We are closing this blog now, you can read all our Ukraine coverage here
Closing summary
It is just after 9pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before retreating, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. He said the occupiers had “destroyed all the critical infrastructure : communications, water, heat, electricity”. Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread, as residents celebrated their liberation in what Zelenskiy called a “historic day”.Zelenskiy said authorities had, in their efforts to stabilise the region, dealt with nearly 2,000 mines, trip-wires and unexploded shells left by the departing Russians.
Ukrainians hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city after the eight-month occupation and restore power across the region. In the formerly occupied village of Pravdyne, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced their neighbours, some unable to hold back tears, Agence France-Presse reported. “Victory, finally!” one said.
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area. Yaroslav Yanushevych said from Kherson city in a video posted to social media 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.
Pro-Moscow forces are putting up a much stiffer fight elsewhere and the battles with Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region are hellish, Zelenskiy said. “There it is just hell – there are extremely fierce battles there every day. But our units are defending bravely – they are withstanding the terrible pressure of the invaders, preserving our defence lines,” he said.
US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, said some sanctions on Russia could remain in place even after any eventual peace agreement with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, according to Reuters. 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 stated 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 would decide on the timing and contents of any negotiation framework with Russia, according to a readout of a meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at the Asean summit in Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
The Russian president, 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.
Significant new damage to the major Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine can be seen following Russia’s withdrawal from nearby Kherson, Reuters reported the US satellite imagery company Maxar as saying.
Russia said 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.
Reuters is reporting that a former Russian mercenary has been executed after he switched sides to back Ukraine.
In an unverified video distributed on Telegram channels which Russian media said were linked to the Wagner mercenary group, the man identified himself as Yevgenny Nuzhin, 55, and said he had changed sides to “fight against the Russians”.
In the footage, Nuzhin, shown with his head taped to a brick wall, gave his name, date of birth and said that he had changed sides on September 4.
He said he was abducted in Kyiv on October 11 and came around in a cellar, before the footage shows him being struck with a sledgehammer.
It was unclear how Nuzhin, who told Ukrainian media in September that he wanted to fight for Ukraine, ended up in the hands of what appear to be Russian forces.
Russia’s Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of president Vladimir Putin, said today that the former mercenary was a traitor.
Lorenzo Tondo, Luke Harding report for us in Kyiv and Isobel Koshiw in the Kherson region:
After two nights of jubilation following the liberation of their city, the people of Kherson on Sunday began to assess the extent of the damage wreaked by eight long months of Russian occupation, with residents still without electricity and water.
On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had destroyed key infrastructure before retreating, while the mayor of Kherson said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of medicine and bread.
The departing Russian troops also left behind thousands of mines, tripwires and unexploded shells.
Roman Golovnya, an adviser to the city’s local administration, said: “Russian occupying forces and collaborators did everything possible to make those people who remained in the city suffer as much as possible during these days, weeks and months of waiting.”
Read more: Mines, looting, no power: Kherson assesses damage after Russian retreat
The United States is set to announce a further package of military support to Ukraine in the next few weeks, according to national security adviser to president Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan.
The BBC reports that Sullivan told reporters aboard the presidential plane.
We remain solid in providing security assistance. You know there is one assistance package that we have just announced, there will be another in the next few weeks - after a similar amount of time and the same amount that we have been sticking to for the past weeks and months.
Utility companies in Kherson were working to restore critical infrastructure damaged and mined by fleeing Russian forces, with most homes in the southern Ukrainian city still without electricity and water, regional officials said today.
The governor of Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said the authorities had decided to maintain a curfew from 5pm to 8am and ban people from leaving or entering the city as a security measure, Reuters reports.
Yanushevych told Ukrainian TV:
The enemy mined all critical infrastructure objects.
We are trying to meet within a few days and (then) open the city.
Ukrainian troops arrived in the centre of Kherson on Friday after Russia abandoned the only regional capital it had captured since its invasion began in February.
The withdrawal marked the third major Russian retreat of the war and the first to involve yielding such a large occupied city in the face of a major Ukrainian counter-offensive that has retaken parts of the east and south.
Oliver Milman reports for us in Sharm el-Sheikh:
Ukraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to make the case that Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction.
Ukraine has dispatched two dozen officials to the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to spell out the links between the war launched by Russia in February, the soaring cost of energy due to Russia’s status as a key gas supplier, and the planet-heating emissions expelled by the offensive.
Heavy shelling and the movement of troops and tanks has polluted the air, water and land, said Svitlana Grynchuk, Ukraine’s assistant environment minister, as well as killing thousands of people and decimating the country’s economy. A fifth of Ukraine’s protected areas have been ruined by the war, she added, with the contamination of previously fertile soils alone costing €11.4bn (£10bn) in damages.
Read more: Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine showing residents in Kherson celebrating the liberation of their city.
Isobel Koshiw reports for us from Ukraine:
Around ten railway workers arrived to repair the network between Mykolaiv and Kherson. They saw tree branches blocking the road and pushed them out of the way. Unfortunately, they didn’t realise they had been left there by Ukrainian soldiers on purpose. They drove less than 100 meters before triggering an anti-tank mine.
One of the workers had his legs blown off and was rushed to hospital. The others were rescued by emergency service workers and met by their worried boss at the other end of the lane. Two of their faces were completely blackened by the blast.
Mines left behind by Russian forces are becoming one of Ukraine’s biggest challenges, especially as it rushes to clean up and restore the ruins.
In Kharkiv region, two road workers were killed and another four injured while trying to re-tarmac roads in previously occupied areas.
Isobel Koshiw reports for us from the village of Posad-Pokrovske on the outskirts of Kherson city:
Tanya and her husband Serhiy returned to their village on the outskirts of Kherson city to find there was nothing left of their house.
In March, they fled with their children and grandchildren with only the clothes on their back.
Tanya described how they scrawled ‘children’ across their cars and on ripped white bedsheets which they displayed out of their windows to signal they were civilians.
But even as the family ran to their car to escape, Tanya’s children had to jump on top of her grandchildren to cover them from the artillery rounds landing around them. She said all they could do was pray as they drove out.
When her four-year-old grandson arrived as a refugee in Poland, he shouted to his father “get down dad, get down,” when he heard someone slam a car door.
“People we knew in Mykolaiv, not even relatives, rang us and told us to come to them. They helped us with everything, bed sheets, everything,” said Tanya.
Tanya and Serhiy met in the village. It was where they were born and raised two children and grandchildren. Serhiy works for Ukraine’s largest juice producer which is based in the area. They’ve continued to pay his salary throughout the conflict, he says, and every morning they do roll call on Telegram to check all their employees are still okay.
“We lived so well. I had two jobs. I did everything so that my children would live well too. We had a car, so did my son. My daughter owned a flat in the centre of the village,” said Tanya. “My soul is in pain.”
The Russians only briefly entered at the beginning of the invasion and then were pushed out. Since then the entire village has been almost levelled by the fighting.
“60 years,” said Serhiy, who was in a trance like state, trying to take in what he was seeing. “Some Ukrainian soldiers moved in here in May, they found our mobile and rang us to let us know. They said the house was still whole.”
Updated
The BBC’s international editor, Jeremy Bowen, has been reporting from Kherson.
He tweeted a shocking photograph and said decomposing bodies had been left on the road to Kherson for months, but that they were cleared today.
Terrible destruction from fighting in March on the coast road to Kherson. Until today when they were picked up bodies left decomposing for months pic.twitter.com/DMWmFhIIW0
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) November 13, 2022
Updated
Isobel Koshiw reports for us from recently liberated Snihurivka in southern Ukraine:
Southern Ukraine in November is a grey mass of brown, barren-looking farmland. The bright greens and yellows of the fields have faded and the snow has not yet fallen. But the upbeat mood in the small town of Snihurivka was in stark contrast to the season.
Around the town’s bombed-out buildings, the mountains of rubbish left by Russian soldiers and streets littered with shrapnel marks, groups of smiling, happy residents gathered together to chat. When cars drove past, they waved and smiled. They described feelings of ecstasy upon seeing Ukrainian troops and debated the most apt insults for the Russian soldiers: should it be “pigs” or “beasts”, they asked each other.
Snihurivka sat firmly on the frontline, just a kilometre away from Ukrainian positions, and was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Thursday. Russia’s ministry of defence announced a tactical withdrawal of its forces in the south after Ukraine repeatedly destroyed their supply lines and ammunition depots.
The outbursts of joy being captured across the newly retaken swathe of southern territory derives from the hope instilled in residents by the long talked-about southern offensive, first announced by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in late June and then again in late August. Ukraine’s forces made their first decisive strides in early October.
Read more of Isobel Koshiw’s report from Snihurivka: ‘I can’t stop smiling’: residents welcome Ukrainian troops in the frontline town of Snihurivka
Updated
US suggests some sanctions on Russia could stay even if any peace agreement
US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, said some sanctions on Russia could remain in place even after any eventual peace agreement with Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, according to Reuters.
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.
Updated
People have been photographing and posing in front of artworks thought to be by Banksy.
Speculation had been mounting that the anonymous graffiti artist was in the war-torn country after a series of murals appeared in the town of Borodianka, near Kyiv.
Banksy later appeared to have confirmed he was in Ukraine after revealing one of the works – a female gymnast balancing on rubble - on Instagram.
Updated
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine:
Residents said the Russians left a trail of destruction in Kherson after an eight-month occupation, and an animal rights group claimed that Moscow’s forces had even stolen a racoon, wolves and squirrels from a local zoo, AFP reported.
“They took everything with them. They cleared out the stores,” said Viktoria Dybovska, a 30-year-old sales clerk.
Oleksandr Todorchuk, founder of UAnimals, an animal rights movement, said the Russian troops had stolen animals from a local zoo. “They have taken most of the zoo’s collection to Crimea: from llamas and wolves to donkeys and squirrels,” he said on Facebook.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine. They show Ukrainians celebrating in Kherson after Russia’s retreat.
Updated
Summary…
Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Kyiv’s forces have established control in more than 60 settlements in the Kherson region and “stabilisation measures” are being carried out in Kherson city after it was retaken by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainians in Kherson region have spoken of their relief after the Russian retreat with pictures showing people crying and hugging each another, but also celebrating.
But the humanitarian situation in Kherson is ‘severe’ amid water and medicine shortages, the region’s mayor says. Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in the southern city before retreating, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
Russia says military training will return to its schools from next year. 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.
The UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said Russia will be “worried” and “disappointed” by the loss of Kherson, but he said it is important not to “underestimate” Moscow, stressing “if they need more cannon fodder, that is what they’ll be doing”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has praised Ukraine’s defenders on Remembrance Sunday, saying we “pay tribute to the brave soldiers of Ukraine as they continue their fight for freedom”.
Oliver Milman reports for us from Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh:
Ukraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to make the case that Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction.
Ukraine has dispatched two dozen officials to the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to spell out the links between the war launched by Russia in February, the soaring cost of energy due to Russia’s status as a key gas supplier and the planet-heating emissions expelled by the offensive.
Heavy shelling and the movement of troops and tanks has polluted the air, water and land, said Svitlana Grynchuk, Ukraine’s assistant environment minister, as well as killed thousands of people and decimated the country’s economy. A fifth of Ukraine’s protected areas have been ruined by the war, she added, with the contamination of previously fertile soils alone costing €11.4bn (£10bn) in damages.
“This is not simply a war, this is state terrorism and it is ecocide,” Grynchuk said. “The invasion has killed wildlife, generated pollution and caused social instability. The terrorist state continues to send missiles to our power plants. Our environment is under threat because of this terrorist attack.”
Read more of Oliver Milman’s report from Sharm el-Sheikh: Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has lauded Ukraine’s defenders on Remembrance Sunday. He said in a statement:
This year more than ever, we are reminded of the huge debt of gratitude we owe those who lay down their lives to protect their country.
As we fall silent together on Remembrance Sunday, we will honour the memories of the men and women we have lost, and pay tribute to the brave soldiers of Ukraine as they continue their fight for freedom.
Updated
The UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said Russia will be “worried” and “disappointed” by the loss of Kherson, PA reported.
However, he said it is important not to “underestimate” Moscow, stressing “if they need more cannon fodder, that is what they’ll be doing”.
Speaking to broadcasters in Westminster, Wallace said he would urge “caution” when considering the jubilant scenes on the streets of Kherson.
“Quite right, Ukraine has taken back the only objective of the many that Russia managed to capture back in sort of March. Kherson was one of the many objectives, Russia failed, now Ukraine has got that back,” he said. “It basically begs the question to the Russian population, effectively: What was it all for? But also it shows remarkable capability by Ukraine.”
He said Russia will be “worried” and “disappointed” by the loss of territory, but said: “You never underestimate Russia. History will remind you that Russia can be brutal to their own. And if they need more cannon fodder, that is what they’ll be doing.”
He added that it is up to Ukraine to decide “when and how” it might want to negotiate with Russia. Asked if now is the right time, he said: “First of all, I don’t think we should be grateful when the thief gives back stolen goods - and that’s effectively what Russia has done.
“Now it’s going to sort of go around the world trying to say everyone should be grateful for that. No, they shouldn’t, Russia shouldn’t have done it in the first place in February.
“I think it’s up to the Ukrainians to decide when and how they want to negotiate. Ultimately, Ukraine will want to do that from a position of strength and momentum is with Ukraine. I can’t see why Ukraine would stop that.”
The US has declared the Russian retreat in Kherson “an extraordinary victory” for Ukraine.
US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, on board Air Force One en route to the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, told reporters:
It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag. And that is quite a remarkable thing.
And it has broader strategic implications as well, because being able to push the Russians across the river means that the longer-term threat to places like Odessa and the Black Sea coastline are reduced from where they were before.
And so this is a big moment. And it’s certainly not the end of the line, but it’s a big moment. And it’s due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies.
"Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag. And that is quite a remarkable thing." - National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) November 13, 2022
Utility companies in Kherson are working to restore critical infrastructure mined by fleeing Russian forces, with most homes in the southern Ukrainian city still without electricity and water, regional officials said on Sunday.
The governor of the region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said the authorities had decided to maintain a curfew from 5pm to 8am and ban people from leaving or entering the city, as a security measure, Reuters reported.
“The enemy mined all critical infrastructure objects. We are trying to meet within a few days and (then) open the city,” Yanushevych told Ukrainian TV, adding that he hoped mobile phone operators could start working on Sunday.
Yuriy Sobolevskiy, first deputy chairman of Kherson regional council, added to Ukrainian TV: “Most houses have no electricity, no water and problems with gas supplies.”
The head of Ukrainian state railways said train service to Kherson was expected to resume this week.
In the village of Pravdyne, near Kherson, Svitlana Striletska, a deputy councillor, burst into tears after the Russian retreat.
The 50-year-old school principal and her husband had had to flee the village during the Russian occupation because she had been ferrying in humanitarian aid.
“I will never forget it, a man from the village ran up to us and told me: ‘You have to run away, because they are looking for you.’ I knew I had to choose between being killed or running away,” she told AFP.
“We had a small factory to make butter, to make sunflower oil. The Russians destroyed everything because we were helping people.”
Striletska said that 23 people were killed in the village since the occupation.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence believes that 650 Russian soldiers were killed in the country in the last day.
"Forever, what does that mean?"
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 13, 2022
Tricky
Total combat losses of the enemy from Feb 24 to Nov 13: pic.twitter.com/kvSsNtmdBz
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said six people died on Saturday as a result of Russian shelling.
Writing on Telegram on Sunday, he said four people were killed and one wounded in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, two were killed in the Kherson region, and two wounded in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia has called for the G20 to stop talking about “imaginary threats” and focus on the world’s most pressing socio-economic problems, Reuters reported.
The G20 is set to meet on the Indonesian island of Bali this week, with Western leaders including US President Joe Biden expected to use the high-profile forum to slam Russia publicly over the war in Ukraine.
In a statement issued ahead of the summit, Russia’s foreign ministry said it was “fundamentally important that the G20 concentrate its efforts on real, rather than imaginary, threats”.
It added: “We are convinced that the G20 is called upon to deal with socio-economic problems. Expanding its agenda into areas of peace and security, which many countries are talking about, is not viable. This would be a direct incursion on the mandate of the United Nations Security Council and will undermine the atmosphere of trust and cooperation in the G20.”
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will head Russia’s delegation to the summit - the first since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February - after the Kremlin said president Vladimir Putin was too busy to attend.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, head of the UK’s armed forces, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that Russia’s retreat from Kherson is significant.
“Russia has failed on all of its strategic objectives. It wanted to subjugate Ukraine, the opposite has happened,” he said in an interview with security and defence editor, Deborah Haynes.
But he cautioned against declaring the retreat to be a turning point in the war. “This is a success for Ukraine, but at the same time, Ukraine continues to be attacked,” he said.
“Ukraine has lost ground that it needs to win back. Ukraine has got millions of people that are not living in their homes… They’ve got millions of people that are suffering from the impacts of the electrical infrastructure having been attacked or the water infrastructure being attacked. It is a war crime to deliberately attack civilians and that’s all still going on.”
He added that Russia’s failure does not raise the prospect of a nuclear strike. “That would be another total horrific step and we don’t see that we’re on a pathway to that particular spectre,” he said.
The head of the Dnipro region council, Mykola Lukashuk, said the city of Nikopol, was heavily shelled overnight, according to AP.
Writing on Telegram on Sunday, he said that two women were wounded but are in a stable condition in hospital. One private house and two farm buildings were destroyed, while over 40 residential buildings, more than 24 commercial buildings, a college, a register office and electricity networks were damaged.
According to Lukashuk, the city of Marhanets also came under fire. Two private houses were damaged, but no injuries were reported. Nikopol and Marhanets lie across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.
Updated
Villagers in Pravdyne speak of relief
Ukrainians in the village of Pravdyne, near Kherson, have spoken to AFP of their relief after the Russian retreat.
After enduring more than eight months of Russian occupation, Svitlana Galak said she cried “tears of happiness” when Ukrainian soldiers arrived to liberate them.
“I don’t know when the Russians arrived, but I only know one thing - that yesterday, or the day before yesterday, I saw a Ukrainian soldier and I was relieved,” the 43-year-old told AFP. “I had tears of happiness, that finally Ukraine is liberated,” she said.
Galak is one of about 180 residents of Pravdyne, a small village, about 50 kilometres (about 30 miles) northwest of the city of Kherson, that had some 1,000 residents before the war.
Some of the roofs of buildings appear blasted off, and several homes have been destroyed. Debris of anti-mine parts and explosives litter the village’s fields - a remnant of bombing campaigns.
Kyiv’s recapture of swathes of the southern region, which serves as a gateway to the Black Sea, was also a bittersweet moment for Galak - her eldest daughter had been killed in a bombing raid on the village.
“I will tell you honestly, I was not happy that Russians were here, and my child died. It is hard for me,” she said.
Her husband Viktor spoke of mistreatment under some of the soldiers, like when he was once stopped when he went to a different part of Pravdyne to visit his mother. “The Russians stopped us and forced us to kneel,” the 44-year-old told AFP.
While questioning him on whether he really was a resident of the village, another soldier tied his arms and legs. “Then one of them came and said he was going to put a grenade under me so I wouldn’t run away,” he said.
He then told them that his daughter had already been killed and asked them: “Why do you want to put a grenade under me? Do you want to kill us all or what? What is your aim? Are you fascists?” he recounted. Luckily, before he could be interrogated, another soldier recognised Viktor and he was released.
“We were happy when we saw Ukrainian soldiers, because we are Ukrainians,” he said, adding that the occupation was also difficult due to the lack of food.
Updated
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has said the West is “militarising” southeast Asia in a bid to contain Russian and Chinese interests, Reuters reported.
Speaking during a press conference at the conclusion of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, Lavrov scolded the United States over its actions in the region, which both Russia and the West see as a potential strategic geopolitical battleground in the coming decades.
“The United States and its NATO allies are trying to master this space,” Lavrov told reporters. He said US president Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy was an attempt to bypass “inclusive structures” for regional cooperation and would involve “the militarisation of this region with an obvious focus on containing China, and containing Russian interests in the Asia-Pacific”.
Biden told the summit that Washington was committed to building an “Indo Pacific that’s free and open, stable and prosperous, and resilient and secure”.
The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, vowed on Sunday to expand humanitarian assistance for Ukraine as he condemned Russia’s invasion of the country as a violation of international laws, his office said.
Yoon was speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russia says military training will return to its schools from next year
Russia’s education minister, Sergey Kravstov, has stated 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.
“This reprises a Soviet-era programme where students had mandatory military training, a programme which ended in 1993. This training included contingencies for a chemical or nuclear attack, first aid and experience handling and firing Kalashnikov rifles,” the UK MoD said.
“Russian officials attempted to revive this training in 2014 following Russia’s invasion of Crimea. It was hoped that the initiative would improve the quality of conscripts. Eight years later, little has changed, and the quality of Russian conscripts remains poor, with low morale and limited training.”
It adds that this training likely intends to prepare students with military skills as they approach conscription age and to increase the take-up for mobilisation drives. The initiative is also likely to be part of “a wider project to instil an ideology of patriotism and trust in public institutions in the Russian population,” the UK’s MoD added.
This is Emine Sinmaz in London picking up the blog for the next few hours.
Updated
Note added 3.30pm: A previous post, originally published at 7.51am, has been removed. The post quoted a Reuters report that said Ukraine’s central bank was preparing the country’s banking system to work in emergency conditions in connection with possible blackouts. However, Reuters later retracted the story, saying that it was based on a message posted on a Telegram channel that is not the official channel of the central bank.
Updated
On the road to Kherson, villagers holding flowers waited to greet and kiss Ukrainian soldiers as they poured in to secure control of the right bank of the Dnipro River on Saturday after the Russian retreat.
“We’ve become 20 years younger in the last two days,” said Valentyna Buhailova, 61, just before a Ukrainian soldier jumped out of a small truck and hugged her and her companion Nataliya Porkhunuk, 66, in a hamlet near the centre of Kherson.
But Reuters also reported that volleys of artillery fire surrounded the international airport, and police said they were setting up checkpoints in and around the city and sweeping for mines left behind.
Updated
Kherson humanitarian situation 'severe' amid water and medicine shortages – mayor
Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before retreating, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
Before fleeing from Kherson, the occupiers destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity.
Kherson’s mayor said the humanitarian situation was “severe” because of a lack of water, medicine and bread, as residents celebrated their liberation in what Zelenskiy called a “historic day”.
Reuters also reported that the mayor, Roman Holovnia, told television:
The city has a critical shortage, mainly of water. There is currently not enough medicine, not enough bread because it can’t be baked: there is no electricity.
Zelenskiy said authorities had, in their efforts to stabilise the region, dealt with nearly 2,000 mines, trip-wires and unexploded shells left by the departing Russians.
Updated
Summary
Welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a quick run through the latest developments as it approaches 9am in Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Kyiv’s forces have established control in more than 60 settlements in the Kherson region and “stabilisation measures” are being carried out in Kherson city after it was retaken by Ukrainian forces. Ukraine’s president said Russian forces had destroyed all of Kherson’s critical infrastructure before they fled, including communications and water supplies along with heat and electricity supplies.
Ukrainians hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city after the eight-month occupation and restore power across the region. In the formerly occupied village of Pravdyne, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced their neighbours, some unable to hold back tears, Agence France-Presse reported. “Victory, finally!” one said.
The head of Kherson’s regional state administration said everything was being done to “return normal life” to the area. Yaroslav Yanushevych said from Kherson city in a video posted to social media 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.
Pro-Moscow forces are putting up a much stiffer fight elsewhere and the battles with Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region are hellish, Zelenskiy said. “There it is just hell – there are extremely fierce battles there every day. But our units are defending bravely – they are withstanding the terrible pressure of the invaders, preserving our defence lines,” he said.
Ukraine would decide on the timing and contents of any negotiation framework with Russia, according to a readout of a meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, at the Asean summit in Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
The Russian president, 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.
Significant new damage to the major Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine can be seen following Russia’s withdrawal from nearby Kherson, Reuters reported the US satellite imagery company Maxar as saying.
Russia said 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.
