1. Kherson nonetheless ‘a part of Russia’ and withdrawal ‘now not an embarrassment’ — Kremlin
Moscow nonetheless considers all of the Kherson area together with its capital to be a part of Russia in spite of the withdrawal of the Russian military, the Kremlin stated on Friday.
Kherson and 3 different Ukrainian areas have been declared to belong to Russia after native “referendums” have been held in September – votes that have been denounced through Kyiv and Western governments as unlawful and coercive.
The Kherson area “is a subject of the Russian Federation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated. “There can be no change.”
His feedback got here as Russia’s defence ministry stated that its troops had finished their pullout from town — a transfer introduced on Wednesday — redeploying them to the left financial institution of the Dnipro River.
Peskov refuted feedback that the withdrawal used to be humiliating for President Vladimir Putin. “No”, he stated when challenged. “The special military operation continues.”
The spokesman added that the Kremlin didn’t remorseful about keeping a festive rite greater than a month in the past to have fun the incorporation of Kherson and 3 different Ukrainian areas into Russia.
He redirected all different questions in regards to the withdrawal to the defence ministry.
Peskov additionally stated that Putin’s absence from the impending G20 summit in Indonesia is expounded to his necessity to be in Russia.
2. Zelenskyy says new US army support ‘simply what we would have liked’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed Washington’s announcement of some other batch of American army support. In his day by day video cope with past due on Thursday, the Ukrainian president stated the brand new US air defence techniques are “just what we needed, what we asked for”.
The United States will ship $400 million (€389 million) extra in army support to Ukraine, US officers stated previous.
It comes amid considerations that monetary help for the battle in opposition to Russia may decline if Republicans take regulate of Congress. Counting remains to be ongoing after Tuesday’s US midterm elections.
The Pentagon says the help package deal will include massive quantities of ammunition and, for the primary time, 4 extremely cell Avenger air defence techniques. Included is ammunition for HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems), which Ukraine has been effectively the usage of in its counteroffensive in opposition to Russia.
There additionally can be Stinger missiles for the Avenger gadget, missiles for the Hawk surface-to-air anti-aircraft gadget, 10,000 mortar rounds, 1000’s of artillery rounds for howitzers, 400 grenade launchers, 100 Humvees, chilly climate tools and 20 million rounds of ammunition for smaller, particular person weapons and rifles.
“This increased air defence will be critical for Ukraine as Russia continues to use cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones to attack critical civilian infrastructure,” said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said she did not know when the systems would get to Ukraine or how long the training would take.
The US will buy 100,000 rounds of howitzer artillery from South Korean manufacturers to provide to Ukraine, a US official said on Thursday, in a deal the two governments have been working on for some time.
3. UN begins talks with Russia on Black Sea grains deal
Talks between a Russian delegation and senior United Nations officials to address Moscow’s grievances about the Black Sea grains export initiative began in Geneva on Friday, a UN spokesperson said.
The negotiations come just eight days before the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July is due to be renewed. The accord has helped stave off a global food crisis by allowing the export of food and fertilisers from several of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Moscow has indicated that it is prepared to quit the deal, which could expire on 19 November, if progress is not made on its concerns. Russia suspended its participation in late October but rejoined after four days.
It said it was responding to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that it blamed on Ukraine. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility and denies using the grain programme’s security corridor for military purposes.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths, who heads talks on Ukrainian exports, and senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan, were meeting with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin at the UN office in Geneva, a UN spokesperson said.
“This discussion, it is hoped, should advance progress made in facilitating the unimpeded export of food and fertilisers originating from the Russian Federation to the global markets,” Alessandra Vellucci told a news briefing.
Vellucci made no mention of whether an extension of the pact was on the agenda.
4. Wagner to train militias and build fortifications ‘to defend Russia’
The head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group said on Friday that his organisation is to train militias and build fortifications in two regions bordering Ukraine in order to “defend” Russia.
The new activities have begun in Belgorod and Kursk, Yevgeny Prigozhin was quoted by his company’s Concord press service as saying. The Russian regions have been regularly hit in recent months by strikes which Moscow has blamed on the Ukrainian army.
“He who wants peace, prepares for war. You must always be ready to defend your land,” Prigozhin added.
Since 2014, Wagner mercenaries have been accused of serving the interests of Vladimir Putin’s regime in numerous conflict zones, ranging from Syria to Ukraine, Africa and South America.
In recent months, the group has been actively supporting the Russian army in its war against Ukraine. It has been accused of going around Russia’s prisons recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine in exchange for reduced sentences.
Prigozhin — known as “Putin’s chef” for hosting dinners attended by the Russian leader and other Kremlin officials — admitted in September founding the paramilitary organisation after years of denial. This week he also boasted of having conducted electioneering operations in the US.
He is now operating openly in Russia, amid a military mobilisation in the country after the Russian army’s defeats on the front line. A new headquarters of the Wagner “Private Military Company” was recently opened with great fanfare in a large glass building in St Petersburg.
5. Environmental toll from war will ‘take years to clean up’
Environmental damage from the eight-month-old war with Russia is mounting in more of the country, with experts warning of long-term consequences.
Moscow’s attacks on fuel depots have released toxins into the air and groundwater, threatening biodiversity, climate stability and the health of the population.
Because of the war, more than six million Ukrainians have limited or no access to clean water, and more than 280,000 hectares (nearly 692,000 acres) of forests have been destroyed or felled, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The war has caused more than $37 billion (€35.9 billion) in environmental damage, according to the Audit Chamber, a nongovernmental group in the country.
“This pollution caused by the war will not go away. It will have to be solved by our descendants, to plant forests, or to clean the polluted rivers,” stated Dmytro Averin, an environmental skilled with Zoi Environment Network, a non-profit group based totally in Switzerland.
The harm has unfold in other places from the hardest-hit business japanese areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, the place preventing has been happening since 2014.
“In addition to combat casualties, war is also hell on people’s health, physically and mentally,” stated Rick Steiner, a US environmental scientist. The well being affect from infected water and publicity to toxins unleashed through warfare “may take years to manifest”, he stated.
In contemporary weeks, Russia has focused energy crops and waterworks. But even in July, the UN’s environmental authority already used to be caution of vital harm to water infrastructure.
A soon-to-be-published paper through the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a British charity, and the Zoi Environment Network, discovered proof of air pollution at a pond after a Russian missile hit a gasoline depot in Kalynivka, about 30 kilometres southwest of Kyiv.
The pond, used for sport in addition to a fish farm, confirmed a prime focus of gasoline oil and lifeless fish at the floor — it seems that from oil that had seeped into the water. A replica of the file used to be observed through the Associated Press.
Nitrogen dioxide, which is launched through burning fossil fuels, larger in spaces west and southwest of Kyiv, consistent with an April file from REACH, a humanitarian analysis initiative.
Ukraine’s agriculture sector, a key a part of its economic system, additionally has been affected. Fires have broken plants and cattle, burned 1000’s of hectares of woodland and averted farmers from finishing the harvest, stated Serhiy Zibtsev, a forestry professor at Ukraine’s National University of Life and Environmental Sciences.
“The fires are so massive,” he said, adding that farmers “lost everything they were harvesting for winter.”
