Breaking news and news from Russia's war in Ukraine on October 19

🔄 Click here to see the most recent posts

4 posts

7 mins ago

Newly Appointed Russian Commander Laments 'Very Difficult' Situation in Kherson as Kyiv Leads Advance in South

By Yulia Kesaieva, Mick Krever

Colonel General Sergey Surovikin, then commander of Russian forces in Syria, speaks at a briefing at the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow on June 9, 2017.

Moscow-backed General Sergey Surovikin declared the status of Russia's "special military operation" in Kherson "very difficult" amid Kyiv's efforts to retake the southern region from Ukraine.

"The Russian army will ensure the safe evacuation of the population," Surovikin said.

Ukraine has made significant inroads towards Kherson in recent weeks, along the western (or right) bank of the Dnipro River.

The head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Agency said he hopes to recapture the city by the end of the year.

The Kremlin announced last week that its forces would help evacuate residents of occupied Kherson to other areas out of harm's way, in the latest sign that Russian forces are fighting Ukrainian advances.

The Ukrainian deputy head of the Kherson region called the "evacuations" from Russia a "semi-voluntary deportation of the Ukrainian population."

The practice has raised serious concerns from international bodies and human rights groups, who have said it may constitute a crime against humanity.

The Ukrainian military said on Monday that Russian forces were busy building fortifications in the Kherson region and moving civilians into Crimea.

The Russian-backed leader in Ukraine's Kherson region also announced Tuesday that there would be a new "organized relocation" of civilians away from frontline settlements.

"I have made the difficult but correct decision to announce the organized relocation of the civilian population of the Beryslav, Bilozerka, Snihurivka and Oleksandrivka communities to the left bank of the Dnipro River," Vladimir Saldo said on Telegram, referring to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. river.

"This decision was motivated by the creation of large-scale defensive fortifications to be able to repel any attack. There is no place for civilians where the military operates. Let the Russian army do its job."

Saldo said that civilians who decided to move "to the regions of Russia" would receive housing assistance.

Some background:

A July report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated that Russia's "mass deportation of civilians" could constitute, along with other alleged abuses, crimes against humanity.

The OSCE mission that produced the report wrote that 1.3 million Ukrainian citizens had been deported against their will to Russia and said there was evidence that tens of thousands of civilians had been detained in so-called filtering centers before being transported to Russian-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.

9 mins ago

More than 1,000 Ukrainian towns were left without electricity on Tuesday

By Maria Kostenko

Firefighters work to put out a fire at an energy infrastructure facility damaged by a Russian missile attack in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on October 18.

(Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters)

More than 1,000 settlements in Ukraine were without power on Tuesday following a wave of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure across the country, according to the Ukrainian Energy Ministry.

"1,162 settlements are still without power at the moment," Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, spokesman for the country's State Emergency Service, said late Tuesday, citing the ministry.

"This is happening in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, including in the occupied territories," he added.

Several swaths of Ukrainian territory have been hit by power and water cuts as the Kremlin stepped up attacks on power facilities earlier this week.

11 mins ago

The Ukrainian military says 13 "kamikaze" drones were shot down in the Mykolaiv region as early as Wednesday.

By Josh Pennington

Local residents look at parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which Ukrainian authorities consider to be an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 17.

(Photo: Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters)

The Ukrainian military said it shot down 13 "kamikaze" drones over the Mykolaiv region in the south of the country overnight, according to a statement posted on Telegram on Wednesday.

"During the night of October 18-19, the enemy attacked the Mykolaiv region twice with 'Shahed-136' kamikaze drones," the Armed Forces statement said.

"Eleven were shot down by the air defense of the air command "South", two more by soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Border Service of Ukraine."

In a previous post, the military said that 12 drones in total had been shot down.

CNN cannot independently confirm the Ukrainian military's claims.

• Which countries currently use so-called "kamikaze drones"?

Ukraine has this week faced a widespread assault on critical infrastructure and energy sources with drones and cruise missiles.

What are "kamikaze" drones?

Unlike larger, faster, more traditional military drones, which return to base after launching missiles, "kamikaze" drones are designed to crash into a target and explode, detonating their warhead and destroying the drones in the process. .

The Ukrainian military and US intelligence services say Russia uses Iranian-made attack drones.

US officials told CNN in July that Iran had begun showing Russia Shahed-series drones at Kashan airfield, south of Tehran, the previous month.

In August, US officials claimed that Russia had purchased these drones and was training its forces to use them.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has ordered 2,400 Shahed-136 drones from Iran.

14 mins ago

The US, France and the UK will discuss the transfer of drones to Russia at the UN

By Jennifer Hansler

A Russian drone, believed by local authorities to be an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle, in Kyiv on October 17.

(Photo: Roman Petushkov/Reuters)

The United States, France and the United Kingdom plan to discuss drone transfers from Iran to Russia at a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, a US official told CNN.

The meeting comes as Russia has launched Iranian-made drones at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, killing several people.

All three countries have said the transfer of Iranian-made drones is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which restricts certain arms transfers to or from Iran.

It is unclear if they will raise this specific point at tomorrow's meeting or if they will move to re-impose sanctions on Iran over arms transfers.

"I think you've probably seen today that our French and British allies have gone public with the assessment that Iran's supply of these UAVs to Russia is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, and this is something we agree with," State Department senior deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Monday.

UNSC Resolution 2231 was linked to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and elements of that resolution, including the ban on conventional arms transfers, were phased out in 2020. The Trump administration attempted to unilaterally reimpose the Iran embargo. weapons in September 2021 and the Biden administration told the UN Security Council that it was reversing those efforts in February 2021.

Patel pointed out that UN Security Council Resolution 2231 prohibits the transfer from Iran of all items, materials, equipment and goods and technology, unless previously approved by the UN Security Council on a case-by-case basis.

It also said the range of the drones is greater than 300 kilometers (186 miles), putting them in violation of the resolution.

war in ukraine