Russian ‘General Armageddon’ admits situation is tense for his troops in Ukraine
Artillery shelling hit the outskirts of town and there were 10 strikes around a thermal power plant, he said Wednesday in the Telegram messaging app.
Loading
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield report.
Ukraine and Russia deny targeting civilians, but Ukraine has accused Russian forces of war crimes.
International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said he would return to Ukraine “soon” amid negotiations to set up a safe zone around the Zaporizhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The Zaporizhia plant is located in one of four regions of Ukraine that Russia has declared annexed but only partially occupies, the remaining three being the eastern border regions of Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk. Together they are known as Donbass.
President Vladimir Putin declared them full-fledged regions of Russia after Moscow implemented what he called a referendum in September.
Since Russian troops entered the Ukrainian border on February 24 in what Putin called a “special military operation,” the conflict has largely turned into a war of attrition in the east and south.
Russian positions in Kupyansk and Raiman in eastern Ukraine and the area between Mykolaiv and Kriviri in Kherson Oblast were under constant attacks, Slovikhin said.
He appears to have acknowledged the danger of Ukrainian forces marching towards the city of Kherson near the mouth of the Dnipro river on the west bank. Russia occupied the city early in the invasion, and it remains the only major Ukrainian city occupied unscathed by Moscow forces.
Russian-backed officials have warned that a Ukrainian attack may be imminent.
Vladimir Saldo, head of the Kherson region where Russia is stationed, said the decision was made to evacuate some civilians from four towns due to the danger of an attack by Ukrainian forces.
“The Ukrainian side is building up its forces in preparation for a major offensive,” Sardo said in a video statement. Russian forces were preparing to repel the attack and “there is no place for civilians where the military operates,” he said.
rain of missiles and drones
Last week, Russia unleashed its largest wave of missile strikes against Ukraine since the start of its invasion.
Putin launched airstrikes with missiles and drones in retaliation for the explosion that destroyed Russia’s bridge to Crimea.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bridge explosion, but celebrated it.
Ukraine has asked UN experts to investigate whether it shot down an Iranian-made drone used by Russia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The US, UK and France plan to raise allegations of Iran’s arms transfer to Russia at a closed-door Security Council meeting on Wednesday, diplomats said.
Russia’s reliance on Iranian-made drones exposes Russia as “bankrupt from a military and political point of view,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Tuesday evening.
Ukraine accuses Russia of using Iranian-made Shahed-136 ‘kamikaze drones’. Iran denies supplying them and the Kremlin denies using them.
But two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Tehran had promised to provide Russia with more drones and surface-to-surface missiles.
Russia destroyed almost a third of Ukraine’s power plants last week, Zelensky said.
Russia has targeted more than 10 areas in the past 24 hours, Zelensky said in a speech, urging Ukrainians to reduce their electricity consumption in the evening.
Reuters
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/russia-s-general-armageddon-admits-situation-is-tense-for-his-forces-in-ukraine-20221019-p5br61.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_world Russian ‘General Armageddon’ admits situation is tense for his troops in Ukraine