A summary of today's developments
Ukraine is carrying out “stabilisation measures” near the city of Kherson after it was retaken by Ukrainian forces. Earlier, people across the country had awoken on Saturday from a night of jubilant celebrations following what has been described as a “historic day” for Kyiv and perhaps the most important strategic breakthrough since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv’s forces have established control in over 60 settlements in the Kherson region and that stabilisation measures are being carried out in Kherson. He added that Russian forces have destroyed all Kherson’s critical infrastructure before they fled including communications, water supplies along with heat and electricity supplies.
After an eight-month occupation, hundreds of citizens flooded the streets on Saturday morning, reaching out to greet and embrace Ukrainian soldiers and the first foreign journalists on the scene. However, Zelenskiy cautioned that while special military units had reached Kherson city, a full deployment to reinforce the advance troops was still under way – a reminder that about 70% of the Kherson region remains under Russian control.
Zelenskiy declared the city to be “ours” and that it was a “historic” day for the country, after Russia announced the completion of its withdrawal from the regional capital. In a statement on his Telegram page, he said people in Kherson never gave up hope on Ukraine, adding: “Hope for Ukraine is always justified – and Ukraine always returns its own.”
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson has told the BBC that Ukraine’s forces are almost in full control of Kherson.
Russia said more than 30,000 service personnel had been withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. The defence ministry said its evacuation had been completed by 5am Moscow time on Friday. The ministry said there was no military hardware or soldiers left on the western side of the river.
However, reports have emerged of some Russian troops being left behind in Ukraine and changing into civilian clothes, or drowning trying to escape. The Ukrainian ministry of defence’s intelligence unit has urged Russian soldiers to surrender.
The Antonivskiy Bridge, the only nearby road crossing from the city of Kherson to the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro River, has been blown up. There was significant new damage to the nearby major Nova Kakhovka dam after the withdrawal, and footage emerged of explosions at the location.
Alexander Fomin, one of the members of the Russian-imposed administration in occupied Kherson oblast, has said Henichesk has been declared the temporary administrative capital of Kherson. The region is one of the areas that the Russian Federation has claimed to have annexed. He said: “All the main authorities are concentrated there.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met at the Asean summit in Cambodia. “There were very few who believed that Ukraine would survive,” Kuleba said. “This is coming, and our victory will be our joint victory – a victory of all peace-loving nations across the world”. Blinken hailed the “remarkable courage” of Ukraine’s military and people, and vowed that US support “will continue for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.
Britain said Russia’s withdrawal from the only regional capital in Ukraine that it had captured since its invasion began in February was another humiliation for its army, but that Moscow continued to pose a threat. “Russia’s announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them,” the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said in a statement on Saturday. “In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson. Now, with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: ‘What was it all for?’” Wallace said.
Russia has restated its insistence on unhindered access to world markets for its food and fertiliser exports after what it called a “thorough exchange of views” with UN officials on Friday in Geneva.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Vershinin, has been quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying talks with UN officials had been useful and detailed but the issue of renewing the Black Sea grain export deal – which expires in one week – had yet to be resolved. Vershinin was quoted as saying that restoring access to the Swift payments system for the agricultural lender Rosselkhozbank was a key issue.
Turkey is committed to seeking a peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday, according to Turkish media. “We are working on how to create a peace corridor here, like we had the grain corridor,” Erdoğan was quoted as telling reporters on a flight from Uzbekistan. The president said he would not be proposing a specific timeframe for any extension of the grain corridor deal, but said he wants it to run “as long as possible”.
The Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Russia has banned the passage of ships loaded outside the Russian Federation through the Kerch Strait to the Sea of Azov.
Russian oligarchs and executives from multiple companies under international sanctions are among the lobbyists attending Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The British graffiti-artist Banksy unveiled his latest work, on a Ukrainian building damaged by Russian bombing. The anonymous artist from Bristol, whose work sells for millions of pounds, posted a picture on Instagram of the artwork, a gymnast doing a handstand amid debris in Borodianka, a town north of the capital, Kyiv, which was pummelled by Russian bombs and then occupied.
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Zelenskiy added that Ukraine was able to conduct successful operations in Kherson and elsewhere in part because of resistance in the Donetsk region in the face of repeated Russian attacks.
“There it is just hell – there are extremely fierce battles there every day,” he said.
“But our units are defending bravely – they are withstanding the terrible pressure of the invaders, preserving our defence lines.”
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Here are further comments from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s video address.
“Before fleeing from Kherson, the occupiers destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity,” he said.
“(Russians) everywhere have the same goal: to humiliate people as much as possible. But we will restore everything, believe me,” Zelenskiy added.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says Kyiv’s forces have established control in over 60 settlements in the Kherson region and that stabilisation measures are being carried out in Kherson.
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Ukraine is carrying out “stabilisation measures” near Kherson on Saturday after its forces retook the city, write Lorenzo Tondo and Luke Harding.
Hundreds of citizens flooded on to the city streets on Saturday morning after a night of jubilation that the eight-month occupation had ended, embracing Ukrainian soldiers and foreign journalists following what has been described as a “historic day” for Kyiv – and perhaps the most important strategic breakthrough since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
However, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, cautioned that while special military units had reached Kherson city, a full deployment to reinforce the advance troops was still under way – a reminder that about 70% of the Kherson region remains under Russian control.
“We are winning battles on the ground, but the war continues,” said the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, from Cambodia, where he was attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
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Vladimir Putin spoke to Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi by phone, with both leaders placing emphasis on deepening political, trade and economic cooperation, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.
“A number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda were discussed, with the emphasis on further enhancing cooperation in the political, trade and economic fields, including the transport and logistics sector,” the Kremlin said.
It did not say when the phone call took place and made no mention of Iranian arms supplies to Moscow.
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Residents of the village of Blahodatne in the Kherson region, recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces, greeted Reuters reporters with tears of joy.
Ukraine would decide on the timing and contents of any negotiation framework with Russia, according to the readout of US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s meeting with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba in Phnom Penh.
Blinken also discussed the US’s unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine in mitigating the effects of Russia’s attacks on critical infrastructure as winter approaches, including accelerated humanitarian aid, Reuters reports.
“Secretary (Blinken) reiterated that the timing and contents of any negotiation framework remains Ukraine’s decision,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.
At 5am on Wednesday Serhii Melnikov heard a noise outside. The Russian soldiers who were living in the house opposite – number six, Shevchenko street – were packing up to leave. They had occupied the village of Mylove in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region for eight long months. Now they were off, as part of a humiliating pull-out from the right-bank of the Dnipro river and the city of Kherson.
“Vladimir Putin said Russia would be here for ever. In the end they left in five minutes and ran away like goats,” Melnikov told the Observer, the first newspaper to reach Mylove since its liberation late on Thursday. He added: “Putin wanted to kill us. He’s ended up destroying his own country. Russia’s retreat from Kherson is an enormous failure.”
Melnikov opened the neighbouring gate and showed off the open shed where the Russians had cooked their meals and hung out in the evenings. They left behind china coffee cups, cigarette butts and a glass jar of tomatoes. Rubbish and green army ration packs were strewn around. “They had a radio transmission set with antennae and used a storeroom to keep their mortars,” he said.
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Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 5.30pm in the newly liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, and here is a summary of the major developments in the war against Ukraine so far today.
Ukraine is carrying out “stabilisation measures” near the city of Kherson after it was retaken by Ukrainian forces, as people across the country on Saturday awoke from a night of jubilant celebrating following what has been described as a “historic day” for Kyiv and perhaps the most important strategic breakthrough since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
After an eight-month occupation, hundreds of citizens flooded the streets this morning, reaching out to greet and embrace Ukrainian soldiers and the first foreign journalists on the scene. However, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy cautioned that while special military units had reached Kherson city, a full deployment to reinforce the advance troops was still under way – a reminder that about 70% of the Kherson region remains under Russian control.
Zelenskiy declared the city to be “ours” and that it was a “historic” day for the country, after Russia announced the completion of its withdrawal from the regional capital. In a statement on his Telegram page, he said people in Kherson never gave up hope on Ukraine, adding: “Hope for Ukraine is always justified – and Ukraine always returns its own.”
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson has told the BBC that Ukraine’s forces are almost in full control of Kherson.
Russia said more than 30,000 service personnel had been withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. The defence ministry said its evacuation had been completed by 5am Moscow time on Friday. The ministry said there was no military hardware or soldiers left on the western side of the river.
However, reports have emerged of some Russian troops being left behind in Ukraine and changing into civilian clothes, or drowning trying to escape. The Ukrainian ministry of defence’s intelligence unit has urged Russian soldiers to surrender.
The Antonivskiy Bridge, the only nearby road crossing from the city of Kherson to the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro River, has been blown up. There was significant new damage to the nearby major Nova Kakhovka dam after the withdrawal, and footage emerged of explosions at the location.
Alexander Fomin, one of the members of the Russian-imposed administration in occupied Kherson oblast, has said Henichesk has been declared the temporary administrative capital of Kherson. The region is one of the areas that the Russian Federation has claimed to have annexed. He said: “All the main authorities are concentrated there.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met at the Asean summit in Cambodia. “There were very few who believed that Ukraine would survive,” Kuleba said. “This is coming, and our victory will be our joint victory – a victory of all peace-loving nations across the world”. Blinken hailed the “remarkable courage” of Ukraine’s military and people, and vowed that US support “will continue for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.
Britain said Russia’s withdrawal from the only regional capital in Ukraine that it had captured since its invasion began in February was another humiliation for its army, but that Moscow continued to pose a threat. “Russia’s announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them,” the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said in a statement on Saturday. “In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson. Now, with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: ‘What was it all for?’,” Wallace said.
Russia has restated its insistence on unhindered access to world markets for its food and fertiliser exports after what it called a “thorough exchange of views” with UN officials on Friday in Geneva.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Vershinin, has been quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying talks with UN officials had been useful and detailed but the issue of renewing the Black Sea grain export deal – which expires in one week – had yet to be resolved. Vershinin was quoted as saying that restoring access to the Swift payments system for the agricultural lender Rosselkhozbank was a key issue.
Turkey is committed to seeking a peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday, according to Turkish media. “We are working on how to create a peace corridor here, like we had the grain corridor,” Erdoğan was quoted as telling reporters on a flight from Uzbekistan. The president said he would not be proposing a specific timeframe for any extension of the grain corridor deal, but said he wants it to run “as long as possible”.
The Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Russia has banned the passage of ships loaded outside the Russian Federation through the Kerch Strait to the Sea of Azov.
Russian oligarchs and executives from multiple companies under international sanctions are among the lobbyists attending Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The British graffiti-artist Banksy has unveiled his latest work, on a Ukrainian building damaged by Russian bombing. The anonymous artist from Bristol, whose work sells for millions of pounds, posted a picture on Instagram of the artwork, a gymnast doing a handstand amid debris in Borodianka, a town north of the capital, Kyiv, which was pummelled by Russian bombs and then occupied.
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If you had not seen it yet, footage published on the Russian Izvestiya news site shows the moment a huge blast rocked the Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson region. Debris can be seen flying off the dam while a fire burns. The retreating Russian army has blown up all major infrastructure in Kherson province, and there are no longer any fixed crossing points between the liberated right bank of the Dnipro River and the occupied left, including the city of Nova Kakhovka.
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Ukrainian police officers and TV and radio services have returned to the southern city of Kherson after the withdrawal of Russian troops, part of fast but cautious efforts to make the only regional capital captured by Moscow’s forces liveable again after more than eight months under occupation, Hanna Arhirova reports for Associated Press.
The chief of the National Police of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that about 200 officers were at work in the city, setting up checkpoints and documenting evidence of possible war crimes.
Police teams were working to identify and neutralise unexploded ordnance, with one sapper being injured while demining an administrative building, Klymenko said.
Ukraine’s communications watchdog said national TV and radio broadcasts had resumed in the city, and an adviser to Kherson’s mayor said humanitarian aid and supplies had begun to arrive from the neighbouring Mykolaiv region.
Speaking on Ukrainian TV, the adviser, Roman Holovnya, described the situation in the city as “a humanitarian catastrophe”. He said the remaining residents lacked water, medicine and food. Bread, he said, went unbaked because a lack of electricity.
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Ukrainian journalist Ostap Yaryshhas has posted a video clip of crowds celebrating in liberated Kherson, and made the point that Russia had claimed that the people in the region had overwhelmingly voted in favour of annexation into the Russian Federation in the “referendum” that the Russian-imposed authorities in occupied Ukraine carried out.
🇺🇦Liberated Kherson. According to Kremlin propaganda, these people overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to join Russia. pic.twitter.com/lRBvMyKoXh
— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) November 12, 2022
Russia’s deputy foreign minster, Sergei Vershinin, has been quoted by state news agency Tass as saying talks with UN officials in Geneva on Friday had been useful and detailed but the issue of renewing the Black Sea grain export deal – which expires in one week – had yet to be resolved.
Reuters reports Vershinin was quoted as saying that restoring access to the Swift payments system for the agricultural lender Rosselkhozbank was a key issue.
“Without that, of course, we simply cannot move forward,” he said, adding that Russia had been assured by the UN officials that “they also consider this issue to be vital”.
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Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, is also in Cambodia for the Asean summit.
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Luke Harding reports from the Kherson region for the Guardian:
Following its humiliating retreat, the Kremlin announced that it was shifting the “capital” of Kherson’s pro-Russian regional government to Henichesk, a port city on the Sea of Azov. In spring, Moscow erected a statue of Lenin on a plinth outside the municipal town hall.
The Russian military was scrambling to move its vulnerable assets away from the new frontline across the Dnipro river. Ukraine’s army is now able to target Russian weapons dumps and logistics hubs in the far south of Kherson province, towards the Crimean peninsula.
Telegram channels reported that the Russian air force was transferring its helicopters from an airfield in the town of Chaplinka, where they have been based for eight months, to safer locations. US-supplied high-precision Himars artillery systems have a range of about 90km - putting Chaplinka within range for the first time.
Since the summer, Ukraine has used the long-range system to devastating effect, destroying Kherson’s Antonivskyi bridge during Russia’s occupation, and choking supply routes. Yuriy Ignat, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force command, warned Kherson residents on Saturday that they could also come under attack from Russian artillery and airstrikes.
The enemy could unleash all types of weapons in multiple directions, he said, adding that air raid sirens would be broadcast from loudspeakers. Basic services were being restored, meanwhile, in parts of the city. The Ukrainian energy company DTEK said some liberated settlements in the wider Kherson region would get their power back from next week.
It added that Kherson itself would be reconnected to the grid later, possibly within a month. At the moment the city is without electricity. It has no internet and only a limited mobile connection. On Saturday, a wifi hotspot was set up next to the main bus-station using a satellite dish, with passersby able to log on.
Groups of residents repainted the city’s imposing concrete city signs in blue and yellow. Others chanted slogans outside the main administration building. They included “Putin is a prick” – a popular refrain which originated with football supporters in Kharkiv – and “ZSU”, the initials of Ukraine’s armed forces.
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Ruth Michaelson and Patrick Greenfield report for the Guardian:
Russian oligarchs and executives from multiple companies under international sanctions are among the lobbyists attending Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Among those at the pivotal climate talks are the billionaire and former aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is under UK sanctions, and the billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, the former head of the Russian fertiliser company the EuroChem group, who has been targeted with individual sanctions by the European Union which he disputed, calling them “absurd and nonsensical”.
The Gas giant Gazprom has sent six delegates to the talks, alongside the managing director of Sberbank. Both are under US and EU sanctions. Representatives from the oil company Lukoil, the mining company Severstal, and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works are also in attendance, all of which are under US sanctions.
The Oil and gas company Tatneft, currently sanctioned by the EU, sent three lobbyists to the climate talks, according to data compiled by the organisations Corporate Accountability, Global Witness and Corporate Europe Observatory. The Russian delegation includes the metallurgical companies Severstal and NLMK Group, part of an industry that has faced sanctions by the EU.
The Cop27 climate talks have been coloured in large part by debates about how the world should adapt to a shortage of Russian gas supplies. This follows months of fears in Europe around energy shortages stemming from Moscow’s decision to abruptly halt gas supplies to Europe, in response to international sanctions because of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Read more of Ruth Michaelson and Patrick Greenfield’s report here: Russian oligarchs and companies under sanctions are among lobbyists at Cop27
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Journalist Kateryna Malofieieva has arrived in Kherson and has posted pictures from the centre of town where people appear to be on the streets celebrating liberation.
In #Kherson. pic.twitter.com/wCSv0v7LTO
— Kateryna Malofieieva (@KatyaMalofeyeva) November 12, 2022
#Kherson now. pic.twitter.com/TR81YKQcSs
— Kateryna Malofieieva (@KatyaMalofeyeva) November 12, 2022
The Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Russia has banned the passage of ships loaded outside the Russian Federation through the Kerch Strait to the Sea of Azov. Tass cited the ministry of transport in Turkey for the information.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has tweeted after his meeting with US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, today, saying:
I emphasised that when we see Kherson residents greeting their liberators with tears of joy, we also feel grateful to the US and the American people for all the support. I thanked the US for upcoming decisions to send us more of advanced military equipment.
Met with @SecBlinken. I emphasized that when we see Kherson residents greeting their liberators with tears of joy, we also feel grateful to the US and the American people for all the support. I thanked the US for upcoming decisions to send us more of advanced military equipment. pic.twitter.com/HFGa9wsEgv
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) November 12, 2022
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The Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk has described the scenes in Kherson as “moving” and “historic” as “thousands of people flock to the streets to celebrate”. She tweeted:
They were hiding their Ukrainian flags for eight months because they could have been executed by Russians for that, but they never gave up their Ukrainian spirit.
Another Ukrainian journalist, Iryna Matviyishyn, has also commented on the situation, and the video footage of reporters being greeted in newly liberated Kherson, saying:
Can you imagine life of these people under Russia, if Ukraine gave up on its occupied territories, as some in the west wish? They’re thanking and hugging a journalist in tears, asking ‘“just don’t leave us anymore!”. Freedom is worth all the effort.
Can you imagine life of these people under Russia, if Ukraine gave up on its occupied territories, as some in the west wish? They’re thanking and hugging a journalist in tears, asking «just don’t leave us anymore! » Freedom is worth all the effort
— Iryna Matviyishyn (@IMatviyishyn) November 12, 2022
pic.twitter.com/oNnI0TyrOe
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Britain said Russia’s withdrawal from the only regional capital in Ukraine that it had captured since its invasion began in February was another humiliation for its army but Moscow continued to pose a threat.
“Russia’s announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them,” the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said in a statement on Saturday.
“In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson. Now, with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: ‘What was it all for?’,” Wallace said.
Reuters reports Wallace said Russia’s army had suffered a huge loss of life in exchange for international isolationism and humiliation, and Ukraine would press on with support from Britain and the international community.
“And while the withdrawal is welcome, no one is going to underestimate the continuing threat posed by the Russian Federation,” he concluded.
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AFP is carrying some quotes from the meeting between Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Cambodia.
“There were very few who believed that Ukraine would survive,” Kuleba said. “This is coming, and our victory will be our joint victory – a victory of all peace-loving nations across the world.”
Blinken hailed the “remarkable courage” of Ukraine’s military and people and vowed that US support “will continue for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.
Kuleba however warned that Kyiv still sees “Russia mobilising more conscripts and bringing more weapons to Ukraine” and called for the western world’s continued support.
Celebrations continue in Ukraine over the liberation of the city of Kherson. In Odesa a newlywed couple from Kherson have celebrated by holding a Ukrainian flag as they kiss, and in Kyiv there are people on the streets with flags, singing songs and drinking sparkling wine.
My colleague Luke Harding tweets from Ukraine:
The retreating Russian army has blown up all major infrastructure in Kherson province including the bridge over the Kakhovka hydro-electric dam. There are now no fixed crossing points between the liberated right-bank and the occupied left, including the city of Nova Kakhovka.
The retreating #Russian army has blown up all major infrastructure in Kherson province including the bridge over the #Kakhovka hydro-electric dam. There are now no fixed crossing points between the liberated right-bank and the occupied left, including the city of Nova Kakhovka pic.twitter.com/GDXTZJcUK7
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) November 12, 2022
Russia has restated its insistence on unhindered access to world markets for its food and fertiliser exports after what it called a “thorough exchange of views” with UN officials on Friday in Geneva.
Reuters reports that in a statement, the Russian foreign ministry did not address the question of whether Moscow is ready to renew the Black Sea initiative agreed in July that allowed Ukraine to resume grains exports. The deal expires on 19 November.
The UN says 10 million tonnes of grain and other foods have been exported from Ukraine under the agreement, helping to stave off a global food crisis.
But Russia has repeatedly complained its own grain and fertiliser shipments, though not directly targeted by western sanctions, are effectively blocked because the sanctions cut shippers’ access to finance, insurance and ports.
The statement from Moscow said Ukrainian grain shipments and the “normalisation” of Russia’s own farm exports were integral parts of a single package of measures to ensure global food security.
In its readout of Friday’s talks, it added: “It was confirmed that only ensuring unhindered access of Russian food and fertilisers to world markets would make it possible to achieve firm price stabilisation and guarantee the future harvest.”
A UN statement on Friday said the participants “remain engaged in the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and held constructive discussions on its continuation”.
CNN’s Nic Robertson has filed a report from the newly liberated city of Kherson – or at least tried to while being interrupted by the crowds around him bursting into defiantly joyous song. In between the singing, he said:
This is just a moment of euphoria, just a moment of celebration, where people can come into the square and show their flags. Remember, back at the beginning of the war, this was the city that tried to resist. They had protests. This is what liberation feels like. The people of this city tried to resist the Russians, the Russians suppressed them. This is what Ukrainians are like when that suppression comes off.
"This is what liberation looks like, this is what liberation feels like"
— CNN (@CNN) November 12, 2022
Euphoric crowds burst into song as @NicRobertsonCNN reports from the newly liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson https://t.co/NYXB86MGic pic.twitter.com/MsKyeGjSe9
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is in Cambodia to attend the Asean summit, where he has voiced some words of caution about what Ukraine might find as it liberates Kherson. The AP quotes him saying:
Every time we liberate a piece of our territory, when we enter a city liberated from the Russian army, we find torture rooms and mass graves with civilians tortured and murdered by [the] Russian army in the course of the occupation of these territories. It is not easy to speak with people like this. But I said that every war ends with diplomacy and Russia has to approach talks in good faith.
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Overnight the Daily Telegraph carried some quotes from residents in newly liberated Kherson city. They reported:
Alina Shapoval, a Kherson resident, was overjoyed at the news of the Russian retreat: “I am overwhelmed with emotions, I am infinitely happy!”
“Soon I will be able to see everyone from whom I have been separated for a long time,” she told the Telegraph.
Another resident of the city, Viktoria, said she was suspicious of the sudden Russian withdrawal.
“I want to celebrate, but something tells me it is not over yet,” she said. “The Russians can’t be giving up so easily, not after everything that has happened.
“I am scared for the winter and worry the city will become a battle ground. We will be in the firing line.”
The few residents that remained in Kherson during the lengthy occupation endured curfews, food shortages, partisan warfare and a brutal campaign to force them to become Russian citizens.
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Russia’s defence ministry has been issuing video footage and photos today of soldiers in training. A clip taken in the Stavropol region shows mobilised personnel being trained to use drones to carry out reconnaissance and to adjust artillery and mortar fire. It says: “The mobilised personnel have consolidated their skills” and describes them as “irreplaceable professionals”. Analysts have suggested Russia will face a struggle to defend positions in Ukraine using conscripted forces.
Another video shows Russian troops attending artillery and combat training at a Belarusian military firing range. Belarus borders Ukraine to the north and was used as a launchpad for Russia’s failed attempt to capture Kyiv in the early days of the invasion.
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Joe Biden has thanked Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, for his critical remarks about the war in Ukraine. Reuters reports Biden made his comments as he was due to meet Cambodia’s long-serving leader.
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This satellite image from Maxar Technologies appears to show the significant damage done to the Antonovskiy bridge in Kherson as Russia retreated from the city.
The bridge is of great strategic importance as it is one of very few crossings over the Dnipro to the southern portion of Kherson oblast on the left bank of the river which Russia still occupies.
Sky’s foreign correspondent Alex Rossi and his team appear to be the first foreign journalists to reach the city of Kherson since it was re-taken by Ukrainian forces, marking a “historic day” for Kyiv and perhaps the most important strategic breakthrough for the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Rossi was welcomed by crowds of euphoric Ukrainian civilians in the outskirts of the city, following the withdrawal of Russian troops.
BREAKING: Sky’s international correspondent @alexrossiSKY is welcomed by crowds of Ukrainian civilians as Sky News team are the first foreign journalists to reach the liberated city of Kherson.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 12, 2022
Live updates: https://t.co/X3flQUBL0r
📺 Sky 501, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/lGhmgzXkMA
For Russia, the liberation of Kherson marked the latest, and most serious, of a string of battlefield defeats amid widely circulated images of Russian infantry hurrying to escape over a soon-to be-destroyed pontoon across the Dnipro River in the morning mist. Russia’s defence ministry said it had withdrawn about 30,000 troops.
The retreat comes six weeks after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had announced the “annexation” of Kherson and three other regions at a high-profile ceremony in Moscow.
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Turkey is committed to seeking a peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday, according to Turkish media.
“We are working on how to create a peace corridor here, like we had the grain corridor,” Erdoğan was quoted as telling reporters on a flight from Uzbekistan.
The president said he would not be proposing a specific timeframe for any extension of the grain corridor deal – which expires at the end of next week – but said he wants it to run “as long as possible”.
Erdoğan also praised Russia’s resistance to pressure from the United States and its allies, Reuters reports. He is quoted as saying: “Russia is not an ordinary state, it is a powerful state. Of course, the west, especially America, is attacking Russia almost without limits. Against all this, of course, Russia is resisting.”
Russia commenced its latest invasion of Ukraine in February, and has claimed to have annexed four regions of occupied Ukraine into the Russian Federation.
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The British graffiti-artist Banksy has unveiled his latest work, on a Ukrainian building damaged by Russian bombing.
The anonymous artist from Bristol, whose work sells for millions of pounds, posted a picture on Instagram of the artwork, a gymnast doing a handstand amid debris in Borodianka, a town north of the capital Kyiv, which was pummelled by Russian bombs and then occupied.
Speculation had been mounting that Banksy was in the country after a series of murals appeared in its cities, including Kyiv.
Another mural in Borodianka, not officially confirmed by the artist, depicts a man resembling Vladimir Putin – a noted admirer of the martial arts – being flipped by a child during a judo match.
Another showed two children using a metal tank trap as a seesaw.
Bansky posted three images of the mural on Instagram with the caption simply reading “Borodyanka, Ukraine”.
Russian troops, rolling in from the Belarusian border, 200 miles north, invaded the town at the beginning of the war in February. Borodianka, together with Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, was one of the towns hardest hit by Russia’s bombardments, before being was liberated in April. Ukrainian investigators found dozens of mass graves where the bodies of civilians, tortured and killed, had been buried. Moscow had unleashed cluster munitions, cluster bombs, and extremely powerful unguided bombs in the populated areas of Borodianka, destroying dozens of buildings.
Since then, the town has been the focus of reconstruction efforts, with several tower blocks demolished as a result of damage caused by the fighting.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is in Cambodia where, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Phnom Penh, he has met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken.
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Henichesk declared new 'temporary administrative capital' of occupied Kherson
The state-owned Russian news agency Tass is reporting that Alexander Fomin, one of the members of the Russian-imposed administration in occupied Kherson oblast, has said Henichesk has been declared the temporary administrative capital of Kherson. The region is one of the areas that the Russian Federation has claimed to have annexed.
He said: “All the main authorities are concentrated there.”
Henichesk, a port city on the sea of Azov, has been occupied since 27 February. It is very close to the border with the Crimea region, but a significant distance from Kherson city and the Dnipro River.
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The Russian-imposed authorities in occupied Luhansk claim three civilians have been injured by Ukrainian shelling. The Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reports that the local administration posted on Telegram that the incident occurred in the city of Kadiivka. The claims have not been independently verified. Luhansk is one of the regions of Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed.
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its intelligence update on how it sees the situation in Ukraine. It claims it is likely the Russians began their withdrawal from the city of Kherson on 22 October, and that it is likely Russian forces have destroyed bridges across the Dnipro in the process. The intelligence briefing states:
On 11 November 2022, Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed their withdrawal from Kherson had been completed. Russian forces highly likely destroyed road and rail bridges over the Dnipro River as part of this process. The completion of the withdrawal came only two days after its announcement. It is likely that the withdrawal process had already started as early as 22 October 2022 when Russian-installed figures in Kherson urged civilians to leave the city. There is a realistic possibility that Russian military equipment and forces in civilian attire had been evacuating in conjunction with the 80,000 stated evacuated civilians in recent weeks.
Saying that the withdrawal brings “significant reputational damage” to Russia, the briefing goes on to say:
It is likely that Ukraine has retaken large areas of Kherson oblast on the west bank of the Dnipro River, and that its forces are now largely in control of Kherson city itself. It is likely that Russia is still attempting to evacuate forces from other areas of the oblast across the river to defensible positions on the east bank.
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Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of Sumy, has posted to Telegram to warn residents of the north-eastern region of Ukraine that power blackouts today “may start a little earlier than the schedule and last longer”.
He appealed to people to “treat it with understanding. These are forced steps to keep the balance in the power system.”
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Here are some images that have been sent to us over the newswires from the village of Blahodatne, retaken by the Ukrainian armed forces a day ago.
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UN grain talks with Russia remain stalled
United Nations chiefs have held talks with Russian officials about the Black Sea agreements for exporting grain and fertilisers, eight days before one of the deals is set to expire.
The discussions took place behind closed doors in Geneva, wrapping up on Friday afternoon.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers, and the Russian invasion had blocked 20m tonnes of grain in its ports until the safe passage deal was agreed.
Two agreements brokered by the UN and Turkey were signed on 22 July.
The first was to allow the export of Ukrainian grain blocked by Russia’s war in the country; the second was to allow the export of Russian food and fertilisers despite western sanctions imposed on Moscow after its invasion.
The 120-day Black Sea Grain Initiative runs out on 19 November, and the UN is seeking to renew it for one year.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, on Saturday accused Russian inspectors of “quiet sabotage”, saying they were intentionally dragging their feet over allowing shipments through.
“Russia should – must – stop playing hunger games with the world,” he said.
Moscow, however, has not yet said whether it will agree to renew any deal.
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The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Saturday that the “war goes on” after the success of retaking the city of Kherson.
Speaking at the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit in Cambodia, Kuleba said the fight to liberate the country would continue.
“We are winning battles on the ground. But the war continues,” he told reporters in Phnom Penh.
Earlier, Kuleba said he understood that “everyone wants this war to end as soon as possible. We are definitely the ones who want that more than anyone else … But as long as the war continues, and we see Russia mobilising more conscripts and bringing more weapons to Ukraine, of course we will continue to count on your continued support”.
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White House hails Ukraine’s ‘extraordinary victory’ in Kherson
The White House on Saturday hailed what it said appeared to be an “extraordinary victory” for Ukraine in recapturing the city of Kherson from Russian occupiers, AFP reported.
Speaking to reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the Asean summit in Cambodia, the national security adviser Jake Sullivan said:
It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag – and that is quite a remarkable thing.
Sullivan said the Russian retreat would have “broader strategic implications”, including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities, such as Odesa.
It’s a big moment and it’s due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
I’m Christine Kearney and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments. It’s about 9am in Kyiv, here’s where things stand:
Ukrainians in Kherson city are celebrating after the arrival of Ukrainian soldiers to recapture the city. In extraordinary scenes, jubilant crowds have been seen welcoming soldiers in the southern Ukrainian city after progress made by the armed forces in recent days continued. Ukrainian forces have liberated 41 settlements as they advanced through the south, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
A Ukrainian flag has been raised in Svobody Square, near the headquarters for the regional administration for the first time since the city fell to Russia on 2 March. Another is being flown outside the city’s national police headquarters.
Zelenskiy declared the city to be “ours” and that it was a “historic” day for the country, after Russia announced the completion of its withdrawal from the regional capital. In a statement on his Telegram page, he said that people in Kherson never gave up hope on Ukraine, adding: “Hope for Ukraine is always justified – and Ukraine always returns its own.”
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson has told the BBC that Ukraine’s forces are almost in full control of Kherson.
Russia said more than 30,000 service personnel have been withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. The defence ministry said that its evacuation had been completed by 5am Moscow time on Friday. The ministry said there was no military hardware or soldiers left on the western side of the river.
However, reports have emerged of some Russian troops being left behind in Ukraine and changing into civilian clothes, or drowning trying to escape. The Ukrainian ministry of defence’s intelligence unit has urged Russian soldiers to surrender.
The White House on Saturday hailed what it said appeared to be an “extraordinary victory” for Ukraine in recapturing the city of Kherson from Russian occupiers, AFP reported.“It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag – and that is quite a remarkable thing,” the national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Saturday that the “war goes on” after the success of retaking the city of Kherson. Speaking at a south-east Asian summit in Cambodia, Kuleba said the fight to liberate the country would carry on: “We are winning battles on the ground. But the war continues,” he told reporters in Phnom Penh.
The Antonivskiy Bridge, the only nearby road crossing from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro River, has been blown up. There was significant new damage to the nearby major Nova Kakhovka dam after the withdrawal, US satellite imagery company Maxar said.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general is investigating the discovery of three bodies found in the Kherson region who it suspected were victims of war crimes.
Russian attacks on electrical facilities are having a disproportionate effect on civilians in Ukraine, including an indiscriminate impact on critical functions, such as healthcare and heating, according to the latest evaluation by the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
Ukraine is building a wall at its northern border with neighbour Belarus, a key ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The concrete wall is already 3km long.
Forty-five Ukrainian soldiers have been freed in a prisoner exchange with Russia and the bodies of two killed Ukrainian soldiers have also been repatriated, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office has said.
The United Nations has wrapped up talks for the week with Russian officials in Geneva, yet to finalise an agreement to export grain from Ukraine via the Black Sea.
The UN nuclear watchdog says an investigation of a research plant in the city of Kharkiv found it was badly damaged, but there were no signs of a radiological release or diversion of nuclear material.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Germany’s priority in its aid to Ukraine should be to help it defend itself from Russian air raids on its cities and to help it rebuild its infrastructure.
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