Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a visit to the newly-liberated city of Kherson, where he spoke to troops. “We are moving forward,” he told them. “We are ready for peace, peace for all our country”. He also thanked Nato and other allies for their support in the war against Russia.
Some people waved Ukrainian flags and others had the flag draped over their shoulders as Zelenskiy addressed the crowd. “I’m really happy, you can tell by the reaction of the people, their reaction is not staged,” said Zelenskiy, who was flanked by heavily armed security guards. “The people were waiting for the Ukrainian army, for our soldiers, for all of us.”
US president Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war “should never be fought” in a long-awaited meeting in Bali earlier today, the White House said. The pair shook hands in front of the US and Chinese flags ahead of the three-hour meeting on the resort island and “spoke candidly” about a range of issues, including key regional and global challenges, the White House said in a statement.
China’s read-out from the meeting differed slightly, with the New York Times reporting that “Unlike the White House’s account, the Chinese account did not mention Xi and Biden agreeing on opposing Russia’s threat of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.”
In remarks to the media after his meeting with China’s president, Joe Biden said that Kherson is a significant victory for Ukraine. Biden said it is hard to tell at this point what the victory will mean, but that the US will continue to support Ukraine. He said he is confident that Russia will not occupy Ukraine as they intended.
Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before retreating, Zelenskiy had said in his nightly address. Russia troops “destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity” he said in his latest national address. Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread. Zelenskiy said authorities had dealt with nearly 2,000 mines, trip-wires and unexploded shells left by Russian troops.
Ukrainians hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city and restore power across the region. In the formerly occupied villages of Pravdyne and Snihurivka, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced returning troops and their neighbours, some unable to hold back tears. “Victory, finally!” one said.
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area. Speaking from Kherson city in a video poster to social media, Yaroslav Yanushevych said that while de-mining was carried out, a curfew had been put in place and movement in and out of the city had been limited. Zelenskiy added that 226 settlements in the Kherson region will be restored, encompassing more than 100,000 local residents. Ukraine can “feel the approach of our victory” he added in his latest national address.
According to Russian media sources, the Ukrainian army has entered the city of Herois’ke, in the Kinburn Peninsula in the southern part of Kherson, following an amphibious operation, as heavy fighting continues across the region.
Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said on Sunday.
A pro-Russian tank gunner who was accused of firing into residential buildings in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason, according to Ukraine’s state security service (SBU). The pro-Russian militant, nicknamed “Phil”, had fired “at least 20 shots at residential high-rise buildings in Mariupol”, the SBU said in a statement.
There was confusion after it was reported that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had been hospitalised after arriving in Bali for the G20 summit. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the claim as “the height of fakery”, and posted a video of Lavrov sitting reading documents at his hotel. In the video Lavrov says “This is a kind of game that is not new in politics. Western journalists need to be more truthful – they need to write the truth”. However, the governor of Bali said that while Lavrov was in good health, he had been in hospital for a check-up.
The White House has confirmed that the CIA director, William J Burns, was in Ankara in Turkey on Monday to speak with his Russian counterpart. A White House official said Ukraine was briefed in advance about the visit, that Burns was not conducting any kind of negotiations, and he was conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability.
The EU’s top diplomat has said Ukraine will decide when to enter talks with Russia, amid growing speculation that western capitals will pressure Kyiv into negotiations. Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said: “Ukraine will decide what to do. Our duty is to support them”. He was arriving for the monthly meeting of EU foreign ministers, which will be focused on the war in Ukraine. Borrell said the Russian retreat and recapture of Kherson by Ukraine was “very good news” and showed the EU’s strategy of military support was the right one.
The UN’s general assembly has approved a resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia “must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts”, the resolution reads.
Putin’s aim is to “leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter”, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson demonstrates the “incredible courage” of Ukraine’s armed forces, the military alliance chief said during a press conference with members of the Dutch government in The Hague.
Russian media including RIA Novosti and Tass are carrying allegations of mistreatment of Russian prisoners of war by their Ukrainian captors. In particular, they are carrying quotes from the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in which a Russian soldier alleges he was buried alive as part of an interrogation.
The US has announced fresh sanctions targeting a transnational network that has been working to procure technology to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. The latest sanctions target 14 individuals and 28 entities, including family members of the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as people that it says worked as financial facilitators in Kerimov’s network.
Canada will provide Ukraine with another $500m (£425m) in additional military assistance in addition to imposing sanctions on another nearly two dozen Russians, prime minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on Monday amid the G20 summit.
Zambia has asked Russia to explain how one of its citizens who had been serving a prison sentence in Moscow ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine where he was killed, Zambia’s foreign affairs minister said on Monday.
Significant new damage to the major Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, which the Russians attempted to blow up during their withdrawal from nearby Kherson, was seen via satellite imagery from US company Maxar. Ukrainian authorities are trying to assess the damage and it is not clear if the structural integrity of the reservoir is at risk. With a water volume of 18.2 cubic km, the reservoir could flood a huge area, including the city of Kherson, if destroyed.
Pro-Moscow forces continue to put up a fierce fight in the eastern Donetsk region. “Battles in Donetsk region are just as intense as they have been in previous days,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “The level of Russian attacks has not declined. And the level of our resilience and courage is at its highest. We will not allow them through our defence.”
US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Sunday some sanctions on Russia could remain in place even after any peace agreement with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. Yellen said that any eventual peace agreement would involve a review of the penalties the US and its allies have imposed on Russia’s economy, according to the Journal. “I suppose in the context of some peace agreement, adjustment of sanctions is possible and could be appropriate,” Yellen said in an interview in Indonesia, where she is attending the G20 summit.
Russia’s education minister, Sergey Kravstov, has said that military training will return to Russian schools next September, according to the latest update by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The programme is supported by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, which states that no less than 140 hours per academic year should be devoted to this training.
Ukraine will decide on the timing and contents of any negotiation framework with Russia, according to a readout of a meeting Saturday between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at the Asean summit in Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
Vladimir Putin has spoken to his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, by phone and both leaders placed emphasis on deepening political, trade and economic cooperation, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday. The discussion of “a number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda” also 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.
Russia said at the weekend there was no agreement yet to extend a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea, repeating its insistence on unhindered access to world markets for its own food and fertiliser exports, Reuters reported.Ukraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to address how Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction.
