Ukrainians line up for water after Russians cut off the city’s main supply
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Civilian evacuations organized by the Russian military in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson have been completed, officials announced.
At least 70,000 civilians have been moved out of the city as Russia prepares defenses for a major battle there. Kyiv has described the evacuations as “forced deportations”.
“We are preparing Kherson for defense,” said Russian militia commander Alexander Khodakovski. “We’re taking out the civilian population, in many ways untying our hands.”
Kherson is one of four partially occupied regions that Russia has annexed since invading Ukraine in late February.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities announced further blackouts in and around the country’s biggest cities amid ongoing Russian strikes against energy infrastructure.
“Emergency outages” of four hours a day or more resumed in the Kyiv region, the press service of Ukrenergo, the sole operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines, said yesterday .
Capital Region Governor Oleksiy Kuleba told Telegram that residents could expect to see “harder and longer” power cuts compared to before the war.
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Ukraine needs $38 billion a year for post-war reconstruction, says finance minister
The Ukrainian government can take the funds needed for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war from the state budget, but it must also look for other sources, Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said.
“We are currently looking for resources for a critical recovery… We are talking about approximately $38 billion a year,” Minister Serhii Marchenko told Suspilne, Ukraine’s national public broadcaster.
A report by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government and the European Commission published last month suggested it would cost nearly $350bn (£303bn) to rebuild the country.
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 6:30 am
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‘Difficult years’ ahead as Russia threatens Europe, Germany says
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has plunged Europe into an era of insecurity, Germany said on Friday, a day after Vladimir Putin predicted a “dangerous” decade ahead.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the February 24 invasion had ended “old dreams” of a united continent.
“It has plunged us into another time, into an insecurity that we thought we had overcome: a time marked by war, violence and flight, by concerns about the war spreading into a forest fire in Europe,” he said. the president, who is from a wing of the German Social Democrats that has long advocated closer economic ties with Moscow.
Jonathan Landy has more:
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 6:10 am
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Russia ends mobilization after thousands flee
Russia announced yesterday that it had finished calling up reservists to fight in Ukraine, having recruited hundreds of thousands of people in a month, with more than a quarter of them already on the battlefield.
The announcement appears to end a divisive mobilization – Russia’s first since World War II – that had seen tens of thousands of men flee the country and sparked the first sustained public protests against the war.
“The task you proposed of (mobilizing) 300,000 people has been completed. No further measures are planned,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting in the Kremlin.
He said 82,000 had already been sent to the combat zone and the rest were being trained.
Both men, however, acknowledged “problems” in the early days of the call. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he doubted Moscow had finished calling in the troops.
Russian forces “are so poorly prepared and equipped, so brutally used by their command, that it allows us to assume that very soon Russia may need a new wave of people to send to war,” Zelenskiy said in his late-night televised address.
The mobilization that Putin ordered last month after his forces suffered major setbacks on the battlefield was the first time most Russians had faced a direct personal impact from the “special military operation” launched in February .
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 5:50 am
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Russia just moved civilians out of Kherson as battle looms
Russia says it has “completed” an operation to move civilians out of the occupied southern city of Kherson ahead of an expected battle with advancing Ukrainian forces.
At least 70,000 civilians are said to have crossed to the left (east) bank of the Dnipro River in what Ukraine has called forced deportations.
“We are preparing Kherson for defense,” said a Russian militia commander.
Kherson is one of four partially occupied regions that Russia has annexed since invading Ukraine in late February.
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 5:30 am
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The head of the UN calls for the extension of the grain agreement between Ukraine and Russia
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging Russia and Ukraine to renew the deal that has seen more than 9 million tonnes of grain exported from Ukraine and pushed global food prices down.
It also calls for other countries, mainly in the West, to speed up the removal of obstacles blocking Russian grain and fertilizer exports.
The UN chief’s spokesman said on Friday that Guterres was stressing the urgency of renewing the agreement to “contribute to food security around the world”.
Ukraine and Russia are the main suppliers of grain worldwide. The agreement negotiated by the United Nations and Turkey in July will expire on November 19.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN said on Wednesday that Moscow will discuss a renewal first
“Russia needs to see the export of its grain and fertilizers to the world market, which has never happened since the beginning of the agreement.”
Guterres says the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports from three Black Sea ports “has contributed significantly to lower prices for wheat and other commodities.”
(AP)
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 5:20 am
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Kyiv prepares for longer blackouts
Ukrainian authorities announced further blackouts in and around the country’s biggest cities amid ongoing Russian strikes against energy infrastructure.
“Emergency outages” of four hours a day or more resumed in the Kyiv region, the press service of Ukrenergo, the sole operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines, said yesterday .
Capital Region Governor Oleksiy Kuleba told Telegram that residents could expect to see “harder and longer” power cuts compared to before the war.
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 5:06 am
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Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine on Saturday, October 29.
Stuti Mishra October 29, 2022 4:45 am