Pro-Russian authorities on Saturday (October 22) ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” before an expected advance by Ukrainian troops, in the midst of a counter-offensive to retake this territory. . On Friday, Ukrainian forces shelled Russian positions across the region, targeting supply routes. For its part, the Russian army is massively targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and depriving hundreds of thousands of homes of electricity. In kyiv, these power cuts alternately affect the different districts of the capital.
- Power cuts imposed in kyiv after Russian strikes
The national operator Ukrenergo proceeded, this Sunday, to power cuts in kyiv, to “stabilize” the supply of electricity, after repeated Russian strikes targeting the country’s infrastructure, we learned from the private supplier of Ukrainian electricity DTEK. He specifies that these cuts alternately affect the different districts of the capital divided into three groups.
They should not last more than four hours, DTEK said in a press release published on its site, without however excluding slightly longer durations “due to the extent of the damage”. DTEK again called on residents to use electricity sparingly and businesses to limit their use of outdoor lighting.
- Pro-Russian authorities call on civilians to leave Kherson ‘immediately’
Pro-Russian authorities in Russia’s annexed Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Saturday called on civilians to leave the regional capital “immediately” in the face of advancing forces from kyiv. “All civilian residents of Kherson must immediately leave the city,” the occupation administration said on Telegram. She spoke of a “tense situation on the front” and “an increased danger of massive bombardments”.
Evacuations to the left bank of the Dnieper River, which borders Kherson, have been underway since Wednesday. But Saturday’s call takes on added urgency. About 25,000 people have already been evacuated, Kherson official Kirill Stremousov told Russian news agency Interfax on Saturday. If kyiv gains ground, it still suffers heavy reprisals from the air, with Russian rocket fire throughout its territory.
- Ski: the FIS maintains the suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes
The International Ski Federation (FIS) has decided to maintain the suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes from all its competitions, as since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, following its Council held in Sölden, Austria, Friday. “The Council has decided, in order to maintain the integrity of FIS competitions and for the safety of all participants, in line with IOC recommendations, to maintain its policy of not allowing Russian and Belarusian teams to participate in FIS competitions,” the body wrote in a statement.
Already deprived of biathlon by the International Biathlon Union (IBU), the Russians will therefore also remain on the sidelines of the other Olympic snow sports under the aegis of the FIS (Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding). Without much impact in alpine skiing, the participation of Russians remains a major subject in cross-country skiing, a sport in which they had won almost a third of the medals at the last Olympic Games.
- Madrid reinforces the air shield on NATO’s eastern flank with 14 fighter jets
Spain will send “over the next few months” about fifteen fighter planes to Bulgaria and Romania in order to strengthen its military presence on the eastern flank of NATO and thus participate in the strategy of deterrence of the allies against the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Madrid will thus send to Bulgaria, between mid-November and the beginning of December, six Eurofighter combat planes with 130 soldiers, who will carry out “air police training missions”, said a press release from the Spanish Ministry of Defense on Saturday. And from December, until the end of March 2023, another “deployment” is planned in Romania, with eight F18M fighter jets, again with 130 air force men.
- G7 condemns kidnapping of Zaporizhia power plant executives by Russia
The G7 Directors Group on Non-Proliferation has condemned Russia’s kidnapping of executives from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and called for the immediate return of full control of the facility to Ukraine. “We condemn Russia’s repeated abductions of Ukrainian ZNPP leaders and personnel [centrale nucléaire de Zaporijia ], they said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday. We urge Russia to immediately return full control of the ZNPP to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine.”
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy agency accused Russia of detaining two senior plant executives. Energoatom said Russian forces “kidnapped” CIO Oleg Kostyukov and plant deputy general manager Oleg Osheka on Monday and “took them to an unknown destination”. reported Agence France-Presse. Energoatom had called on the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, “to do everything possible” to obtain their release.
- Russian Defense Minister talks on the phone with his French and Turkish counterparts
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke on the phone on Sunday with French Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, and his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian army announced in a statement. During the conversation with Sébastien Lecornu, the Russian minister denounced the situation in Ukraine “which has a tendency to escalate uncontrollably”, according to the press release.
He also told Sébastien Lecornu, like Hulusi Akar, of “his concerns about possible provocations from Ukraine with the use of a ‘dirty bomb'”, according to the same source. On Friday, Sergei Shoigu spoke on the phone with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, for their second conversation since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.