Ukraine latest updates: Conflicting reports of curfew in Kherson
Ukraine news from November 4: Russian-backed official in Kherson backtracks after saying curfew imposed in the city.
- A Russian-installed official in the Ukrainian region of Kherson has said a curfew is not in place in the city, after earlier saying one had been imposed.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin calls on civilians to leave Kherson as Ukrainian forces press ahead with a counteroffensive.
- A Russian-installed official in the Ukrainian region of Kherson has said a curfew is not in place in the city, after earlier saying one had been imposed.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin calls on civilians to leave Kherson as Ukrainian forces press ahead with a counteroffensive.
- Kyiv warns talks of a Russian withdrawal from the southern region’s capital could be a trap.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Friday, November 4:
Basketball star Griner ‘as well as can be expected’ in Russia prison: US
US basketball star Brittney Griner is as well “as can be expected” in a Russian prison, the White House has said after embassy officials were able to visit her.
“She’s doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters travelling with President Joe Biden.
Griner is serving a nine-year sentence handed down in August after she pleaded guilty to possession of a small quantity of cannabis oil in vape cartridges. She said the cannabis was to treat pain from her sporting injuries, but Russia does not allow medical marijuana use.
Ukraine has ‘acute need for air defence’: Sullivan
Ukraine has an “acute need for air defence in this critical moment”, a top adviser to the US president has said on a visit to Kyiv.
“We recognise the acute need for air defence in this critical moment when Russia and Russian forces are raining missiles and Iranian drones down on the civilian infrastructure of this country,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a news conference in Kyiv.
US senior official Sullivan visits Kyiv
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said during a visit to Kyiv that US support to Ukraine would remain “unwavering and unflinching” following Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections.
“We fully intend to ensure that the resources are there as necessary and that we’ll get votes from both sides of the aisle to make that happen,” he told reporters during a briefing at the Ukrainian presidential administration.
G7 seeks to help Ukraine against energy grid attacks: Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the Group of Seven (G7) countries is focusing more of its security support on helping Ukraine defend against Russia’s attacks on its energy grid.
“The G7 agreed to create a new coordination group to help prepare, restore and defend Ukraine’s energy grid, the very grid that President Putin has brutalised,” Blinken said after a two-day G7 meeting in the western German town of Muenster.
Putin trying to ‘freeze Ukraine into submission’: Blinken
Antony Blinken has accused Russia of trying to make up for defeats on the battlefield by aiming attacks at Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving civilians without vital services.
“President [Vladimir] Putin seems to have decided that if he can’t seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze it into submission,” Blinken said after a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Germany.
Four million Ukrainians hit by power cuts: Zelenskyy
About four million people across Ukraine are being affected by rolling power cuts caused by Russia’s air strikes on the country’s electricity infrastructure, according to President Zelenskyy.
“As of this time, many cities and regions of our country use stabilisation blackout schedules,” he said in his evening address.
“We are doing everything so that the state has the opportunity to reduce such blackouts.”
Moscow-installed Kherson official appears to backtrack on curfew announcement
A Moscow-installed official in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region appears to have backtracked shortly after declaring a “round-the-clock curfew”, as a Ukrainian counteroffensive nears the southern city.
“In the city of Kherson, there are absolutely no restrictions that would limit the life of the city,” Kirill Stremousov, the Russia-backed deputy governor of the Kherson region, said on Telegram.
Stremousov’s remarks came about an hour after he posted a video announcing the curfew on the same channel.
How Kyiv copes with blackouts
In Ukraine’s capital, residents are trying to cope with the fallout from recent Russian attacks on critical infrastructure.
Regular but unscheduled and hours-long blackouts have upended lives and as winter approaches, difficulties are rising.
Read more here.
US announces additional $400m of aid for Ukraine
The United States has announced an additional $400m of military aid for Ukraine, including paying for the refurbishment of 45 Czech T-72 tanks to be sent to Kyiv.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said she did not have an exact timeline for the supply of the tanks but expected the first units to be delivered before the end of the year.
She acknowledged that T-72s are “Soviet-era tanks” and were chosen because the Ukrainians had already been trained on them, rather than sending other, more modern tank systems.
Moscow-installed official announces 24 hour curfew in Kherson city
A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Kherson, a Moscow-installed official has said.
Kirill Stremousov, the Russia-backed deputy governor of the Kherson region, said in a video message on Telegram that the measure was necessary “in order to defend our city of Kherson” from what he referred to as “terrorist attacks”.
Stremousov repeated earlier calls for civilians to leave Kherson city, saying columns of Ukrainian vehicles had been spotted in areas of the front line and that an attack was possible.
Ukrainian forces have in recent weeks drawn closer to the city, the only regional capital to fall to Moscow since it launched its invasion on February 24.
Pope slams ‘childlike’ whims of powers that start wars
Pope Francis has told an interfaith summit that religion must never be used to justify violence and urged faith leaders to oppose the “childlike” whims of leaders who make war.
Speaking at a conference on East-West dialogue held in Bahrain, the head of the Catholic Church said the world was on the “brink of a delicate precipice” and warned of a new race to rearm, which he said was redesigning Cold War-era spheres of influence.
Apparently referring to Ukraine, Francis condemned a situation where “a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs”.
“We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario: In the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred,” he said.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which sent an envoy to the conference, has strongly supported the Kremlin in its war and justified it on religious grounds.
G7 creates ‘coordination mechanism’ to help Ukraine repair, defend infrastructure
The G7 group of industrialised nations has agreed to establish a “coordination mechanism” to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure following a two-day meeting in Germany.
“We will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the G7 said in a statement after the group’s foreign ministers held 48 hours of talks in the German town of Muenster.
The G7 – consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – added it was committed to helping Ukraine over the upcoming winter.
The group also warned any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons by Russia would meet severe consequences – accusing it of ” unacceptable” rhetoric over the issue – and reiterated earlier calls for Moscow to end the war.
As inflation rises, could European support for Ukraine wobble?
Europe’s solidarity and commitment towards Kyiv will be tested this winter, and midterm elections in the United States might also have an effect, according to analysts.
Read more here.
Kyiv mayor says 450,000 homes in the capital are without power
About 450,000 residential properties in Kyiv are currently without electricity following Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko has said.
“I appeal to all residents of the capital: Save electricity as much as possible because the situation remains difficult,” Klitschko said in a Telegram post.
Russia has repeatedly carried out missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power facilities, particularly in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s state-owned energy grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that emergency blackouts would be taking place across Kyiv.
‘More than 5,000’ civilians being evacuated from Kherson daily: Russia
Russia’s defence ministry says that “more than 5,000 civilians” are being evacuated from Kherson each day, as Kyiv’s forces press ahead with a counteroffensive in the partly-occupied southern region.
“Military engineers every day transport up to 1,200 civilian vehicles, both trucks and cars, as well as more than 5,000 civilians” to the eastern bank of the Dnieper river, the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine has accused Russia of carrying out illegal “mass deportations” of its people.
Finnish president optimistic Turkey will ratify NATO bid
Finland’s president has said he is “optimistic” Turkey will ratify his country’s application to join NATO.
“I hope it takes place as soon as possible,” Sauli Niinisto told a joint news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Vilnius.
Finland and neighbouring Sweden applied for membership of the transatlantic security alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The process has been prolonged by negotiations between Finland, Sweden and Turkey after Ankara claimed the Nordic countries support groups Turkey deems to be “terrorists”.
Putin says 318,000 reservists mobilised
Russia has drafted 318,000 people into its armed forces following Moscow’s partial mobilisation order in late September, according to the country’s president.
Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying that 49,000 of those drafted were already performing combat missions, with the rest engaged in training.
Putin needs to know intimidation will not work, UK and Poland say
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki have agreed on the need to keep sending a strong message to Russia that “intimidation” will not work, according to the British leader’s office.
Sunak’s office said in a statement that he had told Morawiecki during a call that the United Kingdom was “increasing the capability of its forces, and had increased activity with the Joint Expeditionary Force in the Baltic region” as part of “deterrence efforts across the eastern flank”.
“Both agreed on the need to send a continued strong signal to Putin that intimidation would not work,” the statement added.
Putin says civilians ‘should be removed’ from Kherson
Russia’s president has said that civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kherson must be evacuated from the conflict zone amid a counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces.
“Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer,” Putin was quoted as saying by Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency during a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists.
Putin announced the annexation of Kherson and three other partly-occupied Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia – in September.
The move came after hastily arranged referendums on joining Russia – dismissed as “sham” votes by Kyiv and the West – were held in the four territories.
Erdogan says he and Putin ‘agreed’ to send grains to poor African countries for free
Turkey’s president has said that he and Putin agreed that Russian grains sent under the Black Sea export deal should go to poor African countries for free.
“In my phone call with Vladimir Putin, he said ‘Let’s send this grain to countries such as Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan for free’ – and we agreed,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to businesspeople in Istanbul.
His remarks on Friday came two days after Moscow resumed its participation in the UN and Turkish-brokered grain agreement, ending four days of non-cooperation that still saw exports continue from Ukrainian ports.
Putin has said that even if Russia withdraws from the deal again, it will substitute the entire volume of grain destined for the “poorest countries” for free from its own stocks.
West cannot put China and Russia on ‘the same level’: EU’s top diplomat
Western countries need to reduce their dependencies on China but cannot put the country into one category with Russia, the European Union’s top diplomat has said.
“It is clear that China is consolidating a new era of its external policy, and internal also, [that] China [is] becoming much more assertive, much more on a self-reliant course,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with his G7 counterparts in the German city of Muenster.
“It is clear that we want to reduce our dependencies, we want to address our vulnerabilities, to strengthen our resilience,” he added. “But at the time being, many member states have a strong economic relationship with China and I don’t think we can put China and Russia on the same level.”
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 254
Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 254 of the war in Ukraine.
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Germany’s Scholz calls on China to ‘influence’ Russia over war
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping during the pair’s talks on Friday that he wanted Beijing to use its “influence” on Moscow to stop the war in Ukraine.
“I told President (Xi) that it is important for China to use its influence on Russia,” Scholz said. “Russia must immediately stop the attacks under which the civilian population is suffering daily and withdraw from Ukraine.”
Moscow and Beijing signed a no-limits partnership just days before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, and Russia has sought to forge closer political and economic ties with China in the face of Western sanctions over the war.
Russia ‘probably’ threatening to shoot retreating troops: UK
The United Kingdom’s defence ministry says Russian forces have probably started deploying “barrier troops” or “blocking units” due to low morale and reluctance to fight among Moscow’s troops.
“These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces,” the ministry said in its latest daily intelligence update.
“Recently, Russian generals likely wanted their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorising shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given. Generals also likely wanted to maintain defensive positions to the death,” it added.
“The tactic of shooting deserters likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 04 November 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/CWHuZrKery
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/bYLF2ONZOR
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 4, 2022
Russia-installed official urges Kherson evacuation
The deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in Kherson has urged people to leave the city as Ukrainian troops press to regain control of it.
“To all these people who have ignored all our requests regarding safety and shelling, I want to remind once more that the situation is really not easy,” Kirill Stremousov said in a video posted on Telegram.
Tens of thousands of civilians have already been evacuated from Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, which was captured by Russian forces early in the war.
Stremousov also indicated on Thursday that Russian troops will pull back from the west bank of the Dnieper river amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with Kyiv’s forces attacking from the west.
“Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left [eastern] bank,” Stremousov told Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.