Summary
That’s it for today’s Ukraine live blog. Thank you for reading. Here’s a recap of what happened:
Moscow-backed self-appointed officials in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region have begun moving civilians into Russian territory, citing fears of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Russian-installed head of the key southern city, Vladimir Saldo, spoke of plans to move up to 60,000 people across the Dnipro River. Images of people using boats to flee the city were broadcast by Russian state TV. Authorities said about 15,000 people have now been “evacuated”.
Ukrainian officials described Russia’s announcements as “a propaganda show” and told people not to comply with the evacuation request. A number have reported receiving mass text messages warning the city would be shelled and informing them that buses would be leaving from the port from 7am on Thursday. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, described Russian announcements as “a propaganda show” as Kyiv said the population transfers amounted to “deportations”.
Russia’s recent admission that a “difficult situation has emerged” in the Kherson region is highly unusual and likely indicates that authorities are considering a major withdrawal of their forces from the area west of the Dnipro River, British intelligence has said.
Ukraine began restricting electricity supplies across the country starting from 7am on Thursday in response to Russia’s strikes against its energy infrastructure. A barrage of more than 300 attacks have destroyed a third of all power plants across the country, President Zelenskiy said. Ukrainians will now need to prepare for “rolling blackouts” and people will have to conserve energy, the deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, warned.
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.
The UK is implementing new sanctions on three Iranian individuals and a business responsible for supplying Russia with drones used to bombard Ukraine. By supplying these drones Iran is “actively warmongering, profiting off Russia’s abhorrent attacks on Ukrainian citizens, and adding to the suffering of the people and the destruction of critical infrastructure”, a foreign office statement said. The assets of all four have been frozen and the individuals are also subject to travel bans.
Prior to the UK’s announcement, the EU agreed sanctions against the same business and three individuals for supplying Iranian drones to Russia that have been used to bomb Ukraine. Tehran denies supplying the drones to Moscow, while the Kremlin said the west is seeking to put “pressure” on Iran with accusations that Moscow is using drones made in the country.
A Russian aircraft released a missile near a British plane patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea on 29 September, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, revealed. He told the House of Commons that the Russians blamed the incident on a “technical malfunction”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was using energy and hunger as weapons but has failed to break the west’s unity and will not achieve his war aims through scorched earth tactics. “We will not let Moscow’s latest escalation go unanswered. Scorched earth tactics will not help Russia win the war. They will only strengthen the unity and resolve of Ukraine and its partners,” Scholz told the German parliament.
Nato allies will act if Sweden or Finland come under pressure from Russia or another adversary before they become full members of the alliance, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday.
Updated
More reporting from Patrick Wintour, this time on Russia threatening to reassess cooperation with the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, if he sends United Nations experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a UN resolution.
It comes hours after the UK followed the EU in implementing sanctions on one Iranian business and three individuals. Russia and Iran are both violating a UN security council resolution that controls the transfer of these weapons from Iran, the foreign office said.
Patrick writes:
Speaking after a closed-door UN security council meeting on Moscow’s use of drones, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, called on Guterres and his staff to “abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation”. He also threatened Russia would withdraw from the grain deal that has allowed Ukrainian grain to be transported out of Black Sea ports.
Polyanskiy insisted the precision weapons had been made in Russia and condemned “baseless accusations and conspiracy theories”.
You can read Patrick’s report in full here: Russia threatens to ‘reassess collaboration’ with UN chief over drone inspection
