited the Russian Security Council's press service as saying.
The visit comes as allegations that Iran has supplied "kamikaze" drones to Russia to support Moscow's invasion of Ukraine remain in focus. Over the weekend, Tehran acknowledged for the first time it had sent a "small number" of drones to Moscow, but said they were shipped before the war began.
7:23am: US basketball star Griner on her way to penal colony: lawyers
US basketball star Brittney Griner was transferred last week from a detention center outside the Russian capital and is on her way to a penal colony, her legal team said on Wednesday.
Neither Griner's exact whereabouts nor her final destination were known, the legal team said in a statement, adding that in line with Russian procedures, her attorneys as well as the US Embassy should be notified upon her arrival at her destination.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested on February 17, a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, at a Moscow airport.
3:18am: Ukraine wants issue of child deportations by Russia addressed at G20
The Ukrainian National Information Bureau showed 10,500 children had been deported or forcibly displaced, according to a statement from President Volodymyr Zelensky's office.
"The Russian Federation continues to commit its crimes in connection with Ukrainian children," Zelensky's office quoted the president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, as saying at a meeting he chaired of a group of officials responsible for child protection. "The removal of children continues."
Yermak was quoted as saying Ukraine could count on UN help, but he restated Ukraine's lack of confidence in the International Committee of the Red Cross to help.
"Unfortunately, due to the very passive position of international organisations, in particular the ICRC, today we are unable to determine the exact number, how many, and where our children are," he said.
Yermak said discussions about the return of the children should start at the November 15-16 G20 summit in Indonesia, which Zelensky is expected to attend, most likely remotely.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
